Around OakMeadows

It has been a busy morning. As usual, on New Year's Day, I took down all the Christmas decorations and packed them in the plastic bins. Inevitably as soon as I get the bins stacked in the closet, I find something that should have gone in the bottom bin. I wonder what it will be this year??

JMM was so excited to see a Great Horned Owl in the big live oak tree very early this morning. Probably the owl was snacking on field mice during the night. I was very lax last year about keeping our OakMeadows bird list up to date. Hope to do better this year. 

I totaled up the December expenses and the only expense category that was over budget was Eating Out. Guilty. I do have an excuse-->My birthday at Goode Company Seafood was worth every penny. I am sure that Heaven will serve Goode Co. Seafood Gumbo. (Otherwise, I don't want to go...)

The Irish Chain quilt re-binding project is taking about 10X longer than I thought it would. But that is often the case with my projects: they cost more and take longer than I think they will. Friday I am going to Quilter's Emporium and see if they have any fabric for the baby quilt that I want to do next. If not, I will plunge back into my stash of squares that I have already cut out and make another scrap quilt. That reminds me, I was looking for my Simple Baby Quilts book and knew just where it was, only it wasn't there.  So over a period of a couple of weeks, I turned the house upside down looking for it. Found it. It was right on the shelf where it was supposed to be all along. Need new glasses I suppose. 

I made the best roast beef for dinner last night. I used my Le Creusset heavy Dutch oven and PW's recipe and it was wonderful. I roasted onions and carrots with it and poured the gravy over leftover mashed potatoes. Divine. Leftovers for dinner tonight. My next cooking project will be JMM's birthday cake--German Sweet Chocolate cake. I wonder how many GC cakes I have made over the 
years for JMM's and Paul's birthdays?? At least 50. 

I am reading Empire if Liberty by Gordon Wood. It is the second volume in the Oxford History of the United States and covers the period from the end of the Revolution to the War of 1812. I had no idea what a tumultuous period that 
was!! Very interesting how the Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans squared off on just how the American government was going to be put into effect. I am about 1/2 through it. Excellent!