Good Morning, Taylor. It’s been a while hasn’t it?

Life has been both very busy and also very boring. And time has been tight, and time has been stretched. I had enough time to think about a letter. But never enough time to write it, once I got down to it. It’s been too long, so I’m writing one now. 🙂

There’s been a real change with one of the crows. There used to be a crow that was really close to me, Mrs Crow. She would often stop by and make little oodleoo noises and rattles, and she’d spend time with me if I was out on the deck. When the seasons changed, and after the big fight with he squirrel, I didn’t see that family too often anymore. But a new batch of crows showed up. And in the last month, one has really taken an interest in me. He will usually sit withing my eye-line, although maybe across the lawn, and he’ll make little warbling noises at me. I usually say “Hello, Crows!” when I see them, and it really sounded like he was trying to mimic me. He also tried some dog barks and rattles on me. He’s now finding me when Ragdoll or I get out of the car, and will make a loud rattle when he sees me. Sometimes he’ll even fly over to the house and follow me to the door. I want to say this might be Mrs Crow, because she would do that, too. But this crow is a little more afraid of me than Mrs Crow ever was. Being friends with a crow is still so amazing, even if I’ve had a crow friend before.

After my birthday got canceled over and over again, I decided I wanted to do something special for myself. After a nice breakfast of blueberry pancakes at a nice breakfast diner, I decided to use my time out to go see snow. Stevens Pass was still closed because of all the flooding we had in December, so I went to Snoqualmie Pass. I took a nice long drive out there and saw some of the beautiful Cascade Mountains on the way. As I was going, I found a local park. I saw an amazing waterfall, and while I’d seen it before, this was still gushing from flood waters. It looked so lovely and powerful. I kept going through and I was just blown away by the snow I saw at the pass. Snoqualmie Pass is a winter resort area, but I didn’t realize there would be gigantic walls of snow everywhere. Ten fifteen feet high. Snow drifts of almost 20 feet around houses. It was so so so much snow. I wasn’t dressed to go out in it, and that really made me realize that I need some good cold weather clothes. And when I came home, there was a crow there to greet me. 🙂

I’ve been trying to learn to cook more, and have made a few really good dishes. Parmesan Baked Chicken, Rosemary Garlic Pork Chops are two I’ve made this month. The fanciest was Burgundy Glazed Meat Patties, which needed salt, but were very very good. I’ve finally graduated from the kids recipes to a “learn to cook” cookbook and it’s working pretty well, I think. I’ve even made bread! Naan (a failure) and bannock (REALLY good). I’m going to try to make some wheat bread loaves once we finish up the sourdough bread I bought last week. If I can make that, we never have to buy bread again. Except I really like sourdough. Our local cook, Ragdoll, however, messed up and burned maple syrup to our pans, and after WEEKS of trying to remove it we had to give up. We retired our very old, very inherited pans, and bought a brand new set. Along with an Instant Pot (which turned out to not be an Instant Pot, but just a slow cooker), and a new griddle after our old one warped. Whole brand new kitchen. I hope I can do it justice.

I’ve been trying to do my reading, but with the days so short and the dark so long, I just don’t like to sit on the couch in the dark reading with coffee. I have managed to finish a book and start a new one. The Artist lent me The Last Unicorn, and it was one of those books that I had to be careful about picking up, because if I did, I was going to be reading for hours. It’s such a sad and uplifting book at the same time. No one really has a happy ending except one character, and in the end, you’re happy because everything resolved, but sad, because very few people got what they wanted or needed. Then I saw the movie. Oh, the movie. It was also sad and uplifting. For the same, and for very different reasons. I’ve started my next book, Luka and the Fire of Life. The sequel to Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which I loved so very much.

I did also see Labyrinth, in a slightly sneaky way. The Artist, The Coder and The Wise Woman all went with Ragdoll to go see the movie. But once we got there and the lights went down, she let me out and I was the one who saw the movie. She told me “I’ve seen the movie so many times, and you haven’t. It’s your turn to see the movie.” I put her back in at the end, but the movie itself was so so so cool. Jareth is a very pretty man, and I loved just how fantasy it was. It was hard to follow sometimes, and it felt more like a collection of scenes than a movie, but it was so pretty to look at I didn’t mind. The movie. And Jareth. Both were pretty to look at.

I ate pho. It’s my new favorite food. Of all time. So far.

We had a big cold snap in our town, and since we walk to Ragdoll’s carpool spot, things got a little worrying. There was ice everywhere. But it made everything so sparkly. When I’d get to a block without light, the ice would catch the lights behind me or ahead of me, and the world twinkled like stars. I was worried about the crows having their water freeze over, so I made sure when I poured it it was super hot. I put the water out at 6AM, and the birds don’t show up until about 8, and the camera showed that it was cooler, but still liquid, so I don’t think the birds got burned or anything. The water stayed liquid all day for the most part. It had only lightly crusted over in ice when I got home. The steam on the infrared camera through was amazing to watch.

The last part of our February was a massive desk rebuild. Ragdoll’s old art desk wasn’t able to take the strain of all the stuff on it, and it was starting to fall apart, so we bought a new desk for her work stuff, and moved her work desk to her personal desk. The old personal desk was retired and is being given to The Wise Woman with the warning that it should be used as a drafting table and not a load bearing table. It took the both of us several days to move, build and arrange the desks. Which isn’t easy to do when you’re switching between people trying to make everything work, But it’s all put together now and its quite nice if I do say so myself.

I finally got myself some more wintry clothes. A nice sweater and better thicker shoes. And a new jacket. I feel a little sad about the jacket. The one I’ve been using is Ragdoll’s old green jacket. It doesn’t really fit us, but it was the jacket I wore when I first came out so so so many years ago. And I had kind of claimed it. But since I was getting new warmer clothes, I decided to get a real jacket. We’re not throwing the other one away, that’s going back to Ragdoll, with my thanks. I have a new one that’s black and gold, and I love it. It’s a little big for me, but it was either “too small” or “super sized.” It keeps me warm. That’s what matters. 🙂

I also got to go into town for the first time in forever. I was sad to see my favorite coffee shop had closed. The one I went to is good, and actually has some good baked goods, but it’s very impersonal because it’s really a bakery that does coffee and not a coffee shop. I found a replacement though, and I’ll try going there next time I’m in town. It’s been almost five months since I’ve been in town, and that’s too long. I need more out time, and I’ve been trying to take it where I can. today I went out for breakfast, and I was hoping to hike, but the weather took a turn for the worse. But I can and will go out more. Especially since it’s getting lighter in the morning.

There’s a few more things I’d like to talk about, but time is short and this letter is long. But let’s say we’re caught up.

Miss you and Keshii.

–Andrea