Fool's gold

When I was a kid, I spent countless hours on the beach, playing with seaweed, looking for "washglass" as my sister and I called it, and skipping the best flat rocks I could find (shale works great if you don't cut your hand). Adam and I had a great time at the beach yesterday, mostly taking pictures. His are much better than mine. Anyway, he spotted this rock almost as soon as we stepped onto the beach - the hugest piece of fool's gold I have ever seen. I guess you really can't tell from the picture, but it's a good inch and a half in diameter. When I was a kid, I thought that someone went around to all of the beaches in the world and cut out little squares in rocks and filled them with fake gold, just for a joke. I guess I was wrong, but it would make a good joke.

Quince

The quince buds have started to open! I had never tried forcing branches in the winter before, but I think it's one of my new favourite things. That and these squares that I made up yesterday with chocolate chips, oatmeal, dried cranberries, walnuts, and everything else that I had leftovers of in the cupboard. I just melted a bit of margarine and some marshmallows, mixed in the stuff, and voila! Instant squares. No sugar, and very tasty.

Every morning when I wake up...

... there's a cat licking condensation off of the window.

Tiptoeing through the...

My thoughtful and hopelessly romantic husband bought me un-Valentine's tulips (my absolute favourite flowers!) the other day. This one is the only one that has opened so far; the others are waiting until they don't have so much competition, methinks.
Other flora-related news in this house - I'm forcing some quince branches, and a few of the leaves have opened, and it looks like some of the flowers are quite ready to burst. I planted some basil and rosemary, and they have both sprouted. An amaryllis is also on the go; just leaves so far, but they're definitely making progress. I can't wait for Spring!