Feline Folk

Kafka.

Doogie.
Bronte.
Pigpen.
Cheddar.
Elsa.
Arthur Jones.
Samwise.
Elfine.
C.K. Dexter Haven. ("Dexter".)

2 Things Challenge: Flimsy/Solid

Flimsy: Maggie's ears go limp and flimsy in sleep.

Solid: One of the original solid foundation stones from the large log cabin, (at the Algonquin Mill where we're having our wedding ceremony this fall), turned land marker.

Remembering November

2 Things Challenge: Carve/Curve

Carve/Curve Interpretation:

Carve: These are two of my father's sandstone sculptures that live in my parents' gardens in northeast Ohio.

Curve: A stream curves to the west of the Rocky mountain woods.

There is a strangely curved shadow behind Romeo.

2 Things Challenge: Paint/Corner

In a corner of my living room (and my bedroom and my office), it has recently come to my attention that my elderly bunny has developed a taste for paint chips. So long, deposit.

What is with our pets being so destructive?? We can't seem to catch her in the act. Everytime we hear chewing noises coming from Dee Dee's room I check on her, and she's behaving herself and chewing on her favorite wicker toy or rearranging her cardboard bunny cottage. She has plenty of safe, chewable objects and toys to choose from. But this is still happening.

I haven't noticed any change in her appetite or health, and her pellets are perfectly normal. So whatever she's getting out of this behavior doesn't seem to be harming her health. But I'm currently brainstorming for a way to bunny-proof baseboards, any suggestions you have are very welcome! And the wee culprit is confined to her room.

Blueberry Cake

A laid back Saturday. We had a buckwheat pancake breakfast and somehow I forgot about the very ripe, fresh blueberries that were sitting in the fridge waiting to be used. They were still waiting when I'd cleaned up the breakfast mess. After staring at them for a while, I went and looked up THIS recipe. And THIS is what came out of it. Very good, but a little heavier than I expected. I'm still working on getting baked goods to turn out at this altitude. I'll get it right sometime!

Warm from the oven, with a dollop of cinnamon dough ice cream. Aaaah, simple pleasures.

2 Things Challenge: Coffee/Tea

The first challenge of the new year! Yesterday, my hubby took me up to Sleepytime Drive in Boulder, to the Celestial Seasonings factory. Oh the sights and smells I wish I could share with you. But I wasn't allowed to take my camera onto the actual floor and I haven't figured out yet how to send smells electronically. And the factory itself wasn't "on" that day, all the machines were quiet and resting. But our very enthusiastic guide, Lydia, took us into "The Mint Room", where the menthol from peppermint, spearmint, and catnip overwhelmed our sinuses with it's smelly goodness. And we were introduced to all the machinery in the place that our guide Lydia had given first names to. Like I said, she was REALLY enthusiastic. ("Ruby" is the one I remember, the machine that looked like a giant yellow arm, that can suction cup a bunch of boxes and lift them onto a palate.) I learned that on a good day, they process about 10 million tea bags with a shelf life of about two years and ship them all over the world to 35 different countries. After years and years of sipping and loving this tea, I got to see where those colorful little boxes come from. So I'm not able to share images with you from INSIDE the facility, but while we were watching a ten minute C.S. film outside the entrance, I snapped a pic of.....the Sleepytime Bear! Looks like he's had one cup too many.

Here is the original sewing machine they used to make muslin tea bags, when the company was first starting out.

And for those of you into haute couture, here is an outfit made out of packaged tea bags. Some creative artistic type has a little too much time on their hands. It was behind glass and hard to get a decent shot of. I'd wear it!

And lastly, one of my favorite caffeinated C.S. teas is Bengal Spice. So when I noticed the artwork painted on the walls of the building, I just had to take this shot.

And as the final part of the challenge, here is a shot of my coffee cup this morning. Not very creative I know, but Shaun and I aren't big coffee drinkers. Usually when he wants a cup of coffee, I'm already halfway through my first cup of tea or vice versa. So instead of using a machine, we bust out my simple little one cupper. Mm, fair trade french roast.

Museums, Muffin Pans, and Midwinter Blues

Good gravy, it's been a rough few days into the new year. To keep the blues from settling, I decided to break in my new dough tamper and mini muffin pans, and try a new recipe. Ta da, jam tarts!

Some time ago, I came across this recipe over at Evil Shenanigans. I'm a little nervous anytime I'm doing anything with pastry dough, I end up with a lot of disasters. But these were a snap! This dough bakes into a buttery shortbread. Very good & VERY RICH. I experimented with the filling, using a generic strawberry jelly, some Crofter's organic blueberry jam I've been hoarding, and a seedless organic mixed berry conserve. They're going fast, I hope there are some left in the morning to take in to work. I used Earth Balance and soy milk to make it vegan for my co-worker, Ritch.

We went to see the King Tut exhibit at the Denver Art Museum on Sunday. I don't regret going but it was a little disappointing. The artifacts themselves were fascinating, but it was overcrowded and poorly organized. And of course there were a lot of thoughtless, self absorbed twits in the crowd. And the cheesy icing on the cake was being forced to have to exit through the tiny gift shop, which was a nightmare of merchandising and way too many small children running around. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures once we were let inside. There were sentries standing on every corner, like agents from The Matrix with their little earpieces. The security was understandable; there were some pretty cool artifacts and a lot of them were gold. There were statues of course, furniture the king used, gorgeous jewelry, a tiny carved set of traveling games, even a marble toilet seat! The sandals that his mummy wore were very thin pounded gold, I almost sobbed out loud wanting to take a picture! But this was the best I could do.

You can look here for more info about King Tut's cartouche.