January Photos

Yes, I know it's March. I'm trying to get caught up.

I took these in early January on the Huckleberry Trail.

 

 

Garlic on My Windowsill

The head of garlic started sprouting, so I stuck it in some water on my windowsill to see what would happen. After sprouting like mad it started going brown around the edges, so I put it in the compost pile. The photos were taken with ambient light, eastern exposure, mid morning on a gray day.

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Layers unfolding inside a leek.

When you slice open a leek and see this (above) you stop thinking "soup" and start thinking "photo op." At least I do. :-)

Usually I rely on "Better Than Bouillon" Organic Vegetable Base to make the stock for my soup, but this weekend I thought I'd try a vegetable stock recipe from scratch.

Recipes from the Root Cellar, by Andrea Chesman, is a cookbook that I've been using a lot this winter. It's a great collection of recipes that use seasonal autumn and winter vegetables. Got celery root, rutabagas, and Jerusalem artichokes in your CSA food share? This book has you covered.

Some of my favorites include Maple-Balsamic Root Vegetables, Potato-Carrot Tart, Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Winter Vegetables, Barley-Vegetable Soup, Pasta e Fagioli, and the recipe that inspired my broth-making adventure, Winter Minestrone.

Since I was using Chesman's Minestrone recipe it only seemed sensible to use her recipe for Vegetable Broth. It's super easy, and relatively quick. Unless you decide to stop and photograph produce. Then it takes a little longer.

Once you're done photographing the cabbage, garlic, carrots, onion, leeks, fennel bulb, and dried mushrooms, peel, trim, and quarter the appropriate amounts, throw them in a big pot with dried thyme and water, simmer for about 30 minutes, add white wine and black peppercorns and simmer for another 10 minutes. Strain out the solids and you've got about 4 quarts of vegetable broth. It's pretty tasty even without salt. I'd estimate about an hour from start to finish (without photography), and most of that is just simmering time. Easy-peasy!

That Minestrone is going to be delicious!

Useful in High Winds

Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Photo by me, Liz Ackermann 2008

 We could have used something like this in yesterday's winds. It really sounded like the roof was going to blow off last night.

A Fresh Start

Happy New Year Chickies!

Yes, I know it's already a week into February. I'm also aware that I haven't posted since last June. I am a bad, bad blogger....

I've written plenty of blog posts in my head. Really. It's just sitting down at the computer to put fingers to keyboard that seems to be the problem. But thanks to a little nudge from a friend I've decided to forgo another Sunday in the Teashanty carding my stash of fiber with the fabulous Strauch Motorized Drum Carder and get back to the blog. Lucky you.

So. What's new? Well, I got an iPad last summer which has been wonderful and very distracting. Words I thought I'd never utter..."Wait! I just have to finish this level..." Computer games. Who knew? But not just games! I can watch Hulu  and PBS (TV on the small screen, like back in the old days), check the weather, go on virtual vacations with Fotopedia Heritage, browse the latest Ikea catalog any time, and create my own decorating idea books with Houzz. Fun fun fun! Apple, I love you :-)

And speaking of Apple, I did a very fun little project using iPhoto back in December. I made a calendar for 2012 using photos of my garden. The quality of the paper and the printing were impressive. It was also super easy to integrate all the birthdays in my iCalendar into the printed version. I'll keep it when the year is over as an album of the best of my 2011 garden photos. Here's a peek:

I guess that's enough catch-up for now. As I think of things past I'll pop them into other posts.

In other news...

For those of you who expect blogs to be useful as well as entertaining I'll pass along my latest web discovery/obsession.

Weavers sometimes make yarn wrappings using colors inspired by images, places, and objects to create color ways for their fabrics. It's a really useful tool for seeing what colors "go together."

Original image from Design Seeds

Recently I wandered into a web site, Design Seeds, that does a similar thing with colors, using a photo to inspire color palettes that could be used for weaving, painting, decorating, or craftwork. I've been disappointed in the lack of winter we've had this year, so I thought this example was particularly nice.

If you're looking for a jump start for your next creative project you might want to hop on over to Design Seeds and take a look. You may see colors put together in new and unexpected ways.

Until next time my little chicklets, be creative, and think SNOW!

Fruitful

Strawberries from our garden!

It's been a busy spring here at the TeaShanty.

Fruitful, one might say.

