Gray Day

It was a good day for baking, and I spent the morning in the kitchen. During a break in rain showers, I filled the bird feeders and took a few pictures in the garden. One of the rhododendrons is almost to its most beautiful self. It is covered in flowers, but only a few have opened.

The red azalea near the front door is blooming too. We thought we'd killed it off a few years ago, but it's back, Baby!

I took more pictures of every blooming thing, but it was quite dark with thick cloud cover. My pictures came out blurry. The sun is shining brightly today, and so I'm hoping to get some better shots. It's a day to spend in the sunshine, and you can bet I'll be out pulling more weeds.

As for my kitchen adventures, I finished baking off another loaf of the Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread. This is one of my favorite breads. It's sweetened with maple syrup, and so there's no sugar, other than what you find in the raisins. Also, a heavy dose of cinnamon makes it small heavenly while it's baking. I'm usually not a great fan of raisins in baked goods, and so I substitute golden raisins, which are less objectionable. You could use dried cranberries too.

Also, I tried a skillet brownie. This looked fabulous coming out of the oven. We split it three ways last night, but found it rather disappointing. Although it looked beautiful in the pan, we all agreed it wasn't sweet enough, nor chocolatey enough, nor gooey enough. So...admire, but never mind about that recipe.

There are scads of recipes on the internet, so I'll keep searching and testing until I find the right one.

By then, we'd had our lunch, and I was ready to head into the sewing room along with my trusty sewing cat.

Oh...I see you've effed up your design. It's not unexpected since I wasn't available for helping when you did this. 

He stood by offering moral support while I fussed over this. You might recall from yesterday's post I had a misplaced piece.

The patterns can be confusing to look at, and I'd read a black piece where I was supposed to use the darkest of reds. It was at the beginning of a section, and I thought it would be easy enough to fix. Oh my gosh...I think I made every mistake possible, and I ended up sewing and taking it out at least half a dozen times. I could not get those little squares sewn back together without getting puckers somewhere. It wasn't difficult, but it was certainly a pain. As it is, I still didn't get my corners lined up just right, but I was tired of working on it, and hey...no puckers, so I called it good.

I'll stick closer today so you won't run into this same purroblem...although I don't believe you should be relying on cats for this. It's pawsible a fish or a bird or a mouse would make a better sewing companion. I could look for one, if you'd like to try it.

While he wasn't offering his assistance in other ways, he tested the finished portion of napping qualities.

Sadie's timing was purrfect. She showed up as I was piecing together the last section of the day.

Don't furrget about me. Oh, and you might want to check my treat bowl. It's purretty near empty.

By day's end, I'd added the next row of sections. The mosaic portion is 50% finished now. I'll be using less red in the remainder of it, and I'll be bringing in a lot more green as I move down.

Still no sign this is egging on the outdoor poppy into blooming. I really hope it doesn't rot in the rain like one of the buds did last year.

So, as I mentioned, I'll be spending more time outside today. There are still weeds to be pulled in areas where they couldn't be sprayed. The yard is looking quite a bit better than it did a month ago, and so I'm starting to feel more optimistic about it. We'll have this one day of good weather sandwiched in between more days of rain, and so it's not a day to spend in my basement sewing room. Time to get outside and enjoy the sunshine.