Cora and Enzo.

 We've had two winter storms drop snow (and a bit of ice) in North Carolina.  When Cora came through two weeks ago, my trip to Dallas was scrubbed.

Yes, it doesn't look like much, especially to a Northerner.
But this came across from Dallas and the South cannot handle it.

The airline offered rescheduling at no charge, so I reticketed for the coming weekend.  Two of the theatre tickets couldn't be rescheduled for this weekend, so friends used them, and were happy to see the shows.  One ticket could be reissued and I will see that show this weekend.  I may also get to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert.  A yarn group I've dropped in at in the past was supposed to meet that weekend and also rescheduled to this one, so I'll join them for a bit on Saturday.

Last night we had Enzo, leaving only 1.5-2" here, unlike the 7+ inches in Alabama and 8 inches in Louisiana.  People were ice-skating and having snowball fights on Bourbon Street.

How it started.  Fat snowflakes last night.

In this morning's light, an unusual sight (here).

Hard to see the numbers in the photo, but it's 
under 2 inches, close to 1.5 inches.
This is one of my solar walkway lights.

Again, not too much snow, but there is ice beneath it, and temperatures are not supposed to go above freezing until tomorrow afternoon.  Many things are closed through today, or services and events cancelled.  I am working from home - as usual!

I wanted to make a wee snowperson, but the snow is dry and doesn't pack well, so my attempts fell apart quickly.  I cleared off the solar panels on my walkway lights and gave up the idea of making anything fun from this snow.

Not much for us.

The big blizzard that hit New England yesterday dropped only four inches where I am:

I measured in several places, and the official National Weather Service results had my town in the 4-6" category.  I saw friends report much more in other towns in the county, so I guess we were unlucky, or lucky, depending upon your view.

Today was clear with a brilliant blue sky and the highest temperature I saw was 18°F.

The pullover is within a few inches of completion: the body is done, and one sleeve, and I'm two decrease rounds from the ribbing on the second sleeve.  So it should be done tomorrow, within the month.  Not bad, especially given that I sidetracked to other projects periodically.

Including darning a mitten, which had a hole at the base of the thumb, the tip of the fingers, and in the ribbing.  The hardest to do was the thumb, because it included an increase, and I forgot to photograph it.  I also didn't get a "before" picture of the ribbing, just after:

Darning on the ribbing - three locations needed it.

The bigger hole in the tip, before mending.

The mended hole in the tip.

I got the yarn in a kit from Morehouse Farm many years ago at New York Sheep & Wool, when their mittens kits included single-ply wool, and knit them for me.  There was a hood but it came out smallish and I donated it, but the mittens just fit.  I think a moth munched one; the other was tucked far into the coat pocket.  I don't have any of the yarn left but these are workaday mittens and I had a bit left from something else that I decided would do, and I did.

Resolutions Update

If I finish the remainder of the second sleeve tomorrow, and run in the ends, I will consider the pullover finished although technically it would need to be washed and blocked for many to consider it truly DONE.  But I think it will be wearable without blocking, although the yoke looks a bit wonky.  That's one more item completed from my resolutions list.  I'm making progress in the second book of the year, also.

We've had snow.

It was the first decent snowfall of this season.  I took some photos of the usual vistas the day before, in preparation, and the following morning:

   

  

My area received about six inches, although the official measurement for my town was eight inches:

Today is sunny and VERY cold, so the snow remains fluffy and mostly intact.

I knit mittens, which I finished today.  The yarn is from Seacolors Yarnery and the pattern is Palmistry which I think I did incorrectly because I don't have the nice curve at the bottom of the thumb.

More things upended.

 Due to COVID-19, Mardi Gras today was mostly cancelled in favor of safer experiences such as "Yardi Gras".  A colleague of mine who lives in N'Awlins told me this morning that it's one of the coldest Mardi Gras on record there, so he doesn't mind that everybody is supposed to stay indoors.

I added this as my Teams meeting background today.

Here are some shots of the snow that fell at the beginning of the month, after I delivered the social justice committee donations:

  

  

The total in my area was about 8-10", but we'd had some a few days before and then we got more a few days later.  I uploaded one as my new TEAMS background:

In better weather I might eat lunch out there, but not these days.

Midmonth Mini-Resolution Update

No progress to report.  Still reading.  Work is stressy so I've switched to simpler things, such as a garter stitch scarf of  Red Heart Super Saver in "Americana", which I will donate to the Knit Your Bit project at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.  They are receiving packages again.

I took a load of things to the thrift store on Saturday.  It's good to be back to sorting and clearing out things.  I found a bunch of unusual knitting needles and crochet hooks and posted them to eBay, and they are selling.  Not for what I paid, but it's a little money in which isn't a bad exchange.  Similar to putting them out at a yard sale.  For specialty items I like to do eBay because they have a better chance of going to somebody who really wants and will use it.  I did the same with trims I'd gotten long ago for SCA garb, and some stationery and such.  Those sold also.

