On Ice

It was a terrible day of weather yesterday. What started as snow turned to freezing rain by mid afternoon. It was windy and cold at 26°F. which made it a perfect day to stay inside and sew. My first quilting task was to finish quilting the sashings I'd started the day before. When I mentioned this in yesterday's post, I was planning to quilt "orange peels" into the sashings. After doing the outsy-insy portion of the insy-outsy, however, I kind of liked it just the way it was. It reminds me of twisted peppermint candies.

To be sure I wasn't just being lazy, I consulted the resident engineer (home for the day because of the icy conditions). He agreed with me that this is enough quilting for the sashings, and so it will be.

While I was quilting that, I used up the first of several small spools of thread. This turned out to be an excellent toy for two very bored cats.

Notice the little gray rabbit at the lower right side of the image above. That is ordinarily Sadie's favorite toy. It came off of or out of some other toy, long neglected, but the little rabbit gets a several-times-daily workout. You can see in the image below how she spends most of her day with her beloved little rabbit. She's still pretty kittenish.

Knowing bad weather was on the way, I'd filled the bird feeders the day before. I was so glad I did because our feathered friends were out in flocks. Obviously, they were appreciative of the seed and it kept the kitties entertained, watching from Mike's office window.

For a couple of minutes I watched a poor fluffed up hummingbird try in vain to get food from this frozen feeder. When he returned for a second try, I took heart and replaced the frozen one with a liquid one. No doubt, it needs replacing as I'm writing this.

We had something of a disaster when one of the roof panels on the catio buckled under the weight of the snow and ice.

Mike went out with a ladder and push broom and pushed all the snow off, hoping to avoid any further damage.

Then he was able to move the panel back into place, but it is out of its track and still needs a little more work to put it right. It doesn't appear to be permanently damaged.

My quilting buddy spent most of the afternoon with me, bored as he was. We gave him the opportunity to venture out a couple of times. He just stood at the open door, sniffing. When we used our feet to give a little shove to the tail end of the cat, he folded up like an accordion and headed back inside.

It was a boring day for our little cat.

He snuggled up in the puddle of my quilt and napped while I quilted. This works while I'm on the left side of the quilt, but it will not work when I move to the right side today.

It takes most of a day to quilt an entire quilt block. I was hard at work on Block 2 of nine when I remembered the barm that was fermenting downstairs.

And it was ready to go.

Keeping in mind the book's instruction not to inhale the fumes, I held my breath and uncovered it. When the danger had passed, I put my nose down close and sniffed. It smelled like freshly baked bread. And look at that bubble action!

So, into the refrigerator it went to await my day of baking...TODAY!!! 

By day's end, our windows were glazed over with freezing rain.

After dealing with the barm, I went back upstairs and finished the quilt block. The sashings still need to be done, but then I'll be moving onto Block 3.

As I'm writing this, I'm waiting for an hour to pass. I've measured out the barm I need, and I'm giving it some time to wake up. Soon, I'll be mixing it up, proofing it, and turning it into my first loaf of Artos.

It has taken me eight full days to get to this point, and so I'm pretty excited to get going on it.

Our weather is warming gradually. Listening at an open door, it's possible to hear ice cracking and falling off the branches. Mike will wait it out for a few hours and then head off to work. We're expecting warmer temperatures as time goes on today and regular wet rain by this afternoon. And so it goes with Portland weather. Here today, gone tomorrow.

There's more quilting in store for me today between dealing with the bread. By day's end I should have a loaf to show for my effort.