Rag Quilt

So!  My new project, a rag quilt... depending on my attention span, I would like to have a couch blanket (for the back of my couch).
I might end up with a throw to toss over my rocking chair, but time will tell :)

Chicken Soup... really does calm the soul

This is my very first batch of no-salt, slow-cooked super flavourful chicken soup from my own meatkings and my own pressure canner.

Yay!  It is so funny how the little "ping" of the mason jar lid snapping into place made me almost giddy!  It was sort of scary, considering all the horror stories people have been saying about pressure canners... but really, if you follow the instructions, voila! 

As soon as everything was ready to come out of the canner I took the jars out and "ping" it snapped shut... then I placed it on the towel and get this--- it was rolling, hard boiling on my counter inside the jars!  All the carrots, celery and chicken were being tossed around like a little storm in a bottle.  Very interesting experiment... It boiled for a good 15 minutes at room temperature.  Now that is some hot soup...

They look good don't they?  Next time though, I will mix half stock, half water.  Stock is so valuable that I wish I hadn't used it all.  Next time. 

Latest Book... The Graveyard Book

So my wonderfully patient friend Cara lent me one of her few hard copy books (she a Kindle-er)... she uses bookmarks and must turn pages so carefully because it is immaculate.  Me on the other hand, my books are well-loved and their many creases and captions advertise that I have had a full relationship with them.  So I am attempting to maintain the perfection that is The Graveyard Book, without much success, and finding the same conclusion that always happens when I borrow a book (from friends or a library)- I will end up buying the book just so I can read it "my way."  Anyway...

So this book is darkly, Gothic but lovingly sweet... If you can get past the gruesome first chapter.  The rest, so far, is sweet.  I love the different visions of parenting through the ages.  The perspective of a nocturnal childhood and the simplicity of life without fear of death... I just read a section where he was confronted with danger and mortality... and his response was a complete lack concern because he lives with ghosts and life is just a long, unending stretch of existence in which death is just a hiccup in time.  I love this nonchalance...

Any feedback?  What d'ya think?