when the spring gives me even a false promise that it's coming soon, i take it for its word. and i never begrudge it all those times its lied.

sunday was the kind of nice you can't expect for february but accept with thanks anyways. we bundled up, shoved some kleenex up our noses and headed back behind our house to the ravine floor below. to get there you have to go through a hole in a fence but we're nature lovers, we live on the edge.

we hear these trains ten times a day. or rather we don't hear them at all anymore as they're now part of the background noise you accustom yourself to when you become acquainted with your space and the sounds of it.

i climbed a tree here and waited as jeremy went on ahead, as boys do, to explore what lay beyond the ridge. i can't wait for summer in this place it's going to be magical. perfect for all my magic.

the muted sun of spring! i see you! stop being so modest and blare your blazes down here already! i'm somewhat allergic to you but you turn jeremy the nicest shade of brown.

these milkweed pods were impossibly beautiful and impossibly difficult to photograph. they looked like little paper lanterns though, decorations for an outdoor party.

i sure hope we're invited.

cauldron cookies are a lot like the raspberry thumbprints steph introduced me to from phipps bakery (jenn meet raspberry thumbprints, raspberry thumbprints meet jenn!), only these are chocolate and the cookie part has a texture closer to a brownie than a traditional biscuit.

they're made with flour and cocoa and brown sugar and butter and eggs and milk and vanilla because vanilla goes in every good baked good.

you make a little hole right before you bake them and you fill the hole with jelly and you eat them when they're warm with a milky cup of tea.

MMMMMMM COOKIE.

i love how the jam always looks like a heart shape no matter which way i dollop it in there.

we got jeremy's lamp from an antique store in a barn near where we got married. there were so many treasures there we also took home the red bench that sits by our front door and the floor lamp that stands by our couch. my favourite thing about buying antiques is how they've had this history without you that you can imagine.

i always wonder if they like their new home best. or where i would fit in the story of their life.

that picture is a woodcut print of a camping trailer near a lake lined with trees in the moonlight. we found it on etsy so my next favourite thing to old things with history are new things made by people you can read about. the artist emailed to make sure it arrived safe and i told him it had and he said he was 'very, very glad'.

i liked the two very's.

we won this guy from ebay to hang over the intercom and muffle the buzz when the pizza guy comes. you can re-adjust his eyeballs, up and down, on the yarn that their attached to. he's from the 60's which means he's older than us both which means we need to listen when he talks. or hoots. or buzzes through his centre.

there's one more picture to complete the mantle. it's one of our feet swinging over a boardwalk with lily pads at the top. it looks like summer and reminds me how nice things feel when they're blowing through your toes.

i love to stare at the picture on the left as the picture stares back at me with two familiar faces. our faces frozen in time.

i like to think of staring still when we no longer recognize those faces, when ours have grown long and tired, but still with that smile underneath.

the french donut is an endangered species.

the sign at the bakery up the street says they are for sale on saturdays and tuesdays but that sign is a fibber so don't be fooled.

the first time i went i was too late, the second time more of the same and the third time they were still in the oven.

but i tried once more this saturday past and and they weren't as good all those tries but carrying them home, in a paper bag, warm from the oven...

well that was worth its weight in gold.

a good egg omen.

OH HELLO! what a sight for sore winter snow glasses you are. do robins even go anywhere for the winter? i think i've seen them around the whole season but maybe that's just other birds in robin costumes making themselves feel like spring.

hey, whatever gets you through.

this breakfast was 3 dollars from a little place down the road. there's pictures everywhere of the owners family and a faded poster of deli meat and a handwritten endorsement from burt reynolds in red marker on the wall.

i think the best thing about being a celebrity is that you get to write your feelings on the wallpaper of restaurants.

on the way home we collected twigs from a fallen pussy willow to arrange in a vase on the mantle. twigs make lovely decorations but aren't recommended for the construction of houses especially if you're a pig and extra especially if you're expecting wolf visitors.

HAPPY SUNDAY! HAPPY SIGNS OF SPRING! happy whatever you like you should celebrate it and we'll join in.

x

the sun woke me up this morning. just like this.

i felt warm on my face and too warm under the blankets and i opened my eyes and there she was stretching in here. coming to see the place. coming to wake me.

so warm and bright and life giving. hope giving. she reminds me of spring and i am anxious.

jeremy is still in bed and the curtains are mostly closed but she'll find him in there soon as he sleeps that deep, wonderful sleep of someone who is absolutely at home.

it's a great day for a stroll.

i bought two books on natural magic which has to do with plants and the moon and how nature is full of all sorts of energy and how you can learn to channel those energies and how you can make a relaxing bath with milk and honey that cleanses your aura and your armpits.

i'd love to be a witch! like nicole kidman in practical magic. so pretty and sexy and she never wears shoes. glinda the good witch of the north is pretty good too especially how her dress is the same one later worn by peaches and cream barbie.

bring your work people a mountain of fresh baked cookies!

and the people will be happier, oh yes, the people will be happier.

also i will be happier on sunday night on account of my taste testing duties.