Oh, Canada, go, Canada!

Celebrate our Canadian sisters and brothers today, on the birthday of the maple leaf flag, replacing the old ensign one, colonial relic.

Closer to home, you know you live in a small town when the local police issue this alert 

On the apple front, there are containers of sliced apples in the freezer, ready for when the mood strikes.  And delicious roasted potato dice again today. Also potato, carrot and red lentil soup. Are you seeing a trend?

My current escapist reading continues to be Hamish Macbeth, good thing MC Beaton wrote a lot of them. 

The picture is from the TV series, which was good but only vaguely based on the characters, not the books. This is the TV dog, westie Jock. Also the real Hamish has flaming red hair.

The book animals are Towser, who died old, Lugs, named for his ears, and Sonsie, a wildcat who moved in and coexists happily in the police station/home of Hamish, with his sheep and chickens. 

There was briefly a poodle, after Sonsie went away for a while, but she, the poodle, moved away with a constable who got married, it's all a bit soap opera, you need to read it for a bit of complicated light escape.

At this point I could try my hand at writing it, too. Fan fiction.

Yesterday was a day of many parts. Art exhibit, house clean, laundry done, bills paid, bed all changed, reading, qi gong, great food, a very good day. 

Also my first sighting on the patio this year of a Carolina wren. I'm hoping they'll nest close by. They're great for repelling squirrels once they've got young. Won't be long before the mourning doves start mating on my high fence, too, favorite love nest every spring.

All in all, there are good things to be glad about. That's first. First be joyful. Then we can resume our resistance.

I just thought: people who are worried about eggs, safety, price, there's a great chocolate cake that doesn't need them. It's been around for ages, originally an eggless cake in some other era. 

Look for it under eggless cake, crazy chocolate cake, wacky cake, something like that, you'll find it. It's the recipe I always use, no complaints so far. And a nice slice of chocolate cake  (buy cocoa powder while you can) helps with a lot of problems.

And winnowing continues, with these materials for weaving and linocut, hoping for a good Freecycle home. 

It's a winter holiday weekend, Presidents' Day, maybe good for Freecycling.

Happy day everyone, and here's a nice couple of thoughts to be considering. Beauty is still happening in Fils et Aiguilles, a blog about traditional embroidery, here hardanger. The blog is bilingual in French and English, easy to follow.

And here's a great reminder, like the shakuhachi effect