My new book arrived.
It's a neat tome and has an entry per day so I can get a microdose of nature every morning to start my day.
Here's Piper this afternoon catching some rays on my clean comforter.
Finally, here's a shot of the rain from a morning earlier this week. I eschewed the auto settings which brighten everything into unreality.
My Yasmin Williams CD has arrived. Since I bought it from her directly, she autographed it.
I am looking forward to seeing her this spring at the Stoughton Opera House.
New Year's Day was relatively temperate and snowy which meant I got to start 2026 with a morning walk without having to bundle up too much.
The sky poured generally large flakes down on me but, since it was only around 22, most were quickly blown off my coat and hat by the gentle breezes. Highway 30 provided its usual annoying automobilic ambience but it wasn't too busy as many people were still at home sleeping or nursing hangovers. Starkweather Creek was frozen over in some spots.
Once on the north side of the highway, I again pondered how to photograph a bike trail bridge. Their mixes of curves and Wrightian straight lines seem full of potential but I still haven't discovered a way to take a good photograph of them that somehow captures the way they fit into their environment.
A nearby oak tree had decided not to shed its leaves and the brown & tan hues added a slight hint of color to the otherwise white and grey landscape.
I took the creekside path where I saw one woodpecker plying its trade and heard another. On a tree that had fallen into the creek I spied a blue jay taking a break from bullying the other birds in the area.
By this time the din of the highway was inaudible and it was only the occasional plane that disturbed the serenity of the scene.
Once onto the bike path again I hoofed it for a little while before deciding to veer into the woods and follow the off-road bike path, something I hadn't done in 5 years or so.
Immediately I saw that I was not alone as there were bike tire tracks from those big, knobby winter bike tires in the snow. This meant that A) I was not alone and B) that I could avoid any "To Build a Fire" incidents by simply following them. I eventually made my way east to try to find that Blair Witch area with all the Barbie dolls in the trees that I ran into last time I was in these woods.
As I was walking along the trail at one point I heard a squeal from behind me. Turning to look, I found that the sound was from bicycle brakes and that there was an intrepid rider back at the last curve. It turned out to be a gentleman in his late 20s, methinks, who proved to be quite amiable as we ended up chatting for a few minutes.
He explained that his New Year's resolution was to get out on his bike more often and he figured he'd start on day 1. In addition, he told me that there was another biker out as well and I surmised it was this person's tracks that I had followed into the woods. Before long my interlocutor was off and I continued my trek down the path.
It wasn't long before I ran into ruins from the Truax air base.
I cannot remember what these fire hydrant-like things are called - they are to open or close valves that are underground.
Bits that were off the path and shrouded in leaves the last time I was in these parts were now revealed.
Some Norwegian had visited since the last time I was here as there were trolls at a couple spots where the trail split.
A splendid way to begin 2026. Quality time amongst the trees as the snow crunched beneath my feet and the chilly breeze licking my cheeks. And I got to chat with someone new. Walks like this are a big reason why I adore winter.
Lavenders blue, dilly dilly, lavenders green
When I am baking, dilly dilly
You will be eating
I baked more bread yesterday. With a mostly full bottle of buttermilk in my refrigerator, I opted for a loaf of buttermilk lavender bread. It turned out well.
I ate a bit simply with butter but think that honey would be very tasty as would making French toast with it. That bread machine cookbook I took out from the library explained the various types of yeast so I went out and bought some of the instant stuff. My hope is that this will help my next loaf of rye to rise correctly.
Addendum: this bread goes very well with tuna salad.
For some reason I thought it was be a good idea to get a bread machine cookbook from the library. A witchy librarian checked me out yesterday and today I baked my first loaf from the book. Hours after it had finished, my kitchen and living room still smelled of cardamom for I had baked some cardamom tea bread.
Sitting in the pan it looked and smelled delicious. Unlike my bundt cake, I managed to get the loaf out of the pan without a hitch. I was rather surprised at this point because after I had put the ingredients into the pan, the directions said to select the "Quick bread/cake" setting on the bread machine.
