More Food 06-12-21

Food again.  After viewing my refrigerator I decided to eat out tonight and took KoKo with me to the Fitness Grill Kitchen in Yorba Linda.  We went early, about 4:30pm and there was only one other table occupied on the patio.

Here is view from our tabler just before we left to return home.  The waiters were setting up a table for eight behind us, so I was glad we were ready to go. It is so interesting to observe other people without masks, although all the waiters wore them.  The four ladies on the left were celebrating one of their birthdays and they were very animated and happy.  My "doggy box" is on my table.  Thinly slices of grilled sirloin with Bastamanti rice, grilled tomatoes with parmesan and two grilled green chili peppers which I tried a tiny bite and then moved to the far edge of the plate.  

This is their version of carrot cake which is more frosting than cake, but it had a nice flavor.  I wanted to lick the leftover caramel off the plate, but decided it was too un-cool.  

KoKo was very good, perhaps because he has been there several times before.  I take a long flat pad - like a very flat pillow - and put it near my feet under the table.  After he has checked everything out he will patiently lay on the pad until I am done eating.  As long as somebody doesn't stop and squeal, "Oh, a doggy."  which prompts him to get up and try to lick that person to death.  I wish people would apply the same rules that are in place for seeing-eye dogs - don't touch, don't talk to them, don't step on them!  KoKo does love people so he always has to respond to any attention anyone offers.  

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Friday Food 06-11-21

I used to love to cook and was considered a very good cook, but now I have lived alone for over 30 years and cooking for one is just boring.  I doubt if I could even make up a menu now.  I go to the market and buy what I have put on my list - the basics.  Then I wander around a bit and pick up some other things that look like they might be good.  When meal time rolls around I open the refrigerator and stare at what is there.  Sometimes I come up with odd combinations.  Here is one: a perfect Bartlett pear (and the second one to show how perfect they were), a slice of bread with a little mayo and two halves of sliced deli ham.  Along with my usual glass of milk.  Not much, but enough for this evening.  I have taken to eating a little something in the middle of the day, 3pm or so, then I am not very hungry at dinner time which comes about 8pm.  Many dinners are just veggies, I am fond of broccoli, carrots, spinach, and chopped salad.  Celery is a constant for me - raw, in something, or just braised.  My late husband asked me once if we could have something that didn't have celery in it.  It was a little surprising, since I like it I thought he did!  I avoid kale and green peas.  And liver!  If I want a REAL meal, I go out, but that has been difficult this past year.  I hope to go some place soon for my once a year steak.  I stick to chicken and fish and eggs and cheese, so a steak is a very special treat.  Anyway, food is not a very interesting part of my life these days.  Sorry to go on about it ,

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New small quilt 06-10-21

Yes, I actually completed a little 12X12 quilt.  I started it in January, so it was in progress for five months.  Hard to believe it could take me so long.  But then I have UFOs from maybe 30 years ago!  Guess I am an accomplished procrastinator.  Anyway, this one was going to the SAQA auction in October, but it has already been claimed.  I will have to make something else for SAQA or just participate as a buyer this year.  

"Scrap Trees"  Del Thomas (California) 2021  12" X 12"

Commercial cotton fabrics, cotton batting, cotton thread, ink.

Raw edge fusing, inking, machine applique, machine quilting, bound edge. 

 

Back without label or sleeve. 

Detail with bird in fabric.

Detail with bird in fabric.

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Wordless Wednesday 06-09-21

                                  

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Looking back 10 years 06-08-21

Today friend Carol and I shopped at Tiddlywinks children's store near the Circle of Orange, following it up with lunch at Rutabegorz, about a block further north.  If you are looking for children's gifts that don't require batteries and will give the kids some education while they are playing, Tiddlywinks is the place to go.   With the help of a knowledgeable sales lady (maybe her name was Jean) Carol has some great gifts for grands and grands of a friend.  Rutabegorz lunch was delicious, but it was too crowded on the wrap around patio so we ate inside - very quiet and peaceful.  If we had gone before shopping or waited until about 1pm we could have dined among the gorgeous flowers.  Next time. The menu is extensive and everything I have ever eaten there has been excellent.

I was thinking about years past and wondered where I was ten years ago on June 8, 2011, so I looked in my picture files.  So nice to have pictures on the computer and can find them by date, even if there are no captions.  I had just returned from a trip to Denver for that year's SAQA conference and the closest I could come to the date was June 3rd and I found images taken when Carol and I went on a bird walk at the Fullerton Arboretum.  I only managed one bird image and it is too poor to post, but there were lots of blooms and critters. It was a terrific day, not too hot, and only about ten people on the walk along with the guide.  I don't know why we have never done it again, I'm sure the Arboretum still offers them, probably not this past year though. 

The jacarandas were blooming then, as they are now.  I can never get quite the right color with my cell phone, the flowers are more violet than this shows. 

The Arboretum has many exotic plants and trees.  This large bloom is from a Monkey Hand tree (Chiranthodendron pentadactylon), a medium sized tree native to Guatemala and southern Mexico.  This shows the size of the bloom in the hand of the guide. 

And growing in the tree.  The flowers are not profuse and sort of hide under the large lobed leaves.  This image shows the "hand". 

There is a nice size pond edged by rocks and lots of water loving plants.  There were many turtles and baby turtles sunning themselves and ignoring a couple of mallards floating around.  

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A hitchhiker today 06-07-21

Can you see this little guy/gal that decided to take a ride? 

I don't know if this is a honey bee or a wild bee, but it didn't want to fly away even as we walked.  I finally put a leaf in front of it, coaxed it to step forward and put the leaf in a bush.   I find it so amazing that it would land on the leash with all the great outdoors available with many more appropriate places.  KoKo was indifferent. 

The June Glooms are truly here and I had to turn on the little electric heater for a bit this morning while I was at the computer.  Good thing I hadn't put it away yet.  We are supposed to continue cool and gloomy until late next week when the prediction is for 90F!  The park we look into out the back windows is a vast stretch of brown since the drought conditions do not allow watering there.  Brush fires will be coming soon.

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Quilt from Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection 06-06-21

Sunday again and another quilt from the Collection.   I purchased this one from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, CO, when I was traveling.   I think the exhibit was of quilts made by members of the Front Range Quilters, a large Colorado guild that tends toward art quilts.  I was attracted to the theme, the unusual color, and the interesting technique.  

"An Exaltation of Larks"  Mary Quinn - Colorado 2010  33"W X 67"L

Cotton fabric, paint/ink, cotton batting, cotton thread. 

 Deconstructed silk screen, hand applique, inking, machine quilting. 

This is really a whole cloth quilt with the exception of this nest with it's soft blue eggs appliqued a the lower left.  

:Many details if you look close.  The larks with their beaks open all have musical notes coming out of their beaks.  

I looked at my blog posts back to 2010 and discovered that I have never posted this quilt before!  Don't know why not, guess it was sort of lost in the 360+ quilts in the Collection.  I wonder if there are others that I haven't posted.  

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