I've been out in the garden, busy as a bee. But now that our exuberant, and slightly soggy, spring has slowed down a bit I hope to get back to blogging on a more regular basis.

There are lots of photos I'd love to share with you, and I've started a new wee tapestry project. So check back soon for more posts!

What to do next?

So, the bean tapestry is off the loom, and I've trimmed it up and steamed it. The good news is that the bubbles seem to have gone away and the whole piece isn't as horribly misshapen as I had feared it would be. Actually, it's all good news. I even have a vague idea of how I want to mount it - but I'll need to consult with some folks about how to go about it. And probably I'll need to rummage in Otto's scrap pile.

Anyway, now I have to figure out what to do next. Please be very impressed that not only have I completed ONE tapestry, but that I'm actually looking forward to doing another! I've been playing with some of my photos in Photoshop Elements (wheeeee!) and have a few potential designs. Really, I have a lot of potential designs. I just have to figure out

• which one appeals to me most, and 
• which one I might have the skill to take on.

So, for your amusement and mine (probably mostly mine), here are a few of the possibilities. Please bear with me. I had a lot of fun with Photoshop. And do let me know what you think!

Carrying on with my veggie theme, we have "carrots and red potatoes in a colander." Each version becomes slightly more abstract. Click on an image to enlarge.

 

 

I think all three of these are a little odd, but way more interesting than the original photo...

Also, the Chives in my garden. An appealing option since I already have most of the colors leftover from the beans & eggplant.

Daffodils - from most to least abstract.

Does this one make you uneasy? Just wondering...

My buddy Adam and I moved a doorway in my house last summer. I call these "Doorway." :-)

I really like this one for some reason...

 

I also like this one. It seems very atmospheric to me.
It looks like it would need a lot of subtle color blending though...

The Little Red Schoolhouse in Cedar Falls, (or possibly Cedar Rapids) Iowa. My mother-in-law went to school in one just like this when she was very young.  Her mother was the teacher. I like the strong lines and intense colors in this one.

Although I'm pretty much ready for spring, I thought these photos from an icy morning in Happy Valley looked interesting.

I think the sharp angles in all of these would make them hard to weave.

So, there you have them. The possible contenders so far. What do you think? Do any of them make you go ooooh, that should be a tapestry ?

Around Town

Sunday was an exceptionally balmy day for January. I took a walk to the public library to return a book (A Rare Benedictine, by Ellis Peters). Here are a few photos I snapped on the way home.

Main Street Baptist Church. It's for sale, if you're in the market...

The first buds of spring!

Main Street, with our fancy new light posts and cross walks.
This the main business block of our 3-block-long downtown.

Perhaps not the most fascinating of subjects, but good practice with the new camera.

Almost starting, almost finished

Almost starting: Spring! Yes, the trees are starting to bud in late January. At least on Main Street in my little town. It was in the fifties here today, so no wonder the poor trees are all excited.

If you click on the photo you can see a larger version.

Almost finished: The Green Bean Tapestry! I started weaving the top hem this weekend, so soon I'll be cutting it off the loom. Perhaps I'll pop open a bottle of champagne to celebrate!

More Eagles!

I just had to pass on this link to a great blog, Life Looms Large. The author has given me permission to share her post with my small but mighty group of readers, so I'll just whet your appetite with this photo that her husband took at the Merrimac River Eagle Festival last year. There are more great photos of the eagles, and eagle watchers on her blog.

Mrs. Life Loom Large has interesting posts with lots of great photos. In fact, her blog turned me on to the online Digital Photography School - a website with tons of great information and opportunities to participate and learn through their forums. Hopefully it will help me get the hang of my new DLSR, which still confounds me on a regular basis!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in the studio culling old magazines. They are now tied up in tidy bundles to go to the YMCA thrift store. (That store helps support programs that benefit the Virginia Tech community and the community in the New River Valley. They offer some outstanding programs via their Open University program.) I have this hope that someone will wander in there and "discover" the weaving magazines and yarn that I'm dropping off and will get excited about learning how to weave.  Also, I've cleared out the binders and boxes that the magazines were stored in, and they will be going to our wonderful Guild Librarian who will hopefully be able to make good use of them. Best of all, "that corner" of the studio is nice and tidy now and I've eked out a little more space in my loft!

Today, as soon as it warms up out there, I plan on working on my tapestry. Does it seem like I'm avoiding the Warping Wheel? Hmmmm. Maybe I am :-)