In past Februarys I've played the Minimalism Game, where you try to get rid of one thing on the first, two on the second, and so forth.  I forgot about it this year, but I seem to be doing quite well anyway.  Maybe I'll report at monthend on what I've donated, recycled, etc.

Donations before the storm

My congregation's social justice committee decided to collect items for the South Park Inn and worked with Hands on Hartford for some programming.  This gave me incentive to finish a few items.  These hats were made from Red Heart's Heat Wave yarn, which is a manmade fiber that absorbs heat from sunlight or other UV light.  I picked three colours that I thought look happy together.  The first hat I made is the V-stitch one, and then I decided to try the Ugly Christmas Sweater Beanie.  It was more fun than I thought it would be to make.  These photos show the colours fairly reaslistically:

I had enough yarn left over to do a second hat, for which I reversed the Blue Skies and Beach Ball, leaving Radio in the same position.  Unfortunately, the light was different enough when I photographed the two together, so the colours look very different:

In addition to the hats, I had ten scarves I'd made and was waiting to donate someplace (often I would take them when I went on trips back to North Texas, sending them to the Samaritan Inn, but of course I haven't been there since last March).  I'd forgotten about some of these:

They also collected toiletries, so I gave them all the little things I'd collected over my travels in 2019 and early 2020, plus some bars of soap because when I organized the bathroom cabinets I discovered how much I've acquired.  Well, I love pretty soaps, and certain scents, and I tended to stock up, but with all the travel wasn't home to use it.  In the last year I've made definite inroads to my collection, but there's more than enough to keep me clean for quite some time.

The elder daughter of the social justice committee's leader hosted an educational program on Martin Luther King Day weekend, when our congregation does service activities, showing us how to arm-knit scarves and blankets, and how to make blankets of fleece.  I still had some fleece blanket kits from when I made them for a dialysis center (donations suspended due to the pandemic) so I made two of them.  Forgot to take a photo!

I packed everything up and dropped four large bags at their home, because the leader was willing to make a collection and drop them at South Park Inn.  We're supposed to get a big snowstorm this weekend and I wanted to be sure she has them; awaiting confirmation.

Mini-Resolution Update

I've knit a bit more on the Omega shawl but otherwise am not making much progress.  I still haven't made 7/7 on my tracker, in part thanks to work (when you have to stay up until midnight work work with somebody in Japan, it's hard to get the required hours of sleep) and in part just because.  But I have a year to do it, so I'm not yet discouraged.

I noticed that I am completing every month on Microsoft Games Solitaire, something I rarely did.  I realize that it's because I am home, because you have to finish all the days by the last day of the month, and while you can do catch-ups for missed days, it's the last day that I was often away.  Now I've been home and am racking up month after month of completion.  It feels good - and weird.

Setting a Record and Cooking Maple-Beans

Hello!  Today, just because we could, we had snow:

 

 

My neighbor's forsythia is sad that it's snowing.

Apparently it set a new record for snowfall of this date.  The previous record was 1.7" (4.5cm) and today we received 2.4" (6cm).

When I heard that we had a winter storm warning for today, I decided to make baked beans, using the mix I'd used before but following their recipe, scaled both for size of household and remaining beans.  I put a cup of the beans to soak overnight:

In a bowl, covered with about one inch
of water.  At right, after overnight soaking.

 

 I put them into my crockpot to cook.  They are really a pretty assortment of beans!

The original package (from Sweet Wind Farm, a local place, but you can order online) came with seasoning and maple syrup.  Scaling to the quantity of beans, I added a half-cup of maple syrup, and half the seasoning, plus a bay leaf.

Then I added water to cover and let it cook on high, which gave it a steady simmer, until the beans were done.  Unfortunately they lost some of the pretty colours while cooking: 

Although I like the taste of bay, a whole leaf was a bit too much for this quantity, but overall the beans are very tasty.  I made rice to go under it, and it's a solid meal.  I did add a couple pickles on the side for some contrast.  They are not blue; that's my grandmother's shawl, sitting next to my bowl.

The bowl is one of a set I got at the SouperBowl in Madison the year I lived there.  You could buy a ticket for a bowl and soup, or you could buy just a bowl.  They also had tables of extra items, including a set of these bowls, which I bought and have used very happily.

I have one portion of rice and probably two portions of beans left, which will be meals in the next couple of days.

In other news, I finished the sweater and scarf, which finishes my committed items for Mittens for Akkol.  When marking them on the spreadsheet I realized that I have some yarn I'd overdyed that will work for thick socks for one of the extra grads, so I wound it and cast on for those.  I'm also working on the border of my grandmother's shawl.  Pictures to follow once ends are run in.  Next Saturday I'll go to the post office, and hopefully mail everything.

Tonight is the weekly KnitTalk meeting, and earlier the local paper artists group met.  It's not as much fun to meet remotely, but I like how much more convenient it is for me time-wise and geographically.

