Weekend Things ~ Quiet

We had a snowy weekend. Big feathery flakes tumbled out of the sky most of Saturday and Sunday. It didn't amount to much--three or four inches--and it wasn't very cold, holding steady around 36 degrees, but I took it as an excuse to spend most of the weekend indoors, other than a stroll up the road to our neighbors' house for a Pi Day pie party Saturday evening.

Last week was kind of hectic, with C out of town for work, two evenings of lessons, plus parent-teacher conferences another, and all three kids at work with me all day Friday, due to logistical difficulties surrounding a day off regular school, but M still having his morning math class. So I welcomed a slow, quiet weekend.

Other than Saturday's party and the usual housework, the only thing I *had* to do was work on a project for my Master Naturalist class. Good thing sketching is so relaxing.

With St. Patrick's Day coming, I was feeling homesick for Ireland (are you allowed to be homesick for a place you've only visited for ten days?) and spent some time decorating the house with green and re-reading my travel journal.

On Sunday afternoon, I made green soup (nothing Irish about it, except it's green) and Irish soda bread. I had tried to find some of the foods that I liked best in Ireland. There had been rhubarb everywhere (including the most divine rhubarb yogurt), but the only thing rhubarb I could find was some strawberry-rhubarb jam that didn't taste very rhubarby. Maybe they don't have rhubarb in Ireland in March, either? I did find some aged goat cheese very similar to what was served everywhere, in salads, and in the most amazing roasted vegetable puff-pastry tart. Other foods from Ireland that we don't have here: red onion and farmhouse cheddar crisps; blackcurrant sorbet and smoothies; curry sauce for fish & chips. C did buy me a bottle of Bailey's. That has helped some.

While the soup simmered and the bread baked, I drank a cup of tea and knitted while C, E, and I watched The Secret of Kells (Z was building a lego set, and M was doing whatever it is teenagers do--probably watching The Daily Show). 

It was a neat movie, but I'm feeling like I still need to watch The Secret of Roan Inish, which is what we usually watch around St. Patrick's Day.

Snow Again and St. Patrick's Day

It snowed all day today, although it did not turn out to be the Storm of the Century that was predicted (as always), and for which we were all counting on a Day Off.

As it turned out, only the little people in the house got a snow day, and for them only in that they had to go to daycare instead of school.

After dinner it was still light out, so I took a walk down to the river, having been stuck inside for far too long (why didn't I take a walk yesterday when the sun was shining? I do not know). 

The river is wide open now, but the ground looks like we're back in winter.

Saturday morning, there had only been a thin skin of snow on the ground. I grabbed my camera and went for a walk between putting muffins in the oven and taking them back out, going with my new mantra of "use the time you have." I knew I would be cooped up inside the rest of the day, doing school work, so I had to take my moment as it came.

The snow didn't last long, but the air felt like January had returned, and the wind had most definitely combed the hair of musk oxen before it came to us. Nevertheless, we had a little spring celebration on Sunday, with friends coming over to watch the syrup boil. (Oh, how strange to look at last year's St. Patrick's Day and see M riding his bike in shorts and a tank top!!)

Despite the cold, we created an illusion of springtime inside (and, looking out the window, I think I might have seen some green spears of daffodils poking up through the ground outside, but I didn't make it out to verify before they were covered with snow again).

I cooked up some vegetarian Guinness stew, green soup, Irish soda bread, green shamrock crackers (I substituted safflower oil for the Earth Balance and it seemed to work fine) and green hummus, with pickles and celery. And for dessert, peppermint patty bars, because for some reason St. Patrick's Day seems like a minty dessert holiday (because mint tastes green, perhaps?). In any case, they are dreamy and I will whip them up for many other holidays, too. Our friends brought eggrolls, which, while not Irish, were delicious, and an amazing tofu chocolate mousse (made with 1 package chocolate chips, melted with two ounces coconut milk, and blended with one package silken tofu, and chilled before serving...divine!).

After baseball practice (yet another sign of spring), M spent the afternoon redoing the research for a project (round one having gotten lost), and E cuddled up next to him on the couch, reading a book.

Hope you're either enjoying signs of spring or you get a day off if you're in the midst of this storm!