Wind Blown

Lovely sunrise, lovely day, completely clear. Eat some breakfast, and get outside. I amuse myself for several hours, walking about, looking at things. Raked the leaf cover from a couple of spots where the first morels appear, scratched the ground a little, then raked a pile of leaves to use on the compost heap. The wind picked up all day, sustained at 25 mph, gusts to 40, and I finally had to go back inside when little particles of organic crap kept getting in my eyes. I spent a while looking for my safety glasses, but I can't find them. I always need them at this time of year and I thought I'm left them in the basket where I keep specific-use items (gaiters, mufflers, face-masks, extreme headgear) that I keep near the back door. I'll have to wash my hair tomorrow. That grainy crap is awful. The wind at night can be a restful murmur, and it is tonight, a susurration I get sometimes from Nordic symphonies. The three crows were by today, I had mice and the outhouse roof was free of snow, they seemed satisfied. Big gust of wind shakes the house. I make a note to look up 'mote' and have the feeling that could take a while. The house shakes again and I shut down. Trees are bound to fall. Instead of reading with the headlamp, having a potential headache, I just take a nap. The quiet wakes me, the power is still on. I scramble a couple of eggs, toast and hot pepper jam from Montana. I scramble eggs very gently, and find it difficult to do if anyone else is in the house, because I talk to them, add yogurt or cream at the end, and eat them with buttered toast points. Sometimes I scrape everything into a bowl of re-fried grits. Any leftover salsa is good. Pan-drippings, sausage gravy, chutney, almost anything is good on top. Finally did lose power, no idea what time it was, but very dark and heavy rain again. I just wrapped up in a blanket and went to sleep on the sofa, when I woke up again, it's light out, sort of, still raining, still no power. Eat half a leftover grilled cheese sandwich and a can of orange segments, make some notes that I won't be able to read later, and read a great piece about bar food. Morning trip to the outhouse and there are a couple of terrible looking feral dogs sleeping inside, one of them makes a move on me and I swat it away rather strongly with my mop-handle walking stick. This last pork-fried rice was particularly good, the pork marinated forever, while I was sick, and then I spent some extra time caramelizing the onions and peppers. American rice is becoming very interesting, some of the best I've ever eaten. I used a robust nutty rice for this, also, I caramelized the vegetables in the skillet where I'd been storing pork fat since the Crackling Insurrection. Scraped up all those brown bits, then cooked the pork, very hot, in same skillet, then threw everything together. Excellent dish. I just ate right out of the pan, so it stayed hot, then put it out on the front porch. I'd better try and get to town, colder temps and more snow in the forecast, best get out to the woodshed, bring some wood inside. It's getting old, but it's almost over. I saw green ferns at the edge of the driveway, other greens and those miniature flowers are beginning to show up in the median. March was awful last year, cold and snow storms, but it's usually just a time of rough transitions, nothing lasts for more than a few days. I can already smell the rotting leaves. It's officially no longer the dead of winter. The buds give it away, look at the red maple, I actually blanch poplar buds and have them with browned butter. I was reading about using a goose neck as a sausage casing and I got completely lost in what I might stuff it with. Oysters, bread crumbs and spinach; chorico, chick-peas and kale; a mixture of ground veal and wild game. I never once think of a swan's neck stuffed with truffles.