a pie committment

Since it is summer, and summer means pies, I bought the large can of Crisco. I'm a Crisco crust pie baker.
This is the aftermath of the construction of a strawberry-rhubarb pie:

Here's the finished pie, hot out of the oven:

blue moon and the night blooming ceres

This blossom only lasts for one night, and quite often I completely miss it. But I've been watching my Ceres closely. One of the advantages of the drought is I am out in the garden every evening watering with our bath water. I knew this was the night and I was rewarded for my vigilance. So thank you Jim Kitson for these cuttings and I hope you are out there somewhere in the heavens viewing these too.

never let your guard down

We came home from a weekend away and guess what we found? We had been invaded. The army had moved in and set up guard. It may take months for us to capture them all and move them out.

I like bowls

 

This is a Heath bowl. I bought it after my brother died. Somehow I needed a connection to Marin county and this was it. I grew up with Heath ashtrays. Every household had them. An odd connection, but a connection. I always use this bowl when I make egg or tuna salad.

 

These are Gary Holt bowls. Over the years I've collected them two at a time. I'm up to eight. The size remained the same, the glazes changed. I've talked to him about this, how much I've enjoyed watching the changes. Some of my favorite dinners are one bowl dinners served in these.

 

This is a Rachel Deist bowl. I love her glaze, and the shape.

 

Here are some more Gary Holt on the left, and my friend Barbara Gregory's on the right. I like all of these so much I keep them on the counter.

This is the smallest of Barbara's bowls, I told her I feel like I'm holding birds nest when I pick it up.

So last Sunday I entered a new path of bowls, felted bowls. It all started with this:

And then it has lead to this:

Somewhere in the midst of the small felted bowls, I tried this:

 

Which was a failure as a bowl, but all of sudden I realized it would make a great cloche. And so now I am onto:

I'll give you an update on how this project turns out. I'm making up the rules (pattern) as I go along. 

ice making

We had some friends visiting this weekend, in town for the paella event that took place in the back yard last night. They are in the middle of a summer vacation winding their way from Flagstaff to Oregon and back mostly camping along the way. They were complaining that you can't find block ice anymore. This is true we have found, it is a scarce resource. So I sent them on their way pulling my ice from the freezer.  But suddenly I had no ice. And what if on the spur of the moment I want to leave town? So I went into the basement and grabbed my stash of milk bottles and am in the process of starting a new batch. Now, for your information, waxed milked cartons hold the ice longer, I gave away the two I had prepared. But the advantage of the plastic is, as it melts, it doesn't fill up the bottom of your cooler with water. I'll get some wax cartons into the freezer as soon as we consume the milk.

the paella about to be served

And from the studio this weekend, I finished one hat of Finish yarn, gave it away, and am starting another. And I may be heading down a new crafts path, felted bowls. You can see the one drying in the window sill. I do worry about myself sometimes, but felting is a new adventure. Boredom does not run in my genes.

finishing, starting, summer solstice 2015

So two tams finished, buttons on, ends woven in, blocking done. However having completed some projects I felt the need to start  more. Not that I don't have any in the pipeline, but my friend Liza brought me some yarn from Finland and I felt compelled to start another tam.

These two baskets contain, one moebius, one cowl, and two hats. I think knitters are happiest when they have choices. There is vest and sweater going too, but I've put them out of sight.
And to celebrate Solstice I've brought out the blue calico dishes, and baked a plum-pluot pie. The dinner menu includes smoked salmon and goat cheese appetizer, barbequed chicken, corn on the cob, caesar salad and of course fresh bread and plenty of wine.

from ansel to an obession with color

I finished my  Ansel Adams Zone System quilt. Quite happy to have finished as this has been in the works for a long time. No small undertaking for such a small project, this involved fabric collection, block choices, template finding, and remembering how to piece a Moon Over the Mountains. But now that it is complete I can move on to my obsession with malabrigo lace merino and COLOR.

On a sad note, our grey striped, pointy nose friend, has moved on to his next adventure. He is missed and we await who the cat gods will send to take his space. The cat gods are an unpredictable lot, but we will be patient, after all they have given us many good mousers.