the paper boy, the paper man, and random bits

Flat Stanley came to visit Acorn Cottage. He is part of a geography unit for a kindergarten class in New Hampshire, they mail him (actually several of him) around the country, and his hosts sends letters back to the children. I decided that an important special thing about Portland was Powell's, so we rode the MAX downtown to visit the mothership store on Burnside...

Though Stanley has now traveled on to Olympia, (where he will be staying with Beth and Karen and Ceilidh, and learning about Olympia as part of Ceilidh's homeschool work), another paper friend has come here to stay... I have long been a fan of the artist Lindsey Carr, who sells under the name of Little Robot on Etsy. I've had a "crush" for several years on her Mystical Cowboy and she recently made him available as a free download! A quick trip to the color copy shop, some careful xacto work, tiny brads from the scrapbooking shop, and voila...

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The wonderfully warm weather this weekend drew me out into the yard, and I managed to get a few of the many needed chores begun. I dug up the Japanese anemone, which was not happy near the driveway, preferring a slightly more temperate location, and moved the other rhubarb into that spot, away from the behind the downspout in the dark, where for the last few years, it has started out well only to be devoured by slugs. Since it's buddy, the red rhubarb from Mud Bay, has been happy near the driveway, I'm hopeful that eventually I will have a large rhubarb colony next to the front walk, and someday a planter for strawberries as well. Can you see where this is going?... (for now, I'm going to transplant the alpine strawberries into a nearby container)

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Last night I attempted Roasted Garlic Jelly, March is allium month in the year long Tigress's CanJam. Everything looked good, the jars sealed perfectly, but I have syrup instead of jelly. I'm going to call it good, since my primary imagined use for this condiment is as a glaze or marinade ingredient. Add some soy sauce for teriyaki, (or stir a bit into some hot whiskey and lemon to send any random wintertime bug on the run)

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SWAP progress report - I'm about 2/3 finished with the stripey flannel shirt, which means that I'm about a third of the way there. The goal is 11 coordinated garments by April 30th, so while I'm not the fastest participant, I'm doing okay.