Mad Caterpillar

Some friends of ours have a sweet little calico cat that recently had a litter of four kittens. My son instantly fell in love, and our friends graciously offered to give him one when it was old enough to be parted from mama kitty.

I wasn't so sure that I wanted another cat. My last cat died several years ago, and I haven't had the heart to get a new cat since that happened. He was a very special kitty and his last year was a rough one, for him and for me. I just wasn't ready for a new cat yet, but my son was truly smitten and not to be denied. My mom suggested that he be given a task to see if he was willing to earn the privilege of getting one of the kittens. He was to feed and water our dog, morning and night, and do scooping duty on weekends, for a whole month. I truly thought he'd get sick of it a quarter of the way through, but no -- he'd really fallen hard and he took his task seriously.

So a couple weekends ago we went back to pick up his new kitten, a calico that he'd decided to name Momo. While he was fussing with her, one of her brothers, an orange tiger striped tabby, came up to me, crawled into my arms, licked my nose, started purring, and fell asleep.

I plead insanity brought on by extreme cuteness. We brought him home too.

Oh yeah, I've been knitting too! Here's a cardigan that will be winging its way to the east coast shortly for a special baby due in July. Hopefully I've sized it correctly so that it will fit him or her (the parents love surprises) by the fall.

The pattern is "Sam" from the Mission Falls Wee Knits book. I love this pattern, it's quick and very fun to knit. This one was done in Mission Falls 1824 Wool, which is one of my favorite yarns to knit with. I have another on the needles that is almost done as well, this one in the Mission Falls 1824 cotton for a Bay Area baby to be born next month. I make one change to the pattern when I knit it -- I omit the first bobble on the cast on edge of the sleeves. I like how the sleeves look better without it, and also I worry that a baby might find it too tempting to chew on.

And just for the heck of it, here's a yummy recipe straight from my childhood to share with you. I got the sudden urge to make these this week, and after getting the recipe from Mom I discovered they were just as delicious as I remembered!

Salmon Patties

• 1 large (14oz) can of wild salmon
  
• 1 egg
  
• 2 cups cracker crumbs
  
• 1/2 onion, chopped fine
  
• dill
  
• salt
  
• pepper
  
• canola oil
  

Put half of the cracker crumbs in a bowl and set aside. Combine the salmon, egg, onions, and spices in a bowl and mix well. Gradually mix in the rest of the cracker crumbs -- stop when the mixture gets to the point where it can stick together when rolled in a ball, but is still moist. Form the mixture into patty shapes about 3" in diameter and 3/4" thick, and coat the outside of each patty with the reserved crumbs that were set aside. You can make them any size you like, but at this size you should get about 8 patties.

Fill a shallow frying pan with about 1/4" of canola oil and place over medium-high heat. Fry the patties for about 5 minutes on each side. Place the patties on a paper towel covered plate before serving to soak off any excess oil. These are great with any number of sides -- green salad, mac-n-cheese, steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, sauteed greens... yum!

Posted by Danielle at 10:11 PM | | Comments (2)

A few weeks ago, while visiting my mother, my stepfather pulled me aside to show me a picture in a book. It was a huge book all about orchids, the type that belongs on a coffee table, filled with glossy color pictures and tons of information. He pointed to the picture in question. It was an image of a room where every nook and cranny was filled with orchid plants. “Read the caption,” he said. I can’t remember the exact wording but it went something like this: This private collection of almost 2,000 orchids all began with the gift of a single plant.

“This is all your fault,” said my stepfather, with barely the hint of a smile on his face.

He was referring to my mother’s modest but rapidly growing collection of orchids. And yes, the collection all started with a single gift, from me. About a year ago, my mother fell in love with a plant that was sitting in my brother’s kitchen. It was a very pretty plant. It had tall thin leaves that looked like tulip leaves, but much thinner. Shooting up through these leaves were sprays of exquisite, delicate, pale yellow blooms. The flowers were tiny, and there must have been hundreds of them on this single plant. My brother’s wife, a botanist, told us that the plant was an orchid.

