Books on the Coffee Table

Books. Gorgeous when they are sitting around in piles, awesome when they are opened up in your hands.

In the library there is a leather loveseat, a coffee table to catch new books, and often a cocker spaniel between the two. Other shelves hold "to be read" books as well, which means that the books here are either going to be shelved with their mates once read, or moved over to the TBR section when other new books arrive.

They look nice there, although the table is pretty much useless for anything else. It has become a landing place for new books, but also, unfortunately, a place where books I'm reading can get buried.

Let's see...

Top to bottom, above:
Leonard Cohen, Poems and Songs Required reading, he must remain visible at all times.
A Year of Living Your Yoga Nice.
Infinite Jest I swear I'm going to finish it someday.
Wool Omnibus I read all of these on my Kindle and loved them. Wanted to support the author by buying a copy, which he signed.
Far Flung and Well Fed Food writing, TBR
Zeno's Conscience TBR, I think my son gave this to me, but maybe I just thought he would also like it?
Brain Candy TBR, I have no idea what this is.

Snowmen and History of the Snowman Would have been so fun to read through again during a snowstorm. If only we'd had one.
In Defense of Food I'll get to this soon.
The Food Matters Cookbook I was pleased to find that my husband remembered that I love Mark Bittman, and bought this for me for Christmas.
Shirtmaking I will never attain this level of achievement in sewing, and I'm okay with that.
The Kitchen Linens Book is exactly what you think it is.
Steve Jobs A friend gave it to me and I look forward to reading it.
World Vegetarian My first Madhur Jaffrey. Obviously, cookbooks do not move into the kitchen until I've read them.
Nutrition A textbook from someone's class last semester.

Blink I'm loving this book!
La Bella Lingua Ditto, although it is a reminder than I have been lax in my Italian language study.
Gandhi I flew through most of it and then it found its way to the bottom of the pile on my nightstand, and now I have a hard time whenever I try to get back into it.
New York Diaries This was a great idea for a diary anthology, look into it! It's one to pick up now and then, read a bit, and put back down.
Bigfoot: I Not Dead  We, meaning my family and a few dozen people of various ages, got a kick out of this. It's pretty brilliant sometimes.
The Anthologist Started it. Stopped.

Beautiful Day, Beautiful Creek

For weeks now I've wanted to remember to grab my camera on my way out the door for a walk, and today was the day. We live near the east branch of the Brandywine Creek, a beautiful and historic waterway that winds through our County and into the state of Delaware. It is worth an overview whether or not you are local. There are miles of paved trails along it, passing ruins of old mills and foundations of homesteads, and more miles of deer trails that fishermen use to reach the water. We enjoy the creek, and the trails, all year but spring brings that fantastic shade of green that only lasts a few weeks. I missed capturing the earliest - near neon - shades, but am happy with the pictures I took today.

Spring Minestrone

As I was flipping through Moosewood's "Daily Special" cookbook the other day, I realized that I have marked a ridiculous number of pages without trying the recipes, so I tested two of them a few days ago. French Barley Salad which is, alas, not pictured, was a delicious mix of barley, yellow bell pepper, carrot, mushroom, green beans, and walnuts tossed with a lemon vinaigrette. Lovely, and I'll make it again. The Spring Minestrone is a delicious and healthful clear soup that I will make variations of this summer.

It started with a homemade broth that included some of the trimmings from the barley salad - green beans, mushrooms - and my standard onion, garlic, celery, peppercorns, carrots, herbs, cloves, potato, and whatever else needs to be used up. Actually the soup started much earlier when I soaked a pot of white beans, which I prefer over canned if there is time.

I boiled the beans for two minutes then covered and soaked them for just over an hour. They were tender, but not done. After adding salt and pepper they probably simmered for about 30 minutes before I took them off the heat. 

While the broth simmered I prepped the soup ingredients:

 Frozen peas, salt/pepper/oregano/tarragon, zucchini, onion and garlic, celery, and kale, all waiting to go into the pot. The leeks hadn't looked good at the market, unfortunately, but they would have been nice.

The onions were sauteed for a few minutes before adding the celery and seasonings for their turn. Stock and zucchini, beans, greens and peas were added with a simmer between each. 

A splash of cider vinegar finished each bowl, with a pass of parmesan. Quite easy, light, and good for you!

Finally, it's been a while since a gratuitous picture of Rusty showed up. Here he is visiting my local yarn shop. Yes, he poses. 

Miso Happy and Knitting Too

I love the UPS man. He is always smiling and happy, and he gives me things. 

Yesterday he gave me two boxes. The first one had an order from South River Miso. While I can buy their miso locally, their website has all their current products and the ones that are, most importantly, soy free. DS2 has a soy allergy and while I have become adept at whipping up a soy-free soy sauce (say that 3 times fast) I thought we'd try their Miso Tamari, Chickpea Miso, and Azuki Miso, all of which are delicious. (The tamari is from chickpea miso.) I also ordered a sample pack including Sweet White, Dandelion Leek, and Three-Year Barley. Yep, Miso happy.

The next box was from Knit Picks, and was a combination of things for me and for DS1SO. (That cracks me up, by the way. She came up with it and it stands for, of course, Dear Son #1's Significant Other.) They make really nice quality circulars with changeable tips in different materials. She needed to replace a pair of Harmony wood tips, which are her tips of choice, and wanted some really small (0 and 1) double pointed needles. I needed extras in my favorite tips (nickel) in sizes 7, 8, and 9 as well as a few more cables. I also ordered a pair of Harmony tips for myself and a pair of acrylic Zephyr tips, just to check them out.

