an assortment of Sunday snippets...

'Twas a rainy day today, and so instead of garden work, was a day of housey work instead. Started out by dealing with the kitchen worm bin, which had become rather full. Forgive that there are no pictures of this task, it involves a tarp, blue latex gloves and well, a lot of wet and damp worm castings and worms. Now have several gallons of super fertiliser, thanks to my tiny invertebrate pals, and they are back in their wormhome, with lots of fresh bedding (and food scraps).

Once that was done, it was timely and necessary to clean up the kitchen. Not only did all the dishes get washed, but the floor swept and scrubbed. After cleaning for others all week, is just not something am eager to do here at home. I also bleached the spots that the walnut concoction left on the countertops, didn't take much doing, just tore out a few suitable bits of paper towel to cover just the places needed, and put some drops of bleach on them. Let soak for a few minutes, then wipe up with the rest of the towel. I then spray the counter with a small amount of vinegar to neutralise the bleach, and wipe it down again. I wish that I didn't have such cranky old formica, my dream counters are Ikea butcherblock, with a farmhouse sink, but appreciating what I do have, my intention is to take care of it.

After kitchen chores, it was, of course, time to get the kitchen messy again, and I did just that, baking up a strawberry rhubarb crisp. Since there is an adventure planned to go up on Mt Hood again at some point, this time the idea is to bring folding chairs and tables, and Picnic Food. Might need to make some Icelandic Chicken also, mmmm tiny hand pies with chicken and bacon and sage, oh my! Hand pies and crisp freeze beautifully, so can be made ahead and stashed to be used as needed. When I was doing a lot of SCA camping, I sometimes spent a whole day making up little savory hand pies, to facilitate easy packing of foodstuffs. The original recipe calls for making a large pie, with big pieces of chicken, but I prefer to use and make smaller packets.

The other big project for today is patternmaking. My only pair of overalls is very worn, and since cannot find anywhere the original pattern, I am using brown paper and pencil to take a pattern off them. A slow and somewhat picky task. My idea is to also use the pattern to possibly create a pair of pants that actually fits me - don't faint! While I wear dresses and jumpers more than any woman I know, my life now has a certain amount of walking about in the woods, and, well, nether garments that cover the legs would seem to be a bit more protective when it comes to those nasty biting bugs. Will take a bit of doing, as the pattern takes a long time to generate, and then must needs make a mock-up to test the fit.

As the rain did not let up most of the afternoon, I also decided to (finally) swap out the nasty old bathroom light. A while back, I was given a bathroom light fixture that is of a suitable vintage for Acorn Cottage, the lamp fairy dropped it off on the dining room table one day while I was out. It has been sitting next to the bathroom cupboard, waiting patiently for me to deal with it. It is a pleasure to have all the simple tools needed for a job like this, and the basic knowledge to do it.... Shut down the power to that section. Get the stepladder and detach the old fixture (+ disconnect the wiring). Get assorted screwdrivers and wrenches to take down the old mounting bracket. Wow, the bathroom was previously painted green! Attach the new mounting bracket. Reattach the wiring to the new fixture, this time using wire nuts to cover the connection instead of loosely winding some electric tape. Attach it firmly to the wall. After putting in the lightbulbs, attach the glass shade to the fixture. It is nothing fancy, just a simple light from the 40's or 50's, but sooo much better that the ugly light that was there before.

just so you know what the old light looked like,
light bulbs just sticking out of the wall....