Sunny Saturday

It was a wonderful day yesterday from start to finish. We were fortunate to have some nice weather for our return to the farmer's market. It was just Erik and me. Mae wasn't feeling well. Erik suggested we go to the downtown Portland market since our usual haunt in Beaverton was still on its "winter" market. We hadn't been to the Portland market in...maybe...two years? Can't really remember the last time. It's a big market...one of the best in the country, if you believe those "Best of" reports. 

Before leaving home, I took another picture of the star magnolia. It's starting to open! 

And there's no rain in today's forecast. I'm hoping it'll open all the way today, and we'll get to see its pretty flowers before they get beaten up by raindrops.

At Erik's house, things are blooming too. I caught these little purple things just before we took off.

There were more flowers for sale at the market. So pretty.

Plenty of fruits and vegetables. Most of this stuff appeared to be from cold storage over the winter. I picked up some short fat carrots. They're good for making Spicy Dilled Carrots, and so I'll be doing some canning in the coming week.

The Portland Farmer's Market is held in the park blocks that bisect my alma mater, Portland State University. I noticed the Oregon Grape was in bloom. As the season progresses, these will develop purple inedible berries.

So that was a nice return to the market. I picked up some daikon radish and some kimchi. There's a recipe in my database that uses the daikon radish, and I want to try that in the coming week.

Back home, I was finally able to get an in-focus picture of these yellow daffodils. Every picture I've taken of them has been blurry.

It was a great day for grazing kitties too. 

Before leaving in the morning, I had some time to do my slow-stitching.

I stitched enough to move my hoop to the next position. I'll be satin stitching that barn quilt block, and I'll get some work done on that this morning.

This is Sunday, and so I'll link up with:

The only other sewing I did yesterday was to make the next block for the Shop Hop 2.0 quilt.

I visited this shop the day I delivered the Semper Fi quilt to my friend Andy, who is a Marine Corps veteran. 

Andy requested this quilt, and I was happy to make it for him. So, I chose this red star fabric to mark the day at Paisley Duck. You can read my post about this shop right here. And these are all the blocks I have for the Shop Hop 2.0 quilt so far. 

I'll probably make 15 or 20 blocks for this quilt. I haven't decided yet.

It was getting late in the day by then. As I sat in the living room waiting for dinner to finish cooking, two deer strolled by right outside the window. I tried to catch a picture of them with my phone, and so I stepped outside. When they saw me, they took off trotting away. This was the best I could do.

We had a pretty sunrise this morning. It's going to be a nice day.

We're having dinner with the rest of the family today. It'll be the first day we've all been together since last October. Erik is barbecuing some ribs. I'm going to make a skillet cookie. Recently I purchased this cookbook:

The skillet cookies I usually make are "for two" recipes. This book has a recipe for a skillet cookie in a full-sized cast iron skillet. Matthew loves them, and so it seemed like a good choice to celebrate his birthday from Friday. Fingers crossed it turns out, and I trust these recipes from America's Test Kitchens. I'll get an early start so I can make something else, if necessary.

Okay, so that's how our day will go. I doubt I'll get any sewing done today, but I'm hoping to get the lettuce planted. What's on your agenda this Easter Sunday? And, hey...Happy Easter, Everybody! Don't eat too many chocolate bunnies.