A few months later I was looking for a birthday gift for my mother. I remembered how much she loved my sister-in-law's orchid so I called to ask her what to look for. She told me it was called an Oncidium Twinkle. A quick search on Google led me to Orchid Web, and I gave them a call. Turns out they were in the middle of a snowstorm at the time and there was no way they’d be able to ship plants in that weather. So I shelved the idea until later -- Mother’s Day 2007. She was so surprised and happy about it, even though the plant would require some time before it would have any blooms. Little did we know that single plant would be the start of a rather addicting hobby.

It turns out that people are quite fanatical about orchids. I had no idea. Several months later, my mother is a card carrying member of her local Orchid Society. She has an area of her house dedicated to growing orchids, complete with a special growing light on a timer. She knows the latin names for her plants, each of which has its own watering and fertilization needs. It’s a fascinating hobby, orchid collecting, and while I am not much of a gardener myself, I’m enjoying hearing about it secondhand through her.

I recently accompanied her on a greenhouse tour with her local Orchid Society. It was a small tour of some of the society members’ private greenhouses, and it was really interesting to see the different setups – and the amazing plants – that the folks had. One woman had built a professional greenhouse from a kit. It was reasonably large – about eight people could comfortably gather around the main central table – and fully climate controlled with heat sensors and humidifying misters. It was full of light and it was peaceful and very professional looking – and her plants were gorgeous. Huge yellow blooms with spindly tendrils coming off of them. Small brownish red flowers that smelled like chocolate – really! Huge pink flowers similar to those you’ll see on the orchids for sale in the grocery store, only bigger and healthier. Another member, a veteran electrician, had built a greenhouse off of his garage. It was huge and haphazard, and not as professional looking as the first greenhouse, but it was filled to bursting with beautiful blooming plants – including a vanilla orchid! I had no idea that vanilla beans came from the seed pod of a type of orchid plant. Another member had built a greenhouse on his deck, right outside his home office so that he could look at his flowers while he was working. It was in this greenhouse that a particular plant caught my eye. It was a small thing, and had no flowers, but the foliage was nothing short of stunning. Its leaves were a deep emerald green, with intricate veins that were so white against the velvet green that they seemed to glow. The pattern that the veins made in the leaves was so beautiful and delicate. I’d never seen anything like it, and I asked what it was. “It’s a jewel orchid,” the owner told me. “They don’t have very pretty blooms, but people collect them for the beauty of their foliage.”

Now, I have to say I have no interest in houseplants. I kill them, no matter how hard I try to keep them alive. But I wanted one of these jewel orchids. Badly.

A few weeks ago, there was an orchid show at a local nursery in Seattle, and it happened to be on the same weekend that my mom was here for a visit. So we went together. There were all sorts of orchids there, and my mom’s collection grew a bit more. And she bought me a present, too. My very own jewel orchid. Ludisia discolor var alba to be more specific.

It is so very pretty, and I love it. But alas, my not-so-green thumb has already become a problem. Note the very unhappy and brown lower leaf:

My mother tells me that the bottom leaf on many orchids will often grow brown and fall off, but I’m worried that this isn’t a good sign. I’m doing everything the grower told me to do – watering it twice a week but keeping it well drained, misting it every now and again, and keeping it in a window that does not get direct sunlight. Still, I don’t think it’s very happy.

So after some googling around, I learned that this particular plant is often included in terrariums. And I had an idea. I cut the raised portion off of a Gladware container lid so that I could use it to stand the orchid in a dish of water without the pot actually coming into contact with the water. Then I cut the top off of a plastic container and inverted it over the plant – voila, a makeshift terrarium. I hope it helps. Wish me luck.

And I guess I should admit this now. Despite my reservations, my small collection has grown a tiny bit…

From left to right, for those of you that might be interested: Dendrobium Rigidum, Ascocentrum Miniatum, and Tolumnia Passionata. We’ll see if I can manage to get any of these to bloom in the coming years. (The only one mature enough to bloom anytime soon is the one on the right.)

A single plant indeed. Sigh…

Posted by Danielle at 04:14 PM | | Comments (1)

I was recently cleaning out my office and purging a rather large portion of a previous life. I came across an old sketchbook filled with doodles -- most of them were just scribbles but there were a few pages that I couldn't bring myself to throw out. So I cut them out and pasted them into my current ink-and-paper journal. The images in this entry are some of my favorite doodles from those pages. I had to laugh when I saw the first one posted above, the doodle of the rather vexed/concerned/frightened character. I'd forgotten about drawing her. I'm not a particularly good artist and cannot usually render such expression in faces. But this one exactly captured the feeling I was having at the time that I drew it.