Catching up with Cooking

Like much of the world, I am staying in lockdown.  While I don't have any of the medical markers requiring self-quarantine, I am staying home to avoid dragging the virus around.  I go out of my neighborhood by car about once a week; I get mail at a post office, not at home, so I have to collect it.  This past week I went out on Thursday because I had a discount coupon for Walgreens that expired that day, and it turns out they didn't have anything I wanted, so I'll be back to a Saturday trip next week.

When the weather is good I try to go for a walk outside the neighborhood.  On Friday I put an out-of-office message reading "Following the recommendations of our leadership for self-care, etc., I have gone for a walk.  It's lovely out today and the weather this weekend is supposed to be drek.  I'll respond to email and review things when I return, which will be before sunset."  And indeed the weather this weekend is not conducive to walking:  From sunny and mid-60's(F) on Friday, it's been between freezing and low 40's(F) with waves of sleety rain alternating with heavy rain all weekend.  I was very glad I'd gone walking when I did.  I walked down to the reservoir and back, about three miles, and I saw a lot of cars parked on the north side of the road.  It seems they had decided enough people were there and they closed the reservoir and were turning away even people on foot.

The strangest thing to me about being at home All The Time is not having to constantly pack a suitcase or overnight bag for each week's travel.  It was odd enough before to have a week when I didn't travel, although I enjoyed being home to do local activities.  Now I've put away the suitcases into the closet, and I'm participating in some local activities that have moved online; SWAN DAY shifted to ten nights of online concerts from some of the performers.  It's fun to do even further away things that I might not get to see or hear, such as the Metropolitan Opera's daily stream, or Paris Opera, or touring museums, and going back in time with Playbill's weekly showing of a musical.  I'm hugely excited about some of the shows the National Theatre (of Britain) is going to show.

All of this does mean that my reading has slacked off considerably.  Oh, well.

Since I posted last, there have been several holidays for which I've done cooking.  First up was St. Patrick's Day, and since I don't do corned beef and cabbage, and I had to work with what I have in the house, and work was going NUTS because we had to figure out how to respond to the COVID-19 effects on our customers, I didn't have much time to do anything elaborate.  Of course, I did make soda bread:

Whole wheat flour, oatmeal, baking soda.

Stir in buttermilk, form.  One half had caraway seeds added,
then cut into quarters or "farls", the other dusted with oatmeal.

Finished!  Hot and buttered and YUMMY.

When I finally had time to prepare supper, I was too hungry to bother with pictures.  It was supposed to be a venison casserole, but I made it as a stew because I have ground beef.  So instead of flouring and browning chunks of meat, I browned the ground beef in some bacon fat, added onions (should be browned in the fat, but I'd missed getting fresh ones in the panic stockup people did so had to use dehydrated) and the rest of the ale from the Apicius cooking a few nights before, plus the seasonings: juniper berries, allspice berries, orange rind, ground pepper, cider vinegar, and a bit of stock.  The upside of ground meat is that it cooked fairly quickly this way.  I have a photo taken the next night, when I ate leftovers:

Stew on soda bread with roasted brussels sprouts,
because they look like miniature cabbages.

The last bit of pear and
blackberry pie for dessert.

I had a bit more time on St. Joseph's Day to make "Carpenter's Pasta".  It should be spaghetti or something similar, but I'm not fond of long noodles so used rotini, which I have on hand.

Step 1:  Brown breadcrumbs.
They are supposed to represent
a carpenter's sawdust.

Step 2:  Soften onions and
garlic until they are golden.

Step 3: Add chopped tomatoes,
basil, and oregano.

Pasta cooked, tomato sauce over, breadcrumbs on top.
Steamed asparagus and fresh figs, the latter of
which is also associated with St. Joseph.

It was easy and rather tasty.  I used soda bread crumbs, of course.  When the bread got a bit dry, as it does due to the lack of fat, I toasted slices and put butter or cheese on top.  Still rather yummy.

I've done some cooking since, but nothing very photogenic.  I tried making pumpkin waffles, to use up the pumpkin from the Ides, but my waffle iron is old and not cooperative.  So the batter became pancakes and I added the rest of my fresh blackberries:

As you can see, I was eating "at work".

Last night I made a Tuscan Stew using a packet of herbs I'd gotten some time ago.  The idea is that you follow the recipe using the premeasured amounts in the packet, and then keep the recipe (it's on a punch-out card) so you can remake it later.  I had everything on hand except chicken, so I used some extra-firm tofu that has been waiting in the refrigerator.  I also subbed frozen greens (put in the freezer last summer) for fresh spinach, and swapped half the beans with some potatoes that needed to be cooked and eaten.  Overall, the result is very good.  It does make a LOT of stew, so I have meals until well into the workweek.

On the first Monday of spring, we had a snowstorm:

       

It didn't daunt the crocus: