Some minor updates and musings to share following the last post. This one goes all over the place, just because.

All of the the invasive, toxic White Snakeroot with its scribbly looking flower heads was pulled up. It came out with very little effort. Uninvited mystery plant be gone! Feeling accomplished enough to move on to the next outstanding task, I grabbed a basket, gathered up some of the Red Shiso leaves and steeped them to make Aka Shiso juice and syrup.

The purple leaves gave up their color, and with the addition of a little lemon juice the liquid turns a bright magenta. Lightly sweetened with agave syrup, this was a very refreshing drink over ice, especially since it suddenly got pretty warm again this week. Some people like it with seltzer (or vodka) added to it. I just had it plain.

The Aka Shiso was enjoyed with a side of Italian red pepper Teralli, which are little wheat/breadstick rings native to southern Italy. The contrast of the tangy/sweet juice with the savory pepper Teralli was an interesting snack.

Teralli can also be dusted with sugar, which goes nicely with a cup of coffee, spiced chai or hot tea. They are not overly sweet.

Next on the update is (sadly) the disappointing ending concerning my brand-new percale sheets. I was so looking forward to sleeping on crisp, clean, cheery-looking sheets. Opened the package, threw them in the washer to get off any excess dye or whatever chemicals they might have been treated with. Gently tumbled them dry and made the bed. Admired the contrast of the dark red flower print against the white background, juxtaposed against my apple-green blanket. The anticipation of sliding between those sheets was palpable, with the expectation of experiencing an overwhelming sense of comfort, freshness, and perhaps eliciting some pleasant childhood memories from the recesses of my mind.

What I was mentally prepared for was that wonderful feeling you get sleeping on nice percale sheets in a good hotel. Or in my mother’s house long ago. My mom used to iron her sheets. Really. Sleeping in a bed made up of my mom’s freshly laundered and ironed cotton sheets provided one of the most wonderful feelings of love and well-being in the world. I mean that.

Unfortunately, that “Ahhhh” moment I so hoped for didn’t arrive. It was odd that when when I ran my hands over the folded sheets, they felt smooth, but lying on them was like trying to sleep on a bed of fiberglass. It was beyond horrible.

I’m no stranger to percale. They do tend to need a break-in period. The more you use and wash them, the softer they get. However, I never experienced anything this drastic. These were fairly well-known name-brand sheets from a long-standing company. The thread-count fell in the normal range for percale. And they were so cute. Because I really wanted them to work, I spent a torturous night of non-sleep on them.

The following morning required a little research on scratchy percale sheets, and cotton percale in general. Percale is a type of weave in a crisscross pattern. It leaves a finish that is strong, smooth, breathable and long-lasting. It is great if you are a hot sleeper, good for hot-flashes if you are so inclined. (As far as why a senior would still even be talking about getting hot flashes, I sometimes surmise it must be related to some massive karmic hell to pay from a past life).

This was the first time I experienced percale as being so rough, but apparently that is not uncommon and there are hacks and fixes for the problem. You can add a cup of baking soda to the wash water and a half-cup of vinegar to the rinse. If you can’t dry them outside on a clothesline, tumbling dry with dryer balls or tennis balls will also suffice. Site after site claimed that by using this method, one could look forward to those scratchy percale sheets being rendered soft and smooth. So yesterday morning I stripped the bed and did all of those things, washing them alone with plenty of water, the baking soda, the vinegar, the dryer balls. Made the bed up again and looked forward to a night of blissed-out cotton percale dreams.

It made no difference at all. It still felt as if sleeping on sandpaper. Nobody really wants to be stripping the sheets off the bed in the middle of the night (much less a second time within twenty-four hours) but there was no way a night of sleep was to be had wrapped up in these prickly, itchy things. So off they came, and the old tried and true reliable sheets were put back on. While this was happening I was thinking the last time I pulled the sheets off a bed in the middle of the night was for one of my sick children when they were small. And that was a very long time ago.

By morning, the cranky, sleep-deprived decision was made not to invest any more time or energy laundering, testing and changing, with the hope these hell-sheets would become something they clearly weren’t. I folded them up, drove back to the store and returned them. As the woman at the checkout took them from me and placed them on a shelf behind the counter, I admit I felt a bit sad to see the pretty little flower pattern go. In case anyone wondered, they were Laura Ashley sheets, which back in the day used to be known both for their prints and for their quality. Very disappointing.

I replaced them with a different set of sheets – 100% cotton, but not cotton percale. A slightly higher thread count and a brand I was familiar with. And they were on sale, so at least yay to that. The pattern doesn’t thrill me as much, but they will be okay, and I have a rather cool looking bed blanket (with its own kind of cool back story) to throw over them. Brought them home, took them out of the package, only to discover they stunk like…well, “poo” would be the polite word. Seriously? I have never smelled linens with such an unpleasant odor. The word “stench” might apply here. What are they doing to these sheets these days that cause strange feeling and smelling finishes on them?

Washed them, did the baking soda wash and vinegar rinse routine for good measure. Thankfully, they came out feeling and smelling clean. These will not go on the bed until next week, but hopefully they will work out, because I just can’t do this again.

Not everybody cares that much about bed linens or towels, and many might find this little trip down the bedding isle a bit boring. But I will state that many of us absolutely love our dishtowels, our sheets and bedspreads, pillows and bath towels – those textiles that surround us, adding mood, accent and comfort to our lives.

Speaking of the word “stench”, this morning I was at a physical therapy appointment (healing a shoulder injury) and could not help but notice the entire large main room smelled like patchouli oil. I am guessing somebody at their appointment had it clinging to their clothing from past applications, because why would anyone wear perfume to PT? Actually, it was not a “stench”, that’s not quite accurate. It did not smell bad because it was not heavy. I admit I like the smell of patchouli in light doses and didn’t really mind it today. I can imagine though that it might have bothered some people in the room, especially a room designated for exercise. When I typed the word “stench” in a paragraph above in relation to the smelly new sheets, it did remind me of some previous unpleasant Patchouli Incidents of years gone by (see Hiding the Patchouli 1/28/2011), thus the segue.

Meandering off track some more and in an upbeat development, another two figs ripened (and were eaten) from the tree on The Urban Porch ™. More appear to be on the way.

Speaking of food, the Dutch Baby of this week was peach-blueberry-vanilla, with maple syrup. If enough figs happen on the tree, I might try adding figs to the next one. I’ve been making one almost every weekend for breakfast and will probably continue that until I get tired of them.

The weather has been gorgeous, if a bit warm. There are a few houses on the street that have been upping their game as far as Halloween decorations. My favorite so far is the tasteful spookiness that one of the neighbors did to his c.1720 stone house. At night every window glows with an evil red light from within. There are bats on the front door. A skeleton dangles from above. A rat is caught in the spider webs. Another property a few doors down is in high gear overkill, which is probably going to delight the trick-or-treating kids. Their lawn is filled with life-size plastic crows (I really would love some of these), climbing skeletons going up the walls and onto the roof, massive spiders, gargoyles, tombstones, webs all over, creatures that light up, and some kind of motion-activated eerie voice that caused the dog to levitate off the ground the first time we walked by it. He also was taken aback by a sign around the corner that has a scary pumpkin face painted on it, which happened to be at his eye-level. That was one big “nope” for him.

Maybe I’ll get a pumpkin. I mowed the lawn, and then Rudi and I sat on the porch for a bit while I drank my iced Ako Shiso, mentally willed the figs on the potted tree to ripen, and gazed out at the newly tidied grass. That is, until a yellowjacket chased us inside. I guess they aren’t totally gone yet.

And that’s what’s on my meandering mind today.

~*~