Welcome to The Bakehouse Almanac — a brand new month-to-month ritual I’m so glad you’re right here for. On the prime of every month, this little almanac will land like a word taped to the fridge accompanied by a mug of espresso slid throughout the counter. It’s our month-to-month information of types: a mixture of good intentions, quick lists, seasonal ideas, and some private notes from me as we transfer by means of the yr collectively. Consider it as a vibe examine as we step into every new month. An intentional break from the information cycle.

That is very a lot a shared desk state of affairs. A dialogue, not a monologue, if you’ll.  Within the feedback, I’d love so that you can examine in too! Inform me how February feels the place you might be, what’s enjoying in your earbuds, what’s baking in your oven (or what you’re hoping to bake this month). We’re doing this collectively, one month at a time, with soiled dishes within the sink and the easiest of intentions. Right here’s how we felt about January from the feedback from final month’s almanac. 

Buddies, can we speak about vultures?

I’ve had vultures circling this previous home in Bellville since I moved in a number of years in the past. I’m nicely conscious they’ve little or no to do with me personally and far more to do with my small city tackle and proximity to a two-lane freeway the place the occasional raccoon, possum, squirrel, and even deer loses a battle with an oncoming automobile.

The vultures are the clean-up crew round right here, and I’ve at all times appreciated their service.

Two springs in the past, shortly after I moved in, I seen an injured vulture hiding within the little barn on the fringe of the pasture. One wing hung awkwardly at his aspect, poor man. And he teetered away from me anytime I approached with a bowl of water.  I stood there questioning: did I’ve something lifeless to supply him? That felt just like the unsuitable intuition.

For days, his vulture household perched on the roof of the home, watching over him. It felt biblical. I didn’t know what to do, so I referred to as metropolis corridor. A really affected person metropolis employee got here out, surveyed the state of affairs, nodded solemnly, and confirmed that sure, that was an injured vulture, and no, he wouldn’t be doing something about it.

He gently jogged my memory that I stay within the nation now. And that nature, at instances, natures proper there in your pasture.

The following morning, the injured vulture was gone. The complete funeral of birds had vanished too.

As scavengers of the ecosystem, it might be straightforward to see vultures as omens. Like indicators of doom, decay, one thing ending. However simply as I confidently inform individuals this previous Victorian home just isn’t haunted after they ask, I select to see vultures for his or her totally different non secular which means. They’re renewal, transformation, the required clearing of issues.

Life is perspective, proper?

I actually began noticing vultures years earlier than I moved into this home, once I started using bikes. Using 75 mph down a freeway with little greater than leather-based and an engine between you and the asphalt sharpens your senses in a rush, I’ll let you know that!  You study the habits of enormous black birds in a short time as a result of using up on one at excessive velocity will make you contemplate all of your life decisions.

To begin with: vultures are lovely. Their wingspan is dramatic and chic. They’re inclined to take their candy time stepping away from their roadside meal. Possibly as a result of a bike creates much less vibration than a automobile. Possibly as a result of they respect us much less. Laborious to say.

However right here’s what I discovered: a vulture will at all times fly within the course it’s dealing with. Apparent, possibly. Important data whenever you’re approaching quick and must anticipate which method it’s going to transfer and which strategy to steer the motorbike. I at all times give them a nod once I move. I respect their work.

A couple of weeks in the past, I pulled as much as my home and actually stopped in my tracks.

There have been NINE vultures on my entrance garden. NINE!  It was downright theatrical in its timing.

After the weeks I’d had, being completely pummeled throughout social media, the presence of the clean-up crew of the lifeless and unburied gathered on my grass felt… pointed.

I drove slowly previous the home and located them choosing over a squirrel who had probably been struck on the street and dragged onto my garden.

Did I, for a second, really feel like that squirrel?  Sure. I did.  Typically the indicators are usually not refined.

We tried to ease gently into this new yr. We whispered “Light January” like a spell, however January had different plans. And so it goes.

And now right here we’re in February. Watching which method the vultures fly.

I nonetheless refuse to consider these huge, lovely birds carry doom. I select to consider they sign transformation. That one thing has been cleared, and that what stays is fertile floor.

If a vulture at all times flies within the course it’s dealing with, then maybe that’s our signal for this month. To show intentionally in direction of the place we need to go, and take a look at our greatest to raise off and up.

The Oven Is On: Right here’s What’s Warming the Kitchen

I’m letting this February be about small gestures. Fewer individuals on the desk. Softer gentle within the kitchen. One thing candy that doesn’t require a sheet pan the dimensions of Texas.

•  Small-Batch Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins are a candy and easy type of romance. A tiny batch, simply sufficient for 2, such as you meant to make precisely this a lot vibrant and lemony pleasure and no extra.

•  After which there’s Browned Butter Banana Bread, the regular basic. The recipe I attain for once I want the kitchen to odor like reassurance and residential. The explanation I purchase bananas and allow them to languish on the counter for too lengthy.

•  Creme Fraiche Quiche Lorriane is my sturdy advice for the weekend forward. Make it as soon as and let it linger like slightly weekend luxurious. I particularly just like the savory eggy custard pie served with a pointy little salad for Sunday lunch.

