Snowdrops, yay, and other good things

Today is a bit less bitter, and in the sunshine on the deck very workable 

I did some indoor plant care, involving raking the area around the ficus. It's that time of year when the rising light levels get her restless and starting to throw down leaves in her annual campaign to get outside before it's mild enough.

Anyway I tossed the leaves outside and noted that the brambles have not only grown, but touched ground and rerooted. 

Sooooo I went for the big kitchen scissors I, and all the neighbors, use for minor pruning, and set to work cutting as close to the ground as I could. I'm not strong enough to yank them out, and the ground's solidly frozen, so cutting is for now.

I was immediately rewarded, after doing this and carrying the jaggy, stabby, branches out to the woodland for shelter. 

Got back and found another suet feeder no doubt taken by squirrels, still with half a block of suet, buried where the brambles had been. And, great excitement here, look, look 

Snowdrops, all three of them!  Bravely under the snow till now, blazing away.

So the exercises no doubt stood me in good stead fir a bit of gardening here. It's a lot more fun to be outside cutting and carrying and exclaiming, though. And walking will definitely happen today.

Meanwhile I've been provisioning the inner woman with some mass roasting. Chicken drumsticks and vegetables. Several meals, also a couple of roast drumsticks now in the freezer, handy for various purposes.

Which reminds me to ask something I've been wondering about. It's about recycling, reusing, all that.

This is the coldpack bag I got from Misfits, which had the chicken, eggs, cheeses, yogurt etc in it. They pack the cold items  in this,  then include it in the produce box.

 It's perfectly clean, insulated, waterproof, large, and though it's probably recyclable since most Misfits packing is, I can't help wondering if I can get a second use from it.

*I already sent a pic to handsome Son, suggesting it for his car, to put his grocery bags in and keep the food cool, haven't heard back yet.

So, dear Blogger Brain trust, do you have any ideas?  All will be studied, and the decision of the editor is final. Oh sorry, forgot this isn't a newspaper contest from the fifties.

And here's the result of my studying ideas for bread adjacent recipes, including one for apricot and walnut bread.

I have plenty of both, so I investigated it and found it's that kind of terminally fussy bread recipe with half a dozen stages, and I decided it was the Recipe Writers'  Full Employment Act at work and life's too short.

So now I have a nice batch of apricot walnut hot biscuits. Split and buttered, they're proving just fine. 

This afternoon I'll check in on Textiles and Tea and report back tomorrow, along with the current stage of the Renovation of the Dresses. The Chinese licorice poultice restored my thumb to working condition so I've been stitching, yay.

I have no idea why Blogger has suddenly started centering text despite my attempts to left justify it. It just doesn't feel like it evidently. Taking a centrist position. Chicken.

*Late breaking news: Handsome Son just messaged, definitely wants it. But I'm still open to other thoughts.