bits

 Madeleine cookies / cakes with ebony carrot powder in them

 

 mullein plant, biennial, first year rosette

 

We are down to 13 chickens, including our two roosters.   We lost another one of our Olive Eggers to old age this morning.  I was confused though, because I was pretty sure we were at 15 with the roosters before losing this one - and Esme and I counted again and again, and only came up with thirteen.  I might have not counted the last one that we lost - although I remember her - or maybe something happened to another one of the Cinnamon queen types and we haven't found any evidence of it yet.  We looked all around in the pen - and didn't see anything.  The one that was gone this morning was just fallen over and right out in the open with no injuries - although she had been getting slower and walking a little hunched for the past few weeks.

 I got some spice samples from a company the other day and I have been trying them out.  Tried some tarragon in our eggs - I always have that go bad before I've used very much of it.  Today, I tried some of the ebony carrot powder, which is a very bright magenta color, in a batch of madeleines - and the purple powder made the dough sort of purplish-grey and the actual cakes a bit of a greenish color. 

 Got the first strawberries today :)  Chopped them up in some sugar and put some in yogurt and a bit on pancakes. 

Studying mostly French with some Portuguese. Been dreaming more in French or pseudo-French, at least.

Been working through the dental plate issues and cooking my own dinners more so I don't have as much problem with things that Mark and Esme can eat but I have trouble with - because when it was already inflamed trying to eat something harder and having it rock was causing more issues... and I am trying hard (very hard) not to sleep on that side for more than an hour or so here and there at night - can't only sleep on the other side, my hips and shoulders won't let me do that, either.