No Go on the Snow

It's raining and 33°F here this morning. As so often happens when snow is predicted in Portland, it warmed up too fast, or else the rain started too late...or something. Occasionally, we get an honest-to-goodness snow or ice storm. Most often, we get snow or ice in the transition from warm to cold or vice versa. We're transitioning from cold to warm and back to cold right now, and the precipitation seems to have timed itself badly. We're expecting cold temperatures and sunshine for the rest of the week.

I'll admit I was excited about the possibility of snow until I realized with a panic that I absolutely, positively have to go down the hill to the grocery store this morning. There are a few essentials I put off until the last minute...fresh mushrooms, for one thing...and I simply must have them to make my holiday side dishes. Perhaps the gods of weather sensed my panic and put off the snow for another time. Whatever the case, now my panic is reserved for the grocery store itself...which is bound to be sheer madness today. Fortunately, my list is short. It could get shorter depending on the atmosphere inside the grocery store doors.

Speaking of doors, I did get some quilting done yesterday. (Impressive segue, no?) Since I hadn't done any sewing for two days, I started yesterday's agenda with sewing at the top of the list. I started by stitching some lines around the top-stitching on Cyclelogical. These blocks are small in comparison to the Irish chain blocks, and so the quilting on the doors is more for definition and detail than it is for function. A little later, I went back with blue thread and stitched around the window posters again. The posters are printed on fabric that is wanting to fray pretty badly. I'm going to need to go around the edges with fray check just to be sure they won't come apart.

I still had gray thread on the machine at that point, and so I stitched the mortar on the stone wall of the yellow door. This is the door to a residence that I probably snapped as we sped by on our bus. I have no idea where this door was located. I still want to do a little more on this one. I'm planning to stitch some stems and leaves onto my fussy cut flowers in the window box, and then call it good.

Then I moved up and stitched some cobblestones into the road in front of the Galway Pet Store. Also, I added a little outline stitching to the dog statue chained out front, just to give it a little more definition. That brought me to the end of the gray thread, and I switched to royal blue. I used that to outline the door and window. I'll come back and do a little more on this once I've switched to red thread.

When that was finished, I put my needle down in the O'Brien's Bakery block, but I didn't do any more stitching for the day. 

Since quilting was first on the agenda, I had some other things to do. I needed to do some housework and make the cranberries for Thanksgiving. Also, I remembered that I needed to finish going through the freezers inside the house and moving some stuff to the new freezer in the garage. That was quite a revelation in items that had been lost to time and space in the smaller refrigerator freezers. Some stuff just needed to be thrown out, but I found some real treasures. 

Do you ever open a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, take out one pepper, and then wonder what to do with the rest of the can? Well...if you're me, you put the rest of the can into a sandwich bag and stick it into your freezer for future use, never to be seen again. Yes, I found four of those. Also, I found two sandwich bags of anchovies packed in oil, and three packets of tomatillo puree, nicely measured out for use when I make Enchiladas Suizas. I guess the enchiladas will be appearing on the menu soon. And often! Fortunately, it's a favorite around here. 

Let's see....what else? Oh yes, several packets of a partial can of tomato paste and tomato sauce, yet another quart of veggie stock, and some filling for stuffed poblano peppers. A pretty good haul, all from one freezer. The other freezer was less interesting. Now the freezers seem so roomy and well organized! That should last at least through the end of the week.

This morning I finished up the little sewing machine for the Written in Thread quilt.

The bulk of the housework was done yesterday, but I still have a few little things to do today. For one thing, I'm making the component parts of my green bean casserole. I make the classic green bean casserole, only mine is made from scratch with fresh ingredients. It takes a while, but it is delicious; thus, the need for fresh mushrooms. Hopefully, I'll have some time for quilting this afternoon.

As I mentioned, I'm taking my life in my hands and actually entering the grocery store today. I'll keep my head down and walk straight to those fresh mushrooms. Once I have those, I'll decide whether to continue on into the bowels of the store or save that adventure for another day. It might be good to take an umbrella...the kind with the pointy end...that way one has weaponry at one's disposal, and you just never know. It's a trick I learned when I used to have to board a crowded bus coming home from work in downtown Portland. Those last-minute grocery shoppers had better make way because an experienced crowd buster is coming through...and where fresh mushrooms are concerned, I will not be denied.