Free Time

As I've already mentioned to a few of you, I've been enjoying my free weekend so far. I haven't really done anything I wouldn't do ordinarily, but I've been doing it without having to consider anyone else's needs, and that makes it feel so much more spontaneous than my usual carefully-planned days.

We first went outside to get a picture of the fourth(!) poppy that has bloomed. Sadie was simply amazed by this.

They were more interested in hunting down those squirrel kits, however. I don't see the kits at all when the kitties are out. When the kitties come in for the day, they get out and start doing their mischief.

There were some things to do outside. I needed to water the annuals, check on the sunflower seedlings in the greenhouse, wander around pulling up weeds when the urge hit me. In my wanderings I noticed the apple tree has quite a few apples...the most ever. It's still a spindly little thing, but I'm starting to think it might actually turn into a fully-functioning fruit tree.

These two were carefully watching two tree squirrels squabbling...apparently over territory...or access to the bird feeder. I'm not really sure. They thought there might be a snack for them when the fur stopped flying.

Back inside, I had more veggie stock on the stove top. This boiled away for most of the morning, and it made the house smell good.

Also, I mixed up another batch of bread dough from my new favorite King Arthur Flour recipe. When I had it all mixed up, it looked like this.

The directions have you let it sit at room temperature for two hours before refrigerating it. Also, it says you can use either "instant" or "regular" yeast. I've always used instant, but yesterday I decided to see how it would work with regular yeast. It appears to be much more vigorous. At the end of two hours, it looked like this.

Since I wasn't planning to bake bread yesterday, I put it in the refrigerator, and I can keep it for up to 7 days. It gets better the longer I wait. Later in the evening, I looked at it again after it had been refrigerated for several hours, and I noticed it had risen all the way to the top of the container. If the lid hadn't been clamped down, it might have pushed it off the top. So, now I'm interested to see how it will bake off. Maybe I'll do that today.

Also yesterday, I finished off Block 2 for the Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs quilt. This block is called "Angels Watching."

And yay! That means I get to start a new project...this one:

You might remember I saw this pattern the day I spent in a class with Meg Hawkey. This is a pattern from Bunny Hill Designs. It has 16 small embroidered blocks, and then plenty of pieced blocks. I have some fabrics pulled from my stash and set aside.

The blocks are small...trimmed to 6 1/2 inches square when they're finished...and so they shouldn't take long to stitch. The background fabric has little white randomly placed dots, making it look like falling snow.

I started stitching on this one just before sitting down here. Starting with the French knots on the snowman's face, the second one knotted unexpectedly before I was ready, and that meant I needed to cut the floss and start again. I decided to put it in time-out and give it some time to think about what kind of embroidery project it wanted to be. When I'm finished here, I'll give it another chance.

Finally, I finished sewing together the blocks for the Guatemala quilt, aka Quiltemala. In this picture, it still needs its borders. It has a 2-inch gray border all around, and then it will be finished. It shouldn't take long this morning to finish it off.

I want to use the leftover woven fabrics and the gray homespun to piece together a back for it. I think I have plenty of fabric to get the job done, and then I'll be finished with it until I sandwich the next bunch of quilts for quilting.

At the end of the day, I made myself a salad that's off limits when seedless Mike is around. I used to make this salad before we swore him off of seeds for good. It's a Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing. Mine is made with romaine lettuce from our CSA share. I was responding to a comment from one of you about fruit in salad when I remembered this one. Since I had both strawberries and romaine, it seemed a perfect dinner to have while the big cat's away. It was every bit as delicious as I remembered it. You could add chicken to this salad to make it a main dish, but I ate it just as you see it here. Yum.

I have strawberries on hand because I want to try again on the Fresh Strawberry Mousse from last week. It didn't set up when I made it last week, and so I'll use more gelatin this time and see if I get better results.

So today, I'll get the borders sewn on the Guatemala quilt, piece together a back for it, and make the strawberry mousse. There are a few housekeeping chores to do, but nothing major. Otherwise, I'll just enjoy another day to myself. Mike will be home later this evening, but I'll be eating dinner on my own again.