Little Acorn

Sleep is good

I was right. Finally getting a good nights sleep really made a difference. After 9 hours in bed with just a few breaks for coughing I feel almost like a new woman today. There's a spring in my step and a desire to get up off the sofa and get things done. Yay!

Sick, but productive

Yes, I'm still sick. Really sick. So sick that even though David had planned an entire weekend of birthday fun and a special evening on Monday (my actual birthday) I couldn't enjoy any of it. That led to me feeling sick AND sorry for myself. The worst part is that I'm not sleeping more than a couple of hours a night so I'm a total mess each and every day. Today I might be feeling a bit better, but it's hard to tell since I'm so tired. If I can just get a decent  sleep then I think things will really look up. It's been 7 days now. At 10 I guess I'll go see the doctor if things haven't improved. I'm continuing to be productive though. I'm one of those people that always needs to have busy hands so I've been crocheting granny squares for the past few days. Granny squares have always been one of my favourite craft projects because they're just so repetitive and soothing. Sewing all those ends in is less fun, but once you find your rhythm it can be pretty trance-inducing as well.
 

Lost Long Weekend

It was the Victoria Day long weekend here. Most of our friends and neighbours celebrated by getting outside to play, having barbecues, enjoying the parade, soaking up the sun and other generally pleasant pastimes. How did David and I spend our weekend and every day since? Taking turns being sick. REALLY SICK. Not swine flu sick, but still SICK. I won't go into details - they're too horrible. David started it all by coming home with a sore throat on Friday and I took good care of him through the weekend, until on Tuesday when I succumbed. For a couple of hours I insisted that I was only really thirsty and that I didn't have a sore throat, but by dinner time on Tuesday I admitted I was sick and I've been getting sicker ever since. Hopefully today is my worst day and by tomorrow I'll be feeling a little better. The one good thing about being stuck inside on the sofa watching movies for days on end is that there is a lot of time for knitting. I could only work on a super mindless project so I made this wee kimono-style sweater. The pattern is here on the lion brand website - you might need to sign up to see it, I'm not sure. I modified it so that the edges wouldn't roll, but other than that kept the pattern as written. Super easy and a very satisfying quick knit with yarn like rope and super huge needles. Endless stockinette was just what my jelly-like brain craved. I think it turned out pretty cute.  

Potatoes

Yes - that's a growing potato plant. I bet you didn't think much about the "plant" part of potatoes, did you? Maybe it's my eastern European ancestry, but I LOVE potatoes. When I started to think about growing food the first thing that came to mind was potatoes. Organic, tasty and interesting potatoes like you can't find in the grocery store. Back in April my seed potatoes went in and I waited, and waited and waited, but FINALLY my potatoes are taking off! Mmmmmm. Baked potatoes. Scalloped potatoes. Mashed potatoes. Roasted potatoes. Boiled potatoes. Hash Browns. Steamed potatoes with butter and dill. Au gratin potatoes. Potato salad. Potato pancakes. And of course - fries. I deep fry exactly twice a year - Valentine's Day and David's birthday - and on both those occasions the dish is french style frites with parmesan, parsley and garlic with an aioli dipping sauce. I hope some of my homegrown potatoes make good frites...

Much Prettier

I couldn't leave you over the weekend with a picture of raw meat, could I? Instead I'll leave you with the plant I love the most in my garden. This subtle beauty is variegated Solomon's Seal, officially known as Polygonatum Odoratum "Variegatum". It was a charity plant sale treasure three  years ago, and although it's been painfully slow to establish and the slugs and snails like it a bit too much, it's still become my favourite. This year it has really begun to spread, and it is finally starting to live up to the potential I've known it had for years. It's just so pretty. The sweet white bell shaped flowers are just about to open, but I couldn't wait to show you a picture. If you want more information on it, you can check out this site.

Vegetarians, avert your eyes!

For an early birthday present from my Mom I got some attachments for my stand mixer. Is it creepy that it was the grinder I was most excited about and that I've been thinking about sausage ever since I got it? On the weekend, David and I used a nice pork shoulder roast, onions, garlic, pasilla and ancho chile peppers, seasonings and red wine vinegar to make some super delicious chorizo. We love mexican food, so chorizo was the first thing I wanted to try and I'm so glad it turned out well.  Now I've got big plans for grinding up all sorts of meats and making them into sausage. My chorizo I just threw together by thinking about what chorizo tastes like and remembering a conversation I had with a man from Mexico, but I think I'll actually look up some real recipes soon.  Good turkey sausage from the fancy grocery store is so expensive, so I'm really looking forward to buying a turkey and making my own. It felt great knowing exactly what was in my sausage and knowing that all my ingredients were high quality. There were no fillers, no msg and just a touch of salt and best of all, it's super tasty. The texture was really good too - not as paste-like as commercial sausage is sometimes. And the actual act of grinding? Big big Sunday fun. Yes, other people had picnics in the park, but we happily re-enacted scenes from Sweeney Todd. Okay, creepy, I know.

Meet Musette

Also known as: Mu. Musey. The Hissy Missy. Pretty Kitty. Little Psycho.

Favourite food: Cheese. Chevre in particular, but any cheese will do.

Likes to drink: Warm shower water.

Favourite places: Laps. Chests. Shoulders. She doesn't really care as long as she's on a person and being patted.

