Wow

Look what we have. It was 7 degrees this morning with a -6 degree wind chill. And we still have sheet ice on the ground. But the sun is shinning. So it’s gonna be a good day.

Look at all that blue sky.

I love sunrises.

I Am So Ashamed

Did you know that November 17 is National Home Made Bread Day? No one told me. So I was out shopping instead of observing the day. It doesn’t matter that I had no idea I should have been celebrating. I had already made plans when I heard the news. So I messed up and take full responsibility.

But I will make up for it today. Today I will bake that bread, feed a bird bread crumbs and maybe even try Bread Painting. I will make my wheat/rye bread and try Brioche again.

And it looks like it is not just a US holiday. As far as I can tell at least the UK and India also celebrate the day.

So let’s all get our yeast and flour out and go make bread. A day late is not necessarily a loaf short.

Brioche. Photo borrowed from Food.com.

Just Some Rambling to Pass the Time

I’d thought I’d just talk about a few things on my mind and give you some pictures of our first “real” snow while I gab away.

Window from the grove looking south.

Definition of PROCRASTINATE: to put off intentionally and habitually. This is according the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. I was glad to read the correct definition for this word. Now no one, me included, can say I am a procrastinator. Everything that I have put off, that I have meant to do lately, was not put off intentionally or habitually. I just haven’t gotten around to it. I do not habitually (I really like that word) stop writing my blog. I definitely do not habitually stop reading my favorite blogs. But I have unintentionally done both. And although not writing for a while has hurt nothing, the not reading everyone’s blogs has kept me out of the loop and uninformed on my friends’ activities. That being bad enough, my unintentional neglect has left me hours of reading to catch up on. That means hours of sitting at the computer and going through over 2 months of postings for over 19 blogs. That’s a lot of reading. And I have no excuses and no one to blame but myself.

The opening of the grove on the southeast.

I often marvel at the scope of the World Wide Web and how people from around the world can connect almost instantaneously. Take our blogs, for instance. They are out there for anyone to see, and sometimes we are lucky enough to find out who is reading them. I was excited to have a comment from John, a man from Wales on one of my posts this summer. I found his blog, read it and then added it to my favorites (Going Gently). John is a wonderful writer and posts almost daily. So I have enjoyed reading about his life on a “farm” in Wales. But I had no idea that he still reads my blog and was even more excited to hear from him again. So….Thanks John, for the nice thought. Your blog is one I am looking forward to catching up on. I’m sorry you had so much damage from the storm.

One of our wonderful trails in the grove, heading west.

I had thought I’d told all of you about Bob. But people in the know say I never did. Bob is no longer with us. Remember the poor dropped off cat that showed up last winter. Even after all the medical attention and food, he stayed rather frail. He never got over his intestinal problems, and then he started fighting with Pickles again. Unfortunately, none of the rescues around here would take him. There are just too many stray cats in the world. So we sadly put him down. It’s probably needless to say, but I will say it anyway. I was devastated. Poor Bob, the only one that loved him was me, and I couldn’t save him. So I lost my brother, Edith, Bob and Cricket this summer. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me….

Another opening out of the grove. However, it was blowing, so you can’t see the field.

I love to bake. And on snowy days like today, there is a certain peacefulness for me when I make bread. But I just made bread the other day. So today, I think I’ll make a cake. I am a King Arthur flour fan, and unless there is none available, I only use their flour. I even buy it in large 25 pound bags and pay for the extra shipping because it is not available in our stores here. So I was very excited to recently purchase their Original King Arthur Flour Cookbook Commemorative Edition. It’s more of a bakebook really with lots of recipes for breads, cakes, pies, muffins….just about anything that you can make with flour. And a lot of history and hints mixed in. I love it. Hubby has been grumbling about cupcakes lately. So the cake I decide to make will be put into cupcakes. Later.
I just have too many types to choose from….. Maybe I need to look at some more recipes.

Remember, I’m not a procrastinator.

Sorry, No Pictures. It Was Dark!

So instead, I’ll tell you a story.

I’ll start with the characters. The main character: a woman too old to be young and too young to be old….a middle aged, overweight, out of shape ex-hippie. We’ll call her Candy.
Candy’s pets: Ren, a 10 year old, 30 pound Blue Heeler cross; Obie, a 10 month old, 9 pound Papillion; Gracie, a 2 year old silver tabby barn cat. And the last player in the story: Big Buck, a large, large, very large male deer, age and weight unknown with protruding horns on his head and eyes that shoot fire.

It was a morning much like today. Dark and still. The recent rains had left the dawn damp with dew. The dogs, in their persistent way, woke up Candy and demanded to go outside. No amount of shushing would settle them down. These dogs were use to going out at 5 am. In the dark and early hours, Candy grumbled, put on her glasses and stumbled down the stairs.

Living in the country with no houses in sight, she was use to letting the dogs out the door, putting on a light jacket, and joining them to enjoy the morning. This morning started out like all the rest, with Gracie joining the group and the dogs doing their business and sniffing the clear, quiet air. But today, Obie and then Ren, started barking and growling towards the Cat House. And little Gracie went into a cat alert mode, slinking down and hiding behind Candy’s feet.

To give you some idea of the lay of the land, the Cat House is an old one car garage, converted into a shelter for the barn cats. The yard light is on the north side of it and the main house lies southwest. The bright light casts a large shadow to the front and west of the Cat House, but its east side is well lit.

Now Ren is an old expert on the farm and when she growls, everyone listens. So as the dogs were growling at the Cat House, Candy turned to look and out from the northeast side stepped a deer. A very big deer. We all know that the dark can distort our views, but she swears that deer was as big as….well just BIG. And because Ren has a habit of chasing critters from the yard, Candy grabbed quickly and put her in the house. Little Obie started to run toward the deer, barking and growling, but then stopped and backed up. This deer was not running like most of the deer do. So brave little Obie came running back to Candy, who was yelling and waving her arms, and was put into the house as well.

Now Candy has come up against a lot of questionable animals in her middle aged life. She has gone into a pen with an “evil” Saint Bernard and made a friend. She has been cornered by a “killer” toy poodle and won. She has jumped in the middle of dog fights, cat fights and cat and dog fights. She has stood her ground against mad horses, crazy sheep and annoyed chickens. All of those experiences just got her heart pumping faster and her adrenalin flowing.

But this was different. This buck, this very big buck, was not running. He was not scared. In fact he was mad. Candy stood at the back door of the house, yelling at the deer to leave, with Gracie still huddled at her feet. And the buck, after staring with angry eyes, and sniffing, wheezing and grunting for what seemed like “forever”, majestically sauntered toward the bean field. Soon he was hidden behind the tree line, but Candy could still hear him, and followed his progress by watching Gracie’s head slowly pan the dark. The last she heard of him were two very loud and angry grunts and then silence. The buck had disappeared into the shadows. And Candy took a deep breath and slunk into the house.

We’ve all heard the stories of hunters doing stupid things and getting attacked by bucks. Well, I now believe those stories. Big Buck could easily have attacked instead of walking away. So was I scared? Yes. I am still very leery of wandering outside in the dark and I now always have my heavy duty walking stick with me.

But like Hubby says…”you’re gonna need a bigger stick”.

PS. My apologies to George for always snickering when she worried about her pets being killed by deer. OK George, so maybe you were right!