Winter nostalgia

I'm four in this picture; my sister Yana is five. Along with our brother, we spent our earliest years on our grandparents' farm in the Ukraine. Long winters found us digging underground snow tunnels and making igloos nearly every day. I usually don't long for the past, and I know nothing remains the same--not even in our memories. But when I look at this picture some twenty years later, I wish I could return to that time.

Happy onions

This month has had its ups and downs, escalator-style. Wonderful long ups and a few terribly slow downs. Today: an equilibrium of sorts. To celebrate I sliced onions (one of the pleasantest cooking rituals I know) and put them into an improvised curry so delicious and spicy that it made me breathe funny for a while after I'd eaten it. Things are looking up!

I hope my wonderful readers are having a good last few days of the old year before ringing in the new one.

Huzzah!

 

My friend whose love for lemons is nearly pathological has found someone to wed: a woman who eats deep fried garlic mashed potatoes for breakfast.

Paper cat

Life has been a whirlwind lately. I haven't managed to fit in time for photographs or drawing, but here's a picture of my newest friend--a clever paper lamp acquired during a white elephant gift exchange today.