And Then the Crow in Pajamas Spoke

As Dave Barry says, "I'm not making this up." I just returned from a two hour district meeting (area of town where I vote). A slightly corpulent guy stalked in and sat on a desk near the back of the room. He was wearing a black mask with a big beak which made him look like a crow. And he had on flannel pajama bottoms and fuzzy slippers (ignoring the copious rain outside). His interruptions increased and his blood pressure went up as time went on until he finally exited shouting about, "There are rats everywhere!" I think he was referring to local politicians, but I don't really care.

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The Amherst Block Party was fun!

Sort of horizontal on fabric

Janet  Ryan, Adult Services Librarian

Our Seniors from the Senior Center Were a Big Hit

Limber Lady

Chamber of Commerce

Budding Ballerinas

Simple Gifts Farm was also selling grilled heirloom tomato sandwiches.

Their 3 sided reusable mugs were a big hit.

Band

Neighbor Farah promoting local schools

UMass Mascot Minuteman

TALL

UMass Cheer Leaders

On a Hoop in the Air

Another TALL Person

The DA gave out popcorn and handshakes.

 Bonnie registering voters for the League of Women Voters.

Town Hall at Dusk

This is how we know it's fall -- the pumpkins appear.

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On Thursday (today is Friday), we went to lunch at Judy's and had a honkin' good time laughing and eating. It was Sue's birthday last week and tomorrow is Lisa's birthday. Here we are:

(L) Sharon, Library Director; Tina; Sue, Munson Mem. Library Branch Librarian; Lisa, Jones Library Receptionist

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I decided I have to make something for the Sleighbell Fair.

It's a tea light cosy. (Or lacy candle holder) I bought the doily and shaped it.  :) I bought all white doilies and someone at the Crafty Ladies group said, "Off white would be nice." Mom came up with the perfect idea: soak them in tea. I used two Red Rose tea bags and !voila! I now have four off white doilies. Yay! (Thanks, Mom.)


Cheers! I'm off to more adventures.
Cheers! 

Sleepless in Amherst

What do you do when you can't sleep? Get up and cook! I guess it was weighing on my mind that I had a lot of things that needed cooking.

I have chicken thighs marinating for chicken tandoori. I had bought the garam masala yesterday after I had seen how many spices go into it. It was much easier to buy prepared garam masala!

[By the way, it's just 7:59 a.m. so this may be a little flakier than usual. I know I am going to pay for only 4 hours or so of sleep.]

The crock pot is happily cooking beef and mushrooms; I froze the other half of the roast. The chicken breasts turned out to be huge so I got 3 portions out of each one. Some have creole seasoning, some with marinara sauce, some with my own blend of spices. The cauliflower mushroom risotto has just finished. (I learned my lesson to set the timer for every 7 minutes. I kind of get lost to all other stimuli when I'm writing this blog.)

The new recipe that I have for Swedish Meatballs will have to wait.

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Here are some highlights from the Worcester quilt show that I went to last Friday.

This is my favorite -- the water is all beaded and beads highlight the canyon wall striations.

This cascading water was a type of taffeta or something. It's stunning in person. The camera does not do it justice. 

Gloria Steinem here is part of the Herstory exhibit.

Each of the owl's feathers were hand appliqued.

These yellow flowers were created by tiny (machine) puzzle pattern stitching which must have taken hours.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why this woman made the water look like a brick wall. I love everything about this quilt except for that.

This is another Herstory quilt celebrating one of the first recognized female pilots.

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I went to see "The Goldfinch" at the movies. I really liked the movie (my companion did not) and I don't want to give away the plot. Essentially, the story is about a young boy who is at the Metropolitan Museum when a terrorist bomb explodes. He gets a concussion and his mother is killed. The painting of The Goldfinch goes missing.

There are a lot of plot twists and turns and I enjoyed every one of them. I recommend this film.

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I'm sending you all good wishes. I hope you're enjoying this autumn weather as much as I am! I don't have to wear a coat but it's nice and cool in the morning and evening. It should be a perfect temperature at nap time.  Cheers!

