Bread & Cloth

Last Friday at knitting we were talking about bread and salt and carbs because a couple of the knitters have diabetes and struggle with carbs and one of those knitters also needs to watch her salt (I do too but not as strictly).  They complained because commercial low-salt, low-fat bread "tastes like cardboard" so I told them about the bread I make that's low-salt and NO-fat, and said I'd make a loaf for them to try next Friday.  Well, next Friday is tomorrow so I've got to get on the stick.  I stirred the dough together yesterday morning and after my shower today I formed a loaf.  It's rising now while the oven preheats and as soon as I finish this sentence I'm going to go paint it with cornstarch wash, sprinkle on sesame seeds, slash it, and slide it into the oven for half an hour.  Oh, and throw a cup of hot water into the oven so it makes a good crust.  Be right back.  Pretty soon the house is going to smell great.  Mmm, there's nothing like the smell of baking bread--unless it's onions, peppers, and garlic sauteing, that's pretty fantastic too, don't you think?

Yesterday at work I drew out the pattern for the tepee I want to sew this weekend, or at least cut out, so I didn't knit much.  Last night while icing my ankle I finished knitting the Anzac Poppy Cloth for my veteran friend's Memorial Day gift.  Naturally I ran out of yarn 6 rows from the end so I went down to nab another skein of red dishcloth cotton.  Naturally it's not exactly the same color, probably a different brand, definitely more an orange red than the blue red of the original yarn.  I almost threw a colossal s--t hemorrhage about it but then I realized that it's a dishcloth/warshrag plus my friend won't mind the color change.  He's a knitter himself and understands these things.

There was a pair of male hummingbirds having a "dogfight" around the near feeder last night but there was no way I could get the camera up and ready fast enough.  No. Way.  But it was very cool to watch for the thirty seconds it went on.  One of these days maybe we'll get one of those motion sensor movie cameras so we can get them on tape... film... pixels, whatever.

May 21--Bart Gorin, Hourglass.  Lucy had loved to turn Papa's hourglass over when she was small.  She would watch the sand grains sift through the pinch in the glass and tumble into a pile in the bottom.  Papa told her that it was a way to mark time, like a clock, but much older.  From then on she watched for hourglasses in souvenir shops and tucked into game boxes in thrift stores.  People thought she collected games but it was really the timers she was after.  She had the rule of never paying more than two dollars for an hourglass unless it was an exceptionally beautiful one.  Her favorite was Papa's, of course, with its walnut frame and glass body with the continents etched on it.

And that's it for today.  The guy's coming to tune up the air conditioners for the season in a couple hours so I need to make sure that Durwood's up and decently attired, and I have to put a note on the renters' door that we'll be letting him in to do that.  I forgot last night  Have a great day and let's hope the temperature hits 65 today.  It's Memorial Day weekend, it's about time we got to stop worrying about nighttime frost.
--Barbara