The O-Zone

I’ve been making this sock pattern for worsted wool winter socks since 1978, but only periodically.  And, every time I do make them, I wonder what in the world I was thinking when I wrote the pattern down, and I tell myself to fix it so I don’t have to figure out what my younger self might have had in mind at the time.  Maybe this time I will actually take care of a translation.

Plain, thick wool socks that fit

I started this pair a couple of evenings ago.  It is nice mindless knitting in combination with watching TV and fending off kitty paws and teeth, plus if I am unsuccessful in defending it from the monster, and he pulls needles out of a row, it is easy to pick up the stitches, unlike lace knitting.

Getting comfy for watching "kitty TV" aka birds outdoors

Mishkin has a favorite spot in front of the sliding glass doors onto the front deck.  He can dive under this little throw rug from a full speed run around the end of the couch.  Then, we hear funny sounds emanating from the rug as he tells himself about what he would do with outdoor birds if only he was not an indoor kitty.

Cat? What cat?

Here he is in full camouflage watching the busy bush in front of the deck, which was swarming with chickadees.  When he tires of birdwatching, he will crawl around the floor still wearing the rug, and talking to himself.  Nothing wrong with this kitten!!!  He is so dark that he virtually disappears when he is hidden this way, and we always have to pat the hump in the rug to make sure it isn’t occupied, prior to heading outside.

Today the Pygmy Nuthatches, chickadees, woodpeckers, and jays of various descriptions were all complaining about an intruder in their midst. Dan figured the owl had made a return visit but we weren’t able to find him readily. However, when Dan went outside to brush the snow off the solar panels so we could get some charging on the batteries, the riot was a bit more localized.

As the little owl didn’t mind Dan standing right underneath his perch (he didn’t think Dan looked like viable prey, fortunately), a camera was requested and pictures taken. Pretty little guy for a deadly predator.

"Are you a Mouse (yumm), or a Man? Bummer... Man."

Back inside the house, another deadly predator was engaged in his favorite game of fetch. Have you ever tried to take a picture of a cat? They don’t cooperate worth beans, and it was many tries before we captured photographic evidence that, yes, he does bring the toy mouse back so it can be thrown again. He will play this game for an hour or more at a time, several times a day.

Caught in the act!

His favorite place for a chase is across the kitchen floor. He loves to make a dramatic slide and nab the mouse on his way past.

Oh, no! Caught in the act again!!!

Second favorite place to chase is into the hallway where somersaults and dramatic tumbling can be demonstrated. His other toy, a red and white fluffy octopus, languishes on the floor until the toy mouse is lost under furniture, or he drowns it in his water dish.

Mouse?? What Mouse? I'm just taking a bath.

Mishkin would like to assure all cats reading this blog that he doesn’t play fetch like a dog. The above photographs were obviously photo-shopped and this is the only “real” photograph. In the immortal words of Bart Simpson, “I didn’t do it, nobody saw me, you can’t prove a thing.”

I experimented today, and made my first gluten free pizza.  The crust recipe fit into an 8-inch spring form pan, and I used rice milk mozzarella cheese, a pizza sauce I made from scratch, pineapple.  Delicious.

Yummmmmm We LOVE pizza

For the first time since mid to late November, it is above freezing.  The snow is softening and getting heavier, and falling off the trees with a soft whomping sound.  This made for some interesting times plowing the driveway, but I don’t think any landed directly on Dan’s head.  We have had so much snow that there’s really not much room to push it out of the way now.  He worked on clearing the driveway for over an hour today.  As soon as he saw where the temperatures were heading, he headed out the door and went to work.

A spring-ish sky, looks more like rain than snow

For the first time in a few days, the clouds lifted enough for us to see to the ski resort mountain and surrounding mountains.   More weather is definitely coming our direction.  It feels amazing outside with the higher temperatures.

Pine trees make a mess when it warms up

The snow surrounding the suet tree, as it is referred to by our feathery neighbors, is messy from the Ponderosa Pine dropping needles and the dripping water of melting snow.  It is also markedly shallow under the large trees.  In the yard, now, prior to settling, we have over two feet of snow.  Under these large trees near the garage, the snow depth is at most six inches.

