Thanks to Nerd in the Brain for the weekly challenge Three Things Thursday:
three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy
(1) Porter Doughnuts
When in Ireland a couple of years ago, we had Guinness beef stew, a dish cooked with a generous helping of Guinness Beer. In fact, a splash—or even a big glug—of beer can improve the flavor of a lot of things.
Even doughnuts. For the month of March local bakery the Original House of Donuts is adding some Grit City Porter, made by local craft brewery Pacific Brewing & Malting Co., to its traditional cake doughnut.
Today was our day to indulge. We drove downtown to pick up a half dozen of these gems. The rich, malty taste that the beer gives the doughnut is offset nicely by the sweet, creamy icing. My husband and I devoured all of these quickly, as they went down nicely with some strong, extra bold coffee.
Next week we plan to go back and get some of the shamrock-shaped, green-iced, Irish-cream—filled St. Patrick’s Day doughnuts. They’re not made with beer, but I’m sure they’ll be just as delicious as the porter doughnuts.
(2) Downton Abbey Finale
NOTE: This bit contains some spoilers, so if the final episode of Downton Abbey remains unwatched on you DVR, you might want to skip down to item #3.
Call me sentimental, but this is one series that I truly wanted to see end happily. And happily, it did. Everybody got the best possible ending. Edith’s happy ending—marriage to her beloved Bertie—provided the occasion to bring together a lot of the characters. Even Rose, whom we hadn’t seen for a while, arrived for the wedding with photographs of her own three-month-old baby. Mary had her own happy news, and for once she was woman enough not to try to overshadow Edith on her big day. Even Isobel and Lord Merton managed to work things out, to the delight of everyone, even Violet (Grannie, the Dowager Countess).
And I’m not the only one to have a sentimental reaction. One of the reviews I read said that, on the first rehearsal of the scene in which Edith comes downstairs in her wedding dress and her father says, “You look so lovely,” both actors burst into tears. I don’t blame them. This has been a great series, and I’m glad the writers brought it to a proper closure.
(3) Even More Spring
I’ve posted some earlier photos of the first signs of spring. But time marches on, and now lots of trees and shrubs are blooming. Our neighbor has some beautiful purple azaleas in front of her house, which we can see from our kitchen window:
Since we get so much rain and so many dreary days here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s only fair that we get all these beautiful blooms to enjoy as compensation.
I hope you all have a good week.
© 2016 by Mary Daniels Brown
Retreading for Retirement 