Happy Holidays everyone!
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.
My “Waiting On” is The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen. I first learned about her book back in October when I spotted the beautiful cover with a bird on it. It was one of my Friday Finds.
On Monday Rebecca was featured on Huffington Post as one of three new emerging fiction writers. After listening to Rebecca read from the first chapter of the book I am anxiously awaiting it’s release in April.
The Bird Sisters: A Novel by Rebecca Rasmussen
When a bird flies into a window in Spring Green, Wisconsin, sisters Milly and Twiss get a visit. Twiss listens to the birds’ heartbeats, assessing what she can fix and what she can’t, while Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who’ve brought them. The two sisters have spent their lives nursing people and birds back to health.
Video as featured on the Huffington Post.
Happy Winter Solstice
At 5:38 PM CST in North America the winter solstice will occur and with it the beginning of winter. For the first time in 372 years, the winter equinox and a total lunar eclipse happen on the same day. According to NASA, it has only happened once in the past 2000 years and won’t happen again until 2094.
It was cloudy and snowing in Chicago so I missed out on the eclipse. It occurred around 4am and I doubt I could have stayed awake for it anyway. I’ll greet the arrival of the winter solstice tonight with a cup of hot apple cider, a warm blanket and a good book.
There is much more cold to come here in the midwest, but I celebrate the lengthening daylight hours and the coming of spring. I know that soon the bare trees will grow leaves, the dogwood and forsythia will wake up and birds will once again begin to sing. Each year I find winter and snow more annoying; it’s difficult to believe that as a child I actually liked the stuff.
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Sno Wovel
I have a neighbor with a plow that clears snow from the driveway, but that doesn’t help with the sidewalk or backyard. Yes, we have a snowblower, but it’s not worth firing it up for a quick clean-up plus it’s noisy and not very environmentally friendly. I think I’ve discovered the solution to the snow shovel, a Wovel. Anyone have one of these?
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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Some Solstice Facts
- The solstice occurs because the earth’s axis is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees. The winter solstice is the day the north pole is furtherest from the sun.
- The word solstice comes from ancient Latin. Sol meaning “sun” and sistere, “to stand still.” For several days before and after the solstice the sun appears to stand still in the sky and it’s noon time elevation does not change.
- It’s probably no coincidence that today’s Christmas Holiday occurs during the time of the original Winter Solstice festivals. Some say early Christmas celebrations have their roots in the Feast of Saturnalia, a winter solstice celebration to the Roman god Saturn. When Christianity was introduced to the Roman Empire, the church allowed the feast to continue but dedicated it to the birth of Christ.
- The custom of giving presents comes from the Roman feast of Saturnalia.
- Stonehenge is aligned with solstice. The timber circle is orientated towards the rising sun on the midwinter solstice.
Really Random Tuesday is hosted on random Tuesdays by Suko at Suko’s Notebook. It’s a way to post odds and ends–announcements, musings, quotes–any blogging and book-related things you can think of.
Mailbox Monday is touring through blogs. For the month of December it will be hosted by Lady Q at Let Them Read Books. Next month the tour moves to Rose City Reader where it will be hosted for the month of January.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
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New books that came into my home last week:
Birdology by Sy Montgomery was a grab bag gift.
Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur.
Combining both a trained naturalist’s observations and a natural storyteller’s talents, Sy Montgomery’s Birdology takes you inside the world of the winged aliens that most of us think about when they cluster around our bird feeders.
The Emperor’s Tomb by Steve Berry, a win from Bookreporter. I haven’t read any of the books in this series. Do these books stand alone or do I need to read a few earlier ones?
Hearing that his old friend Cassiopeia Vitt is in trouble, Malone follows the few clues he has and realises that they are in the middle of something huge, involving Russian and US oil interests and a centuries-old secret. After stumbling across two dead bodies and into the crosshairs of his former boss, Malone finds himself in a race to unravel the mystery of an emperor’s tomb, a sinister society, and a deadly battle between two ruthless men for supremacy in China — and the world.
Home for the Friendless: Finding Hope, Love, and Family by Betty Auchard, a gratitude giveaway win.
The eldest of three in an unconventional family making their way through The Great Depression, Betty narrates this humorous and poignant recollection. Although poor in possessions, Betty’s family leads a life so rich in turmoil that it rivals today’s sitcoms.
Anyone who’s visited here probably already knows I love birds. So it’s not unusual that I would get up early on a December Saturday morning in the cold and snow to spend the day counting birds.
I am one of the Christmas Bird Count volunteers.
The 111th Christmas Bird Count began Tuesday, December 14th and continues through January 5th. Thousands of volunteers, young and old, across North America have made a tradition of counting birds for the National Audubon Society. The data collected during the count period is used to assess the health of bird populations and help guide conservation action. The first count was held on Christmas Day 1900. Frank Chapman, an officer in the early Audubon Society, proposed it as a new holiday tradition that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them.
Yesterday I participated in the count at Cantigny Gardens, part of the counting circle for the Dupage Birding Club. This is an annual tradition for me and something I do not with my biological family, but with a family of fellow nature and bird lovers. My family is welcome to join me, but I generally get a few raised eyebrows, a weird look and a, “No thanks, not in December!”.
We count on our group’s assigned day regardless of the weather. Unfortunately with a morning temperature of 11ºF/-12ºC and a high of 20ºF/-7ºC, yesterday was one of the coldest days of the year. Fortunately the park has a small cafe serving hot chocolate and coffee and was a place to go to warm up. Restroom hand dryers were put into service as warming stations. It was cold!