Clean snow in wide open spaces

In front of our house, where no large trees reside, the snow is deep, and clean.  Very few stalks of grass protrude above the top of the drifts, and the aspen grove looks a little ghostly behind our house.  This is the time of year the aspens like to fall over, and immediately behind the house, one of the trees that Dan had been concerned with did fall sideways, not landing on the house.  Two left to fall; this spring we will remove them in a controlled fashion, and make a bit of room for a deck!

All is serene around the house with the soft spring snow.  Inside the house it is a different matter entirely.

What can I get into now??

Mishkin has a new game.  It’s called “Chase the cat” and the rules are simple.  He looks for something that will cause his pet humans to chase him.  He has a look of total delight on his furry little face when he succeeds in getting Dan to chase him for a little way.  You can see him considering his next move….

Dan liked the fruit and nut bread, except for the ginger.  Next time I’ll add a bit more orange juice, and use some dried blueberries or golden raisins instead of ginger.  I might be on to something here.

We are up and running again on satellite broadband. Except for a stupidity on email, all is working wonderful and it means 2009 is off to a rousing start finally.

Path to the garage needs shoveling again

The path from the front deck to the garage is getting filled up with snow again this morning. Yesterday I shoveled a good fat fluffy four inches of snow out of our paths. It’s amazing how heavy a collection of snowflakes can be. Dan will have to plow the driveway again, but since it is snowing so heavily today, there’s really no point until it stops.

The air is full of snow

There are so many snowflakes in the air it’s almost like fog, and we can’t see the hill right across from our front deck. The world has gone away today, and we are snug and secure. I’m baking a fruit and nut bread for Dan to have as snacks. I’m using a collection of dried fruits soaked in orange juice. Here’s the recipe which I just made up and am cooking but haven’t actually tried yet. It should be good but ….:

Fruit and Nut Bread

Put 3/4 cup of orange juice in a small pan on the oven and then add 1/4 cup each of the following dried fruits (use unsulphered fruits!):

Dried apricots, snipped into raisin sized pieces

Dried chopped dates

Dried cranberries

Dried bing cherries

Dried candied ginger, cut into small pieces

Raisins

Heat the orange juice to almost boiling, turn off the heat, cover and let it soak for at least 1/2 hour, until the dried fruits plump up. Once it is all cool to room temperature add 2 Tablespoons salad oil, 1 teaspoon dried orange peel, 1 beaten egg. Stir to combine.

In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients:

2 cups white flour

3/4 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Stir all together and then dump in the orange juice/fruit mixture, and stir until combined.

Divide this into two small loaf baking pans and bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out dry.

Wrap and store overnight before slicing.

If anybody tries this, let me know if you like it! It smells amazing while baking, and has at least another 20 minutes to go.

P.S.  This turned out too dry, so some fiddling of ingredients must be done.

Yesterday was highly stressful, watching the satellite internet installation person work for five hours to get our new service up and running, and fail completely.  He’ll be back Saturday…  hopefully.

What better thing to do when there is two feet of snow on the ground and more threatening to fall than to look at pictures of wildflowers and try to figure out what they are called.

Last June I ran around in front of our house and took pictures of some of the wildflowers blooming that day. I intended to take pictures all throughout the summer since flowers change regularly, but alas, life interfered. Maybe this coming summer I’ll manage to get pictures of the other flowers which bloom here.

Aspen grove looking towards the main county road

The aspen grove surrounding our house is home to a wide variety of flowering trees and bushes, including Aspen, Service Berry, Choke-cherry, Nine-bark, Snowberry, Wild Rose, and some others I’ve forgotten. There are scattered conifers in the grove, but for the most part it is all deciduous which gives us wonderful layers of colors in the fall.

False Solomon's Seal

This flower prefers shade and moist growing conditions, and it is scattered throughout the Aspen grove.

Fairyslipper

The appearance of this flower makes it obvious that it is a wild orchid. In addition to their very delicate appearance, this particular flower IS extremely delicate. Even touching the deliciously perfumed flower stem lightly can break it, and this will kill the bulb. The plant requires a specific fungi in the soil and transplanting is virtually impossible. So, this plant, though widespread, is becoming endangered.

Upland Larkspur

These beautiful flowers are a wild delphinium and they are poisonous to people and cattle, but not to sheep. Isn’t that an odd thing? I love the color of these flowers. The white flowers in the background are called Small-Flowered Woodland Star, or Fringe Cup. They flower very briefly, fading long before the Larkspur are done.

Mules Ears

This plant derives it’s name from the long leaves.

