Thursday, December 22, 2005, 17:19
The Great Outdoors
"What are you doing out here?" I said.
It was Wednesday morning, and Sophie was all the way at the end of the walkway coming out from the door of our walk-out basement. Her tail was fluffed to four times its normal size, the hair was standing up along her back from her neck to her tail, and she was very carefully picking up her feet and walking through the snow.
I scooped up my little gray kitten (who is really not so little anymore) and put her back inside.
So much for Sophie's exploration of the great outdoors.
About 20 minutes earlier, when I had brought the buckets of horse feed upstairs, Sophie wanted to go downstairs. She likes to explore in the basement. All kinds of nooks and crannies for her to get in and out of. Including my plants. Sometimes I put her downstairs, too, when I have been painting. I don't need Sophie to get paint on the bottom of her feet and then walk around the house.
Every morning I go downstairs and let our Springer Spaniel, Charlie, outside, and then I bring the buckets of horse feed upstairs, put on my hat, coat and mittens, let Pixie out, and then I go outside to feed the horses.
When I came inside with the frozen water buckets Wednesday morning, I didn't give it a second thought that Sophie had gone downstairs when I went upstairs. I left the door open when I brought the horse buckets inside because I thought maybe my black tom cat, Rocky, might want to go outside for a while.
Sophie saw her opportunity and went outside, too.
I know Sophie would like to spend more time exploring outdoors, but from her reaction of fluffed tail and hair standing up along her back, I am not sure she likes the outdoors. Not now with all of the snow on the ground, at least.
And as Randy is fond of pointing out, that's how Sophie got into trouble last summer when she was two weeks old -- exploring the outdoors.
Maybe we ought to get one of those little harnesses and a leash for Sophie, so she can go outside sometimes and safely explore the outdoors? She's so adventuresome and downright snoopy, that I'd be afraid that on her own, she would get someplace where she wouldn't know how to get back.
It's a thought, anyway.
As for me, I am tearing apart more of the living room today in my apparently never-ending quest to get the house painted. This is not going nearly as fast as I would like it to!
LeAnn R. Ralph
Thursday, December 22, 2005, 05:51
Scotch Shortbread
A Rural Route 2 reader sent me an e-mail Wednesday wondering if the sugar was missing from the Scotch Shortbread recipe I included in the last Rural Route 2 News on December 16.
I checked, and yes, indeed, the sugar was missing from the ingredients list.
Here is the correct recipe.
Scotch Shortbread
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A not-too-sweet and very easy-to-roll rolled cookie. Use Christmas cookie cutters for Christmas or heart-shaped cutters for Valentine's Day.
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup shortening
3 cups flour
3/4 cup milk
Cream the butter, shortening and sugar. Mix in the flour. Stir in the milk.
Flour the surface where you will roll the cookies. Roll out the dough to about 1/3 inch thick. Cut out cookies in various shapes. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Immediately remove from the cookie sheet and allow to cool. Frost with powdered sugar icing.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
LeAnn R. Ralph