Cocktails and Chias

Ah, shoulder season.  Where we grow nothing more strenuous than a Christmas tree chia:

Looks more like a bush than a tree, but trust me, the planter is tree-shaped.

For Christmas, our friend Ju-day gave us a bottle of Ginger vodka, and we have been enjoying this cocktail, courtesy of a website called The Nibble:

Candied Ginger Martini

2 oz. Sky Ginger-infused vodka
1/2 oz. orange juice
1/2 oz. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/2 oz honey or agave nectar
Combine all ingredients and shake with ice. Pour into glases and garnish with candied ginger, if available.

The seed catalogs continue to pile up.  One of the new ones contains a section on insects that you can buy and have shipped to your home.  This is a money-making scheme I can get behind.  One of the insects the catalog sells is lady bugs.  As they are currently congregating in corners of my home, I could round them up and send them off to people who are lacking ladybugs.  (Who are these people?  They are everywhere in New England.)  I would also be willing to provide this free service for spiders, wasps, stink bugs and Japanese beetles, bane of my existance.  Somehow I don’t think the market for those bugs is very strong.