steeped insanity

the hiking summer

2011-07-16T01:05:00.000-07:00

somehow in my quest for educating my son on the natural surroundings and pure beauty of nature......we have begun the habit this summer of hiking multiple times a week.....in the process, I am having to defy my fears of heights, unstable ground and climbing rocks to get to the coveted swimming hole, breathtaking vista or end of the trail. The beauty is pristine.......the view is free albeit for the blisters and aching knees the winter we had has left snow still on the paths into July now.......crossing snow and sheer drops, I do my best to keep up with the group but my short legs and wide body cause the huffing and puffing to be constant........I think I will relax when the snow flies again, or will i don the snowshoes and continue this quest for unspoiled beauty?

tracks in the snow

2011-03-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

It has been alot of snow in the last week.....while the calendar states spring has sprung, our corner of the world is deep in white frozen crystals......I noticed this morning in the blue glow of the sunrise the patterns in the snow and lack of snow along the wooden boards.....snow lets you leave your mark....behind....if but for a brief moment until it melts......much like snow is our water for the future year , mother nature leaving her snow fields to melt in the warming sun of spring

i just loved this shot, the shade of blue from the sky becoming brightened by the rising sun

totally had me hearing this song in my head, with her voice....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmJgISJZn4I

love week

2011-02-15T16:47:00.000-08:00

I have hearts on the brain....been making everything heart shaped, english muffins, pancakes, waffles, quesadillas, pretzels, cupcakes, layers of cake, papers. puzzles ugh ready for a new shape, shamrocks anyone?

my current obsession

2011-02-07T17:38:00.000-08:00

the NFL draft....specifically......the post collegiate career of our local Universtiy of Nevada, Reno college graduate Quarterback, Colin Kaepernick.......every day I read the latest polls and re-watched the thursday practice session of the senior bowl in Mobile, Alabama today.......super impressed at the composure and arm of the kid........oh please let him get drafted where he prefers to go...(granted Green Bay may not be looking for a QB)....and in the first round......ahead of Cam Newton please!

Kaepernick's life story is worthy of a book and movie ....and he is just 23!!! Following his post collegiate career seems easy, he will be at the NFL Combine from the end of February to the beginning of March, all televised on the NFL network........as well as being on the ESPN tv show Sports Science, scheduled to air February 20th, just in time to show scouts the physical gifts of their prospective draftees! fingers crossed we can see him playing on a team soon!

of food, brands and saving the world

2011-02-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

It seems I read EVERYDAY about some new join in campaign to save the planet by buying some corporate owned logo clad product........ever read the containers of products for all the cross marketing ploys? GIMMICK

I think they totally are trying to help make you feel better about your purchase by saying 1/1000th of a penny is going to some form of disease research or reforestation of the planet.........if they cared SOOOOO much they would not be a for profit corporation........they make money and could more than afford to support the charity of their desire, but in reality the charity of their desire is their own pockets and finding markets of consumers to attain as customers.

the media is reporting many mega agriculture related political chess games where the only loser seems to be us, the planet, the pawn.........the truly limited resource!

I tend to purchase whole foods and when they are packaged, yogurt, milk, flour, I opt for the unheralded ingredients, less than 3 items........and usually as local as I can find..........I buy grains, ground and whole when we travel that are local to our vacation and then for the most part scoop from the bulk bins at the co-op or local market...........yes I know most of the bins are bob's red mill goods.......and that is as close to home for flour or grains I can find here.......while it is nice to feel your purchase enables research or relief, the reality seems to be less philanthropic than advertised

fungi fun

2011-01-07T02:32:00.000-08:00

I am pining for the soup, the soup I had while dating my husband, from Piper's Patisserie in Truckee, Nevada (no longer in business)....it was a simple cream of mushroom soup........pure perfection in a cup.......on a frosty afternoon it warmed us and made us salivate for more....we often returned hoping to capture the soup again, but alas no luck

Until tonight.....tonight I made Dorie Greenspan's "Paris Mushroom Soup" from her newest bible of beautifully simple dishes "Around my French Table", It was the recipe I was hoping to try.....and sooo glad it was on the french fridays with dorie January list.......while there is no cream, and it is the exact soup we are trying to duplicate, it is the closest we have come..........ever in trying!

I think when I make it next time I will cream it up and run it through the blender rather than the immersion device i used tonight....it is good......very good.....and I am sooo glad to learn the simple tricks to exact the power of the mushroom flavor........sorry rules are no sharing the recipe........but there are tricks I had not tried until tonight that Dorie makes seem simple common sense! thank you dorie you continue to teach me so much from afar!

speculoos

2010-12-03T03:23:00.000-08:00

I finally made them! recipe doriegreenspan.com/2010/08/well-according-to-amazon-aroun... i love gingersnaps and most recipes call for molasses.....I loved this recipe for the straight from the pantry items! spend some time to roll it smoother than i did.....I was rushed by the munchkin, you then chill it 3+hours before cutting and baking I wanted to make them in fish shapes but that cutter has a small tail and they kept breaking......same with the leaf cookie cutter....so I followed Dorie's suggestion and just used a 1 1/4" scalloped cutter I have one with a spring in it to make linzer cookies and that made the transfer to the sheet pan even easier! not sweet, perfect with tea and kid friendly check out this recipe that I am buying potato flakes to make soon too! doriegreenspan.com/2010/09/post-9.html yum too loving these nibbles from dorie greenspan!