Obsessions: Digging in the blankets. Eating houseplants.

Favourite activities: Snuggling. Giving judgmental looks. Hissing.

Nemesis: Her doppelganger across the street and all other cats except Zephyr.

Phobias: Being stepped on.

Favourite person: Mostly Lisa, but lately she's been more of a David cat. She also likes anyone who comes to visit and expects them to snuggle her.

Motto: "Do what I want. NOW."

I rescued tiny kitten Musey off a busy street near our house in 2003. I was walking home from the grocery store loaded down with bags and I saw a tiny kitten being chased out into traffic by 2 adult cats, so I had to dodge traffic, scoop her up and take her home to safety. We put up all sorts of "found kitten" posters, but nobody came to claim her, so she joined the family as our first cat. Her first few days home she was so clingy and would cry and cry if I put her down, but that changed quickly and she became a typical crazy kitten. Musette is a complicated kitty and full of contradictions, for sure. She's beautiful and I think she knows it and she's extremely cuddly. She loves to be where her people are and she's very "helpful" no matter what you're doing. She's a lap cat and very sweet, but she's also very demanding and if after much yeowling things still don't go her way she'll occasionally hiss and punch your foot. Musette is also pretty hissy if you walk too close to her. She has a real fear of being stepped on, but this doesn't stop her from ALWAYS being under foot, especially in the kitchen, where she continuously swirls around your feet as you try to work. Musette has some strong opinions about how things should be done and she really thinks that if everyone just did what she wanted all the time that life would be much better.

Meet Zephyr

Name: Zephyr

Also Known As: Zephy. Zeppy. Z-Dog. Zipper. Little Dude. Too-Plush-To-Rush. Chunk-Style.

Favourite Food: Spiders

Likes to drink: Out of the toilet any chance he gets, but usually falls in. His family knows to keep the seat down.

Favourite places: In front of the fire. In the catbed. Anywhere the white blanket is.

Obsessions: The white blanket. Hating the dvd player.

Favourite Activities: Getting combed. Sleeping. Belly rubs.

Nemesis: The dvd player.

Phobias: People who wear shoes in the house. Little girls. Windex. Plastic bags. The recycling truck. The doorbell. Being picked up.

Favourite person: David and only David.

Motto: "I'd rather be sleeping"

Zephyr joined our family in 2005 as the second kitty. We were looking for a mellow male cat who would hopefully get along with Musette, who hates ALL CATS. Luckily she loved Zephyr right away. He became her kitten and she groomed him, snuggled him, played with him and taught him important things like not to be afraid of birds. Zephyr was a feral kitten rescued by these fine folks and although he's definitely a special needs kitty, we couldn't love him more. He took 2 years to warm up to us enough to sit on our laps and at 4 years home he's starting to make his way up the bed and can now be found almost waist high some nights. Zephyr is very affectionate and loves to be patted, but only on his terms and he'd rather you left his head alone, thanks very much. He freaks out on a regular basis over small things like the doorbell or if someone walks into a room too fast, but he knows his "safe zones' now and just hightails it out of dangers way whenever he feels threatened and hides out under the bed until he calms down. Zephyr is a sweet, gentle, simple soul and he has absolutely the softest belly of any cat ever.

Happy Mother's Day

To my Mom, who I'm grateful for every day, and to all you Moms out there.

I know I shouldn't have let her get away with this...

 ...but she was looking so sweet.
I've been organizing my studio (again...always...) and I came in to find Musette blissed out in her new favourite spot - on a pile of softies, in the sun, gazing out the window. She looked so contented that I just couldn't shoo her away and I even felt kind of guilty moving the softies after she was gone.

Speaking of Nostalgia

I have very few of my toys from childhood. We're not a save-everything kind of family and we weren't a photograph-things kind of family either, so there aren't even pictures of most of my childhood companions. Duffer was my one true love. He was a sorrowful basset hound (one of those pre-printed panels that you sewed together and stuffed like a pillow) that my aunt had made for a school fair, but who I fell madly in love with and just couldn't let go of. Poor Duffer was thrown in the garbage while I was at school after losing a fight with our real dog, Lady. Losing Duffer was so heartbreaking that I had to take to my bed and I had my Mom call all the relatives so they could come and lay there with me while I grieved. I've long looked for even a picture of a toy like Duffer but have never found any. Some of my other favourite toys were the ceramic birds that were given away in boxes of Red Rose tea. I had other animals and figures from the Red Rose "whimsies", but the birds were the ones I really played with.The ones I have came from the late sixties, and am guessing were given to me by my Grandma. They were tiny and I always had a thing for toys that were tiny. They were breakable, which made them even more special and they were birds, which I've always loved. I made nests for them and pretended to save them from many catastrophes. Mostly I remember many many nights playing with them in my bed in the dim light from the hallway while I was supposed to be sleeping. While a larger toy would have been spotted by my Mom when she came in to check on me, the birds could quickly be tucked under my pillow or disappear under the blankets. I thought I had lost both the robin and the bluebird many many years ago, but not too long ago the robin showed up all of a sudden in a not too hidden place, which really gave me a jolt. Then just a week later I found the bluebird at the flea market and quickly paid the two dollar asking price. I don't know why, but having the birds again and feeling them in my hands, cold and hard and smooth, just transports me back to childhood and makes me feel somehow hopeful.