Hedgehog Spikes & Long-Legged Snipes

It snowed! Not our usual heavy onslaught, but light, delicate flakes that landed softly on every surface. I love this type of snow. The flakes nestled in the dried spokes of this bronze fennel plant, showing off their amazing and varied designs.

Light, feathery snowflakes filled this Rose of Sharon seedpod...

...and coated this pine bough.

I played around with Photoshop in an attempt to get more of a contrast, and liked this outcome, which doesn't give a nice contrast but does convey, a bit, the frozen feeling in my fingers when I was outside taking photos!

By the next day, the wind had carried away most of the snowflakes, but it was cold enough for a hard frost. Hoarfrost is formed in very cold temperatures when a source of water vapor is nearby. It adorned this marigold seed pod like a spiky hat.

Cold weather outside means bored cats inside! Everyone was yawning yesterday, stuck inside with a slight case of cabin fever.

Thankfully, a big box arrived from Emma Bridgewater. My mugs are here! They are really amazing.

These are Jack Snipes, secretive birds that have a mating call similar to the sound of a neighing horse. Listen for yourself!

Snipe Call

Bitterns are funny-looking birds that live in wetland areas. They use their long, pointed beaks to catch insects and small fish.

Waxwings are beautiful birds whose feathers are so soft and downy, they almost look like fur. They're so named for the colored tips of their wing feathers, which resemble sealing wax. They have a unique courtship ritual, in which the male and female pass a bit of fruit back and forth until the female decides to accept the male.

These are male pheasants. The females are brown and plain; only the males have bright plumage. They live in open grasslands and are frequently hunted for sport.

The red grouse is another game bird found primarily in Great Britain. They're a bit dumpy, but I think they look quite arresting with their rusty feathers and large feet.

My favorite is the great bustard. They remind me of a young English courtier in years gone by...strutting, with plumage fanned and a bit of a ruff at the neck. These are large birds, with a wing span of up to 8 feet. The largest recorded great bustard was almost 50 pounds! They have a loud, guttural call:

Great Bustard sound

When not admiring my mugs, I've been working on my sock yarn blanket. It's grown significantly. I've almost completed my fifth row!

Every diamond is different. I haven't yet begun to repeat colors although I will soon. Some people have blankets consisting of over 1,000 squares! When you consider that each square takes about 30 minutes and costs around $1 (if you're buying pre-measured "sock yarn mini skeins" and not using leftover sock yarn), it's a considerable undertaking. I'm making mine on the cheap. Each square only takes about 2.5 grams of sock yarn, and I've got enough bits and pieces to go much farther without having to purchase more yarn bits. Most of my yarn has been acquired through swaps, or gifted to me from another knitter.

It's really easy to make, if anyone is interested. You can make your squares as big or small as you'd like. For this particular pattern:

Cast on 31 stitches.
Turn your work and knit one row.
Turn your work again. You're facing the wrong side. Slip one, knit 13, PSSO (slip 2, knit one, and slip 2 slipped stitches over the knit stitch), knit to the last stitch, knit last stitch through the back loop.
Knit your right-side row, slipping the first stitch and knitting the last stitch through the back loop. When you come to the center stitch, slip it! If you have trouble finding it, just look on the front side - it's the stitch that remains after your PSSO.
Repeat, knitting each side until you come to the center, and then either slip or PSSO (depending on which side you're working on), until you have just 1 stitch left. Draw your yarn through, secure, and weave in ends.

I've really been on a baking kick lately. I'm excited to expand my horizons in the kitchen in 2011. Here's a sweet, spicy offering from Deb at Smitten Kitchen that was quickly devoured and praised by every recipient.

Applesauce Spice Cupcakes
From Smitten Kitchen
Makes 18 cupcakes

Cake
2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce

Frosting
5 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a separate bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each egg, and then beat in applesauce. Stir in flour mixture and mix until just combined. Spoon into greased muffin tins. The batter looks a little funny, but don't worry!

They bake up nicely. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes and cool on wire rack.

For frosting, beat together the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Mix in cinnamon and powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

I was originally going to frost mine the "regular" way, but I stumbled across an old Wilton tip and decided to try something new. I topped the cupcake with several small points.

I liked the way it looked. Before I knew it, I'd decorated the whole batch!

They remind me of little hedgehogs. The cake is spicy and dense, more muffin than traditional cupcake, but they're sweet and tasty, and I'll definitely be making them again.

