Three seasons later...

I ought to have named this The Spring Blog. Since I totally missed writing about summer, fall and winter. Now here we are, March 7th, and spring is right around the corner. I must say I am very excited, though we had an amazing winter which I enjoyed entirely. I'll give a brief review of times past and next post will be the start of a new cycle.

We'll start with Summer. I had an AMAZING summer. I found wild raspberries, red and black varieties. I baked some really scrumptious Raspberry Cornmeal muffins with some of my find too. As per tradition, I went to the annual Old Songs Festival with my husband and his family. We volunteered in the kitchen, slept in a tent, went to music workshops and listened to all sorts of wonderful folk, traditional, ethnic and domestic music of the oldish persuasion for a full weekend.
Then, my good friend from Miami came to visit me and we had such lovely times together. I showed her my raspberry patches and we spent hours picking berries and chatting while fending off mosquitoes and maneuvering around thorns. We hiked a mountain (eating loads of raspberries on the way) and strode along lovely New England beaches (finding all sorts of cool shells) and canoed our way around a small lake behind my in-laws property. We explored the beautiful town I live in, got caught in a summer storm and sought shelter at our local library. Quite a magical time all things considered.

Shortly after she went back home, two of my sisters came to visit. They stayed for a good three weeks and we squeezed all kinds of excellent summer activities in. We camped the White Mountains, hiked and swam a bit in them too. (Natural waterslides for the win!) Lots of tea parties, more town exploring and enjoying the warm days and balmy nights. One day we cooled off and did some art at my friend's a/c'd paint-your-own pottery studio. Which reminds me of something that boggled my socks off when I found out about it....LOTS of people who live in the North East do not have central air conditioner. Wow. Really? EVERYONE had it in Florida. But that's because it's down-right needed down there. Up here, there really only were about two weeks where I was really hot. And it was primarily humidity. A fan and a dehumidifier would do wonders to solve that problem. And nights in general are quite cool. I can imagine how wonderful the breeze is if you live on a lake or near the ocean. (similar to a winter breeze in Key West, no doubt).

Fall too, was lovely. The leaves took their time in changing, it seemed. But when they did, how glorious! I took a drive one morning and listened to Handel's Messiah while viewing some extraordinary fall foliage. FIRE! I tell you. Burnished bronze, copper, gold, crimson and scarlet. All the colours of a warm toned rainbow. I wish I had taken more photos of when the leaves really turned. I used up all my camera's batteries on early fall and didn't get around to buying more until long after the leaves had browned and fallen. Autumn was filled primarily with both my husband and I working. Though, we managed to slip up to our mountain trail and pick about a peck of blackberries. And plums on Plum Island (where my in-laws have a house) were an adventure to find and pick. (We may have broken some laws doing that, shhhh). I wish we had had more time to make our bountiful finds into wine. We had LOADS of pears that would have been better put to being wine, instead, all the ones we didn't manage to eat got rather rotten. Thankfully we gave away a lot and did indeed eat a lot before they did. Pumpkins were a wonderful to see, buy, roast and cook and bake with. I made some amazing pumpkin scones, my traditional pumpkin cookies and some pumpkin gnocchi with sage and balsamic vinegar marinated mushrooms. .....so.....delicious....I'm telling you. John also made his first beer this past fall. And his second beer. Both, a regular ale and a ginger ale, turned out quite good.
His chocolate lager, however, that he brewed this past winter was incredible. I loved it. Still am loving it, as it only just got to the point in it's aging where it's drink-worthy. I believe it will still be getting better as time goes by. Another lovely winter memory is the opening up of a bottle of our last spring's Dandelion Wine. It really shined. Dandelions are a wonderful blossom and I truly look forward to their bloom this spring. I'll cover more on this past winter in the next post as time is short for me now, and winter isn't quite over so I can blog about it in present tense with a clear conscience. :)
Cheers!

Short update...

Hurrah for my first photo on this blog. I couldn't help myself, I picked some forsythia. They looked great with my springly-floral skirt.

