Knit & Nosh

an actual FO

Can you believe it?  I have been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with my Patons projects, other than that, not much knitting has been happening this summer.  But Look!  I finished a simple square.

It was my intention to make this a hand towel, but I was so anxious to actually finish something, I went with a face cloth. 

I love a simple textured cloth and Kris Knit has heaps of great patterns.  Totally cute.  Totally affordable.  In keeping with the autumn theme, I plan to knit Scarecrow next.

where there is smoke

So it is day camp week.  For the most part, camp is running very smoothly.  Some staff issues, but that is pretty normal.  What is not normal are the events of this evening.  I spend 90% of my time at camp walking.  I walk to each Unit and Station many times just to see how things are going.  Some of the girls have been coming to camp for many years, it is so much fun to see them every summer.

Tonight I was walking from the cooking station, where I had just put in a request for pie, towards the shelter house and my water bottle, when I had someone point out a large plume of smoke and tell me there was a fire.  This was not good.  I picked up my pace as I grabbed my walkie talkie.  Walking towards the smoke it occurred to me that we had girls in the woods.  The way our staff handled the emergency was amazing.  The speed with which I ran those trails to find girls makes me feel powerful.

In the end, we were not in danger.  Girls were moved to the other side of the park, fire fighters had the fire out pretty quickly, and we ending the night in a normal fashion.  Still, I do not want to do that again.

good omens

The next book I read will be Good Omens.  Oldest Daughter has been trying to get to me read it for ages, but I have always had something else in progress.  I am a little nervous that I will not like the book.  I have read and enjoyed books by both Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett, so I suspect I will like them writing together.  Oldest Daughter loves the book so much I am afraid of disappointing her if I do not share her adoration.

Youngest Son has begun reading Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series.  We actually began reading the first book together a few years ago.  This was before he was able to read on his own and he did not want to continue.  Last week he saw the movie and asked for the book.  A quick trip to the local book store and he was a happy boy.  He finished the book in three days and asked for the next one in the series.  We went to the book store this morning and I bough the next two books.  That should hold him for a week?

I sat down to write this post because I have a finished knitted item to share.  The camera and its cord are in the bedroom with sleeping Husband.  Now that I have my office back I need to remember to move the camera to facilitate late night posts.

pods

A little research tells me my mysterious growths are seed pods.  Wikipedia tells me this:

"The seeds of radishes grow in siliques (widely referred to as "pods"), following flowering that happens when left to grow past their normal harvesting period. The seeds are edible, and are sometimes used as a crunchy, spicy addition to salads.^[3]Some varieties are grown specifically for their seeds or seed pods, rather than their roots. The Rat-tailed radish, an old European variety thought to have come from East Asia centuries ago, has long, thin, curly pods which can exceed 20 cm (8 in) in length. In the 17th century, the pods were often pickled and served with meat.^[3]The München Bier variety supplies spicy seeds that are sometimes served raw as an accompaniment to beer in Germany.^[12]"

Because I never trust Wikipedia on its own, Diggin'Food backed it up.  This is a blog I read regularly and the author can often be heard on the local NPR station gardening show.

As for the Rat Tail variety grown specifically for their pods

I do not think I could bring myself to eat them.  Rat tails are icky.

 

 

 

radish scape?

Hey Gardeners, what is this?

It looks similar to a garlic scape, but this is a radish I let flower.

There are three of these little bulb things along the stalk. 

Can I eat them?

 

move the red car, then the yellow car, don't block the truck

The kitchen remodel continues and we are back to playing  Rush Hour type games with the contents of our house.  This weekend's adventure goes something like this:

Build my new desk.  Oldest Son took my old desk to college and I have been using the folding outside table.

Move the folding outside table under the new kitchen window.  The table raises to counter height and will be a perfect temporary solution.

Relocate the big palm tree from the dining room to ?

Move the fancy-pants new fridge to the corner of the dining room the plant once lived.  This is almost its permanent home.  A little wall needs to come down before we can place it at the end of the counter.

Empty the contents of the upper cupboards on the east side of the kitchen.  Put them in to open top boxes and slide them under the temporary counter. 

Remove those cupboards so the wood can be used to build the shelves in the new pantry.

That should keep us busy for a few weeks.  At that point the fun really starts.  Walls down.  Ceiling up.

chair booties on ravelry

Sure enough, yesterday I had two people find the blog by searching for "chair booties".  This morning I added the pattern to Ravelry.  I hope it becomes a well used favorite.

bad then good

A couple of weeks ago I finally gave in and read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  I had been resisting because it is so darn popular.  People love it, millions of people love it, millions of people may have something. 

After the first couple of chapters I was struck by the bad writing.  Aware that the book is a translation, I let it go.  After reading a couple more chapters, I was skeptical.  Friends told me, "Keep reading, it gets better."  So I did.  It does not get better.  Jeez Louise this is a bad book.  The writing is bad, the characters are flat and do things they should not.  No way is an Autistic person who does not like to be touched going to climb in to the bed of a friend.  No way is a middle aged woman going to straddle her new neighbor in the kitchen.  Not unless she is trying to manipulate him.  I kept waiting for that storyline to evolve.  I was disappointed.  There are inconsistencies all through the book.  A mystery can not have inconsistencies.  I can not believe I read the whole thing.  I can not believe there are two more books in the series.

The day after I closed the stupid dragon tattoo book, I opened Big Machine by Victor LaValle.  Holy crap, what a difference.  Victor LaValle is an amazing writer.  I wish I could write the way he writes.  I do not know how the books ends.  In truth it does not matter.  The writing is so good, the characters so strong, that the story could be so-so and I would still be happy.  Something tells me the story will not be so-so.

Life is short, drink the good stuff, eat the good stuff, read the best.

very pink

A new Patons post is up.  The project is a quickie.  In fact I better write the FO post this morning.

chair booties

The Chair Bootie pattern can now be found over there, on the right hand side under Pages.