Category: Uncategorized

January 4

We went to a house showing today, an open house in Newton.  This is the latest in a long series of house showings we’ve gone to, keeping on top of the market while our own house is taking its sweet time to get sold.

Today’s listing was a nice house, only 7 years old, built on the slab of a tear-down 1950’s ranch. It’s too big for us, and in the extreme southeast corner of Newton not really convenient to much that we care about.  But it did have a nice modern, sunny and bright kitchen:

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It’s the picture that is curved — taken with a fisheye lens — not the kitchen! I find the fisheye very useful for capturing the feel of a house or room, since the field of view is so wide.

January 3

Lis and I went for a walk today in the snow at one of our favorite local wildlife areas,  Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Waseeka wildlife sanctuary.  While we did not see much in the way of wildlife (besides some deer, who were too shielded by brush for a good picture), we did see evidence of wildlife — parts of the sanctuary have been flooded by beaver activity.  Today’s photo is the stump of a tree felled by our industrious rodent friends.

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January 2

On this, the Friday after New Years Day, I did not do a lot… with Lis at work I ran some errands, got some things done around the house, and did some cooking.  Just after Thanksgiving our local Whole Foods had turkey wings on sale for $0.29/lb, which we bought and froze.  I also recently read in On Food and Cooking how certain vegetables (potatoes chief among them) can be induced to develop a “persistent firmness” by a low-temperature pre-cooking step (130-140 F for 20-30 minutes).  So these things, combined with today’s cold & overcast weather, provided a perfect opportunity to make a turkey stew.  And here it is:

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Roasted the wings, removed & reserved the good meat, and made stock from the rest. Thickened the stock with a roux, and added potatoes, carrots, and turnip given the firming treatment.  Seasoned with salt, fresh sage, dried thyme, and the garlic cloves from the stock. Added back the reserved meat along with some frozen beans.  When Lis gets home we will dig in!

January 1

For 2009, I am participating in Project 365, the goal of which is to
take one photograph per day, every day, for a year — and post it
here.  The photo should ideally be representative of that day, of
something I am doing, or something important to me.  I can’t promise
that my life is interesting enough to live up to this goal, but I will
give it a shot.

Today’s photo is the first thing I saw when I
looked out the window this morning, sunlight striking
freshly-snow-covered rocks in our back yard, promising a beautiful (if
cold) day.

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