Good Things Happen in Threes!

"Magic is desire made real." --Diana Bishop, after both her desire and magical prowess exceed her expectations. (Borrowed from A Discovery of Witches: A Novel by Deborah Harkness)

Cloud Number Nine
is where you'll find me,
and here be why:

Inside the special double-issue of Entertainment Weekly that Thomas did deliver Friday morning ~~turning those particular minutes into the brightest and shiniest part of my day, not to make mentions of the plenty of glitter that continues to fall from my sky ever since, because, yes! My postman and I will date again, come Thursday’s evening!~~ was printed this joyful noise:

(My words~~>) To be released 08 February of this very year,
a fiction by writer Deborah Harkness titled:

Reviewd by Karen Valby (Her words, courtesy of my forever bible, Entertainment Weekly):

“Does this sound familiar? A woman falls in love with a moody, chiseled vampire with a great wardrobe and a quick temper. Of course it does, and comparisons between Twilight and Deborah Harkness' extraordinarily fun debut — the first in a planned trilogy — are unavoidable. But A Discovery of Witches, a thoroughly grown-up novel packed with gorgeous historical detail, has a gutsy, brainy heroine to match: Diana Bishop, a renowned scholar of 17th-century chemistry and a descendant of accomplished witches. Diana has spent most of her life resisting the magic within her. The power she's long denied swirls to the forefront, however, when she opens a bewitched manuscript in Oxford's famous Bodleian Library. Suddenly every vampire, witch, and daemon — yes, they walk among us; we humans are just oblivious to their presence — is up in her grill, hungry for the secrets she's unknowingly unlocked. It's 1,500-year-old vampire Matthew who makes the biggest impression. Diana falls madly for him, breaking every rule about interspecies dating. They're a formidable team, which is lucky because Diana's roiling power has unleashed all kinds of crazy.

Harkness writes with thrilling gusto about the magical world. Whether she's describing a yoga class for witches, daemons, and vampires or Diana's benignly haunted house, it's a treat to suspend disbelief. Alas, there's a bit of bloat to the book. In a particularly saggy patch, Diana and Matthew loll around a French castle, checking e-mail and tracing each other's collarbones. But just when I began to wonder whether A Discovery of Witches was nerdy-cute rather than truly magical, the plot accelerated. As the mysteries started to unravel, the pages turned faster, almost as if on their own. By the most satisfying end, Harkness had made me a believer!”

Did your ears catch that?!
It’s a planned trilogy!

. . . . .

Postscript of great importance:

Might I interest you in some

boysenberry
for the go?

Side by side with good news,
it’s a wonderful start to any day!

Reflection Connection

Here and there, when happenings fall under the same header as such occasions as waiting in line to be cash~registered at the market; biding your time while the column leading to the cinema box shortens until the next ticket purchaser becomes you; beguiling tick~tocks whilst seated in the doctor’s salle d'attente, where outdated periodicals can not possibly cut mustard and

you don’t knit;

or

under the hood
is where an appointment has you,

I will play a secret game called “Spitting”! Only one rule belongs to this amusement, and it is the same as its aim: find faces that resemble (<~~aka spitting images) movie stars, celebrities, pets, or inanimate objects and the like! Near~mirrors are good, but

spot-ons
make for best!

Its fun is but a harmless devil’s way to fritter minutes! So, if you have no choice but to be doing just that, why not do just that?! And, as part of yesterday did unwrap itself, I discovered during our popcorning to Lady and the Tramp for the umpteenth with dear friend Soose (After all these years, that love story still takes us both away!), the game can sometimes be a put~a~smile~on~your~heart happenstance, as well:

The proof is in this pudding:

Here is a picture of

Luna Lovegood,
a very favorite witch
(whose “another” picture I proudly wear as my avatar),

and

VOILA!

a Spitting
that unexpectedly crossed our path
Tuesday afternoon!

Any Way You Slice It, Pie is Good!

From The Nursery Rhymes of England collected by James Orchard Halliwell, 5th Edition (1886), Halliwell wrote, "The following is used by schoolboys, when two are starting to run a race:

‘One to make ready
And two to prepare;
Good luck to the rider,
And away goes the mare!'“

Please and thank~you ahead for allowing me to retell the above enthusiastic, little witty~ditty, employing Cellar Door-speak:

Ready,

steady,

GO!

Merry are the bells and merry do they ring,
as we join their tintinnabulation in celebration of

National Pie Day!
(Sunday, January 23, 2011)

HUZZAH and sweet hallelujah! The National Pie Council's calendar-wish is, today, finally realized! Replacing a typical Sunday with one dedicated to the forward bringing of words promoting the body and soul goodness of pie, in return, the Calendar Fairy asks only that the cold snaps of January be warmed by a coming together that urges "random acts of pieness" in celebration: Eat Pie! Share pie! Tell tales of pie memories! Eat more pie (In kind, a making of more pie memories yet)! Do raise a fork of plumps-for, rejoicing this glorious dessert staple!

