wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.

Category Archives: Hobbies


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Red Hot Pokers

The hummingbirds and Bullocks oriole share the red hot pokers, but not at the same time.  These photos are from another year, as it’s a bit early for the pokers to bloom, but I was inspired by Cindy Knokes’ oriole photos to dig out my oriole photo. Please visit Cindy’s blog too, if you haven’t already done so. https://cindyknoke.com/2024/04/21/goldies-2/

The red hot pokers soon will bloom,

Just waiting for some sun,

Then to their petals I will zoom,

And hover till I’m done.

 

The juicy nectar waits for me,

I stretch my long tongue down,

To lap the sweetness running free,

Within the petals round.

 

I need to hurry – sip and fly,

Ere Bully Bullock comes,

I do my best to drink it dry,

‘Cause he and I aren’t chums.

 

 

I am an emperor of birds,

You see my royal stance,

I rule the land with so few words,

It only takes a glance.

 

It could be that it is my size,

I’m not a little hummer,

I feed on flowers, they’re my prize,

Especially in summer.

 

 

But one thing hummers share with me,

That is our love of bugs,

The creepy crawlies that we see,

They simply call us thugs.

 

 

The hummers take the tiny ones,

To suit their appetite,

While I eat big ones by the tons,

I’m not a little mite.

 

 

And so we share the poker plants,

There’s food enough for all,

In time I’ll go and eat some ants,

And any bugs that crawl.

 

 

 


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We Do It All the Time

Photo by Ken Thorne

Photo by Ken Thorne

A True Horror Story as told by “The Captain”

 

What a day for fly fishing! Coho jumping and finning in front of us. A beach fisherman’s dream. But how quickly things can change. Here I was, loading my fly rod back into the truck to return to town without even wetting a line.

I had set up my friend, Brad, for fly fishing; even giving him one of my hot, specially tied blue-green streamer flies to guarantee his success. But I hadn’t counted on his lack of technique. With beginner’s luck, he was into a finning coho right away, but within seconds, the lightning fish spit the hook. In his eagerness to hook another fish, Brad’s backcast became an errant sidecast. The fly whipped by my head and on its return stung me on the nose like a mad hornet.

And there it stayed.

I tried to work the hook out of my nose, thinking of the coho slime now embedded in my face. It wouldn’t budge.

“You won’t get it out without help,” Brad said. “It’s stuck right in the cartilage.”

On the way back to town, Brad stole frequent glances at my nose and sporadic snorts of laughter escaped him. “Sorry,” he wheezed.

I glared at him, but moments later his shoulders bounced again.

It was a relief to drop off Brad at home. I continued on to the hospital with the truck’s sun visor down in case I passed anyone I knew. I parked close to the Emergency entrance. Head down and hand cupped over my nose, I strode up to the reception desk. A bubbly young nurse looked up at me. “Can I help you, sir?”

Uncovering my nose for her eyes only, I said, “Can you get this off me?”

“Ooh! Oh, my goodness,” she blurted out. “We’ll put you behind this curtain. I’ll get the doctor right away.”

Quick, light footsteps approached. A short, slight woman stood by my bed. “Been fishing, have we? I’m Doctor Payne.”

“Hi. Can you get this thing off my nose? Have you ever dealt with this kind of thing before?”

“Don’t worry. We do it a-a-all the time,” she assured me. She brought a needle up to my nose. “This may sting a little, but it will freeze the tissue so we can pull the hook out.”

“I don’t think so,” I hurried to inform her. “There’s a barb on the end. I crimped it, but apparently not enough. Believe me, I tried to pull it out and it won’t budge. Hurt like hell, too.”

“In that case I’ll push it through to the other side and cut the barb off. Then I can pull it back out.” I was thankful for the freezing as she pushed the hook through.

Dr. Payne left to find a tool. I was puzzled and disappointed when she came back with a pair of worn, old wire cutters. I had envisioned something more sterile and surgical. With much squeezing of wire cutters and accidental twisting of my nose, the tiny woman worried the tempered steel of the fly hook, all to no avail. At this point, I offered to go find my gear pliers and do the job myself, but she insisted, “We do it a-a-all the time.”

When she left the cubicle, I touched my nose gingerly. It was swollen and probably bright red. Add the decoration of blue-green feathers and I was thankful for the curtain surrounding the bed.

The intercom paged Dr. Birley and momentarily he and Dr. Payne appeared at my bedside. The man dwarfed the little woman. He took the wire cutters and, with an outward flip of his elbows, and a shuffling of his feet to find the most comfortable stance, he prodded the hook to find a good grip.

Dr. Payne’s face was almost as close to mine as Dr. Birley’s. “NO, Doctor, NO!” she exclaimed. “You’ve got tissue. Doctor Birley! You’ve got tissue!”

Dr. Birley straightened up, raised his head, and looked down his long nose at Dr. Payne. He tossed the wire cutters onto the tray by my bed. The last I saw of him was his wide back passing between the cubicle curtains.

Dr. Payne hurried after him. A moment later, the intercom announced, “Maintenance … call Emergency. Maintenance … call Emergency.”