Saturday Reflections

Tonight is Sunday, September 8th and everything below the Xs was written a week ago.

My lovely neighbors, Farah and Jon and young Sofia, invited me to a potluck tonight with new neighbors (Melissa and Bob and 2 kids), and another Bob (whose wife is away). It was wonderful! Jon made truly delicious ribs which he first baked in a slow oven for three hours and then he finished them off on the grill. I'm so happy that he made some without BBQ sauce for me! He also made fried okra, breaded with cornmeal, that was yummy. (I'm not supposed to eat corn meal, but I only had about 20 grains of it!) He had pickled some green breans and green tomatoes from his garden.It was good but a bit too acidic for me. Bob R. brought mushroom risotto that looked wonderful. Bob and Melissa "made" wine -- they bought it. I brought Caulimac which tastes like mac and cheese, but uses cauliflower and a fudgy keto chocolate cake.

Caulimac

Fudgy Keto Chocolate Cake

I used a paper doily to get a nice pattern on the confectioner's sugar, but as you can see, it didn't work too well.


So I will leave you with this lovely End of Summer photo (which was taken at Apex Farms).

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As I sat sipping chai and munching on a homemade peanut butter cookie last night, I thought, "What could be better?"

I'm chuffed to declare that by 8 a.m. today I had:

*  cut up and put steak into the freezer (12 single portions)
*  froze half of a huge package of pre-cooked bacon
*  cooked a large quantity of ribs
*   peeled a half dozen of hard boiled eggs (shells in one bowl, eggs in another bowl)
*  peeled and sliced a cucumber (there was a chef's salad in my future)
*  cooked and ate breakfast.

Needless to say, I had gone to Costco yesterday and had to store my "big food." It was an adventure that Nancy W. and I enjoyed. I think my favorite part is always seeking out the taste tests. My favorite was the brie even though I said no thank you to my favorite kind of cracker (with the black seeds).

I'm pretty sure I wrote the above one week ago because I ended up splitting the giant package of ribs with my neighbors next door and they invited me for a potluck supper tonight (Sunday)!

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The link below will show you the scenery at the Clark Museum.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/c8aVK1Z11JYupuyb6

Last week, Nancy W. and I went to see the Renoir exhibit at the Sterling and Francine Clark Museum in Williamstown, MA. It was Renoir's nudes which were controversial. At time, the only nudes that would be exhibited in public were either renditions of myths or (believe it or not) religious -- as in naked cherubim. He was the first to paint luscious, sensuous curvy women in a realistic way. It was also scandlous that he used everyday settings such as a tired shop girl snoozing in a chair or (many) portraits of bathers at the beach. I did not take any pictures. I know that is unusual for me, but I was drinking in the art. I loved it! The curator also put nudes by some of Renoir's contemporaries, but I feel his were the best.

The bonus was an exhibit by Georgia O'Keeffee's sister, Ida. She has a totally different style from Georgia and I had been ignorant of her existence until then. So I learned a lot!

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I did take a million pictures at The Bridge of Flowers, however. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kGzEa4hbEgLGMSSW9

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I forgot to tell you that on August 31, Nancy W. and I thoroughly enjoyed the Peachfest at Apex Orchards in Shelburne, MA.

https://photos.google.com/u/0/share/AF1QipPhrrnZ8abHEJ14BA2zGapF7qYf87cS4o49u5Ovb4IRZmuJ2JfcFlXsjXK6M4z7GA?key=UG01ejh6NWI5bXF4dTlOZi0xWEx6M1BSbW9mcWNn

If you copy and paste the above into your browser (such as Google Chrome), you should get the photo album for Apex Orchards. It was a fabulous day!

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Another cooking adventure: bread rolls. I'm not crazy about the taste. I think I don't like the taste of psyllium husk powder. I'm going to try using some oat fiber and maybe adding some Swerve (sweetener). Otherwise, it was a really easy recipe to make and the texture was great. It makes 6 rolls, but I'm thinking I'll make it into 12 rolls next time.