Sock update. It's going to have a blue stripe over the instep. Maybe a different color on the second sock.

Mid-day Saturday. Ornamental grasses are worth having for snow alone.

Yesterday, before the snows came, I found this lone snowdrop. In my mind, spring has begun.

Progress on sock.

Knitting socks.

I bought what I thought was a subdued yarn but now that sock No. 1 is beginning to take shape the color looks a bit too ... something. Not exactly zippy, not bright. Muddy. Dated. I hope not ugly.

The pond at sunset today.

Still mostly frozen over despite warmer weather all week. No sign of the otter today.

Moss loves this weather. That's about as green as it gets in this yard.

The terrible trio. What did we do as a society to deserve these guys?

On the back of my annual dues notice from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Seems like an appropriate message for the eve of M.L.King Day.

I love my new socks.

I didn't knit them myself (some anonymous knitter in Vermont did; or at least the tag said it was a Vermont knitter; I'm so cynical these days that I suspect an underpaid and overworked Chinese child made them) but I'm going to start a pair this winter. I've made socks before, with pretty hilarious results.

Death by Cinnamon Buns

Someone, I think it was Jen in Nyack, NY, got me thinking about my grandmother's cinnamon buns. Actually I was sort of obsessed for a few days. So I found this recipe and made it. BUT, I halved the recipe (6 cups of flower for 12 buns?! I don't think so) and then eliminated the milk and only used 1/2 cup butter total, instead of the recommended 1 1/2 cups. Turned out pretty good but not as good as my grandmother's. I'm sure she did use the full 1 1/2 cups of butter. She had that look about her.

I think I'll plant a lot more of this great plant. Evergreen and the deer simply won't eat it. Must taste really bad. Maybe poisonous?

Cotton Lavender is an evergreen perennial herb with aromatic strangely shaped silver leaves with that remind one of ocean coral. In midsummer it bears small yellow flowers like round buttons.
From: http://www.herbgarden.co.za/mountainherb/article_CottonLavender.htm

Hawk on my deck. He's watching me. Or she.

Otter in the pond! The beaver family is gone but this guy has been very active in the last few days.

He dives under, catches a fish, and then sits on the ice eating it. He's not nearly as shy as the beavers were. He's a mammal, of the weasel group, while the beavers were rodents. I wonder if he's living in their abandoned lodge? And I wonder if he is alone or has a wife--with buns in the oven possibly. At the rate he was pulling out fish today, there will be a lot of frustrated fisher people come spring. The pond is stocked with brown trout in April (May?) but most people seem to catch sunfish and a few other types I've forgotten. It's great living next door to a pond.

Pond and pond ice. I love this cold weather.

I do love the snow and ice and cold, but I also miss being able to dig in my garden. In the DC area we don't always get rock-hard-solid ground in the winter. But this year is different. Tomorrow I'm going to dig in my compost piles just to get my digging fix in.

In the dead of winter, when the ground is frozen solid, it's hard for me to think clearly.

For example, this interesting op-ed piece in the Washington Post about women writers. It has me thinking but I've got no conclusions. And I feel like I should have some conclusions.

Brit Hume (Fox News) is a big fat idiot. But I forgive him.

'The extent to which he [Tiger Woods] can recover seems to me depends on his faith. He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. My message to Tiger would, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world." ' Watch here, if you can bear to.