Anticipation times Three

What good things can you think of that come in sets of three? Red, yellow, blue. Sky, water, forest. Mary, Joseph, Jesus (hey- it's almost Christmas). Got more? Except for handbell practice, this is all I did today. What three things do you think these will turn into?

Oh, and someone took a picture of us looking festive at bell practice. This is almost everyone.

My back did not like standing in the kitchen all day. I'm about to go let it get flat. I do have to do a bit of cleanup, but not much.

See Two Uses for Flour

Two Handbell Christmas Carols

Here are the two songs we played on Sunday. This one is really fun. It's a medly of three Christmas songs about bells ("I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," "Carol of the Bells," and "Ding, Dong, Merrily on High") I hit a very wrong note, and you can't even tell! I like that. However, I also did get the timing right on a run that I was perpetually late with. So that was good too.



This is another favorite, but we've played it a number of times. I think you can just hear the camels and their bells. We Three Kings.



I think the church is decorated quite nicely this year.

In other news: The weather is really frightful. I bundled up and took my morning walk, but the wind was rugged. All I really wanted to do today was read and/or do another puzzle. However. I worked hard on some volunteer stuff that has been piling up, and worked on the pantry a little bit. Oh yeah... and I processed these videos. That does take some time.

See Concert at St. Joseph's 2023

Chicken and Chillin'

The day started off with bell choir. We played two songs, and I did record them, but referring to the second half of the title, I spent the rest of the day being tired and chillin'. Once in a while, I get to do this. So, I'll probably have videos of bell choir tomorrow. Most of my tiredness is due to lack of sleep last night. No big mental tasks or whatever, just awake.

However, I had promised Om that when I got the kitchen pretty well cleaned up, I'd cook a meal. We rarely eat together at home because we don't like the same things, for the most part. But, today was the day, and I fixed chicken marsala with baked potato and peas. I have to tell you, it was yummy.

So I read and napped, and now I'm doing another puzzle. I'm beginning to feel guilty, so I guess I'll be back to full steam ahead tomorrow.

See Chicken Dinner while Hiking in September

Curly Dock Seeds

Today, I bring you more than you wanted to know about curly dock, Rumex crispus. If you've noticed it at all, it's probably that you've seen the dark brown seed pods clustered on a tall stack. They particularly stand out in the winter.

Let's do that a little closer.

I brought some of those seeds home the other day. Now we are going to learn some of the limitations of the little cheap digital microscope I bought. First of all, very dark seeds just show up as blobs. The little light is pretty strong, but not strong enough. However, I was able to show the size of the seed pods. They are about 3 mm across.

I went and got an additional 60W light and struggled to get it aimed so it was helpful. I was able to show the general shape of each pod. It is three-sided with wings, and a seed chamber nestled in the center. This microscope just isn't what I want.

Note that I'm still calling this the pod. We still have to get the seed out of the middle. Most curly dock pods have one seed, but occasionally they can have two. There are a number of other docks. I can distinguish some of them by the leaves (not found at this time of year), but based on the edges of the tepals (the wings), I'm pretty sure this is the most common curly dock. And inside? We find a cute little 3-sided seed, only about 1 mm long.

The fact that the seed has three sides tells me the plant is a monocot (when the first leaves come up from the seed, there is only one, not a pair), and that the leaves will show parellel veins. Monocots include such things as all grasses, lilies, orchids, and several others groups of plants.

You can grind these pods and seeds into a flour, although I've never tried it. Maybe I should. There is plenty of this plant around.

In other news: I finished part 2 of my current editing job (1 to go), I worked in the pantry, and the words in Vacation from DMS is up to 24,807.

See Birdfoot Trefoil Seeds

It's Been a Lotta Years Since...

Most of what I'm going to show you today was from yesterday. I hunkered down and worked hard today.

It's been a lot of years since I bought a new jigsaw puzzle, for sure over 33 years. After losing my extensive and sentimentally valuable collection in 1990, I didn't even do any puzzles for a long time. Eventually, I started doing some that were given to me- all secondhand- which is fine. But I know I haven't purchased one. Wednesday, Meijer offered a coupon for 50% off a puzzle. Well... I gave in to temptation and bought one called Toy Shoppe.

Cathy and I opened it yesterday.

We took a break in the middle to eat some dinner, but finished it that evening without any problems. We agreed that it was enjoyable, a fun picture, not too easy and not too hard.

Today, as I was working on the pantry, I came across this. It's a latchhook wall hanging I made around 1972. We were going through a phase of liking big cats. I think the best that can be said for this is that it is not a kit, but I designed it myself. It was fun. It's pretty big, almost 2x3 feet. There is some damage to this. I could fix it if I were motivated, but I'll just put it away until the next big cleanup. I've done much nicer crafts that are more meaningful to keep, but I guess I'm not quite ready to give it up yet.

I don't think I've done any latchhook since then. I did design one that Omer's mother wanted, and then she hooked it. And one summer when Marie and David were visiting- David and Steve were about 8 or 9- we set them up to make small latchhooks, which they actually enjoyed doing. (I think they drew the pictures themselves, too.)

Also on the crafty side, I like to do things with paper, as you've recently been reminded as I talked about the Polish Porcupine Balls. But I haven't done much of anything along those lines for a lot of years, either. This year, I decided to try one of the many examples of paper roll snowflakes. They are certainly a craft, not much of an art. But I made this one and took it to Cathy.

I did work hard today. I am almost done with one editing project. I worked in the pantry, and made another, different snowflake. You'll see that one later.

See Polish Porcupine Balls