apple cake

2010-10-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

French Fridays with Dorie Marie Helene's apple cake perfectly fall like and yummy for breakfast with tea! i altered the flour and used graham flour and used 4 different apples, one huge honeycrisp, one medium pippin, two small yellow transparents and two small gravensteins.....superb! another easy to follow recipe with standard pantry ingredients

I love fall

2010-10-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

Somehow the sunsets linger longer and the glow casts a purple hue over even the blanded of felled trees.........it is brighter blue skies during the day and longer dark nights and crisp leaves falling and squirrels chasing every last pine cone to harvest the nuts.......I do not enjoy winter but somehow wish fall would last until february, maybe this year? just maybe?

2010-07-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

American ingenuity why walk when you can ride? love all the trailers in this tractor train! seen on the 4th of July at the Tahoe Keys Marina

sum sum summertime

2010-06-22T22:25:00.001-07:00

We enjoyed a fabulous first day of summer! Have to enjoy it, since winter seems to last 10 months around here!!!!

motivation

2010-06-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

a loaded word

I need to improve my health for the benefit of seeing my son grow up, longevity....i am an old mom.......but in reality it is not to gain apathy, more to be "RIGHT" I feel the urge to begin yoga, meditation, before the physical aerobic sweat and feel the burn "FUN" sometimes I think I need to be right too often, so i share thoughts, experiences and intimacies to make a point

just realizing my motivations may not be perfect, but it is important to think before we act or speak sometimes.

friends have names

2010-05-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

sooo, I have been neglecting any posts, to be honest I upload photos daily to flickr and tend to get lots of verbiage in there but this is supposed to be my blog about the big noticings.

One such big noticing was that we had our first teacher conference for our 4 year old and it went great, he is bright and cheerful and seems to excel at socializing, what surprised me most was that he is one of the kids that greets all the other kids with "hi" every morning followed by their name, I had no clue he was using their names, since at home he always says he does not know the names of his friends......well this past tuesday morning I had some PROOF....in the parking lot as we walked towards the preschool he asked me if one of his friends would be there today and he said her name, and just as he said her name the window of an suv rolled down and a shout was heard "HI Emerson" to which he replied "HI" followed by her name...he was all smiles, we literally walked 3 steps and another large SUV window rolled down as the vehicle was moving and we heard "HI emerson" from a boy....to which emerson replied "HI" and the boy's name

On this cold tuesday morning, I had witnessed the evolution of our social butterfly, he now has his friendly nature coupled with the permanence of names and friends at school, he had always used the teacher's names correctly, but this was the first I had seen on his naming his friends.....of course he had told his grandparents that he had a girlfriend and her name.....but I just thought that was random luck that he remembered a name!

I want to quilt and sew!

2010-04-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

I keep being drawn to fabric and quilts and patterns and have the itch to make something creative with fabric and thread one such inspiration is here

another bragging mom

2010-02-19T15:25:00.000-08:00

Can I brag a minute? or 8 or 35999 hours?

I rarely am not proud of our son, but today we had a great behavior day, it started at the library with story time for preschoolers, where he answered the first question asked today with "it is something that you pretend to do and play" when the teacher asked if anyone knew what the word imagination was.....granted he did not raise his hand but he followed this up with raising his hand for every question and when called on to explain what the man was doing in the picture with the dumb bells he replied "exercise is good for your whole body and mind" like some fitness trainer! he offered to help find some lost items and then was so involved with raising his hand, other moms actually asked me how old he was......he seemed like some little scholar......

then we were off to the birthday party and he ATE HIS LUNCH, sandwiches, vegetables and fruit, of course he ate the icing off of the cupcake, but i never gave him the chips or m & ms and he handed me the cake part of the cupcake.....which i ate, YUM! I kept his party favors out of sight until he ate and tried to keep them hidden until we got home......lots of swag and he is blowing bubbles as i type! he just said he wanted to blow a big enough bubble for us to float away in.....now hubby got home and he said the bubble he blew between us meant we loved each other....so sweet

something is cooking

2010-02-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

It seems this house has had it, with the weather briefly warm, we opened the windows and aired it out.....but now i notice how when we cook something, anything, toast, grilled sandwich, garlic bread, onions, even cucumber juice I can smell exactly what we cooked in the laundry room....far from the kitchen and also in the craft closet upstairs.....directly above the stove.....so tonight, putting away some craft supplies I smelled the ham and cheese we grilled at lunch........i find it annoying......and now want to figure out how to vent the house in winter!

the moon, mars and lyrics

2010-01-30T10:06:00.000-08:00

We have the tradition of chasing the full moon with a camera and trying to capture her in all her glory, this end of January full moon is the brightest and closest to earth all year and coupled with a sighting of mars seems extra special to me.

