family, pandemic Leave a comment

A Very COVID Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving cactus Aaron’s grandmother gave me over 20 years ago tends to bloom at odd times. This year, it’s actually in full bloom on Thanksgiving Day.
These sparrows are thankful that I haven’t gotten around to stowing the birdbath yet.
We usually do Thanksgiving out at a buffet, but not this year.
We usually have my Mom and Aaron’s brother over, too, but not this year. This year, it was just the three of us.

I tried something new and prepared the turkey sous vide, which made for THE most flavorful and moist turkey I’ve ever eaten. Outside of the candied sweet potatoes, though, everything else was store-bought: the Meijer cranberry relish, the Stove Top stuffing, the King’s Hawaiian rolls, even the Meijer pumpkin pie.

The rest of the day was pretty chill. The guys played Dave Mirra on Dreamcast while I sewed Connor a new pair of pajama pants, we had Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner, and we called my Mom to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving.

As with so many other things this year, it was different, we dealt with it the best we could, and it actually didn’t turn out so bad.

bookbinding Leave a comment

Bookbinding

Yesterday, YouTube recommended a video by Sea Lemon about binding journals by hand. Me being me, I fell down the bookbinding video rabbit hole and learned just a little about a lot of different bookbinding techniques.

Today, I gathered up some scrap paper, needle and thread, and a few other supplies, and tried my hand at it while my son watched the Cartoon Network. I’m definitely not super adept at sewing by hand yet, and there’s a very important element of precision involved… but I could see this sort of thing possibly being part of a thoughtful handmade gift or three.

bloom day Leave a comment

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: November 2020

We finally got a killing frost a couple days back, followed by high winds and rain today. Up until then, though, a few blooms were hanging in there in my Zone 6 garden.

The nasturtiums kept on keeping on right up until the temps dropped below freezing.

Even after the frost, this volunteer zebra mallow was perky and colorful. Not until today’s high winds did it start to look like it was done for the season.

I’ve already blogged about Crocus sativus a couple of times, so I’ll just note that I managed to harvest saffron threads from six crocuses before the frost. Eighteen saffron threads should be enough to make one recipe of something delicious. Hopefully I’ll get more blooms (and a bigger saffron harvest) after they’ve settled in for a year.

Indoors, the Thanksgiving cactus is almost in bloom, and a couple of kalanchoes are providing orange and fuchsia accents… but I’ll save photos of those for next month, when the outdoors is bereft of blooms to share.

Thanks as always to Carol Michel for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month! As Elizabeth Lawrence said, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.”