postaday – Page 20

Grill grub

Monte whipped up a batch of his pizza doughs this afternoon. Instead of our usual thin, thin crust in the oven on the pizza stone, he wanted to give it a try on the grill this time. We’ve tried grilled pizza before… once we put a pizza stone on top of the grate in a Weber charcoal grill and tried, unsuccessfully, to cook a loaded pizza dough on top. After that experiment, we ended up with 3 or 4 inedible pizzas that were black on the bottom and raw on top. And, the pizza stone eventually broke in 2 from the heat.

This time, he had something else in mind. We have a charcoal hibachi grill out back as well. This time he put one of our cast iron grill plates on the hibachi, and put the pizza dough on top of that. After turning it the dough once, he put sauce and cheese on top while the other side was grilling. It only took a few minutes per side – and it turned out great.

Viva la pizza!

Ms. Monarch.

I went outside this afternoon between meetings and was greeted by a bevy of butterflies flitting around the lantana. I snapped this shot quickly. Bear with me, as it’s a bit fuzzy. I had to zoom in and tweak it a bit. My online butterfly identification guide tells me it’s a female Monarch butterfly. You go, girl!

Scones on a boat.

I’ve mastered the gas oven on the boat. This morning I fired it up and baked blueberry scones for breakfast. We are definitely not roughing it with fresh baked scones and jam. 🙂

(Disclaimer, I’m not a complete Betty-Crocker, though, I use Sticky Fingers scone mix. Just add water. Delicious!)

Made it to the cove by sunset.

We raced the beer can today. This time Mark joined us on Nirvana. Wally & Joe sailed on Soul Healer, so we had another 320 to match up against. Lori & Doray sailed on Camelot, and Kurt & Kevin on Dancer. The winds were strong out of the south, which made for a fun sail. We didn’t come in last! Though, we very well could have if it weren’t for Camelot accidentally dropping the main on the last leg (argh!)

Afterwards, we dropped Mark off on E-dock and headed right back out to anchor up in Arky south for the night. We made it in time to admire another sunset in our favorite cove. Lovely.

Wally joined us after dinner on Zen, tying up to us for the night, and we chuckled our way through the evening.

I ♥ this knot.

I ran across a DIY post online showing how to tie a Celtic heart knot. So, I tried it and made this little chachki. It needs some work to emphasize the heart shape, but I like it!

If you want to see how to make one, this YouTube video shows you how and is easy to follow.

Pretty dangles.

101512 — My first attempt at making earrings.

The other day when my sister and I spent an afternoon running around and playing in downtown Austin, I mentioned that we stopped into a bead shop (Bead It on South Lamar). Over the years, I have assembled a nice set of jewelry-making tools that I use to repair miscellaneous of my favorite purchased pieces that have broken. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at making earrings, bracelets, necklaces, etc, but have never taken that step.

So, when I came home last week with several baggies of beads and earring posts & hangers, I was excited to make a few pairs. These are my very first pieces. Not bad, i think. Hmmmm, could there be an etsy storefront in my future? 🙂

P.s. I’m wearing the purple/amethyst ones as I’m posting this…

Just sayin’…

I could get used to this “retirement” thing.

We’ve had company here this week – my sister visiting, a colleague of mine for dinner last friday, and Julie joining us when she can find time. So, Monte has been cooking up a storm… grilled chickens, Cincinnati chili, cedar plank salmon, risotto, catfish, creme caramel, cooked apples, grilled pork ribs, and today for lunch: homemade ravioli with goat cheese stuffing. Hoooo-wheeeeee!

Delicious!

Taking the day off.

My sister leaves tomorrow, so I took the afternoon off to play hooky with her. We started off buying beads at a bead shop to get supplies for making jewelry thingies. No pics of that – a project for another day. Then we headed to Zilker Park for a hike on the Barton Creek Greenbelt Trail. It was really lovely out. High 70’s and sunny. Perfect for a hike. The creek is mostly dry. We did see lots of flowers, butterflies and dragonflies.

The orange butterfly in the shot below stopped to let me take several shots.

1008125 — Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae).

Later on down the trail this swallowtail stopped to let me do the same thing.

