This Weekend in Projects

O, what a snowy day. We must be breaking some sort of winter record for accumulated snowfall.

Snow awakens in me a desire to create little projects. Maybe playing with some brush calligraphy, or finally making a binder of my favorite Architectural Digest homes. These will not actually happen, I always know in the back of my mind. There is reading and meditating to be done, plus mundane chores: cleaning, paying taxes. But there are two projects that will happen this weekend.

One, I will create my own variation on my beloved Harvest Bread from Nashoba Brook Bakery. I'm going to omit the apricots and figs, and just stick with dried cranberries, walnuts, and candied ginger for now. One day, once I've practiced on the simplified version, one day when I wake up in a mood of unabashed decadence, I'll spring for all the ingredients. This bread sounds like disgusting overkill on paper, but it is truly wonderful. The sourdough sponge for my own rendition is bubbling to life as I type.

Two, I will henna my locks again. The nice people at the nice natural foods store (from whence comes my unsulphured dried fruit) now carry henna already prepared in a cream, which will hopefully create less powdery mess in my bathroom.

Otherwise, taxes, cleaning, PBS, and finishing The Subtle Knife before embarking upon The Amber Spyglass. I disciplined myself between the first two books, dutifully reading an unrelated book in the middle to make the series last, but I feel such willpower slipping away with each page I turn...I may dive directly into the third and final.