Trumpet Lungwort

I’m really having a hard time identifying this particular flower as a Trumpet Lungwort, but I am pretty sure I have it right this time. It reminds me of both a pentsemon and a bluebell, but doesn’t look right for either of those two, which leaves the Borage family.

Rosy Pussytoes

I love the name of these flowers, and the flowers really do feel like soft kitty feet. We have several types of pussytoes around here, but this is the only one that happened to be flowering that day.

Sagebrush mariposa

This showy flower has a bulb that doesn’t like to be disturbed by the flower being picked. Unfortunately for this plant species, cattle love to eat the flowers, and that kills the plant. They used to be widespread but cattle running around loose has seen a huge decline in this plant. It is another reason we’d like to get our property fenced, to keep the cows out, but it is horribly expensive and so we may not be able to manage it. It is on our wish list though.

Shooting Star

This is a primrose family plant, and they are all over the place on our property.

Spring Beauty

This flower blooms right after the snow melts, and doesn’t last any time at all.

Wild Hyacinth

This is another member of the Lily family, and the bulbs for this one are edible, allegedly considered to be one of the tastiest of the edible bulbs.  Frankly, I’d rather see them blooming than eat them.

Wild Strawberry

Wild Strawberry plants carpet large areas of our property.  They do produce tiny and intensely flavored little strawberries.  The competition for these fruits is fierce, and we usually get to eat a few of them over the summer.

Yellow Violet

There are three violets on our place:  Yellow, blue and white.  They bloom at different times and the only ones blooming that day were the yellow ones.

It has been very interesting going through my wildflower pictures and searching out the names in our various reference books.  I noticed so many pictures of flowers which I know we have on our property but for which I have not yet taken a picture.  How fun!  Something to look forward to.

Spring is now less than three months away, and hummingbirds will be back at the very end of April.  Time flies.

Rather than complaining about cold hands when I’m playing with my computer, I decided to take matters into my own hands, so to speak. Fingerless gloves are the cats meow, as Mishkin will testify.

First step, I cast on enough stitches to comfortably surround my hand when joined in a circle, and then knit one stitch, purl one stitch, continue across the row and then repeat for each new row. This makes a dense and stretchy fabric when all is said and done. Add a few judiciously placed button holes for fingers, and a decrease one edge, and then cast off.

Sounds easy enough, but it really goes more like this: Knit one, purl one, knit one, retrieve ball of yarn from the floor where it was just unceremoniously swatted by Mishkin.   Purl one, knit one, disentangle his claws from the short fabric. Purl one, knit one, purl one, pull end of knitting needle out of his mouth, get swatted by his claws.   Move him to the floor and attempt to distract him from his real object of desire using available tools:   Slipper, toy mouse, toy octopus. Dangling ends of needles and yarn are just too attractive and it is a lost cause.

Upon the final realization that being single minded is not just a human trait, I next wrap Mishkin into a blanket and deposit him on the couch hoping he’ll suddenly feel sleepy. Knit one, purl one, knit one. Etc. Combat knitting.

But even with extra steps, it is still easy to finish a hand warmer. The second one is on the needles and Mishkin is taking a nap!

One done, second one started

No extra fabric on the back, lightweight but warm

No extra fabric to interfere with typing or using a mouse

I am making this pair from a ball of DK weight baby alpaca yarn.

Terry loves overseeing Dan using his computer, and she is having a grand time as usual. She loves having a birds’ eye view out of the sliding glass door. She spotted the Pygmy Owl visiting the bird feeders in search of a small bird not paying attention.

Bird watching

It is getting towards dusk and the snow is falling fairly heavily on the hills behind this small pine tree off the front porch. Terry told Dan about the owl, and judging by her restraint we knew it was not a large predator but a small one who only merited a small alarm call.

Hunting technique: Pine cone camouflage

The owl shaped lump in the tree is… an owl! Someday we will get a better lense for taking bird pictures.

A deadly predator with a funny and fast hooting call

There’s usually something going on outside the house. Today Mishkin watched some White-tailed Deer eating sunflower seeds off the snow under the bird feeders; he had delusions of grandeur concerning the deer. Fortunately for him, he was inside on top of a desk, nice and warm, and they were outside where they couldn’t stomp on his head with their sharp pointy feet, thereby disillusioning him once and for all.

