The Best Laid Plans

I've been pondering a change in our eating habits lately, mostly by rereading my old copy of Fast Vegetarian Feasts and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. When we had the power off for thirty six hours a couple of weeks ago, it provided the perfect opportunity to ditch some (all) of the things in our refrigerator that needed to get tossed. Having more time to cook in the summer (provided I'm actually home more than two out of fourteen days) coupled with the amount of fresh produce available, including Steve's garden, means this is a great time to revamp the pantry and menus. (The word menu implies I actually plan meals but one can always strive to do better, no?)

So today, per the suggestion in FVF, I bought a dozen wide-mouth Ball jars and went to work filling them with some of the staples necessary to cook the way I want. (Bonus: I also got to use my label maker!) Things like wheat berries, bulgur, barley, couscous, and a nice variety of rice and beans. Stef went with me to the farmer's market, where we got some produce, and also organic butter and tofu.

Of course, Steve and I ate out tonight. But there's always tomorrow!

Busy as a Bee

This summer has certainly started off busier than I had planned, although in a good way. I was only home for two nights from the Outer Banks when I left town again, this time headed west to Blacksburg. My youngest, (that's her in the middle), had invited me to come to her film premiere, so of course, off I went! She was a camp counselor for a two week Virginia Tech program, called Blacksburg Stories, that teaches middle school students how to create documentaries. This is the title of her group's film.

The local independent movie theater, the Lyric, hosted the premiere.

It was so amazing to me to see her interact with her students and their parents. A proud moment for this mama.

The rest of the time I was there we just hung out, crafted, watched movies, ate out, and relaxed. So nice.

On Monday, we drove to Floyd (a small town known for The Crooked Road Music Project) and shopped at School House Fabrics, a three story fabric store, housed in an old schoolhouse. I lost count of how many rooms there were after twenty, and each and every room was crammed full. Overwhelming, although we did buy some fabric to use as curtains for Melissa's bedroom.

On the way back to Blacksburg, we stopped at a natural foods store. We wanted to eat at their cafe, but it was closed on Mondays, so we were out of luck.

I liked this mix of coneflowers and black eyed susans.

I left Tuesday morning to drive home and treated myself to lunch in Crozet at the Mudhouse. Delicious iced tea and a lemon iced, vegan ginger applesauce cake. Yummy.

Now I'm home and need to photograph the yarn I bought from Mosaic, as well as the progress I've made on the baby blanket. I think I'm up to fifteen squares now, which leaves ten to go plus the seaming and border. I'm also halfway through a Noro striped scarf with half priced yarn I couldn't resist buying while I was out there, despite my Noro stash at home. But half price? Who could resist? Not I, that's for sure.

I go back for my second endoscopy tomorrow to check on the healing progress of my ulcers (the ones that were found in April). So Stef and I are going to hit the video store today before she goes to work, so we can have some movies to watch while I lounge on the couch afterwards. Expecting good news, so I'm not worried a bit. And since the weather here is finally dropping from the high 90's, it should be a good day to putter around. I think we're going to hit the farmer's market today as well. Hope your day is a good one too.

Photo Sharing

Isn't this tomato gorgeous? Stef took a couple of photos in the garden before we left last week and I wanted to share a few.


She does some good things with my camera that I don't seem to be able to accomplish, like this beautiful macro shot.

Steve planted sunflowers this year and I love them.

Here's one of the few pictures I took on vacation. For some reason, I just didn't take too many this year, maybe because the beach photos always look the same. This is one taken in early evening.

And this one in the glare of the day.

I started and finished a basic baby boy hat for my niece to take to a friend of hers.

And this is the market bag I'm working on, although it's slow going on size 15 needles cause my hands hurt if I spend much time on it. Love the colors though.

Knitting Addiction has started carrying Classic Elite yarn, so I picked up a skein of soft yellow,

and one of gray. At $11 for almost 500 yards, I think it's a great deal. I'm thinking shawlette or scarf, or maybe one of each. Easy on the hands for sure.

This stuff I bought because of the shop sample. It's a Blanket Buddy, made from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. So, so soft.

And I bought these two skeins on impulse, but the little bit of knitting I tried with it didn't make me happy. I hope to find something to make with it but I'm not sure just yet. Exactly the type of purchase I don't need to make, eh?

And for something completely random, this is adorable and it seems that this style of t-shirt is so popular right now!

Now back to cleaning up the house (although since Steve did a fabulous job while I was gone, I'm mostly puttering) and repacking for my trip to Blacksburg tomorrow. But first, a little nap.

Back For A Bit

Ok, so I'm back from the family vacation, but I'm taking off again on Saturday to visit my youngest out in Blacksburg, so not much down time at home just yet.


Oddly enough, I didn't take many vacation photos this year. Maybe because this is the schedule I followed most days:

• Light breakfast


• Beach time (8:00-11:00 a.m.)


• Shower


• Breakfast/Lunch


• Book store/coffee shop or yarn store


• Nap time


• Beach time (after 2:00 p.m.)


• Shower


• Dinner


• Beach time (6:00-8:00 p.m.)

All in all it was a very relaxing time, we had gorgeous weather, and I got to spend time with my oldest daughter and my youngest stepdaughter, as well as my mom, dad, sister, and nieces; today was incredibly hot though, so hot in fact, that I only did one beach stint.



With all the beach time, I managed to read three of the six books I brought with me, plus one that I bought while I was down there.


A Disobedient Girl--a riveting plot that had a twist at the end; I highly recommend it.


