I always forget to take all of the pictures

I started off well.  Take a picture of the giant zucchini with the orange and rosemary that were other key ingredients in the bread.  Then I remembered to take a picture of the bread after it was cut up in slices and in the freezer.  Oh well.  The zucchini on the right made 3 loaves of bread and zucchini fritters for lunch.

The first bread, from Food 52 with the orange and rosemary (a very nice combination) and the other, from Lesley Stowe's website with chocolate, chocolate chocolate.  Also very good, of course.

For the fritter, I mixed the grated zucchini with an egg, bread crumbs, chili powder, salt and pepper and fried them up in a bit of olive oil, 2 minutes per side.  Nice.

Now I'm eating a lovely garlic scape, almond pesto with tomato on pasta.  Also no picture.  Oops, it's gone!

Three finished projects

These three projects have been almost off the needles for a few days and I finished them up this morning.  Sitting outside on the patio on a beautiful day with the longed for break from the oppressive heat we've been experiencing lately.  The first pattern is Hummingbird sock from The Knitters Book of Socks.  I enjoyed knitting it but don't really like the lacy pattern in the end.  The heel turn was a new one for me too and not a favourite.  I like my standard heel style better (although not sure what it is called).

Next up are two hats I plan to donate to the Warm Hands Network.  I really want to knit more regularly for charity.  I made two blankets for Project Linus last summer and then I discovered Warm Hands which I think will likely be better given that most of my knitting is done on the train.  A blanket eventually gets a little big to lug around in my bag.

The first hat is Basketweave, a free Ravelry download.  I really liked this knit.  Very fast, very easy and it used some Mission Falls 1824 yarn that I bought ages ago to make a sweater that I'm less interested in now.

The second hat is Molly, also a free Ravelry download.  It's a bit bulky but cute.  I made this one out of some Koigu Kersti that I bought ages ago to make make a baby sweater that I'm less interested in now.  See the theme?

Random Thoughts

1.  It's amazing how much life and noise a pet brings into the house.  It feels so quiet without Cleo, who was a bit of a talker, to put it lightly.

2.  Since it felt like rain, I went to the gym this morning instead of getting on the bike.  I'm a fair weather rider and not ashamed to say it.  There were two guys I haven't seen before chatting away on the recline bikes with one of them drinking a coffee.  I guess he is getting a better workout than if he had been sitting in the coffee shop.

3.  Also at the gym, there was a woman resting between sets on one of the machines, absolutely grooving to a song on her ipod and humming, loudly and out of tune (or I guess the song could have been out of tune).  Pretty sure she didn't realize how much the part of the building we were in echoes.  Just glad she was getting such pleasure from the music.

4.  Big storms blew through here yesterday evening.  One of the people at my favourite booth at the farmers' market lost 17 Honey Crisp Apple trees.  Very disappointing after they had a lousy season last year because of the frost after budding.

5.  I'm currently going through all the patterns I've cut out of magazines over the years and logging them into Ravelry's library.  I am absolutely in love with that feature.  Now I might actually knit some of these patterns that I've painstakingly saved because I'll remember that I have them.

Cleo

Our beautiful cat is gone.  She developed a tumour on her face that we removed a couple of years ago but it came back, eventually closing one of her pretty green eyes and more.  We are so very, very sad.  We couldn't have asked for a nicer kitty and it's going to take a while to get over her loss.

Bye bye sweet Cleo.

More Niagara

While the iPod photos are not the greatest, I snapped these this morning on a brisk walk around Niagara-on-the-Lake.  The one with the hazy buildings is of Fort George (which you can barely see given the lack of telephoto capability, or maybe I should say lack of ability to figure out whether the pod has telephoto capability).  The other is the pathway running along the beach.

There are a lot of very nice houses in Niagara-on-the-Lake with beautiful gardens and big verandas.  I could easily imagine living there.  If it weren't for that pesky need for a job with a salary large enough to pay the enormous home prices.  Oh well.  That's why they call them fantasies.

I stopped in at Bee Modern Fabrics and Yarn after the meeting today and resisted buying anything except for a couple of black and white fat quarters.  I looked for a while at a Kaffe Fassett pile of fat quarters and some really very nice Noro Silk Garden.  Really very nice.  I waffled about that for a long time but left without it when I remembered my stash reduction focus and telling myself that I am going to take a break from Noro for a while.  Well done me.  This time anyway.

On the road again

I could never be one of those people who travels constantly for work. I work with people who commute weekly, by plane from work to home. Not for me. I don't even like an overnight stay for a meeting at the very lovely Niagara-on-the-Lake. It could be that I don't really know the people that I'm here with. Also, the nature of my job always makes me the kid brother that hangs around when you don't really want him to. But your mother told you that you have to look after him today so you are stuck.

I am currently waiting for the pre meeting dinner, having a coffee at Balzac's (which was quite good) and thinking about hopping over to the wine store to pick up a couple of bottles to take home. The quilt store closed too early so I can't make it there today but maybe on the way out tomorrow. 

I did stop at the nice lavender shop and the organic grocery (neither had what I was looking for but at nice to look around anyway). 

Off to get a picture for the post and dinner. 

And in truly typical "me" fashion, I just dropped a basket of corks all over the wine store. At least it wasn't glassware!

Cherries, cherries and more cherries

We have one cherry tree in our front yard.  Not including the cherries the birds ate and not including the ones that rotted because it was pouring for a couple of days in between checking the status of the cherries, we were overwhelmed with cherries (but definitely not a bad thing).

So far, aside from the ones we have eaten, I have used 6 cups to make Cherry Butter from Food in Jars, 2 cups to make this chocolate cherry cake from Food 52, will use another cup to make a cherry salsa for pork tenderloin for dinner tonight or tomorrow night and will still have some left over.

All I can say .. I love summer!  And cherries.

Happy Canada Day!