Pancakes, Anyone?

I'm kind of in a slump lately but I have just enough oomph to sit on the couch and crochet play food.  LC told me she needed cheese and pancakes.  I made one slice of cheese and plan to make more but last night I embarked on pancake making.  I stayed up until after 11 o'clock making the pancake but decided that it really needed the pat of butter to look appetizing so I made the butter this morning before going down to do laundry and tidy up my sewing/knitting area.  As so often happens I got sidetracked emptying shelves, rearranging books etc. before settling down to the real work of putting away my "toys" that have accumulated on the ironing board and any other flat surface since before Christmas.  Now I have a brown paper grocery bag for donation and two grocery bags of books to ration out to Little Free Libraries, plus deposits in the recycling and trash.  Now there's actually room to work down there and my sewing and knitting books are a little better organized and accessible.  Also now I can sit in the living room on the couch making more cheese (Swiss maybe?) and pancakes with a clear conscience since the tidying AND the laundry are all done, plus I fixed a bib that needed some re-working--since LC was OJ's age.  Never let it be said that I hasten into mending things.

The warm-ish days we've had the last couple weeks have gotten me thinking about next summer's garden, especially since the tomatoes in pots on the patio was pretty much of a bust last year.  So I stopped at the library the other day and picked up a copy of Straw Bale Gardening which looks easy and says it's weed-free.  WEED-FREE!  I'm all for it since I don't weed unless I can't see the food plants.  Somebody a few blocks from here (that I drive by on my way to the pharmacy) has been gardening in straw bales for a few years and I'm intrigued.  Then I was talking about it at Friday Night Knitting and MW said he has the same book and said I can borrow it if I want when I have to return the library one.  I'm already one step ahead, there's landscape fabric already pegged down.  This should be fun and it was developed by a guy in Minnesota so I know it'll work here.  AND MW said that the University Ag Extension office here has a class on it.  Woohoo!  I'll contact them tomorrow and see about signing up.


I went out this morning to fill all the feeders.  Word went out quickly and as soon as I came inside a flock of sparrows zoomed in and a squirrel was eyeing up the peanut wreath.  Of course, as soon as I depressed the camera shutter they all flew off or hid in the tree but I'm putting this on here anyway and you'll just have to imagine the chirping and fluttering.

January 29--South Africa, Zulu, Earrings.  They looked like spinners for a board game but I couldn't imagine what you would do with your spin.  There weren't any numbers and the shapes were the same on each side.  I stood frowning at them until someone read the little sign aloud.  "Them's earrings made from 1940s linoleum," the guy said.  "Oh, cool," his gum-smacking girlfriend said.  Only it sounded like "kewel."  Ugh, I detest careless speech and this pair brought out my latent English teacher.  It took all my self-control not to launch into a lecture about grammar and vocabulary and pronunciation on the spot.

Another thing LC asked me to make was a "grumpy toad."  I looked at all the yarn in Joann's yesterday and this was the toad-iest yarn I could find.  It's bulky weight but I'll just use a bigger hook.  Doesn't it look toad-y to you?
--Barbara