Winter Cometh and Baking Black Bread

Dawn comes slowly at 7:38 

Snow at Last

Up at 6:40 to a winter wonderland, about three inches of snow with up to 6-9 to come in the next 24 hours, a perfect day to sit inside, make bread and soup, read and relax, take a hike through the woods and campground, then come home to a nice dinner.  And, I hope, Evie will be up for making my favorite cookie for now, snickerdoodles, and I like them thin, almost lacy, and crisp but not hard (how's that for being hard to please).

Our bird feeder is suddenly inundated with birds, flocks of nervous, frenetic sparrows and lots of gold finch, though we did see a woodpecker and a couple of juncos.  It seems the birds have decided to come back to the feeders, along with the snowfall.

Kitchen Window Bird Feeder, Mostly Finches

Yesterday, Evie went off to work out at the Lakewood YMCA again, to see how she likes it, and I did a bunch of errands as she worked out, hitting Sam's, Hope Depot, Wegmans' and TJ's, all in an hour.  I don't fool around when I shop!  We came home, spent the afternoon reading, and I went for a walk through the Woodlawn woods, about 4:30, just as it was starting to get dark.  I like this hour for some reason as it's not quite dark, and the colors are like a black and white photo.  A loop starting on Kinney's Run, coming back through the Johnston's takes about 25 minutes, a bit longer if I take my time.  I cannot wait to walk it today, to see how it differs from yesterday, when there was no snow, just bare branches, leaf filled woods, and no color.

Flocks of sparrows in our trees

For dinner, we had stuffed chicken breasts with gravy, Brussels sprouts, salad, just right and delicious and watched the new movie Beginners.  We had heard about it on Terry Gross when she interviewed the writer and director.  It's the story, actually a twin love story, one between the narrator and his new girl friend, a film star, its ups and downs, and interspersed with his story is the story of his father's coming out, as a gay man, after his wife dies, when he's in his 70's.  The joyousness of his father's coming out, his discovering a whole new life, love, and good friends contrasts with the agony of the narrator's relationship with his girl friend.  A bit slow but wonderfully acted, with The Sound of Music star Christopher Plummer as the father, Ian Mc Gregor as his son.  I wanted to like the movie more than I did  but it's slowness, especially that of the struggling couple make me want to push it along.  But the cutting back and forth between the two lives was amazing, seamless, and really contrasted the two worlds.  It's worth seeing.