sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

March 23, 2022


what an end
posted by soe 1:57 am

Sunday Sunset

Sunday was mostly overcast, but the clouds thinned overhead toward dusk and cleared at the horizon, leaving us with a gorgeous end to the day.

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March 22, 2022


top ten books with adjectives in my library stack
posted by soe 1:00 am

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share books with adjectives in the title. Here are ten such books that I either currently have borrowed from the library or am on the holds list for:

  1. An Impossible Impostor by Deanna Raybourn
  2. The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
  3. Broken Horses by Brandi Carlisle
  4. Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim
  5. Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
  6. Vampires, Hearts, and Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston
  7. Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
  8. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
  9. Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
  10. A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey

How about you? What are some of the adjectives in your library stack?

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March 21, 2022


notes from the garden: first day of spring 2022
posted by soe 1:06 am

First Day of Spring in the Garden

I spent a couple hours down at the garden this afternoon, adding some more peas and spring greens to my plot and clearing away some more of the mulch from the cold season.

While my peas have yet to emerge, I do have some other plants already growing:

First Day of Spring in the Garden
Mini daffodils

First Day of Spring in the Garden
Bronze fennel

First Day of Spring in the Garden
Kale and sorrel

First Day of Spring in the Garden
Pansies

First Day of Spring in the Garden
Mint

First Day of Spring in the Garden
Lemon balm

And, most exciting of all, because I planted them two weeks ago:

Rainbow Chard on the First Day of Spring
Rainbow chard!

Are things starting to grow in your gardens or are you still in the dreaming phase?

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March 18, 2022


working nearby, bright side, and what a difference two years make
posted by soe 1:39 am

Three beautiful things from this past week:

1. If Rudi had to catch COVID, at least it over was a non-race weekend, when he was coaching only 90 minutes away and sleeping at home. So far, we’ve not heard that he’s passed the germs on to anyone else.

2. If I had to catch COVID, at least it was just after doing a supply run and nearly a week out from seeing anyone I would have spent any quantity of time with.

3. If either of us had to catch COVID, at least it was after being vaccinated and boosted and with health insurance and (for me) paid sick days. Our symptoms have been mild and I’ve been able to simply be exhausted and grumpy about being housebound on a beautiful spring week, rather than gasping for breath and fearing for my life. We test again tomorrow and hopefully that will indicate we can leave the house, albeit masked the whole time for another five days.

What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

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March 16, 2022


pi(e) day, covid edition
posted by soe 1:20 am

Lest you think I don’t have my priorities straight, let me assure you that I was determined not to let having COVID affect my ability to eat delicious round foods on March 14th.

That’s right, Pi(e) Day 2022 was still on!

First up, quiche:

Pi Day 2022

Our quiche is filled with spinach, feta, and Jamaican veggie sausage and was delicious, albeit a bit underdone when Rudi cut into it the first time. (The jiggle test failed me.) After we pulled out the first two slices, I popped it back into the oven to bake a few more minutes, and our second slices were much less viscous.

(Also, it is a particularly rich quiche because one of the two places I failed to adequately think out isolation rations was dairy. I went with full on heavy whipping cream so as to not run out of milk for our tea and coffee before we can make masked ventures back into the world.)

In between the quiche and my sweet pie, I also roasted a pie pumpkin that was starting to look sad and toasted its seeds. I’d cleared out the oven, after all, and was going to utilize it to its fullest.

Finally, it was on to the main course — dessert!

Pi Day 2022

If you’re looking at my apple crisp and thinking it looks a little on the dry side, it is. I should have had a couple juicier baking apples, but I was trying to use up my oldest apples and they just didn’t produce enough liquid. So, yesterday, when the pie was fresh, it was just okay. Today, it was a far better pie as the apples had a chance to relax some.

But either way, we had COVID pie!

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March 15, 2022


top ten books on my spring 2022 tbr list
posted by soe 12:48 am

Spring arrives next Sunday, which means it’s time to consider the books I’d like to read as the weather warms and the sun stays up later and I’m able to read outside without my fingers freezing.

For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl, here are ten books I hope I get to before summer arrives:

  1. An Impossible Imposter by Deanna Raybourn (the next book in the Veronica Speedwell series)
  2. Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sãenz
  3. Sherry Thomas’ Miss Moriarty, I Presume?
  4. Reclaim the Stars, edited by Zoraida Córdova
  5. Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
  6. Emily Henry’s Book Lovers
  7. My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand
  8. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
  9. Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club
  10. Amanda Gorman’s Call Us What We Carry

Which books are you looking forward to reading this spring?

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