Means a complete “brain dump” – yep, that’s right… today I am dumping out all the things rattling around my brain that I have been trying to remember for “future posts”…
Also, cocktails on Monday need to be a thing when we are back to “normal,” whatever that might be!
First up, the weekend highlights:
I had a few brief moments of mourning over the weekend when I reflected on not being in Michigan for the holiday as we had planned. Virtual conversations are just not the same as in person ones. However, Vivi with her Chicks is epic! My daughter says she wants to be “with them” in the barn all.the.time!
Church via Zoom is also not quite the same as being together in person and “Apart but Together Easter Breakfast” would have been greatly improved with “smell-i-vision” because bacon! (And someone was having Pecan Pancakes!)
An Easter without music is not quite the same, but I did find some Spotify channels to “sing along” with…much to Steve’s pleasure, lol (or is that displeasure! Ha!)
A new cocktail was created, and it is a huge winner! (there was some necessity for this as the vermouth stock is dwindling…)
1 Cup Dry Gin
1/2 cup Pear Ginger Puree (recipe follows)
1/3 cup Domaine de Canton Ginger Liquor
Ingredients for Pear Ginger Puree:
1 jar of Trader Joe’s Pear Halves, diced
1 ginger root, sliced (you do not need to peel it)
1.5 cups water
A scant 2/3 cup of cane sugar
Bring all ingredients to a boil. Once boiling turn heat down to simmer covered for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit covered for another 15 minutes. Remove the ginger pieces and pour the pear liquid into a blender. Blend until pears are pureed.
To make the cocktail, add ingredients to an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Pour into a chilled coupe glass and enjoy! (makes 2 substantial cocktails!) I froze the remaining puree in ziploc bags for future cocktails!
Now that the “weekend” is out of the way, let’s begin the brain dump portion of this post!
I saw this somewhere in the Blogisphere last week, sorry I don’t remember where (maybe Kym??) I have read it multiple times and have printed it out and put it in my journal. The words are the perfect reminder of how all this should change us.
SAH Book Bingo is sparking all kinds of excitement in my reading! I love the planning part especially, figuring out what books will work for a square. Need some ideas? Look no further! 500 Page book square? This has some incredible ideas (and I have read lots of them!) Let me know if you need a suggestion or two from this list!
Another week… another Friday…and joy of joys, it is snowing in Pittsburgh this morning. Yes, that’s right… snow! On all the tender new leaves. On the lilac blooms. On the magnolia blooms. Sigh.
Today is day four of my 100 Day Project and these moments of creatively stitching have been rays of sunshine in my day! You can follow my journey via Instagram, which I think is the perfect platform for sharing my days progress. I am happy that the plan in my head is flowing beautifully into my stitches.
To avoid any new temptations, I have been **trying** to avoid Ravelry this week. Key word…trying! LOL It seems that it was a “cloudy” week there! Did you see Cloudesley and Cloud Cover? Yeah…they are awesome, and both have been rattling around my head a bit. I also cannot get Mary’s inky navy sweater out of my head and I might have identified a “hole” in my warm weather wardrobe! However, I have not begun looking for any inky navy yarns…yet.
It was a week of lots.of.baking! Yesterday I made these brownies…and yowza, they are so good! And today I am baking my first loaf of sourdough bread! (I have my fingers crossed that it rises!)
If you, like me, are doing all kinds of Zoom get togethers… I found these tips and tricks to be exceedingly helpful!
I find myself remembering the days of the week by my “blog calendar” and have felt the need to spend more time here, which is not a bad thing. Today I am joining Carole and friends to share three things with you today.
Some years ago, Kym introduced me to National Poetry Month, which, I confess, I did not know existed. I did not read poetry. My maternal grandfather did though – he not only read poetry, he had so many poems memorized! My favorites that he would recite were Trees by Joyce Kilmer, and Fog by Carl Sandburg. I know these poems, but did not really “get” why poetry. That is until Kym. Today I am going to share three things that I hope will draw you into the lovely world of poetry. I have found great comfort in these uncertain and unsettled days in poetry.
I just finished reading Susan Stewart’s Columbarium, a lovely little tome of incredibly moving poems. I have read it through three times now and each time I discover something new. But, every time I have read this book Dark the Star has called to me.
Dark The Star by Susan Stewart
Dark the star deep in the well, bright in the still and moving water, still as the night circling above the circle of stones the darkness surrounds. Dark the wish made on the star, a true wish made on the water’s image.
There’s no technique in the grass. There’s no technique in the rose.
Thing Three:
This is perhaps my favorite poem of all time. I discovered Derek Walcott via Kym’s blog. His poetry is the best discovery ever.
Love After Love by Derek Walcott
The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.
I forgot to share yesterday my temperature chart, but it deserves a mention. One stunning thing I noted… Pittsburgh only had 4 days in the first quarter where the high temperature was in the 20’s.
Let that sink in a minute. Yes, that is right in 3 months, we had just 4 days in the 20’s. Every month had some temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s… yes, January, February, and March had days that got that warm. If I had not been tracking temperatures, I might not believe it.
This week I blocked my Nymphaladia (which is not yet on Ravelry) and wove in the couple of ends. I love the dramatic change from Monday’s photo!
