It’s a record breaking 55F/13C here today! Yowza! It made cutting back prairie plants near the sidewalk in the front yard a pleasant and mildly sweaty experience. But the weather is soon to change.
The polar vortex is about to be disrupted, one of the earliest disruptions on record since scientists could track this with satellites. The disruption is due to sudden stratospheric warming. It’s hard to pin down any particular reason for the sudden warming, which is caused by Rossy waves in the troposphere changing and pushing ozone into Antarctica or something like that. It’s a natural, though not regular, phenomenon. Seems to me though it happens more frequently than it used to and I suspect it is therefore related to global warming. We humans are doing a stellar job of fouling our nest.
I’m glad I was able to do the last of the outdoor work in fine weather since Monday night the rain starts and Tuesday night the snow. Our temperatures won’t be plunging just yet. We’ll be below freezing, but it won’t get truly cold until next weekend. The one good thing about this polar vortex being so early is that temperatures will be above zero fahrenheit at least, so that’s something! #small blessings
The chickens are out roaming the garden in the sunshine today and the sparrows, chickadees, juncos, a pair of cardinals, and even a jay, enjoyed a swim in the water dishes on the deck. The avian exuberance never fails to delight.
The garden is ready. And it’s a good thing too because I ripped the knee out of my gardening pants and both my gloves have multiple holes in them. I can mend the pants, but I will need to buy new gloves for spring. The chicken coop is almost ready; just needs a few finishing bits done. My winter bike with its studded tires is ready. James is taking the e-cargo bike beast to the bike shop tomorrow to have studded tires put on it because it is easier to pay someone to do that for us than it is to wrestle a 90-pound/41 kg gigantic bike into submission, especially when I weigh 120 lbs/ 54.4 kg and James 140 lbs/63.5 kg and the bike is longer than we are tall. We are little people!
My altered recipe whole wheat bread two weeks ago came out great! Today I made cinnamon-raisin swirl sourdough. I made this once before many months ago and it came out ok but kinda dense. Today though, it came out perfect. I had originally planned to make sourdough pumpernickel bagels this weekend, but to get really good bagels takes three days. James and I went to a Beloved Community Circle gathering Friday night, giving me no time to do the first step. I have a four-day weekend ahead because of Thanksgiving on Thursday and my plan is to make them then. Also in order to make them I had to finally break down and buy a kitchen scale because the whole recipe is written by weight in grams rather than volume in cups. I’m upping my sourdough game ya’ll!
We will be having our “traditional” vegan enchiladas for Thanksgiving Thursday. This has been our Thanksgiving meal for around 30 years. It’s kind of involved since we make our own beans, enchilada sauce, and filling. And what would Thanksgiving be without pumpkin pie? I have never missed turkey and all the trimmings, but I cannot celebrate the holiday without pumpkin pie. James roasted and pureed the pumpkin this weekend and no has three jars of puree in the freezer, one for Thursday and the others for future pie! And maybe pancakes and muffins too.
If you are celebrating, and even if you are not, may your day be filled with love, kindness, blessings, and gratitude.
That bread looks fabulous! I am also making pumpkin pie; it’s the only thing I’m cooking and my favorite Thanksgiving dish.
If we ever met, you and I would be like a student I describe meeting in person in my newest volume of poetry–I had only seen her in a zoom window, so we both were amazed at our size difference; she is very small and I am 6 feet tall and over 200 pounds.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Jeanne! The bread tastes good too! Perfect with morning oatmeal. And pumpkin pie is my favorite. I can do without all the other TG foods, but not the pumpkin pie!
I never would have guessed you’re 6 ft tall! I come from a tall family in which every other generation or so someone gets the short genes and I got lucky! My “little” sister is 5’10” which she finds delightful. Everyone is 5’7″ to over 6′ and then there’s me at just 5’3″. But my Grandma’s sister, who got the short gene was only 5′, so I guess it could be worse 😀 James’s family is solidly average in height but he only managed to make it to 5’4″ and I am so glad he is short like me!