Well, my machine has no such setting. Some internet site helpfully explained that not all bread machines are built to accommodate recipes that use baking powder and soda as leavening agents. Yeast only, please.
After reading a bit more at this website about the experience of one gentleman with this type of bread machine, I made my best guess and selected a setting that I hoped would get me into the ballpark.
Cutting into it, I found that it looked properly risen and not dense like a neutron star.
How did it taste?
Marvelous!
A bit sweet and every bite was loaded with luscious cardamom. With a cup of sour cream and no small amount of oil, it was very moist.
I like the cut of your jib.
Peter Gabriel has a new album due soon. Well, soonish. Early next year, I suppose. It's to be called o\i. As with i\o, he'll be releasing a track every month on the full moon. Here's the announcement.
A friend and I went to Thai Noodles on New Year's Eve before going to see Genzhi Town to close out our cinema going for 2025. The movie was fun. Being a Chinese movie, the denizens of Chiang Kai-shek's China were heroic and patriotic while the minions of Emperor Hirohito were a bunch of sadistic barbarians.
For dinner I had some tasty cucumber salad
to accompany chicken larb.
Both were very tasty. I used the sticky rice to soak up the larby juices.
My dining companion had the fried rice where they threw in everything but the kitchen sink. Every kind of meat they had on offer, broccoli, peas, etc. I like how they piled it up into a mound on the plate giving it a Close Encounters of the Third Kind vibe.
I am told it too was very tasty.
Someone generously gave me a sous vide cooker for Christmas.
I haven't used it yet but am contemplating the purchase of a nice steak from Meat People and giving it a go.
A couple weeks or so ago I went out to UW Provision where I didn't find any venison for a batch of bigos.* But I did find this pasty:
It was eaten last night.
The filling was a giant ball of brat.
It tasted fine and I dipped tender nuggets of bratwurst into Düsseldorf senf and some HP sauce which tastes more and more like Heinz 57 upon subsequent tastings.
*A co-worker heard of my plight and will be donating some venison to the bigos cause.
My neighbor's deer decorations give me the chills, make me feel a bit of the unheimlich. Cage match Santa helps too.
Sun Prairie is now to home to a Nolan's Hmong Market. I believe it opened a couple months ago, ish. I stopped in last week on the strength of the sign not knowing it was a Hmong store.
I walked out with some sausage as well as a bag of meatballs.
I believe I've had sausage from Mekong previously though I don't recall if it was the pork ginger variety. Now that I look at this blog's archives, I find that I indeed had the pork ginger stuff a few years back. Probably from Viet Hoa. My plan is to put the meatballs, at least half of them, into a big bowl of ramen.
I must start the new year with cats.
Pipey!
A classic photo of Grabby.
For Christmas I was given an assortment of Dungeons & Dragons themed beard moisturizers, including several sample sized oils and a cream.
It even comes with the pogonophilic equivalent of the Player's Handbook. I've been trying to get into the habit of using the cream. While I haven't gotten into the routine of applying it everyday, I do most days. It doesn't smell bad.
For New Year's Day my wife and I ate Hoppin' John for many years. That tradition ended last year and look what happened - we're getting divorced.
Divorce means deciding on which elements of your old life you want to bring into the new one that you build everyday. I missed the New Year's meal last year and decided not to forgo it this year. But it couldn't be Hoppin' John. One day a week or so ago I was poking around in the refrigerator and found the bag of Winesap apples that I had bought on my last trip out to Lapacek's of the season.
Something went off in my head. A few minutes of internet searching later and I had decided to make Racuchy - Polish apple pancakes - on New Year's Day.
The Winesaps were grated. At the orchard the sign said they'd take on a marzipan-like flavor with aging which was a big bonus for me.
The batter included yeast. Just as with the bundt cake, I used half wheat, half buckwheat which gave it a brown-grey color.
I fried them up in plenty of oil and butter. They turned out well, I thought. Very fritter-like. It didn't take me long to consider trying them with cardamom next time instead of cinnamon.
I couldn't taste anything akin to marzipan but I do have one apple left for a tasting.
