I Gave Up...Again

I'd hoped the greenhouse rosemary would either send up some new growth from the bottom this spring or that the cutting it tried to give me would root, but neither happened.  I carefully cut off the two spider cocoons and pulled the rest out.

The greenhouse sheep doesn't look quite so lonely now with two tiny new friends...and Possum.

The rosemary in the front is a trailing variety.  The rosemary in the back is a more cold tolerant plant, but I'll have to go check the tags to remember the names.  I'll try to do better this time around.  I miss my huge old friend :-/.

Sadly, But With Fingers Crossed

The extreme cold last month really hit my beloved rosemary plant hard.  It probably may have killed it.  I've lost track of how many years it's been living in the greenhouse, but at least seven per a "Facebook Memory" posted back in November of 2025.

 

I found one tiny green branch the other day.  It's in a random spot and there is really no other sign of regrowth anywhere else.  While I hope it may regrow from the base, I think it's definitely facing a challenge and I've been stewing on this green sprig for several days.

Part of me wonders if that's the branch it needs to feed itself to see if it can get back on it's feet.  Another part of me wonders if this is the plant's way of giving me a gift.  That it worked really hard to shelter this one tiny twig so I could try to save it.

I decided to cut it off and try to root it.  I also took three other tips that had a little hint of green, albeit dried out, but not gray like the rest of the plant, and added them to the pot.  

This window has started several injured plants over the years, so I have some hope.  The little rosemary is in good company with a favorite geranium and a tiny hoya that were both tiny broken branches not long ago.

I'll keep you posted.

December

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December...much like the whole year.  Plough on and focus on what went right...

About All The Cakes

Back in the winter when life really got extra mean and depressing, several friends told me "You need to watch you some Great British Bake Off!"

I don't like to cook and I'm not really a baking person.  I don't watch much tv and definitely not reality tv.  Why would I want to waste time watching a reality tv show about baking?

"Just try it."

So Tim and I sat down one night to watch one episode to shut everyone up...and now have binge watched 11 seasons.  If you're having a bad day...go watch you some British Bake Off :-).

Cakes are not my favorite dessert.  I like them (if they are good), but I don't love them.  I only marginally like frosting (if it's good).  I would probably never order a piece of cake at a restaurant.  

Cakes started showing up on my IG feed.  Usually when something shows up that I'm not interested in, I flag it as such and "like" some new sheep or fiber account and my feed stays fun and focused.  One day I saw a picture of a beautiful robin egg Easter cake...and I clicked on it.

Hmmm, that's really pretty...

At this point we'd watched maybe two seasons of GBBO and I'd so thoroughly enjoyed watching everyone bake cakes together, helping each other, cheering each other on, being nice and learning new techniques (sort of like fiber arts, eh?) that I sent the post to Auntie Reg and told her I wanted to try to make that cake.  

It looked a little like this cake.  Or I should say this cake looked a little like that cake.  It was nerve wracking to say the least, but with Reg's help, the cake was edible and the icing...mostly stayed on the cake.  It wasn't super fun, but I knew/hoped I could learn to do better, so the following week I tried another cake.

This was a lemon cake with lemon curd inside and on top and the flowers really made it pretty.

Rhubarb upside down cake...from our garden!

A flourless chocolate roulade, straight from one of Mary Berry's books :-).

This Surprise Lemon Pudding was too and I would definitely make this again now that I know I need to weigh my eggs.  I learned that from The Cake Bible.  Yes, I bought that.  Now, if my baking doesn't kill you, I can always bean you with a nearly 700 page book ;-D.

Chocolate inside and outside and even on top.  I'd like to re-make this cake just to do it better, but like seldom knitting a pattern more than once, I'll probably not repeat it just out of spite.  There's not a shortage of chocolate cake recipes out there.

I was pretty happy with this one.  Still not getting where I want icing-wise, but getting better.

I highly recommend placing some mint leaves on top of lemon cream cheese frosting.  It infuses (?) into the frosting where it touches and it gives it a fabulous minty flavor.  

Angle food cake with the whites and lemon curd with the yolks.  Raspberry frosting...that I should have made a note about because I don't remember which recipe I used, but I think it was a whipped cream frosting, not butter cream.

That was the best lemon curd I've even tasted - from The Cake Bible. 

Lavender blackberry cake with ermine frosting.  I didn't harvest our lavender to make this, but I did want a picture with it while the bees and butterflies worked away.

This was the first cake I wasn't just thoroughly panicked making.  There was lavender infused milk in the recipe and lavender syrup brushed on each layer before frosting.  I wasn't sure how much I could add to the layers so I erred on the side of caution.  It could probably have used a little more to increase the lavender flavor, but it was still really good.  

The reason I wasn't sure how much to add is because I got smart and put the third layer of the cake in the freezer so I was working a bit off recipe.  Now if I don't feel like baking a new cake some week I can pull it out and make a trifle and tick that check box ;-).

So now that I'm pretty into trying to learn how to make cakes, I've decided it can be my summer "thing".  I'm calling it Scratch Cake Summer.

Anyone have a good cake to recommend?

