Walnut Sauce

 I've made this recipe a couple of times now and it's the kind of dish that is fairly easy but seems involved.  It also features some superfoods: cauliflower and walnuts.

It's from The First Mess cookbook which I actually own but I found the recipe on another blog here.

This is definitely something I'd like to try to cook for a dinner party sometime, allergies depending of course.  It plates up quite beautifully, the sauce can be made ahead, and the cauliflower prepared for the oven well ahead of time too.

 Served with some green salad, some bread, maybe a soup course to begin... perfect!

I've been lazy about posting this week and the reason is I've been preoccupied with things I can't really write about.  Nothing terrible, just accounting work and things, but my MrBP has been away working too which is never a happy time.

We've been dealing all week with the aftermath of the three day ice storm, and I wish I had a picture to share with you of the giant block of ice that took up residence on the hood of my car.  I felt like I was driving around with an iceberg in front of me, it was a ridiculous hazard and I couldn't budge it.  Our driveway too was a giant mound of ice that made me grateful for my truck-like vehicle.  Heroes of the week turned out to be The Rowing Team, who showed up to clear the drive, had to leave due to the impossible nature of removing the ice, and then returned with axes and garden hoes to take care of it!
Those kids are getting a bonus.
I hope you're having a good week and that maybe it's even springtime where you are.
xoxDani
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Closet Switchover

 Now that it is the beginning of April I really feel that it is spring, even if the weather completely disagrees with me.

After looking at the winter clothes in my closet for nearly six months I am well and truly ready for a break.  I started daydreaming about switching my closet over (from fall/winter to spring/summer) last week and I knew that I would obsess over it until I actually took a couple of hours to do it.

I really love doing this, it's not a household chore (my gosh I have plenty of those these days) it's something I do for myself, and it cheers me up immensely.

I store my off-season clothes in a large closet in Ole Rascal's bedroom.  I had the off-season closet fitted by California Closets when we did our big renovation in 2015, so it's perfectly suited to hang and display, key for someone like me who is "out of sight, out of mind".

The off-season closet is a post for another day, while I've filled it with the majority of my fall/winter items it's not quite there yet... because winter isn't over.  I thought it would be fun to have a look at it once I shut the door on it until the autumn, and go through my methods for clothing care and editing I use at switchover time.  (Of course I realize, this isn't everyone's idea of fun.)

One of the reasons I like switching over to spring/summer before it even really begins is so that I can get a real grasp of what I already own and what I might need/ don't need.  I realize I vowed to not buy new items this year but as you know that's not going very well.  I edited out so many of my summer dresses last fall that I'm going to have to replace a couple of them... and April would be the time to do this.

Blue shoes, patent and patterns.

 I edited my spring and summer clothes again a couple of weeks ago, and split the items between Middle Rascal and two friends.  The editing process is always a lot more fun when I can share items this way.

Once again however, and I forget that this happens every spring, I'm surprised by how many spring and summer things I actually own: clearly these are my favourite seasons.  It's kind of sad really because they are so short!

Not only are they short seasons, they are also mad seasons.  They sort of go like this:

Early Spring (actually spring but still winter, this is where we are now)
Spring (might only last two days)
Summer (boiling hot, upper 90's with high humidity, air-conditioning vital)
Late Summer-Early Fall (might technically be autumn but still boiling hot)
Autumn (probably lasts two days)
Winter (goes on for six months with temperatures of -30 not unusual)

Ferragamo patent shoes and shiny bag.
These are my most-worn shoes.

 I like to group my shoes and bags in sections in my closet, like goes with like.

Fantasizing about summer: straw hat, slides and espadrilles.

Straw bags.

As you can see I am a fan of Saint James stripey shirts.

 My gosh, it looks like so much stuff.  For some reason I have loads of tops and very few bottoms.  I have completely given up on wearing jeans and in fact only own one pair of pants for spring and summer.

That rather bulky striped thing is a long dress from Mark D Sikes.
I wear it with a Brora cropped cardigan in navy.

 I have a special section dedicated to Late Summer.  This is for late August-September-October, when I feel like wearing fall clothes and colours but the temperature is still raging around 80 to 90 with high humidity.

Late summer colours.

 Due to the fact that it is still winter, despite what I might wish, I do have quite a few winter items lingering around, this is why the closet looks so stuffed in the central section:

A mash of summer, spring and winter jackets, skirts and dresses.

Once we actually reach spring I'll trot the last of the winter items upstairs to my storage closet, and really put away the cold-weather clothes.

Do you live in a climate with six or seven mad seasons?  Do you enjoy the closet switchover, or do you keep all of your items in one area?
xoxDani