So hot that the only thing to do was to read my book about the life of a Finnish-Swedish immigrant to the Northwest in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s. The Legacy of Ida Lillbroanda. Wonderful book!
Month: August 2018
5 Reasons We Love Knitting Afghans
“One of the reasons I love designing and knitting afghans is the wonderful flexibility they offer,” says renowned knitwear designer Martin Storey and author of the book AFGHAN KNITS. Here are five more motives for giving your knitting needles a chance to play with an afghan pattern (or seven!):
1Because the patterns are so straightforward, you can go to town on a great range of textured stitches or brilliant color ways, or a combination of the two.
2Projects composed of afghan squares or strips are so portable, you can knit on trains, boats, and planes, on your lunch break or on the beach, all with your knitting project fitting conveniently into a small bag.
3For knitting addicts, there’s room to play, for novice knitters, nothing could be simpler.
4With size, the sky is the limit! It is easy to change a small project into a…
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Hiding From The Heat Haze
The air quality is particularly bad today. I found our neighbor’s cat sheltering in the foliage near our house.
Meanwhile our cat is in one of her usual sheltered positions.
Everyday Moments
Everyday Moments
(Photo challenge from blogger Debbie at The World is a Book blog site)
The Islamic feast of Eid al Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) takes place next week. In the week leading up, Muslim families will travel to the animal markets to select their particular sheep or goat (normally). So maybe not an ‘everyday moment’ throughout the entire year, but the buying and selling of animals is an everyday moment for that particular week in the Middle East and throughout the Islamic world, for many hundreds of years past.
Family Legends
Napoleon
This weeks 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks topic is Family Legends. My family has several, but not one makes a very long story. So I have decided to list a few here.
Family Legends:
- We are related to Napoleon. First of all I don’t know why anyone would want to admit that they were related to Napoleon. I’ve traced that line back to the early 1700’s and I can find no relation to Napoleon. This story came from my maternal grandmother about her mother’s family. My mother asked one of my grandmother’s aunts. The Aunt said that she had never heard that story, however she had heard that someone had fought in the Napoleonic Wars. My father used to joke that he believed it because my grandmother and mother were like dictators. I believe the aunt was right and my grandmother was wrong.
- My 2nd great-grandfather was a…
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Omelet with chanterelles
Omelet with chanterelles
We had amazing omelets in our life more than once. I know I had it in the morning, evening or lunch with meat or without, mushrooms or herbs, lots of great recipes. One of the best recipes for omelet is the one with chanterelles.
One of the best mushrooms in the world, chanterelles are orange, yellow or white, meaty and funnel-shaped. They are generally described as being rich in flavor, with a distinctive taste and aroma difficult to characterize. Many chefs consider them on the same short list of gourmet fungi as truffles and morels.
Ingredients:
- 2 large eggs, beaten until smooth
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1 tablespoon chopped dill
- 1 hand fresh and chanterelles
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon butter
Directions:
Whisk together the eggs and sour cream. Heat the oil and the butter in a small cast iron skillet or a small…
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Lost Princes
Throughout history there are instances where fine young men and women who survived infancy were destined to be king but died before they ascended the throne. As historians, it’s always an intriguing exercise to examine their lives and the consequences of their death. Here are just of sampling of some of these princes who died too soon.
William Aetheling
William Aetheling, born in 1103 in Winchester, was the son of King Henry I of England and Matilda of Scotland. Known as Adelin (meaning Prince), he was the pride and hope of his father for maintaining his dynasty. Henry invested William with the title of Duke of Normandy during his lifetime. William fought capably with his father against the French King Louis VI. When Queen Matilda died in 1118, William replaced her as regent in England.
In November of 1120, William and his retinue were planning to sail from Normandy…
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Moremi
We arrived at the South Gate Camp in Moremi Game Reserve after re-stocking fuel and food at Maun. At the gate we learnt that our 1999 map was outdated! So we bought an updated one as a new area of the reserve, the Black Pools, Mogogelo area adjacent to the camp, had been opened to the public after our map was printed! This was good news as other known places looked quite far from us.
The campsite followed the same general lines of Nxai Pan with similar anti elephant fields in place. Fortunately the only stinkbugs present were those coming out of our car and unfolded gear that lived rather ephemeral lives, being rapidly consumed by the various birds that were attracted to them; clearly birds without taste!
The area around the camp was drying up but there were still a number of roads that we could not cross so…
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Killer banana
Nature in tooth and claw.
The incident I will narrate took place during our last year’s trip to the Mabuasehube area of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Botswana. As the observation was being published, I delayed its writing until this took place on 8 July 2018 [1]. For easy access I have also inserted the published document (Hornbill predation) as a PDF file under Pages in this blog.
Let me start by saying that if you find the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills likeable, you may need to review your stand after you read this piece.
While at Camp No. 2 at Monamodi Pan in October 2017 we were startled by the dryness of the place. Birds from the surrounding area will immediately come to drink in any water that we had around the camp. Common visitors were Southern Grey-headed Sparrows (Passer diffusus) but Cape Sparrows (Passer melanurus), Violet-eared Waxbills (Uraeginthus granatinus)…
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Voyage to California (5) – John Jackson Lewis – January to March, 1851
(1) John Jackson Lewis, (2) Edith May (Lewis) Rider, (3) Marian Faith (Rider) Irwin, (4) Marian Dunlop (Irwin) Guion, (5) Judith Anne Guion.
The following are transcriptions of John Jackson Lewis’s diary and journal of his voyage to California in 1851. He was going from New York to visit his older brother William in San Jose.
February
Diary:
(Feb.) 5th. Sea rough this morning, enough so to produce sea sickness with some of the passengers, and some sensations of the kind with myself. No land in sight to day, and nothing unusual to note. Sat in the cabin in the evening, and listened to an old captain and some young sailors (our passengers) sailing their voyages over again. They appear to have traveled quite extensively, Valparaiso, Rio Janeiro, Marseille, the Mediterranean, China and other parts being frequently mentioned. I have been much interested in noting the variety of professions…
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Janet's Thread 2 