The Good News About Bad Weather

 It is attractive to stay in one's nice warm sewing area vs. being tempted into more post-Christmas sale shopping when the temps are as they are today. 

It is -17F at present with the day's high predicted to be -6F. 

Baby, it's cold outside. 

And that is conducive to the time honored cabin fever tradition of sewing. No more putting off finishing projects when the alternative activities involve five layers of clothing and risking life and limb with frost bite or idiot drivers on slippery roads.

And being well stocked from a recent, sad, going out of business sale of a favorite fabric store there is no reason to venture out for additional stash building.

So finally we have:

A new ironing board cover.

Six new tea towels of MoMo for Moda Japanese cotton/linen.

Six new pillowcases to use up Julie Paschkis fabric. 

A log carrier.

 

And a good start on 68 little houses for a queen size

Suburbs quilt which may be called

Duluth. 

Merry Making with Faux Suede

Getting in the holiday spirit we got back to the sewing machine for a seasonal home accessory update. A very generous friend shared some painterly deer print faux suede from Spoonflower with us. Wish you could feel it. Isn't the design great?

And so fitting as on Christmas Eve eve morning we saw three deer walking right down the middle of Columbia Street. Speculation was that they were doing advance intel for Santa to make the Chippewa Falls run go more smoothly. Probably they were noting details such as the loss of one of our two chimneys when we got new shingles and that our Norway maple has grown another 10 feet up into sleigh airspace. Important time saving tips like that make Santa's job easier for sure.

It must have helped. Santa was very, very good to us.

Party!

Look who's ready for some New Year's Eve fun!

Always the hit of the party. 

Penguins reminiscent of Wallace and Gromit's arch nemesis, Feathers McGraw,

bring smiles in the buffet line.

But nobody wants to take the last one off the platter. 

Who could eat a face like that?

From Betty Crocker's Best Christmas Cookbook.

Hunt and Gather

Awhile back we heard author Sam Thayer  speak on foraging. Up until then we had no idea that many, maybe even most, of the plants, nuts, and berries that we see every time we go out in our Northern woods and waters are edible. We bought one of Sam's books and have checked out his website, Forager's Harvest. Now we are starting to see nature as one big pantry. 

Look at these:

They are American Hazelnuts. 

After realizing that the odd shaped clusters hanging on the ubiquitous, previously not even noticed shrubs are not mutant plant deformations one can recognize them as food. This is the kind of opportunity that hunter gathers like NDL delight in.

  

The nuts require husking, which can be a rather pleasant, even addicting activity that draws others in. It is a perfect pastime for chatting on a sunny screen porch or at the kitchen table.

  

Once husked the nuts are cracked and the nutmeats extracted. Taking a hammer to a handful of nuts is a surprisingly satisfying part of the process. 

Toasting brings out the flavor. 

Pretty, eh?

And now we can make our own Nutella, top a dish of ice cream, roll a cheese ball in them, use them in baked goods, or pop a fistful into our mouths as a snack if we are willing to give up an hour's work for one delicious moment.

From our first batch we made these previously featured Hazelnut Krinkle cookies.

Never did we think we would be making them some day with our very own harvest of hazelnuts.

So gratifying! So good!

Chlorociboria aeruginascens

Chlorociboria aeruginascens (say that five times fast) AKA Green Elf Cups.

Spotted by a keen-eyed nature lover while on a blackberry picking foray.

The rainy summer has brought out some amazing fungi, but this one is particularly charming. 

 9 out of 10 elves agree.

Titan Sphinx

Whose heinie is sticking out of the nasturtium?

Why, it's the Titan Sphinx moth of course. 

Aelepos titan is far from home. The most southern edge of his or her range is Uruguay. Wisconsin is about as far north as titan sightings are reported and their brooding area is the Florida Keys. Seems like someone heeded hurricane evacuation orders and hightailed it to safe space. Good call!

I guess if your favorite tropical hibiscus lunch has been blown out to sea, a northern nasturtium will do. Any port in a storm, eh?

Eclipse Underfoot

We sat on the porch under the big overhanging roof so we wouldn't be tempted to stare at the sun.

We could still see the partial eclipse.

And then many mini eclipses. 

 

And some teeny tiny eclipses.  

 

And even more on the sidewalk under our big shade trees on Columbia Street. 

In the end we think we had more fun seeing hundreds of eclipses than if we had seen only one  

big, full, real one. 

And our retinas are completely unscathed. 

