Luscious Fibers, Food and Life

Chilly Breakfast

One thing I love about being at my parents is watching the birds and squirrels eat together at the feeding sanctuary my father keeps stocked (and shoveled out) during the winter months.  Each day you can see blue jays, finches, doves, downy woodpeckers, chipmonks and squirrels.  There's a place for everyone to feed and it's really quite something. My dad has always had a soft spot for animals (I could actually see him being a vegetarian.) and he nutured, or at least understood, my compassion for animals when I was growing up.

More shots from the Thurston Winter Feeding Sanctuary...

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We're not in DC anymore...

As you can see I'm up in chilly Maine. There's lots of snow and it's really quite beautiful.  This picture is of my parent's front yard.  My parents made the big welcoming snowman a couple days ago. You can read more about that on my mother's blog.

Last night we had dinner with my brother. He made a fantastic lentil soup (read more about that here). It was good to visit with him, Mira-Su and Chris.  Their tree looks beautiful and the house is festive!

It's nice to be home for the holidays. I'm looking forward to when Grant, James and Daryl join us.

a nice saturday

Wüsthof ®  - Oh My!

Today I used one of our new knives and let me say...OMG! So I've been using the same knives that I purchased in Seattle, a $115 set, over 13 years ago and lets just say, I'm surprised I haven't chopped off a finger by now. Well, my knives were probably too dull to chop off a finger, but I was definitely needing to put a lot of pressure on my veggies in order to cut them...not the safest prep I'm certain. Well no more! This knife cut through my veggies like butter. It was amazing and beautiful. I didn't know what I was missing.

So this morning I was cooking up one of my favorite recipes, Sarah Kramer's Veggie Pot Pie, for our  friends Amanda and Sarah who have a new little one, Elijah. I cut out a panda for the crust, just for him...ok, really for Sarah. I thought it was pretty cute, but you know I love pandas.

Grant and I brought them some eats and visited for a while today. It was nice to see them all and to finally hold Eli for an extended period of time.  He even smiled and laughed for me. He was sleeping, but I like to think he was just having such a good time hanging out with me. Or maybe he was laughing at me. I'm not sure, but he was very cute.  Grant held him too...first time holding a baby...EVER!  He did a really good job and Eli was completely quite for a good minute or so :)

Oh and last night we got our Christmas tree. A little early this year, but since we're both traveling at different times this month, we thought it would be nice to have a tree for some of the time that we're here together.  After much frustration and event a late call to my dad, we did finally get the tree to stand up.  It should be fine as long as you don't blow on it.  It's funny, even though we live in a much bigger place this year, we still got a smaller tree...I guess we're just used to it.  We're decorating tonight, more pics tomorrow.

 

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Still knitting

I know there hasn't been much knitting news lately, but it's happening. Not as much as I'd like, but that's ok...life has been busy. Right now I'm on a DC bus headed home. It's funny when I took this picture 5 blocks ago the bus was empty and now it's standing room only...darn S buses. Ok back to knitting in public.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

 

I love Starbuck's pumpkin spice latte, but at $4 a pop, it's a bit much...ok, a lot too much.  This week at Whole Foods, I found Silk Pumpkin Spice Soymilk and have been making lattes at home every morning since.  They are just a good as Starbucks if not better.  Grant and I are happy to have a little bit of fall holiday cheer each morning!

Grant and I are off to the enjoy a couple days at the White Pig Inn.  If I have service, I may do multiple posts about whats going on now that I can post to typepad through my phone, so check back.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Soup and Salad (and me on TV)

 

Last night for dinner Grant and I had one of our favorite soups, Quick Ginger Carrot, from Sarah Kramer's book, La Dolce Vegan!  I also made my famous (which I got off all recipes.com a few years ago) holiday salad (with a few too many toasted almonds) and we had some garlic toasts leftover from our party.  Everything was quite yummy and it was nice to sit at the table for the first time in over a month (previously the table was covered in wedding planning stuff) and enjoy a meal together.

Oh and see the card in the background? That is an adoption certificate for the turkey we adopted this weekend. Her name is Cicada (completely appropriate for us as we have an odd affinity to cicadas.)  There are lots of turkeys to take care of if you'd like to adopt one too.

Lastly, Grant and I were on the news this weekend while at the Celebration for the Turkeys. Ok, so we were not interviewed or anything and we actually didn't realize we were in the clip until someone else mentioned it. Take a look and you'll see us at the end. News story for Celebration for the Turkeys.

Away for a bit

I've been unable to post for a few days and I'm not sure how much I'll be online in the upcoming days.  I'm up in Maine because my mother is facing some serious health issues.  I think my brother will be posting about whats going on soon, so I'll link to his blog if he writes some thing before me.  I hope you're all well and I'll be in touch.

August Buttons

 

I got my August buttons yesterday. This month's theme is a sailing. For those of you that may not know, I'm in a button club and once a month I receive a fun treat in the mail - three creatively designed little buttons.  I think I've been a member since it started, over a year ago, so I have a nice collection of buttons.  Check out Thimble's button club here.

In other news, a friendship between Kuba and kitten (I know, I know we're working on a name) is starting to bud.

New Hair Cut

 

So I got some hairs cut last week.  I threw all caution to the wind and told Patrick (at Bang) to take off as much as he wanted. So 5 or more inches later, here we are.  I freaked out slightly during the cut as I watched long chunks of hair go flying out of his hands, but he talked me through it.

It's the shortest it's ever been and it feels great. You can't beat the one minute it takes to style.  The back is shorter than the front, so it's fun.  I'm still getting used to it, but I think I really like it.  There are more pics on my flickr.

Beautiful!

tree swallow, originally uploaded by eva8.

This picture was taken by one of my favorite Flickr photographers, Eva8. She is also from Maine (my high school's rival town) and her work is amazing. The images she captures of birds and other everyday life, are incredible.  Here of just some of my favorites. You should definitely check her photography.

Plans for the weekend include dessert with friends.  Maybe a walk and birdwatching at Woodend. Hopefully some knitting on my secret projects. Oh, I'm going to try these donut muffins for breakfast tomorrow morning.  And I'm sure some puttering around the apartment.

Have a good weekend everyone!