We (my mom, Arlene, & I) were invited over to dinner on the Friday before Labor Day to some friends of hers who had lived in Mill Valley. One of Jim’s hobbies, outside of generally being outrageous, is collecting limerics. He has amassed them on his computer, and will be delighted to print out a …
Author Archives: deanb
Apple tree update
I’ve picked a few apples but I think they aren’t really ripe yet. Almost, though. The Cortland tree has the biggest apples of the bunch, and they’re easy to peel with the peeler-corer-slicer machine. They’re ripe enough to make good pies and apple crisp. The Baldwin is the biggest tree, but has relatively few apples. …
Mushrooms all over
The Maine woods, at least our little bit of ’em, are full of mushrooms right now. I have no idea what these strange fungi are, but there are lots of them: Here’s another few clumps: And of course there are lots of more standard-looking mushrooms. I didn’t take the camera for a walk all the …
Triangle Loom
I’ve been wanting to try weaving on a triangle frame loom ever since I saw one in use at the Denmark Sheepfest. Sometime between Labor Day and Sept. 10 I built two of them, thinking I could show Lee when she was visiting us. Of course I should have known better than to think I …
Sept 1, Pocatello – massage
My mom wanted to treat us both to massages at her friendly massage therapist. She goes every two weeks for a massage. After all the driving we had been doing, she thought we could use some serious relaxing. The place was at the masseuse’s house, right on the main road on the other side of …
Aug 30, Willets to Winnemucca
One of the cultural icons of the northern California coast is the skunk train. I think even when I lived in California there wasn’t a road across the coast range in the Mendocino county area, and the only way from inland to the coast for dozens of miles north to south was from the town …
FO – muffler
I finished the alpaca/merino yarn that I got at the Denmark Sheepfest. There was only enough for a short muffler, 41 stitches across on #5 Denise needles. It’s mistake rib pattern, k2p2 across every row with one extra k at the end so the ribbing doesn’t come out even. Besides the mistake rib pattern, there …
Lavender Milk
Notice two strange things about this bottle of milk? Firstly, it’s a bottle. Secondly, it’s purplish. When we saw it in Hannaford’s we were at first horrified. Then I realized that it would be just the right ingredient for making blueberry pancakes. It was! I didn’t even need blueberries. It’s delicious just to drink, too.
Sept 12, Print shop
Remember these? The second time I was in Japan (and there were only two times, for the same trade show in successive years) I saw someone demonstrating a gizmo called Print-Gocco in front of a big stationery store on the Ginza. It was (and is) an instant photo silk screen printer. You put a postcard-sized …
Apple Harvest – 3
We’ve picked apples and made pies a couple of times already. We made another apple crisp with cortlands today. The apple peeler-corer-slicer gizmo works great on these crisp, fresh apples. I also made a batch of spiced crabapples, using the recipe from Joy of Cooking. Time will tell whether or not they’re any good. With …