All was quiet and I was drifting off to sleep, but my eyes flashed open when I heard the receptionist’s shrill voice. “Oh, my goodness! I wouldn’t let anyone go near my face with those things.”

Alarm bells clanged in my mind. My eyes must have been huge when Dr. Payne walked in carrying a pair of red-handled bolt cutters that were almost half as big as she was. I wondered what grungy task Maintenance had last used them for. The tool’s great iron beak settled on my nose like a turkey vulture, but seconds later, the hook was out.

I thanked the doctor and as I left the hospital, free of my feathery affliction at last, Dr. Payne’s words still echoed in my ears. “We do it a-a-all the time.”

 


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Calling All Girls

*Turn on your sound for the video clips.

 

I sense it is that time again,

When I should find a gal,

Someone whose looks drive me insane,

Someone to be my pal.

 

She’ll hold me close and nuzzle me,

What bliss is yet to come,

I’ll call her and she’ll fly, you’ll see,

To visit when I drum.

 


 

I hear so many songbirds call,

My drumming will be loud,

Beware the chimney and don’t fall,

Just stand here tall and proud.

 

Ah, here she is, she’s come at last,

Now I need to be cool,

I can’t acknowledge her too fast,

And then be played a fool.

 

 


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Paragliding

 

Flying free and weightlessly,

O’er the motion in the sea,

Breezes briskly cut a pace,

Tears of wonder streak my face.

The electric wires in the bottom of this picture are enough to make me think twice about ever trying paragliding. This paraglider is much farther from the wires than it looks on the photo, but still, it makes me wonder about the many obstacles a paraglider might come into contact with.

This fellow was just over my neighbour’s house so I tried to get a picture. It’s still too far for a good photo, but enough for you to get the idea.

In the video  below, he continued on his gliding trip just beyond the houses and over and along the beach below. From my house, I couldn’t see what the paraglider could see, but it must have been a wonderful trip for him, flying above the ocean. Just at the end, a faraway eagle flies into the frame, perhaps to join him on his trip or to check him out.

Full screen is best.

 


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Fishy Placemats

These are the fish placemats I started almost a year ago. By the time I got to the nearly finished stage, I had lost my enthusiasm to do much quilting in between the fish. You might be able to see where I did a tiny bit of quilting in the second to last placemat, but I soon decided that it was a waste of time and not really necessary.

They are each flawed in their own way, so that makes them unique. That, and the fact that I was making it up as I went along without a pattern or any idea of where I was going with it.

The back of the placemats is of the same material as the binding around the edges. When I get tired of looking at fish, I can flip the placemats over. This project has taken me so long that by the time I was putting the binding on, I didn’t much care if the corners weren’t exact or the edges a bit wobbly.

I was just glad to get them finished.

Now all I need is a meal to put on the placemats.

 

I wonder what would happen if I served fish on these mats.


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Cranberry Upside Down Cake

Just in time for Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law sent me this recipe. As it happens, it’s a great recipe for any time of the year and any occasion. It was my first time making this cake, but it wasn’t that hard to do, and because it tasted SO GOOD, I have to share it.

I used my Kitchen Aid mixer but it occurred to me that it might have been even easier with a regular handheld mixer because you can just stick the beaters into a different bowl rather than wash the bowl and reuse it to do the two steps of mixing (you’ll see what I mean).

Step One

Take an 8″ square cake pan and put two tbsp. melted butter in the bottom of the pan. Then spread 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the bottom of the pan.

Set this aside to put in the oven at 350 degrees for a couple of minutes just before it’s time to add the batter. (You need to have time to make the batter before heating the butter/sugar mixture).

The recipe says to add about a cup and a half of fresh cranberries (or even two cups) to this butter and brown sugar mixture. I always have frozen cranberries for my baking so I put them into a big measuring cup and add hot water to thaw them, draining and replacing the hot water a couple of times to thaw the cranberries. These will be added later to the heated up sugar/butter combination.

About 1/4 cup of pecans will also be sprinkled onto the bottom of the pan after the cranberries are added.

** I heated the oven and put the pan in to melt the brown sugar into the butter when I was finished making the batter in the next step.

Step Two

Now let’s make the batter.

Put these ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix after each addition:

3 tbsp. softened butter

1/4 cup white sugar

2 egg yolks (save the whites in a little bowl for mixing later)

1 tsp. vanilla

Step Three

In a separate bowl, put the rest of the dry ingredients together:

1  1/3 cup flour

1  1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp.

Step Four

Add the flour mixture to the batter, alternately with 1/2 cup of milk, ending with the flour mixture. If the resulting batter seems a bit too stiff, add a couple more tbsp. milk.

The second time I tried baking this cake I did add a bit more milk (say, almost 3/4 cup altogether) and it was better.

Step Five

This is about the time when I put the pan into the preheated oven, because the next step takes about the right time while the brown sugar is melting into the sugar.

In a clean bowl, put the two egg whites you have saved from when you put the egg yolks into the batter. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff.

Fold the egg white mixture into the batter. (Don’t stir it in. Gently fold it in.) The batter should look slightly foamy.

