It is Wednesday again and that means it is time for the weekly yarn along.  I finally have some progress to report!  I finished my Citron!  I blocked it and then completely forgot to take pictures of it during the daylight.  I had two rows to go before binding off when I was seriously contemplating adding another section to it.  I had the yarn, but not the patience.  I had to be done with it.  The yarn is Madelinetosh Lace in Tomato!  Scrumptious!  It will go fabulously with my vintage orange wool coat this winter.

 It has been dropped hundreds of time so the pages were not in any order.  The rings don't match their mate and the pages are dog eared, ripped and the holes torn.
Yesterday was rainy and in the 60's (I know, in July even!), so I got out the cookbook, scotch tape and the hole reinforcing stickers and set to work.  The rings still don't match, but they are better.  I've taped the pages and reinforced the holes and put pages in their proper order.  It should be good to go until I drop it again.  But after perusing recipes while putting it in order, there are several recipes I'd like to try.    There is a while section on eggs and cheese.  Pretty soon, I'm hoping for an abundance of eggs, so I know where to turn!

This is what has been swirling in my head so far today...
*  My sweet little Buffett blew out his ACL (really the doggy version, but similar to the human ACL).  He had surgery yesterday and his initial activity level is to be nothing.   We have to keep him confined to one area, which will be really hard to do unless we get his kennel out of the garage.  Basically he can go outside on a leash to pee.  After two weeks he can walk up to 400 yards four times a day.  Every two weeks after than he can go a little bit farther.  But no running, jumping, playing, or hiking for THREE MONTHS!   Pretty much everything this Newfoundland/Border Collie mix likes to do.  He's only been gone from home for a day, but we all miss him.
*  I have come to the conclusion that my sewing ability and what I think I can do are vastly different.  I've already scrapped one project to make a shirt and I'm struggling with another one.  My neighbor threw out a glider rocker and ottoman last fall.  It was in perfect condition, just dirty.  I rescued it.  OK, hubby rescued it for me.  I bought upholstery fabric from the remnant bin.  Lluckily it was more than I needed.  The ottoman was the easy part.  The rest of it?  Not so much.  After this, I'll stick with knitting.

*  Potty training.  We are taking a break.  I am super frustrated with this process.  I guess I thought it would be easier.

*  The front range of Colorado is back in the monsoon flow today.  That means temperatures are much cooler.  Like 20+ degrees cooler.  I think I'll make bread today.

Happy Thursday everyone.

milk and cream heating

whey and ricotta

The ricotta recipe and the way I made it:

A portrait a week for a year.
This week:  At the Mt. Carmel Bazaar.

I knew they were small eggs, but when I compared it to the store bought egg, it was amazing to see how small they really are.

I have since put more pine shavings in their nesting boxes and made a little "nest" with little Easter egg decorations (that's all I had) in the hopes they will start laying in the box like good little chickies!

At mile 25!

At 11,925 feet

A portrait a week for a year.
This week: Wearing my old Scooby Doo slippers.  I knew she had one of them, but that night she snuck out of bed and was wearing both of them.  I couldn't get mad at her she was so funny walking in them.

It will be interesting to see what each of these plants really is.  And I hope that given their very late start  they have time to actually grow.

On the book front I finished The Memory Thief and returned it to the library.  My friend PC gave me Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah.  I just started it so am not very far into the book  It is pretty good so far though.  The premise of this book is two sisters who are basically estranged from their mother although one daughter lives right down the road from her parents.  Mom has some secrets from her Russian past that the daughters are soon to find out (and me too).

Happy Yarn Along Wednesday!

This week I wrote my first guest post!  Kind of exciting for me.  I stumbled upon Colleen's blog Five Little Homesteaders while I was perusing the posts from The 52 Project.  She is an urban homesteader in Phoenix.   She asked me write a post on our pre-fab chicken coop.  I call it Ikea for the chicken set because it reminds me of furniture from Ikea that is not pre-assembled.  It's a good thing she didn't give me a deadline, I certainly would have not met it!  Here is the link to my guest post. 

Have a great Tuesday!

 The nice thing about thinning the trees is the abundance of wildflowers that have been popping up.
 After a "hard day on the mountain" we are relaxing by dipping our feet in the cold creek water.  My brother and I used to play in this creek just about daily every summer until it would dry up.  Good times!
 Some beautiful flowers and grasses along the creek.
 After a hard day of work and play we went to Nederland for lunch.  On the way we stopped at the Carousel of Happiness for a ride.  Or five.  The carousel is a restored 1910 carousel with all hand carved animals.   The carousel is the result of a vision one man and he is the one who carved the animals, it is staffed by volunteers and the proceeds are donated to charity.
 She rode a donkey (twice), a St. Bernard, a camel, and a dolphin!  There are 56 hand carved animals.  Don't they look amazing?!
 I just had to tuck this one along.  Doesn't every town have a town cat?  Fred the Cat or Freddy the Freeloader was a big orange tom cat that lived on First Street.  He would sit on the newspaper box that sat right next to the door of the small grocery store and everyone would pet him as they walked in or out of the store.  The store employees fed him on top of his newspaper box.  The town vet gave him his shots and took care of him.  One day Fred didn't show up for his breakfast.  He was found in a garage on First Street.  If I remember correctly he had a front page obit in the town paper.  And this gravestone is in the lawn of town hall.   Fred was just one of the characters in the wonderful little hippie town where I grew up!
Wow.  We had a very busy day.  And I hope you enjoyed this short little tour of my hometown.

A portrait a week for a year.
This week:  her first day at Lakeside Amusement Park, a 100 year old North West Denver landmark.  It's hard to believe that I am halfway through my year long photo project.  I have enjoyed watching my sweet baby girl grow from week to week.

I really thought I would have finished The Memory Thief by now.  I am so close.  I really like it.  It's kind of quirky but with the premise of the book it really makes sense.  Aidan is a mountain climber who dies in an avalanche at the beginning of the book.  His wife Maddie has asked him not to go on this expedition but he goes anyway promising he'll be back.  The day he dies, Nicolas is in a motorcycle accident and wakes up with amnesia...but he "dreams" of Maddie and Aidan.  I've got to know how it ends.

I might have more to update on the knitting front next week, but for know what is everyone knitting and reading?

Happy 4th of July!  Be safe.