 

Seedy Art

Got a tip on artful seed packets full of lovely heirloom seed varieties from 

Hudson Valley Seed Library.

How could we not order and share some?

Brilliant red, butterfly attracting, blooms for gifting? Grumpy, but fragrant gnomes? Gleaming edible flowers and foliage?

All right in our wheelhouse.

The true gift was that of a young gardener in the family starting some of them for us while we were gallivanting around Europe right during prime seed sprouting season.

She did a great job!

We have nasturtium, zinnia, 

and a bumper crop of lovely, lemon cucumbers.

So gifted!

Now to think of something clever to do with the beautiful artist-designed packets. 

Anyone? Anyone?

Look at this!

Portable Poutine

Poutine potato chips. No knife, fork, or napkin required, and perhaps minus a few hundred calories and the ensuing stomach ache one might receive from eating real poutine. 

 Hope the relatives leave room in their luggage for a bag or two of these when they come to WI this week for Christmas in July.

Warning: Santa has been sited in a red, Princecraft fishing boat powered by a 50 horsepower outboard motor named Rudolph. Last chance to make sure your name is on the "Nice" list.

One Fina Day

For a a garden club field trip. And we really did go to a field this time.

Fina Gardens, right in our own backyard in Hillsdale, WI, sells cut peonies to the floral industry during bloom season and rootstock by mail to any old body in the fall.

Some of these are headed for Hawaii where they will bloom beautifully for some bride who wants bouquet blooms just like in her granny's garden back in the Midwest. The ants have to stay behind.

This is Bartzella, an intersectional peony, and friendly model Earl's beard.

The garden club ladies had sooooo many questions.

NDL mostly looked and oohed and aahed and wished she had a big old yard with full sun.

Partial photo credit: M. Blue, garden club guest (and her amazing iPhone 7)

Look Who's Talking

NDL was asked to do a gardening Q & A for Volume One Magazine.

It turned out quite nicely. You can read it here if you wish.

Thank you to the kind neighbor lady who recommended NDL for the article and to our young neighbor lady-in-training for making NDL look good in print.

It was a pleasure and a privilege and fun to do.

To Dream the Possible Dream

  

Little girls can grow up to work for NASA. They cannot grow up to be mermaids.

C'mon Target! Get with it!

We copied another civilly disobedient shopper and moved a few NASA logo-ed items from the boys to the girls clothing section in hopes of being not provocative, but just a bit thought provoking. They are surely already put back where they came from and will not cause a stir, but one woman's similar action certainly did.

Perhaps Target and other retailers will now be getting a clue.

Go girls! 

And while we are at it, how about some changes in the boys section too? 

Sheeple Baaaand Together for Good

Our new, favorite UK sheep, Herdwick of the Lake District

are known for their smiling faces.

These lucky sheep even have their own sheep shop called Herdy.

You can read the Herdy story here.

It's possible we came home with a little bit of Herdy. Just a tiny purchase of something flat, unbreakable, transportable, and very cute.

And look where part of the proceeds go:

Did you see the part about the knitted bench where experienced knitters can sit to teach novice knitters?

This is one situation where following the herd is a good thing.

Nonna Was Here

Spotted in Tivoli, Italy.

Guerrilla grannies at work?

We would love to have seen them surrounding the tree on ladders of various heights, 

with crochet hooks flying. Probably under cover of night.

The nonno soundly snoozing in a completely upright position on the park bench below did not move a muscle as we carefully maneuvered around the tree to edit him out of these shots.

He must have been exhausted just thinking about how hard someone worked to create this lovely bit of street art.

Spring Beauty

Oh My!

Gorgeous!

Thank you soooo much to the mystery May Day gift giver. 

Did you know May Day is one of NDL's very favorite days of the year?

We started the day with snow in Cable, WI and came home to this beautiful burst of spring.

And that is why it is a wonderfully, whimsical (we are at the whim of Mother Nature) day to celebrate spring in Wisconsin.

Smokey Sez

Remember. Only you can prevent wildfires.

He's got a hip new look and a cool website. Smokeybear.com

Yesterday fire danger was "very high" today it is raining and snowing up North.  

Tomorrow? Who knows? Keep an eye on DNR signs for moment to moment status.

Camping and campfire season is almost here. Let's be careful out there.

Little Anne

Coming soon to West Columbia Street. 

Little Anne magnolia.

Buds are bulging. Keep your eyes open (while keeping them mostly on the road) for the flower show.