All the Living--a sparse book that was very readable; reminded me of another author, who's name escapes me, although the blurb suggests Marilynne Robinson's style, so maybe that's it.


Girls In Trucks--I liked this, but I felt like I had either read some of the chapters in short story form or I had tried to read it before and skimmed a lot of it. Good, but not as good as the other two.


The Likeness--I loved this one; it's the follow-up to In the Woods, which I also loved. A densely written mystery set in Ireland that kept me up late reading it, just like her first one. So, so good.


I also bought yarn, but I'll show those off tomorrow. As for the actual knitting, I started and finished a baby hat for my niece to give away, I finished a baby sweater that had been languishing in my UFO pile, I started a cotton string bag but it made my hands hurt so I put it aside, I started a pair of handwarmers, but didn't like the pattern so I frogged it, and I finished three more squares for the baby blanket. Not too shabby.

Now I'm going to try and cool off, as it's still over 90 degrees outside (at 10:00 p.m.) and hovering around 80 degrees inside. Summer hit us fast this year.

PS Playing around with Blogger's new templates; what's your opinion?

Indecision

Tonight is the last post for a week, as I'm going on vacation without the laptop. The beach house has internet, but I'm going to skip it.

I'm having a terrible time deciding what knitting stuff to take. The clothes I'm taking are in the washer, the books are stacked in the book bag, but I'm completely stymied about what to take in the knitting category. Weird.

While trying to decide last night, I picked up an unfinished baby sweater and worked on it, but now I need another skein of yarn (which I may have somewhere around here already) to do the sleeves. So I'll probably take that. But what else?

Meanwhile, the students' last day was today and it went smoothly. Lots of tears from the 8th graders as they leave middle school behind, but not too terribly many from the teachers. At least not over the kids. We shed our tears at our farewell luncheon for two retiring teachers, one of whom has stage 4 lung cancer. Very tough to deal with, especially as she's had a setback and was looking awfully worn down. And is now on oxygen.

Makes my knitting "problem" seem rather petty.

Eating the Refrigerator

Remember when we had that Nor'easter here back in November and we had some damage to our house? Well, after a number of setbacks, Steve has decided that this would be the perfect weekend to fix it. The guy that is doing the work is coming on Saturday, which means the power has to be cut off on Friday and won't be back on until Monday. Steve has implied that I would be less than pleasant without air conditioning available, so he has kindly offered to suffer on my behalf.



It just dawned on me yesterday that because of this, we have to eat everything in our freezer/refrigerator before Friday! Yikes! So last night I broiled the mahi mahi and salmon that was in the freezer, microwaved a couple of bags of vegetables, and made some rice to go along with it. An unexpected feast at this time of the school year.



Random link:

These jeans look so cool; I think my youngest would love them.


SO glad I posted about my packing yesterday, otherwise I would have forgotten my beach chair! The house I'm staying at has beach chairs available, but of course mine is my favorite. Thanks for the comments! As for the books I listed, I meant to link them so you could read the blurbs, so here they are again.


All the Living, by C. E. Morgan

A Fortunate Age, by Joanna Smith Rakoff

A Disobedient Girl, by Ru Freeman

The Wish Maker, by Ali Sethi

Atlas of Unknowns, by Tania James

And trust me, it's doubtful I'll get through them all. It's similar to the knitting I'll take with me. I'll buy something (or two) at Knitting Addiction and work on that instead!!

Now I'm off to give my final exams. Three more days!

Getting Ready

Yesterday I started thinking about what I would pack for beach week. This is really unusual for me as I'm the kind of traveler who throws things in a bag on the morning of the trip, but for some reason, this trip is different. And even though I always take books and knitting wherever I go, for this trip I always take more of both. I'm going to have at least one large bag of books and one large (maybe two) bags with knitting, and one smallish bag with clothes and sunscreen. At beach week, clothes are the least important thing to pack.

I remember a family vacation we took when I was sixteen; we went to Arkansas to visit family and stayed with them at a lake for a week, water-skiing and swimming all day. I don't think I came out of my suit except to sleep (and that was because my mom made me) the entire week. It was blissful.


Anyhow, I'm leaving from work on Friday around noon and heading down to the Outer Banks for a week with my family. My parents rent a house every year (this is either the 9th or 10th year) and my sister and her family and I and my family are included. I've had to wait until Saturday the past few years due to graduations, but this year I get to leave on Friday. And since no one from my family is going on Friday, I get to go earlier than usual. Steve is bring S down Sunday night (she has to work the weekend), and Mere and R are coming on Saturday.




I picked up the supply of books yesterday from the library. This was the group I had reserved after reading a copy of Poets & Writers a week or so ago.

• All the Living, by C. E. Morgan


• A Fortunate Age, by Joanna Smith Rakoff


• A Disobedient Girl, by Ru Freeman


• The Wish Maker, by Ali Sethi


• Atlas of Unknowns, by Tania James

I also have a bag of books that are more in the "beach book" style, that I picked up at the thrift store and library book sales over the past month or so. Those are the kind I usually take so I can just leave them there when I finish them, but the library books are calling my name this year.

I think tonight will be about getting my knitting together. I know I'm taking the baby blanket squares and I think I'll take a couple of UFOs just to see if I can get motivated. But I'll also be visiting Jeanne's shop so who knows what else I'll end up with.

Oh and the clothes? I'll pack those Friday morning, as usual. What kind of packer are you? List maker or a throw it in the bag packer?