Tea and Toast

Oh, hullo. I've been busy. There has been a baby around here, and a novel, and handmade Christmas presents. I don't remember if I mentioned before, but I won't be sharing pictures of the little guy. I'm not comfortable putting his face out there on the internet; better safe than sorry. You'll just have to take my word for it that's he's adorable and hilarious (he is, though).



( Follow Malcolm the cat's tail to the usual mix of knitting, gardening, and cooking )

It rained the other night. For at least a minute. Very exciting. We actually got our first rainstorm since February on Halloween night. We were watching World War Z, a scary zombie movie, and then after it finished, he went to play Archeage and I went to write an outline, having decided at the last minute to do Nanowrimo again.

Then the power went out. My first thought of course was zombies. But then we could hear the rain...

Anyway, pictures. We have woodpeckers on our street. A whole clan of them.


( woodpeckers! )

It was chilly and foggy for a couple days... and I thought it might be... but no. Fall is still like a month and a half off. Usually the heat gives up around Halloween.

This little bird... hit our sliding glass door. The poor thing spent a good hour afterward, blinking slowly and panting right outside, before it recovered and flew away. I was just glad it was okay.


( Garden and Food )

January has been slipping by. I don't make resolutions; if anything I try not to add projects now. Normally I can start three new projects every day, but in January I try to finish something instead.

I went through several issues of Fine Cooking and cut out recipes. Among them I found a cinnamon swirl raisin bread, which was delicious:




The swirl showed up wonderfully when I toasted and buttered a slice, but if you think I'm going to take the time to grab my camera when there's warm handmade cinnamon toast to be had...

( It rained a bit, what a nice change. )

My wreath, a continual work in progress:



( Won't you come in? )

Artichokes are fairly easy to cook, it turns out... we quartered it, removed spiky bits and dandelion fluff bits, and steamed until tasty. And quartering was just so it would fit in the steamer; I suppose we could have cooked it in just two pieces. Online recipes go on about lemon juice and olive oil and melting butter, but really, you can eat the leaves plain. Why obscure such a delicate taste?

Anyway....! There are now kittens. They are actually more like six months old.

Inara, the girl:


( yay )