Adirondacks

Finally, a winter day

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We finally got some snow today and more is expected through the night. We drove out to our CSA but were dismayed to find our favorite bakery closed for the winter holiday. It has become a tradition to stop there on our way home for “pizza night”. Dogwood Bakery makes the best pizza we have ever eaten anywhere! We made all sorts of back up plans but went to a pizza place right in town that was surprisingly good. We didn’t want to wait for our pizza so took home one to “take and bake”.

Who cares about taxes

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I am the trustee of my parent’s estate, which creates a lot of frustrating paperwork at tax time. Today was gorgeous though and I have shed my cast, so what could I do but take a walk. Tim and I walked to and fro our half mile dirt road, which means that I walked a mile in my boots. Yeah!!!

My new found freedom also enabled me to venture into the local thrift store, which is situated up a long flight of stairs. The first time in 9 weeks! I have sort of hesitated from shopping there since my patients could theoretically come in for an exam and see me in their clothes but what the heck. I was really on a quest for material and fiber but I found a Harris Tweed coat for $5.00!!! I have missed these opportunities for almost two months.

So I am now the proud owner of a Harris Tweed Coat woven in a point twill by James MacDonald! In addition, I found a set of hand embroidered napkins and a table cloth for $3.00. I also spotted a pair of placemats I had crocheted while we were living on our boat and I managed to stop myself from buying them back.

Ain’t no spring chicken

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Me or this bird. I think it was a mourning dove but it looks sort of eerie. I’ve been taking baby steps without my cast. I managed to walk for ten minutes on a treadmill at a rate of 2.0 miles an hour but I still can’t dance the tango. It’s cold without much snow so I am not really missing anything. I’ve been finishing knit and woven projects so fast, I am shipping them out before I remember to take their photo! Maybe I’ll get to see them in use.

The endless quilt is complete. I tried to make some matching shams and while they didn’t work out, figured out a technique which cut the piecing time in half at least. Always learning. It’s about ready to be put into full time use.

I finished a dresser runner for my daughter and it’s already in use. I was scared it looked like a burlap bag when I was finished with it but it won approval.

The days are rapidly getting longer and we even had a flock of Robins stop by the other day.

Lake Placid hosted World Championship bobsled and skeleton races this weekend and we got to watch the action. We were able to observe the sleds and riders fly by in a tenth of a second and then follow their progress along the two mile track on television monitors. It’s so impressive to be in the company of world class athletes. They may outperform me on the treadmill.

Best seat in the house

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Rutland
Tim sang with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) this weekend in Burlington and Rutland, VT.  I was his VSO groupie  and traveled to both locations and enjoyed the performances.

I hobbled along Church Street in Burlington and shopped.  There’s a great cooking store, where I found crumpet rings. Today I’ll make a batch of crumpets, which I had stopped making due to the pain of making little tin foil rings.

I had to move my seat 3 times in the theater: first I was in the wrong row; then I offered my seat to a couple who had been split up and finally I found a nice settee behind the seats where I could stretch out and set my crutch against the wall.  During the first half of the performance I had to sit with my crutch propped between my legs where it could double as a chin rest.

I hit the jackpot in Rutland, though, and it rivals Andre’s plane seat.  Although I had to climb three flights of stairs, when I arrived at  the top of the theater, my seat had ample leg room and a spot to store my crutches, which freed my hands to knit.  What more could I ask for?  An elevator!

It’s about time

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Light green trees

Jay Mountain is snow capped but not the rest of the terrain. We’ve had a warm spell, which turned anything wet to ice, and more rain and sleet is expected tonight. I think the good snow will come when I am ready to ski again this season. Today’s outing was a trip to Lake Placid, where I had to make sure the road surfaces were fairly clean so I wouldn’t go flying –  crutches, walking cast and all. I had to go out because I needed more material to finish a quilt I started two days ago. That’s right, two days ago! And I think it will be done by tomorrow. This could be very bad. If I can make quilts faster, I will finish them sooner and will have to buy more fabric. Oh these addictions.

This is the first time I made a quilt with a “jelly roll” and it was amazing. Jelly roll strips are pieces of material which are precut. I sewed a few together, cut them into triangles and sewed them together again. I never knew! My last quilt, which isn’t finished yet, took five months to piece together. This one will be done tomorrow. It’s going to cover the back of the couch to protect it from the cats. I sewed it together as it was below, but then decided it needed to be long and narrow, so took away one row and made it longer – 2 x 6 blocks. I combined it with the backing and batting when I got home, did a “quick turn” and am almost done machine quilting it. The cats are very happy with it.

One day quilt

Almost finished

On my way to town, I was reminded of the stellar athletes who come from this area and give me a sense of pride. I pass the Olympic cross country ski trails, the luge and bobcat runs, the ski jumps and the Olympic Training Center. I would like to say I contributed to the American Luge team winning a silver medal in Germany this January. I would like to say it but it’s not exactly true. I had to reschedule my follow up visit with my surgeon who traveled with them as the team doctor.

I will have to climb this peak again when I recover. The first time, I made it almost to the top – but not quite. Next time.

