Greetings from the study, the “Brown Butter Banana Bread Coffee Cake” edition. I’m in my favorite morning spot, with a cup of V60 pour over dark roast by my side, and joining me this morning, my wife’s latest baking endeavor. I’m here to tell you it is superb! The top is a white glaze, which leads to a crunchy streusel layer, and down to two inches of dense, moist banana cake.

Switching gears as I take another bite (OMG, so good!), I decided to venture out yesterday to one of my frequent hiking places, the wonderful Mass Audubon Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary. The muddy lot had been cleared and with temps near 40°, I threw on my camera backpack, loaded up two lenses and set off. I could see that others had been there earlier in the day, but I wasn’t prepared for the conditions once I ventured down the trail. The heavy snowfall of Sunday-Monday had dumped about 30” of snow, and trudging through that stuff was difficult. A few times I broke through and sank a foot down. Other times I lost my balance, protected the camera and fell in the snow on one knee. At one point I had to get off the trail down into deep snow to get around a fallen tree that was too big to climb over. Finally I made it down to the boardwalk that goes through the wetland, only to find it blocked by a multitude of fallen trees. At that moment I thought this was potentially injury causing, and made my way back to the car. I don’t have snowshoes, but maybe it’s time to invest in some. And while I didn’t get to capture anything interesting with my camera, I’ll share some of my winter shots from the past.

Last night my wife found the 2026 Oscar-nominated documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light” on Apple TV, chronicling the Colorado Poet Laureate, Andrea Gibson’s last year of life, as she faces terminal ovarian cancer. It was incredibly moving. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny, often poignant, thought-provoking and surprisingly uplifting at times, if you have a chance to see it, I’m betting you will not be disappointed. Here’s a link to the trailer. tv.apple.com/us/clip/do…

My friends, the coffee is gone, and so sadly, is the coffee cake. That means it’s time for me to get on with my day, which promises temps getting up into the upper 40s (yay!!!!!) and abundant sunshine before a return to cold, wintery weather the next few days. Talk about whiplash. Have a good day everyone.