Busy Backyard
No place like the backyard for lots of wildlife.
Full Bloom
Amaryllis showing off.
Still cold, but beginning a warming trend.
ICE Protest
Maybe 50 or 60 folks out braving the cold. Lots of positive horn honking.
That’s the danger. They’re insidious, these terrorists. If you see enough of them, you start to wonder, because they seem just like your neighbors. They seem just like you. They hardly seem like terrorists at all.
—Alexandra Petri
Flower Power
Second season of flowering. Last summer outdoors on its own.
Deer at the Bird Feeder
It’s cold, and they are hungry , but…
…they do a lot of damage around the yard. Still, glad somebody eats corn.
St. Agnes Eve
January 20 is the Eve of St. Agnes. It is also the name of the great Keats poem, forty-two stanzas long but well worth reading, especially on this day. The text is here.
New Hangout
Unprepossessing, out of the way, next to a dog-wash, and bypassed for years, but now my go-to, especially when Mimi is at PT.
Good coffee and great food. Albanian owned.
Getting Back To…
…more seasonal weather.
Quite a bit of rain the past few days. Hoping much of it gets to the Great Lakes, which are low.
Cardinals Come At Dusk
Right after the feeder filled sixteen cardinals up and down.
Back To Baguettes
A fun process, if you have the time.
Comeback Kid
The amaryllis arrived as a gift on Thanksgiving 2024, not yet in flower, the bulb nailed to a plank surrounded by a wreath and fake holly—part of a Christmas centerpiece display.
It flowered in time for the holiday, after which it was un-nailed from the plank and potted up, where it flowered a second time.
In early May the pot was moved outdoors and the plant left to survive summer on its own. In late September all the wilted leaves were trimmed and the bulb removed from the pot and hung upside down in the dark, cool basement. Just after Thanksgiving, 2025 it was brought upstairs and repotted. As can be seen in the photo above, another flowering may be in the offing.
Family Christmas 25
Very nice holiday with lots of good cheer and good food (too much, actually). And, on Boxing Day lots of boxes got recycled.
Dundee Cakes
The classic, buttery fruit cake from Dundee, Scotland, and long a family holiday tradition on this side of the pond.
Two batches, and a baker’s dozen, all told.
Molasses Cookies
Something to do in the holiday spirit. The old family semi-recipe. Semi-successful.
Snowed In…
…which is great when you’re not going anywhere.
‘Tis The Season…
..to trim the trees.
American Writers…
…Museum
Wait, Wait…
…Don’t Tell Me.
At Studebaker theatre, downtown Chicago. Show airs on NPR this Saturday morning.
Prairie…
…going to seed.
Leaves Mulched…
…bird feeders up.
No visitors to the feeders yet (all afternoon).