Kawandi Nearing Completion in Nova Scotia- guest blog

Colleen’s Kawandi (definition below) she is working on now, lots of hand stitching, nearing completion.

Also Photos below of two quilts Colleen completed in Fall 2021

Colleen writes from Nova Scotia –

The bright colours help when things can get a bit grey and dreary – a nice escape.

The Kawandi are all hand sewn from bits and pieces so it’s relaxing. I took a Zoom class Sujata Shah to learn how they’re made. Margaret Fabrizio is the kawandi maker who inspired me most. She is in her early 90s now and does amazing work. She used to be a world class harpsichord player (played Carnegie Hall) and I believe a professor in California among other things. She is on YouTube and has very colourful stories to tell including one about her friendship with MFK Fisher.” Colleen

Kawandi is a style of quilt created by the Siddi people of India, traditionally sewn by hand with scraps and are improvisational and frequently made of saris snd used clothing.”

If you’ve been following the blog, Colleen made me a quilted mug rug in 2011 and here’s the blog post

January 31, 2022 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: friendship, guest blog, hand stitching, Kawandi, Nova Scotia, photography, postaday, quilting, sewing 6 Comments

Cold Butter on Hot Buckwheat

Sunday Pancakes. Buckwheat. Hearty or Hardy?

Do you leave butter at room temp or refrigerate?

January 30, 2022 by Ruth Categories: food, PhotographyTags: breakfast, buckwheat, butter, cooking, kitchen, maple syrup, pancakes, photography, postaday, Sunday 6 Comments

Silent Sunday

January 29, 2022 by Ruth Categories: Photography, silent SundayTags: HIghland Park, neighborhood, photography, Pittsburgh PA, postaday, shadow, snow, tree, weather, winter scene 9 Comments

What Steve brought home

I’d wanted to take a photo of the empty container. It was too much to eat in one sitting.

January 28, 2022January 28, 2022 by Ruth Categories: food, PhotographyTags: chocolate, dessert, good, photography, postaday, raspberries, treat, whipped cream 9 Comments

UPS Surprise package holds Color of the Year

Link to Pantone Color of the Year. 2022 Very Peri.

We were on a Zoom knitting meeting and the UPS truck pulled up in front of my house. Just as we were talking. Joanne ( in Florida) said go get the package! She had sent it.

I opened it up and discovered she’d sent me a colorful mug, filled with shortbread wrapped in the same color. So fun. Thank you dear friend.

The only problem is the photograph reads the Very Peri as blue but it Is NOT blue

She’s planning to knit with yarn in that color.

January 27, 2022January 28, 2022 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: color, color of the year, friendship, Mug, Pantone Color of the Year, photography, postaday 5 Comments

Class of 1906

My maternal grandmother Charlotte Rowley- Rockford High School, Rockford, Illinois. She married in 1908. Had children in 1910, 1912, 1914.

January 26, 2022 by Ruth Categories: Photography, Throwback ThursdayTags: 1906, class picture, football team, grandmother, photography, postaday, Rockford High School, Rockford Illinois, Throwback Thursday, yearbook 7 Comments

Robert Burns Statue in Brisbane – Guest Blog

In response to yesterday’s post about January 25th being Robert Burns’ birthday

In my inbox was an email from my friend and blog follower Gayle. Gayle lives in Brisbane, Australia. I’d “met” her through the Woolswap exchange program she created and runs.

Would you believe there’s a Robert Burns statue in a park Centenary Place, directly across the street from where she lives in Brisbane? Here’s a photo of the statue. I’d a link in my original post of a list of sixty Burns statues around the globe.

Photographed in Brisbane by Gayle’s partner, Dean

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And here’s a comment from my friend Joanne with what her sister wrote after viewing the blog post. Joanne’s sister Mary wrote of the annual dinner that she and her friends celebrated in Canada, on the poet’s birthday –

JB says

Ruth – here’s a comment from my sister Mary up in Canada:
“Our friend Esther always had a special dinner for the occasion ……
We all decked out in whatever tartan we had (I made Nova Scotia tartan vests for Bernie and me) . We were allowed to bring Scottish themed appetizers (I took little oat cakes with a whiskey flavored cheese ball) (or is it whisky – actual scotch whiskey is spelled differently from the others).
Anyway Esther served the entire traditional meal – a modified Haggis (liver flavored meatoaf) served with a wee dram of Drambuie, cock-a-leekie soup, roast beef with taters and neeps (mashed potatoes and turnips), and a trifle for dessert. Dave spouted from memory the actual Toast to the Haggis as he sliced and served it, with much brandishing of a large carving knife and using his best Scottish accent. And we all came prepared with Burns poetry that we took turns reciting while toasting Burns. It was great fun. And it was there that a number of us tried Scotch for the first time and decided we liked it.”