My hope is that Racuchy becomes my new New Year's tradition. Before meeting my wife, I didn't eat anything in particular to start the new year. Now that we're parting ways, I am retaining the tradition of eating something special on 1 January but am cooking a different food. Continuity but also forging a new future.
Having stumbled across a couple more zines in just the past week, I am becoming convinced that they're making a comeback.
It's getting to feel as if I can go to Pic-A-Book or Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative once again.
I finally got my Green Man stained glass hung at the new place.
I am looking forward to the view when the trees have leaves. But I am enjoying the winter.
Local trivia masters, with whom I have played many a game of trivia as an honorary member in Stevens Point, Deerfield, and elsewhere are celebrating 50 years. Chet is now my neighbor. I oughta look him up.
2025 has been quite a ride and it will soon end. The year, at any rate. The ride, perhaps not.
My divorce is likely the biggest event of the year for me. But 2025 has been more, much more, than just the beginning to the legal end of my marriage. Several people have entered or re-entered my life since being served papers. I found myself in the company of people that I would never have thought I'd be spending time with and have experienced quite a bit this year that was new and/or unexpected.
There were countless final things done with my wife and first times without her. Traditions were laid to rest and new ones born. Many new places, many new people. Some adventure was had in the UK, majesty in Concord.
A modest look back at 2025 in pictures.
HONK! was fantastic and Boston has become an annual trip for me. I love this Trump's Cthulhuy coif.
A most unexpected find on a hike.
Thanksgiving this year was the first in 20 years or so that I didn't spend with my wife. Instead I spent the day at the homes of two kind and generous people. At one I got to see Piper's brother, Gibson.
While there I sampled a luscious mango turmeric ginger tart. Or was it a torte?
It was simply delicious and I befriended its maker. I now have someone to visit should I find myself in Evanston.
2025 was the year I attended my first Chicago International Puppet Festival. It was fantastic!
Back in October I moved out of our marital residence and over to Eken Park where I found that one of my neighbors was rather fond of Halloween.
My wife and I visited the Northside Lounge. Despite some awkward moments, we managed to have a decent time. I like the contrast in this rather spare photograph.
Our last trip together was to Milwaukee in May where we caught both nights of The Magnetic Fields. It was also the last time that we managed to spend any significant time together in something resembling harmony.
I made multiple trips to the lovely Morton Forest, a real treasure.
In a seemingly never ending parade of attempts to spend as little time at home as possible, I finally made a visit to The Cat's Brew.
My friend who lives just a couple blocks away has a neighbor with this wonderful greenhouse.
It's been great living so close to this friend as we now see each other fairly frequently and Piper has a new caretaker for times when I am out of town.
My trip to Boston saw me visit Walden Pond where I experienced the sublime.
While in England, I ran into this statue of Lucifer rather cunningly placed just outside the Ozzy Osbourne exhibit.
The same museum also had a really cool exhibit about disabled people of color.
At another museum I got to stand before a steam engine from 1799 that was designed and/or built by James Watt himself. A piece of the Industrial Revolution that transformed the world. It still works. Amazing!
There were some nice pubs over in the UK.
Inside the Craven Arms looked like Sherlock Holmes' drawing room.
While I continue to get used to my new digs and still need to buy bookshelves, I do not miss my wife's clutter which occupied so much of our home.
Earlier this month I made a return trip to the Christkindlmarkt in downtown Chicago.
I may have a marzipan addiction.
Chicago TARDIS was a blast again this year. My wife and I began attending in 2009 and, although she stopped going last year, it was this year that made me really feel like the tradition that we built together was truly over and now I had to make my own.
I attended a panel hosted by the indelible Tony Whitt.
My downstairs neighbor has a dog whom I caught staring at me one day.
My neighbor is a nice lady. She waves when either of us drive by the other. If the aromas from her kitchen are any indicator, she's also a fine cook. I am still getting acclimated to having downstairs neighbors as it has been a while since I've had any. But, if I am to have one, she is a good choice.
2025 may have marked the second anniversary of Grabby's death but she's never too far from my thoughts.
