So I'm adding something new to my blog today. A little "week in review" feature. It seems like so often in life these days, between our busy schedules, our lack of social connection and the ever-depressing news media we are all in need of a return to remembering the simple joys in life. Remembering and observing and celebrating. So, pun completely intended, without further ado*...

This week...

was endless pots of tea and big, thick sweaters, blushing yellow roses and solo afternoon wanders in the library, hair appointments and emails from India, trying on 5 pairs of jeans that actually fit and Sunday lunches with family, a near full moon shining in my bedroom window and bald eagles flying over, another batch of homemade Samoa cookies (my current obsession) and softly falling snow.

*  Ado is another word for bustle, flurry or fuss....

"One doesn't read Jane Austen; one re-reads Jane Austen."

William F. Buckley, Jr

This time of year, I can't explain it, but I am always drawn to re-read each and every one of Jane Austen's wonderful books. Maybe it's the approach of Valentine's Day, maybe it's the cold and snow-bound days that afford all of us more time to read (if we chose to let them) or then again maybe it's just a yearning to imagine for myself, however wistfully, a different lot in life; just as Jane's own main characters imagined for themselves.

*List of Jane Austen's books...Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey.

Got to love these staying-indoors-wearing-pajamas-drinking-hot-tea kinds of days...

Today my parents left for India. They will be gone 5 weeks. So for the time being our thoughts and our prayers and indeed our s will be half a world away.

Another dreary, rainy, gloomy winter day. Another perfect excuse to stay in and, in true girl scout fashion, bake Samoa cookies.

By the way...here's the link for the recipe...in case you, too, want to make some allergen-free Samoa cookies.

http://realsustenance.com/gluten-free-samoa-cookies-graineggcornsoydairyrefined-sugar-free/

Of all the many things that have happened this year one of the most exciting, for me anyway, is...

this

Now, I know, you're probably thinking "lemons...?" 

"What's the big deal about lemons?" 

But you see I grew these lemons. Since reading the book Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, years ago, I have wanted a lemon tree. And this spring, after we bought our house and acquired a yard, I bought one. With 3 lovely smelling blossoms. And everyday I have watched the very slow process of 2 of those blossoms (the squirrels claimed one for themselves I'm afraid) as they lost their petals and the pistils grew bigger and rounder and finally, in early December, began to blush brightest yellow.

So now, cheering the west facing window in our spare bedroom and the barren, icy landscape outside these lemons wait. Wait for me to actually go so far as to harvest them. (After such a lead-up I'm a bit reluctant...) But in the meantime, they speak to me of warm breezes, sun drenched skies and tropical locations.

A cold January day in this new year calls for something warm and sweet. Well, hello there vanilla

almond donut with coconut chocolate glaze...

* Basic recipe link... 

http://www.sweetlyraw.com/2012/02/mini-donuts.html