A gray day

More snow last night. At least it warmed up into the 30’s today. Sam and I are both learning how to dress in order to keep warm on our daily walk. You would think we’d remember from year to year, but no. It seems like a learning curve all over again!

I needed to stay home today to make bread. It’s not time-consuming, but I have to stick around to do a stretch-and-fold every few hours. I took advantage of being home to make some vegetable broth. It’s very handy to have on hand, for soups especially. I used to buy veggie broth in a box, but — why? The boxed broth is usually overly salty and I have a lot of veggies available to me. This particular recipe is Magic Mineral Broth by Rebecca Katz. Clockwise, from top: peppercorns and allspice berries in bowl, celery, onions, carrots, parsley, garlic, regular potato, sweet potato and bay leaf. In the center is a dark strip of kombu (seaweed). I forgot to get a leek from the garden, where they are huddling, partly frozen, and waiting for me to use them. I could still add leek to whatever soup I end up making.

This is today’s view of the islands off Hancock Point in Mount Desert Narrows. There’s a little flock of ducks bobbing in the water, looking very huddled but contented.

Last Saturday, we went to Blue Hill for two happy seasonal events and some shopping. Our regular winter farmer’s market has been reinstated, hurray! We used to go every week, but it stopped during Covid. It was a little sparse this past Saturday, but can only get better. There were two faires, one at a private school called The Bay School and one called “The Bizarre Bazaar” at an interesting shop called Working Loose.

The Bay School faire was very crowded, with lots of kids running around. We had a hard time getting into the spirit there. The Bizarre Bazaar was lots of fun. There was a booth called the “Glacial Erratic Fan Club,” selling T-shirts, etc. Sam bought a bumper sticker. There was a woman stitching motifs on demand using a chain-stitch sewing machine. I’d never seen anything like that before. There was a whole corner devoted to art supplies. I don’t need any art supplies, so I bought nothing but it was fun to browse. I did take a photo of this interesting pieced fabric art that I found very inspiring. I really want to get back to stitching. However, knitting and afghan repair are consuming most of my making time.

I finished the repair of the white granny square afghan. That is progress. Now that it’s done, I feel like it wasn’t that hard, and why did it intimidate me so much that I delayed getting started. I’m moving on to a red and white crocheted ripple afghan. It has several big holes in it and will be a challenge to repair. Until I figure it out, that is. I think I will start just making a swatch so I can confirm the pattern. I bought some matching red yarn in Blue Hill at Ebb and Flow, a shop that sells donated fiber arts items. She was able to match the red yarn pretty closely. And the ball of yarn was only $5.