* updated 4/2/24 Morning walks have always been my favorite way to start the day. We had great weather last week, which motivated me to hike up the steepest hill in our neighborhood twice! It’s a tough hike, up, up, up, but the view from the top is totally worth it; on a clear day, you can see San Francisco. Here are some photos: My walking average is up by a whole mile! Our New Favorite Breakfast Recipe: Banana Scones On my Instagram account there’s a photo taken back in 2020 with the caption: “Banana bread never gets old around here.” Well, I’m sorry to report, that this is no longer true. It turns out that after months of testing banana bread recipes from our cookbooks and the Internet — my favorites being Carla Lali’s Bon Appétit recipe and my forever go-to, Fanny Farmer Cookbook‘s version with extra walnuts — the day officially arrived when neither of us could think of eating another slice. Just like a hit song that is played on the radio …

I love my library membership. I can get almost anything I want to read on my phone or iPad. This year, I’ve decided to set a few goals for myself. One of them is to practice and improve my Swedish. I found that I could download Swedish magazines, and found ELLE, and this photo: Aren’t alpacas the cutest?! Last week, I mentioned that I wasn’t sure why my sweater felt so soft, even if I was using smaller needles than the pattern asked for. I am typically a very tight knitter, so I expected a wool blend to be a bit stiffer, but it was so light and soft! I decided to learn a little more about the wool I was using and found that one of the properties of alpaca is that it’s soft, drapey – and super warm! ALPACA AT A GLANCE Lighter and warmer than wool Super soft to the touch with a silky sheen No lanolin makes it hypoallergenic I also learned that a 50/50 alpaca and wool blend is ideal …