Thursday, April 15, 2021

Hiding From The World/Sheltering From The Storms


I was thinking I might go to town today to do my weekly shopping and perhaps go to Target for the first time in well over a year to look for shelf organizing things. But then it started to rain and then Mr. Moon took my car to town to buy paint and I got into repotting a few plants and planting a few things and the day just went by and I stayed right here, right here in Lloyd. 

On rainy days the chickens spend a lot of time on my kitchen porch. They aren't interested in making dirt baths and lounging if it's wet out and they know that treats often come out of that door and so that's where they gather and chat and hope for manna to fall. 
I watched Fancy Pants pecking the gnats off one of the hens for awhile. I do not know whether she enjoyed it, appreciated it, or just tolerated it. 


He is a good little rooster. He's constantly trying to tid-bit for the ladies but they frequently rudely ignore him. Still, he continues to be gentlemanly about it. And Liberace is quite tolerant of him although occasionally he does take umbrage and chases the small man away from a lady he's courting. I never see him actually attack him although as I have said, sometimes the hens do. 

When I had my crazy shopping day a few weeks ago and went to Joann Fabric, I bought several yards of a nice cotton heavy gauze and I've been meaning to make a dress of it. I had forgotten that the pattern calls for bias tape and Lord knows I'm not going to make another drive to Joann's just for that so I decided to make my own. I know my mother used to sometimes make her own and I had the general gist of it which is to cut equal-width strips of fabric on the bias and stitch them together. Duh. I looked up a video to see if there were any good tips and as I do every time I look up a sewing video, I realized that I do not have all the seamstress accoutrements that would make these projects so much easier. I do not have the cutting surfaces or the necessary measuring and marking devices. I do not own rotary scissors. Mostly this is fine because I am NOT a seamstress. I am just a person who does very basic things with thread and material. But sometimes...
Well. 
Here's what I used today to make my bias tape. 


The cloth, of course, a pair of scissors, a cheap little ruler thingee, and a piece of sidewalk chalk that I whittled down to make markings. I started out using one of Mr. Moon's levels to use as a straight-edge to make lines with but that didn't really work very well. 
Actually, none of my stuff really worked very well and my bias binding is going to be pretty darn wonky. 
La-di-dah. 
I do have a tracing wheel and tracing paper but the stuff they sell these days is wax-free and doesn't work worth a shit. 
Anyway, that's as far as I got. 

I've also made a sauce for lasagna with yellow squash, zucchini, onions, mushrooms, peppers, chopped tomatoes, rainbow chard and spinach. It's been simmering for hours and I hope it's good. I grew such beautiful rainbow chard this year and I have absolutely no idea what to do with it except to put it in salads and cook it with my other greens. If any of you have great ideas in that regard, let me know. I have a loaf of sourdough in the oven that I started yesterday afternoon with plenty of oat bran and whole wheat in it. Sounds like a fine supper to me. 

I've sort of checked out of the world today. I made the mistake of looking at a news page to be greeted with a huge headline about the murder of a thirteen-year old boy named Adam Toledo in Chicago two weeks ago by a cop and am plunged into horror again. 
Things must change. They must. 
And here I sit, changing nothing, going about my silly business with material and scissors and chalk, onions and squashes, mushrooms and tomatoes. 

I don't know, y'all. I just don't know. 
Anything. I don't know anything at all. 

Love...Ms. Moon



32 comments:

  1. ah, but you ARE a seamstress, admit it! LOL! I would highly recommend a cutting mat (with measurements on it) and a rotary cutter...... basic, and would make all your many projects SO much easier. Your lasagna sounds good....as to chard- not my fave, but a sear with onions, bacon and a dash of balsamic at the end -not gourmet, but it works. I've had a peaceful day of not watching chickens, but repotting rootbound potted plants on my deck....very meditative and rewarding. And the laundry is all caught up. How's that for excitement?
    Susan M

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    1. Susan, you are absolutely right and next time I go to Joann Fabric I'm gong to get those two things.
      Funny isn't it how contentment has become more important than excitement? Your day sounds perfect.

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  2. It is a shame that Google Translate don't do Chicken Talk...
    FANCY PANTS Home home on the range, where the deer and and the antelope play...
    LIBERACE Shut the **** up Fancy P. If we are going to shelter on this goddam porch, let's be quiet.
    FANCY PANTS Hey. Who put you in charge dude?
    LIBERACE Mer Moon did! That's who!

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    1. That's right! Mer Moon put Liberace in charge and that is that!

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  3. About chard: I abstain from it, just one more green too many for me. So I'm no help there.

    I learned to make my own bias tape with none of the fancy tools, when I was in school. We couldn't get bias tape readymade, so we just made out own. And since it matches what you're applying it to, it works fine. As for wonky, nah, once you apply it, it will smooth out a treat. We just made the first cut on the diagonal, and kept cutting. No chalk or anything. Your hand soon learns how to do it. I got a cutting mat two years ago, over seventy years after I first started learning to sew. So you have plenty of time!

