100 happy days :: day 44

scanner + bobbaloos + free online gif-maker = today's happy

also part of today's happy - hillary + kittens. the kittens are ready. we are ready. ready for hillary.

no need to waste time on the weekend

30 days of lists - day 4: favorite time wasters

i could have added glee to this list. i've been watching it most of the weekend. tho' i don't sit down to watch, i carry the little iPad around and watch while ironing and cooking and loading the dishwasher and folding laundry and doing a thorough cleaning of our bedroom (it was high time) and untangling all of my necklaces, which had been severely tangled by kittens. so i guess it wasn't really a waste of time. tho i'm well into season 2, i think i'm really mostly watching for the singing (i've always been a fan of musical theatre). the characters are caricatures and the situations quite absurd and the manipulations, oh, the manipulations, make me tired. but those kids can sing. it's not going to be one where i rush to find other sources for episodes not yet available on netflix, i can tell you that, but it was good to have as company while cleaning.

we turned all of the apples from our tree and two of a neighbor's trees into 30 liters of cider. it has an alcohol potential of 6%, so the apples were pretty sweet! half of the house and the back terrace were permeated with the sweet smell of apples. both husband and i feel so industrious working on such a project. even tho' all i really did was wash all those apples, husband crushed them and pressed them in his big apple press. he's already planning improvements in the design for next year. i have a big jar of the crushed apples in the pantry, fermenting into apple cider vinegar. these experiments in homesteading are conscious moments of happiness for both of us. we're looking forward to tasting and then bottling the cider in a few weeks.  

i tried my hand at making agnolotti (basically a fancy name for a little gnocchi-sized ravioli), using this recipe. they were a big success and i even have two bags of them in the freezer for another couple of meals. i made a sage brown butter instead of cilantro because it seemed more autumnal, plus i had sage and no cilantro left in the herb bed. i highly recommend them. they are time-consuming but pretty easy to make. and they'll impress the socks off your guests (provided you'd like them to lose their socks, that is). i know i've said it before, but my moments of conscious happiness often take place in the kitchen.

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if you put this longitude & latitude into google earth and zoom in, you will see something interesting:

16° 51′ 55″ N, 11° 57′ 10″ E

read more about it here.

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here's wish you all a happy and productive week.
may all your phone calls be good news.

spring cleaning

these two springy 'bobs are nesting now that spring has arrived.

in honor of spring, i did a bit of freshening up around here today. if you checked in this morning my time, it was a big, giant mess, but i like it now, tho' i'm still looking for a good set of social media buttons - ones that include facebook, twitter, google+, instagram (look for me, i'm julochka, of course) and pinterest, as those are my bloggy-related social medias of choice. if you know of any, do let me know, as my searches for that particular combo have been in vain.

it is such a relief to have sunshine today. as you undoubtedly noticed, i get positively glum and navel-gazey in the grey, drizzly weather we've had of late. but just a little bit of sunshine turns it right around.  even our chickens have been joyful today and the horses are ecstatic that we put them out on the grass. it's like the weather knew that spring was officially here. and it was just in time.

i hope it's spring where you are (or autumn, if you're down under - that's my other favorite season).

save the drama for your mama

i realized something tonight, once and for all. it's pretty much over for me with pretend, made-up drama. i don't want it in my life anymore. whether it's of the corporate variety or of the local. i love a dramatically-told story, don't get me wrong, but i'm thinking of the kind of drama where people get all worked up over something that's really not important and which doesn't actually exist except in their own head (usually because they're not listening). i'm done with that kind. this evening, i had occasion to observe some drama of that sort and i found myself physically backing away from it. slowly, but surely moving my chair back to physically remove myself from the scene. it was uncomfortable for everyone concerned - participants and observers. and totally unnecessary. pettiness and condescension with overtones of sexism and a bit of martyrdom thrown in. it makes me shudder now, just thinking about it. life is simply too short.

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so onto more positive things:

like these thoughts on my film swap with shokoofeh

and pressing our first cider.

and sweet bobbaloos with mushrooms from minnesota.

and the fact that monday is almost over.

thoughts from a sunday evening

~ we had wild weather this weekend and there wasn't even a hurricane where we are. but we had loads of wind and a veritable deluge of rain. that's why the bobbaloos, who had wanted to go on a walk and look for mushrooms, are looking wistfully out at the rain.

