M is for Memories

 

 

And have I ever got them! We are blessed and lucky. Even with troubles mixed in, we had a fun time and still do, actually. It's great to have cameras, isn't it? The sweet ballerinas are the Big Sisters, and the Little Sisters, well, you can tell who they are. These two pictures are two of my favorite memories.

Hot off The Press

A knitting funny from Six Chix. I love their comic strip!

 

Sometimes word Videos are really Beautiful, too

Double click the video arrow to enlarge it. And turn the sound on, and listen.. this is an amazing work.

First, thanks to Rho, who alerted me to it, and then, thanks to all the producers and the conceptual artists who created it. And to the Sponsor, AARP.

Winter Roses

 

 

You can tell we have an organic garden. Tiny Bushtits and an occasional Warbler come through all week to glean. What a sweet show they make.

Actual yarn and patterns and project, Oh my!

 

 

Actual knitting chat? Here are three new projects. The Serpentine Mitts are from a Ravelry Pattern download, free. I've joined a KAL there to push my way through this one. The yarn for it comes from stash, a TrekkingXXL. The purse is called "Lily", and the pattern was purchased through download at Ravelry. This is a sweet, sweet!, beaded purse that I'll make in the two colors of perle cotton for my two oldest DDs. Did I say this is sweet? This is another smaller KAL with a knitting Pal - thank you Sandy! - who is encouraging me to get the Old knitting mojo back. The needles, well, they are just part of a needle building project for socks. A Gal has to have all her sock needles, after all.

The other strange object is half of a project to make crocheted cover for my earphones. It needs some elastic threads slipped through the back and is the bottom picture, if things work out right here. I think this one comes under "repairs". The black cushioning foam went all to pieces on one earphone, so this replacement came to mind. It's sock Panda cotton remnants. That black circular thing is the one foam that's left. This is very very easy to make.

The phone cover is made this way:

Do a 6 chain ring, join, chain 3
Jam about 16 dc's into it, join at the top of the chain three, chain three
Two dc in each dc around, join--as in round one above--,chain three
Two dc, then One dc, every other space. (This is an Increase row----and you do it this way....two dc in first dc, one in next --all the way around.) join--as in round one above--, chain three
One dc in every dc around .. EVEN row.. join-as in round one above, chain three
One dc ever OTHER dc... decrease row... join in the top of the chain, and cut yarn, pass the end through the loop on hook and tighten.

I'm going to run some elastic through it to make it stay tight, as I said. You will probably find that you need to make yours smaller or larger, depending on the size of your phones, so just add or decrease rows, or you can use single crochets to make it smaller. I wouldn't use triples.. they are too loose.


If I were a working Gal, today would be a "sick day", so I am just sitting around. I was stupid enough to eat a little salad that had some goat cheese on top. Duh! See how we torpedo our own plans? Today I was thinking of going out and looking for some matching beads for the little purses and all of my beads are too big. Isn't that nice? A reason to go bead shopping!

Naan! I never thought I would find a recipe for it!

Manjula has a whole kitchen on YouTube! I am in Heaven! Here's the URL for it





Happy Happy Happy!

Bread, so simple and lovely an idea

I was poking around looking for this recipe because I remembered it after downloading the Five Minute Artisan Bread one. Here it is on a video. I make a shepherd's bread in my dutch oven that is different than this, more dense and even because it's kneaded.



Lovely bread, and very old fashioned.

This Indian (Roti or Chapati) that looks amazingly like a tortilla.



I have a recipe that I used for years that makes one dozen large tortillas. I'll post it tomorrow. Lovely bread!

Ok, Baby Torts eating

I was shocked and delighted to see that there are several others with baby tortoises, eating, on YouTube, too. Most are African Sulcatas, but ours are our own hatchlings from California Gopher Tortoises parents.



These are ours

Sky Watcher Post

 

Pacific Beach, today around Noon. These clouds are the remnants of a storm that was supposed to give our county a considerable amount of rain. Ho Hum. We will not waste any water this spring because we will be called to ration it in the summer.

A day in the life of pet lovers

Today we took J to his eye doc, who says that all is well with his little peepers, and the pressures in the eyes are stable. This means that he will not lose his eye to glaucoma which is a very ugly disease in any animal but especially in little flat faced (well, he is sort of flat nosed)dogs. He is having more senior moments, like getting lost in his own house. Sad to say.

And... I tried again, with the video feature of the camera, to get a better video of the baby torts chowing down. It didn't work, sadly. Still too small and hard to see.

