C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 79

SEVEN!

All seven of our seedlings have sprouted! We’ll have an ORCHARD! In about fifteen years. Assuming I don’t kill any of ‘em. :)

I’d just decided that last one wasn’t gonna come up and that I’d probably have to toss it at the new year. But then it popped up. I think those seeds are psychic. :) Anyway, pretty nifty, although I’m going to have to find a deeper box for them, because the tallest ones are brushing the plastic wrap now. I thought it would take MUCH LONGER for them to get tall!

Things ar...

Kitsnacks: Russian Tea Cakes

RUSSIAN TEA CAKES

(traditional Kenai Russian ladies’ recipe)

1 c softened (not melted) butter

1/2 c sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 c flour

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 c finely chopped walnuts

Allow the butter to soften to room temperature–do not melt. Sift the powdered sugar & measure. Stir them together using a spoon–do not use a mixer. Stir in the vanilla.

Sift and measure the flour, then re-sift with the salt. Stir in the chopped walnuts. Stir the flour mix into the butter mix.

The resulting dough w...

Happy Birthday of the Unconquered Sun!

I got up this morning and lit a candle for the Ember Days, because defying the gods of a fictional world is just how I roll. And also it was certainly long before sunrise, so I’ve done my part in showing the sun the way back today (although I think tonight may actually be the Longest Night. Close enough.). Happy Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, everybody. :)

I tell you what, poor Indy is so wrecked that I’m about ready to wrap all the presents and declare it Christmas. He is SO. EXCITED. So ex...

look, i wrote a book

I have, a year late and after half a dozen false starts and tens of thousands of words thrown away, finally finished the 3rd book in the quartet I’m writing for my nephew.

It is, I am pretty confident, utter shit, but Christ, at least it’s finished.

That’s…three, I think. Books I’ve written this year. STONE’S THROE, which will be out–soon! January, maybe, for Kickstarter backers? March or April for everybody else? BEWITCHING BENEDICT, the Regency we’re shopping around, and now SKYMASTER.

Also I...

christmas tins

I made vanilla fudge, chocolate fudge, German nut tarts, Russian tea cakes, toffee, coconut joys and shortbread cookies for this year’s Christmas tins. Then I went to get the tins, and concluded I might have a Christmas Tin Problem problem:

Seriously, I love buying Christmas tins. I’m always like YES MUST HAVE MORE! But to my considerable surprise, I filled all but four, and of those four, the train, although cool, isn’t appropriate for unwrapped treats. So I’ve been going around like the Chri...

ethnic food!

There’s an aisle at the local grocery store that is advertised as having Ethnic Food in it. Traditionally it was Indian and Chinese, and more recently, Mexican. But this week they have added AMERICAN Ethnic Food! Kraft mac&cheese! Canned pumpkin! Pop Tarts! CHEETOS!!

I have never been so happy (and dismayed) as to see Cheetos on the shelf. :)

We’re up to FIVE seedlings now. One is barely a speck of green curl in the dirt, but it’s there! And we only have eight planted, so more than half have sp...

tiny seedlings

Several weeks ago–early November, because I had to move the greenhouse for Thanksgiving–Young Indiana and I made a wee greenhouse of a deepish cardboard box lined with tinfoil. We filled several empty toilet paper rolls with dirt, propped the rolls in an egg carton, and tucked orange seeds into the tops. We’ve a string of Christmas lights in the box to create warmth, and a piece of saran wrap across the top to keep heat and moisture in. But our kitchen is Very Cold, and I thought that despite...

Cyber…Tuesday…late… o.o

I am doing a MID-WEEK ROUNDUP of AWESOME CYBER STUFF!

1. Judith Tarr’s HORSES OF THE MOON Kickstarter is 80% of the way to funded! I personally *dearly* want it to hit the 6500 mark and get us THREE novellas, which might be just enough to satisfy my grabby little hands! :)

2. SIX BY SIX is a fantastic looking anthology with 6 stories each by 6 authors. I admire the whole idea of it and, uh, am jealous of the people doing it, if you wanna know so much. :)

3. Cats Laughing–you know Cats Laughing;...

the changing arctic

“Daunting as the future Arctic looks to be, it may in fact be much worse. What we think we know about the future of the region may be grossly underestimated because scientists are uncomfortable talking about or putting pen to predictions that are not backed by 95 percent certainty.” — from The End & Beginning of the Arctic.

This is precisely what’s concerned me since (before, but pointedly, since) the collapse of the Canadian ice shelf mentioned in this article. I understand the politics of sc...

Joy to the World

I’ve been seeing that “It’s Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays!” thing going around again, and…

…look. I was young and totally ethnocentric once. When “Happy Holidays” started to intrude on my awareness, I thought it was silly. We celebrated Christmas. Everybody I knew celebrated Christmas. It was ridiculous to use the phrase “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. Worse, it was that vertboten of verboten things: politically correct.

I was an asshole, in that regard. I have no idea whe...