Dealing with Cabin Fever
Countering the Ides of March
As soon as I read Dennetts’ writing prompt for March, I was hooked. Winter has never been a great time of the year for me. I spent much of my childhood in the mild climate of Portugal, but was hit with reality when I left home to live in cold and foggy London, in England.
Those cold, grey, foggy and rainy winters in London were just a taste of what I would find in Toronto, Canada!
Don’t get me wrong, Canada has enabled me to live several dreams and to have a great life …but the winters are truly unpleasant. (Even if they DO provide great photo ops.)
So, my strategy for dealing with the inclement weather is to stay inside as much as possible, only venturing out to go food shopping or snow clearing.
Since I came here in 1965, there have been huge improvements in winter clothing. One of the nicest things is battery heated gloves, socks and jackets. Wow! What I would have given for those when I arrived.
So, back to my plans: this is the perfect time to try out new recipes. I recently learned about yogurt bread (see lead photo) and bolstered by the success of the first batch, plan to do this again.
Another baked treat I tried was a Lemon Yogurt cake. I really like how this turned out, and I plan to try different versions (Orange, Chocolate, Maple-Coffee….)
Aside from trying out assorted recipes while it is still unpleasant outdoors, I am also busy planning changes and improvements to our garden as well as to two nearby client gardens. One of those is next door, and the other is across the road.
And, last but not least, there are all those wonderful spring garden catalogues to look at and drool over.