December Flowers

Happy December. I hope everyone (American, that is) had a Happy Thanksgiving. My brother and nephew drove up for their third annual pre-Thanksgiving visit, and this year I was able to drive back down with them to spend the holidays in Texas. It was a lovely visit, too short as usual, but I am going back for Christmas so it's all good.

It's a snowy day today. I went to the grocery store around 11:00 for my usual Saturday morning trip, which is usually a busy time because that's when all the local assisted-living residences cart busloads of residents for their weekly shopping. It used to be Wednesday mornings (which I only know because I used to have Wednesdays and Thursdays off - in a way I kind of miss those days), but for some reason Saturday has become the morning of choice.

So I'm used to a little bit of a crowd, but I was surprised to see over two-thirds of the shopping carts gone from their stand outside the store. Uh-oh, I thought. This isn't good. The store was packed. It took me a minute to figure out why, and then I realized that everyone was trying to beat the snow. Ok, whatever. I resigned myself to a long wait in the checkout lines and went about my business.

I ended up in a line that was six-deep, right next to the flowers. And the more I looked at them, the cheerier I was feeling, so I decided to take some of that cheer home with me. And they really do make the day seem brighter. I highly recommend them when you're beginning to feel that winter chill.
On a food note, I haven't been cooking too much lately. What started as just cleaning up my place for my brother and nephew turned into an all-out overhaul that had us toting tons of stuff out to the dumpster, and my brother was kind enough to spend one of their days here while I was at work lugging a bunch of bags of clothes to Goodwill for me. I'm on a roll and am hesitant to stop so cooking is taking a back seat right now. It's amazing how much you can accumulate over the years, especially if you're like me and can't pass up anything that might be remotely useful to you some day. I have a tendency to collect things for the life I am going to have someday, rather than the life I am living right now. It's time to cut back, and I already feel lighter for having so much less stuff in my apartment.

I did find this most amazing loaf of pumpernickel-rye bread at Treasure Island. It was soft, thick and dense and made the most heavenly salami sandwiches I have had in a long time. One of my knitting students made rye bread over the weekend and she said it turned out really well. I have found myself thinking about baking bread lately. It's been over ten years since I made bread. Hmmm . . .