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

SNOW provokes RESPONSES that reach back to CHILDHOOD...

-Andy Goldsworthy

This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,

Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;

True man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us,

And lightens every load.

-from the hymn "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" by Theodore Baker