Bagel love again

It has been clear that I love bagels. I told it repeatedly till now. But I wasn't able to find a bagel that I liked very much recently, I was a bit far away from it.

Last Sunday when I went to the co-op with my husband for our weekly grocery shopping, bagels in a showcase appealed to me in an unusual way. I had to buy them, and we ate them for lunch of the day. I made easy bagel sandwiches and warm soup. It was really perfect lunch for me and I indulged myself in munching every bit of it. To be honest with you, I felt sad when the bagel was all gone. It apparently clicked some spot in my mind, and I ate bagels for lunch yesterday and today. Now I feel a strong urgency to find my favorite bagels in the town. Maybe the time has come for visiting a fairy new bagel shop in an inconvenient area for me!

Unknown but not unfamiliar feeling

The picture above is from my second roll of this year, the one that I took on one very very snowy day. It was beautifully blue outside early in the morning, and I was amazed with it.

Today it is perfectly sunny and crisp, the world seems totally different from the snowy day. Though the weather is the one which cheers everybody's feeling up and brightens the day up, something unknown but not really unfamiliar feeling is floating in my mind. I can't figure out what that feeling is, and it just stubbornly dominates my heart. And I can't also come up with the idea what can help me out of that feeling.

I wish if I could merge into the cheerfulness and brightness outside. It seems quite easy if I could release my heart. I hope something is showing up as such a releaser soon.

Good-bye January with donuts

It's really surprising that January is about to go. I can't believe that I've already spent the new year's first month. Though I'm feeling that way, whenever I feel it or hear someone's saying the same kind of statements, I feel bad a bit. I can't explain exactly why I have that bad feeling. Maybe because I think it's old to say aloud. We always live that way and time always passes by that way too, and there's nothing new or surprising in it. Instead of being stunned or overwhelmed with the passed time, I simply want to feel this way; "I enjoyed January very much!"

One of the enjoyable things in January for me is to have eaten some donuts. I've tried not to get my hands on them for a while because of their nutritional balance. Since I'm pregnant (yes! I'm pregnant and 23 weeks along.), I want to take protein as much as possible. Donuts are apparently lack of protein, if any. So, though I sometimes felt eagerness for them, I tried to make myself neglect it. My husband had known my intention, too. Then one day in January he bought an apology sugar donut over a small fight which took place a night before on his way to home from the office. So I decided to take it pleasantly (we shared it with cups of decafe coffee after dinner), and accepted the apology.

And the second occasion happened just a day after that. I think my eagerness for donuts was stimulated with the apology donut. When we went to a grocery store together next day, we bought some donuts for next morning. I feel guilty a bit when I eat donuts for my breakfast, but I honestly love it!

Thus I say good-bye to January with a smile. :)

White world.

Today it's snowing. This is the first big snow this season in this area. I'm fascinated with the beautiful white world outside. We usually have more snow, but they say that this winter is warm one and we can't expect much snow. I've thanked the warm winter till today, but once I saw this beautiful picture, I soon started to thank this pretty weather. Well, I know that it's not going to last for long that I'm thanking this snowy weather though. ;)

Hope you're having pretty winter in your area.

Meals with good bread.

I love dinner with good artisan bread which is locally baked and pieces of good butter. My husband and I occasionally buy a loaf of bread at co-op on Saturday or Sunday. These two days are the only chance for us to get good bread, because we do most of our grocery shopping on weekend together. The co-op we use always have good variety of bread from 3 local bakeries. Recently we love bread from the bakery L. They bake French style artisan bread, and our current favorite is country bread. I love the subtle tartness from starter and rye flour of it. We used to buy some bread from the bakery Z before, but I recently started to find them a bit salty for me and leave them. For bread from the bakery B, as it's delivered from the bakery which is situated in rather far part of the area from our town (I wonder if I should really call it a local bakery), I'm not sure when their bread is baked and that makes me hesitate to put my hand on them. I want my bread as fresh as possible.

When a pretty loaf of bread is on the table, I'm always overly excited. It's safe to tell that I like bread the most than any other dishes, even though a pretty big lobster were before me. A simple salad of fresh greens, a warm cup of creamy soup and a juicy piece of seafood dish are nice, but for me, the main of the meal is definitely bread. "Pieces of bread with butter and a glass of red wine" is the prettiest sentence ever.

