Banding Together

Day 23: I feel like I have been working on these two bands for ages. Rowdy little cats get very curious about moving feet as well as dangling threads and bobbins, and tempting webs of warp entice little paws into all sorts of mischief. That said, I've made enormous progress on both bands over the last few days as I fidget and fuss over situations beyond my control. I don't recall how much warp I put on Jutta (the band on the left) other than that it stretched all the way across my living room. Nelda's is at least thirty feet long, the measure determined by the crackle-weave tablecloth it will eventually adorn. The thread is twice the weight of Jutta's ground thread. As long as I wait until Small Cat is having a nap, I think there's hope that I may finish these up fairly soon.

Half A Tat

Day 22: As if this election wasn't enough to fray my nerves, it has been compounded by having to have the repairman out to take another look at my heat pump which recently stopped working properly. The good news is that it is still under warranty. The bad news is that I will have to keep using the Cadet heater while an extensive parts list is ordered and filled. That list includes the compressor. It will probably be at least a week, maybe more for the work can be scheduled. Even at the best of times, I tend to have the attention span of a gerbil, becoming bored with whatever I've picked up to work on within five to ten minutes and then moving on to something else. Consequently, projects demanding focus and/or time have been back-burnered for the duration. Today was spent hopping between tatting, weaving on two band looms, knitting, working puzzles (anagrams and sudoku), reading and fidgeting. I'm getting a lot done. I'm just doing it in fits and starts. I'm not the only member of the household who was nervous about having a repairman in the house. Merry had to be locked in the bathroom for the duration, and once the technician had left, my poor little catty kept winding himself around my ankles, wanting hugs and love and reassurance. He has worse ahead of him. It's going to take about four hours for the heat pump to be repaired.

In Sync

Day 21: If there was an Olympic competition for synchronized blooming, my cacti would have taken silver, only missing gold because Picotee didn't quite stick the landing. Evidently a little fatigued by putting on a spectacular show, the pink-edged flowers were already starting to fade a little by the time White was in peak form. All three are sitting in my kitchen window at this point, perhaps not completely safe from prying paws, but Somebody has gotten so lardy, I can hear when he jumps up on the counter. He doesn't do it often now, but for a while, I thought I was going to have to find homes for my houseplants. At any rate, my team of cacti are performing excellently this year, albeit a bit early for the holidays.

Baklava

Day 20: I don't make it often, but I keep phyllo pastry on hand (commercial, frozen) for those emergencies when nothing will do but baklava. The question was whether or not there were any walnuts in the freezer as well, although I could have used pecans (another staple) to make it even richer. Digging past pine nuts, the aforementioned pecans and hazelnuts, I found a 12-ounce bag of walnut pieces, just perfect for my 13 x 9 pan and half a box of phyllo. Baklava is so decadent, it's hard to believe how simple it is to make. You don't really even have to stick to a recipe, unless you're aiming for specific proportions. Just mix up some sugar with cinnamon and cloves, and stir in the walnut bits. Have lots of melted butter on hand, and coat the bottom of a pan before layering on the first two leaves of phyllo. After each two, brush butter on the pastry and add two more. Do this a couple of times until you have 6-8 leaves of phyllo on the first layer. Sprinkle on part of the walnut mixture, and then add another 6-8 sheets of phyllo. You'll want at least two layers of walnuts (I usually make three) before adding the last 6-8 phyllo leaves. Butter the top layer, and score the pastry into serving-sized pieces. Bake at 350 until golden brown. In the meantime, make a syrup of 1 part sugar, 1 part water, 1/2 part honey. Mix together, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes or so. Allow the syrup to cool a bit, although you'll want it to still be warm. When the pastry is done, let it cool for about 10 minutes before pouring the warm syrup over the top. Let it set for at least six hours so the syrup can soak into the phyllo. And then...enjoy!

La Ofrenda

Day 19: In lieu of a physical ofrenda which would undoubtedly prove to be way too much temptation for a seven month old, rowdy kitten to resist, I decided to create a digital version. Of course it doesn't include every member of my family who is no longer with us simply because space does not allow, but they are in my heart on this Día de Muertos. Top to bottom, left to right: Cocoa, my Cockatoo, my soul and the love of my life; my father and mother, shortly after their marriage; Skunk, my old grandma-cat, cussedness and love in one furry bundle; Bruce, my husband, who had the best nose for mushrooms of any person I've ever known; Tippy, precious Boy, Spaghetti Monster, my sweetheart; my fishing buddy and his wife, dear friends who "adopted" me into their family; Harry Dickens, brilliant and brief flame; my grandmother, who taught me many forms of needlecraft; Carlo, who would insist that he was "Papa's Parrot!" if he were here to ask. When Memory lives, Spirit endures, for what are we but how we are remembered, alive or dead?