Animal Tracks

Temperatures have soared into the 30s this morning, the biting wind has died down and my fluey cold has improved to the point where I can go a whole five minutes without coughing. In celebration I walked the dogs for the first time in a fortnight. We've still got several inches of snow and the lawn is almost pristine. Almost, except for this set of tracks that come through the hemlock trees and head towards the central rhododendron bed. They are about four inches long with a gap of two or three feet between. Raccoon, do you think? Huge hare? Sasquatch? I have no idea but whatever it was it left us a gift of scat.

Damn It. Cough... Sniffle...

One of the neighbours just returned the damn dog that had escaped through the damn fence. I had to answer the door, I did hesitate but The Guy had staggered in to work this morning and the good dog was barking. A lot. I wasn't dressed. I haven't got out of my pyjamas since last Wednesday apart from two runs to the pharmacy for drugs and the grocery store for homemade soup. Over the pjs I'm wearing a 10 year old, holey, worn out dressing gown because I spilt soup down the "good" dressing gown. I look as good as I feel.
The neighbor is a really nice, very put-together blonde who used to have a cool job with a popular music channel who wouldn't answer the door to the local police when her 2 year old had been playing with the telephone and mistakenly dialed 911 because she was pregnant with her second child and dressed in her scruffs. She looks like a supermodel.
I feel as good as I look.

Aide-memoire

I'm using the iphone as a portable, pictorial list-making device so next time I go to the liquor store I can remember the name of the delightfully smooth yet smokey single malt we are adding to hot water, lemon and a cane sugar cube to ward off the evil effects of the damned cold virus that's plagued as for the past 10 days. Yes, I know that's no way to treat a malt from the Islands but we're too sick to go get any Famous Grouse. It's called making do.........

The last of the evergreens

A month ago I bought two gorgeous rosemary bushes as a fragrant, green Solstice decoration. I hoped they would see us through the winter and we could plant them in the herb patch in the spring. I used them to flavour all the soups we have been enjoying since the festivities ended: red pepper and white bean, roasted tomato, chickpea and lamb and many others. I snipped a sprig or two and placed them on roasting chicken and lamb and chopped a little to throw on escalopes and roast potatoes. Every time I passed the bushes I gently squeezed them to release the aroma.


Then, as the weather grew more frigid and we spent more time in the kitchen cooking, I noticed they were starting to dry out. I watered them and moved them away from the cooktop and oven but it was too late. The rosemary had become a desiccated skeleton, only the heady Mediterranean scent left behind. I still used the crushed rosemary to sprinkle into stews but touching the bush even a little caused it to shower its needle-like leaves across the countertop.


Last week I gave in and harvested the remainder, pouring it into a glass jar, capturing the essence of the plant for a little while longer.
Now if only I could do something about my poor dehydrated skin.

The Future

Guess who is going to see Leonard Cohen in concert and whose tardiness meant they missed out on tickets? If I wasn't coughing so badly I'd be sobbing. Anyhow, here is the video that proved just how sexy the man is. From his awesome appearance on Later with Jules Holland in 1993. Enjoy.

What's that funky smell?

For a little while now, well more than a little while - more like weeks in fact, I've noticed this weird smell when I've come into the house. Now smells, I've discovered, are like the annoying pinging noise your car makes that ONLY YOU can hear. You take the car to the garage, you drive your beloved around in it. Can they hear it? No way, it's a figment of your imagination. You are a crazy person right up until the moment when the wheel comes off or a cable snaps and then they're all "Didn't you notice it before? Weren't there any warning signs? Hmm, like that whirring, pinging, humming noise I kept mentioning, you mean?
Anyway, there was a definite smell. I thought at first it was rot. But we treated the rot back in, oh October, and I couldn't see any more elsewhere. That didn't stop me from obsessing about it, though. I started in the basement with a flashlight and poked and prodded every beam, joist and random piece of wood I could find. Then I moved onto the house proper. I touched every piece of siding I could, every door and window (even though most were replaced with new units in 2005) and then I got crazy: I started sniffing all the wood. ALL. THE. WOOD. Even if it meant, and it did, crawling along the floor inhaling the aroma of baseboards. Crazy. And fruitless.
But just as I was going to call in a professional with a moisture meter I made a discovery. The small was worse just outside the door to the garage. And it was much worse when the heating was blowing hard. I bent down to look at the air vent and woah! I had discovered the origin of the pong.


