Little Kitchen Things

Eliza had her little trip into town yesterday. I dropped her off for service, and we won't see one another again for about a month. I'd like to say I left the shop feeling certain she'd have her mind right when I returned...think of it as sewing machine rehab. Possibly it was because of his face mask, but the guy who took her in didn't exactly inspire confidence. She's there for service, but I also described what happened and the noise it produced. Then, I wanted to see him write it down, but he didn't. So...maybe he wrote it down after I left? No way to know. It means when I go to pick her up, I'm going to ask to plug the machine in and hear it run before I take it home. It's an hour and a half drive round trip, and I don't want to make the trip any more than necessary. So we'll see.

When I got home, I was completely worn out. It wasn't exactly a stressful adventure...the grocery store is much worse, by comparison. Still, I kept yawning and yawning, and finally took an afternoon nap. It doesn't seem like much got done, but I finished off the Stitched Inchies (my name for it).

This was a stitch-along project created by Meg Hawkey of Crabapple Hill Studios for International Embroidery Month 2020. It was the second of these I've done. She created one for the same event the year previous. This was the first one:

They're so much fun, I really hope she does another one next year.

After that, I got busy with my little kitchen things. I fed my sourdough starters, which usually means I'm going to bake something with the discard. I have it sitting on my kitchen counter, and I'll feed it for a few days before baking some more bread.

It's a mixture of the whole wheat and white bread starters. I'll keep feeding it with all-purpose flour, and so it will end up mostly white. Also, I recently received a little email newsletter from King Arthur Flour with recipes for discard. These can be made without continuing to feed what is poured off, and there are quite a few that look good to me. I'd rather save the discard and make something with it than just throw it away. Thus far, I've been giving it to my neighbors. I haven't heard if anyone has actually baked anything.

Next, I made this Sweet-Potato Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing for last night's dinner. It's best made earlier in the day to give the flavors time to meld. This is one of my favorite salads, and I had a yen. We had that with our salmon last night.

Just now I remembered I was supposed to add some peanuts before I served it up. Oh well. It was good without them. The name says "spicy," but if you're not into that, you can reduce the amount of chili-garlic sauce used.

Aside from finishing up the inchies, the only other sewing I did was to cut 180 two-inch squares for Jenny's Flower Garden. I'm making mine from my smallest scraps.

Some of the patches in these 49-patch blocks are consistent from block to block. Those were cut ahead of time.

Today I'll start sewing them together. I need four of the 49-patch blocks and three "blanks." I laid out the first block before I stopped for the day.

Then I covered it with a protective shield to protect against, um, rearranging.

The sun appeared at the end of the day, and so I got outside for a little walk around. The fourth of the rhododendrons is nearly in full bloom now. You can also see the sticks for the sunflower seedlings in the foreground. The squirrels have eaten a few, but I've sprinkled them with medicated body powder. I'm really hoping that will prove to be a solution to the critter problem.

Across the sidewalk, more of the dark purple rhododendrons have opened.

Also, another poppy has opened. Poor thing is a little beaten up by the rain.

Oh wait...but what's this? So at the top of the image below, you can see the greenery. For years, the squirrels have made the area under the greenery their home...popping out of the top occasionally to see what's for dinner. Now, look toward the bottom of the image, and what do you see?

It's one of the little sticks that is marking the sunflowers. Apparently, somebody wanted their sunflower seedling served up as a kebab. Little sh*ts. You can bet I expressed my outrage to any squirrels listening. That should have them quaking in their boots...if they were wearing boots...which they aren't...and so it probably didn't make any difference to them at all.

Okay, moving on...the peonies are looking great! I'm so happy about this.

And how can this next one not be open? I'm checking it twice per day. It's sooooooooooo close. Maybe today. What do you think? Probably, I should start some kind of pool.

Turning around, Mike spent the day hacking down what remained of one of the butterfly bushes. He's made complete mincemeat of the larger of the two. You can see how large its trunk was where I've marked with a yellow arrow.

He'll get started on the second one, his back and weather permitting. It'll be so good to have these gone.

Looking to the left, I found this little girl waiting for me on her catio. The kitties love the afternoon sunshine.

When I left her this morning to write this post, she was all snuggled into her favorite quilt. Do you think kitties have any idea how adorable they are?

So today, I'll get to work on Jenny's Flower Garden. I'd love to finish the third row by day's end.