These next doodles were ideas for a tattoo. (No, none of these ever ended up on my body.) I don't have any tattoos yet, and go back and forth thinking about whether or not I really want one. If I ever do get one, I want it to be original, something that I've designed (or something designed specifically for me), that has a lot of personal meaning.

I love it when I come across old bits of paper, notes, or doodles like these, done a long time ago and long forgotten. Ten years ago I had a purse stolen from my desk in a downtown Seattle office. I was very frustrated, needless to say -- replacing one's driver's license and credit cards is always a hassle, and my checkbook was in there so I had to cancel my bank account too. I didn't have a lot of cash in the purse so it wasn't a huge loss, except for two things. My special pen and my ever-present small notebook were in that purse. The pen was a lovely Mont Blanc LeGrand ballpoint pen, given to me as a gift and I absolutely loved it. (I have a thing for nice pens...) I was very sad thinking of that pen sitting in some dingy hock shop somewhere after whatever jerk stole my purse traded it in for a few bucks. And I was so upset about the notebook. I always keep a little pad of paper with me so that I can jot down names, numbers, notes, ideas, etc. Never a good thing to lose. I figured I'd never see either again.

A little over a year ago, I got a phone call out of the blue from a man I didn't know. He asked for me by name, so I assumed he was a telemarketer and I started to give one of my usual "sorry don't need that, gotta go" excuses when he asked me if my purse had been stolen. It turns out he was a maintenance engineer for an apartment complex downtown, and he'd found my old purse wedged behind a hot water tank there that he was working on.

He mailed it to me the next day. I sent him a small reward for the effort, although I didn't expect anything more than some dried out leather and cancelled credit cards. When I got it back, I was absolutely thrilled that not only was my notebook still intact, but my pen was there, too! I couldn't believe it!

It was so much fun to read through my little notebook from the past! I remembered long-forgotten names, found some song lyrics I'd written (crap, but still a hoot to read), and best of all, some notes I'd jotted down while on a business trip to Chicago! As I usually do with these things, I took the pages that I wanted to keep and pasted them in my journal...

"Houston's, 12:00am on Tuesday, July 28 [1997] (Weds. 7/29) in Chicago.

John Marowski* from Acme Industries* passed out at the dinner table.

Jane Develle* (company Freelancer-in-Training) sick in the bathroom.

Me at the table, alone, wishing I was anywhere but here. What a life."

* Names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.

Reading these notes completely transported me back to the night in question. At the time I worked for a software company, and had taken a trip to Chicago to train a new customer. On one of the nights I was there, I went to dinner with a couple of the customer's employees and two of the salespeople that I worked with. At that dinner, I watched three people consume more alcohol than I would have thought possible. Shots of tequila accompanied every glass of beer, and there were many glasses of beer... One of the customers passed out at the table, and the other got very sick in the restaurant bathroom. One of the salespeople that I worked with got drunk enough that I had to confiscate his keys and call a cab to get him home. Fortunately, the other salesperson was as sober as I was that evening. She went to the hotel next door to see if they had a room where we could take the guy that had passed out. It was while she was doing this that I wrote the note above. When she returned, the two of us half-dragged half-carried the unconscious guy next door (fortunately the hotel had vacancies) and plunked him down in a room to sleep it off. (The girl that had gotten sick had a friend come to pick her up.)

I remember going to the customer's office the next morning and being amazed that neither of the folks from the night before appeared to be hung over.

I had completely forgotten about this incident, and it's amazing how these sketchy notes brought all the details from that evening back to me, ten years later. And while this event was not particularly noteworthy or important, the details were still there, in the back of my mind. All it took was a few scribbled words to retrieve a memory that might have been lost for good otherwise. It is a good reminder for me of why it's so important to keep a journal. Good or bad, mundane or profound, I don't want to forget all of the adventures (and misadventures) that pepper life here and there!