I also began work on the heel turns on my mystery socks! I don’t think there is one single thing in knitting that brings more wonder that the simple process of turning a heel, and suddenly that flat flap begins to take form and a sock is born from a tube and a flap! I was a bit shocked to see that the color matching sock yarns were dramatically off in matching. Yes, one skein had a significant bit less of the green dyed part. So, these will be off-kilter socks but perhaps that is just what I needed to remember this off-kilter time!
It seems I have finally broken through the Reading Dam with gusto! My read’s this week were all noteworthy! Also, in case you missed it Mary is leading us all in SAH Book Bingo which began April 1st! I wonder if I can fill three cards between now and Labor Day? Anyways, Book Bingo is one of my very favorite things and I hope you join us!
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There has been lots of discussion about this book… and much of it revolved around “don’t read it.” However, I am a Rebel (aka Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies) and being such I felt compelled to read this book. I initially gave this book 4-stars but in thinking about the book for a few days, I really think this is a book deserving of a 5-star rating.
The story’s main characters, Lydia and her son Luca, survive a horrific event and must flee their home in Acapulco. This story revolves around that escape and the people (good and bad) that they meet in their journey.
I was moved by their journey, by their hope, by their determination, and especially by some of the people they interact with. The writing is wonderful – engaging – and it pulled me in from the first sentence. I listened to the audiobook and the narration was excellent.
Look past the hype and the naysayers and read this book! You will be glad you did!
Book one in a series always is a bit of a challenge as you figure out the characters, their backgrounds, and how they came to be together. Rachel and Esa have wonderful potential. This story tackles a devastating time in history (the Bosnian War Crimes) and did so incredibly well! I struggled at first to keep things straight, but thankfully reading on the kindle makes remembering details easy. I am eager to read more of this series.
I read this book with my small group, and we watched Amy-Jill’s companion video series. If you want someone to give you a remarkable history lesson on Holy Week – this is the series for you! Levine’s insights and knowledge are wonderful. I learned so many things and my book is full of notes. I highly recommend it!
At first, I did not think I was going to like this book at all, especially when I read a woman belongs in her husband’s church – yikes, that was cringe-worthy for me. But, I pressed on and am I glad I did!
Every day the world is teaching me what I need to know to be in the world. In the stir of too much motion: Hold still. Be quiet. Listen.
YES! I needed this reminder. I also needed to shed solidarity tears with Margaret as she sat in the pediatrician’s office with her newborn baby, tired – exhausted really, with a hungry, crying baby, trying her damnedest to breast feed with mastitis. Thank god for doctors that listen and remove the guilt and free you to be a better parent. “The best mother is a happy mother,” she said. “Give that baby a bottle.” AMEN!!
I loved her bird stories, her childhood stories, her parents stories, and how she looks at life. It is not perfect, but my gosh – it can be so beautiful.
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
Only those with tenacity can march forward in March. — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
I needed an abundance of tenacity last month, which felt like the longest year of my life. Truly. It lasted forever, but I made it through to the other side and for that I am grateful!
The Best Part of the Month
Hands down it was the ever increasing daylight hours. The month would have been much worse if all this was happening in the dead of winter. And we even had some sunshine in Pittsburgh, which was a very good thing!
Something New
Does “shelter at home” count? Hahaha! (It should since we were doing it for almost half the month!!) Pittsburgh, or rather Allegheny County began sheltering at home on March 17th which also saw the first “quarantini” of the month. And speaking of drinking, there was a significant increase in weekday drinking, but I am not sure if that is really a good thing, lol. AND Sourdough made its appearance!
Best “Oh, Wow” Moment/s
The birds! Forced forsythia in the house! Sourdough starter success!! I also finished a pair of socks (the 13th), and Nightshift (the 24th!) Also… being comfortable in my own *sans makeup* skin enough to memorialize it here!
What I did Well and What I can do Better
I am not sure I did anything well (unless you count drinking, ha!) this month. But one thing I am going to make an effort to do is to **remember to take a daily photo and video** which apparently one consistently forgets when they are on home quarantine!
What about you? Did you have a stand out March Moment? Please share!!
Starts with a trip down the loveliest rabbit hole!
Clara started it, but that led me to this and this and finally this! These kids… PURE JOY (and you can believe me when I tell you that because joy has been a scarce commodity in my life these days!!)
Perhaps, a trip down a rabbit hole is the perfect thing for today since I spent much of the weekend with things on repeat!
I could not get enough of this and I listened to it several times on Saturday and again on Sunday.
Which led me to “Google” Pádraig Ó Tuama and I discovered he has a twitter account! (My twitterverse just grew infinitely richer!)
Ode to Patrick Swayze
‘the perfect proletarian / butt in the black pants of you’
I finished Clue One of the Genius of Romi! My brain loved every bit of everything I thought I could not understand – that is until I broke it down and just did what the direction said to do, and not worry about that next step until its turn. (I am knitting this with a heavy-lace weight yarn and a bit of a smaller needle than the pattern calls for, but oh my do I love this start!)
I also did some “repeats” knitting and finished a long lingering UFO* (I saved the pattern in 2015 and I think I cast on shortly thereafter, but never started a project page.) Today, a good soak and some blocking to reveal the beauty! (My yarns are about a half a ball of Zauberball Crazy – in the colorway that the designer used, and almost an entire hank of Lorna’s Laces sock yarn.) There was something entirely satisfying about knitting alternating repeats of welts and wedges.
I hope you enjoy these rabbit holes! Happy Monday!
