December Morning

This morning, as the day lightened just before sunrise, pale violet flooded the eastern sky where the slimmest pale crescent of moon hung by a thread. These days are cold and clear, with temperatures hovering around 0 Celsius overnight. Just cold enough to cover rooftops and foliage with a thin layer of white frost. 

We're having such mild weather (unlike those east of the Rocky Mountains) that the chance of snow this year is highly improbable. Too bad. I do love it.

Thank you for your supportive comments on my simple story. Writing something and publishing it to this blog was a goal I'd set myself earlier this autumn. Creativity flourishes with time to practice and there has been little of that lately. However, with the big push at school done now, my mind is clearer. 

We hosted Tim's work party here last Friday night. There were 24 of us, a very convivial bunch. After they left Tim and I cleaned up all the dishes and tidied up so that we wouldn't have to face it in the morning. Thus, on Saturday morning I woke up with a pleasantly blank mind. There was nothing pressing to do and I sort of drifted through the day. Lovely.

There's been a bit of Christmas decorating happening, but I'm not in much of a hurry. I did hang a wreath on the door and put out lights and the red cushion covers. 

When our first guest arrived, she said that as she approached the door, she noticed a little brown bird tucked into the bottom of the wreath and thought that it was a felted ornament. When she leaned in to look more closely, the bird blinked at her and darted off. I'm hoping to see the little bird in the wreath someday. 

In my garden this morning the kale is covered with frost. I've found that the cold temperatures make it sweeter and I'll be cutting some later this week for a soup. It's definitely soup weather. Last night I made a creamy broccoli soup that included onions, garlic, celery, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli. Simmered in chicken stock and then pureed, with a little cheese, it's what I'm taking to school for my lunch today.  

There are still raspberries out in the garden. I picked this one and popped it into my mouth right after clicking the photo. It was frozen, but still sweet.

The window Tim installed in the spring adds so much light to our kitchen eating area. We moved the little sofa against the window and it's a fun place to perch and watch the birds flying to the feeder. We hung a string of star shaped twinkle lights around the window and it looks so pretty in the evening.

I've done a little baking - mostly to have something for the party. However, everyone else brought enough sweets that I didn't need to bring mine out. There's Cranberry Orange Shortbread, Pecan Toffee Squares, Almond Cheesecake Squares, and Raspberry Diamond Cookies. I plan to make Rugelach and Gingersnaps soon, maybe this coming weekend. 

Our family is doing a handmade Christmas this year, and I'm beavering away at a few projects in the evenings. I'll write more about that in another post. 

My current stack of reading. There are so many wonderful books out there that it's hard to choose. I find suggestions of what to read from other bloggers and am keeping a list on my phone. Yesterday I picked up the latest Louise Penny book at Chapters, but I probably won't read it until I can spend some serious time at it. I'm dipping in and out of Nigel Slater's The Chronicles of Christmas, a book recommended by Barbara of Coastal Ripples. It's delightful and meaty, part memoir, part cookbook. There's a salad recipe I'm hoping to try this evening, with apples and beets and blue cheese. Yum. 

What a long post this has turned out to be. As I've sat here with my mug of tea, full daylight has appeared and the sun is streaming in, illuminating the little pot of poinsettia on the table and revealing the dust on the chairs. 

Have a wonderful day! I'm off to mix up the Rugelach dough!

Linking with Friday Bliss hosted by Riitta of Floral Passions.