Another two-pound bag of pecan halves was coated with spices and butter in a skillet and is now baking in a slow oven for the next four hours. Several eggplants harvested after the freeze will go into the convection oven and be made into babaghanouj, and I need to start thinking about baking gift breads (nothing so involved as Charmion's fruitcake.)

Are you feeling better now, Charmion? Have the cough and other symptoms subsided?

One of the guests at our Nov. 30 Thanksgiving has informed me that she tests positive for COVID, though she thinks she was exposed the next day at a mammogram where she was close to the tech. But I've let everyone who was here know so they can mask up for a while and have the tests ready for just in case.

When the museum where my daughter works swapped the out Spathiphyllum for seasonal poinsettias she grabbed one for me. I've started with it on a bench near the back door but it is big and might need its own stand. I think I still have a stand around here somewhere.