Monday miscellany

in which our plucky heroine thinks about adaptation...

yes, I still miss seeing my friends, seeing other humans, going to the shops and markets, and all the other good parts of urban life, not to mention being able to spend time in nature unbounded by urban houses and grids. But it seems like I am probably adapting, at least a little bit, to this much more constrained existence. I don't feel contented, indeed how could anyone, in this time of travial, trouble, and transformation... but I am able to get through a day now without spending a significant portion of the day in tears.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 57 ~

initial sketch for 3rd postcard size blockprint for tiny cards of hope series... stillneed to adjust the line spacing, and then draw in the foliated border, before transferring the design to the lino block for carving... time to do a bit of study of acanthus leaf border designs

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in the last few days some progress has been made:

in the yard: pruning apple tree and removing the rest of the apples, and several careful bouts of raking up plums underneath the Plum Thicket (careful because Danger Bugs; once the sun is all the way up and it is warming, they activate) With luck, another few early morning efforts will have all the windfall plums removed and it will be possible to a bit more helpful pruning of the thicket.

in the house: canning spicy asian plum sauce* happened, in the last few days, four pounds of plums turned into eight 8oz jars for the pantry. This is my DIY version of hoisin sauce, being dark and thick and spicy/rich, a good condiment to add interest and savor to future meals.

One long range housey goal is to have cloth storage bags for the down puffs, and it occurred to me after making Nandina's tiny quilt from scraps, that some of the larger scraps could be turned into a patchwork, case, so I've been using my online time to also cut out fabric squares, and now have enough to stitch up one case. Yes it would be easier faster to make cases from whole cloth, but I am continuing with the "use what you have" mode.

Additional hunting this morning and I found the wayward tracing paper pads. Now progress can continue on the new blockprinting design.

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 186:

I never tire of moss worlds
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who were the Diggers?: in the 15th century... and in the 1960's...
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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	clean one bedroom screen	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	clean studio screens	yard waste bin
4	Gwen knit cardigan	10# plums processed	recycle bin
5	Nandina coat	felt cover for exhaust fan	favorite saucepan
6	Nandina boots	doors taped closed	oven door glass
7	Nandina felt skirt	15 # plums processed	yard waste bin
8	Nandina red clogs	some tomatoes dried	yard waste bin
9	8 jars asian plum sauce	underwindow foam + tape	recycle bin
10	x	many pears dried	yard waste bin
11	x	wanda plum pruned	x
12	x	some apple pruning	x
13	x	begin plum pruning	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude -  A well stocked pantry, and a bit of additional gratitude to B, who when coming by last week to pick the feral grapes, brought me a jar of ground ginger

* One of my kitchen tenets is to put effort into making high-flavor condiments that can then be used to add savor to simple meals throughout the year; plum sauce takes the place of things like ketchup, and hoisin sauce, and if homemade, has no weird ingredients that require a chemistry degree to decipher, just things like tamari and garlic and vinegar and cayenne, and plums...

Chinese Plum Sauce:

2lbs. fresh plums - pitted and quartered 2½C sugar ½C vinegar 3T soy sauce 1T ground ginger 2 minced garlic cloves 1/8tsp cayenne

Combine all, and bring to a boil, then simmer til the fruit is very tender. Puree, then cook till very thick It will take some time to cook down... Keep watch so it does not catch and burn When suitably thickened, jar and process ≈4 8oz jars - ¼" headspace - process 10 minutes

recipe can be multiplied