In fact, the ability to start out upon your own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your own terms, not to mention the further and more fulfilling gift of getting again all over again — never resting upon the oars of success or in the doldrums of disappointment, but getting renewed and revived by some further transformation.
Getting started, keeping going, getting started again — in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm not only of achievement but of survival, the ground of convinced action, the basis of self-esteem and the guarantee of credibility in your lives, credibility to yourselves as well as to others."
~ Seamus Heaney | excerpt from his commencement ceremony speech at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | May 12, 1996
Re-blogged from BigMouthedWoman at Tumblr.
Sunday 24 June 2012
Reblogged from BigMouthedWoman
Friday 15 June 2012
MOTH!!
(I apologise to anyone who thought that heading should've had a trigger warning.)
The thing no knitter wants to see. Having registered at Ravelry last night, I collected up some choice yarn and works in progress to take photos this morning so I've got a bit of non-identifiable content up there. Imagine my feelings when a dead moth - small, and very beige, but (at least) also very dead - fell out of my favourite skein of yarn.
Said moth was squished to oblivion (no point taking any chances) and the yarn is now soaking in the sink. Touch wood, there was no evidence of any larval activity. But it did make me think that, as my production speed isn't great at the minute and the lepidopteral season is upon us, I really ought to have the works-in-abeyance under cover. The thought of baby moths chomping through Paul's new aran before it's even done really doesn't bear thinking about.
(Although, it does make me wonder about The Kilt Hose That Will Not Die - that wool's been knocking around for the best part of 3 years, most of it spent out in the open or in open plastic bags, and nothing's touched it. A project's got to be bad if even moths avoid it.)
There was another clothes moth I found, up on one of the sealed stash boxes in the spare room. The fact that both were dead makes me wonder if there's some mystical guardian spirit in the house who sees its mission as the protection of all things yarny from voracious insects. One can fervently hope.
Edited to add: A moth just dropped out of another project - I think the kilt hose. Obviously this is a Sign that I need to take a bit more care, and spring clean the works in progress! (The only yarn that was out was the strokable stuff, and that's now going to be washed.) Again, no larval activity and the moth was dead, so it adds a bit more weight to the Yarn Guardian theory, at least.
The thing no knitter wants to see. Having registered at Ravelry last night, I collected up some choice yarn and works in progress to take photos this morning so I've got a bit of non-identifiable content up there. Imagine my feelings when a dead moth - small, and very beige, but (at least) also very dead - fell out of my favourite skein of yarn.
Said moth was squished to oblivion (no point taking any chances) and the yarn is now soaking in the sink. Touch wood, there was no evidence of any larval activity. But it did make me think that, as my production speed isn't great at the minute and the lepidopteral season is upon us, I really ought to have the works-in-abeyance under cover. The thought of baby moths chomping through Paul's new aran before it's even done really doesn't bear thinking about.
(Although, it does make me wonder about The Kilt Hose That Will Not Die - that wool's been knocking around for the best part of 3 years, most of it spent out in the open or in open plastic bags, and nothing's touched it. A project's got to be bad if even moths avoid it.)
There was another clothes moth I found, up on one of the sealed stash boxes in the spare room. The fact that both were dead makes me wonder if there's some mystical guardian spirit in the house who sees its mission as the protection of all things yarny from voracious insects. One can fervently hope.
Edited to add: A moth just dropped out of another project - I think the kilt hose. Obviously this is a Sign that I need to take a bit more care, and spring clean the works in progress! (The only yarn that was out was the strokable stuff, and that's now going to be washed.) Again, no larval activity and the moth was dead, so it adds a bit more weight to the Yarn Guardian theory, at least.
Monday 4 June 2012
Twisted butternut squash soup
Well, there is a post with actual content on the way, but wisdom teeth on the move resulted in me feeling like someone had punched me in the head today, so not much got done. Late afternoon, @guineapig66 tweeted about making soup with butternut squash, which started me drooling so I decided to make some. And it turned out so remarkably well - albeit more like purée than soup, but that's not a criticism - that I decided to write it down so I don't forget it.
The best go-to advice for cooking butternut squash I've found is at Kalyn's Kitchen. I discovered this site a few years ago while low-carbing and, though Paul and I both fell off the wagon, there are a number of recipes on Kalyn's site that have become regulars, roast squash with Moroccan spices among them.
Ingredients
1 medium squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
2 tsp spice mix
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, quartered
2 sticks of celery, trimmed
2 medium (or 3 small) carrots
1 pint (or more) vegetable stock
Pre-heat oven to 200°C (about 400F, gas mark 6ish).
Mix the spices with the oil, and coat the squash with it.
Put the carrots and squash in the oven for 20-30 minutes. Then add the celery and onion and cook for a further 30 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes or so.
When the vegetables are soft (but not coloured, unless that's your thing), add to a saucepan, add the stock and simmer for 10 minutes - to help the flavours meld and make sure the veg is cooked right through.
When done, cool a little then blend with a stick blender. The soup will tend to thicken as the veg breaks down, so you may need to add more stock, or just hot water. If you don't have a blender you can mash the veg, though the onion might give you a bit of aggro. Stick blenders are well worth the money for soup-making.
My only slight criticism of this was that it was very sweet in the finish - probably from roasting all the veg, but partly from the squash being the type of squash it was. Younger celery, or more of it, might have offset this (as celery tends to be slightly bitter); alternatively, potatoes could be boiled in with the stock to make the flavour less intense. It's only a minor quibble though - with bread and butter this was a very good tea.
The best go-to advice for cooking butternut squash I've found is at Kalyn's Kitchen. I discovered this site a few years ago while low-carbing and, though Paul and I both fell off the wagon, there are a number of recipes on Kalyn's site that have become regulars, roast squash with Moroccan spices among them.
Ingredients
1 medium squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
2 tsp spice mix
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, quartered
2 sticks of celery, trimmed
2 medium (or 3 small) carrots
1 pint (or more) vegetable stock
Pre-heat oven to 200°C (about 400F, gas mark 6ish).
Mix the spices with the oil, and coat the squash with it.
Put the carrots and squash in the oven for 20-30 minutes. Then add the celery and onion and cook for a further 30 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes or so.
When the vegetables are soft (but not coloured, unless that's your thing), add to a saucepan, add the stock and simmer for 10 minutes - to help the flavours meld and make sure the veg is cooked right through.
When done, cool a little then blend with a stick blender. The soup will tend to thicken as the veg breaks down, so you may need to add more stock, or just hot water. If you don't have a blender you can mash the veg, though the onion might give you a bit of aggro. Stick blenders are well worth the money for soup-making.
My only slight criticism of this was that it was very sweet in the finish - probably from roasting all the veg, but partly from the squash being the type of squash it was. Younger celery, or more of it, might have offset this (as celery tends to be slightly bitter); alternatively, potatoes could be boiled in with the stock to make the flavour less intense. It's only a minor quibble though - with bread and butter this was a very good tea.
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