Icy Winter Wonderland

I know I have been posting about the weather a lot recently but it kind of rules my life at the moment!  The passed two days have been still, heavy sky days.  Snow was forecast constantly but never came through, it was just cold.  So cold I couldn't go out without mittens on.  Then last night it rained and froze.  The pavements are frozen over, our bikes have icicles hanging off them, the grass snaps when we walk on it.  Soph had to go to a rehearsal and she spent ten minutes trying to get up a little hill outside her house.  She kept sliding down so she gave up and went back inside.

It's kind of a bummer for Jbird and I as this is our busiest work day.  We normally have students in the morning and this afternoon I'm babysitting.  Unfortunately, our students had to cancel - they couldn't get here safely.  I don't know if I'm more disappointed about the loss in income or the fact that my little one practiced, a lot, and might have had a great lesson.  

Here's hoping for a slight rise in temperature so that everything can defrost, and life can continue.

Not an Island

I am going to make an addendum to yesterday's post.  In this cold cold weather, with not much to do with my not-summery-summer-holiday, I am extremely grateful for the small activities which engage my days, particularly ones that force me out of the house.  Though I said they were, "books and coffee" are not enough, not for me anyway.  I need book club, my non-practicing students, babysitting, church, grocery shopping,  the library, other people.  

In the great words of the English clergyman, John Donne, "No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main." 

Practice Schmactice

My students only come once a week, for 30 minutes or an hour.  The best type of lesson follows a week of at least 2 or 3 practice sessions at home.  Without that, nothing that was taught in the previous lesson is consolidated, little to no improvement happens, and the student's motivation levels teeter.  

I had two interesting lessons this week, where a certain 5 year flatly refused to continue with their lesson just five minutes into it.  Another where a young adult had a bad week at work and didn't manage to practice at all.  I felt like I was a DVD on repeat.   

We all live complicated lives, don't we? We strive to advance through our own progressive stages, but we're not always able to.  I wonder if these students are facing the winter blues, I know I am.  Luckily I have my coffee and my books. And I don't have to go to any violin lessons...

Brrrrrr...

Oh boy, I was caught off guard when I went out today after being nice and cosy in our little place.  Jbird and I needed to pop out to the shops so we checked the weather to see if the sunny sky and warm apartment were any indication of how cold it was outside.  We are trying to follow Fahrenheit temperatures so that we can converse with people and understand the forecast on the radio.  The internet told us it was 22 degrees.  I figured that meant a little below zero so I put on some long johns and off we went.  I wish I'd also double-socked, tucked in my mittens, wrapped my scarf better and remembered to put up my hood over my hat: that was a cold bike ride!  

The frozen puddles outside our place were a pretty clear indication of what 22 degrees means, had I only noticed them. 

A Surprise Gift

The problem with drinking coffee everyday is that your expectations keep rising.  Jbird is not a coffee drinker and he recently wondered why I often comment on the quality of my coffee that day.  I explained about beans getting old, adding too much water or milk, or not enough, drinking it at the right temperature, and the peculiarities that come with each different coffee making device.  

My espresso machine only produces steam for the milk froth as the coffee drips through.  This means I need to add exactly the right amount of water at the beginning and be ready with the milk as it starts dripping.  Also, the beans that I use are always pre-ground and a little old so I've taken to storing them in the fridge.  This doesn't provide the best brew but it will extend the life of the beans a bit...sort of.  Don't forget that we live on a tight budget so replacing older coffee isn't an option.  Buying a grinder isn't an option either.

 

I got a lovely birthday present in the post today - a coffee grinder AND a plunger!  It's not often such an exciting surprise arrives.  I love plunger coffee, it's rich and oily.  It may just be my favourite kind of coffee and I am excited to have a change in my usual coffee making routine.

Slow cooker goodness: yum yum yum

Because we bought the slow cooker in the summer, I may have overdone it a bit in those hot months and almost forgot to use it for its intended purpose - warm soul food, a must for the winter.  I pulled it out this week, when I was feeling particularly lackadaisical about cooking and it has revived our evening meals.  Thick, juicy beef stew, beef and bean chili con carne (or simply 'chili' as we call it here), and chicken tikka masala.  A yummy, hearty meal which smells divine while it is slowly cooking and then is always ready without much fuss.  With only two of us, it always stretches to at least two meals.  

I'm going to go and make some corn bread for tonight's chili.  My stomach is growling at the prospect.

Gang of Four

Gang of Four is a fun card game which title alludes to the four leaders closely associated with Mao Zedong of China's cultural revolution.  It's a game that I have a love/hate relationship with.  I tend to lose, with a terrible score, but I'm highly competitive so I find it hard to brush the many losses off my back.  I don't know if it's a lack of skill or a lack of good hands but I'm determined to improve so that Jbird can stop grinning across the table at me.  Anyone for a hand?

Happy Birthday to me

It has been a happy birthday.  There was a bunch of great food: chocolate delicacies coming out of our ears (please read yesterday's post), a madebysomebodyelse coffee cake that didn't taste like coffee, tasting instead more like blueberry muffin in cake form, belgian waffles, blue cheese and pear, some mighty fine coffee...It snowed prettily all day - not so much to keep us indoors but enough to enjoy watching the flakes dance.  I got some pretty nice pressies.  AND I had two of my favourite people to chill with all day.  

But do you know what the very very best bit was?  The Bloomington KiwiBirds bike gang.  

It is the most fun when the three of us bike together at night.  It was chilly but we were bundled up in our warmest clothes, and we didn't have far to go.  There were a few up-hills and a lot of down-hills.  The snow was still clean and pretty, covering the yards.  The flakes were flying at us, landing in our mouths, as we whizzed down the hill, breathing hard.  The. Most. Fun.

Snow and Chocolate

It didn't snow for Christmas but it did for my birthday!  It snuck up on us when we least expected it.  We three Bloomington kiwis are pretty happy about this because we haven't had much snow this winter.

I got the book: Intensely Chocolate out of the library yesterday so we planned a chocolate baking party this afternoon for some pre-birthday fun.  We made mocha-walnut cupcakes with dulche de leche frosting, bitter-sweet chocolate multi-flavoured buttons, cranberry-walnut semi-sweet chocolate bark, and semi-sweet chocolate mousse with blackberry compote parfait.  Yumbo.  A lovely way to spend a flurry afternoon.  

Smarty Pants

Recently I started an online discussion with a couple of friends.  Jbird and I were talking about how it would work and we decided it would have to be through a thread of emails.  I wasn't entirely happy with this as the discussion can become hard to follow.  

When I got around to starting the discussion, I had the idea that I could share it as a google doc.  If the other members of the discussion can work out how to use, it will be like working on microsoft word, on the same computer.  Jbird thinks we will even be able to view others editing if two of us happen to have it open at the same time.  I think it's ingenious!  I feel pretty chuffed that I knew how to do it, too.