Several months ago I was taking the cat litter tray to the garage when I tripped and spilt tons of kitty gritty. Obviously I vacuumed it up, I'm not that much of a slob, but I'd failed to see that quite a bit had landed in the air vent. Eeeuw and phew. We unscrewed the grill, cleaned it, took all the dirt that had accumulated with the cat litter and voila! No more odd odor. I may be the worst housekeeper ever but at least I'm not crazy and we don't have rot.

Real Estate Selling Tip

Word to the realtor of this newly listed property in Huntington Bay: Posting ten shots of the front of the house tells buyers that there is a BIG problem with the interior. And if you have Stunning Unobstructed Year Round Panoramic Waterviews then SHOW THEM.
File under "and that's worth 5% commission?"

Blown balls

The Awesome Designer would like me to post a clarification, if not an outright correction to this post. Apparently, the balls in question are not crystal but blown glass. That's right folks, and I am happy to tell the internets that the post title should read Blown Balls!

Healthy Eating?

Okay, this is an absolutely hysterical post from the NY Times Blogs.

Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice.

1. Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.
2. Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.
3. Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.
How to eat it: Chop and saute in olive oil.
4. Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol.
How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.
5. Pomegranate juice: Appears to lower blood pressure and loaded with antioxidants.
How to eat: Just drink it.
6. Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but they are packed with antioxidants.
How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.
7. Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death.
How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.
8. Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.” They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.
9. Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,” it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.
How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.
10. Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies.
How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.
11. Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories.
How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.

It was first published back in June 2008 and they re-published it this weekend. It's funny not only because the suggestion for incorporating two of the 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating into your diet is to add butter and proscuitto to them. I mean, what food doesn't taste better wrapped in pieces of pig or slathered in butter? But it's the comments that slay me. These - all 54 pages of them - are brilliant.
A sample



Well, we eat all these foods except #11, (canned pumpkin? Yak!) regularly and I really don't think we're "healthier" than any of our friends or neighbors. But I do have a suggestion for #5. Mix with vodka and garnish with a few #10s.

Benz Bling

A Mercedes-Benz SL600 encrusted with 300,000 Swarovski crystals at the Tokyo Salon auto show.
This is just so wrong. Damn crystals are showing up everywhere.

Round Rabbit's Perfect Piece

Look at this fabulous, unique, porcelain necklace from Round Rabbit's etsy store.  Round Rabbit is also known as Nancy of The Rabbit Muse blog and she's related to the famous architect of The Cool House, Andrew Geller.

Anyhow, this beautiful piece was going to be a gift but I wore it the other evening (just to test drive it, so to speak) and it got a ton of compliments, so I'm claiming it as my own. Lucky me.

Copper-Bottom

.... sides, lids, handles and more. A stall at the beautiful, tempting flea market in San Telmo, Buenos Aires.

2008. What happened?

There's a big blog party going down at Southern Hospitality. I dropped by to pick up some inspiration for 2009 projects and it got me thinking: what exactly have I done since the start of 2008?
Well, there was one big project that we started and finished that year. Surprisingly for us it was drama-free and didn't involve any design dilemmas. OK there was the vessel sink fiasco but the powder room update turned out fine, much better than my original scheme. The fact that I left the day the Handyman started and got back as he was putting the finishing touches on the work probably helped a lot here.