Heartened by my “friends” at

(In particular, Olive Snook in

“Pigeon,” Episode 4, Season 1,

who, unbeknownst to The Pie Maker, understands the deliciousness of pear and gruyère, brightly suggests to Chuck, busy experimenting with a receipt concocted expressly for the lifting up of spirits : “You know what’d be delicious? Pear with gruyère crust! Bet that’d be real good!”),

Cheese-lace the integument of my

When I was wee, my father’s brother, Putnam, would come to call on some Sunday mornings with his Granpawpo’s best-loved “novel,” Aesop’s Fables, in one hand and, of his own making in the other, a fresh pear pie in the other. After he read aloud a tale or two, or three or six, he and I would, on the floor’s round rug, crayon drawings to match chosen favorites from the book, taking BIG bites of our pear pie pieces between each of our colorful sketches!

Uncle Putty’s "Pearable" Pie,
I then did,
and that of which I have baked
for this most auspicious “feast” day!

Just say the secret words

“Found my mittens!”,

and you shall have some pie!

Now was that so very hard?

I think not!
Enjoy!

Image sources: “The Rocking-Horse-Fly” ~ This wood-engraving by William Dalziel is an
illustration to the third chapter of Through the Looking Glass by John Tenniel, who wrote of this creature: “It's made entirely of wood, and gets about by swinging itself from branch to branch. . . [it lives on] sap and sawdust.”; steady and ready fork; original vintage magazine print ad for Crisco featuring recipes for Chocolate Sundae Pie, Coronation Butterscotch Pie, Harvest Home Grape Pie, and Garden of Eden Pie along with the master recipe for Crisco Pastry was first featured at AtticPaper.com: and Aesop book page.

In the Offing: A Pearfectly Delicious Celebration!

My Sweet Inspiration: Pushing Daisies!

Yes, and yes, again, I do! ~~> Many a plenty merry make~readies, presently baking in the noggin~oven that I shoulder, is what I have! And yourself? What say you? Or have you forgotten the preparedness that should be in the fire, if you are as committed as I in keeping the auspicious holiday that a red circle has found its way to (via catty~cornering left and down from the smack~dab middle of the first page of the New Year’s calendar), rounding the day numbered 23? Ahhh! I am simply vigorred with the thought of its "nearly~here": National Pie Day!

“Prunus, Bartlett Pear,” a watercolor by Linda Kneeland

Even though not quite yet am I ready to un~secret all of my love~affair~with~pies promotional excogitions, this much I am able and happy~willing to spill: it is a crusted bake of a Bartlett and Gruyère that I have bigly thoughts of!

Then you'll accept my invitation to return on the twenty-third of January? Please say yes? I look forward to seeing you, is why! Uptop a dainty dessert plate with a fancy fork at its side, the promise of a warm slice waiting for you will become true, this I whole~heartedly pledge! (Unless bravery finds me, for then it will be Pie Pops instead!)

The Day of the Apple Fruit - Come, Let Us Make Merry!

(Giving attention to this picture: I could not resist!)
Merry Little Christmas!
Women’s Christmas - 6 January

Garnished up are you with garlands and ribbons?
Have you drained your wassail bowl of Lamb's~Wool yet, singing:

Wassail, wassail all over the town,
Our toast is white, our ale is brown,
Our bowl it is made
of a Maplin tree,
We be good damsels all,
I drink to thee!
?

Lest yours has been mislaid, here affixed is a

Receipt for Lamb’s~Wool
(The Drink of Good Wishes)
A "Door" Translation of the Authentic Lambswool Recipe, 1863,
snuck away from Gemmama's library’s top-shelf, taken from her cherished copy of Cups And Their Customs by H. Porter & G. Roberts, Published 1863

To one generous quart of strong, hot ale (or cider: sweet, or cider and ale commingled), from six cored-to-get-rid-of-the-pip, roasted apples contribute the fluffy pulp, together with a small measure of winter-spices (grated nutmeg and ginger) and sugar, brown, to sufficiently sweeten it (2 tablespoons to one half-cup). Fuss in circles the mixture assiduously with a wooden spoon, then let it be served hot in a bowl with sweet cakes floating in it, and to which an adding of ground almonds sprinklings makes it even that much better!

”Sing We Now A’Wassailing” by Ellsworthcreations

Awakened be your Tree Spirit,
Healthy and be whole be you!
Vesheill,
Cellar Door