Enjoy!

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

December days are flying by! Our days are a blur of wrapping...both Christmas gifts and merchandise for our business...trips to the post office, quick runs to the grocery store, and plenty of together time in the evening, honing our board game skills. The cold weather makes our candlelit suppers especially cozy.

Last night, a quick two inches of snow fell. There's nothing better than a walk in fresh snow, so I could barely wait for morning to come.

The morning was overcast and hazy, but not too cold. Perfect walking weather.

I love how the snow rests on these trees. They soften the starkness of the bare branches.

The snow clumps up on pines...


...and makes a very chilly hat for this dried zinnia plant.

A tribute to Civil War soldier Henry Ware Lawton looks especially austere.


Not all is muted, though. These red berries positively pop against the white of the snow.

When we relocate and eventually reach our final resting place (geographically, not spiritually!), I definitely want berry-producing trees. They are so beautiful in the winter, and they provide food for local wildlife as well.

A few sweet gum seed pods cling stubbornly to their branches.

A solitary leaf in the snow provides a little splash of orange.

This tree, with its serpentine branches, still has many cheerful leaves.

The stream is not completely frozen over, which is good. Now birds, foxes, and other little creatures have a place to drink.

The squirrels are staying warm, tucked away in their dreys.

This hive, regrettably, most likely does not contain live bees. Bees are fastidious creatures and do not relieve themselves inside. They take what is known as "cleansing flights" to release outdoors, around the hive. The snow around this hive has stayed white. The entrance to the other hive is completely covered in snow, which can be a bad sign. Heat from the hive usually melts this snow. Hopefully this beekeeper will bring a new colony here in the spring!

When it's cold and snowy or rainy outside and warm and cozy inside, it's the perfect time for knitting. For me, all other knitting projects have fallen to the wayside as I slave over my sock yarn blanket. I now have 37 squares and am greatly enjoying adding to it daily.

It's almost long enough to stretch across our bed, but I've started adding the second level anyway. I'll eventually increase the length. That's the great thing about this blanket...fun colors, an easily-memorizable pattern, and lots of leeway with construction...if you get tired of building out, build up.

This blanket is going to go on our bed, eventually, but SOMEONE seems to have a different idea!

Now that I've introduced a cute kitten photo, allow me to continue with more gratuitous cute kitten shots:

And one more:

There! Now I can turn my attention to the kitchen. I've been doing a lot of baking lately. Just today I made some spicy jalapeno whole wheat scones from scratch, along with steaming baked spaghetti squash with black beans, cheese, spices, and tomatoes, followed by some vanilla brownies with lots of crystallized ginger.

But what I made last week...and what I want to make again, and again, and again: mini pumpkin cheesecakes. These are sweet, spicy, light, and creamy, and the perfect size for a quick snack.


Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes
Adapted from Simply Decorated
and a food blog, but I forgot to write down which one

Crust
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar

Filling
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
12 ounces of reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Mix the crumbs, melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon together. Spoon into greased muffin tins and press firmly.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and set aside. Reduce the temperature of your oven to 300 degrees.

Next, beat cream cheese and sugar together until fully incorporated. Add your eggs one at a time, beating in the vanilla after the second egg.

In a separate bowl, mix the pumpkin puree and the spices. Add to the cream cheese mixture and mix until well combined. Spoon this mixture into your prepared muffin tins. Fill to the top. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

The tops sink a bit and could definitely benefit from a decorative swirl of whipped cream.

Whipped cream or not, these little morsels are one of my favorite recent discoveries and I plan on making another batch soon!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas week with lots of time with family and friends. See you next week!

A "Tail" of Two Kitties

Snow! At last! Snow is entirely pleasurable again, now that I don't have to drive in it. I can enjoy it as it was meant to be enjoyed - as a blur of white beneath a sled, crunched under snow boots on a brisk walk, or viewed through a window, cup of hot cocoa in hand.

Only two inches, but enough to freeze the last of my summer tomatoes, and to form small peaks on the fence posts.

Throughout the summer and fall, I could smell the fresh, aromatic dill throughout the back yard, but the snow has finally crushed its spirit.

My remaining praying mantis ootheca is easily visible now. The young mantids won't hatch out for many months, but the eggs are safe and warm within the folds of the sac.

Besides the recent snowfall, we had another enjoyable event...