What I’m Reaching For: little anchors in pleasure right here and there

Proper now, I’ve acquired landscaping plans unfold out throughout the eating room desk like a full-blown operation. I let myself linger within the seed aisle at Tractor Provide this morning, holding little paper packets like they’re lottery tickets for spring. Zinnias. Basil. Possibly a reckless quantity of tomatoes this yr seeing as I ate all of the little Sungold tomatoes straight from the vine final yr. I’m daydreaming about what the primary deliberate backyard right here in Bellville would possibly carry.

On my nightstand: a brand new novel I’m very a lot trying ahead to, Little One by Olivia Muenter. There’s something sacred about having a e book ready for you, and this one’s a little bit of a thriller, which I like!

WWOZ has been enjoying softly in the home most afternoons. If you happen to don’t understand it, it’s a New Orleans radio station that appears like a dwelling, respiratory porch. I discovered that trick from my pal Jessica, a New Orleans native, who at all times has it enjoying in her London flat. It’s a strategy to shift the air in a room with no single transferring field.

Additionally: fuzzy home socks. We aren’t martyrs to hardwood flooring in February.

Additionally: this recipe for Caribbean Cornmeal Porridge.

One of many extra susceptible elements of being loudly berated on social media is that your real-life individuals can see it, too. The family and friends who know you within the on a regular basis are additionally uncovered to no matter wild narrative is spinning within the feedback part. It’s an odd dissonance to carry: the particular person they know versus the particular person being yelled at by strangers.

This previous weekend at a candy little Galentine’s social gathering, my pal Abby had our girlfriends write me handwritten notes. Playing cards crammed with shared recollections, inside jokes, reassurance, and really clear reminders that the girl they know just isn’t the rumor of the week. I cried within the automobile on the way in which dwelling. Clearly.

A reminder that handwritten notes are drugs. Which suggests it’s time I put to make use of the attractive stationery my huge sister Launa introduced me again from Japan. If you happen to’ve been ready for an indication to ship somebody a letter, that is it!

And lastly, I’ve determined I’m signing myself up for a flower subscription for the following three months. If I’m going to be nesting and constructing a bakery — there will likely be flowers on the counter. We deserve magnificence that exhibits up on schedule.

That’s what I’m reaching for this February.

What are you reaching for?

February Ins

• Altering up the on a regular basis china
  My pal Karlee and I had been texting about fancy Williams Sonoma china, AS FRIENDS DO, and it impressed me to swap a few of my on a regular basis plates with my grandmother’s china only for a bit and only for enjoyable!

• A brand new cookbook + a e book of poems on the bedside desk
  One thing to achieve for as an alternative of the telephone if we get up in the course of the night time. I at present have Allison Roman’s new cookbook and Canine Songs by Mary Oliver.  Bonus factors for a little e book gentle!

• Making canine treats and sharing them
  A double batch: one to your pups, one for a neighbor’s. Selfmade peanut butter biscuits = immediate goodwill.

• Saturday bagel dough, Sunday morning bagels with pals
  The type of low-key internet hosting that feels proper this month. Schmear, sturdy espresso, pajamas welcome.  I like this recipe from King Arthur Baking.

• Chocolate in a number of varieties
  Chocolate cake, mini chocolate chips on a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Wait… sizzling fudge!  February just isn’t the month for restraint.

• Rearranging one small nook of the home
  I’m beginning with a nook within the visitor room upstairs. Small shifts change the vitality!

• Leftover soup on the range at 5 p.m. for an early dinner
  I’m bringing again this previous recipe from the weblog for Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup.

• French fries as usually as essential for happiness. 

February Outs

• Bras previous 6pm. 
  It’s a brief checklist this month.

What’s Taking part in within the Home

•  The Köln Live performance with Keith Jarrett. This file lives in my prime three albums of all time.  If you happen to don’t know the lore: it was recorded in 1975 in Cologne, fully improvised, on a less-than-ideal piano that Jarrett virtually refused to play. And but what got here out of that night time grew to become one of many best-selling solo piano recordings in historical past.  Informal.

It’s looking and repetitive in a method that feels meditative. Typically it hums softly within the background whereas I take a look at kolaches; different instances it feels prefer it’s rearranging one thing inside me. It’s transformational in case you let or not it’s. Or it could possibly merely be lovely music drifting by means of the home whereas the cookies cool on the counter. Each really feel tremendous legitimate.

•  Welcome to the group chat as a result of I’ve been evangelizing John Craigie’s new album I Swam Right here to each music lover I do know. There’s one thing about it that sparkles softly. It feels intimate and unguarded.

After a number of listens, I discovered that a lot of it was recorded in New Orleans and… nicely. That explains one thing. There’s a heat and looseness to it that feels acquainted to my bones. It’s wistful with out being heavy. Excellent for sluggish mornings with espresso or a night glass of wine whereas the canine run like loopy within the yard.

If January knocked the wind out of you a bit (hello, identical), these two albums really feel like a gradual hand in your again.

Glad Mardi Gras, New Orleans pals! I miss you a lot!

Laissez les bons temps rouler

Buddies, really – thanks for being right here. Eighteen years is a very long time to assemble in a single nook of the web and speak about cake and braveness and what’s enjoying within the background whereas the cookies bake (and we develop up). We’ve constructed one thing regular right here and I don’t take that frivolously.

If this month is about something, I hope it’s about gently tending to your private home, individuals, your physique, and your spirit.

Inform me what you’re reaching for this February. What’s warming your kitchen? What pleasure are you stacking up on the eating room desk? I’ll see within the feedback, as at all times.

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