And this is another gratuitous picture of Rusty.

More snow

Rumor has it we have close to 24 inches on the ground - or at least the neighboring township does. This is a picture-heavy post of some more snow stuff....

This is the front door. Really. There's a porch there, and sidewalks, and a driveway.

 The back porch door and screen door, where the snow was trying to sneak in. If snow was at all scary that could be kind of creepy, but it's snow. Maybe if it was ... mud. 

Look at the roof!

Daughter, for scale. 

DS2 slogging through the snow. He is well over 6 feet tall.

Gratuitous picture of Rusty.

Snow capped wreath. It just made me smile.

It's hard to hold your head up all day.

Rusty's Day

Here's a day that began really well for Rusty but turned into his LEAST FAVORITE DAY of the month. He was so happy to be out doing errands with us....captions are below the pictures this time!


Here's Rusty looking out the window while in a line of cars. He hasn't yet realized that we are in line at one of his favorite places...

"What?? Bank drive-through window!! I'll just stare at that little machine until a treat comes out of it!" (He has no idea that the girl who is waving and talking to him from inside the bank is the actual source of the biscuits. It's all about the pneumatic tube.)

" C'mon. Guys. I thought we were just coming in here for a new collar and some treats?? You never said NAIL CLIPPING! What? We are going to rent one of those bathtubs???"

"Get. That. Away. From. Me."

"I can't believe this is happening. "

"Look at these two. A turban. What's wrong with them? How humiliating. All I need now is for one of those Big Dogs to come walking through."


"Do you have to brush my freakin mmmmfffsss....."


"Oh my God. I am exhausted. Get me the hell home and let's just STAY there."

Poor Rusty!

So what's happening in there?

Sewing Room

As you probably know, I am very happy with my sewing room, or sewing studio if you feel snotty, in the basement. The whole room isn't actually just mine, but it's a very good space and I will photograph it the next time I clean it! In the meantime, I realized that I took these once and meant to post them. These are some things that hang on the walls.....

This framed shadowbox has some vintage notions from my Grandma's sewing basket. No matter what we do they insist on falling down inside of there; apologies for how, um, sliding-down it looks. There are some snaps, bindings, elastic, needles - - all with ridiculously low (by today's standards) prices. I love having them and I love thinking about her when I look at it. I need to make a reminder to take it apart and try to fix it again soon. If you click on the picture, of course, it will get bigger and you can really see what's in there.

Over by the ironing board DH hung this cool little bar with hooks - handy, eh? There are a few shears there and applique scissors, some fusible tape, and a print I bought from a student at school. She had photographed the textile room there, and I loved it. It's just taped up to the wall. Don't tell DH. He hates when I tape things.
Rusty has a little hangout on an old sham from my bed, in front of the door. From here he can keep an eye on birds/sqirrels/deer and me at the same time. Looks very alert, doesn't he?

Rusty and the Stuffed Shar Pei

Too funny - - look at his right leg hugging that toy.

Rainy Day

Good morning and hello rain!

Rusty went to the groomer's and had the gum cut out from his paws. It was a bit unpleasant for him and I hope he does not ever again get into gum! Here is a picture I took over the weekend when I noticed that he was on sentry duty at the dining room window. He was keeping watch on something, most likely a squirrel or a person walking down the lane. Had it been a deer or fox he would certainly have made a report!

Guilty Dog

This is a dog who has put himself in timeout, even though nobody is looking at him, or knows what he's done. It's kind of a clue that something has happened:That is how DS2 found him, not making eye contact, not moving, not breathing, just pretending he is green and able to blend right in with the rug and not be seen. Chameleodog. DS investigated and found the chewing gum, stretched along the rug, stuck to his front paws. Chewing gum, Rusty's downfall. He knows he can't have it, probably knew it should not be stuck to his paws or that he was about to experience the pain of having it pulled it out. Either way it was comical, he did not move or look at me as I cleaned it off the rug and then pulled bits of it off his feet.

After he sat up, this was the face of apology. If only the camera could have captured the rapid blinking. "blink blink you still love me right? blink blink I didn't mean for you to see it blink blink I'm really sorry please stop looking at me like that blink blink


Joke's on him, I can't get the gum out from his pads; he's going to have to go to the groomer today.

Rusty's favorite spot

A litle chilly in the house?

I guess so!

Nearly finished!

Here is the result of all the moving around and mess we created in the last few weeks. It was hard to get some of the pics because it's very sunny outside and that makes the rooms dark. I expect that my children will be the most able to see what a big change this is, since they live here, much of the time.

Here we see, from Dh's spot at the kitchen table, how the view has changed....
Here is the new "tv room" formerly known as the office. Notice that nice new floor...

Gratuitous picture of Rusty
The new library, formerly known as the family room. Three of the corners have shelves which, you will see, have not been arranged.
View from the foyer - that slipcovered wingback chair isn't staying. I just don't have the heart to ask anyone to carry anything else right now.
Messy corner shelves, but you get the idea of the room. LOL, I just noticed that I am reflected in the mirror between the windows.
And the living room, where not much has changed except that the bookshelves are gone and the entertainment center's armoire is there instead. I like how that looks.

Same as always, just another furniture arrangement. Alex is so sorry to be the child who constantly has to rearrange that room for me.

And that's all! It feels really different to have the rooms changed so drastically. I like it a lot. We need to get a rug for the tv room, and hang pictures, arrange some storage, etc., but it's very comfortable.