Today in Meat Camp. AND, I leave for Paris in one month (squeee!)

 'tis another snowy day in Meat Camp

Winter is the best time

to find out who you are.

Quiet, contemplation time,

away from the rushing world,

cold time, dark time, holed-up

pulled-in time and space

to see that inner landscape,

that place hidden and within.

- - - by David Budbill

I leave for Paris in one month.  

(yes, yes, yes, I know I've mentioned it a time or two.  No Apologies!  I'm excited.  And, yes, I'm absolutely positively sure I'll be mentioning it more than a few more times both before leaving, while I'm there, AND upon returning.  It's good to have good things happening to be happy and excited about during these hard days of gloom and doom.  Right?!!  Damn right.  😊 )

Today, I decided, is a perfect day to pull out a few guidebooks to decide which, if any, to toss into my suitcase.

This is, of course, way too many guidebooks to even consider packing.  Add to that, I am being very careful this trip to pack as lightly as possible.  I would normally have Donald with me when flying, and he (being the gentleman his mom and dad raised him to be) always lifts my suitcase up and into the overhead for me.  Without Donald this trip, it will be up to me to get tha suitcase into the overhead.  Weight is of THE utmost importance this trip.

Once deciding if I need to take a guidebook or two then I'll check to see if there's a Kindle version.  OMG i love my Kindle.

Yes.  I do have a fascination with Paris.  

And a deep love of books.

 And, okay . . .

 admittedly, a bit of an obsession with books about France. 

And (again) I make no apologies -

I do love my Little Paris Library

But wait -

That's not all!

Looking for an escape to France?!

Check here -

https://www.kayebarleymeanderingsandmuses.com/2018/01/my-paris-reading-list.html

Looking for research material for France?!

Check here -

https://www.kayebarleymeanderingsandmuses.com/2022/02/my-paris-reading-list-non-fiction.html

Both lists were updated last May.  

Maybe I'll use this snow day as the perfect opportunity  to update the lists.  Maybe.

Bonne lecture, mes amis

❤ ❤ ❤ 

🗼💋 ☕ 🍾 🇫🇷 

Snow Day!

 

I do love a pretty snowy day.

Now that we're retired and don't have to leave the house, what's not to love?

We got 5 or 6 inches here at the house.  Hard to tell, really, with the snow blowing as hard as it is leaving some spots bare and others with all drifts.

AND a perfect day for soup!!

I revised an existing recipe for Slow Cooker Potato and Corn Chowder that I had already revised once (maybe twice).

Here it is as best I can remember.  There are many versions available on the web. Find one to play around with and make it your own, or follow mine, although I'm not a person who is devoted to measuring my ingredients.

Slow Cooker Potato and Corn Chowder 

Ingredients

• 1 large onion chopped
• 4 or 5 cups of diced potatoes 
• A stalk or two of celery chopped
• 1  15.25 oz. can of corn, drained 
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 1 pound bacon cooked and crumbled
• Some garlic
• some dried sweet basil
• A dash or two of smoked paprika
• salt and pepper to taste
• 12 ounces evaporated milk 1 can
• 3 tablespoons butter optional

Instructions

• Place everything except for the evaporated milk,  and butter into the slow cooker.
• Cook on high 5 hours or low 7-8 hours until vegetables are softened.
• Stir in the evaporated milk along with butter 30 minutes before serving,
• Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

P.S.

It also snowed in Paris ❤

Snow Fall by May Sarton

 

With no wind blowing

It sifts gently down,

Enclosing my world in

A cool white down,

A tenderness of snowing.

It falls and falls like sleep

Till wakeful eyes can close

On all the waste and loss

As peace comes in and flows,

Snow-dreaming what I keep.

Silence assumes the air

And the five senses all

Are wafted on the fall

To somewhere magical

Beyond hope and despair.

There is nothing to do

But drift now, more or less

On some great lovingness,

On something that does bless,

The silent, tender snow.

December 10, 2018 - More Snow

Snow Day - 12/9/2018

Donald took a fun little video of Annabelle earlier - I think she likes the snow pretty good.

And I took a few pictures around 11:00 this morning.

We have, I guess, 10-12 inches right now.  Hard to say, really.

But the snow is still coming down.

I'll take more pictures later to post.  I don't know what the latest prediction is - maybe around 24",  I think.

I hope you're all staying warm and safe!