things to carve: a spoon, a home.

        It only seemed appropriate to settle into home by opening up a new cookbook and baking a loaf of bread. While it wasn't the best tasting loaf I've ever created, it kept the cabin smelling sweet and it made me feel really good. The best part of the whole experience was stirring the ingredients with the new spoon I carved from a willow tree. This was so exciting, in fact, that I probably over-stirred the ingredients which lead to the distastefulness of the loaf itself. Oh well. It's pretty, isn't it?

This is the forest in front of our cabin. It mostly consists of birch trees 

and swallowtail butterflies. However, two nights ago, Thaddaeus and I were awakened by the 

sound of an owl hooting in the trees. I stayed up with it for a while but soon 

grew too tired to keep him company and fell asleep.

And here is the homestead! I love the red roof and door. Notice the 

firewood in the foreground that Thaddaeus has been working so hard to harvest. 

It will keep us warm through the cold, dark winter.

These are some chocolate cupcakes with cookies and cream frosting I made for a 

dinner party at Thaddaeus' advisor's house.

Also...

... upon arrival, I discovered that a certain friend (middle name Renee) snuck a few thoughtful 

treasures into my heavy, boring luggage. With her help, unpacking quickly went from 

uninteresting to exhilarating and I felt right at home.

So many pen pals, so little time!