Soup and cookies

It was a soup day. No, I didn't eat soup today. I'm speaking meteorologically. The weather was what John calls "froggy". The fog rolled in overnight, and got thicker as the day proceeded. By mid morning, there were no ferries running, so we didn't get any mail today. I love days when the island is truly inaccessible because the ferries have been shut down. It feels like a giant, cozy cloak wrapped around me, holding me safe. That feeling is heightened when the reason the ferries aren't running is fog, which literally wraps the island in its shroud.

I drove around for a while during the afternoon to see the fog over the water, where it was much thicker than over the land. It was impossible to see the Lighthouse from the other side of the harbor. This evening, I drove around in the fog again. Light refracts differently in fog, seeming to go straight up toward the sky. Walking back to the car after stopping to touch salt water, I looked at the fog in the glow of the headlights. Seeing it that way, you can really see what fog is: hundreds of tiny raindrops, glittering as they hang suspended in midair. It was lovely.

The reason I was driving around this evening was to go to the annual Friends of the Library cookie swap. What a sweet event! The Library was packed with adults and kids of all ages. Each individual or family had brought at least 2 dozen (some people brought more) cookies, and an empty container. The cookies were all laid out on a table and, after enjoying performances of Christmas music by several Ocracoke School students, each person visited the cookie table to hand pick an assortment of 2 dozen to take home. I got about 21 kinds of cookies, because there were a few I needed to get more than one of: the Heath sparkling sugar cookies (I love anything with Heath in it), and the "poodles" (no-bake cookies made with chocolate, peanut butter, and oatmeal). Part of the reason I got 2 poodles was because I made poodles, without total success. Oh, they turned out okay, but did not harden very well. So I had to get a sample of a correctly made poodle to taste, to figure out what I did wrong! Actually, this year was a grand triumph for me, compared to my attempt to make cookies for the exchange last year. That resulted in TWO destroyed batches of cookies. I threw the first batch in the trash, and the second one in the ocean. At least this year's cookies, though not perfect, were definitely edible, and pretty tasty. Just a bit "gooey". Baking cookies is clearly not my forte, and next year I am going to take brownies. I'm good at brownies.