Then there were the projects, like the laundry room, started the year before that we finished up, or almost finished. The laundry still has to be tiled - but we'll get to that eventually. The cabinets were a revelation. For those that have considered Ikea kitchen cabinets and wondered about the quality, I tell you not to hesitate. They have withstood slamming, knocking and cat scratching - not to mention cat food all over the doors - and they come clean with just a wipe. (The laundry is divided into one area for clothes and a cat-feeding station). They also hold many trays of cat food and pounds of kibble and have shown no signs of stress.


We put a coat of paint on the ceiling of one bathroom we remodeled the year before and hung a towel rail in another. That one towel rail caused more drama than all the other projects put together but the end result was (almost) worth it.


We hung new curtains in the master bedroom and re-oriented the bed, again.


A fair amount of maintenance was completed, including filling holes caused by the woodpecker, carpenter bees and rot. The Guy weatherproofed a couple of windows and we patched, sanded and stained endlessly this summer. The siding around the kitchen slider was salvaged and all of this with only minor damage to the house or ourselves.


I restored a family heirloom and was so enthusiastic about the result I went on to spruce up the wood trim in the house. Lots of wood trim. We finally found the right modern card table for the great room. And finally, for some insane reason we moved the garden path. We moved it four inches. I don't think The Guy is fully over this one yet!
Looking back I'm surprised at the amount we accomplished this year; for a long time I've focused on the projects we haven't done (the master bath, three years on the wait list, springs to mind) and I had the feeling that 2008 slid by without anything tangible to show for it. Now I can see that it's not so bad. But that doesn't make the to-do list for 2009 any shorter!

Carp

From the Jardín Japonés in Buenos Aires.

Cool House Animals: 10 Things You May Not Know about Polly

Polly is our challenge dog; she's adorable, loves other animals and children and is only really happy when she's "working". On the other hand she lives by a timetable, is incessant in her demands and is only really happy when she's "working".


1) Polly's pedigree is uncertain but going by size, looks and character we're guessing she's a Golden Retriever/Border Collie Mix. She's been mistaken for a Flat-coat Retriever and a Newfoundland puppy. But she's fully-grown and only 48lb so I think we can rule those out.
2) She looks much younger than her 8 years - and she acts it, too
3) She's a rescue. We've had her since she was 10 months old and I think she was tied up outside the Animal Shelter because she was such a high-energy dog.
4) She needs to round things up - cats, humans, soft toys. If they would only stay in one place she could go off-duty and get some shut-eye. Last week I'd had enough of the attention-seeking so I put her in a down stay. Without lifting her body off the floor she picked up all her soft toys and placed them, perfectly spaced, in a semi-circle around her. Then she went to sleep!
5) She's completely useless at retrieving anything: ball, newspaper, frisbee but she'll carry around for hours socks she's thieved from the laundry basket
6) She can tell time, and count. It's three biscuits after dinner, people. Less than three and there's no peace, give her four and she'll save the extra until The Big Dog finds and consumes it.
7) She is a cat slave. This is part of her "work". When one family member has left the pack she must reunite it as quickly as possible. Cat at the door? Polly will bark and cry until someone lets it in.
8) The "Leash of Shame" is her friend, and ours. When she's wearing it she knows
a) she's off-duty. See "working" and #4 and #7 above.
b) she has to obey instantly
c) she can tug on the leash and self-correct. That's smart!
9) She eats poop when she's bored and grass whenever she can
10) She likes to be outdoors. All the time. Luckily she has a fenced yard, a pond, lots of trees and a patch of leaves that she pummels and scratches into a nest where she sleeps.


One last Polly curiosity - she sleeps better and is less demanding if the house is full of people. Otherwise she has to find ways to entertain herself.

