The darkest days of the year...

This week before the winter solstice brings the darkest of days to our little outpost in the north. We have done our best to brighten things up, both inside and out....(thank you Natalia!) Decorating for this season has brought on a more urgent and neccessary meaning living this far up on the globe. All the lights and sparkly things help to make those grey days when the sun seems to never come up, brighter, somehow more bearable. All the added holiday tasks, though, make this an intense time of year. Though now having stated it, really they all are! Every day here at the bakery is marked, a race to the finish...though, as in all kitchens, it's a finish that's never finished...there is always pastry dough to be mixed and rolled, breads to be made, orders to be filled, orders to be placed, groceries to put away, broken drains, frozen pipes, happy customers, needy customers, pissy customers, music to be agreed on and of course dishes to be washed! It's a loop that runs endlessly day in and day out.Sometimes an extra rif get's added...double door lowboy is down (again) Refer guy is out of town. Roseanna Roseannadama said it best "It's always something!" Sometimes that something turns out to be quite entertaining. A few days ago we had a group of old local guys sitting around talking loudly and watching us gals working away as the sunshine streamed in. I always tune these guys out because their diatribes usually end up pissing me off. But since their weren't many other folks in there, I let them ramble on. As they left, one of the baristas asked me if I heard what they were talking about. Turns out they were discussing how we should do a bakery calender, with an provocative photo of one of us for each day of the month. My initial reaction was that if I had heard them talking about it I would have thrown their asses right on out of there...but then, with Red's encouragement...it began to see how it could just work! So, inspiration does come from everywhere and usually when your not looking, or rather listening.