The Long, Long Month

January is endless. Today the rotten snow, the gray sky and this little tiny house are all conspiring to push me over the edge into a full-fledged bout of snarling grouchiness.

Our kind neighbor called early this morning to tell us Marlene was out of the pasture, looking for whatever shoots of green grass she could find under the rapidly melting snow. She has a full round bale of hay in the pasture with her, but would much rather search out a bite of something green. I know how she feels—this is the time of year when the salad cravings start to hit hard. I know it seems a little early in the season, but I don’t know if I can look another root vegetable in the eye!

DH may be headed to Atlanta for a few days of work, and I have to say, just having our winter routine shaken up sounds great.

Sun and Snow

The sun is out today, and the glare from the snow is blinding, even in the house! I am so glad to see the sun—yesterday was long and dark and snowy, and a bad case of cabin fever caused DH and I to argue all day. He and Bernard have gone to town today, and I’m cleaning house while ED knits. It’s very peaceful. DH is a very bored and restless presence during times of being stuck in the house; the rest of us can settle—even, to some degree, the border collies—but he has a hard time.

I’ve placed the first seed order of the year. DH has been out of work, so money is in short supply, but as the money comes in, I’ll be ordering more seeds, potatoes, ducklings, and chicks. We’re also talking about the possibility of rabbits, but we’ll see.

OK, time to finish cleaning the kitchen and have a cup of oolong tea. And give thanks for sunshine!

A Cute Thing

Wordle: Moonmeadow Farm

I woke up with cabin fever this morning. Instead of going on a rampage, I went and found this cute little thing. You can do one, too!

Today in the Kitchen: A Colorful Supper

Last night we had the kind of supper that comes from being stuck in the house all day, and bored enough to want to really play in the kitchen. From Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking I made Fondue de Poulet a la Creme, which was basically chicken cooked in wine and heavy cream with onions. It was exquisite. I also made risotto, using chicken stock and white wine instead of beef stock and red wine, and it, too, was wonderful. And these roasted root vegetables (the picture is before roasting). The purple chunks are sweet potatoes, the white are rutabagas, the golden yellow ones are beets, and the orange ones are our red kuri squash. There’s also lemon thyme, garlic, olive oil and meyer lemon juice. And salt, of course. They were so good!

Bernard made meyer lemon sherbet for dessert—it really was a perfect meal.

Horses in the Snow

Marlene loves the cold and the snow. Winter—in spite of her name—doesn’t so much. My friend T* got a great shot of the girls riding the horses across her pasture this morning—I’ll see if she’ll let me use it on here!