Friday fragments

Melanzane al Funghetto, garnished with thin slices of goat feta

Our plucky heroine is busy today getting ready for not only an open studio day on Saturday, but the return of some of my Blue Cedar house pals for the long weekend...

Earlier this week, New Seasons had (most unusually) some organic japanese eggplant... since the plan was for small steaks as dinner, I decided that a side dish of Melanzane al Funghetto (Eggplant Mushroom-style) would be both seasonal and appropriate. When the ingredients are excellent, this dish never fails to be a treat, as long as you are in the subset that enjoys these nightshade fruit, and since both Karen and Gwen are of that tribe, it was most well received!

Tuesday there were some local rambles as well as the beachcombing that started my day so delightfully. Gwen wanted to visit the little local shop that makes taffy and handcrafted chocolates. While I am not much of one for either of those comestibles, I found the display of vintage confectioners tools to be fascinating, including these candy rollers used to form and shape sweets...


While we were wandering around Lincoln City, we ate lunch at McMenamins Lighthouse Brewpub, and a Goodwill beckoned from across the parking lot... My clever eye spotted an All-Clad LTD skillet in among the kitchen gear; $6.99 seemed a reasonable price to try out a renowned brand (a new pan this size usually sells for rather considerably more). After cooking with it last night, the skillet will definitely be a good addition to the modest array of cookware that lives on the forged iron pot-rack in the kitchen of Acorn Cottage, being both highly functional, easy to clean, and a good inbetween size

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So far August has not been a month of making new things, but am hopeful that by the end of September all three categories will be caught up, realising that it may will be necessary to curtail my online hours in favor of time spent behind the sewing machine and in front of the workbench...

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August SMART goal challenge

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	wooly pony embroidery	paper wasp nest destroyed	fabric to Goodwill
2	third Orb enamel	2nd wasp nest destroyed	bag to Goodwill
3	Pegasus embroidery	parking strip planter improved	yard waste bin
4	*	north side yard cleared	yard waste bags
5	*	bathroom sink attached	Rebuilding Center
6	*	bathroom wall repaired	paper to Shredfest
7	*	broken toilet seat replaced	bag to Goodwill
8	*	towel holder attached	bag to Goodwill
9	*	SCA closet reorganised	----------
10	----------	*	----------

seashore snippets

in which our plucky heroine visits the coast for the first time in several years...

the view out the windows in the morning...

down the hill to the beach, drifts of crocosmia have naturalised in the open spaces and along the verge

After clambering down from the end of road across some rocks, there was still quite a bit of beachfront to traverse

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I find the patterns left by the waves to be endlessly fascinating

proof positive that our plucky heroine made it all the way to the Pacific Ocean

Look between the beach boulders to the open ocean beyond; when we first arrived this area was entirely underwater, the second morning the tide was far enough out that this channel between the rocks was visible...

There were good reasons besides sensible caution to not walk the narrow channel between the rocks...Sea anemones almost as big as my hands! they are so very turquoise green!!

waterlife clings to the rocks, not as a parable, but just as itself

I am congenitally incapable of not picking up rocks at the beach. There are agates and jasper, and all sorts of other fascinating treasures. My old denim pinafore soon resembled a child's garment: pockets stuffed with pebbles and shell fragments...

the sun sets through the oncoming fog bank as we say goodnight to a day of rare delight...

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I am grateful for coastal breezes that are a respite from the August heat, for the scent of ocean air and the sound of wavesong, and the chance to ramble about beachcombing. Am grateful the body still allows me to go out and about, up and downhill, and to still climb over small rockpiles (also grateful for the generosity that made this possible)

may this gratitude contradict despair...

La La La Lola

in which our plucky heroine gets some new socks...

Having found Sockwell compression socks, which are not only a more comfortable blend of wool and bamboo added to the extreme squeeziness of the nylon and spandex, but which also come in pleasant, non-medical patterns, the lifelong necessity is somewhat ameliorated. That some of their designs can be purchased at REI adds my customer discount into the equation, so I headed out downtown, and came home with two pair. One was this rainbow stripe woman's pair, but the other was this grey on black man's pair. Yes, they are actually exactly the same size, and that gives me either more colorful or more decorous legs this autumn...

August SMART goal challenge

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	wooly pony embroidery	paper wasp nest destroyed	fabric to Goodwill
2	third Orb enamel	2nd wasp nest destroyed	bag to Goodwill
3	*	parking strip planter improved	yard waste bin
4	*	north side yard cleared	yard waste bags
5	*	bathroom sink attached	Rebuilding Center
6	*	bathroom wall repaired	paper to Shredfest
7	*	broken toilet seat replaced	bag to Goodwill
8	*	towel holder attached	bag to Goodwill
9	*	SCA closet reorganised	----------
10	----------	*	----------

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