New Normal

We've been home a week now, and it seems as if everything has settled into place. Of course, I'm hoping this won't be a permanent new normal, but it is what's normal for now. We've been staying home, going out only for essentials. I'll admit I like the staying home part.

Matthew has been living in our fifth wheel for the time being. He embarked on an experiment last year of living in his van. He's an engineer with a good-paying job, but he wanted to sock away rent money in the bank, and so he did a lot of work turning his van into a tiny home for himself. To that end, he built a bed for the back, installed solar panels and batteries so that he can run small electric appliances, and he even found a small electric refrigerator he can use. He's been cooking in his Instant Pot and using his gym membership to have access to bathrooms. Of course, the pandemic has made it more difficult. When his gym closed, he parked himself with us. We're only too happy to have him here, but at his age, staying at home is a hardship.

Yesterday I got out and picked a bucketful of weeds. It's a large, industrial-sized bucket, and so a bucketful is a good amount of work for a single day. My goal is to get out each day and do the same. Little by little, I'll get the yard clean-up accomplished. We were expecting rain by afternoon. When I came in the house around noon, the sky was looking a little threatening.

In addition to weeding, I put back some of the yard art brought in for the winter, including the sundial. It says, "The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here."

Then I walked around a took pictures of a few blooming things. This one below is a red flowering currant. It's an Oregon native, and we have some growing wild at the edge of our woods.

This next one is a daphne. Mae gave it to me for Christmas some years ago. It's getting quite large. Right now, it is covered with these tiny pink and very fragrant blossoms.

You might remember when we planted the dappled willow two years ago. I've been expecting it to make a spring showing of some brightly colored sprays coming from its top...almost like fireworks. It is behaving completely differently this year. For one thing, it lost all its leaves over the winter. It's first year in the ground, it kept its foliage over the winter, which was kind of surprising. Now it is putting on all new foliage. I'm curious to see what it will do next.

When I went back inside, I found Smitty ensconced in the folds of the quilt over Mike's lap.

Sadie decided it was a good opportunity to inhabit the top rung of the kitty pole...ordinarily Smitty's exclusive domain.

The squirrels outside are driving them crazy. They spend their days playing and tussling, and when they kitties are on their catio, the squirrels come right to the fence and bark at them. The utter gall. The nerve! Well. They may meet their comeuppance one of these days.

The snowflake was finished, and so I washed the Sticky Fabri-Solvy out and let it dry. Then I gave it a good pressing. Here's how it looks.

Here are all nine together.

So, now I'll put it into the regular rotation with my other hand embroidery projects. When that one finished, I traced out the next block for Appalachian Memories. This is the Spinning Star block. Usually, I only color in the quilt block, but I couldn't help coloring in the American flag. I thought it might look strange to leave it all white.

Now it's hooped up for stitching. I always start with the quilt block on these.

With that ready to go, I got back to sewing the blocks for my triple Irish chain. I first finished fixing the error I made on the first four patchwork blocks.

This quilt is set 7 blocks x 7 rows. I'm on the second row, and so I needed 3 patchwork blocks, and four blanks.

And although I'm working through this one row at a time, I laid them out in the triple Irish chain pattern to see how it was going to look. I worried about those bright colors, but I think it's going to be just fine. It's a great way to use up those tiny scraps.

Sadie helped me keep the colors random yesterday.

That took me to dinner time. I first added some more to the sourdough starter. Yesterday's addition was two tablespoons of whole wheat flour and two tablespoons of pineapple juice. After stirring it up, it started bubbling right away...a very good sign.

This morning I got up and made some Morning Glory Muffins. These are on the Cooking Light Diet.

The original recipe makes 18 muffins, which can be frozen, but that was still too many for us. I cut the recipe in half, using just the egg white for my half egg. Also, I only had oat bran to use in place of the wheat bran. I doubt it made any difference at all. I substituted golden raisins for the dates, but otherwise made them just the same as the recipe states. Oh yes, I didn't use the flax seeds over the top. We just say "no" to seeds here at the Three Cats Ranch. They weren't hard to make, and they were tasty. We'll freeze the leftovers, and I'll probably pass a couple of them over to Matthew.

Today I'll pick a bucket of weeds, and I'll get to work on the Appalachian Memories block. When I make my way into the sewing room, it will be to make two more blocks for the Charm Stars quilt. I have 16 blocks, and I need 4 more.

This was one of my projects for last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I've been making two blocks for each color. Today I'll make the purples I was supposed to make at the end of the challenge last year. Also, I'm trying a new recipe for the air fryer Matthew gave me at Christmas time. It'll be my first time trying anything in the air fryer, so wish me luck.