white smoke and Iditarod watching......

While crowds gather at the Vatican waiting for a bunch of guys in red hats and smocks, with the direct pipeline to the CEO to send up a poof of white smoke ( Hey, didn't the indigenous people start the language of smoke oh so long ago?  Are they sitting on the edge of their seats now...... just wondering)  The newscasters can't even decide if it's white or black.  At 6:45 am this morning they broke into the local news and I heard Cokie Roberts say..... it's black but kind of white but no more to the black. Oh wait, for sure it's black.   Cokie, get it right there are people choking on their toast!  When somebody finally  decided it really was black they cut Cokie off and we watched 53 year old Mitch Seavey, the oldest guy ever to win the Iditarod!  Yeah, give this guy a hat and a pair of Italian red shoes, I cheer!   

Hmmmm..... I am older than 53 maybe I should cross this off my bucket list...... maybe not, pondering as I trudge out to check my traps, baited with hot dogs slathered in 99 cent a gallon "maple syrup".  Yes, it's that time of the year...... RACCOON WARS!   So far 6 raccoons and counting.  I lugged another monster to the truck yesterday morning, MMp backed his car out of the driveway and waited patiently in the street.  The Sunshine Relocation service (that would be me) drove off relocating yet another crabby masked varmit to parts unknown. 

Arriving home with a slam of the door, triumphantly announcing that had to be the last one, MMp laughed and said:  "Well while I was sitting in the street I noticed two running across the street in my rear view mirror."  

It's March and time is fleeting!  The fishing rod is gathering dust but the shelves are filling in the studio. The weather still has the bite of winter even though we were ordered to turn our clocks ahead last Saturday night.  Can we just leave the clocks alone?  I will stop myself ranting on the time change but it's right up there with changing all my passwords.  Some of us don't do well with change, in fact I would say a majority. While standing in line at the grocery I overheard a frazzled woman confess to pouring orange juice in her humidifier Sunday morning.  Nuff said!  

And as if the time change was just too much the coffee pot blew out it's last gasp.  I am now French Pressing.  Yeah, sounds a lot sexier than drip, doesn't it?   At 6:00 a.m. it's dark, I make coffee in the dark, like sex.....  This morning I found out if I don't line up the spout to the handle I pour coffee all over the counter, again like sex..... great expectations dashed. 

Craft Boston approaches and I am feeling the time pinch. 

My weaving table is filling with gusto!  Since it is next to the heater one can be assured I will be weaving away, especially since the temperature this morning is a crisp 24 F. the snow and wind blowing..... excuse me it's March!  Peas should be going in the ground on the 17th as tradition holds; not gonna happen this year.

Teapots are coming along........

Bowls are out of the kiln.........

This is the glaze combo I have landed on for functional work...... 

This section is dedicated to my dear friend sitting in Uganda.  He wrote and asked how to eat sardines.  I replied with a fork.  I grew up eating sardine sandwiches on white fluffy bread with butter or mustard.  I ate them everyday until I sat at the lunch table in first grade as found myself banished from the cool kids table.  Imagine my shock when I realized cool kids did not eat sardine sandwiches!   I ate them in secret with my family at home where we would savor the tiny fish smashed into the fluffy white bread and moan, they were that good!  Thinking I could make it to the cool kids table if I stopped the sardines Monday thru Friday and substituted with gooseliver and mayo....... NOPE, still not making it to the cool kids table.  I finally switched to american cheese and mustard with an occasional PB&J.  But alas the dye had been cast and I was banished.  

Today I flaunt my sardine habit.  I love them, they are tinned, portable and beat the hell out of Spam, which should only be used to prop up rickety furniture.  On a recent buying trip, here are the many sardines I carted home.

Smoked little sprats from Germany, herring in horseradish sauce, herring tomato sauce, herring in burgundy sauce, sardines in mustard, sardines in hot sauce, smoked, and my all time favorite....

Bar Harbor = fish candy!   Just reading the label makes me go weak in the knees! 

"Skinless, Boneless, Smoked Sardine Fillets in MAPLE SYRUP.   and then there is the holy grail of all packaging........ "Sustainably harvested from the clear cold waters of the Gulf of Maine."  

and all this for $2.29!!   I will rip open the can and spoon out the fillets on steamed broccoli with a sprinkle of feta cheese.  Maybe a squeeze of lemon or drizzle of olive oil, maybe not.  

Another big time suck for March ....... taxes!  I will start them tomorrow, I promise.  

On another note, last month I was sworn in to the city charter review committee.  Our city does this once every ten years.  Yes, I sat and read our city charter, it made my eyes bleed but I stumbled through.  I submitted changes or clarifications with gusto, 3 typed pages.  I will probably be banished from the cool kids table again...... 

maybe I will eat sardines while racing in the Iditarod....... 

 and so it goes here in Paine Falls .........