Blowing Snow

A serious winter day. The temperature started falling this morning and just kept falling. Flurries all day, windblown and totally erratic. I sat in my desk chair so that I could glance up from my reading and watch a few flakes as a distraction. By the end of the day I have fifteen books piled around me on the floor, processing data, reading text. I love doing this, being able to stop and think about anything. I read about salt today, and the micro-biology of meat, read about Claxton, codifying English, some properties of frozen water, a passage of Higgins, a Thomas Perry novel. The chili is great and I'm sorry I didn't make a double batch, because I already have to think about the next several-serving meal. I've been eating soy beans recently, Mukimame, and they're very good, drizzled with walnut oil, salt and pepper, and I might try them in a soup of some kind. Mukimame with hot Italian sausage and some bitter green. Chicken stock, caramelized onion and red pepper, I prepare the dish in my head, so I can make a list for the next time I might get to town. It could be a very good soup, and it would certainly be healthy. Van Morrison on the radio, "She's as sweet as Topelo honey." Late in the afternoon a few rays of sunlight broke through and the sky was full of prismatic flakes. It was spectacular and lasted maybe five minutes, you had to be there. It was incandescent. I went out and let it hit me in the face and it seemed mildly electrical, but I suspect that was just the cold. This roasted green tea I've been drinking makes a great hot toddy with cream, a shot of whiskey, and just a hint of something sweet. Yak butter or the nearest equivalent. It's like drinking black coffee with bacon fat. Not that bad, actually, when you need the fat. The wind has kicked up a notch and I'd better go.