Spring is too beautiful. I don't know what else to say.
Today the day was stormy and sunny by turns. As though the weather just could not make up its mind. The past few days were quite warm and sunny and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I've been taking walks in the woods and attempting some foraging. But mostly, I just sit on the picnic bench outside our apartment building and read in the sweet sunshine. Every time we get one of these warm spells, the returning cold feels colder and colder. Though if it had been 50 degrees a month and a half ago, it would have been considered quite warm. Strange how our bodies adapt to temperatures. It's all relative really.
Now I must apologize for my lack of bloggi-ness lately. I felt intimidated by my last post. I kept thinking "I'll just wait until I have some magical spring-time recipe to post and then I'll write." Well, I have some. I've been working hard on that list of problems. I've been writing stuff down (almost) faithfully, my pictures are improving and once I almost followed a recipe without changing it. Maybe one day I'll have a chance to write all about it, but I made Dandelion icecream. And it was fantastic. I loved it. My own recipe too! I'm so proud.
But remember? This was going to be a "short" update. It's very nearly 1:30 in the morning here, so I had better be going to bed.

An exciting idea

I love food blogs. I have secret dreams of becoming a food blogger. I surreptitiously take photographs of my food sometimes in the hopes of posting them with a recipe and a clever anecdote attached. These dreams never come to fruition for several reasons.
1., The photos turn out ugly. Either poor lighting, a previously unnoticed cluttered background or just plain not-pretty looking food, my photos of food never look as yummy as they taste.
2., I make the mistake of NOT writing down my recipe as I make/invent it. I've been getting better at this, though.
3., I am my own worst critic. Even when food, desserts, baked goods, breakfast, lunches and or dinners I make turn out amazing, I never think it's good enough to share with the world. Or I feel it's too complicated. Or I did some silly thing as a short cut that I just can't admit to...Or explain.
4., I'm really impatient. This one sums it all up. Cakes that would have looked beautiful look like crummy blobs because I couldn't wait for the crumb-coat to chill, and I didn't feel like waiting for the butter cream to warm. Ice cream I was SO eager for, I did not wait for the ice-cream bowl insert to freeze completely before attempting to churn it. Deciding NOT to strain this or that because it probably won't make a difference. (It did.) *sigh* The list goes on and on. And it's amazing, the good results I get when I plan ahead and take the time I give myself to make something. It turns out! It looks good! It tastes great! Why can't I do this more often?!

Anyway. My idea. If I can get over these obstacles, that is. A food blog of a different kind. I mean, there are a lot of them all over the place. Really good ones. But I want mine to be magical. Both enjoying the magic of seasons, which I now am growing to love, and the glory of being able to forage for ones own food in this bountiful state in which I live, but also to take on the aspect of story magic. I've had this idea for a "Fairytale Cook Book" for some time. With gorgeous illustrations and cutesy stories, as well as excerpts from real fiction that feature such food types. And it seems to me that now a-days, so many good cookbooks started as blogs and why not mine? It could be a start, at least. I guess I'll be thinking about it....

Library and Tea shop, amongst other things...Hills, most notably.

When it comes down to it, I really am a flatlander. Florida is flat. It really is. Especially the Keys. They're all at sea level. Well, okay, Key West has a hill which inclines to about 4 feet above sea level....and we think that's something. So when I came to this hill country of New Hampshire, I can't say I was prepared for...well, hills. I rode my bike to the library downtown today. It's about a mile and a half, and a mostly flat ride. Mostly. There are two hills. One going down, one going up. Down is easy! Up killed me. And this is a LITTLE hill, mind you. Exeter, compared to other parts of New Hampshire, is a decently flattish town to the naked eye. It's not until your actually walking or riding a bike that you realize .... "Wow, this here is a HILL." My best guess is that I rode about about two to four feet of slow ascent and then gave up. I got off and walked that blasted bike up. I didn't have enough speed to bring me along (I really couldn't get any speed on my bike, it's a put-put bike) and my legs were in no shape to pump me up. I felt really lame. I guess it didn't help that my tires were pretty low, either...

