hey jud

Our farmers' markets are at their best right now, and a beautiful bunch of mizuna greens was one of my trophies. To be sure I did something really good with them, I used my constant companion, Google to discover Spiced Fillet of Beef with Mizuna Salad. Just one more great meal in a long line of successes for
Google Cooking.

We're eager to see it for ourselves this weekend, but for those who can't, here are five newly added shots of the foundation forms that Paul took earlier this week. By the time we get there tomorrow, the foundation should actually be poured.

House progress continues and now we've almost got a walk-out basement. These new shots from the weekend show the foundation all poured. Just remember this is only the lower level and there will be two floors on top of it. Be sure to look all the way through the flickr set so you don't miss the surprise addition of two photos sent from the factory. The modules are already in production.

Besides all the house stuff we did this past weekend, we also discovered a whole lot of Monarch butterflies. It started when I noticed that, although many flowers had already been hit by frost and were discolored and drooping, the purple flowers seemed to have escaped. Somehow they were survivors and just kept catching my eye. When I looked even more closely, I noticed the Monarchs. First there were three, then the next time I looked there were four, and finally on a single plant, there were five butterflies all busy gathering nectar. In among them, on nearly all the blossoms not occupied by Monarchs, were bees. They're much harder to see in the photos but when you were right there, you could hear them buzzing. Now I understood why bees might be gathering nectar, but I had no idea about the Monarchs until I got home and found this link. I learned some fascinating stuff about how most Monarchs live only two to five weeks, but the fall monarchs live between eight and nine months during which time they migrate to Mexico for the winter. The butterflies that we saw were the long-lived ones, bulking up for their long migratory flight with plenty of good nectar from those purple flowers. See the photos Peter took.

Any other year I'd be quite happy to have early season snow, considering it a forerunner to a great ski season. Any year but this year that is, since the snow, plus rain, plus mud, is making it harder to proceed on the house. But perseverance pays off as these photos show, and the slab is being poured today.

Three new photos added to the set, including a fabulous view of snow covered ski trails.