1008126 — Eastern tiger swallowtail (papilio glaucus?).

I found a pretty good butterfly guide website to try to identify them. You might want to bookmark for future reference.

After the hike we stopped by Barton Springs Pool. Such a pretty place. The pool was beautifully clear.

Then we ran over to Sno-Beach for a must-have best-snocone-ever experience. You’d better hurry, they close at the end of October for the winter. Go out and get one!

Then. Back to Zilker to rent a kayak and tootle around Town Lake (ok, sorry “Lady Bird Lake.” old habits die hard). We paddled all the way to the South 1st Street bridge. On our paddle back we passed 3 UT Women’s Crew boats training.

The Austin City Limits Music Festival takes place this weekend. It’s a 3 day music extravaganza hosted in Zilker Park. Everything is setup and just about ready for the throngs of festival-goers. I took the opportunity to take a quick shot of the festival entrance, so I wouldn’t have to come down here with 75,000 of my closest friends to get the shot this weekend.

What a great Austin afternoon!

Joie de vivre.

Even though the chill of Fall is in the air, we, of course, headed to the lake. We raced in the beer can today. We had a great turnout: Wally & Joe on Zen, Kurt & Kevin on Dancer, Lori & Doray on Camelot, Dave and Wiz on MisGuided, and the 4 of us on Nirvana. We got off the start line a minute and a half late (need to work on that). Monte and I, the racing novices that we are, debated re: tactics as we sailed the course (need to work on that, too). 🙂 We didn’t win, place or show, but had fun.

Afterwards we anchored up in Arky South in our usual spot for the night.

My sister is visiting for a week. She took her turn on the winches and at the wheel. Another natural mariner 🙂 Julie joined us, too.

I enjoy it very much when family comes to visit, and when we hit the road to visit family as well. We both come from big families but don’t live close to them. My thoughts are especially on the importance of spending time with family, as I learned that my cousin died unexpectedly and tragically from a pulmonary embolism this week – a complication from relatively routine back surgery a few days before. So sad. So sobering. He had just turned 48 a few weeks back, in the prime of his life, raised a wonderful family, and was an active and accomplished Air Force colonel, getting ready to chart the next phase of his life’s course. I had a chance to visit with him in Seattle last summer. So glad I did.

Pretty in purple.

Monte brought some lilies home yesterday. When he put them in the vase they were just buds – they were all closed. Overnight they all popped open, and now these pretty flowers brighten up the dining room.

Tuesday at the chez…

It’s Tuesday already. Almost halfway to the weekend! The picture above is of Monte’s latest project… a homemade sundial. I think this is a prototype. But it seems to work pretty well. He’s aligned the center of the dial with magnetic North using a compass. Some adjustments will be necessary. Stayed tuned.

The zinnia patch has flower stalks that are over 4′ tall. We’re still harvesting them. This is today’s selection.

And, last one, this is a shot of 2/3’s of the flock as we settle in for the evening.

G’nite!

Sunday postscript.

One more quick post before the clock strikes midnight. We’ve had a lovely anniversary weekend. We capped it off with a concert at One World Theatre tonight, with friends Marty & Sue. We bought tickets months ago for tonight’s show with Jerry Jeff Walker, and we had a great time.

The evening wouldn’t have been complete without hearing Sangria Wine, and we were not sent home disappointed 🙂 It was an extra treat to have Austin musician Chris Gage join Jerry Jeff on lead guitar, mandolin, accordion and backup vocals. Nicely done, Chris!

Have a great week everybody.

Fall florae.

We worked in the yard today. The rain yesterday is long gone and strong winds dried the grass enough to mow. The temps were lovely all day, in the 70’s. A rare treat for yardwork.

Soon enough all the color will disappear for the winter months. For now, though, Mother Nature still has a little left.

The rains have brought out bunches of these little purple flowers. They seem to be flowers that are part of the clover, but I’m not sure what they are.

The lantana bushes will be going to seed in the next month or so, when the weather turns colder. For now the bushes are going strong and still putting out lots of color.

In the wooded area in the back the yaupon holly boughs are covered in red berries. A feast for the birds.

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