It’s always fun to receive responses to a blog post.

January 25, 2022 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: birthday part, Brisbane Australia, Centenary Place, guest blog, photography, poet, poetry, postaday, Robert Burns, sculpture, travel 1 Comment

Robert Burns 263rd Birthday -a Reblog

Originally posted 7 years ago- it’s snowing today, too! 2022-1759=263

SCOTTISH BARD’S 256TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY – JUST BEFORE SUNSET IN THE SNOW-January 25, 2015

Steve said it was Robbie Burns birthday today. Born January 25, 1759.

We missed the fancy fundraiser for the museum last week, the Haggis and men decked out in kilts of their clan.

We missed the “not your grandfather’s ” Robert Burns birthday party in Lawrenceville and the one on the South Side with all kinds of scotch at Piper’s pub.

But we got to pay homage to the Scottish poet, just before dusk. The end of a January gloomy Sunday.

We headed out to Schenley Park to the Robert Burns statue (by Scottish sculptor J. Massey Rhind) and it started to snow.

Right next to Phipps Conservatory.

Mrs. Peacock sounds like a game of clue but here is a snippet of the article in the Mary 3, 1914 Post-Gazette.

For a list of Robert Burns memorials around the world, click here

Quotes

“

“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Gang aft agley.
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

(To A Mouse)”
― Robert Burns, The Works of Robert Burns

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;

My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;

A-chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,

My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I go.”

― Robert Burns

from Tam o’Shanter

But pleasures are like poppies spread—

You seize the flow’r, its bloom is shed;

Or like the snow falls in the river—

A moment white—then melts forever.
Line 59

“And man, whose heav’n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn
Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!”
― Robert Burns

January 24, 2022 by Ruth Categories: Photography, poetryTags: photography, Pittsburgh PA, poetry, postaday, Robert Burns. Scotland, Schenley Park, sculpture, snow 2 Comments

A Felted Bowl

My friend Ann in Colorado invited me to join her knitting group (via Zoom) one Friday afternoon. Everyone was knitting a woolen piece to be Felted into a bowl. it was fun to knit with them , virtually.

You have to use large knitting needles and 100% wool yarn to be sure it will felt. I was trying out Germantown yarn worsted by Kelbourne Woolens made in the USA. Our local yarn store, McWalker Yarns , had just gotten some in stock. I chose one 100 gram skein of Sage Green.

It took me a little under two hours to knit. I ran it through the front loader in hot water with old canvas sneakers, twice. A top loader is preferable for agitation and a quicker result.

Note:There are free knitting patterns to search online to make felted bowls. The pattern I used is in a book so can’t copy it.

I used a Pyrex bowl to get the shape as it dried

January 23, 2022 by Ruth Categories: knitting, PhotographyTags: Felted bowl, felting, Germantown yarn, Kelbourne Woolens, knitting, McWalker Yarns, photography, postaday, winter, worsted, yarn 6 Comments

Oatmeal in Another Form

Farm Journal Oatmeal Crisps (without coconut) and a cup of Ginger Lemon Tea

Baking a batch of cookies warms up the kitchen when it’s single digit temps outside.

Here’s the recipe but they call it Oatmeal Coconut Crisps. I did not add coconut to my batch and I halved the recipe. 1 c butter 2 eggs….

January 23, 2022 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: baking, herbal tea, kitchen, oatmeal, oatmeal cookies. winter, photography, Pittsburgh, postaday 15 Comments

Month: January 2022

Kawandi Nearing Completion in Nova Scotia- guest blog

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Cold Butter on Hot Buckwheat

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Silent Sunday

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What Steve brought home

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UPS Surprise package holds Color of the Year

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Class of 1906

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Robert Burns Statue in Brisbane – Guest Blog

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Robert Burns 263rd Birthday -a Reblog

SCOTTISH BARD’S 256TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY – JUST BEFORE SUNSET IN THE SNOW-January 25, 2015

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A Felted Bowl

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Oatmeal in Another Form

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SCOTTISH BARD’S 256TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY – JUST BEFORE SUNSET IN THE SNOW-January 25, 2015

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