Well close anyway. In the wee house here, I have made birch shaker style doors for all the lower cabinets with water-based polyurethane finish. Also I built an upper cabinet to accept a venting range hood over the stove. With a new gas range, the kitchen is very changed.
A visit to Seattle hoping to help Dad settle in at home after a collapsed lung episode and recovery in a rehab facility turned into a several day siege in the rehabilitation building with him. Mary Anne and I decided to get snowed in with him rather than snowed out. We stayed 4 nights in his room. Dad is now at home and eating applesauce! He had also a swallowing difficulty which is apparently improving.
Before
Stormy without, peaceful snoozes indoors. This looks beautifully like Liba’s face (Dad’s mother).
Flourless Peanut Butter cookies
1 cup peanut butter - smooth or crunchy
1/2 cup sugar (or less) - originally 1 cup!
1 egg
Combine ingredients, mixing well. Even if a little moist at first, this will stiffen slightly to make a good dough consistency for rolling into balls if you like. Flatten these with a fork moistened with water.
Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes, cool slightly on cookie sheet before moving to plate or rack to cool.
Molasses Clove Peanut Butter cookies
This variation on the above cookie substitutes a tablespoon or so of molasses for some of the sugar. Add about 3/4 teaspoon of ground cloves. The peanut butter stands up to these two flavors and so you don’t have to be too shy.
Notes
I have been reducing the sugar in this recipe a little more each time. It seems to be just fine.
Once or twice I tried adding a little flour - say a tablespoon or two, which makes the cookies slightly less rich tasting. For some this is a good thing. I’ve used spelt or oat flour probably.
Silkie Bluebell’s two hatchlings are much quicker to learn the crazy ramp into the coop than the white silkie baby who took it seemed a week at a few weeks of age. These younger araucana chicks got the ramp the second day out and were perhaps only 3 weeks old at the time.
Within the last week the duck hawk was sitting on the roof of the silkie pen wire enclosure, hoping to frighten a morsel into running out of the wire into the open. Happily they all stayed put.
Today we watched a young red-tailed hawk sitting in the maples and then the snag pondside in front of the house: very alert almost quizzical.
There is a pileated woodpecker here again, seen and heard. It’s a great profile in a dead tree by the pond. All the big birds seem so dinosaur-like, whether chickens or herons or this great pterodactyl of a woodpecker. And I love the maniacal laugh.
Born last year, Bluebell had diligently sat on three clutches of eggs this year, finally hatching two little Araucanas. She is often joined in the nest by other hens which makes her job harder.
Kale and beans, 2 kinds of each. The purple beans are really yummy raw. Lancinato kale and russian kale are doing well. We recently had brussels sprouts leaves prepared as collards - they were just fine!
Zuccini are being beetle blasted: flowers drop so no fruit yet. wondering other than hand picking bugs how to deal.
Sylvetta arugula is happy, only flowering sparingly.
Raspberries are superb- especially on a hot day.
Shrimp & scallops steamed in a pan lightly with chopped garlic, anchovy paste, water, arugula sabbathday shakers’ poultry mix of spices: marjoram, sage, rosemary, thyme & parsley. Served over rice reheated with chopped cottage-cheese pancake (see 8/26/08, this one made with orange oil) and cheddar cheese. Mmm, yeah with some baby arugula dressed w/olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt.
Bird report:
This morning as I gazed out on the pond I saw little ripples indicating somebody dawdling in the front and center. I got binocs and saw three female merganzers (hooded I suspect), one with five babies! Oh so sweet and close to mama, almost on top of her as they all paddled along. I didn’t know they nested here.
The cardinals have a nest in the American Cranberry viburnum beside the front door.
Rebecca and I met this late morning at Sleepy Hollow in Concord and planted geraniums for all the women in our plot. We talked about ways to note other family members. She loves the idea of my finishing Mom’s angel alighting birdbath and putting it there. We also put in a little portulaca. Wouldn’t it be cute if it did well and reseeded around?
This morning clear and bright, practicing tai chi on the deck. There are tree swallows circling now over the pond. Amazing that the insectivorous birds can get enough food this early. Jet Li the llama seemed interested in my meditative practice and stayed watching near the gate in a comfy lying down spot. Maybe he was just monitoring that I’m up and moving, so when does he get grain?
We still have some hooded merganzers and ring-necked ducks on their migrant way north stopping here for a week or two. The Merganzers are early comers, when the ice is not yet out (perhaps two weeks ago now), the ring-necked more recent.
This morning I saw Wood Ducks fly into the pine snag between house and pond, where woodpeckers have nested before. What a gift to have it front and center of our view.
All the usual early spring birds are here: Red-winged Blackbirds, Grackles, Mourning Doves. I think I heard a Winter Wren, and would like to hear more. Lots of Rob-bob-bobbins, Cardinal song and happy noises from Nuthatches and Chickadees, Titmice, woodpeckers. I may have heard the Kingfisher, and as I write I think I heard the burr of a warbler. Is it early? Herons are here of course and a few turtles have gotten out to sun on logs on warm days.
We seem to have a good quotient of Hylers this spring, some years they’re a little thin. Always there are more at the east end of the pond.
The phoebe has been here for several days and Bluebirds are around although I don’t see nesting behavior related to any of our boxes. Still to overhung with big trees? We’re still re-opening the meadow for llama graze and Bluebird habitat.
I cut the Syringa tree and one Redbud near the llamas to make room for a new veggie/herb/fruit garden. Still need to stump it and spade before adding compost. We also have a great big oak to take down which provides more shade than veggies will want.
All the hens are laying, from old mama white Silkie to younger Red Pyle Old English bantams and other layers in between: Spitzhauben, Golden Buffs, Araucanas and the goofy barnyard cross (Barred Rock plumage, Araucana ears and beard, Silkie top-puff).
Some days are so brilliant they’re hard to capture on film. Today is a great March day of teasing winds and warm sun full of promise.
We cut some trees Saturday and opened up the pond-side llama enclosure. Looking good. Not a lot of fire wood but we definitely gained water view footage. We opened it up for bluebirds and grazing. Still plenty of catbriar to go.
Our lovely girl. She seems to be responding to the vet’s prescriptions, is more comfortable, less “goopy” in her eyes, less mouth fragrance - and better appetite! Yay.
Mini crocuses on March 15th. Actually sooner but my camera was not at hand.
Spitzhauben chickens enjoying the sun and finding yummies where the snow is gone
Spring snow today, beautiful in its ephemeral way!
