the sound of hail...

...is what woke me up this morning. I realized when my alarm first went off, that it's Tuesday, which means I can technically sleep a bit later than usual. So I reset the alarm, and started awake about two minutes before that went off at the sound of the hail. It was so loud I was worried a window had broken and it was coming inside. It wasn't, but it was sure making a good effort.

The weather around here has been very wet of late. It's been warmish (10 C, about), with so much rain that I heard we're supposed to get about twice the month's annual rainfall within a few days. Plus, there's also the gusts of wind. Basically, every evening this week will probably be a dark and stormy night. And then I think the temperature's supposed to drop after this. Fun.

It's the time of year for hot tea and hot soup and warm blankets. And sweaters. And thick socks. Well, I wear warm socks most of the year, since my feet get cold easily, but this is the right weather for them. I'm getting very good at looking at what we have and making soup out of it. Lentil, pea, potato. I think it's about time to cook up that butternut squash I picked up a couple weeks ago. Tonight we had rice. When my sister-in-law and her husband moved overseas, we got all the groceries they had on hand, which included about half of a large bag of rice, and several smaller, unopened bags of the same. It feels like we will never run out of the stuff. Rice and beans, rice and curry, rice pudding, rice pilaf...I guess it's a good thing rice is so versatile. Butternut squash and rice soup. Hmm. Can it be done?