Oh Where, Oh Where Has This Blogger Been?

I've been eating good food like this wild caught salmon and couscous with roasted red peppers. I also ate a lot of great tasting but not so good for you food like divinity, fudge, pound cake, coconut cake, and so many other sweet treats that I felt hugely lethargic.

I've been traveling - not far - but far enough to find more rich food at the Indianola Country Club, which is always a treat. My husband especially recommends the banana pudding. I think he ate three, maybe more.

I've been celebrating my husband's birthday at his mother's where we visited the bayou floats in Indianola and in Leland. Though none of my pictures is decent, these floats are quite fun. We always try to see them. The one shown here is a fire truck spraying water on a house that is decked out for Christmas, obviously the effort of the fire department. There is even a Kermit the Frog float in Leland since Jim Henson's Muppet empire began there.

I've been sleeping at Bed on the Bayou in Indianola. I love this wonderful cypress cabin with a view of the bayou. Originally a one room tenant house, this cottage has morphed into a wonderful retreat with a perfectly made bed including embroidered Ho! Ho! Ho! sheets, a wonderful screened porch, and even though I didn't need it, more dessert. I wished for a few more nights here by myself to recuperate from the holidays, but Christmas Eve is not the time to begin recovery.

I've been making handmade consumable gifts for Christmas at Mr. W's family - candles, note cards, gift cards, and honey. I received a handmade diary, a pot of forced narcissus, a fabulous picnic basket, a Lemuria gift card, a bird house, and a wonderful candle holder - a wonderful combination of handmade and thoughtful.



I've been cleaning the messes of Christmas - ornaments broken by the thwack of the yellow dog's tail, water stains on velvet when the same yellow dog is too lazy to go to his bowl, and the usual clutter produced by all the stuff you never knew you needed, though honestly I think our families are moderating and thinking more.


I've been watching closely as the days lengthen. Though the days are longer, we still can't seem to get through with chores before having to pause to see wonderful sunsets. Mississippi winters are wet and cool, muddy, messy, but short.



I've been planning my garden. Seed catalogs, the one "junk" mail that doesn't seem like junk, are arriving daily. I use these shorter days to think about the pantry foods we have enjoyed the most, the ones that won't last until the new crop. I think about the beautiful jars that have gone mostly untouched because no one, including me, seems to enjoy the contents. I get to visualize my garden the way I want it - weedless, perfectly manicured, heavily laden with fruit - rather than the summer reality.

I've been working - W-2s, owners manuals, websites, brochures . . .

I've been procrastinating and I'm sorry!