A snowy walk with the dog

It's been snowing and snowing and snowing this weekend . . .

Happy New Year!

I hope 2010 will be a year of creativity and connections, good friends and good food, inspiration and adventures big and small.

Happy Winter!

And happy, happy Christmas to those who celebrate—I hope your days will be merry and bright!

Foxes Are the New Owls

Thanks to some local art/craft fair perusing this last week, I've come to the above conclusion. How could I not, with these adorable foxes by Betsy Thompson and Field? I want them all to come den up in my house!

After crafts today, there were polar bear gingerbread cookies and a big chai and a brisk, bracing dog walk just as the sun was setting.

Winner! And winter.

Gosh, last week was so much fun—thank you all so much for your comments! I loved reading them, and I wish I could send every one of you a jar of plum butter! Alas, I can only send one, and so the winner is . . .

Tina at squirrel acorns! Congratulations, Tina! I'll send out your package this week. :)

In other news, suddenly it's instant winter here—there's snow on the ground and a chill in the air. I've dug out knitted things to bundle in when I walk the dog, and my house is decked out in greenery and winterberries and my bird tree. Here's to a good start to the week!

Giveaway!

As part of Sew, Mama, Sew!'s awesome Giveaway Day, I'm giving away a jar of homemade Maine plum butter (along with some other goodies pictured here—one of my photos, and some gift tags stamped with my hand-carved pinecone stamps).

To enter, just leave a comment (about anything!) in this entry by December 6. The winner will be randomly selected after that, and I'll send off a happy package (I'll ship internationally, too). I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm headed over to my friend Phyllis's house for Thanksgiving dinner this evening, and I didn't have to cook a thing . . . but it seemed odd not to have something going in the kitchen today, so I baked a big dish of fancy macaroni and cheese (from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites) that will see me through the weekend as I work on my holiday exchange story, read Sue Hubbell's A Book of Bees, finish (finally!) my mossy green fingerless mitts, maybe make a pompom or two, and try to wrap up (ha!) my Christmas shopping.

Speaking of, any and all prints in my shop have free shipping now through the holiday season!

And I very much want to participate in the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day next week! I just have to figure out what to give away—I am not sure if a print of a photo counts as handmade enough? Well, there are always jars of plum butter and cranberry jam. Watch this space!

Last Saturday Market

From the market today:
-yellow onions
-fingerling potatoes
-leeks
-macoun apples
-tiny romanesco
-goat feta
-maple syrup

Frost

The past few days, it's been quite chilly overnight, but mild during the days, which has made for frosty early mornings!

Market Day

The market's almost done! One more Saturday and one more Wednesday after today. I'm not ready!

From the market today:
-yellow onions
-jonagold apples
-spinach
-fingerling potatoes
-sweet potatoes

Pinecones!

Our sprinkly Saturday turned into a full-blown deluge—which is okay by me, since we got to go to the market this morning, and I had plenty of things to occupy me inside. Once I realized that the cranberries for jam needed to sit overnight, though, jam-making got moved to tomorrow . . . and I finally sat down to attempt stamp carving. The results were better than I could have possibly expected!

(click for bigger photos)




Jess and Kate brought me back these tiny pinecones from when they climbed Mount Katahdin this summer.



And this guy I had seen right outside my house the other day—after the first pinecones came out well, I ran outside in the rain to find him again to use for a reference for the second one.

I think I'll try to collect a few more pinecone varieties around my neighborhood and make more—and then it'll be pinecone wrapping paper and cards this Christmas for sure!

Saturday Market

I think today was the penultimate farmers' market down in the park for the year—we got spritzed on as we walked down there, but I'm glad I went!

From the Saturday market:
-jonagold apples
-butternut squash
-shallots
-yellow carrots
-cranberries
-goat's milk mozzarella

The rest of today is for laundry and popovers and cranberry jam.

Market Day

There was the most beautiful line of geese flying waaay up high in the sky when I was out walking the dog this morning.

The market's getting smaller and smaller—there are only a few stands left, but they still have more things than you could possibly find ways to cook. Recent favorites: sweet potatoes, cut into fat wedges and roasted with olive oil and sea salt until they were nearly charred on the bottom, and the most WONDERFUL goat feta that I hope to find more of on Saturday.

From the market today:
-yellow onions
-jonagold and mutsu apples
-sweet potatoes
-eggs

Photo for a Sunday

Such an unusually warm day today! We had a good afternoon dog walk, and there were all sorts of people out and about who might not normally have been if it had been more of a seasonably Novemberish day.

I did a wee shop update this morning, with a few wintery/holiday things! I kind of love the gift tags—if they don't sell, I'll probably just use them on my own packages this Christmas. ;)

And now, to spritz and slash and slide my very first-ever baguettes into the oven . . .

Saturday Market

From the Saturday Market:
-fingerling potatoes
-yellow onions
-jonagold and mutsu (also known as crispin) apples
-leeks
-goat feta (DELICIOUS)

Last night, Anna and Robert and I went to see Le Vent du Nord down at 1 Longfellow Square, and they were SO much fun. Québécois music played very enthusiastically on hurdy-gurdy, fiddle, guitar, keyboard, accordion, and sung all in French . . . and the musicians all had adorable French Canadian accents when they spoke between songs. (I feel certain there's a joke somewhere in there about men who speak French and have mastery over their instruments . . . )

And now I'm cooking up a batch of manoomin so that I can have approximately anodyne oatmeal for breakfast, and having a big cup of tea while I wait.