February of 2009 left quite a bit of water laying around. Such abundance came from the sky that we had to rescue the cacti from outside and put umbrellas over their heads! To rescue Autumn's old family table from the same we finally varnished and found a nice canvas cover to protect it. Seedling starts that we protected with a glass window (rescued from Santa Cruz, soon to become the top to a hot box / cold frame, we promise!) unfortunately were victims of the rain's psychological warfare: everything else was so wet, so must they be! But forgetting to water them regularly stunted their growth a bit, so hopefully next month they will receive a little more love (in the form of an irrigated hot box / cold frame).
We finished constructing the last of the spice shelves, sold the bed and coffee table (to get much of our garage back), pruned the roses of last year's deadwood to happily produce new shoots, found a TV stand (Ikea!) to place the "TV" on, and finally felt that we could enjoy the living room more than certain unnamed boxes would in our stead. This month also saw the christening of the fireplace, to some moderate success. The first attempt to follow our lease contract and burn a "DuraLog" left the entire house smelling something like burnt plastic and a middle-earth peat bog. Further attempts to use actual wood made us realize that the flue was not quite big enough for all the smoke that newspaper "kindling" produced, and verified the good fact that our smoke detectors were working well. The results of our last two attempts worked well, producing a warming hearth with a lazy fire on a cold, rainy February evening.
John constructed a lavish wine cellar in the garage (after realizing that the superb wine rack he bought couldn't be secured in the living room, and giving the proximity to the San Andreas fault, that seemed a necessary requirement). Autumn crocheted new variations of iPhone socks (beta, gamma, and omega releases) to John's exact specifications. He did a little dance after receiving them. Which was slightly concerning given that he was driving the car to Tahoe at the time.
Experimentations with food was a good theme this month. After growing frustrated with trying to transcribe Indian food recipes off of YouTube while cute little Indian mothers cooked palak paneer in their suburban kitchens, we broke down and bought Cooks Illustrated Best International Recipes. Inspired by reading recipes on injera and John's christmas gift of beughjjjeria spices ("bizaar", in non-Autumn speak), we set out to make a Middle-Eastern / African lamb stew with a Ethiopian flatbread and homemade tej to go with it. What a meal it was! Savory free range lamb lovingly cooked with lentils, carrots, onions, parsnips, beughjjjeria spices, and Autumn's classic homemade vegetable stock (made from leftover vegetable scraps; nothing goes to waste!) The parsnips made the stew slightly sweet, which contrasted with the heavenly flatbread, slightly sour from the heaping tablespoons of lemon juice used to react with the baking soda. And the tej! Ah, mead is a favorite drink around Quail Cottage. That night we enjoyed the remains of Growler Batch C, which was brewed with a hint of cinnamon and clove, and (thankfully?) left around a bit too long to help encourage a bit more... alcoholic growth. Seeing our dwindling supplies, last week John found a local beekeeper based out of San Jose that was willing to sell thirty pounds of honey at a time. Exhausted after brewing a mere six pounds into Growler Batches D and E, John left two large buckets in the garage with some wonderfully tasty light amber and dark amber honey to be used soon.
In another couple of weeks we should write about our Tahoe adventures, since by then we'll have gone thrice, hopefully with more enjoyment in each successive visit (so far meeting the goal!) Until then, let's toast to the increasing late afternoon sun of non-daylight-savings daylight, while thanking the rains that so heavily drenched our parched soils last month. Slainte!