Happy New Year

Belatedly, but happy new year, nonetheless.  I am so remiss, partly because I need to download another photo program and partly because I haven't been really knitting, and the gardening is minimal in the winter time; the garden is mostly cruciferous veggies and salad things.  I am planting of course, but there isn't much to show off.  Cooking wise, I am still widening the horizons, I am making tamales, and can sure see why the Mexican women get together in groups to do so.  I have a tendancy to like labor intensive things.

Updated cat pictures

Some pictures of kitty Christmas presents; or otherwise.  Gremlin is in the tent, Bandit is on the chair on the Christmas blanket, Scooter, the orange cat went to the vetenarian today as part of his Christmas checkup.  the other picture is Princess laying in the new cat scratcher/lounger, Gremmy rolling in catnip and Elfin in the cat bed.  All new.

Friday afternoon in November

The top picture is my husband hefting two of the mature tromboncino squashes, each weighs around 20 to 30 lbs.  So far hanging in the gazebo is around 10 mature squashes hanging, and on the vines are many more.  I don't know how long he will let them stay on the vines as he is getting antsy to prepare new plantings for the brussels sprouts and other cruciferous crops.  There are a couple knitting pictures taken at a restaurant we enjoy, one tiny shawl in brown will be one of the flower basket shawls; the picture of the vinca was all washed out and not pretty, and the rainbow one is knit by my friend Colleen and I am making the same shawl in the same yarn and colors. The bottom picture is me in the squashes; I am about 5'5" now so you can see how long the squashes get.

garden

Garden today before I pick more of the brandywine tomatoes, and squashes and those shrubs of basil.

Oh, and Bleu likes to hang out in the cat carriers; each cat seems to have a preference, although there are three that look the same to me.  Gremlin sleeps in one at night, when he isn't laying between my lower legs holding me hostage all night long.


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Yarn I have tried to show off

This was a gift from a friend for my birthday and I have had trouble uploading it from my photo program, but maybe now my Mac will let me put it there.

Some yarns to make shawls

I  have been acquiring yarns to make shawls; I still love to knit socks but I have lots of socks already.  I will see if I can show the patterns I want to knit, but am on the Mac so who knows :)

oops, forgot to say...

If you are a knitter, you will plainly see that I did NOT follow the pattern correctly on that previous post. It should be a diamond shape, not diagonal. OOOPS, not right but still not bad to look at.

long time again between posts

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted, the garden is still going strong, the tomatoes are slowing, which is a good thing as I don't feel all covered in tomato juice all the time, the squashes are awesome, someday I will take pictures. The chilies are amazing, I even gave away a couple of varieties of chilies to the Sears guy delivering the newest freezer today. That new one is awesome, has compartments so hopefully we can track food by either dates or cuisine; like the Asian in one compartment, Italian in another; the beef and the pork overflowed into other compartments; guess we won't have to shop for a good long while, and the pantry is much the same. Handy in this economy. It got to the point in tossing food out (lots of chili and soups and stuff like that) that my hubby started tossing my cherished tupperware out and I wasn't even fighting to keep it. I have no idea how many chicken tortilla soups are in there. Knitting wise, I am trying shawls; not well but trying. I have gorgeous yarns and patterns. Wish me luck. Oh, and I had to order another set of Harmony Needles to accomodate the larger sizes needed for shawls.

Tomatoes and more tomatoes

I wish I had a clean kitchen, I really do because then I would take pictures of all the pretty colors of tomatoes. And these are the ones that were saved out from the fire roasting of the night before. Those are awesome smelling and then we re-roasted the serranos and jalapenos and we tossed all of them together. I need to get the mouli mill out to get the tomato skins off and the seeds out. Then can them up.
The Brandywine tomatoes are still going for Guiness records I guess; the green ones are still about 7 inches or more across and shocked the friend of my husband who grew Mortgage Lifter and other big ones and never saw tomatoes so large. The squashes are growing and while we pollinate them ourselves due to a dearth of bees, some of the pollinations didn't take but others have. I have visions of tromboncinos that are the baseball bat size yet again.
That is it for the garden report; time to put stuff away.

My Trekking 100 socks are not done

I didn't finish the socks in time for the Ravelympics; I still have the foot and the toes to do. But it will be done; the cats seem to approve of the socks.