Also, today we also went to the LYS, my personal favorite one in Pacific Beach, and I bought pearl cotton to start a little green- though my two are going to be burnt orange and lavender ones- pouch purses from a pattern on Ravelry - to be filled in later in an edit. Also got some new size 1 and 1.5 DPNs in shorties. Gratuitous purchase to bulk out the needle count. ;o) Gosh have those needles gotten expensive!

Anyway, there will be some cloud pictures of PB, too, as we had a glorious but rather cold day in the land of sunshine.

nighty night!

Coal or Ember Sad Irons

Goldie, here they are. The one on the left is iron, and the one on the right is called a Chinese Iron, for some reason. It has a detachable ruffle iron in the handle. I think it's a copper alloy. The Iron one has a hinged lid to add coals, and the Chinese one has a neck for shoving coals into it. There's a damper on the back of the Chinese iron.

I hope you enjoy looking at them, even though they are a bit dusty.

 

 

Care about Utah?

I do. Here's someone else who did, too.

He's Tim DeChristopher, and he stood up for the American people's rights to their own land, and for the beauty of the Earth. Now, of course, he needs some help from us for doing this. I'm putting a Linked Button in the side bar as a tribute to an American who heeded the call to, "Psstt! Do Something!"

La Traviata, starring Desserts!

Thank you B!

Leanard Peltier Severely Beaten

From DemocracyNow! Feed:

"Relatives Say Peltier Beaten Following Prison Transfer

And the Native American activist Leonard Peltier has reportedly been severely beaten shortly after his transfer to a new prison. According to Peltier’s defense committee, Peltier was attacked by other prisoners after he was put into general population. Peltier’s sister, Betty Peltier-Solano, says she believes the attack could have been encouraged by prison officials seeking to discredit Peltier as he comes up for parole. Peltier suffers from diabetes. After the attack, he was put into solitary confinement. February 6 will mark thirty-three years since Peltier’s arrest. He was convicted of killing two FBI agents during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. Peltier has long maintained his innocence and is widely considered a political prisoner in the United States. He is currently being held at the Canaan Federal Prison in Pennsylvania."

Now I know why.

Baby Torts Breakfast

Well this took forever and came out rather small. Sorry.. I have to increase my knowledge of the camera and of how this uploader works. I'll try again tomorrow.

Yay! Inauguration Day!

Yes We can! Yes we did!

Amen! Amen! Amen!

Now, let the work begin!

Amen! Amen! Amen!, Reverend.

I say again, Amen!

Got Chips?

This is one of the top five Doritos ads. They are all great. Check out the top five.

SuperBowl ad, from some locals. This is for Cat Lovers!

It's a Doritos Ad. Let's see if this works. It does! But it will navigate away from this page so don't be surprised.

Worried about the Economy? This man can explain it all.. almost... hehehe

New Sock yarn, New camera play

This was taken this morning, Av setting, the flash was required. It's the best of three: Auto, Portrait, Tv which didn't work at all, and the Av, Apeture dominates. Wheee! The yarn is: top, Sensations Soles ahd More, from JoAnns, and I love the look. The rest of the yarn is Patons Kroy, always a good go to yarn for fingering weight, and carries aCert from the Forest Stewardship Council of 1996. Yay! DH bought it for me when i was feeling poorly, he's the kindest of people. The Jacquard will be a pair of socks for him.

 

Next up, tomorrow, three new, used books through Amazon, one of which I couldn't tell had even been out of the binding wrapper it was so new.

I'm getting set up to start the Master Knitter Program with our group in Ravelry. There's always a good excuse to buy a book, well, almost always. Used is a great bargain!

Have you heard about this little boy?

His name is Brendan Foster. He has passed away but I'd like you to meet him.

One proviso, if you have a little child who might see this, he might find it too sad.

Brendan's Wish

The Torts "Size in" Today

Here we have the baby torts, who are growing but still tiny. If the water turtle were in this picture, that little sweetie would be able to sit on the Quarter with legs dangling over. The Baby torts are starting to eat weeds from the garden. This is good for them because they will get some soil elements that help them stay healthy. The two in the photo are Milagro on the right, and Mosquito of the left. Milagro is the one eating, of course. She has her title to defend!

 

Turtles and Tortoises

This is a hatchling water turtle, from Maine, in my young grand nephew's hand. He was 7 years old, or so, in the picture. You can see that they are very, very little.

 

Weather Bias Reported in the News!

Weather Channel Accused of Pro-Weather Bias

Gentle bed for little bug

There's nothing much that's softer than the down on a thistle.

 

And now, for something completely different.

A crime scene tape scarf.... And this is actually KNITTING RELATED!

The Fuzz

Thank you B for the tip off!

