Of #Puppy Blues, #Crochet Blankets, #Crafting Kits, Coffee Dates Where No Coffee Is Consumed, Weather Reports, Skylights, Showers, And #BananaBlossom

The above photo of Logan was taken a couple of weeks ago. He's sleeping in Lilie's metal dog bed. Probably because there's more room for him than there is in his basket... He needs a bigger bed, which we'll be arranging for him soon. I'm thinking that's what "Santa Paws" should bring him as his main Christmas present this year. Lilie's gotten a bit big for her one in the bedroom too, so maybe she should get a new bed as well? *wink*

Anyway, the blanket he's on is actually a crochet blanket my Mam made for me. But Lilie decided it was for her. After a couple of attempts to claim it for myself, where she'd tug at it gently while looking sad, and Logan would run off with it and drop it off near her bed for her, I let her keep it. My Mam offered to make me another, but after battling for a few minutes internally with wanting a blanket made by my Mam vs wanting to avoid having new items made of wool brought in to the house for my personal use, I declined. I hope my Mam understands it's because of wanting to embrace veganism as fully as is possible in my circumstances, not just with eating, but in all areas of my life, and not a reflection on her or her crochet skills. She started the original blanket before I became vegan, so I was going to accept it, but asking her to make one now would be different. Does that make sense?

OK, enough of that. A few things happened over the past couple of weeks, so I'm going to get you caught up on those today, in case you're interested in what I've been up to. So, let's see...

For one thing, my Makerly kit for October arrived. It contained some kind of fabric printing kit. I forget what the proper name for the kind of craft it is was meant to be, but it basically involves making leaf patterns on fabric. A good one for the time of year, I think.

In other news: fellow writer, Barbara G. Tarn, was visiting the UK near the start of last week (she lives in Italy). So she met up with me for a coffee and chat. Well, actually, since I drank peppermint tea, and she drank hot chocolate, there was no coffee involved. Plenty of chatting though. Anyway, we met up at the cafe downstairs from us, and enjoyed a lovely couple of hours in each other's company, while Kelly was upstairs with Lilie and Logan. This is the third time in five years I've met Barb in person. Hopefully it won't be the last.

Logan wasn't happy about it at all. He missed his Mummy, and I'm told cried for most of the time I was gone, making me glad I was several floors down in a noisy cafe, with someone doing work and playing music on one of the floors seporating us, so I couldn't hear him, and he hopefully couldn't hear me either. I'd be concerned he could hear me, and that's why he was so upset, except I happen to know he behaves the same way every time I leave. He starts up the moment I'm the opposite side of the stair gate to him, and doesn't settle properly until I'm back with him again, at which point he greets me with such enthusiasm you'd swear I've been gone a year, even if I was gone for like five minutes.

I mean, both dogs gave me rather enthusiastic greetings when I got home, which made me feel like I was returning from a trip that had taken a year and a day, rather than the couple of hours it was. But Logan jumped in to my arms, and wouldn't let me put him down for about 20 minutes. He's also been sticking incredibly close to me ever since. My Logi-Bear really hates when his Mummy goes anywhere without him. Lilie's never entirely happy about it, but even as a puppy she was more accepting of me leaving than Logan is. But then, Lilie has always considered herself more Kelly's dog, and gotten more upset when he leaves than when I do. Logan apparently considers himself mine, which is fine by me.

We would have taken them downstairs too. The dogs I mean. But both Lilie and Logan - especially Lilie - get rather excited seeing people, especially if those people say, "Hello," to them, so we didn't want them bouncing about inside the cafe. I'm sure the people who own the cafe wouldn't have thanked us for that, considering the chaos they can cause when they get excited. But we couldn't sit outside, because it was a drizzly sort of day. It wasn't as wet that afternoon as it had been earlier in the day, and it wasn't one of the stormy days we've had recently. But it was too chilly and damp for an outside dining experience. Hence Kelly going back home after dropping me off at the cafe.

We had a feeling that might happen, considering all the damp or stormy days we've had throughout October. I mean, we've had some lovely sunny days - though even those have usually been on the chilly side, with temperatures reaching as high as 16 C (about 64 F) a couple of times, but mostly hovering around 12 C (56 F) and starting to get colder... It didn't get above 8 C (46 F) Sunday, and when I'm writing this on Monday morning it's currently only 4 C (40 F) - but the weather really hasn't been nice most of this past month or so, with rain and strong winds being the main form of weather we've seen.

At least the skylight is fixed now.

Yeah, I know. To be honest, we were amazed too. But the repair guy showed up this past Thursday to, "Take a look at that skylight," and now it's fixed.

Well, actually, it's not as thoroughly fixed as it should have been, but it's fixed enough that it's not raining inside every time it rains outside any more, and the wind no longer sneaks in to play in the attic via the skylight. The birds can't get in any more either, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because they shouldn't be in there. Bad because they were going in there for shelter, so it's a shame they lost that shelter. There are plenty of more suitable bird sheltering areas around though, so they can go to one of those when the weather calls for it.

