Well the blizzard of the century did not hit us....we spent the day waiting, watching, and in the end there was pretty much nothing. As we linger in the final days of January I begin to dream of spring. The snow will slowly creep away and reveal the anxious new sprout of spring. The fresh sharp points of green against dark soil and small patches of white snow are brilliant and magical. To satisfy my gardeners soul I look at images from last years soil.

Rosemary and thyme

Euphorbia and plum trees

The lovely and graceful blue flax

the front rock garden

The grey summer border.... I study last years images trying to remember where I tucked in the fall bulbs, what should be moved, what could be added. Now are the days of seed catalogs and ambitious ideas.

Since moving here I have become a collector of bones. Inside the cold heart of the deep freezer I keep a large zip lock bag containing the remnants of numerous Sunday roast dinners and summer steak barbeques. Yesterday with the help of some onions, celery, a carrot, and some herbs I made homemade beef stock. There is some serious magic that happens to homemade soup when you can forgo the dry little bullion cube for a aromatic and substantial homemade version. I feel like making stock is the responsible thing to do, you not only get so much for so little, but it is glamorous in ways that little dry cubes of mystery flavor just can never be. For Christmas I received a gorgeous shiny, large, and heavy French stockpot and this is where the magic happens.

Here is what I did.... Fill that bad boy half full with water Add your bag of beef bones, I had about 8 good sized bones I also added 1 meaty soup bone (we buy our beef from the farmer down the road and it is wonderful) Then I quartered an onion, leave the skin on and throw it in, ditto for a couple carrots, I give them a couple chops but I don't think you really need to. Next 3 stalks of celery I gave these guys a couple chops too then I roughly chopped the celery heart because the lovage has disappeared for the winter. Add some freshly ground pepper, be generous pepper is like love, sea salt a small handful, a healthy big pinch of herb de provence, and 5 or 6 bay leaves. Now just let that simmer away on the stove I left mine for about 4 hours. The result was a kitchen that smelled wonderful, after skimming off the fat and straining , I will have a bunch of frozen jars of delicious homemade soup possibilities.

I am what you can call a lazy blogger. I haven't posted in about a year, I will not offer up a carefully edited selection of excuses, I just never seem to get here often enough. That said I will get on with some of the latest projects we have or are about to undertake on our crumbling beauty. My husband rebuilt our basement entry this fall, the old entry had collapsed so we had a pit that you crawled into to gain access to the nether regions of our house. The new entrance is in one word solid. He constructed it with used railway ties, huge spikes, and some rebar for good measure. The finished product is lovely and practical and now I can easily navigate myself down to the under-ground portion of our house.

Seedy Ideas

Mid-winter is a time for dreaming, the garden is buried deeply beneath the snow, and memories of the whats and wheres are a little dim. This is the time of year that I dig into the fresh seed catalogues that are filling my mailbox, I always do a nice big and juicy flower order to start it all off... I order my flowers from two different companies, Swallowtail Garden Seeds http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/#gsc.tab=0 and Summerhill Seeds http://summerhillseeds.com/ both companies offer interesting and unique seeds, and my success rate has been high. So far I have only done my order from Swallowtail Gardens... here is a little preview of what I am hoping to grow this year...

Although the ground is currently buried under a heavy layer of mid-winter snow, I still enjoy looking at the remnants of last years garden, the snow is polluted with snowshoe hare tracks, the fat partridges are picking at stray seeds, and the chatter of the squirrels as they forage thru last years remains....

A Little Mid-Winter Garden Inspiration From Pinterest

The blizzard and freezing temperatures have passed for the moment, and it is a balmy -1 outside today, warmth seems to get me longing for the garden. Right now the potager is covered with waist high snow, but spring will come, it always does. In the meantime I am filling my head with big dreams for next years vegetable garden and Pinterest always provides some inspiration...

Cabbages and lavender, a combination I have tried in my own potager with great success...

Kitchen gardens can be so incredibly beautiful I spend hours, coffee in hand and pajama clad, wandering through my vegetables anticipating the harvest. I am constantly on the scout for nice combinations of plants that will not only whet my appetite but will also make me smile.

Now a Sunday morning of coffee, pajamas, and seed catalogs.

Blizzards and Woodstoves

I had intended to start today with some photos of around our house.... but, yesterdays blizzard started a fervor of work on our etsy shops, which continued into today. So instead I will share a few pics of items that we just listed in Twagy, (That was a Good Year), our vintage clothing shop. We make most of our household income from our collection of online stores, and although it is great to be self sufficient financially, it does require a certain degree of dedication and discipline. I find working on days when the snow is blowing and the daily high temp is -19 much easier then when the sun is shining and it is above zero out. Heating our house entirely with wood heat is a blessing and a curse, and is in no way romantic. The romance of rural living, and our ideas of a cozy fire can be over rated when it -28 outside and you live in an uninsulated mid 1800's house. I am not complaining I love our house, and I would not trade my lifestyle for one that is easier. A photograph of me sitting beside the wood stove with the dog laying on a rug beside me would certainly translate visually as an image of contentedness, but the truth behind the photo, it is more of a physical struggle between myself and the dog for the spot where the most heat is. Every year we get a little bit better at keeping warm, we add insulation, we stop gaps, and to my great joy we have installed a super charming little wood burning stove to our bedroom.... which is were I am sitting right now. Yes a fire in the bedroom is romantic, and even better it is warm and cozy. Even though I live a pretty rustic lifestyle, or maybe because of it, I fall for all the dreamy notions of the cabin in the woods, the little cottage by the lake, the A-Frame ski chalet.

I love the spray foam insulation...insulation is our friend.

To quench any cabin lust you might be feeling...take a visit to Cabin Porn.... http://cabinporn.com/

The Making of Cheese, Bread, and The Importance of Rural Mail

When you live deep in the country (the nearest corner store is half an hour away), rural mail becomes your life line to the outside world. I must confess I am addicted to ordering books online. The local library is outdated and the selection of books being offered up is meager....I have already taken out pretty much everything on gardening, cooking, and crafting that has caught my eye. As a result of book boredom I have taken to just buying books. My new acquisitions are: "Artisan Cheese Making at Home", by Mary Karlin. Now I am heady at the prospect of producing sharp cheddar, creamy brie, dry and delicious Parmesan. The book is rife with mouth watering photos, that make everything look both enchanting and attainable... oh and somehow mess free. I will order some supplies and see how that goes for me.

I have already made simple fresh goat cheese with a recipe from "The Little Paris Kitchen" by Rachel Khoo, which turned out creamy, delicious, and extremely easy! I used organic goat milk and rolled the finished cheese in cracked black pepper and lemon pepper.

The other book that was delivered by my fantastic rural postie was "Baking by Hand", by Andy and Jackie King. Once again this book is filled with luscious photos of crusty bread, sweet treats, and floury hands. I already have a sourdough starter that was a wedding gift (I got married in September) that came from Dawson City in the Yukon. I am not a stranger to bread baking, but I felt my repertoire need an injection of inspiration. I am inspired, but with inspiration always comes desire,... proofing bowls, croissant rollers, maybe a nice wooden peel?

And finally... (I do not want to be one of those people who fills their blog with pet photos), but I got a new old kitty yesterday...I think he is super grateful to be out of the frigid Maritime winter weather, he was a stray that was living in a friends carport, and their house was already filled with three felines.

He is currently shut in my studio till I can get him a check up with the vet after the holiday, he has a bad case of ear mites which I am soothing with sweet almond oil and a nice old fur coat to sleep on.