Randomday

 Every morning I go out to feed Smudge (the black cat, who stays outside). He is always eager and sometimes comes a foot or so into the house, though he knows he isn't allowed to stay. Then I take his food and water out and he u-turns and goes right for it, and Muffball follows me out onto the porch. Sometimes there is a very brief acknowledgement of the other's existence, then Muffball sniffs around the porch and patio before being persuaded to return to being an inside cat.

 I am finally cutting up this old t-shirt for rug yarn, but it was hard. Those are Daniel and Peter with me in the picture, and it was one of my better Father's Day presents if I do say so.

 More yarn came in the mail for me, from Knit Picks. I wanted yarn for a few specific projects and ended up with enough that the shipping was free. Sometimes it works that way.

While casting on a new project, I took stock of this hibernating Rosalind sweater. That bit on the needles that was 2" is now more than 9", half as big as it needs to be (the right front, similar to the left front on the right). It was hibernating for at least 3 years. I don't know why I do that. But I keep swearing I will change.

It was cool today, so I went to Salmon Creek park to pick blackberries. I met a couple walking their dog on the way in. "You're optimistic, that's a pretty big bucket," the guy said. "Well, I won't know what the picking's like until I get there," I said. This is 5 quarts (in a 2 gallon bucket) and represents a little over an hour of picking.

 I've been busy keeping the dehydrator filled with plums and plum leather.

 This is the original reason for my yarn order: Quarta is a huge fan of Hamilton and I heard about the Hamilknit Hat on the Knitmore Girls podcast - because yes! I now have an iphone and have figured out how to listen to podcasts, and it's cool! She picked out Honey for the lettering and stars and Hawk for the background, in KnitPicks Gloss. Casting on with a crocheted provisional cast on, and joining "being careful not to twist" for knitting in the round was the work of one evening. It always looks so awkward, and I used two size ones because I hadn't yet bought my 16" size twos.

 Yesterday I knit the inner band, which is in the negative color configuration to the rest of the hat, and I used a chart with more than just "Hamilton" four times, but with Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy Work! Which apparently increases the coolness factor, if you are a 15-year-old Hamilton fan.

With 1 quart of the blackberries, and some pears, nectarines and plums I made this pie for tomorrow. Next week I will concentrate on making preserves from the plums and maybe more blackberries.

Last night we watched Into the Storm, the excellent 2009 biopic of Churchill during WW2. A month or two ago we watched the related picture, the Gathering Storm. They have completely different casts but are both well worth looking up if you have Amazon Prime. I particularly enjoyed Brendan Gleeson's portrayal of Churchill in Into the Storm, and its suitably heroic portrayal of Britain during the War. It was just right.

I am going to watch something and knit. I will probably not cast on something new, but the temptation is almost always there.

Chasing Summer

Summer tends to run away from us. There have been several instances of family movie night: this was Nine Lives. Muffball was disdainful of any screen portrayals of cats that were not her.

Youngest child Quarta is now Fifteen. I Am Thai is a great restaurant, whether your occasion is "early birthday" or "I don't want to cook tonight."

 This series of photos was the result of my instructions: "look happy and dignified."

 Gooey Chocolate Caramel cake, with Heath Bars and Cool Whip.

 The county fair, as it looked when I dropped off the Farmer's Wife Quilt two days before opening. I have always said I don't want to go on any ride that is delivered by a truck.

 I discovered by chance, while looking through quilt books, that Tertia was awarded the Elder Wand for good conduct at school back in June. This seems like a dangerous precedent, but so far no Death Eaters have dogged our steps, and she is the first Hufflepuff, to my knowledge, to gain this distinction.

 We have had some record-breaking temperatures this summer, and last week we enjoyed this idyllic afternoon at the Washougal River with some friends who own property there.

 The dog, Argos, was the sweetest ever, playing the fetch game with Tertia, dropping and rolling the toy to her over and over, and pointing at it if she was slow to pick it up.

 The Farmer's Wife Quilt won a red ribbon, which seems to be the best I can get out of the quilt cabal at the fair, and is in a place of prominence. To its right is a 50-state star quilt made by a lady who was in my informal beginner's quilt class more than 10 years ago. It was so nice to bump into her again and see her still going strong!

