Basil in January

Basil in January, originally uploaded by TheYellowDoorPaperie.

I wanted to give you a sneak peek into what’s on my window sill these days. Hiding behind a curtain near the window. My basil plant! It’s still growing strong and making my winter blues not so blue. A few fresh leaves in the middle of January, can take you back to a summer day and I didn’t pay $5 for a wrinkly, browning leaves at the market! I use the little leafy green treasures in the hummus I made a few weeks back. Fresh bruchetta for New Years. With a little crusty bread from this book and I’m transported back to summer.

We haven’t had a weekend off since Thanksgiving and I’m looking forward to the next two. We are spending both at my favorite little bed and breakfast, The Hannah Marie Country Inn. One weekend with Eric’s parents and my kiddos and the next weekend with just the two of us. Both weekends will be an amazing treat. I’m looking forward to the hour long drive to hopefully get my Martha Stewart stocking completed and a chance to start a Danish Tie Shawl for myself.

Perhaps I can get my knitting fever reborn if I start a new project. I’ve been working too much stockinette stitch on the stocking, but it is good practice. And I’ll love it when it’s done.

Why a Danish Tie Shawl? Because, I spied this one on Tess of The D’Urbervilles from Masterpiece on PBS (Tess and shawl on the far left). Through some digging in the Ravelry forums I found that a ton of other knitters were glued to her wardrobe as well. I think I have the pattern worked out in my head enough to make one. I’m thinking that I’ll have to get the DVD eventually, because it was just that good. Tess was my favorite book in High School, thank you Victorian novel section in junior English. It was so romantic, emotional and tragic, yet not teeny-bopper. Perfect for anytime of life, but especially perfect in High School.

[I’m sad that we didn’t get any pictures] My nephew and I made Maple Candy from Catherine Newman’s Recipe, it was chewy and wonderful. I felt like Laura Ingalls Wilder (except I had a gas range and sweatpants on but you know what I mean...). Jonathan thought it was awesome to go get a huge bowl of snow, we had to direct him not to get the scooped and therefore salty and oooky snow (oooky, is that a word)? It turned out awesome, but doesn’t keep well. If you make this sweet treat, make it in small batches. Can you really go wrong with maple syrup?