A day or several

Earlier this week, I awoke to a beautiful morning only to discover that a poor pigeon had seen his last day. Truthfully, I can't stand the pigeons here. They're loud and in the summer they eat the strawberries out of our garden. I was fascinated by all of the feathers until I took another few steps and found said bird sans head. I nudged the cruelly beheaded victim onto our compost pile with a stick (ew, dead bird bacteria) and later he disappeared, which is fine by me. The prime suspect for both fowl acts is our new(ish) feline neighbor. I wish him happy hunting--if he keeps his future prey out of my yard. 

He's a pretty cute kitty anyway. 

One of my friends told me I should make a pillow.

Last year, we decided to be Vegan. It wasn't for any noble reason, just a stab at better health. We did pretty well for about five months and decided that it wasn't really for us. The only fragment left of our experimental veganism is vegetable pot pies. I make the dough from scratch and everything. I'm actually pretty proud of them and Forrest can't get enough, which tells me I'm doing something right. I do cheat now and use chicken stock rather than vegetable because, let's face it, chicken stock just tastes better. 

Hey, we're not vegan anymore.

Even when I make a bigger one for guests, I always have to make Forrest his own individual pie. It reminds me of To Kill a Mockingbird but opposite. Or maybe not so opposite. He is like an excited little boy whenever I make them. 

I'll have to start calling him Jem. 

My great-grandmother gave me these handmade potholders.

 I adore them. 

I think that she is the main reason I learned how to knit and crochet. She has made countless rag rugs and huge crocheted blankets and really anything you can make with yarn. She can just sit there and make a blanket in a day. This woman is almost 90 years old and is probably the feistiest person I have ever met.

 She amazes me.

During her visit, my sister found the huge mugs we have in the cupboard and decided she needed root beer floats. So we took a trip to Tesco to see what we could find. I had a sneaking suspicion that root beer is more of an American beverage and I was right. The closest thing we could find was ginger beer or cream soda. I'm almost positive that ginger beer and ginger ale are the same thing. We went with the cream soda (it's clear here; it looks like water), but never really had the heart to open it. The next time we ventured to base, I bought root beer. 

These are for you, Megan. 

Next time we'll use American ice cream too.

Cheers!