Posted by Danielle at 04:07 PM | | Comments (1)

We get some spectacular sunsets here in late summer. This one's from last Wednesday.

Posted by Danielle at 10:13 AM | | Comments (0)

Posted by Danielle at 12:21 AM | | Comments (0)

The state of the weather.

My family outgrew our tiny house in Seattle several years ago. But the housing market here being what it is, we can't afford to upgrade. And our location is so convenient, that we're not willing to move as far away as we'd need to in order to get more space. So we make do with what little space we have, fighting a losing battle with clutter, and remembering to enjoy the advantages of a short commute and proximity to the things we love to do and the places we need to go. What our house lacks in size, however, it gains in view. In fact the thing that attracted us to this house many many years ago is the beautiful view of the Olympic Mountains that we appreciate every single day that we are here. Even when you can't see the mountains, you can see the weather. And weather abounds here in the Pacific Northwest. Take yesterday, for example. It started out overcast and damp, progressed to slightly sunny, and by mid-afternoon it was obvious that a storm was about to roll through. Here is the view at 3:15pm:

And again at 3:45 pm:

And again at about 6:30pm. The storm blew by in a couple hours, and bright sun shone from behind the mountains as it set in all its weather-laden glory:

It looks like we're in for similar weather today.

The state of the granny.

I have finished 20 of these little squares so far. I have 364 more squares to go to make the size of blanket that I hope to end up with. This is going to take a while.

The state of the sock.

I am really enjoying knitting my Sock Pal's sock. The Sea Wool is delightful to work with, the colorway is even prettier than I thought it was in skein form, and the pattern is turning out gorgeous. I was a little skeptical about the cuff that the pattern called for, as the picture in the book really doesn't do it justice. (I'm knitting the "Go with the Flow" pattern from "Favorite Socks".) But I love how it looks in person, the ladder lace cuff is really different and feminine, and looks great with the main pattern of the sock. I really hope my sock pal likes it. Here's where I'm at so far:

Posted by Danielle at 03:45 PM | | Comments (0)

I didn't know if I was going to come back to this. Life is busy. It is for everyone. I don't delude myself into thinking that anyone reads this, but it was never really meant for anyone else. Just a place to record some of the things that I do that I don't get to talk about much in real life. Things that don't fit in journals full of ink and personal ramblings. So I've missed it from time to time, and wanted to check in. To leave a sign of life, even if it's just a personal reminder. Things outside of my control (and sometimes within it) have kept me from doing many of the things that I love lately. But in bits and pieces, I have been working on a few things...

There are a few more things, too. Things that I never managed to take pictures of, like a Shetland Triangle out of Lorna's Laces for an auction, and more than a few pairs of pants sewn for the little man. And there are things that I started but haven't finished yet, like this:

Bits and pieces; little things that help me to keep my sanity. Mostly to give away, some to keep, and all from the heart.

Posted by Danielle at 06:00 PM | | Comments (0)

Today was the day of the traditional Seattle Seafair Pirates Landing on Alki Beach in Seattle. With the little man currently being obsessed with all things Pirate, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to swash-n-buckle with the best of them.

The pirates commandeered an old Army landing craft to get to Alki beach. Before reaching the shore, they shot off fake cannon volleys at some nearby sailboats who were in on the action, then stormed the shore with lots of "arrghs" and "grrrs" and fake musket fire.

The Pirate Captain made my son's day by coming up to him and giving him this button:

I think I may have caught a quick glimpse of Cap'n Jack himself, although with all the kid wranglin' going on I was only able to snap this hasty pic from behind. This scurvy devil was having a little too much fun showing off his cannon, and this rascal won my vote for Best Pirate Sneer.

The Jolly Roger was waved, swords were brandished, and a good time was had by all. Hubby and I are taking bets as to how many times the guy that looks like Captain Jack scores this weekend...

Posted by Danielle at 06:56 PM | | Comments (0)

I don’t know if I’m ready for this. A weblog seems to be a bit of a commitment, and I don’t know if I have the time or the patience to do this for the long haul. But I’d like to try it out, at least for a while, so I will look at this as an experiment for the time being. Hello world, welcome to version 1 of Mad Caterpillar.

Posted by Danielle at 10:14 AM | | Comments (0)