Just jabbering

We had hoar frost the last two mornings or ice fog. It’s when there is moisture in the air that condenses on all the trees and other surfaces and then freezes, like frozen dew. It’s so beautiful, although it can make the roads a little slick. I don’t mind this kind of winter weather too much, although it’s been a bit gloomy. Our temps have been in the low 30’s daytime and 20’s at night. Enough to keep the plants dormant but not too cold and we haven’t had any big snow or ice storms.

I had to take Charlie, the little stud colts halter off because it was getting too tight for him. He reminds me of someone who isn’t wearing their glasses when you are used to seeing them with glasses on. He keeps hiding the water bucket and feed dishes on me. It’s amazing how well he can do that when they are now locked in the small paddock and it’s covered with snow. He put the water bucket inside an old shelter we had for the ducks. He dropped one of the big rubber feed dishes inside an old burn barrel, which is empty and just sitting there and the other was hidden beneath the bottom of a tarp we have stretched in back of their stall door to block the wind. These are not areas where you would just expect him to drop things when he was done playing, it’s like he does it on purpose. And that means he must use some kind of reasoning when doing it. I think we underestimate the power of animal minds.

I have started teaching the Master Gardener program again. A new class of people eager to learn more about gardening. It always amazes me the range of ages and range of professional occupations that take the class. All these wonderful skills that they have outside of gardening. And you can almost predict that there will be the joker, the frowner, the overly anxious and the know it all in each class. I do think that most people enjoy our Master Gardener class and do learn a lot.

I know that for the most part, I enjoy teaching it. I wish we had the funds to offer it for free, and I want to make sure that the class thinks it got its money’s worth because it is expensive for them to take. I do get tired standing and talking for 4 hours - it’s amazing how that wears you out. And then of course you get to talk before and after class to all the students who need your personal touch. It’s a good thing I like talking!

Banana bread and paint

One good thing about working from home part of the time is that when I feel like leaving my cubby hole of an office and baking something in the kitchen I can. Today I had a hankering for some banana nut bread - the yeast kind baked in the bread machine. I thought I had some mashed frozen banana in the freezer and put it in the microwave to defrost. Turns out I defrosted some beef gravy-well banana does get brown when you freeze it. Luckily I discovered my mistake before I poured it in the bread pan.

So I looked for some banana in the freezer and couldn’t find any- but we did have tons of frozen apple slices. I chopped some of those up, added walnuts and it was just as good as banana bread. We had hot bread with supper. The nice thing about a bread machine is once you throw those ingredients in the pan you can just go back to working in your office with out a worry.

My office is looking very sad right now. It was originally the smallest room in the house and painted a cream color. The cream is definitely dirty looking. When I get done with this next book I am going to take some time to paint it, put up some shelves and get things organized a bit better. My trouble is deciding what color to paint it. One day I decide on pale green, the next chocolate brown, the next deep red and so on. I think someone needs to develop mood paint. You paint the room with a paint that you can switch colors on by touching a button. Come on inventors, surely this is doable.

I thought about painting each wall a different color, (husband’s idea), and then turning my desk to face what color I preferred that day - but I think that’s too much trouble. Reminds me of when I was a kid and my sister wanted to paint our bedroom lavender and I wanted to paint it green. We ended up painting each side a different color, and believe me, it wasn’t pretty. Maybe I’ll paint a forest mural on the walls, and hide among the trees. I bet the office dogs would like that.

It's a New Year

Well its January 1, 2010. It’s a typical blustery winter day and I’m in my office working, not celebrating the New Year. I really don’t make New Years resolutions, just wishes. We did stay up until midnight. I was reading a book - a new type of book called a cyber novel. It’s called Level 26, quite a gruesome story about a serial killer of amazing and creepy abilities. I have gotten half way through the online film clips of the book- the cyber portion, although I’ve finished the book. I can read faster than my dial up connection can download film clips. I will say I have not been totally impressed. I never liked it when movies took liberties with a books story line and I’m a bit disappointed that the on line clips seem to stray a bit from the book. There are so many interesting things that could have been exactly like the book. Some of the clips weren’t worth the download time, like number 9.

Level 26 is a pretty good read, you can tell in spots it was written to make a movie from- which is hard to explain - but on the whole it was interesting. I did like getting an image of the killer in his white condom like suit and the reptilian way he moved from the on line clips. On the other hand when you just read a book you can imagine the characters anyway you like - which could be different from the way someone else would imagine them. I certainly would imagine the hero a bit differently from the scruffy little guy in the clips.

The author is a CSI writer, and the way the book is laid out is like a TV show, you can almost feel the places where a commercial break will take place. It was written to make a serial line of books, which is obvious, so I guess I will have to see if the next is worth it. A lot of serials fizzle after a book or two. This cyber thing needs to evolve a bit if it’s going to work. And one of my wishes for the New Year is to have high speed internet out here at an affordable rate.

I have been able to get a few books read over the holidays. My treat to myself. An excellent book was the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, a mystery by a new writer. I also read a new Stephanie Plum book- Finger Licking Fifteen. I like those books but they seem to be getting sillier, on the border line of being too silly.

One day I will attempt to write fiction. Oh gosh, is that a New Years resolution?