1.  Every couple of years I break down and buy some narcissus bulbs that look so beautiful on the packaging & promise “fragrant!”  And every couple of years I think, “I remember not liking that ‘fragrance’ so much, but maybe I’m misremembering?  How bad can ‘fragrant’ be, they’re flowers after all!

Folks, winter-blooming fragrant narcissus just smell like cat pee to me–am I alone in this?  I really think we ought to be agitating for truth in advertising.  Let’s call this suckers stinky, yucky–even”gwoss” (to use a Hen pronunciation.)  But ‘fragrant’, they aint.

Yuck.  Anyone want some easy-on-the-eyes-but-a-punishment-to-breathe-nearby narcissus?  Going cheap…

2.  My Murray McMurray Hatchery catalog arrived the other day.  Hen & I have been dreaming dreams of poultry grandeur and glory.  Hen’s Hens–it has a nice ring to it, yes?

3.  It’s really cold here today.  Sunny out, looks like it ought to be nice, but actually?  Not so much.  Bitter & raw and I can’t seem to warm up no matter what I’m wearing (darned drafty old house!)  My consolation is that maybe this cold snap will take out at least a small percentage of the ticks in the area, just enough so we don’t have another bumper year for ‘em again.  And I’m a mammal.  I can warm myself up.  Really.  Ok, not so much.  Ah well.  That’s what woodstoves are for!

4.  And pork roasts.  I made one yesterday that was exactly what such things should be–falling-apart tender and rich with apples & onions and piping piping hot (and it didn’t hurt anything that the oven was on all afternoon!)  I think I’ve finally figured out that pork roasts do best being braised in soft veggies for 4-5 hours, not a mere 3, and I hope to repeat the successful pork roast experiment at least once more this winter.

5.  Moving into the frogging part of the great Christmas cardigan do-over of 2013.  Both arms are done, and the rip out is nearing completion, though it’s always a scary few hours where you’re hoping you’ll be able to pick up every dropped stitch (in this case, 287) in a row without ruining the whole thing.  Ugh.  But once I’m back to knitting up instead of ripping out, I’ll feel much better.

And then I get to start making baby gear for my due-in-June step-grandbaby.  (How cool that I get to be an elderly mother & a young grandmama all at the same time, eh?)