words

elfin-tree		a tree dwarfed and gnarled by alpine climate.

pultrusion		a continuous-flow process for forming fiberglass, 
			in which the glass fiber in liquid resin is drawn
			through a heated die which cures it.  [< /pulling/
			+ /extrusion/.]

pulveratricious		(ornith. obs.) of or characteristic of those birds
			that bathe in dust; a dusty colour, as of their 
			feathers.

kukumakranka		an amaryllidaceous bulb, /Gethyllis/ ssp., 
			which bears white flowers in the summer, and in the
			winter pushes up through the earth an oblong fruit
			used medicinally in cordial, and to give a house its
			penetrating scent, likened to strawberry and to
			custard-apple.  [prob. < Khoi.]

clyssus			(Parascelsian chem.) used in senses whose connections
			are obscure: the return of vital principles to
			their source; the union of principles through long
			digestion, especially those principles distilled
			from a single body; the vapours from deflagrating
			gunpowder or similar compounds of nitre.

tide			a span of time; an hour; a point in time; a fit time;
			an opportunity; a time in the course of the day, of
			the year, or of life; a canonical hour; a holy day.

Pilliver and the two codwares lead on, but it's time for dinner.

because you want to hear what I had for dinner

Did you ever have the feeling that you maybe, I don't know, sleepwalked into the kitchen one night and washed your cast iron with soap? It was a wan¹ gray. After frying with butter it looks all right.

I'd picked up two large sea scallops, frozen. My keeping them warm in a too-hot toaster oven while fiddling around for too long with the pan sauce meant they were a bit too cooked to tell how the scallops themselves really were, but I think they were pretty good scallops.

The clippings of asparagus peas cooked way the hell down and turned into a garnish. I'm trying with some of the plants to see if they can be convinced to bush out a bit instead of this growing always longer beyond every support. "Some twiggy support may be helpful", the seed packet said.

I had never really read the side of the orzo box. It mentioned dry-cooking with fat first, like some kinds of rice cookery. It had a small effect on the taste, the amount I did it, a little toasty; and made a pretty variegation.

¹ Huh: from OE. wann, and meaning dark-hued, leaden, livid, before it went over to pallid.