 

Bullseye

"I'm Bullseye and I'm the new kid here.  Except I'm not a kid anymore.  I am officially a big boy and this is my barn.  I keep an eye on everything up here.  It's a Big Job."

"I watch everything including the sheep and the chickens, but mostly I watch for the lady who feeds me.  I really like food and I've learned that I really like pets and cuddles too.  The food lady says that's a Big Job too!"

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This is where things started.  I heard a cat crying at the back door one snowy bitterly cold morning early in February.  I opened the door and found a half grown kitten...and Archie.  I'm not sure if it was just a coincidence they were out there together or if Archie told him to follow him home and get some breakfast.

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We tried for several days to trap him, but while he was young he already had some street smarts and I realized it was going to take some time.  If we'd have known for sure he was a boy, I wouldn't have been so panicked, but for a good while I was pretty sure he was a she and fixing to be a teen mom :-(.

I set the heated box up on the porch and he sat in there for a little while, but I think Possum ran him off.  Possum can be very not nice to other cats and he was no exception.  He'd find a warm-ish spot and the next day he'd have moved on to a different spot.  I was not sure what I was going to do about that, especially if there were kittens coming.

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One night I got him trapped in the greenhouse and hoped I could get a better look at him, but the greenhouse is frail and he figured out how to break out one of the back panels.  A day or so after that he moved up to the barn and started sneaking in for offered food up there.

I set up the big dog crate, started feeding him at the front, then the middle and then the back and then shut the door and we were off to the vet where we learned he was just a potbellied wormy boy and not a way too young girl getting ready to have kittens.  Whew!

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I kept him in the cage for several days and got to where I could pet him some and I thought he was good and settled and wouldn't split at first chance and then finally opened the door. I told him he was now an Equinox Farm cat and that it was a pretty good place to be a cat...except for Possum ;-).  

That was Saturday and he's taken over the barn and even seems to be winning over Possum...or at least flying under her radar.  He's super friendly with me and just needs some experience with strangers and I think he's going to be one of the nicest kitties we've ever had :-).

The Blog Is 18 Years Old!

I'm glad the blog is still here and it's back doing more than just recording the month end compilations, but just the same, here's January.  Lots of good memories of one of our biggest snow events since we've been here :-).

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Cheers to another month and another year!

PS  As I'm typing the labels (far right column and a good way to search for things if you are looking) I realized that I don't think there are any Possum pictures this month.  That would be because Possum spent most of the month curled up in the house ;-).

Weekend Wrap Up

Things mostly started settling down this past week and we could all take a deep breath.  We still had some cold and windy weather, but there were some nice days mixed in and that was appreciated by everyone.

I suspected this would be the case if Murphy messed around at the barn too much in the morning.  He figured out that Liddy and Tabitha were getting to sneak into Easy Breezy for breakfast and he spent a couple of mornings thinking maybe he could do so as well.  Krista ain't waiting for no stupid man to tell her it's okay to go out for breakfast ;-).

Our new friend Dug had a big week.  Or I should say a getting bigger week :-).

Big J met me in the driveway one morning.  What a relief!

Maisie reminded us that she is our little ray of sunshine :-).  This is an odd occurrence, the sun shining in the front of the barn.  What actually happened was the sun hit the front of the horse trailer parked over next to the Wool House at just the right angle to reflect back into the front of the barn, spotlighting Maisie.  It will probably never happen again.

On the cold days the cats took turns tucked in next to the heater in the Wool House.

Possum pulled the night shift.

Dug went to Dug(gy) Daycare in the toasty warm greenhouse.

The cats fought over the wool box on the porch.

And Archie eventually won.

Dug got a warm wool poncho...as one does on a wool farm :-D.

Another frosty morning.  The last one...I hope.

And today two of my oldest (long time, not old ;-) and one of my newest friends came to visit and Andrea (of TdF fame) gave spinning a try and I tuned up an old wheel.  Thanks for the photo, Ericka (of Foro/4-0 fame).  It was a great way to end the week.

 

Dug(gy) Daycare

I didn't have the heart to stick Dug outside yesterday.  It was cold and windy and I have notoriously bad luck keeping baby plants from blowing down the driveway and with the concern of wandering sheep...not that anyone did much wandering out of the barn yesterday.

At the end of the day I smacked my forehead with my palm because I (finally) realized I had a perfect spot for Dug...

...the greenhouse.

So Dug is hanging out with the winter pansies and under the watchful care of Rosemary today.  Look how big she's getting!  Dug and Rosemary :-).

April

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Spring Beauties

The flowers have been so pretty this spring.  Somehow we've gotten lucky and the hard frosts have not been devastating.  

Last night walking back from the night check.  I love the way the porch lights illuminate the rain, snow, ice and flowers throughout the seasons.  

Some fog the other morning.

The old magnolia and an ancient redbud.  I have no idea how old that redbud is or even how it's still standing, honestly, but I like to think it might be because they are taking care of each other.

Green.

The greenhouse was outstanding all winter and is still going strong.  

I shared this picture the other day, but today we'll focus on the flowers :-).  I love our yard full of color each spring.

The lilacs are just starting to open.  The branches are loaded with buds and most seem to have survived the frost last week.  Fingers and proboscises crossed! 

 

Not weeds to me :-).