Finishing

I made those pancakes again last weekend. I think I’m addicted to them. Is there a support group for oatmeal pancake addicts? And I made that chocolate mousse that I was planning on, too. And it’s lovely. Just lovely. You should get on that.

And I finished scanning the autumn roll of film (p.s. I really love ektar.), PLUS finished shooting a new roll! So this week sometime I should be picking up a roll from the camera shop on which I have no idea what resides as well as my first roll of 120 from the Holga, on which I suppose I also have no idea what resides. Those could be all black or all white or stellar for all I know, and I can’t wait to find out. And show you.

Until then, I’m going to go warm up with some soup and then hit knit night at the bar.

End of Summer

My paperwhites are blooming and fragrant. My tomato seedlings are sprouted and working on staying alive. And it’s snowing. I can’t believe it’s February already, but at the same time, there’s still quite a few weeks of cold left.

This is the last of the roll of summer film. I know there’s some shots hanging around from another camera somewhere, but otherwise, this is it. I better get cracking on the fall roll.

You simply must.

I guess I should stop feeling sorry that I’ve not been in this space for over a week. This time of year just makes me want to sit on the couch or a comfortable chair under a quilt and watch tv and movies and knit and read the two books I’m chewing on. And eat oatmeal pancakes. I was craving steel cut oatmeal at the end of last week, and in the small bit of time that I actually did spend on the computer (with the exception of watching 3 episodes of Dexter on streaming Netflix), I came to Molly’s oatmeal pancakes and I couldn’t not make them. And you shouldn’t not make them, either. Because they are seriously awesome. Sweet, with the right amount of salt, toothy with texture from the oats, but soft and not overly granola-y. They kind of ride the line between a sweet pancake and a savory one, but not in a scary way, and I could totally see myself eating these for dinner accompanied maybe by some caramelized onions. I was a little worried when the batter was more than “very thick”, but as I said to my husband, Molly’s never led me wrong, and she didn’t here. I did add some pumpkin pie spice, because the lack of spice made me a little uncomfortable. FYI. And that decision turned out fine.

These things are great, so go read that if you haven’t already, and then get some oats to soaking in buttermilk. In the meantime, I am going to have to deal with her other recent recipe, chocolate mousse. Uh huh.

More Summer

Not many words today. Hopefully some summer will pick up the Monday blues. I don’t seem to get sick of succulents on film.

An interruption of summer for some winter

Don’t worry, summer will be back in this space. I’ve still got summer shots to load, and a whole roll of fall pumpkiny goodness, so don’t worry. But for a moment, let’s talk about winter, shall we?

I think people tend to talk about the weather when they maybe don’t have much else to say, or don’t know what to say. Lately it seems I haven’t had much to say around here, or around home for that matter. It’s been quiet. The weather is typical small talk fare. I think quite often we talk about the weather simply to have some common ground with people. I talk about the weather fairly regularly around here, and it could be for either or both of these reasons, or simply because I have some things about each season that I cherish, and some that I loathe, and getting it out there in type makes me feel better? I don’t know.

But today I’m talking about it because it did something pretty astounding last weekend out in the big open world of weather. Something that caused me to have to make a decision, which I still haven’t come fully to terms with. Freezing fog. Or hoarfrost. I’ve seen it on a small scale on chilly fall mornings, but I don’t know if I’ve ever fully experienced this winter version until Sunday morning when I went out to meet some friends to knit. I’d brought the digital camera with me for once, and when I saw the white upon EVERYTHING I swung through the Arboretum to get a better look. Everything was covered in white spiky crystals. I drove through canopies of white branches, stopped to take pictures of crystal covered shrubs, and when I turned around to come back out and looked across the lake, I almost passed out from the beauty of the white ice covered lake wingra topped by a treeline of white beneath a gray sky. It was beautiful.

So here is where the decision came into play. Go back and get the film camera and take more pictures of this event that I’ve never seen and who knows if or when it might happen again? Or go knit with my friends as planned. I went to knit. I meant to only stay for a little while, and it was lovely, and when I left alot of the trees still had that shroud of white. But they were losing it fast. I went back out with the pentax and the macro lens for the digital, and got some shots, but I think I’ll always wish I would have ditched knitting for that day and gone right back out to click and click and click and take in as much of that gorgeousness as I possibly could.

I did get a number of nice images, though, which I’m thrilled about, and I can’t wait to see what the film looks like. I’m glad I went out there in the first place, because if I hadn’t planned to meet my friends, I might have missed it entirely.