Plum season is in full swing, after a slow start because of the cold winter and spring. I can always pull up my plum recipes by the tag "plums." I'm not picking quite as diligently because the tree is so much taller now. There are a lot of bugs around too. But we have one dehydrator load almost finished and enough to start another, and even though we have some still in the freezer from 2 years ago, I should get busy and make pflaumenmus and plum jam and freeze a few bags at least. I don't think I'm up for picking hundreds of pounds to donate to the food bank but if anyone wants to come, they are welcome to pick for themselves.

This is what plums look like when they are dropped in boiling water for a few seconds, then drained. The skins slip off easily, leaving what I used to tell the boys were "elephant eyeballs." They never believed me! But then you can puree the plums after the seeds are removed and use the puree for plum leather in the dehydrator. It has been a long time since I did this, witness the fact that the girls were ignorant of the "elephant eyeballs" thing. So we'll see whether the plum leather is worth it.

This has been kind of an extended Randomday, trying to catch up with neglected blogging. I'll have more, including knitting, next time, but it's already a fairly picture-heavy post.

Randomday

 Today Steve took a picture of his shadow growing wildflowers...

 And of Daniel and me picking blackberries...

It was hot and there were briars on one side, thistles on the other.  Daniel wants to make plum-blackberry wine this year.  There are certainly enough plums. 

 I finished Peter's argyle socks this past week.

I think they look good.  Especially for as long as I've worked on them.  Now, do I start another pair of socks, and if so what kind... or do I return to one of my several long-lingering UFO's?  Or start a rug?  Or a dishcloth?  Or, as the Tour de Fleece is still going on, do I spin something?  Or maybe just bask in a little bit more of summer laziness?

Steve's sister and family were here for 4 days this last week.  Quarta's birthday festivities are next week, and I'll be packing her off to camp on her actual birthday.  I'll be packing Peter off to complete his training, too.  I think I'll be lazy for a bit longer.  It never seems to last long enough.

Today I sewed most of a Washi dress (it's a pattern I found on Pinterest) for Tertia, for a wedding we are all going to soon.  I have great hopes for this pattern and want to make one for myself as well, same size as Tertia's but with totally different fit adjustments.  I may use some of the vintage sheet stash I've acquired in the last few years.  

With some of the blackberries and some frozen blueberries I tried this Berry Clafoutis recipe for dessert tomorrow.

We watched the Book Thief movie tonight, while I did a big pile of ironing and stitched a bit more on Tertia's dress.  It feels lovely to get back to sewing for the first time in months, but it makes me feel like I really need to clean.  Which I do.

Since I Blogged Last, part 2...

I am trying to do a few catch-up posts on the blog, because I have really left quite a bit of life unrecorded in the weeks I have not been blogging.  And because I am avoiding cleaning the house and preparing for the company that is coming.

Let's lead off with this. The other day I was tearing off a box top label from a used up box of cereal, and I remembered being taught the "Up in the air, junior birdmen" song by my mother.  So I started singing it.  This was greeted with absolute scorn by Quarta, but Tertia was receptive to attempting the rather tricky hand-motions involved.  These generational priorities must be preserved, you know.  We had to do one hand at a time and I was a little worried about her poking her eye since I don't think the song is compatible with glasses, but she managed okay.

My dad underwent a scheduled, minimally invasive heart valve repair surgery in June, shortly after he returned home from his visit for Peter's graduation.  It was a successful surgery, although more involved and with a longer hospital stay than anticipated.  On Father's day, I was pretty sure this was how he was feeling as he waited to be sprung from the ICU/cooler:

He is recovering well and as an added plus from the awkward position his arm had to be in during the 5-hour surgery, his painful frozen shoulder has apparently become unfrozen and much less painful.

Supplies for our roof replacement were delivered and then a crew showed up to begin work the next morning. For us in the house, it was just really noisy and messy.  For the Hispanic work crew, it was sometimes 14-hour days, during a record heat wave.  I was really impressed with them and with their work ethic.  But I am glad the roof is now done.