Although birds were not plentiful, this is Chicago in the winter after all, there were a fair number of species still in the area. Not all birds migrate; some are year-round residents. Woodpeckers, house sparrows, finches, cardinals, doves, chickadees, waxwings and even robins can be found year round. Others migrate in to the midwest from colder climates in the Northern US and Canada.
While we don’t expect to find a partridge in a pear tree or three french hens, there are occasional surprises and it’s exciting to find a bird that shouldn’t normally be in the area this time of year. Yesterday we spotted five yellow-rumped warblers happily eating berries in a cedar tree. They should have been farther south by now. We also saw a few wild turkeys which are year-round residents but are always fun to see.
The photos (click for larger images) are from last year’s Christmas Bird Count when it was much warmer and we only had to worry about the snow and not frostbite. This year it was just too cold to take my hands out of my big, thick thermal gloves to operate the camera!
Virtual Advent is hosted by Kailana from The Written World and Marg from Adventures of an Intrepid Reader. The tour runs December 1st through 24th. Visit the Virtual Advent Tour blog for links to more Virtual Advent posts.
Today’s Weekend Cooking post is also part of the Virtual Cookie Swap hosted by Dawn of She is Too Fond of Books.
Red and green and cheerful, this is my favorite Christmas cookie. I’ve been baking this cookie for almost 20 years now and when I don’t bring it on Christmas Day I hear about it. So it’s become a tradition that I bring the Spumoni Cookies.
It’s not the easiest to make but it’s unique and I only make it once a year.
Ingredients
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1½ cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
• 5 drops red food coloring
• ¼ cup ground pistachio nuts or almonds
• 5 drops green food coloring
• 1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
Preparation
- In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
- In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds.
- Add the 1½ cups sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Add egg and vanilla, beat just till combined.
- Slowly add flour mixture beating on medium speed till combined.
- Divide dough into 3 equal portions and place in 3 small bowls. To one portion stir in peppermint extract and red food coloring. To another stir in the pistachio nuts and green food coloring. To the remaining portion stir in the melted chocolate. (I find it impossible to stir anything into dough and have it mix thoroughly. Once I’ve stirred as much as I can I use my hands and mix it until even. Messy, but works the best.)
- Divide each portion of the three balls of dough in half making six balls, total. On waxed paper shape each portion into a 10 inch roll.
- Gently press one roll of pistachio dough and one roll of chocolate dough together, lengthwise, keeping round shapes intact. Gently press one roll of peppermint dough on top, lengthwise, making a shape similar to a triangle. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Wrap each tricolored roll in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-24 hours or until dough is firm enough to slice. (Dough can also be wrapped in foil and frozen for up to 3 months.)
- Cut each roll into ¼ inch slices rotating the roll as you
slice to avoid flattening the roll. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. - Bake at 350° F for 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool. Makes about 60 cookies.
I use parchment paper over the cookie sheets. It makes cleanup so easy I will never cook them directly on the pan again. Also, one tip, check the temperature of your oven with a thermometer. Don’t trust the dial on the stove. Mine is fairly new and it’s off by about 15° F. I preheat for an extra 10 minutes until I’m sure the temperature is even. I got tired of burnt cookies.
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Source: Better Homes and Gardens Magazine 1993.
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Participation is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.
What great books did you hear about/discover this past week? Share your FRIDAY FINDS! This weekly event is hosted by Should Be Reading.
With an author line-up like this I know I’ll love this anthology.
Songs of Love and Death: All-Original Tales of Star-Crossed Love
by: Jacqueline Carey, Lisa Tuttle, Linnea Sinclair, Mary Jo Putney, Tanith Lee, Peter S. Beagle, Yasmine Galenorn, Diana Gabaldon, Jo Beverley, Carrie Vaughn, M.L.N. Hanover, Cecelia Holland, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Robin Hobb, Neil Gaiman, Marjorie M. Liu, Jim Butcher
In this star-studded cross-genre anthology, seventeen of the greatest modern authors of fantasy, science fiction, and romance explore the borderlands of their genres with brand-new tales of ill-fated love. From zombie-infested woods in a postapocalyptic America to faery-haunted rural fields in eighteenth- century England, from the kingdoms of high fantasy to the alien world of a galaxy-spanning empire, these are stories of lovers who must struggle against the forces of magic and fate.
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Home Fires will be published in January. It has a plot that sounds like a combination thriller-mystery-romance-scifi, something for everyone.
Home Fires by Gene Wolfe
From Publishers Weekly: “Against a backdrop of science fictional elements such as time dilation through space travel, cyborgs, and brain downloads, Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee Wolfe (The Sorcerer’s House) builds a romance and a mystery. Successful lawyer Skip Grison wants to find a wonderful gift for his contracted paramour, Chelle Blue, now 20 years his junior after an interstellar military tour. After reuniting Chelle with her estranged mother, Vanessa, whose consciousness has been downloaded into a new body, Skip takes Chelle on a round-the-world cruise that turns into an almost screwball comedy of hijackings and chaos as shadowy people may be trying to get to Skip, Chelle, Vanessa, or someone else entirely. Red herrings and unknown, mistaken, or confused identities saturate the novel, making this well suited for readers, especially mystery readers, who don’t often read science fiction.”
Under My Apple Tree 