Meanwhile, on Monday...

It was a pretty relaxing day yesterday. With Scott the window guy here, I was kind of confined to the house, and trying to stay out of his way. The best way to do that is to stay in the sewing room, and so I did. Wasn't that considerate of me? So, I did some catching up on the Tiny Tuesday blocks. I finished off May's oranges.

First, this rail fence block...

I kind of like that configuration of the rail fences. Then this "monarch" butterfly...a cute design with no paper piecing, which I hate.

There is another Tiny Tuesday block out today in June's blues. I'll get to that one later this afternoon. (Okay, I just checked, and there's nothing yet. Maybe tomorrow.) Before I quit for the day yesterday, I had the pieces cut for one of my Rainbow Scrap projects, The Charm Stars. These take 6 darks and 2 lights of the blues, and then 6 neutrals. Since I'm making two blocks, I need twice that many. The biggest challenge with these blocks is getting good contrast so the stars will show up when they're all sewn together.

Smitty helped me choose the fabrics. He's not at all happy with his new stay-inside rules. He sat looking slitty-eyed at me all day long.

Sadie turned her back on me and won't look at me until I mend my ways.

We're hoping this new stay-inside policy isn't permanent because the coyotes generally move around during the year, and eventually, they'll move on down the hill...or up the hill. I don't care where they go as long as they go. Mike is going to head down into the woods and over onto the neighbor's property to make sure they haven't set up housekeeping nearby.

Smitty was on the wagon for about 45 minutes, but this new policy has him returning to fixes of catnip to take the edge off his psychological pain.

I was out just briefly yesterday to fill the bird feeders. While I was out I cast my gaze toward the weed patch formerly known as our vegetable garden. I noticed a wild foxglove growing there. We tried to grow foxglove in a shaded area a while back. It grew for a while, but never really thrived, and eventually, it stopped coming back at all. Probably it didn't get enough sun. Seeing this, I decided to keep an eye on it and try to capture some of its seeds. Maybe I'll try again with the foxglove and give it a better home this time. It was windy, and thus, the blur.

Also, I baked off one of the bread loaves yesterday. You might recall I used regular "active" yeast in this dough rather than the "instant" I've used in the past. The texture was much improved as a result of the change. It was good with the instant yeast, but the active yeast made it a much crustier loaf. It's wonderful for toasting. Here's a look at the interior. Some nice holes like sourdough.

I still had collard greens from our most recent CSA share, and so I tried this recipe from the NYTimes, Pasta with Collard Greens and Onions.

Before we started getting CSA shares, I'd never eaten collard greens, and I didn't know how to prepare them. We get them fairly regularly in our shares (sometimes with enormous leaves!), and I've grown to love them. I think, of the greens, they might be my favorites. Anyway, this is a great recipe...easy, and the collard greens are delicious with the pasta. There is essentially no sauce on this pasta, just the cooking water from the collards. At the end, I was supposed to add a half cup of the pasta water to the dish, but there was enough liquid left in the pan that it wasn't necessary. You can use any shape of pasta with this. I had several opened packages of farfalle, and that's what I used.

Today I need to head to the grocery store, and then I'll get back to my sewing. The kitties are already hounding me for an open door. It's hard keeping them in. They aren't happy about it, and neither are we.