What I am not so glad about is the rogue squirrel that did this.  This is the little enclosed attic space (with no access) just above the front entryway and underneath the gable.  It gnawed through the peak of the roof last summer and we patched that (and then put on a new roof).  Now it's apparently trying to go in by a different way.  Not so happy with squirrels right now.  I go out and growl at it whenever I see it, and I have heard squirrels are dissuaded by peppermint and cayenne, so a special, spicy spray will be in their future.

And this needs to be added to the "call the handyman list" as well.  This happened today, when I asked Steve to squash a spider on the ceiling of the guest room.  It was a very small spider; I guess there wasn't enough drywall in that particular spot.  This old house.  Now, the reason we were making a half-hearted attempt to tidy up the guest room is because we have guests coming, and we'll be fitting 7 more people into the house than usual.  This hasn't happened in a couple of years.  Here's hoping that the cousins are all good sports about being stacked on any available horizontal surface.

 In preparation for days when I'm too tired to cook and/or family gatherings, I spent a few days this week and made a bunch of freezer crockpot recipes, in the once-a-month cooking style.  I didn't do all the prep and chopping one day and all the mixing the next, because of the simple fact that I can only ever chop one onion at a time, and this regime called for somewhere near 20.  But despite the incredibly tight shoulders and neck from doing this, I look forward to having easy meals ready to go. With these plus the 10 gallons of blueberries, our recently-defrosted freezer is looking pretty full again.

 And speaking of things I hope not to have to freeze... the plums are ripe.  Quarta has been setting up a little farmstand, $.50 a quart, and has made a little bit of money while reading The Hobbit in the shade.  Not a bad way to pass a summer afternoon.  The plum tree has sent itself into a crisis this year, with several major branches breaking under the weight of the fruit.  We are going to need a tree surgeon to come in and work on it after the season.

And I think I mentioned last time that my potted plants are the nicest they've ever looked this year.
 

Randomday, with plums

Try as I may, I am having a hard time keeping up with the blog this summer.  And I'm not really trying very hard!

These are the last two quilts I pinned for Grandma -- This one is sweet with the butterfly embroideries and appliques.

 She also had a small hexagon quilt with some "leftover" blocks.

The plum tree is loaded with big juicy plums.  Followers will know I have collected a lot of plum recipes.  I've tried a few more this year: a version of plum jam that I call "Plum Preserves."  It's no-pectin added, it' cooked 4 different times, and it is like a cross between plum jam and plum butter (Pflaumenmus).

This is the plum preserves together with a batch of plum-orange jam.

For a light refreshing dessert you might try Plum Flummery.  I nestled this serving in the kettle of plums... and there are a lot more on the tree.  I am not sure whether I'll be dehydrating any plums this year, but we recently defrosted the freezer so we'll be able to freeze quite a bit.  I have found a lot of recipes I would like to try on Pinterest.  These plums are wonderful eaten fresh ... I wish we could have them fresh all year long!

Quarta's 12th birthday was observed with appropriate fanfare and a gooey chocolate caramel cake.  And a trip to Joann's to buy a rubber band loom and beads.  And a date with Mom and Dad to see the Parade of Homes.

School's Out!

Officially now for me as well, with grades turned in and inservice over.

Peter is in Washington, D.C. with the rest of the rising Senior class.

Taking in the monuments...

...maybe getting a little philosophical...

...and making the traditional stop at Five Guys.

Back on the home front, a few days ago Daniel bottled his plum wine.

Today he printed out labels and put them on the bottles, and turned the bottles on their sides for storing a little longer.  It supposedly needs the time to develop a bouquet.  I think it's pretty good from the sample I had before bottling, but I don't know much about wine.  It's pretty, though!

Tertia's last choir concert of middle school was tonight.  It was sweet to watch her.  She mimicked a bird in "The rhythm of life."  It's hard not to get rather emotional about it; choir has been central to her positive experience in middle school, and she's going on to a lot of unknowns next year.  She has a lot of friends -- real friends -- who are in the typical classes, and they support and obviously like her.  It's great that she had such a positive experience in middle school.

And Quarta took a Red Cross babysitting course on Saturday.  Now she's all set to join that competitive job market.

With school out for me, I hope to get back to blogging more.  I might even have pictures of quilts soon.