Of Hobbits and Tea Time

DAY 29

My intention with this blog was to write once a day (great!) or once every two days (good!), but oh dear, this is my third day. Dreadful, isn't it? But I don't feel the least bit guilty because our Internet was down nearly the entire day yesterday. For some fellow bloggers, the weather is summery, hot, and perfectly lovely...here, well, right now it's -30 Celsius (which is very, very cold). The little corner of the world that I live in happens to be boiling hot in summer (yay!) and freezing cold in winter. But I love it here! The cold weather makes everything cozy in our nice warm house.

Take yesterday, my sister Anne-Marie and I cuddled up in a warm quilt, a tray laden with a teapot and mugs, apples and raw caramel apple dip (my sister and I adore it) and we snuggled together reading "The Fellowship of the Ring" in the cozy glow of a beside lamp. Outside the wind whirled and danced cold and hard , but inside, we were transported to Hobbiton and the event of Bilbo Baggins birthday party. We laughed, drank our tea, tried to convey tones and meaning into the character's voices, and had a jolly time. Yes, indeed, there are certainly lovely things about winter. Today we hope to read some more, again with that pot of tea by our side.

Yet, despite the cold I'm afraid I must confess that I had my 3rd bowl of ice-cream in 3 nights. It happens to be my favourite raw treat (I have a sweet tooth). I topped it with raw cacao nibs, raw agave nectar, maple syrup, chopped walnuts, and the rest of the caramel dip (I loved that addition).

One of the things that I discovered a couple days ago was the most divine soup. Really, I shouldn't say discovered, because I used Shannonmarie's www.shannonmarie.blogspot.com cream of broccoli soup recipe, but tweaked it a bit. My family was having cream of cauliflower and soup sounded so heavenly. So I remembered Shannonmaire posting something about it way back and got her recipe and changed it around for myself. But what I'm so excited about is that with just a half a cup of soaked cashews and whatever spices and additions I want, I can make any creamy dreamy soup I want to. Mine looked nearly identical to my family's and it tasted heavenly!!! I warmed it in my Vita-Mix to perfection. Oh, now I want to make soup for tonight.

So you see, there are plenty of ways to beat the cold out here and have a blast while doing it. I enjoy lots of tea every day (my family loves tea) and I usually do some sort of exercises every day, whether it be creative aerobics or Pilate's. So with a sigh, and the knowledge that I'm about to go downstairs and have some tea, I must say, "I love winter!"