Voting, hats on, tattie scones

I got my mail-in ballot filled in, ready to take to the dropbox Tuesday when I pass by there anyway.

And found a simple recipe for potato scones, aka tattie scones, from the nice Baking on a Budget man on YouTube.

How you melt butter when you don't have a microwave and you're boiling potatoes for mash.

I also ground up some flaxseed to add in to the mash, butter, flour, salt and pepper. You just mix, form a flattened ball, roll it a bit, cut into equal parts, fry in a dry pan.

I added a pat of butter each. With the sharp cheddar and spinach, it worked out well for a lunch when I couldn't think what to have. Yogurt beaten with lime juice, then strawberries added, for dessert.

The scones will work for practically any meal. I'll probably fancy it up a bit with spices next time. Meanwhile I have four more in the fridge.

I notice that for the first time in many years of growing, my Korean spicebush, viburnum carlesii, has put out berries. It's been flowering for years but I don't think it's got all carried away like this before 

And, out walking, another beautiful day, I spotted this holly and those reddish leaves might be poison ivy. If so, here's the holly and the ivy.

The hat is coming along, now bound around the cut edge. 

I used some bias binding I had lying around, and stitched both sides at once, to save stitching twice around. It works pretty well. 

The binding means that when I attach the two parts, crown and brim, I'm stitching fabric to fabric, so there's no fraying of the straw. It's protected in a channel of tape. 

There another option too, next hat I try. That's to just cut and bind a brim and pull it on over a silk headscarf. I might try that look.

About health, I continue walking, as I said above,  exercising to yes2next, and visualizing. 

Visualizing is becoming more and more fluent and full of movement and color, faster and more spontaneous than when I started.  I swim, fly, glide, swoop, like a bird that can swim, great adventures. After about 15 minutes I tire and taper off.  

It's very calming, despite the drama in the narrative, very steady slow pulse when I stop.  I really recommend that anyone who can visualize, not everyone has that brain kink (!), might try it. In these days of panic and fear, it's very useful.

October seems to be the Month of Doctors. This week the cardio, just wanted a follow-up after the hip surgery, next week the dentist checkup,  following week the hand surgeon about my jerky finger, then the month finishes with the dermatologist.  All this for a basically well person. All covered by insurance, too. All within a few minutes drive. The dentist office is a bit beyond my comfort range, and I may get help with a ride. 

Happy day everyone, I hope you have the medical care you need, or can find it.  Everyone should.

Yes, everyone should have everything, sez Ted and Big Ursy 

Rosy dawn, Textiles and Tea

Today I woke to a bedroom full of pink light. Rosy-fingered dawn, thank you, Homer.

This lasted only a few minutes, lucky to have caught it.

Yesterday's Textiles and Tea was a high energy production weaver who designs and sells towels and blankets, with occasional clothes. She shows with the American Craft Council, too, high-end stuff.

And does a lot of yarn dyeing, where she and her husband are a production team. Great presenter,  more technical than I could keep up with, but get those yarn colors!

I seem to have a permanent achy shoulder, maybe irritation from knitting, so I'm alternating with stitching in the hope that helps. Meanwhile Sock One of Pair Seventeen of the Sock Ministry is done. 

I'm running low on the donated yarn, so only a couple more pairs to do before I ask for more supplies.

Yesterday I spent an entire morning online trying to complete the pre cataract surgery information. 

I had all the relevant cards and numbers ready to go, and went to the website following the directions on the sheet.

But  The sheet I'd been sent, created by the surgical center and forwarded by the eye doctor's office, gave wrong information on how to access the info site. 

The link did not go to the screens they illustrated, and after a number of fruitless searches of their site, trying every link, I called to ask if I could process by phone, which they'd offered as an option. 

The nice lady who answered said oh no, that's not the right link, you need the medical passport link. Which I explained was not on their website, insist they ever so much. So I followed the right link she gave me, and found I already had an old medical passport on record, dating from years back.

Fine. But my now outdated password didn't work. And my user ID was refused on the grounds that it was already in use. Well, yes, by me. Eventually they let me create a new password, and finally let me in. 

The actual filling out was pretty simple, once I'd got in there, and I had to make updates and corrections. But now it's done, and acknowledged and sent to my doctor. So far so good.  

After my procedures are done I hope I get the chance to evaluate their coordination. It looks as if the website was changed without regard to the paperwork they'd sent to patients, and without anyone checking they were still sending valid material out. 

Likewise one of my Rxs was different from the listing I'd been sent with instructions. But I checked with the pharmacist, who pulled the rxs and confirmed they'd put up exactly what doctor had called in. She reviewed the directions for the rx, confirmed them, too. Evidently another place where they do something different without catching up the paperwork. 

This is not good patient care, when it involves leaving patients struggling with outdated information. So there! They'll hear about it once I'm safely done.

Different doctor this afternoon, rheumatologist. She'd better be good, since this patient is prepared to take no prisoners!

But a few minutes' painting last evening with a big flat brush cheered me right back up.

To get a palette with bright clean color, I sprayed the dry pigments. Old trick, works nicely.

Happy day everyone. Reports on the rheumo recommendations later. 

Meanwhile, please don't despair. Good people are working to repair the damage done by a few bad ones. We still matter.