Photo Update

Because I'm really short on time these days, I'm going to have to make this a photo update, with more words when I finish writing the papers that are going to help me get tenure.

I made some awesome meringues on the 4th of July. These are some of my favorite cookies, but Portland, Oregon is not generally conducive. If it's not too hot to turn on the oven, it's raining and I'm left with soggy cookies. These were perfect.



I couldn't post a photo of this until she received it in the mail, but my sister got the following for her birthday:





She requested a "melange of or-ange", and you can see, that's what she got. I cannot tell you how anxious it made me that the diamond pattern on the straps of the purse are 90 degrees to the diamond pattern on the bag itself. The only way to fix this would have been to buy two more yards of fabric, which I can't afford (and had I not pointed it out, dollars to donuts you never would have noticed. Except Elaine. I know you noticed. ) Letting it go was really all I could do.

Last week was amazingly hot here in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, just after my parents arrived, the Fox "News" folks were on our driveway, asking to interview me about the heat. To this, I responded, "It's hot. What else can I say?" They asked if I had A/C (I don't) and right after I told them I didn't want to be on TV all sweaty, they asked what I was doing to stay cool. Hm. Not standing on my driveway, for one. (I was knitting in the basement, which is cooler than the rest of the house. I told them they could tape me knitting, but that it would make for very boring "News.") Nora smartly pointed out that if I had agreed to be interviewed, none of my friends would see it anyway...it may have been my one chance at fame, but I'm sort of glad I said no.

The kittens had their own ways of staying cool. Abby slept on my knitting (which meant she had to keep getting up. Abby is not so bright), and Jake did what Jake always does when he gets too warm.





Despite the oppressive heat, Mom and I went to Sauvie Island and picked berries.



I felt obligated to pick only from the top part of the raspberry and marionberry bushes, because I can, and because lots of people can't. The thing was, once we started, we didn't want to stop. We kept finding larger, juicier berries that needed to come home with us. When we finally forced ourselves out of the berry patch, we had 8 pounds of berries. EIGHT POUNDS. And it was way too hot to make a cobbler. I have some great neighbors who "helped me out" and took some, and what we really could not eat became blueberry-raspberry-marionberry jam. Yes, it's delicious.

My folks brought up a lot of stuff for us, including my great-grandmother's china, a pre-WW1 Haviland pattern called The Princess, and some of my paternal grandmother's embroidered pieces. They're amazing. The red one below is probably 16" by 16", and is virtually the same on both sides. The others are smaller. I'm not entirely sure what to do with them, but will think of something. In the bottom photo, you can see the front (right) and back (left) of one of the pieces.





And finally, the Minnesota trip top. Progress is good. I'm 11 1/2 inches into the front, and have started the lace pattern that goes up the center, so it's not all stockinette now. This is good. I was going a little stir-crazy. My hope is that once I put half of it on holders for the front, that it will zoom by. We'll see.



Time to get to work.