That's right...it was my thirty-fifth birthday. I love birthdays, which are typically pajama-and-board game days in our house, cartons of peppermint ice cream in hand. Todd surprised me with, among other things, the final Rien Poortvliet book for my collection. Rien Poortvliet was a Dutch artist, born in 1932, who painted beautifully detailed nature scenes and depictions of rural life in Holland. His accompanying comments make his books a joy to read, as well.

I love hearing from far-flung friends. My good friend Sybille's package from Germany is delayed in the Christmas rush, but I got a supply of beautiful Christmas ribbons from Andrea in Scotland...

...and from Heather in Chicago, these amazing copper-dipped leaves. They are unbelievably beautiful, and easy to hang with their brown satin ribbons.

Actual leaves are used in the production of these ornaments. You can easily see the leaf veins when you hold them to the light.

They were a fortuitous gift, because we've been a little slow in getting our Christmas decorations up. So far, all I've managed is a few desultory pillows. We've been so busy with our home business that everything else has fallen by the wayside.

Another great thing about December, besides snow and my birthday, is the length of daylight. It's dark by 6 p.m., which means that I can start our tradition of candle lit suppers. I love candles. I usually have our small sun room completely lit by them, at least 20 candles blazing away. This year, I've been a little slow at getting them out, but I've managed at least two. Our winter bouquets look so nice by candle light.

I really enjoy this bit of brightness on a cold winter night.

Part of the reason for our distraction lately is a small addition to our family. I love animals, but it isn't practical to have many while living in the city...in a temporary location, at that. I've contented myself by feeding stray cats and biding my time. We decided, though, that one more animal wouldn't be too much trouble.

How would Bosewichte handle an interloper? He didn't like the strays. Whenever Clarence would pop in for a visit...

...Bosewichte was less than hospitable, batting furiously at the glass that separated them.

Bosewichte should know better. He was a thin, sickly stray when I adopted him from the local pound, with matted fur and glazed eyes. After a few false starts he earned his name, which is pronounced Bo-zah-vic-tah. I was taking Intensive German at the time and had fallen in love with the hard "TAH" sound in that name. Bosewichte means scoundrels. It is apt, for while he is not, by nature, a scoundrel, he indulges in scoundrel-like behavior from time to time. Whenever Clarence comes, he skulks and scoundrels around the door frame, bemoaning his presence and begging for a chance to set things right.

Still, I have a heart for animals, so Bosewichte must learn to open his heart, too.

He got a chance to practice this week. I brought home one of the little kittens I've been visiting. She's a little girl we've named Tabitha. Here she is at one week old:

Here she is now, nine weeks old and a bit of a scoundrel herself.

She spends half the day sleeping...

...a quarter of the day riding around on our shoulders like a strange grey parrot...

...and the rest of the time trying to entice Bosewichte to play. He tolerates her, but I frequently catch him glaring at me. He knows I'm responsible for this discomfort, but I'm sure, with time, that they'll become good friends.

This week, too, I've been frantically knitting on last-minute Christmas gifts. It seems that I've acquired quite a bit of yarn over time, but I somewhat shamefully added to that pile recently. Branching out a bit from my usual earth tones, I bought the Sweet Sheri colorway from Yarn Love.


From the Unique Sheep, I selected Dark Earth in worsted. So soft!

Knitpicks was having a 30% off sale, so I couldn't resist. These two skeins of sock yarn will make a beautiful bit of colorwork, I think, in socks, hats, or mittens.

These bright tonal sock yarns are perfect! Colorful, cheerful, and cheap. You can't beat $6 a skein!

I've been working on a pair of socks, but my heart is in the sock yarn blanket that is gathering dust in a project bag. I've managed to whip out a few squares, but I look forward to the time when Christmas knitting is over and I can relax and blissfully produce stacks and stacks of squares without guilt.

I've done a bit of cooking this week, but nothing of interest. Time constraints have me pulling out the crock pot or telling Todd that it's "every man for himself" night. We're blessed to be so busy, though, because the money we earn during the Christmas season will sustain us during slower times.

All in all, these are pleasant days, with Todd working on his dissertation and two cats sleeping contentedly by my side. I look forward to the days ahead - the blur of holiday visits, greetings, and gifts, and then some time to relax and reflect before we start the process of moving.

I hope you're enjoying your December days as well. Have a good week!