Anyway, as I said, he didn't do a full replacement, despite it needing one. He wanted to, but he couldn't, because the weather won't allow for him to do so without way too many health and safety risks. But he fixed it so the rain and wind aren't happening inside any more, which is a good thing. Would be even better if it had been sorted when the weather was still nice enough that it didn't add extra risks, so he could have done the full repair. But at least the bad weather stays outside where it belongs now. So we're pleased about that.

Also, our friends, Lorna and Andy, came to finish sorting the shower for us this past Tuesday afternoon. Well, Andy did. Lorna just came to hang out and chat with me, and say, "Hi," to the furkids. Either way, they came, and now the shower rail and curtain are up at last, which means we can finally actually have a choice between a shower or a bath. YAY!

Don't get me wrong, I love a good bath, especially when I've got time for a soak with some bubbles. But sometimes it would be great if I could grab a quick shower instead. Plus, it's nice to have the choice. You know?

Lilie and Logan were rather confused and upset by the strangeness of my disappearing behind the shower curtain though, and relieved when I emerged in one piece - if rather soggy - from behind it.

You see, since we haven't been able to make use of the shower before now - unless we wanted to soak the bathroom, which we didn't - neither have experienced us having a shower. They've seen us have a bath plenty of times. Me especially, since they always come in the bathroom while I have my bath (settling them in the bathroom with a rawhide chew or something is the only way I can have a bath without them causing utter chaos while I'm doing so... Not sure why, since they're happy to play with me, or settle near me, while Kelly has a bath, but go crazy if I'm having one and they aren't allowed in the bathroom). So they got rather upset at the strangeness of me disappearing behind the curtain the first time. Upset enough that even Logan - our food crazy dog - didn't touch the rawhide chewie stick I'd given them for while I had my shower. They weren't so bad the next time though, so hopefully they'll soon start accepting it as normal, and go back to calmly enjoying their treats while I get clean.

Anyway, not much else has happened around here over the past couple of weeks. The only other thing that happened was that I tried banana blossom for the first time at the end of last week. I'd neither eaten or cooked with it before, and only had a can because I spotted it when stocking my cupboards with things just after becoming vegan, so grabbed it (figuring I'd work out what I was meant to do with it later).

I've seen most people using it to make fish dishes. But I never was a fan of the taste of fish, even before becoming vegetarian, so don't care to experience it as a vegan, thank you very much. But I was sure that couldn't be all it was good for, even if I couldn't figure out what I could do with it.

This meant the can of banana blossom I found when doing my shopping sat in the cupboard for about two months before I figured out what to do with it. In the end, it was someone mentioning having had a banana blossom burger while out somewhere that helped me decide what to do with the can of banana blossom.

So, I made some banana blossom burgers, making up the recipe as I went along, and hoping for the best.

I used about half the can of banana blossom, an onion, some nutritional yeast, a selection of herbs and spices (I used allspice, basil, salt, and pepper) and some flour. I roughly chopped the banana blossom and onion, blended them - along with the herbs and spices, and nutritional yeast - until they made a smoothe paste, mixed enough flour in to it to turn it in to a dough firm enough that I could form it in to burger shapes, and stuck them on a tray in the oven. Cooked them for about 20 minutes, I think... Basically, until they seemed nice and firm to me. Then served them in bread (it was meant to be rolls, but I forgot to get some) with some vegan mayo, with some sweet potato fries on the side.

Since it was only me eating the banana blossom burgers - since Kelly had no desire to try banana blossom - I decided ahead of time that I'd only be using part of the can for the burgers. So what to do with the rest of the banana blossom?

I decided on a curry. You can never go wrong with a curry, right? Besides, I've noticed from discussions on the vegan groups that when someone asks about a meat substitute for curry, everyone just suggests their favourite, and most of them get at least one mention. So... *shrugs*

With that in mind, I threw together a couple of chopped up mushrooms, a diced onion, a peeled and chopped apple, a couple of handfuls of peas, the rest of the can of banana blossom (chopped up before being added) and a small handful of raisins. Then I added a bit of curry powder, cumin, taragon, and allspice for seasoning, poured in some coconut milk, and cooked it in the slow cooker all afternoon (so for about four hours) stirring it from time to time. When I decided it was cooked enough, I served it with boiled rice.

So, what was the verdict?

The curry was nice, but not great; the curry would have been great, except I don't think banana blossom works too well in a curry. The banana blossom burgers worked better, though should have been seasoned more, since it seems banana blossom is like tofu in that you need to be generous with the seasonings, and I wasn't generous enough with them. I wouldn't mind having the banana blossom burgers again, but I think I'll give banana blossom curry a miss in the future. Mind you, having said that, I think I'll mainly be sticking to tofu and jackfruit, because I do actually like those better to be honest.

OK. That's you all caught up on what's been going on around here over the past couple of weeks, including my latest food experiments.