exhausting

shop news: Had first big blowup at shop meeting! I even pounded my hand on the table!!! And it was about e-mails/finances/is the person in charge capable!!! Plus the TV issue came up, and C shouted the following at me and A: "TVs are EVERYWHERE! You're stupid NOT to want one here!!"

And it's not resolved, because right after my hand pounding, a potential teacher arrived, so we all had to reassemble into reasonable adults. YIKES! stay tuned . . .

(though in retrospect, I'll be the bigger person and admit there were some points well taken . . .)

deck container

This container is working out very well this summer: artemisia, coneflower, and lamb's ear. The balloon flower is fading. A metaphor?

movie

I have a brief movie suggestion, especially if you are in a Danny Aiello mood, which sometimes I am: Dinner Rush takes place mostly in one night in a trendy downtown restaurant in Manhattan. John Corbett is great and rather unexpected, and the guy who plays the gallery owner is the kind of customer I think most of us have dealt with at one time or another . . .

kindred being

It just poured today; when I went out behind the house apres le deluge I was startled to discover



deciding how to proceed. I put him (I think red eyes signify a male) in the woods, in a different direction from the path he was taking. (Which is not what you are supposed to do; if you see a turtle crossing the road, take it to the other side. He/she wants to go in a straight trajectory. And please do stop and aid this ancient animal.)

At least she



didn't come across this visitor and bother him.

June 21

Happy Solstice to you.

Here is a nice link to read more about it.

Mozzarella

I'm very excited: I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, only to discover she has many similar notions about eating/cooking/family/food chain as I do. AND they make their own mozzarella around there, so I just sent for a kit (of all things) to make my own, from the New England Cheesemaking Company, in Ashfield right up the road from where I used to live.

studio—shop side

Here are a few shots of the space that is the retail side of our little operation. I'll post some of the working side in a day or two. I'll be down on Saturday for B's knit-in, so I can catch up on all the gossip, especially her suddenly burgeoning social life, involving real, live men . . .

The blue sweater in the far corner is my handiwork; I actually made it years ago, but it looks quite new there, doesn't it?


Two recovered thrift shop chairs are very comfortable indeed. And the two bags on top of the shelves at left are produced by Be Sweet, a group you may want to investigate.


These hats are A's handiwork; and the little yellow felted purse was made by C. There it is; where will we be in a year, I wonder??




Have a lovely weekend.

meeting

I'm getting ready to go down to the studio for a meeting, which might become rather contentious. Some items on the agenda: who will work what days when the studio is open; do we get a television? (NO NO NO; it'll look like some of us are in occupational therapy, knitting in front of the screen; will A and I get our TV-less space? Let us fervently hope so) I'm bringing my camera, so I hope I'll have some pictures to post later/tomorrow.

Saturday, we had our "open studio," which went much better than anticipated. People flowed in all day, and signed up for knitting and felting classes. Wool and finished items were bought. I got behind in my editing, though. sigh.

I enjoyed the candy,

but we'll look forward to the Sopranos DVD of the last season. My family has been going to Holstens for several generations, and I happened to have kept this candy box from the last time my cousin came to visit, bearing a gift.

I don't feel so bad about my neck

bluebird house

new deck, partial view

lunch

Balloon flower

Herb garden

fledgling

I think I will join in on Suse's idea.

A few projects

A couple of my knitting projects. The purple sweater is nearing completion; I'm sewing up the underseam of the left side. Then I'll knit the collar and sew it down. Add a button, and it's done. I'm not the best seamer of knitted projects, but I'm learning.

The scarf is from Scarf Styles, the cabled one in Touch Me. There was just one ball of green, so I'll add some at both ends, trying to be fashionably asymmetrical.



I actually worked down at the studio on the sweater today, and it was blissfully quiet.

Pizza

Yesterday, we decided to use our pizza skills and made these two. The top one has just cheese and pepperoni, but the bottom one is loaded: kale, cheese, summer squash, broccoli, green onions, and sausage. I roasted the summer squash with a little olive oil, salt, and rosemary; blanched the broccoli for 3 and 1/2 minutes; and cooked the kale for 10 minutes, let it cool, squeezed it, and dressed it with a little oil, vinegar, and salt. D made the crust, which has a high proportion of whole wheat. Usually, pizza making is a bit of an effort, but for some reason both of these seemed to take no time. Maybe it was the early prep of the vegetables; when it came time to actually put everything in the oven, all the hard part was done.



I've also heard you can do this on the grill, but I've never tried that. It does help to have a pizza stone and some pizza pans, with vents in the bottom to let the air circulate and the crust crisp, however.

CSA

stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We are members of our very local organic farm, and received a bounty of greens:



as you can see from yesterday's lunch. This is just for me, and there is A LOT of lettuce left for the remainder of the week. In addition, we received a huge amount of arugula, kale, and collard greens, as well as radishes and green onions. We are learning to like kale and collards, because, well, we have to!

And that little red pouch? I got it here.

cookbook

I received the new Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook yesterday, or cookblook, as it arose from Clotilde Dusoulier's blog of the same name. The cover shows her reaching for a box of strawberries, and she looks charming and sweet. She writes so well, and there are unusual tweaks to some standard dishes, lots of suggestions, and wonderful photography, all produced by Clotilde. I think I'll make the Poulet Mijote a la Moutarde tonight: I'll have to pick up some red onions, though.