Look What We Got

That's right, snow, or rather SNOW.  Covering the ground and it's not melting either.  Did I go out yesterday and rake away the leaf drift so we're not hosting the neighborhood rodents--Chester Chipmunk, Raoul Vole, and Herbie Mouse? No, I did not, I went to the Attic to knit and yak with my friend Skully.  I'll get those leaves moved one of these days, really I will.  (lemme 'splain how I know their names, Chester is what Mom called all the chipmunks, Raoul is what DIL1 named the voles, and Grandpa Stephan had a mouse pet named Herbie in his workshop. there, now you know their names too, they're all named the same, just like all chickens are Henny & Penny who, btw, provided our excellent breakfast today, see?)  I just whipped up a cauldron of chicken & random veggies soup for work lunches and any other time soup is called for in the next week or so. (hey, you never know when you'll need soup)  I had a quarter of a head of red cabbage that I chopped up and put in there so I warned Durwood that there'll be blue-green chunks in there.  Red cabbage doesn't stay red, you know, it turns a very odd shade of bluish green.  Last time I used some he called me at work to check because he was afraid the soup had gone bad.  Nope, just weird cabbage.  DS & DIL1 are coming over later to help me deal with our crock full of sauerkraut.  I assume it's done.  For a while there the house smelled, well, like old locker rooms and bad feet; then it got colder in the basement so it stopped smelling so I figured that it's done.  (mmm, I love grapes, they're a good snack)  I have to look up the "recipe" again to see if we'll need to make more brine for the canning.  They want to bag and freeze theirs, they read somewhere that freezing preserves more nutrition.  I'm going to can ours so I can give some to DIL2 who loves it and have it not take up too much freezer room.  Oh, earlier I was thinking I'd thaw out a kielbasa or something and we could have sausage & kraut for supper but I just got chicken breasts out.  Maybe they're not too thawed out to change plans.  Back in a mo... the switch has been made.


November 25--Henri Fantin-Latour, Summer Flowers.  A petal fell onto the polished tabletop.  One thumbprint of rosy pink lay there cupped and trembling in the breeze from the open French doors.  Gail let her book lay in her lap.  She heard the metallic snick of the yard man's clippers as he shaped the boxwood.  Far back in the kitchen, a world away from where Gail sat, Cook clattered pans and laughed with Jake the houseman.  David had been gone for three days and she had exhausted all her planned entertainments.  She had written letters, played tennis, taken walks and volunteered in the charity kitchen at the Catholic church.  She was tempted to drive into the city for lunch with Skyler but she was afraid that Matty would be there and that would only lead to more trouble.  She should have gone with David.  Days spent bored in a conference hotel would have been safer than a week here alone.  It was too easy to get into mischief alone.

Time to go gather canning jars and count lids.
--Barbara