What February Should Look Like

Snow covered ground.  A nice, watercolor deer.  Cardinals fluttering around the garden looking for seeds and berries.  I LOVE the simplicity of this card.  A few strokes of wet paint and you have a deer or a tree or a bird.  Not too much.  Just enough.  So very hard to learn when one is practicing watercolor painting.  As I was supposed to be doing this winter but haven't even begun.  The card is from Unicef.

G is out walking Riley.  I waited at home for the replacement window to arrive and be installed.  Five minutes-tops.  The next appointment will be the annual furnace servicing and I don't think that is until Wednesday.

The few 50 degree days we had last week---- delightful in that the furnace hardly kicked in at all for about 48 hours, saving us a great deal of money.  I hope.  The bad news is that all the shrubs outside are being tortured with drying winds.  And very cold temps.  With no protective snow cover.  The Groundhog says an early spring.  I remember in the first 20 years of living here in Maine, early spring meant May. Late May. And even then we would hit solid ice if we tried to dig a deep hole.  Now an early spring is anyone's guess.  Wouldn't it be a great kick in the pants if Maine actually had four seasons?  Last year I spent my time at work--in April --- trying to hold gardeners back while they shopped in shorts and flip-flops..  Not yet, I kept saying.  And early June was horrible.  Wet, cold and the kiss of death to cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes put out too early.  An early spring?  Careful what you wish for.

To celebrate the Super Bowl yesterday, I mashed up two avocados with diced red onion, lime juice and a pretty snappy jalapeño.  I cut a few 100% corn tortillas into wedges and fried them to make about 18 chips.  I selected corn tortillas that had only one ingredient.  Corn.  No wheat flour.  If I have this again (and I might because the avocados are loaded with good fat) I will fry the wedges longer so they are very crispy.  I stopped too soon.  My new "diet plan" allows me to have a small amount of a few things that I haven't eaten (much or any of) in over 2 years.  Potatoes.  Corn.  Not the vegetable corn but the ground dry corn.  I am also allowed popcorn with lots of butter.  I bought some organic bulk popcorn but haven't made it yet.

I know my diet sounds ridiculous to most of you reading, but I try and make most of my food myself using whole foods with few, if any, additives.  I don't make dessert, cookies or muffins out of strange ingredients (like a chemistry experiment)  I had tried that and hated the taste of the food and usually felt hungry after.  My food is quite tasty, sugar and wheat free.  I finally stopped trying to add cereal into my diet (bran flakes and bran buds) and I feel so much better.  It took a LONG time to finally let those two things go.  I also don't make pancakes or GF waffles. I think it's best to just not eat these things.  Not make crappy substitutions.  To get chocolate into my diet (I miss it) I add cream and a few tablespoons of good chocolate powder to full fat ricotta (1/2 cup).  A little packet of Splenda and it fulfills my desire for something creamy, sweet and chocolatey.  Makes a lovely lunch or late breakfast.

I am going to the library today.  To return books and hopefully find something good to read.  I do have a fall back position that I am enjoying with wicked pleasure.  My time travel romances.  Lynn Kurland is the author.  Pippa is now safely married in 1241 to Montgomery and Tess (her sister) is about to meet Montgomery's twin, John.  A guy from 1241 in 2006.  I don't know which "travels" are the most amusing.  The ones going back in time or the ones going forward. Do you have a secret reading habit you won't admit to?