It Was a Great Sunday, and I'm Not Ready for Monday - LOL

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, and we relaxed on the patio with drinks and the hawks "screeing" at each other between the trees. The young hawks are out of the nest now, flying around the general area and trying to fend for themselves. I suspect they're still begging for food from Mum and Dad, but also suspect the parents are telling them to get out and find their own mouse or vole. They still dive-bomb DH when he's in the garden unless he's buried his hair beneath his shirt and puts on a cap. They don't seem to be phased or intrigued by my bald head at all, and have never come at me claws out. They just sit in the trees and watch me, but they don't bother me, just gossip. 

The Broadwing Hawk's chicks are now totally out 
of the nest and on their own. Our population, therefore 
has doubled in our trees, and they're calling back and 
forth often. They love to dive-bomb DH, but have 
never bothered me. 

Once again I made pork roast for dinner. DH happened to be at Target, and they had a roast that looked good to him, so he asked if I would be willing to make it again. Hell yeah! It's extremely tasty, needs minimal work to make, and we get enough for 2-3 meals from it. A total winner. 

There's just something about the glaze on this pork 
roast recipe that really makes the meal. It's a pleasure 
to cook because it's minimal work, and it's a joy to 
eat. DH is addicted to it, as am I. 

I'm also looking at the calendar - we're running out of time very quickly and need to get things moving. Labor Day comes early this year. Ren Fest starts on August 16th and goes through the end of September. We'll miss the worst of the heat, but not necessarily - we've had some pretty toasty days at the State Fair in past years, although we've also had buckets of rain and even an occasional very early snow. Minnesota weather - if you don't like it, just close your eyes for 10 minutes and it will be different. At least that's the saying. But if we're closing by the end of October, things have to start moving faster. 

We were one of the largest Swarovski beads and pendants 
resellers in the Upper Midwest and we still have a BUNCH 
of product available. We're going to run a massive sale, but 
DH wants additional photos, so I'll be busy doing photos on 
Wednesday instead of working on getting artwork matted 
for resale. They're both urgent projects, and I just don't have 
enough hours in the day to get them done completely and as 
well as I want. 

DH apparently got little sleep last night. That's too bad. He's been having issues sleeping. I suspect a great deal of it is his mattress - it's ancient and should be replaced. He can't quite wrap his head around that, though. Maybe after waking up enough times with aches and pains, he'll get the message that the mattress is trying to send to him. 

So, on that note, I'm wrapping this up and heading to the shop. It's a Monday which means it's a day off for Chickie. That puts me solidly on the sales floor for the day, with minimal breaks for the bathroom and lunch. DH will be doing whatever DH is doing these days - something productive, I hope. Have an excellent start to your week and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Sunday Was a Really Good Day - Photos, Patio, Food and TV

Sunday was lovely. DH wanted me to cut some mats for some artwork, so he got a bit of an idea of what goes into cutting a piece. He's not as precise as I am, and will probably stick with some very basic stuff for the time being. But he's capable of cutting, if he's careful. The minute he isn't taking care of my equipment, however, is the minute he'll be banned from using it. 

We have a LOT of Hopi Katchina sculptures at 
the shop. They don't ship well - if we decide to consign 
these, we'll have to drive them down to Santa Fe. 
Still, we need photos of all of them anyway, so 
he's started in on that task. He brought three boxes 
of them home with him on Saturday night. 

DH spent at least an hour photographing katchina sculptures from the shop. We're going to probably consign a lot of them, but need photos before offering them to the auction house. They're so fragile, however, it's one of those things we'd have to physically drive down to them, rather than ship. 

This particular meal is turning into one of my favorite 
things to cook. It's really minimal work until the final 
30 minutes where you're basting every five minutes. Except 
for that, it's about as easy as it comes. 

