January Snow

The weather has turned eventually, and it’s become wonderfully wintery, snow falling softly yet steadily turning everything into white dusted cake. It’s very cosy inside though, with the woodburner in the kitchen and all those cats sleeping the day away. We’ve successfully introduced our fifth member of the crew into our family, the last of my savages, the one nobody wanted so I said very well I want you very much, and here we are.

It is very cold and we only heat the kitchen, my husband’s office and my study, and we will be working in the other rooms as soon as outside temps are over 10°C. There’s a lot of planning going on however for the garden, as it needs a little tidying up, yet I really want to keep that abandoned-places-kind-of-vibe. We decided that all ivy has to go and so the wild brambles, yet keeping rampant wisteria, clematis and wild vines the way they want to grow. Same for the climbing roses with branches up under the roof, that’s particular challenging as there’s going to be significant work in fixing all the broken the gutters. I’m also thinking about collecting the rain water from the gutters in a little ornamental pond in the garden, I think it would look lovely with water lilies and rocks for frogs to hang out on.

I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen lately, also because we haven’t moved the bulk of my cooking materials yet, but I might throw some crèpes for Chandeleur, which is later this week. I’m really a little restless and edgy to create new recipes and do shootings but this will have to wait for now, so early this morning I baked a simple tray of rye bread, the basic recipe must be in my cookbook. Simplicity, and we had it for breakfast with chestnut honey and extra butter.