Tags
cats, cooking, Cool Cottons, Oregon, Oregon Zoo, Portland, recipe, Sunday Sevens, travel, Wood Memorial Park
Thanks go to Natalie at Threads and Bobbins for coming up with Sunday Sevens, a sort-of-weekly series in which we share some pictures of what we’ve been up to.
Here’s what’s been happening here over the last couple of weeks.
It has been COLD and occasionally snowy here–a real winter, as opposed to what we had last year–and the whole family has been enjoying sitting by the fire in the mornings.
(Not shown: the wrestling match that followed this sweet moment by about 30 seconds.)
Last weekend, we were in Portland so that my partner could do the Solstice Ride on Saturday night–13 1/2 hours of cold, rain, and wind on brightly lit and decorated bikes. I expected him to sleep through most of Sunday after all that hard work, but he got up and went to lunch with me, and then we took a walk through another one of Portland’s amazing parks, Wood Memorial.
It looks a bit soggy here, because by that point, there had been 19 straight days of rain in the area.
That evening, we went to the ZooLights event at the Oregon Zoo. Spectacular, but so crowded, cold, and wet!
On Monday morning, we headed to Cool Cottons to use my gift certificate from my mother. SO MANY BEAUTIFUL THINGS–we especially loved all the sciencey fabrics!–but I had my heart set on dark, intensely colored fabric for a dress. The one on the left is for a shirt for my honey.
Another gift–my partner’s sister knitted us socks and cowls. These are mine; his are a beautiful blue heathery wool.
I tried my hand at making a traditional Christmas cake this year (a.k.a., fruitcake). Verdict: partner loved it and said it gave him flashbacks to childhood Christmases spent at his grandparents’ house in Scotland. Personally, it was too much concentrated sugar for me; as dried fruit desserts go, I much preferred the Ecclefechan Tart I made for Thanksgiving.
The other new recipe I tried for Xmas dinner was Yorkshire Pudding, a special request from my honey. They were easy to make and tasty, but I did manage to set off several smoke alarms in the house in the process of making them, and then had to clean the oven the next day.
Hmmm . . . not sure that one will get made again.
We’ve had such a fun couple of weeks here, I’m a bit sorry to say goodbye to the Xmas season. Time to finish up the last few projects of 2015, though, and look ahead to the new year.
STH
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Thimberlina said:
Sound like a lovely week with plenty of fresh air and walking – much needed after the Christmas cake! For my Yorkshires I have a stone muffin tin that doesn’t need any oil of fat so doesn’t smoke the house out. It’s from pampered chef which I think is American. My Yorkshires were always like pancakes and a disaster until I bought it.
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STH said:
I wondered if the gal from Yorkshire might have some thoughts on getting the pudding right! 😉 I had no idea there was such a pan, but I’ll take a look and see if I can find one. Thanks very much for the tip!
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