Last night's dinner was one of my newer favorites - "Balsamic Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Roast in the Slow Cooker". Of course, many of you know that sugar isn't one of my things, but there's a lovely coconut brown sugar that I use often in my recipes, and it's great in this one as well. It's about as easy as possible - the slow cooker does most of the work. Then you heat the oven super hot (450 F) and start basting the pork roast with a sauce of brown sugar, water, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. It's the perfect meld of flavors, and ends up making a sticky crust that's simply delicious. I give it 5 stars. 

DH and I both really enjoy watching "Patience" on 
PBS - a new series this year featuring an autistic 
main character who works in the records department 
of the police department but ends up working with 
a detective there whose son also is (possibly) on the 
spectrum. Although the show has been criticized as 
not showing autism correctly, I think it actually does 
a great job at showing just one person on the spectrum. 
Everyone is different, however. This is only a single 
character who is autistic. 

We ended the night watching two of our favorites on PBS - "Grantchester" and "Patience" (our newest favorite show). It topped off an almost perfect day. We didn't get quite as much done with the mat cutter as he wanted, but he has a better idea of what goes into it as well, so that was a win. Plus we had patio time to watch our hawk watch us - LOL. I hope all of you had a great weekend as well. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It Was Good Sunday - Plants, Framing and Watercolors

I hope all of you had a great weekend. Today it's Monday, the holidays are behind us until Labor Day, so it's time to get back to a normal schedule and work hard at whatever tasks you have planned. We're moving ahead with getting the store closed. It's fits and starts, but it's slowly getting to the point where we'll be able to work with the consultant I've chosen and get this going. I've almost got the mat cutter aligned and set up, ready to cut. I'm actually hoping to get my first pieces cut and framed this week. Just a couple of more details to go. 

I've totally cleaned my horizontal cutter, and lubricated it. I need 
to double-check the alignment of the cutting heads, and if they are 
parallel to the materials stop bar, then I'm ready to go. I should be 
able to finalize the set-up on Wednesday. I replaced both the 
straight and the bevel blades this morning, so I'm ready to cut. 

We have a pair of hawks that have decided to include our house in their territory. I suspect that's one really good reason why I'm not getting hummingbirds to my feeder this year. They're not stupid birds, and if a predator is stalking the area, why go here when there are so many other flowers available nearby? The male hawk is a beauty. He sits in the tree that's just south of our utility shed, up in the very high branches. Although he also roams the territory, he always seems to return to one specific location in that tree. After looking at him through binoculars, we've come to the decision that it's a Broad-Winged Hawk. We know he's part of a mating pair because we hear his mate calling to him now and again. 

Isn't he lovely? This is a Broad-Winged Hawk. He likes 
sitting in the tree nearest to my storage shed. He gets a 
great view from that location. His mate is in a tree on my 
neighbor's property. They'll call back and forth to each 
other now and again. 

The garden is doing really well. My tomato plants are almost as tall as I am, and I really do need to start harvesting and drying some of my herbs. Anyone got any good recipes out there that use fresh basil? After a rocky start, my basil is growing like crazy! 

I've never had fresh basil before and am not 
exactly sure what I want to use it for. So ... any 
hints or recipes you could send my way would be 
very appreciated. 

I should be able to finish fine tuning the alignment of the horizontal mat cutter on Wednesday, and then I'll try to frame two original water colors by Connie Seaborn. I adore her work, DH isn't as fond of it. She did two small pieces for me. Normally on pieces this small, I'd frame them together in an offset position, but they retail for $125/each, so I'll do each one on their own. It would be great if they sold as a set, but $250+ (framing costs will be additional money) ... well, I think I'll have much better luck selling them individually at the price I'll have to ask. 

This is a larger example of Connie Seaborn's work. She works 
in watercolors on thick, absorbent papers which allows her to 
lay on layers of color to create some wonderful depth. She's 
a very fun lady, also. I always liked her, DH was less fond of her. 

So, I'm wrapping this up and heading for the shop. It's a Monday, so no Chickie until tomorrow. That always makes for a interesting day in terms of times for bathroom breaks and whether I get a lunch break or not before 4:00 pm. *sigh* Have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.