Winter Days

I've never enjoyed a winter as much as I'm enjoying this one. Blame it on the snow covered drumlins that I can see from my kitchen window, the gang of blue jays that visit my bird feeder, my new cross-country skis, or this recipe for spicy carrot and lentil soup!


Apparently yesterday was National Homemade Soup Day in the states, which was all the incentive I needed to whip up a batch of healthy, delicious, warm spicy carrot and lentil soup. I prefer to thicken it with cornstarch and eat it with rice and naan bread, but it's yummy either way.

Lemon

I've been seeing tons of lemon related posts in my Google Reader this week. I guess the juicy, sunshiney yellow helps keeps the winter blahs at bay.

I'm dying to try out this Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil




I don't have fancy French olive oil, as the recipe calls for, but I don't think my tastebuds will notice. Mmmm, I just noticed how delicious that coffee looks too!

Fall

Fall is my favourite season of the year and this has been the nicest autumn in recent memory. It has been lovely to spend days up at the house working and walking about. Some days are so beautiful it has been hard to resist the temptation to step off the porch and explore or to lay in the hammock and bird-watch with my sweetie.


To ward off any guilt about slacking off, I like to remind myself of the following:

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
~ Sir John Lubbock

New House!

We bought a house! We take possession next week and I'm pinching myself every half-hour to make sure I'm not dreaming. It will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it to carve out a little niche of our own.

Bicycle Love

I love my bike, but it's a mother's love, because the truth is: the brakes and gears don't exactly work. When the primary components of both propulsion and deceleration are unreliable then it's time for an overhaul or perhaps a new bike. These two, featured at Vogue Daily are cute enough to make me consider adoption.

Tilt shift

I first discovered tilt-shift photographs about a year ago, but this tilt-shift video tops them all. For some reason the world seems like an even more amazing place when viewed in miniature.

Scenes from a rooftop from Paul Johannessen on Vimeo.

Fungi

This is the most passionate research presentation I have ever listened to. I'll never look at fungi the same way again.