Summer and Fall

It’s not habit I’d like to nurture, but it’s not surprising that it took me this long to scan a couple of rolls of film, one from late summer, one from early fall. So there’s going to be quite a bit of summeryness going on around here for awhile. And then fallness. And that’s kind of ok with me, because winter is starting to get long. Maybe it was providence that I put off scanning for so long. Seeing that color is making me feel better.

This is one of my favorites from this roll of late summer film. I have a love affair with plums, I guess. I should try the plum jam I made last summer.

On Hitting a Snag

I started my first sweater a few months ago, the February Lady. I went gangbusters on the yoke, and then my cats, who love wool, seek it out like missiles, caught a couple of nasty snags in it, and I hit a wall. Sometimes this happens to me, kind of like when you go to the grocery store when you’re hungry and you just can’t make a decision to save your life. I couldn’t decide whether to rip back to the snag, which I hate doing, hate hate hate losing ground even when it’s necessary for the process, or to try to fix it, which seemed daunting and maybe not even possible. I think that air of possible impossibility was the petrifying factor, actually. If I failed, I’d HAVE to rip back, and I really really didn’t want to, not on a big project like this. On mittens, ripping back doesn’t seem so monumental as it does on a sweater that takes hours and hours and hours, if you’re me. Plus I was at a stage in the construction where there’s a whole lot of math involved to put a certain number of eyelets into a certain number of stitches, that doesn’t divide evenly. And that was pretty daunting as well.

So I let it sit. And sit. And sit and sit and sit. For three months. And then the other day I was invited out to knit at Lakeside Fibers with a couple of gals, and something happened inside me, and before I went I sat and fixed those snags. And I went to knit with friends and conquered that math, while kind of making it up as I went along. I took it off the needles to try it on and I’ve never done this before, I don’t know if it really fits me or not, but it’s stretchy and I’m going to just trust the pattern and not risk making it too big. I’m past those couple of big obstacles and into the lace and it’s not as hard and I thought and I’m running with this sweater again.

I am hoping to maybe finish it before it gets too warm to wear it. That might be too much to ask, but it’s lace to the end now and then the arms and I feel like maybe I can do it, if the cats don’t get to it in the meantime. And let’s just say I’m being Very Paranoid about it and Very Compulsive about putting it away.

Wish me luck.

Banana Bread

I am picky about banana bread. I found this out when I tried making Orangette’s banana bread and didn’t much care for it, and that was a shock because that girl cannot do wrong. Well, I know everyone can do wrong, but everything I’ve made of hers has been fantastic, so I knew that it must not be a problem with the recipe, but with me.

You see, I grew up on a certain kind of banana bread. One that is a bit drier and less oily than many, with a firm crumb. It’s not too sweet. It’s still sweet, but I feel like it rides the line a little bit. And it makes a great toast. So here it is. Maybe you’ll like it too.

(Psst, I put chocolate chips in on a whim when I made it on Christmas morning, worried that it might ruin it for me, but it was still good, even for my picky self.)

Mom’s Banana Nut Bread

mix in bowl
3 ripe banans
2 eggs, beaten slightly
2 tbsp melted butter

sift together:
2 c flour
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp cinnamon

add to first mixture
add 1/2 c chopped walnuts

Bake in buttered loaf pan 1 hour @ 350

Changeover

Dang. Tomorrow it’s going to be 2010. A new decade. I was looking through my flickr stream from the bulk of this year trying to pick 12 photos to put into a mosaic to encapsulate the year, also known as following the trend of the other people that have done so today. But it was hard choosing just 12! So I made another one similar to last year’s. It is always kind of nice to reflect on the year, and remind myself of the stuff that’s happened. Remind myself that that’s why I photograph.

Like that tattoo that I started and finished over the course of 6 months, of which I still need to take final photos. And the first trip to the Boundary Waters for me, camping in the wilderness. The couple of quilts I finished, and the one that I was so productive on at the very beginning of the year but then totally lost steam on, which is needing the second half of the quilting to be finished. I got that bread book and made bread, and it’s been too long so I should probably start some more. Forcing my first set of paperwhites. Learning to embroider. Picnics, travels to Kentucky. Tomatoes and autumn leaves, corn fields and landscapes, polaroids and film. I’m really needing to spend some quality time with my scanner on the two rolls that I got back from developing from SUMMER, too.

It’s been a really full year. Full of love and friends and making and eating and ice cream. I feel incredibly lucky. I really hope the next one is as prosperous, for you and for us. Thank you for being here with me, and enjoy some champagne tonight!

Time’s Short

I was going to stop by here and tell you about our Christmas, or about how much I enjoyed Julie & Julia even though most people seemed not to, and maybe about banana bread, but I got sidetracked this morning making a last minute post Christmas gift, and now I have to run downtown before work to pay the property taxes. So stories will have to wait! Adieu!