Step Six

Take out the pan with the heated butter and brown sugar, sprinkle the warmed up cranberries evenly over the brown sugar. Then sprinkle a few pecans over the cranberries. If you have a nut allergy you can easily skip this step.

Pour the batter over the cranberries in the pan and spread it evenly.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

When it is done, let the cake sit for a few minutes; then loosen the sides by running a knife along the sides of the pan. Put a plate over the pan upside down and invert the cake onto the plate.

Step Seven

Make a pot of tea or coffee and cut the cake. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or just have it plain. It’s really good all by itself.

The photo below is from my second try, where I added a tiny bit more milk and used 2 cups of cranberries rather than 1 and 1/2 cups. Better, I think.

 

I want to add that my five novels are now available on Amazon for Kindle for only 99 cents in time for the holiday season. Just click on the cover images on the side of the blog post.

If you have another kind of e-reader, you can visit smashwords.com where you can download my books for the same price of 99 cents for your type of e-reader.

 


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He’s a Fun Guy!

If I have him identified correctly, he’s a fun guy, but he’s a bit of a schwein, a pig. I think this fungi’s name is Phaeolus schweinitzii. Sounds like a sexy pork schnitzel, but in fact, it is not for eating. It will make you very sick or maybe kill you if you eat it.  But we’re okay. We’re just looking at it and it shouldn’t make us go blind.

I read on Wikipedia that this fun guy can rot the butt of a fir tree. Not a nice guy, this fungi.

Here is “Baby Bear,” just beginning to grow in my yard.

Here is “Mama Bear,” just a bit bigger.

And here is “Papa Bear.” I thought it looked like a layer of slightly burnt pancakes, but the grass had me wondering – did the grass grow through it, or did the fungus grow around it?

So if you can’t use it, what’s the good of it?

Well, apparently, it is also called “dyer’s polybore,” and mixed with the right mordant (fixative) this fungus makes rich brown dyes that can be used to dye wool.

I’m going to rush right out and try that.


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Mystery Bug

I took this picture a few years ago and had forgotten about it. My white phlox plant still had a few flowers then, but later, most of the white flowers got eaten by this grasshopper and his friends.

I’m not crazy about insects, but this grasshopper had rather pretty markings. I tried to find out what kind he was. The closest I could find was a two-striped grasshopper. It looks to me that this guy has only one stripe but maybe they are counting the identical stripe on the other side of his body.  Any ideas for an accurate I.D.?

 

I recommend “The Phlox” for lunch,

With seating for a crowd,

Delicious food on offer here,

So far, it’s not too loud.

 

I’ve stuffed my face with flowers white,

They’re delicate to chew,

If you don’t join me soon, I say,

That’s just too bad for you.

 

 

I thought she grew these plants for us,

Perennials you  know,

And yet she shoos us all away,

“Get out! It’s time to go!”

 

 

 

 


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Quilting Retreat

The view from the lodge where we have the quilting retreat is gorgeous, even with snow, which always seems to hit us for the February retreat.

Inside the lodge, in the new section (below),  quilters have their machines set up at the far end and tables are set up for meals at the closer end. See the buffet-style serving area in the middle by the posts.

Next to the new part is the older section of the lodge, with carpet instead of hardwood flooring. The quilters on this side are closer together, but they each have their stations that they use every time they come to a retreat. The banter and chatter is cozy and friendly, and the quilters share new ideas.

Some of their finished products are hung on the railing of the loft. Sometimes just the flimsy (the top of an unfinished quilt) is hung up, and the less creative finishing work is done later, at home.

More quilts.

My project of fish placemats was very time consuming and I haven’t finished them yet, but I’ll post them when I get them done.

When I came home, I had a short (maybe 10-minute) ferry ride from Quadra Island to Vancouver Island, but the sky and sea were all one snow-filled mass. See the bits of snow still sitting on the roofs of other vehicles? I took this picture from inside my truck.

Looking out one of the ferry’s side windows, I could see the white caps blowing off the tops of the waves. The ferry swayed side to side as it battled the pull of the tide near Seymour Narrows while the wind blew in the opposite direction.

I had a white-knuckle 45-minute drive home on a snowy highway once I got off the ferry, but I felt safe in my truck, and was glad we had invested in good tires.

 


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Set the Table

When I was quite young, my mother taught me how to set the table. I think it’s something that most parents teach their children as soon as they’re able to help out. Sometimes children ask:

 

Which side does the knife go on?

Which side for the fork?

Which way should the knife be turned,

Ready to eat pork?

 

Sharp side in or sharp side out?

How close to the plate?

What if there’s a spoon as well?

Can you tell me, mate?

 

So I decided to come up with a way to make it easier for a child to learn to set the table. Somewhere I had seen a set of placemats that showed exactly where to put the cutlery and where to put the plate.

At the same time, it was a good way to learn what the primary colours (red, yellow, and blue) were. The green was a bonus.

I made these quite a long time ago (eight years), but as I looked through some old photos, I came across them. Since I’m going to a quilting retreat next week, I thought I’d share these with you. I didn’t use a pattern to make the placemats. They’re quite simple. But I did cut out the shapes for the plates and the cutlery using cardboard tracers.