Snow Cascade

Home improvements

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Our rustic bench

I asked for a porch bench  to change my boots and Santa delivered.  He had his elves working in the garage and basement while I was incapacitated and couldn’t peek.  I heard chainsaws, hammers and smelled lots of varnish.  It’s perfect.  It’s very stable, even on crutches, and the right height.  Now I can change my salt covered, muddy boots outdoors and the other elves won’t have to wash the floor as much.

Our inner chill may be resolved.  We have a ceiling fan, which we keep on all winter with the blades rotating counter-clockwise.  This always seems counter-intuitive to me.  Hot air rises and I thought you would want to send it back down.  Using the trusty right hand rule, I can tell that counterclockwise means the force is heading up.  But by drawing it up, the warm air hits the ceiling and then slides back down the walls.  If you sit near the wall, you can feel the warm air pass by.  So, even though we turn the heater way down at night, we have kept the fan on the last couple of nights and we awaken to either none or much less ice on the inner windows.

We’ve had lovely weather, first some light snow, then it warmed up and rained and then the temperature plummeted and now most parking lots and driveways, including ours are sheer ice.  I’ve been using one micro-spike (mini crampon) on my good foot.  I haven’t seen any on the market for crutch tips but there’s another item to add to the inventory of the new store, specializing in items to make life with crutches easier.  Maybe I should call it, “Hopping to Happiness” or “Crutch Cache”.  It will include thermoses with handles, oversized mugs and bowls to reduce spillage, micro-spikes, an all purpose carry bag and a crutch holder to prevent them from crashing to the floor any time they are propped up.  Oh yes and the cast cozy!  Plus there will be an exercise tape for pre crutch training – upper body and good leg strengthening.  I can see the video now.[category adirondacks] [tags crutches, rustic furniture, bench, ice]

Iced tea

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It was so cold the other night, we awoke to ice on the inside of the windows! It’s the perfect storm of a propane fireplace heater, which creates moisture, a new, well insulated house and arctic temperatures. We’re trying different combinations to prevent it. I guess the easy answer would be to simply turn the heat way up but noooooo.

Inside Ice

To keep warm, I just keep brewing and drinking tea and photographing the pretty reflections.

Reflections on tea

I saw tracks outside and was convinced two snowshoe hares must have been exploring the field with a duck-footed hop. I don’t think we actually have snowshoe hares but it was a better thought than tracks of a bear awakened from its winter sleep. On closer inspection, Tim told me they were left by humans.

Tracking

The absence of electric wires continues to pay off.

Jay from inside

Brrrrrrrrrrr.

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Shirley's quilt

The temperature dropped to minus 11°F this morning, and in anticipation of the cold, I finally resumed work on my kaleidoscope quilt. It’s perfect for cold weather because most of it sits in my lap while I quilt.

 I ran into many obstacles yesterday.  I hate to give my sewing machine human qualities (too lazy to figure out how to spell anthro…morphise), but I think when it is left alone for an extended time she gets angry. And takes it out on me.  

When you start playing around with bobbin tension, you know you are in trouble.  I couldn’t get the needle in right, kept misthreading it and after a full day, had quilted one long seam.  But with all the attention and adjustments yesterday, today she’s purring like a kitten.

Shirley decided she didn’t want to wait for the finished quilt.

Snowed in

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Not exactly but it does make crutching more challenging. We had about six inches yesterday and expect the same today. It’s quite pretty but I’m disassociated from it since I won’t be able to play. Loki enjoyed sitting on the porch to watch it come down and Shirley sat by the fireplace or in my lap in her new sweater based upon a few design modifications from my daughter and her friend. Who knew that hairless cats like to wear sweaters?

Loki and the snow

This picture tells me Loki enjoys watching the snow but not walking in it and my windows need to be cleaned.

My latest cooking adventure was pasta. I happened to have some semolina flour, mixed it with white flour and a few eggs and voila! I don’t think I rolled it thin enough because it was pretty chewy and I wasn’t sure if I should refrigerate it or let it hang dry. I opted for drying because it made a prettier picture.

Rolled pasta

Pasta highway

Just hanging

Lastly, I am enjoying my adventures in tea and have a made a variety of the flavors. The strawberry lemonade is a mild, already sweetened lemonade and so pretty!

Strawberry lemonade

Small amusements

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I continue to repurpose the old handknit sweater. The body is in the process of becoming a cat cushion. Shirley, my little old lady cat, always seems to be cold so I decided to try to make a cat coat out of one of the sleeves for her. It fit handsomely. Unfortunately, I was reminded of why we couldn’t use little harnesses when they lived aboard our sailboat with us. Pressure on their neck or shoulders, I am not sure which, causes them to slink and fall over. While she looks pretty cool lying here, she didn’t look so cool when she toppled over when she tried to stand up. i tried just snugging it around her waste and still no good. But it provided an afternoon’s entertainment. And she was warm.

Warm, cool, Shirley

I received a sweet tea set from my daughter and have been brewing all sorts of teas: apple, strawberry, pineapple and blueberry and drinking them hot or cold. They taste good, are already sweet and are pretty to look at.

Teavana

My little aran sweater is taking as long as a full size one. I decided to make a flap on one shoulder with a button to prevent the old head squeeze. One and a half sleeves to go. This is getting me in shape to try some serious cable knitting. I have a full size adult one in mind and a blanket. I may not have enough time on the couch to accomplish all this.

Baby aran