~ about 15 minutes before the deluge, i convinced husband to go on a walk with me, assuring him that those clouds weren't going to amount to anything. about half a kilometer from home, the rain began and we ran for it, reaching the relative shelter of the trees before it started to come in buckets. it made me think i missed my calling as a weather girl, since i have no apparent ability to predict the weather and it seems that's a prerequisite for that job.

~ when will i learn not to keep reading a book that sucks? why, oh why, when life is as short as it is and books so plentiful, do i slog on through one that i know i don't like. i'm speaking here of anita shreve's all he ever wanted, but i could be talking about the completely over-rated visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan. reprehensible characters about which i don't care should be a sign to stop reading.

~ we attended our annual crayfish & schnapps party last evening and i am blissfully reminded of how very good it is to spend time with intelligent, interesting people. my husband has some seriously awesome family. and i got my quota of laughter for the week. it's pretty mind-blowing how much energy it gives you to laugh well.

~ looking forward to testing out our apple cider press this week. if it works, we're thinking of hosting a cider event at our house - where people can come, bring their apples, help with pressing them and do other fun, autumnal things on the farm.

~ shokoofeh and i are planning on making a 2012 calendar of our film swap photos. we'd like to know whether you'd be interested in buying one?  please note, leaving a comment does not constitute a commitment to buy, we'd just like to have an idea of how much interest is out there, so please let us know if that sounds appealing.

~ lately most everything we're eating is from the garden - zucchini (courgette)/eggplant (aubergine) ratatouille, herbed tomato salsa, broad bean hummus (thank you, kristina for the inspiration), salads of thin ribbons of zucchini and tarragon with a bit of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, artichokes with plenty of butter and salt, mushrooms gathered in the forest. i love having a garden. and this time of year it seems like it would be quite easy to be a vegetarian.

~ i made a batch of raspberry jam today. who knew that berries and sugar could smell and taste so heavenly? i'm so glad our raspberry canes are autumn ones.

here's hoping your weekend was wonderful and full of laughter and great conversation.

on collecting II: bobbaloos

back in january, i discovered kit lane's adorable little creations - the jacabunnies. she writes clever descriptions of them and they all have individual names and characters that make them special. we very quickly realized that one would never be enough. so we've got 17 (the little pirate one refused to line up for the group shot today - but that's how pirates are and you can see him from a previous shoot below). 17 is less than pia and possibly also less than dahnstarr, tho' she's pleading the fifth as to how many she's got.

since i'm down on etsy, i'm on a self-imposed moritorium on buying any more at the moment. tho' it doesn't stop me from WANTING to buy more. luckily, they disappear so quickly from kit's shop that one doesn't have long to hover over the buy button before they're gone, along with the temptation.

always included in her descriptions is a line about how much the bobbaloos loathe the barn kitties. so today, i set out to dispel that myth. here's the whole gang, hanging out with woody, barn cat extraordinaire. check out how he's even hugging the one that looks like samba.

and speaking of samba...we commissioned likenesses of him and solskin, our real bunnies, at the height of our bobbaloo mania (and i keep saying we, because this collection belongs to both me and sabin). we'll have to see if kit can do sophus (formerly known as sophia) and mira as well. commissioning needle felted bunnies that are the colors of your real bunnies is, i admit, very nearly taking it a step too far.

when i think about what is so appealing about the 'bobs, i have to say that it's simply that they're joy-inducing.  their sweet faces, even sweeter little bums and the way they really do each have their own personality, dependent on the set of their ears and eyes is just too much to resist. the fact that they have clever little stories that go with them only adds to their appeal.

it's also about quality workmanship and possessing an object that's unique. and about supporting an artist that's doing some truly special and unique. i keep trying to convince kit to move her shop over to big cartel so we can once again begin adding to our collection.

try to make me go to rehab, i say no, no, no

elwold and perdy arrived today

that makes 13.

i had to have a pirate one. isn't he precious?

i wonder at what point you have to admit you're addicted? and whether you really mind. because there are worse addictions. and 13 is surely not yet enough...