This site has a lot of interesting non-traditional gifts. I haven't checked out every single thing on the page, so it might have some surprises. Be aware.

A change in comments

I'm getting unhelpful and vindictive comments so I've changed the blog to accept no more Anonymous comments. I'm taking this step because of a January 5th post comment that was a last straw. That's it. There will be no more anonymous comments; I don't even want to see them, frankly.

It's easy to be able to comment using Open ID.

L is for Lampoon

It's good to live an a country that has freedom of speech because otherwise this love of the lampoon would be dangerous, maybe sinful, and probably part of an underground press. We Americans can still secretly smirk and wink at each other when we happen to look out over our newspapers, which are probably all turned to the comics, but at least it doesn't cost us our heads to indulge in a lampoon of some starchy stuffed shirt who is finally going to be forced out of office.

Goodbye and don't let the door hit you on the way out, Mr. Bush. Cheney, I hope you get what you so richly deserve, which is a REAAAALY bad lobster dinner. tata!



There is nothing that I enjoy more than a good lampoon. The more merciless the better.

A little hand feeding and pampering

S didn't think that one of the torts was getting enough to eat, so she hand fed him.

 

Baby tort weigh in: First week of January 2009

Oooops, you will have to enlarge the pic to read the script. Sorry!

 

"Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee"

Years ago, I read this book. It's scope is huge. Now there is a movie available and of course everyone knows cinemagraphic adaptations are limited. But this HBO film about Wounded Knee is worthy of every ounce of attention you can muster for it. The actor who plays Sitting Bull, August Schellenberg, gives a performance that is stellar.

Once, when I was reading some of the 70's dialog after the shooting at Pine Ridge, a woman spokesperson, the head of some historical society, was saying that the "Soiux", as she called them, were an expansionist people,and therefore this "clash" was between two expansionist people, and the weaker one lost. Some of the insults flung at Sitting Bull, in the movie, by a white general were of this nature. That was not the history of his people and the shock and insult on Sitting Bull's face is not just acting, in my opinion. Schellenberg is a Mohawk tribal descendent, and he must have felt this insult and shock deeply in his heart, every time this line of dialog came up in the filming.

Since I am still wanting justice in this nation, I'll add this site to this post with a proviso. If you want to read about Leonard Peltier, go to the web site. If it offends you, just don't read it. It's about justice for a man who has never received it. Bush fell all over himself trying to protect Scooter Libby, but he's done nothing at all for many others who are infinitely more deserving, one of them is this man.

Common Dreams site: Leonard Peltier, forgotten like so many others.

I am part Native American, and I have a few axes to grind, from time to time.

The little dog and the Elephant, a new Aesop but no fable.

This is a story about two unlikely friends. The video is within the story that was on CBS News the other night...

Tara and Bella's story

The video starts with a LOUD commercial, so you can turn sound down, and then back up for the story. I'm warning you because it's so loud..

Pogonip, thank you!

Save a Life, from the Top of the Food chain!

Pogonip, that utterly amazing and professional web surfer, found this. lol

Spin!

 

L, my DD who loves policarts, sent this to me.

Ornaments

 

These are machine embroidery, a lovely gift from a friend. She sends these temptations to join the ranks of machine embroiderers, and I love her for the attempt. So far I've been steadfastly resisting. Aren't they lovely? I've tried, off and on for days to get an award winning photo of them but it's not within my scope.

An aside to real photographers out there.. how do you get pictures in this sort of lighting? Do I need a tripod? Should I just give up?

At Last! It's Officially an Illegal War...

Thanks to God!

Extra Read all about it..on Alternet

DH and I just watched a movie called, Persepolis. It tells the truth about a lot of the Iranian history leading up to a few years ago. Alzoo be sure, if you watch this cartoon to watch how it was made in the extra bits. Fascinating!

My opinion? We should stop meddling and screwing all these people over. It's time to change ourselves into what WE want to be and not what we are MOLDED into by the ones who want us to toe the line, jump into the lines, go OVER the lines, for their benefit and enrichment. May they be picked apart by endangered birds, some of which repeat these lies back to them while doing it. I'm really HOT and should go take a cold shower and practice SERENITY ( Good Lord I couldn't even spell it right... Ummmmmm *shocked smilie* or is that supposed to be .... Ohmmmmmmmmmm

PurrCast

A friend of mine sends me purrs from her kitty and they are so comforting that I went in search of more cat purrs on the web.

This site is called PurrCast and this is my favorite from there.

Go see if you would like some of the other .mp3 files of purring.

Purrcats is interesting website, and the donations, and the purchase of small toys, help support City Kitties Rescue of West Philadelphia and University City in Pennsylvania, which is a no kill facility.