More falling down

Let's start with the good news. The holly tree sprang back to life after the heavy snow melted away. Hurray. I love the dark, glossy green leaves outside the back door and the fact that it hides the falling-down fence. Which brings us to.... well, the fence. It is still standing, just. At least the panels are still upright but the post is leaning at a forty-five degree angle. You might ask how this is possible. Well, boys and girls, some time ago when we first noticed the fence was falling down I suggested we might be able to get more life out of it by bracing the two panels with a metal bracket. It worked. It worked so well that that's all that is holding the thing up. The harder the wind blows, the greater the snowfall, the thicker the ice, the greater the angle of the post from the fence. I reckon by spring it will be a full 90 degrees adrift.
More bad news. The Guy took a bath and sent water cascading through the hall ceiling. I won't say he likes a deep soaking bath or that he's a splasher, but..... I foresee a lot of maintenance in my future.

More Updates

More giveaways: Todd at Home Construction Improvement tells me he's giving away a very useful 65 Piece Ratcheting Socket & Bit Driver Set by Husky. It looks cool and sturdy, just the thing for 2009 chores!

In other blogs... Updated

Jean at Renovation Therapy is holding a Benefit Auction for a near homeless teen in SF. Items awaiting your bid include a felt condom warmer tea-bag cozy and some gorgeous Amish coasters. Unique stuff, nice idea and a good cause. Go check it out.
Anna at Door Sixteen and Marilyn at Simmer Till Done could use some love after the Homies 2008 debacle and Jenni at 1311 could use some luck.
Linda at ::Surroundings:: is running a contest to win a fabulous Tracy Glover lamp, while Nancy at The Rabbit Muse is working on a documentary about early 20th century artist's model Antonio Corsi.
What are you up to?

All Fall Down

We weren't planning on taking the tree down until Sunday but it had other ideas. I'd just finished cleaning up from New Year yesterday morning when I heard the crash. No animals were anywhere near the tree when it fell to the ground so we can't blame them and I closed off the room pretty smartly so they wouldn't get cut paws from the shattered ornaments. Lessons for next year: Make sure the tree is centered before you decorate it and keep it well watered; the poor thing was bone dry. Surprisingly though, it had lost hardly any needles until it hit the floor; it looked as fresh and green as did when we dragged it in two weeks ago. The tree ornaments, however, didn't fare so well. In the end we lost most of the hand-blown icicles, all the red glass ornaments and a couple of the hand-painted ones. I was amazed the whole lot didn't smash but we'll still be looking at a couple of dozen replacements next year.


We removed the rest of the decorations at the same time. The house is pretty bare now but the Satellite bowl looks good in its new home.

Beer, deer and chocolate

I'm kicking off the New Year with beer. Not "hair of the dog" style, not to drink at all. I'm more of a wine/gin girl but I love to cook with beer. Today it's Vension Shepherd's Pie, hot and comforting after last night's celebrations, and especially appreciated in the arctic blast that has enveloped us since yesterday. It's a standard Shepherd's Pie recipe plus a teaspoon of cumin, another of allspice, two tablespoons of Trader Joe's Spicy Tomato Chutney (yep, still working through those leftovers), and 3/4 bottle of dark beer, I used Negra Modelo because that's what was in the 'fridge, but any dark beer will do. I also threw in the remaining spoonful of the Tapas Tomatoes as there simply weren't enough to serve as a side dish. Because venison is very lean I made sure all the olive oil, and the garlic clove, from the tapas dripped into the meat and vegetables. How good is it on New Year's Day? Perfect. This dish even smells comforting.
If you can't get your hands on some venison and straight up Shepherd's Pie doesn't do it for you, another great meat and beer recipe to keep out the winter chill is Nigel Slater's Braised Beef with Beer and Onions from The Guardian last weekend. Simple and soul-warming.
Incidentally the best quote from 2008 comes from the first paragraph of his article "I can't bear to think of a day without (just a little) chocolate. Not that I need much. But a tiny square or two is necessary if I am to retire with a feeling that my day was something." I think that's my New Year's Resolution: 2 squares of chocolate to validate every day.