LikeLike
Welcome to the world of the food scale! It will totally change your game, especially if you are like me and get frustrated by directions like “2 c broccoli.” Cups?? For real?! As for Thanksgiving, we are staying home Thursday and Friday so I can work VRS (the phone interpreting). I have a 24-hours-per-week requirement, so if we traveled to family for Thursday and Friday, I would have to work Saturday and Sunday…and then Monday, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It will definitely change my sourdough baking, but James does the rest of the cooking and he rarely measures anything 😀 Good call staying home for TG, that would be a really long work week otherwise. I hope you and Nick have a wonderful celebration!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy Thanksgiving! My James loves pumpkin pie, which is funny because I don’t really like it yet love most sweets and he isn’t really into most sweets! So my MIL makes pumpkin pie especially for him for Thanksgiving. When they have it with the school lunch around Thanksgiving he is so happy. 🙂 Your enchiladas always sound delicious. I hope you both enjoy your day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just don’t understand how anyone doesn’t like pumpkin pie Laila! 😉 We had a wonderful day and I hope you did too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your bread looks delicious, Stefanie, you’re breezing this sourdough baking thing!😊 I smiled to read about your Thanksgiving meal, we’re the same with Christmas (although we celebrate the solstice/midwinter instead) ~ never a slice of turkey in sight but homemade mince pies are obligatory. 😁 I always make the mincemeat around Samhain because the scents of spice and citrus seem to me a gentle reminder that there are good things (small blessings, indeed) to look forward to and cherish in the dark months to come.
It’s great that you’ve managed to get the garden up together before the winter weather descends and I’m sure your feathery girls loved their time out ranging. We don’t have anything like your winters here, despite the British media shouting about the briefest of cold snaps last week. ‘Arctic blast’? Hardly! 😆This week we are planting another 300 or so bare-rooted trees and hedging, it feels like a positive thing to be doing in the face of so many worries about climate change and the state of the planet in general. The birds have already helped themselves to the berries off a pretty variegated holly we planted, I know folks who would be outraged but for us, that’s what it’s all about. Solution? Plant LOTS of holly trees!
I hope you and James enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving, all love and warm wishes for a peaceful holiday from this side of The Pond. 💕
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Liz! We celebrate Solstice and not Christmas at my house too! It is the one day a year where I make the meal so I go all in for a sometimes elaborate menu. So impressed you make your own mincemeat. Envious of your holly, it isn’t hardy here and I once thought they were little bushes until I visited Kew Gardens on a big vacation many years ago and saw their huge holly trees! I had no idea! Will your hollies grow into trees or are they a smaller variety? It’s wonderful the birds love the berries so much in winter.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, the hollies will all grow into big trees if they’re left alone although the variegated types tend to grow more slowly. Our house name is Pant y Celyn which means ‘holly hollow’ in English ~ so many local Welsh names refer to the natural surroundings! ~ so it seems like the number one tree to plant here. 💕
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a gorgeous picture! Surprisingly. We have a lot of goldenrod too, and are hoping to get the rest cut down this weekend (we’re lingering in the “skitter of snow” stage for a weirdly long time this year: you know, the skitter). HOW have I never thought of freezing pumpkin puree. It’s such a job, that making a pie has become a three-day event for me: puree, crust, puree+crust. hehe Freezing either of the first two steps would be deeevine! Your bread looks amazeballs. I want some right now. For reals. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! xo
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Marcie! Goldenrod has become rather prolific in the garden and I am going to need to start digging some of it out in the spring. Hopefully I will be able to give it away to neighbors. We got a good snowfall and now just had a week of a skitter of snow near daily. This is almost worse than big snowfalls because it doesn’t get plowed. Totally freeze that puree! Then you have to eat the whole pumpkin at once and you have puree ready for pie or pancakes or muffins or cookies or soup 🙂
LikeLike
Your bread looks grand! As a European, cups have long defeated me, I’m glad you tried with the grams! Happy (very) belated thanksgiving; I can see that it’s very cold today in your part of the world, so the forecast was right!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Smithereens! It tasted grand too! Baking by weight is an interesting experience but it is turning out really well. Thanks for the holiday wishes!
LikeLiked by 1 person