Jam Tart Variation

Happy Valentine's Day, if you celebrate it.  I don't, but it's a great excuse to bake something yummy.  I began by following THIS recipe, but the result was buttery powder that wouldn't hold together.  I added a quarter of a cup of milk a tablespoon at a time until the dough could hold together.  I also left off the extra sugar.  They made great dunking cookies.

2 Things Challenge: Seat/Real

SEAT/REAL: Cousin Fin in his car seat,

keepin' it real in plaid and polka dots.

REAL:  "What is real?" asked the Velveteen Rabbit.  Is it what we can sense with our bodies, the external?  Is it only what has been discovered and named?  Is it the genetically modified food we consume?  Is it the history we believe in?  Is it mitochondria and war and dust pneumonia and extinct species leaving fossils under the layers of Earth's skin?  Is it seasons and moving planets and biodiversity?  Is it truth and consequences and unexplained events?  Is it the ratio of hapless consumers to overwhelmed producers?  Is it cycles and routines and needs that must be met?  Is it the knowledge that, whatever our beliefs, we can't be certain if there's a second act or if this is the only dance we dance?

In the Fiber Loft

I come from a creative clan.  My mum is a weaver and fiber artist.

Here, she helps my lil sis with a project.

Her loft is a cozy,

colorful,

comfortable cubbyhole

full of curiosities,

supplies,

hand dyed wool,

and hand spun yarn.

Last visit, I helped to make a set of placemats

on a small loom.

Cats aren't allowed in the loft, but when my mom is spinning wool at her wheel in the living room, Mo turns the wool bag into a cat mattress.

2 Things Challenge: Joint/Solitary

JOINT: These two have a very strong joint friendship.

  

SOLITARY: Kimba, an elderly lion rescued from over a decade of solitary confinement in Bolivia, speaks with a solitary voice.  He now lives at The Animal Sanctuary.

Living High off the Vegetarian Hog

One of my favorite chores to do when visiting the farm is processing goodies from the garden.  Then eating them!  There was a lot to do in November.  I wasn't thinking and started chopping jalapenos with my bare hands.  The homemade poppers were worth it, but I won't be making that mistake EVER AGAIN.

Fresh herbs

of all kinds.

Fried green tomatoes and griddle cake.

I chopped green cherry tomatoes and mixed them with bread crumbs, cheese, herbs and onions

to make savory green tomato pies.

Wish I'd written it down, it was excellent!

Cherry cream cake.

Homemade brie that my mother makes from fresh milk.

Cauliflower.

And Mr. Mosley, inspecting a bushel of chard waiting to be washed.

Like a Still From my Dream

I've had a recurring bad dream all of my life about walking around trapped in dusty old buildings.  Lots of long dim hallways, none of the doors open, furniture out of place, and I'm always alone trying to get outside.  I had a flashback while walking down this hallway in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  The only light came from my camera's flash.  There was a reception of some kind that was being held later that evening in this wing of the museum and so there were tables with silver decanters and buffet tables set up around various exhibits full of taxidermied animals and the usual furniture had been moved into various hallways.  Things started to feel pretty surreal.

A Domestic Forest Creature