So, I'm so happy now that I ate my current most favorite bread this past weekend.:)
I'm having a good start of the week, and I hope you too.

P.S. The bread in the picture is not the one I ate this weekend, but it's the one from the bakery Z. It used to be my most favorite bread, sourdough batard. I took this picture sometime in summer of 2011.

Maybe it's the time.

I've noticed that Monday brings several deep sighs to me recently, and today is Monday. Full weekdays ahead of me feel something hard to manage to me. So I need to diffuse the dull mood in me.

When people engage themselves in some work vigorously, passing time is really easy. It even passes without much consciousness. I definitely need the situation like that, and for me making something is absolutely going to be the one. The picture above is the dress that I hand-sewed last summer. I liked to hand-sew my clothes after I lost one of my most beloved cats last June. Just living days felt too hard for me at that time and I needed some distraction. Then I started hand-sewing and it really worked for me. Hand-sewing takes more time than using a sewing machine, and I put myself in kinda meditation like emotional phase between stitches. I felt really calm and peaceful. But after I'd done with 5~6 works, I fell in the situation that I wasn't able to concentrate on making. It was just because of some physical reason, and by now it has gone. So now is the time to restart making.

I have a few yards of black linen cloth which has been ready to be worked with since last summer. Black linen... cool, isn't it? So I want to make something sweet with it. (FYI, the dress in the pic was made with mocha linen. I love linen.)

A calm Sunday.

10 am on Sunday, it's really peaceful time. After a bit later breakfast than weekdays, I'm thinking what to do today vaguely. He is now in the darkroom downstairs and I'm about to continue reading the novel I've been reading recently in the living room. An hour later, I'll start to fix our lunch. Maybe some kind of pasta dish. Then we'll leave the home to a second run theater to watch the movie that we talked about before. After the movie, it'd be pretty to go to some cafe in downtown for chatting.

This year we haven't gotten much snow, and it's really unusual this area. Temperature is almost low as usual, but being free to go somewhere without the fear of skidding is so nice. After having come to here, winter came to reduce its fascination in me, I'm always looking forward to warm air of spring with some degree of cabin fever. So this year is a bit nicer than the years before. I don't like the harsh pain of coldness here, but I just thank the clear road condition. I can go to a theater or a cafe without any difficulty. That's jut nice. :)

An irresistible desire.

Well, now I strongly want to have a fun shopping. I browsed some online shopping sites yesterday without any special purposes, then the mood for it was gradually deepened and now I can't help but thinking about buying something. It's like the case you go out for window shopping with no intention, but by the time you head to your home, you have some bags of stuff in your hands. Well I thank the situation that I had to click the button of "buy", which somehow made me ponder whether to buy. (I din't click none of them yesterday. Good for me.)

The picture above was taken about the same day 2 years ago. That old metal tin is the the first thing I bought that year at the local second hand shop. It only cost $1 or 2. I like hunting at thrift shops, and browsing at those shops is really good way to kill boring time of the beginning of a new year. Good thing for it is that the expense of under 10 bucks is going to really hurt you.

This year, I want something a little bit more expensive. I told you that I've already bought a new pair of glasses yesterday. But I have to wait to get it until about the end of the month, so I want some other stuff for now. A new confy cardigan would be nice. And today is Saturday. Saturday sounds something dangerous, doesn't it huh? ;)

Hello 2012.

The year 2012 has already started, and actually nothing has seemed to change from 2011 so far. And I know that a new year always starts that way.

Yesterday I went to the optometrist to get a prescription for new glasses. My vision has been bad since I was 8 or 9. I used to wear contact lenses before, but I gave up them after moving to this place. Here air is very very dry, and wearing contact lenses is nothing but a nightmare. Though my vision doesn't get worse much since my early 20's, I regularly get a new pair of glasses just for seeking comfortableness and refreshing how I look. So I decided to get a new one for this new year for the first time in about 5 years. I can't wait to get it. (FYI, I chose my new favorite from Barton Perreira.)

A little change is always exciting. And it's so nice especially when it comes at the time of entering upon new phases, like beginning of a new year or your birthday. Even though nothing surrounding you doesn't seem new, just refresh your mind, then start new you with a bit of change. :)