Covering my container garden with a sheet of plastic (ok, it is a clear shower curtain) helped keep the basil alive during our cold snap. The plants didn’t go unscathed; there are some brown spots and browning at the tips of some of the leaves. They look hale enough to grow, though.
Sunrise Flour Mill recently published an Irish soda bread recipe, and I had to try it out.
This is the easiest loaf of bread I’ve ever made. I make baking soda biscuits often, but had never formed the dough into a loaf. And it tasted amazing. (I did actually use buttermilk.) The interior was soft, but the crust had a lovely crunchy texture. This recipe gets a place in my recipe box, and I’m going to use buttermilk in all my biscuits.
I have signed up for a steeking class. Steeking is cutting knit material; the trick is to do it without having the whole mess unravel. The class instructor promises to show us several methods to accomplish this feat. Several methods. Color me eager. We have homework before class starts, make a knitted tube. I have used some hand spun Clun forest yarn because I over spun it and it is rough to the touch, so I have to no aversion to cutting into it.
And because I’m me, I also made a second tube out of scrap cotton yarn. I blocked both pieces and when they are dry I’ll be ready for class… in a month.
I found a crane fly resting on my door wreath.
It is spring, so there are crane flies every where. The first year I moved to Texas I was alarmed at the size of the “mosquitos”, until I found out that these long-legged beasties are not blood suckers. Most varieties only live in the adult stage for about a week; long enough to look for a mate to make new crane flies, but not long enough to bother about eating.
I am most impressed that the wreath has held up. I made it last year and it stayed on the front door for many months. The paper flowers are just wired in, so I can reuse the grapevine wreath, but it looked so good when I pulled it out of the closer that I just hung it back up. Where it hangs there is no direct sunlight, and it is sheltered from wind and rain.
Another sign of spring, our volunteer grape hyacinth have bloomed! These have established themselves at the base of a cedar elm near the driveway. There was one plant five years ago, now there are several clumps in the area.
Critters and Craft 