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This is a scarf that I made for a Christmas present. I'm working on another one that will be two colors. This one is cotton, and the one I'm working on now is wool The "granny squares" are actually 6 sided, so not really squares. Pretty easy to make, but time consuming. I seem to forget that it really is best to start projects like this no later than September...note to self!
In anticipation of the BIG rain storm we had yesterday, on Sunday Nick and I grabbed shovels and dug out all the snow that had filled the ditch we dug around the perimeter of the yard this past fall.
Late in the day on Saturday, we went for a walk out back. The weather was mild and the late afternoon sun was glorious.
So after a day of unbelievable rain, how did our ditch do?
As you can see, it was a success.
The only telltale signs that there had once been snow, were the tracks left by skis from guests early in January.
So, it seems that spelt flour makes a pretty good pizza crust.
I started out thinking I was going to make a foccacia to go with some pasta, but decided we hadn't had pizza for such a long time, that I should do just that...make a pizza.
Pizza Crust
1 package yeast
1 cup luke warm water
1 t agave (or sugar)
1 t salt
2 t oil
2 1/2 cups spelt or your choice of flour
Dissolve yeast in water with agave (sugar), mix in oil, salt and flour. Let rise 5 minutes. Add flour to make dough easy to form into a round pizza crust. Add whatever you're putting on top. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the top is how you like it.
I put tomato sauce, onion, black olives, broccoli, red peppers, fresh spinach, fresh basil, Italian seasoning, rosemary and red pepper flakes, topped with a sprinkling of asagio cheese. You can use parmesan or romano if you'd like. Mozzarella would be good too, but since I've been trying to cut out dairy, the sprinkling of asagio was a good choice.
Enjoy!
It was a glorious day on Saturday. It was a day that you just wanted to get yourself outside to do something, anything.
You people from southern climes might not think this is very warm, but I am here to tell you that in Vermont, this is warm for January. It's called January Thaw. Doesn't happen every year, but when it does you see kids in shorts, happy people out walking and a waiting line at the car wash for an ungodly amount of time. (Yes, I did sit in line for 25 minutes, eating my lunch and basking in the sun.)
Oh, it was so wonderful. The sun was shining in everywhere!
On the bed...
on the floor...
and on the new blossoms of my paper whites.
Sadly it's now back to that gray one-dimensional landscape, but I know that in January the sun starts to shine more and more. With snow on the ground, the sunlight is incredibly brilliant, and so are the smiles of everyone you meet on the street.
I've started to think about the new bathroom that is in the works. Today I started looking on line for some ideas.
What are your thoughts on this? Mine exactly, so I can just go ahead and cross this one off my list. Actually, the more I look at it, the scarier it seems!
In a perfect world, this would be my choice for a perfect bathroom, however, we'd have to knock out a wall, and it would take up half of the kitchen, which I'm not really willing to give up. So...I guess there will be no footed tub or chair or extra tables. I love the whitewashed wood floor. We have hardwood floors in the house, but I'm not sure that will fly. So what is it about this bathroom that I think can happen in this house? Well, the wainscoting on the walls and ceiling are exactly what I want. And maybe white will work too with color accents. Now if only I could find a way to get all that wonderful sunlight filtering in.
Tomorrow I'm going out to see if I can find an old wash stand to hold the sink. Wish me luck.
This is the wall in the hallway. Behind this wall is the not-finished bathroom.
Yup, there's a big hole right there in the wall. But this is a good thing, because it means that soon there will be a door there, and soon there will be a pantry in the kitchen and soon a working bathroom with a shower and...we can move on to the next project!!!
Vermont is a truly beautiful place. Although I can't say I am a "winter girl," there are things that I see that make me realize during this time of year that winter "ain't all that bad" after all.
There is a short period of time late in the day, just before the sun dips below the horizon, that you can see some of the most beautiful landscapes. Here are some that I saw between 3:55 and 4:30 pm. on my drive-around.
View looking east, Breadloaf Mountain, Green Mountains
Looking east,Mt Abe, Green Mountains
Looking east, Bolton Mountain on left, Mt Abe on right
Snake Mountain on left looking west towards NY
Looking west towards the Adirondack Mountains, NY
And then, in the blink of an eye, it was all over. But luckily, I know it will be there tomorrow.
A few weeks ago the bridge that connected Bridport, Vermont with Crown Point, New York was blown up. In or around October, 2009, it was discovered that the 2,184 foot bridge was unsafe. For as many headaches that this caused all of those people who commuted every day across that bridge, certainly a tragedy was avoided. Here are a few pictures of before and after.
From the New York archives, this is what the bridge looked like. Pictures below were taken yesterday.
The sight of all that twisted, fallen metal is somewhat awesome and bigger than life. Here is a link to the explosion. Watch it until the very end to get the full impact of what happened after it fell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYTdVuLeg7k
Hope you're all getting "re-adjusted" to this new year!
Except for taking all of the decorations off the Christmas tree (finally), I didn't have a particularly busy weekend. Meaning no projects. The reason is that I spent Saturday and Sunday playing with my new
EOS Rebel XSI 450
The sun was out, there were shadows and birds and lots of things to shoot. Inside things too. Here are just a few.
Shadows
Blue Jay
First Train
Fast Train
It was a lot of fun shooting and learning how to use the camera. Today we went for a drive, took the camera and shot pictures. We spent some time in Addison, where the Crown Point Bridge stood just a few weeks ago until it was blown up because it was unsafe.
I know it will take me a while to learn everything there is to know about this camera, but it's winter, and I'm really excited about having something to work on for fun.