The skies cleared up today, and our solar panels actually produced enough power to hold the percentage charged on the batteries while we washed laundry. And the temperature outside didn’t drop like a rock. Both of these are pretty exciting, and that says a lot about our thrilling lifestyle here in the middle of nowhere.

We debated plowing the driveway again today, and shoveling paths and splitting firewood. All of these are noble occupations, and all will wait for another day.

I didn't want to use that deck anyway

A Northern Shrike was here today, chasing a chickadee around and around a large pine tree; it was a successful hunt. We always feel bad for the caught chickadee, but Shrikes have the right to make a living too, and the smart chickadees were paying attention when the predator arrived. It has been very raptorish around here lately, with visitations by a Northern Pygmy Owl, Northern Goshawk (several times, causing lots of excitement in the yard), a Great Horned Owl, and the Northern Shrike. Down by the river we have seen only one Bald Eagle; the river is virtually frozen over.

Alpenglow from the south

The sun sets way to the south on our western horizon. Sometimes it imparts a pale monentary glow on the mountains to the north, making them look soft and out of focus. It sure gets dark in a hurry this time of year, sun sets before 4 pm and we need to turn on our lights.

This handsome fellow came to join our family four months ago today. He was spacing out, watching chickadees playing in the brush in front of our deck. His favorite game is still “fetch” or as Dan calls it “toss.” Dan is pretty sure we didn’t teach Mishkin to retrieve a tossed toy, but instead Mishkin taught his humans to toss the toy for his entertainment. His newest variation on a theme is to push his toy mouse under the bedroom door from one side to another, running back and forth to chase the toy.

Spacing out as an art form

This evening our plan is to start watching “Lord of the Rings.” We will be enjoying this epic masterpiece over the next several days. We’ve been doing this for several years, ever since these movies were first released in the theater and on DVD. I’m knitting a pair of fingerless gloves while watching TV; mindless knitting works best.

Last night we watch an interesting documentary called “Encounters At The End of The World” by Werner Herzog. Antarctica has always held huge fascination for me, ever since I first read the book called “Mawson’s Will” about the explorer Mawson who managed to live through a deadly combination of abominable luck and miscalculation. Whenever I think that life is difficult, I just have to think about Mawson… or Emperor Penguins.

Hope everybody is enjoying family and friends here at the end of 2008!

Shortbread cookies are popular at our household, on a lot of levels. Everybody loves to eat them, and they are the easiest of all cookies to make.

Scottish Shortbread, and Orange-Walnut Shortbread Squares

I also plan on making some tree shaped cookies with green frosting and sprinkles, and the dough is made and cooling in the refrigerator. But I discovered I’m out of powdered sugar. How can I be out of powdered sugar? We have to go to the local auto parts dealer on Saturday to buy a battery for our snow plower, and I will remedy this powdered sugar issue.

So close but, yet, so far

Terry really wanted some cookies, and can be seen plotting her angle of attack. She helped me take the cooled cookies out of their baking dishes and put them on a plate. Her “help” consisted of me fending off her beak and retrieving her when she slid down my sweater onto the kitchen counter. Despite her assistance I was successful in transferring the cookies to a platter.

"Will do tricks for food!!"

She has one trick, “Wings.” When she was thwarted from climbing down the back of the chair to reach the table, she decided to do her trick. We told her she was such a good bird, so pretty, so smart to do her trick, but she still didn’t get any cookies. I’m sure we’ll be hearing from the ASPCA soon.

We had two ripe bananas, and snowy weather today.  The solar panels aren’t producing any power today, even if they do get brushed off; a heavy cloud cover coming from the north is colliding with moisture from the west.

Snow covered panels, no mountains in the distance

So, what does snowy weather have to do with bananas?  It is cold and we have both wood stoves going, the heat stove in the living room, and the cook stove in the kitchen.

So, I made banana pancakes, from my own recipe.

Banana Pancakes

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon and the same amount of nutmeg

Stir the dry ingredients together and set them aside.

In a fairly large bowl, peel and mash your two bananas.  Then add to them:

1-1/4 cup milk

1 beaten egg

3 Tablespoons oil

Stir the wet ingredients together, and then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir together until blended.  Don’t over beat.

Heat a griddle on your wood cook stove until hot, and cook large tablespoons full of pancake batter to make dollar size pancakes.  Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Banana pancakes

Parrots love banana pancakes; cats think they are useful for playing floor hockey.  Everybody is happy.