mystery film

Over Christmas I discovered a roll of film in my 35mm camera so I quickly finished the roll and then…. had to wait forever for CVS to develop the pictures. But I was really excited to discover that the film was still good and that I hadn't accidentally double exposed or flashed the roll!

I got some beautiful captures of three of my favorite friends:

my little Lucy

chocolate chip pancakes for every meal if possible

click through for more photos!

home made french fries

In one month I will be getting home from a shift at Coffee O and making supper with my new rookie Katie. Boy does that feel like a million miles away! In the mean time, I am going to keep experimenting with this amazing home made french fry recipe.

image from 3-Chairs

Holy cannoli these are so good and easy! Keegan and I made them with turkey burgers to celebrate the summer-like weather, it's 80 degrees here. I think any potato would be good with this recipe, we used Dutch baby golds, but next up I want to try sweet potatoes :))

In book news, i just finished the novel A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham, the first in a  quartet. I really enjoyed it but honestly I am not sure everyone else would as I indiscriminately love all sic-fi/ fantasy books with really cool worlds. The story follows two young men who were trained to be poets, but only one of them finished his education. Poets in this world are people who describe an action in a way that gives the action itself into a physical manifestation, a human body, and then the poet can magnify that action a thousand fold. For example, in the book, a poet uses his creation as a tool to harvest grains for his city - he can harvest it all at once by using his mind. PRETTY AWESOME.

butternut squash risotto without the risotto recipe

I made a delicious butternut squash and grain dish the other night based of this risotto recipe. I did not have the ingredients to make that but it looks amazing and someone should try it out!!

Here's what I managed: 

and it was pretty delicious!! Even better the next day with pesto chicken sausage :)

Continue for the recipe, but first some book recommendations….

Winter again..

How was last Sunday 74 degrees... It's 19 degrees right now and the snow is coming down fast. Luckily I am inside at work with a giant sweater and my knitting to keep me warm! Though it's nothing like woods hole:

Buddha is buried in my mom's back yard

we in Virginia are still expected to get 8 inches today and tonight. Fingers crossed we get snowed in and I can skip work tomorrow!! 

Today has been pretty slow, probably people are inside staying warm! I read this book today, The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. I really enjoyed it, obviously it was a quick read. This novel is smothered of the world as we know it sort of story, but much more practical and realistic than a lot of what's out there. Told through the eyes of a middle school girl, Miracles follows what happens when the earth's rotation begins to slow. It was very interesting and also a little sad, I recommend it if you are not prone to anxiety!

Back to all anyone can talk about, the snow!

• Click to continue... and see some art work!

spring came early!

This week has been such lovely weather (sorry MA family and friends!) I have managed to get in a lot of reading and Keegan and I have gone on a few adventures!

more photos later

I have been using the kindle a lot lately, loving having access to library books right from my bed!
I read two historical fiction books this week by Susanna Kearsley: Mariana and The Shadowy Horses.

Mariana is about a woman who has felt an intense compulsion to move to a specific house in the English countryside since she was a child. Finally in her early thirties circumstances come together and she leaves London and moves into her dream house. Soon after she begins having intense hallucinations to what may be flashbacks of a previous life - dreams of a young woman names Mariana who lived during the plague in the same house. This book was fine, I think the character development was sub par and Kearsley has written better novels.

Much better novels like this one! The Shadowy Horses takes place in England as well but revolves around an archeological dig that is hunting for the long lost Ninth Roman Legion. They have decided to dig in this particular spot because there is a little boy who lives nearby who claims that he can see the ghost of a Roman legionnaire haunting the area….whooooooooooo! I enjoyed this novel a lot (although I think i may have read it before?), it really made me want to go dig for artifacts!

continue for more reviews and spring weather (incl some cute birds)!

hellooo 2015

it's been three weeks since I last posted because I was seeing everyone at home and therefore you all knew what I was up to!

three whole weeks and I only read ONE BOOK, that just goes to show what a difference having friends and people to hang out with does to your free time (eats it up).

My january book club book was Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout. Each chapter was told from a different perspective of residents in a small Maine town who interacted with the title character Olive Kitteridge. My friend actually read it in a psych class, the book explores different metal states and ways of living and loving. Very sweet, kind of sad, but highly recommended! (Woods Hole library has a copy).

My time at home was wonderful, and it's nice to know that Keegan and I can easily make the drive back in one day.

we left at 7 am to drive back and it took us just over 10 hours with no traffic!

Here's the blue ridge mountains at sunrise. I thought I would miss the ocean more, but I really love the mountains!

rabbit rabbit, happy December!!

December already!?!?

I just posted yesterday BUT I also read a book yesterday that my dad is currently reading, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I loved this book, I am fascinated by psychological thrillers, and I like being scared while reading but then as soon as I put the book down now being scared anymore because the story is so different than your life. The novel alternates every chapter following two threads: the murder of a mother and two daughters in the 1980s and the events leading up to their deaths, and then the story line in present day of the daughter who survived. The main character is unlikable but also I recognize a lot of her very real traits in myself and other people I live with. My favorite part of this book is the historical look at what was happening in the late 1900s, the decline of the farmer, the growth of big business, the Satanic cult worship hysteria, even thinking about therapy methods and how leading and harmful they were. I listened to an NPR interview with Flynn a while back and the interviewer said, "So…what HAPPENED to you?" and she laughed, saying she gets that question all the time, but that there was no trauma in her past, no dark secrets, she really enjoys looking at the physiologically twisted sides of life that often go ignored and unexamined. In her "thank yous" at the end of Dark Places she thanks her husband saying something like, "you know how my mind works and yet you still sleep next to me every night with the light off." haha!!

Well it is 71 degree here, I am wearing shorts, i hope everyone enjoys the last burst of warmth before the winter really sets in!

little abbs last year enjoying the snow

xoxo