When I Think Spring
When I think spring, I'm thinking spring flowers.
Yellow crocus and winter aconite.
And maple syrup.
As the sap boils down from the big soup kettle to the smaller saucepan and gets more concentrated, it needs careful watching or it boils over the second my tea-kettle-burning back is turned.
Fortunately for me, our son was watching it and alerted me when it reached that point, and from then on I sat on the kitchen stool with a book (Matthew Polly's American Shaolin) and checked it every two minutes.
(The monk's robes don't end in midair on the cover. That's just my quick-and-dirty coverup of the big ugly library label in the middle of it.)
The other book I checked out at my husband's request, Kiko Denzer's Build Your Own Earth Oven. Apparently the idea is that I will wrestle with the mud and build the oven, and he will bake in it. Hmmm. Sounds a lot like work to me!
For some reason, right now the only knitting that appeals to me is this recycled-yarn scarf. The needles are pretty unique, a pair of old US 10 (5.75 mm) olive-green dpns from a thrift store, 10 inches (just over 25 cm) long.
I'm knitting it with yarn from a woven scarf that never really worked, just to change it to a usable form. And sometimes it's nice to have something that's not delicate and precious that you can just throw on, toss on the coat rack, and put in the laundry without worrying about it or fussing over it.
Labels: books, knitting, reading, spring, sugaring off
posted by Alwen | 1:04 PM
5 Comments:
Im watching the maple syrup process with absolute fascination, Alwen. (Where I come from , it comes from a bottle, haha). Seriously. Very very interesting.
I agree, a non-fussy, throw-on scarf is essential - I always managed to get tangled up in anything finer as soon as I have to rush in the slightest!
I just bought a lot of crocus bulbs yesterday. I can't wait to have them - a pay off for a freezing winter.
How much syrup do you end up with? It's so expensive (here, at least) that I think having it for free is amazing.
There is NOTHING like real maple syrup. We used the fake kind when I was a kid, and I had no idea what I was missing. Most of what we buy now comes from either Vermont or Canada. I don't just use it on pancakes and waffles, either. The kids like it in their oatmeal, and I use it as an alternative to sugar while baking. I made corn muffins this morning sweetened with maple syrup. Sooooo good. If we go out to breakfast, I won't order syrup food unless the restaurant has the real stuff.
Amy is right. There is no comparison. I am not a maple fan but the real stuff is so much tastier than the corn syrup flavored with maple flavoring that most of us eat. I actually prefer blueberry or strawberry syrup. And I went the other scarf route. I made an alpaca wool scarf that is lovely but now that the season is almost over, will have to be washed and blocked by hand and put away carefully instead of washed, dried and thrown into the box with the other winter things. I like the no bother kind and now I will make one of those for next winter.
to reiterate what I said to you on my blog comments ... syruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup [ tongue hanging out a la Homer Simpson ]
and
is that the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf pattern or something else? Hard to tell in the pic but it looks like it might be. I'm making one at the moment from my Blueberry hand spun.
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