Black Trumpets

No, it's not a musical instrument, though you may wish to sing its praises.  It is variously known as Black Chanterelles, Trumpets, Trompe de la Morts (trumpets of death - those Frenchies have such a sense of humor), and officially Craterellus Fallax.  By any name, it's one of my favorite wild mushrooms.  I love the slightly pungent and spicy flavor, especially good with eggs and pasta, and the fact that it loses very little flavor when dried.  When there is a good trumpet year, you can come home with bags full, dry them and enjoy them all year long, until the beginning of the next rainy season.  For us in Mendocino County, they are close to the last wild mushroom we'll pick before the dry season.  Happily, it's a good year for black chanterelles, as it was for white and yellow chanterelles.  Here they are ready to be washed.

A Little Quilt

This weekend is the Anderson Valley Alsace Festival put on by the AV Winegrowers.  They have generously offered the Anderson Valley Housing Assn. one or two tables of silent auction items.  We get the donations and organize the auction, and they collect the money and give it to us.  I've gotten some very generous donations, as have Bill Sterling and others.  I came up with a donation of my own: a little quilt.  It's a spinoff of a larger quilt I made last year.  The center of the quilt was one of the photos printed on fabric that I decided not to use in the original quilt.

So here's the Little Yorkville Shack quilt.

 

And here's the larger quilt I did, called Yorkville Shack.  Keep in mind that the small one is 12 x 15

and the larger one is 36 x 40.  Yes, the color of the shack is different, which is one of the reasons it didn't make it into the larger quilt.  And the other thing is that the photo below is bad.  But I've got new lights and will try and get a better photo of it.

 

For those curious folks, here's a photo taken recently of the Yorkville Shack, unaltered.

 It is going, going, going.  I wonder every time I pass that spot whether it will have collapsed.  There are more Yorkville Shack quilts to come.  I will need to visit it again when the magnificent dogwood comes into bloom, and the old lilac and the old apple tree.

Happy Valentine's Day

We're leaving on a jet plane later today.  Mark has a conference in San Diego, so I get to play while he works, then we'll have some days together at the end.  We're planning on visiting Joshua Tree National Park.

Here's a not so recent photo of my sweetheart doing something he loves, and I love the finished product.  Cheers!

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