Big bad critters, a leaning tree, and some baking

 

The bold coyote in a neighbor's yard.
Photo by Allison Bradford.

The coyote that was sighted two nights ago has become much more real today. There have been several sightings of it in our neighborhood, including one in someone’s back yard where it had the audacity to take a long nap in the afternoon sunshine. It is indeed a big guy. I have tried and tried to explain to Sophie that there is a big, bad coyote out there and no, she doesn’t want to go outside. She remains unconvinced, though she did come in rather quickly when I just let her out. I am vigilante by the window or door when she’s out, but I worry about the Burton dogs because they don’t watch them every minute—and the Cavaliers are smaller, frailer, and much easier pretty. The most recent sighting I heard of was only blocks away, so I feel a bit on edge. Our yard is pretty much fenced with six-foot fencing, but there is one four-foot section I’m sure a coyote could sail over if it wished. Apparently, animal control has been unresponsive to the reports.

And another catastrophe—Jordan was hanging ornaments outside and came into the house for just a minute when out of the corner of her eye, she saw their elaborately decorated Christmas tree listing at a dangerous angle. It had come loose from the moorings that were supposed to hold it up straight. She propped it up with a chair (good thinking, Jordan!) and called Christian but had to wait for him to come home because it was, she said, a three-person job. Last report I had was that tempers were short, and the atmosphere was not Christmas-like. I’m not sure about the status of the tree. I guess this is not the time to ask Christian to reboot the router to see if that will help with my problem accessing the Central Market website.

For supper, we were going to have the great subway-style sandwiches Jordan makes with French dressing, oregano, Parmesan, etc. I ended up with a bit of salami and a slice of provolone and some mayo on a slider bun—not quite the same. And Sophie gnawed on the one slider bun I’d put out to defrost—my fault for leaving it to close to the edge of the work surface. She didn’t actually get it down, but she got in some good licks, and I decided on a fresh bun. I gave her another lecture on love the dog but not the behavior—she was unmoved and, I’m sure, regretted missing the bun.

The Christmas cooking bug has hit me belatedly. In days gone by, I started baking in November. In recent years, it’s been more of a last-minute thing, but I did plan ahead. Somehow this year, I dropped the ball completely—I think I told myself I was too busy writing. But then I decided, for various reasons beyond explaining, that I was going to put all my writing, except blogs, on hold and suddenly I had time to fix some Christmas gifts. I must add to this that baking is not my forte—I make pretty good main dishes and sides, but I usually forget desserts and fruit-like things.

But last year I made some cranberry/apricot chutney, and Jean liked it so well I thought I should make her some again this year. And of course, you don’t just make one jar of chutney, so I have several small jars of chutney. I tasted it, and it’s pretty good. But I have a whole lot of dried apricots left over—I guess I neglected to tell Jordan the smallest bit she could buy, so she got almost a lb. I hate to think what that cost. But I went online and prowled—guess what, there aren’t a lot of recipes that use small amounts of dried apricots. But I found one for jam—and that is tomorrow’s project.

Tonight, I made a cranberry cake—the recipe came from a neighbor a couple of years ago for publication in the newsletter I edit. Turned out the neighbor is an old friend from way back, but that’s another story. The cake was delicious, so tonight I dug out the recipe and made it again. I think I’ll make another in a day or two, so I can send bits home with folks who come for a drink. I’m kind of enjoying this bit of Christmas cooking. It's all I’ll do until Christmas day when I’ll be responsible for dressing and green bean casserole.

It feels a lot like Christmas to me these days. And I suppose it will even more so in a couple of days when the big freeze hits us. Shades of my Chicago childhood, except we won’t have snow. Meantime, today Megan posted a picture of her (well actually just her foot and a beach drink) lounging on a beach in Belize with that blue, blue water beyond. That wouldn’t feel so much like Christmas to me.