On boys, bread and a new bird

On a recent evening I had the rare treat of having dinner with my three boys. Ok, one is my husband, still just a boy at heart and the other two boys are my sons Josh, 37, and Jon, 31. Jon had come down from Baltimore to play a concert with his band, The Leeves, and Josh happened to be in town and picked him up at the train. We all settled down for a quick meal at our favorite sandwich shop, First Carolina Deli. 

Now about the bread. Dan Leader has a wonderful book, Local Breads, that I have really enjoyed exploring. He has recipes for a variety of kinds of sourdoughs and the stiff dough levain was used to make this Auvergne Crown. His book was available at the public library and I checked it out several times. Finally bought on on Amazon when I was not sure I could keep the pages clean in the borrowed book!

Another bread baking resource that I love is Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. This entire book is available as a PDF file on this link.

Finally birds. A friend suggested that I make a papagayo, otherwise known as a red macaw. 

Here is a photo of a real papagayo.

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Here is the one I knitted. Chris's basic bird body pattern is easily adapted to a wide variety of animal creations! I used the puffin body from Chris de Longpré's book 52 Timeless Toys to Knit.  The wings are 2x2 rib knit and the tail feathers are i-cord. The gray feet are also i-cord but have pipe cleaners inserted into the i-cord. Facial details are satin stitch and the beak is an experiment in increases, decreases and stuffing!

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Wishing you happy days as summer approaches!