But on the good side! I got a book to read for when I'm done with The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. (Which is amazing. It's my first read by Steinbeck, but it won't be the last. It was a slow start, but now that I'm into it it's beautiful. He's poetic and illustrative through every sentence. And the people are so real, so feeling.) I got a book called Crown Duel by a Sherwood Smith. Some fantasy novel I've never heard of by someone I've never heard of but it looked interesting. That kinda book. But I love reading. And now that the weather is really warming up, I can sit outside and read. And pure loveliness, it is, my friends.
Another delightful thing is that I splurged on buying some organic Lavender flowers today. An ounce. And I am SO excited about them. I love lavender and I'll be baking spring in to a lot of concoctions now that I have it. Not to mention Lavender Chocolate ice cream...

That's right folks. I now I have an ice cream maker and I'm NOT afraid to use it. Just today in fact, I made some Papaya Ginger Ice Cream and Chocolate Spice-cream (clever name, no?) is in the works. The papaya recipe I developed on my own and the chocolate one I adapted. If they end up turning out delish, I just may post the recipes. I love exploring new flavours and combinations, and ice cream is a great format for a lot of them. It would be fun to turn this blog in to a foodie type one...amongst other things. You know?

Rainy days are here again, hey!

Our short week of gorgeous days has passed. Back to the grey and rainy days of early spring. Yes, that's right spring. The first day of spring arrived beautiful, warm, breezy. How often in New Hampshire does the first day of spring actually feel like spring? Not very often. Two years ago, the first day of spring (My wedding day!) was NOT warm by any stretch of imagination. And besides it being about 15 below, it was very windy. Good thing our wedding was inside!

But speaking of spring, pretty soon things will be blooming. Already I have seen some daffodils unfurl their glory. Which means spring greens will be poking up...And I fully intend to be out foraging them when they do. Dandelions and nettles, chives, too, perhaps. And I'll be planting this year too. I have some seeds I've saved and now is the time to plant! Peppers, cantaloupe and something else...
And maybe the geraniums I planted last year will come back! Does anyone know if those are perennials?

For now I'm very happy to be spending inside time with the rain outside. As an early birthday present my mother-in-law got me an ice cream maker. Ohmygosh I'm so excited to try it out. I'm about to develop a papaya ice cream recipe. But first I have to clean my kitchen. he hee. Better get to it!

Oh beautiful sunshine!

I just finished taking the most delicious nap. Our room has the full effect of the sun on it and it's totally warm enough outside to open the window. The breeze is barely there, but when it is, it's this delicious almost cool one, but never cold. And birds! And their singing! It's really the most gorgeous day in all the world. I feel sorry for people not born yet, because they can't enjoy this amazing weather and this beautiful day.
This sunshine MUST mean that winter is over. The first day of spring is in a few days (my anniversary!) and soon green will be dominating the scene again! Though I am a little bummed that I missed the melting of the snow while John and I were visiting my family in Florida. But the river here in Exeter was crazy high (due to snow run off and the copious amounts of rain combined, probably) and our creek was also overflowing. So perhaps I haven't missed all the glories of the end of winter. Nevertheless, this weather is perfect for any out-door activity and I do believe I'll be going for a walk!

On adjusting to the (seemingly) never ending rain.

Rain. Still.
It boggles me that last year about this time, when we were getting our end of winter/spring rains I was thoroughly depressed by it. I had just moved from Tampa, FL where it was bright, sunny and about 80 degrees, despite it's being March. Weather in Florida changes so quickly. One minute it's thunder-storming and the next it's a breezy sunny day. Sometimes it only rains on one half of our house... It's amazing and gorgeous. New England, however, is very staunch with its weather. Once it gets rainy it *stays* rainy. For days and days and days. Before moving up here, the longest I had gone without seeing sunshine was four days. Four grueling long days after a particularly crazy hurricane and we MISSED it.
So last year, when weeks passed where the sun barely poked its way through a sky of thick, sodden, dark clouds, I kinda freaked out... But this time around... Well, not only do I completely expect it, (I'd be really surprised if the sun showed its face tomorrow) but I've grown to enjoy and appreciate it, in a way. Rarely did we get a full on rain day in the Keys. And even rarer still did we get one when I had a day off to simply enjoy it. Because I do love rain. And thunder storms too. About as much as I love a good smooth and sunny day. Every kind of weather has its perks. I love all of it.
And these past couple days I've been enjoying my tea time and story time. And today I feel particularly inspired. To write or perhaps draw. It's just lovely to spend time indoors while the rain pelts the windows and fills adorable puddles up outside.