Post Holidaze Blog Post

Aaaahhhh. Post holiday blog post - finally. Today I am snuggled down in our lovely library with a couple or three or four cats coming in and out. The wood stove's dancing flames are keeping me and the kitties entertained. It is very cold outside (first cold of the New Year) and it is difficult to keep this old house warm. Best to just sit in one room where there is a woodstove.

This is my first post of the New Year. I meant to pop in here earlier but both Julia and I came down with some kind of cold and flu illness that has knocked us down. She is off from college until the end of the month. The Farmer is back at the farming -- if at a slower pace than in years past. We have had a few lambs born so far but there will be a lot less than normal because of the down-sizing I did while he was recuperating from his hip surgery. He has to have more surgery this year on his second hip which is really bothering him. It is going to be another challenging year here at the farm. In hindsight, I am very glad that I downsized the numbers of sheep because it is making it much easier on him when he still isn't feeling great. The new hip is good and there is no more pain but the other hip is causing him lots of grief. Oh man oh man - how did we get this old? I promise this blog is not going to become about aches and pains. 

As I have been sitting here over the past few days, I have been paging through my old issues of magazines, sorting discards, and tearing out pretty pictures to keep that might inspire me in the coming year of making. I seem to do this every post holiday season. It is a way of reducing a bit of the clutter but also a way to generate new project ideas and to reinvigorate my idea bank.

I have also found time to read a couple new cookbooks and plan some new meals to get us through the winter. I tend to fall back on my tried and true cooking style that gets boring flavor wise.  

At the beginning of the week, I made a pot of northern white beans. I must admit, I usually grab a can of Goya cannellini beans from the grocery store. It is only in the winter that I find time to actually cook dried beans. Why is that? Laziness I suppose or just the convenience. I usually cook dried beans in some kind of broth or stock but this time I went plain and simple - water, salt, olive oil, thyme and oregano. That pot of beans has morphed into so many good meals. I have added them to soups, eaten them plain, mixed them with green beans and tomatoes, mixed them with rice and spices. I think I will have a constant pot of white beans in the fridge this winter. 

We had a lovely holiday season. It was a good respite after the frenzy of making pottery, sewing tea towels and lots of shipping of orders. (Thank you all for those orders.) I thought I would get right back into making but "the plague" has slowed me down and given me (forced me) to reflect a bit and think forward. Nothing monumental has come of the reflecting or thinking. I did discover though - after searching for photos on my computer - that I have barely picked up my DSLR this year. Barely. I got an newer iphone at the end of last year and found the photos were so good and it was so convenient that I forgot about my big camera. I'm going to try to change that this year and take some photos with it. Here are some new photos from that camera to start the year off with. 

I hope you and yours had a great holiday and that you are off to a good start to 2019. Let's make it a good one!