OK, I give in

I've spent the last couple weeks moping about the weather and the fact that I'm not at the beach (thus the blogging hiatus; I'm boring when I sulk).  But there's no getting around it any longer: It's truly fall.  It has been raining all weekend, and yesterday morning I curled up under a fleece blanket with a pot of hot tea while Jeremy took Natasha out to stomp in the puddles and Zoia napped.  Today when we went out, we wore fleece and raingear.

And despite myself, I kind of enjoyed it.  Summer shortchanges Moscow, to be sure, but fall goes by even quicker here, so I guess I'd better welcome it while it lasts.

This evening, in addition to this pot of tea, Jeremy and I will finish off these almond cupcakes with blackberry buttercream.  They were a solid effort - the frosting in particular is kind of amazing - but I will do a little tweaking before I enter them in the Hail and Farewell bake-off this Friday.  And I'll be sure to take photos this time.