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    1. Whenever I've grown chard before there was just enough to add to other things but this year it is prize-winning and glorious! I think when I've made bias binding before I've done the same- eyed my lines. We shall see how this all turns out.

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  4. I can't bear to comment on the latest police killing of a little boy.

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  5. Believe me you are not alone. 13...and he had his hands up.

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  6. You get bias by cutting a strip on the bias. The bias is the right angle triangle, which you pretty much have there.

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    1. Yep. It's a right angle. That I did measure.

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  7. Back in the olden days I made my own everything- had no idea what i was doing but did it anyway. You gots the skills!
    Your chickens are so pretty!

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    1. Yes but you are intuitive with your hand-work. I am not. I AM intuitive in the kitchen but not with sewing. If I had to make a pair of pants without a pattern I wouldn't know where to begin.

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  8. I love that top photo of the chickens. Especially the chicken butt sticking into the frame on the left from behind that column. It reminds me of the appropriate response to the question, "Know what?": "Chicken butt!"

    The latest Chicago shooting is appalling. I'm stating the obvious here, but in addition to the very real racism behind these shootings, they're all about the proliferation of guns. If there weren't so many guns on American streets, police wouldn't feel the need to pull their weapons so readily. They wouldn't even need to carry weapons. (As many British police don't, because guns here are much harder to come by.) America has got to put a lid on its gun problem, in addition to addressing systemic racism.

    I don't even know what cutting on the bias means. I've never understood it. I suppose I could look it up, but the most I ever do is sew on a button.

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    1. Or as we used to say, "Tut-tug, Chicken butt!
      You're absolutely right about the guns on the street. It surely does look like Biden is trying to do something about that. I sure hope he can. And another mass shooting yesterday. Jesus H. Christ.
      Bias is cutting on the diagonal. That resulting strips are stretchier than cutting straight on the grain. "Grain" probably isn't the right word but you know what I mean. Before stretchy fabrics were invented, they often made dresses entirely on the diagonal which conformed to the body more closely. Lots of gorgeous old Hollywood stars wore them.

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    2. Ah, OK! I associate the term "cutting on the bias" with a sort of glamorous look, and that must be why!

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  9. We like Swiss Chard sauted in olive oil and lots of garlic. Cut it in 1/4 inch strips. Heat a large skillet and add 2 or 3 Tbls. olive oil. Then throw in 3 or 4 garlic cloves (thinly sliced) and the chard. Stir it around so it gets coated in the oil. Then pop a lid on top for 4 minutes or so until it all wilts. Add salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes after it's wilted. Uncover and cook another 3 to 4 minutes to drive off the water.

    It's an easy, tasty side dish.

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  10. There need to be less guns and police officers who are less afraid of being shot at, less trigger happy, less confrontational and less racist. I can't imagine doing the job of a police officer and I'm sure there is a lot of fear and judgement and internal stereotypes but there needs to be accountability as well.

    And if there were less guns about, that would solve a lot of problems.

    And the chickens gathered on the porch, love the photo.

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    1. You're absolutely right about the number of guns having a lot to do with these incidents. And by golly, there has to be more accountability.
      Thank you for liking my tiny flock's picture.

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  11. I have grown and used Swiss chard in my sausage & swiss cheese quiches ... my family loved those things! I have to admit ... they were quite tasty!

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    1. What WOULDN'T taste good in a sausage and swiss cheese quiche?

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  12. Your lasagna sounds amazing.
    I don't have any great recipes, I just cook chard with garlic and chili and oil, and mix it with some pasta and cheese, and it's great. Looking forward to finding new ways to use it though!

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    1. It was pretty darn good lasagna.
      Your chard idea sounds pretty darn good.

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  13. I have been tired all week. You have a lot more energy than me!

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    1. I've been tired too! I feel like I'm not getting anything done.

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  14. It's kinda nice having all these plans for a particular day - and then bugger all about them isn't it!

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  15. this is a violent country full of violent people and hate. I do not understand why some white people hate black people so much just because their skin is black or brown. they must have some sort of generational fear in their DNA that given the chance black people will return all the horrors of slavery back onto whites. but you know, every time I've been to Home Depot after refusing help getting stuff in my truck and I'm struggling to get the stuff in, it's a black man that stops to help while the white ones walk on by.

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    1. Ellen- I have found the same. It seems to me that despite everything, Black people are the ones who show the most grace. And I am humbled by that.

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  16. I love that picture of your chickens on your porch under the begonia.

    I say hide more of that chard shit in the lasagna. Glad to read some more cooking ideas here in your comment section, though.

    Made piping once for a dog jacket. Don't think she was impressed, but i like to think her friends were.

    Besos.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.