Edit for coherence.. lol It's late, I need to go visit my pillows.

The Word For The Year 2009

It is Serenity

I will be working on getting back to where I was residing, spiritually, several years ago, starting with a daily prayer for our new President and others like him who care about what we are as a FREE nation and where we are all going.

He will need all of us doing our level best to make things work, because, if the greed that is at the top where all the wealth is congealing isn't counter balanced by the hundred millions of the rest of us, we don't need an external "enemy" to focus all our covert attention and war materials on. Like all other Empires, we will go crashing down, having tripped over our own feet.

To be aware but focusing on Serenity is my goal.

And those other 13 personal "guidelines" too. Chocolate especially.. just kidding!

Reader subscription now works..

<----- Points to the Orange Box in the side bar at the top. That little thing is Good.

The Bloglines one should work properly now, too. FINGERS CROSSED!

After a day long battle, the thing is fixed. Thanks to DH, called in a half hour ago, and his wonderful sleuthing and surfing abilities, the small orange critter in the side bar is now alive, kicking up it's little heels and breathing in and out for the joy of it all.

Don't use that thing on the windows address bar or on the tail end of the blog. They are disguised as workable but they are monsters with little teeth and claws to suck you into a black hole.

Google created this wee mess, tempest in blogspot land and they should clean it up, but they didn't.

Make Snowflakes...

Here's a couple of interesting sites for creating snowflakes.. On those long cold winter nights..Indoors and warm. My link checker told me they are apparently free from any threats.


ZFrank.com

Make a Flake, Barkley Interactive

If you have the latest Adobe flash player, you can open this and create snowflakes with it.

New Year's Resolutions.

Here are mine, have you made yours?

1 Get the rest of my adipose tissue reduced. It is keeping me from being the beautiful butterfly even old age cannot erase. It's also keeping me from getting a lot of stuff done, like keeping a neat house or having enough people over for dinner to eat all the food I'm capable of creating in any 12 hour period. Company and dinner parties are too much fun to forgo (Fargo?) for the rest of the days left to my lifetime.

2.Practice spinning every day. If nothing else, it will remind me that owning a wheel after all these years of wanting a sheep farm in Scotland, or even a horse ranch in Montana, is a privilege. Of course that has nothing to do with sheep, but it was a Goal at one time. And, unless things have changed, both animals still are quadrupeds, and the rule is based on good, solid scientific longings.

3.Keep knitting those two big projects. Try to get some stitches in everyday, and maybe even an inch worth, each. Also, save and knit with the hair I pull out, trying to keep up the afore mentioned resolution. Picture frames are good projects for this hursuit employment.

4.Walk everyday for 20 minutes and then 10 minutes later. While I'm gasping for breath, keep the old feet shuffling along so that the nice new pedometer counts the steps. Waist not want not. er.. ya, I really meant that to be that way.

5.Keep sewing as I need clothing, and I want to make quilts again. As I get thinner, I will need to wrap up in these quilts, and pile more of them on the bed.

6. Play my ukulele everyday, learn new chords, tunings and riffs. Play the quitar to make sure I maintain the calloused incase I am overwhelmed by the whiney sounds of the Uke.

7.Keep getting rid of things no longer useful. This is relative and changes daily. But mostly it means to give away things that have no real purpose in my life anymore, like the gumball machine, which will go the the kids, or that banjo that I no longer want to play. S has the dibs on that or it would go off to ebay.

8.Stop staying so focused on negative news, but stay informed. I don't want to miss a single war that I can comment on bitterly. It is my reason for being a Quaker after all. Wars suck.

9.Finish off remnants of ceramics. Well, I'll try. But there are tea pots and sewing doll pin cushions in those molds, to say nothing of the Santa Clauses.

10.get all yarns organized, cataloged and photographed. This is pretty straight forward. I'll do this without having to make any quick two wheel left hand turns against traffic.

11.Take care of my garden, feed the little rooted ones. Since it is better to have live rooted ones rather than dead or rotten ones, this one is a straightforward goal. I adore my tiniest plants so not a single little succulent must fear it will not get my full attention. I like them. They are almost raised to the status of a Pet.

12.Use my vacuum all the time; instead of hating it, I will love it. It is my friend. The vacuum is a gift from the Goddess. How could I not recognise that fact all these years. The enemy of a house is dust and chaos, and the vacuum conquers the one while holding at bay the other. It is a machine of perfect and delicate balances of the natural forces in the entire Universe. We should be bowing down to the vacuum cleaner.

13. Drink more champagne and eat more chocolate. It's what helps when nothing else will.