right now

 14F. Perfect for crossing the threshold into February.

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soup day

Gloomy skies making for more gloomy photographs, sorry.

I keep checking my laptop to see if the screen brightness is turned down.

It is not.

Snow and more snow. The hay cart has taken a holiday and the hay sled is back in action at last. There's more snow, then a lot more rain, in the forecast. I much prefer snow and it's certainly a lot healthier for the goats, but I suppose we must bloom where we are planted, even if we are planted in mud.

Today is a cooking day, and the cupboard/fridge review has revealed extra-coarse bulgur, chicken broth, carrots, spinach: another kettle of soup in my immediate future. Is soup a big part of your daily fare? Having a constant supply of soup has become one of the best things I can do for myself. I've proven repeatedly - and without even trying to prove it with one of my experiments! - that if there is "real food" on hand that's ready to eat, or ready to reheat and eat, I genuinely prefer to eat that instead of reaching for a snack or something sweet. So keeping my little fridge stocked with pyrex containers of things like soup, chili, cooked veg, or pasta, pretty much guarantees healthy eating most of the time. Whereas no matter how many wonderful ingredients may be waiting in the cupboard, when I come in from evening chores there is a near-zero-percent chance that I will start cooking. So making a big batch of something good once or twice weekly and portioning out for the fridge or freezer makes for a healthier diet. Does it sound like I'm trying to make a virtue of laziness? It does to me, but I'm okay with that.

I don't have a picture of soup but here is a cheerful-looking concoction made in the blender a couple of weeks ago, to use up a big jar of beet slices and half a tub of very tart plain yogurt:

Blended with a little water to thin, and a pinch of baking soda to balance the vinegar-y beets. It was a "waste not want not" endeavor, and I just hoped it would be drinkable. Well. It turned out to be incredibly refreshing, and I have been craving it ever since. Is this a known beverage? I'm wondering if it may turn out to be like my watered-down plain yogurt creation which I'd been drinking for decades before learning it is a traditional Turkish beverage called "ayran."

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winter

 We've had snowfall.

 It has lasted more than a day.

Which makes a change, this year.

Looks kind of refreshing, doesn't it?

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pebbles of the day

 

A few Pebbles of the Day borrowed from twitter:

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snowscape adventures

Just a bit of whimsy on a Saturday night.

I hope the click-to-embiggen-in-another-window feature still works.

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