BREAD DAY

"

  It is Bread Making Day..... I love to make bread,  for me it is empowering. When I grind the flour and make the "sponge" I feel alive!!  Is it because bread is a living food, bread is a food everyone has eaten in some form, sometime in their life. As you make the sponge you can see it coming alive, bubbling up, the smell of the yeast coming alive after having been frozen dormant in the freezer.  Just mix together yeast and freshly ground whole wheat with some warm water and watch the magic happen. It takes about 15 minutes for a good hearty sponge to form, first it looks like a huge mistake then you see the miracle  happening.  After the sponge forms , start adding freshly ground flour, still warm from the grinding process. As you add the flour the sponge encircles the loose grain and pulls and mixes in, eventually forming a smooth light brown ball that is slightly sticky and elastic.

Put your bread in pans let rise in a warm oven then the moment I love the most.... the first cut of fresh hot bread. If your bread is worth anything you will not even need butter. However if you have real butter put in on and enjoy!!!!! 

This is my sister Mary Margaret walking down the side of a steep muddy hill. She is holding up her pants which are really Ellen's pants who is allot taller than Mary. She went up the hill holding up her pants and she returned down the hill holding up her pants.  The top picture is MM finishing the trek. We were all so proud of our selves and yes we were sucking air.

As you can see I still have not figured out how to move pictures around my post. This is so frustrating. Ellen said she will ask her boyfriend, he is a computer wizard.Yeah!!!

Sunday's

Sunday,Sunday the day of rest and get ready for the next week. 

Our taxes are done and ready to file, another year out of the way, yeah. 

yesterday I finished quilting a quilt I believe will go to Nora. I am very happy with the stitching , both sides look great! Now all I need is Practice practice to get my drawing and designs smoother. 

Again today is windy and cold, winter continues to hold a tight grip on Colorado  The flowers are in my front yard and were photographed on Wednesday, the back porch shots were taken on Saturday.  The only thing one can say about the weather in Colorado is wait an hour or day and it will change.

This afternoon hope to have coffee with Kathleen , talk and knit for a couple of hours. Also need to get to the store for next week lunches.

Snow, Hiking

Well guess what, it is snowing again in Colorado. Spring is most certainly here with storms that seem to be coming in every third day or so. The grass will be so green by the end of April. Since it is snowing today Mr.P and myself will stay busy in the house. Mr.P has the household bills to pay and the dreaded taxes that are due next week. He hates tax time and I can hardly blame him since I have no idea how to do taxes. Myself, I will work on my machine quilting. I have about half of a quilt done and am loving it. 

Last week end we "the sisters" went on a hike , more like a mud walk. It was fun and we all felt that we had accomplished a major feat. the boots in the back of the car had put on at 4lbs. each boot. not only did we get some exercise but we all came home with rosy checks and noses. Sun and snow in Colorado.

I started knitting a really cute CHICKEN from Blue Sky. I love how it is turning out, but everyone I show it to says" why are you knitting a chicken"? I say why not, she will look so cute on top of the frig. I may even knit her a companion!!

I wish I could figure out how to move these pictures around, like in the middle in-between paragraphs.  Caitlin if you have any advice please email it to me. Anyone any advice.

Winter Just Hanging On

So little snow all winter, a matter of fact the temps. in February/March were anywhere between 50-70's. Now that we are in April what but snow is coming in every three days or so. I love cold weather over hot, but this is getting kinda crazy. I know North Dakota sure wishes summer would roll around. Blizzards in April?

 

I finished the double diamond quilt mystery by Bonnie Hunter. This was a wonderful quilt to make, a bit challenging and lots of sewing. I just love to run fabric through my machine. I think the borders will be in the background colors, of course scrappy look. 

Besides quilting, I started knitting a "chicken" using Brown Sheep blue cotton yarn. Will post a picture when finished. Love the color and texture, stay tuned.

Sister's Weekend

The annual 3 sister's weekend where pie making,knitting, coffee drinking and generally allot of home cooked food is made and eaten. A big change this year was the fact that Caitlin was not here to do the lion share of the cooking. That girl can cook and bake. Caitlin we did our best without you.
This year only 2 pies were made: a granny smith apple and one of the best lemon meringue I have ever made. Mary out did herself with the crust this year, light and flakey, wonderful. For some strange reason I only have a picture of the apple which I might say was delich. Oh and I forgot to mention the we did wear our aprons. Next year I hope we have our aprons with our names embroidered on them....Ellen....
Other than baking and cooking we visited the yarn store, Ellen and Mary had their hair cut, Mary a massage, Eileen went to an estate sale and bought some table clothes then off to the sustainable indoor market, long walks, good conversation over good wine and beer. The big thing we did not do this year was no eating out in restaurants. The Bean Cycle was visited twice for coffee and a pecan bars which as always was delich.

Of course the first spring snow storm decided to rear itself, it was beautiful but made for a slow laid back weekend. What is it about cold and snow that one wants to only find a quilt and lay on the couch watching a movie: the movies we watched ....Italian Job, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Patriot, and 3-10 To Yuma. 

It Has Been Awhile

It has been awhile since I've blogged. Have been working full time, yes that is five days a week and yes it was a killer. However I am very grateful I have a job, a job a like and can do safely and well.
This past week I finished a class on machine quilting and loved it, Charlotte opened a whole new world for me. Hope to have a quilt on the machine early next week. I still have a lot of nieces and nephews to get a quilt to before I get to old and can no loner sew. Plus yes I have allot of fabric to use up. What a job, but some one needs to do it.
We have had a major spring snow storm yesterday. Not as much snow as past storms but it was a needed storm. I managed to get 4 rows of lettuce planted before the snow blew in, can't wait ti see the little plants popping up through the ground.