We got some good shots, hubby took the best ones, this one is mine taken above the frozen, snow covered sawmill pond, with the the tree tops illuminated

My favorite memory of last nights moon chase was the munchkin singing in the backseat, he makes up songs quite often, and was whining to go home and see the dog, so his song was "Home, Home, Homey, Home, Home....I want to go home....we love our house, it is made of wood, we love wood, it comes from trees" all sung to the home on the range melody in a toddler sort of way.....singing away, loudly in the carseat while lobbying for his desire to go home in melody and song!

munchkin making up songs that rhyme

2010-01-29T09:53:00.000-08:00

Our munchkin has always liked music and playing instruments, whether pretend or made up instruments....I was pleasantly surprised when he sang me a song on my birthday of his own creation and when there were 3 rhymes in it of his own word smithing i was proud!

his song went like this "Happy Birthday Mom, Happy Birthday Mom, this is your birthday song, it is short, not too long, Happy Birthday to you may you get something new, Let's have some cake that I didn't bake"

Then last night we were trying to go to bed and he pulled the scrabble game out from under the bed and started putting the tiles on the board telling me it was his favorite game and how he needed to make words....then he asked me if I liked "crabble" as he calls it......so much my son!

the things you see

2010-01-27T20:49:00.001-08:00

I left the house to head for work today in carson city, nevada....it was breaking clouds, not sunny yet but working on it and when I got to the nevada state line the snow on the road was growing and the clouds were looming rather than dissipating....so when i began to climb through glenbrook and saw nevada plows working the roads, I was literally jaw dropping shocked to encounter a man on a motorcycle riding up the grade....I followed him all the way to carson city, some 16 miles through falling, blowing snow, fog, freezing air and large SUV's creating waves of muck for him to drive through.....he wobbled often but never dropped the bike or stopped.....he had to be freezing.....so surprised me, I think this is the only motorcycle rider i have seen on the road in snow or cold temperatures, seeing them in summer, no surprise.....fall, spring all normal....but January winter? a first

let me eat tea and cake

2010-01-24T23:31:00.000-08:00

I think a cup of tea, with a bit of sugar and some cream accompanied by a pastry or cupcake are the perfect combination. From my earliest remembrances I can see my gramma brewing pots of tea, usually to be iced on the back porch while I played in the yard, but the smell of freshly brewed tea is warm and makes my mouth salivate to smell......like fresh bread, freshly brewed tea is aroma and mouth feel perfectly matched I think today I need to make bread, cake, cupcakes and scones....Happy Birthday to me, I am old!

eth-no-sin-trick

2010-01-20T15:23:00.000-08:00

Bill Moyers is right! so much of what he says makes me nod my head in agreement and as he says it is never "too late" we have so much to learn from our past...so let's begin with this word......the word that seems to keep us with blinders on, seeing only our past glories, let us see the world for all she can teach us, the health care systems of holland, france, germany, the IMSS of Mexico! or as it is really spelled "ethnocentric", it has become what I hear in my head when many of the political talkers catch my ear....i hear this low hum....hum hum hum "eth-no-sin-trick" like a low lull trying to remind me where they are coming from, and it scares me how many people en masse seem to clap step behind the patriotic visions of flags waving and picket fenced homes, we often have the media off but lately with weather and world tragedy we have been watching a bit more, I honestly have fear for our country, fear that the current young generations are being promised higher education, or rather any education, and it seems to be non-existent and more expensive by the day.....pricing of public universities out of the budgets of working class families will lead to more death of the middle class, we seem destined for the wealthy to be elected to govern the serfs, with home ownership diminishing and foreclosures mounting, it seems the rich get richer. In light of the power of large corporations to rule, health care, pharmaceuticals, crop diversity, natural resource diversity, this ruling sent chills up my spine ...the supreme court overturned the ban on corporations purchasing advertising for political candidates......so does that not lead to more politicians being beholden to the giant purse strings that be, or in reality is that not how it is now, and why the ruling was overturned, the corporations can now use the media to tell voters how to think, paint the american flag on King George and I bet in today's environment we would VOTE to re join the British Empire.....we seem herded, like sheep, and the pasture is not greener http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/2010/01/supreme-court-d.html I fear the word has become part of the American mantra....we know better....it seems at least we should, having been founded by our forefathers, common, farmers, who considered political office a public service, not a career. ethnocentrism definition

eth·no·cen·trism (et̸h′nō sen′triz′əm, -nə-)

noun

the belief that one's own ethnic group, nation, or culture is superior

Etymology: ethno- + centr(o)- + -ism from yourdictionary online

from wiki "coined by William G. Sumner, upon observing the tendency for people to differentiate between the ingroup and others. He described it as often leading to pride, vanity, beliefs of one's own group's superiority, and contempt of outsiders.^[2]"

odd dreams

2010-01-14T08:01:00.001-08:00

u know it is hot when?, originally uploaded by glitzypursegirl.

I have been having horrid sleep lately, up every 40 minutes coughing or having knife like pains for the past couple nights, i sleep better before 11pm and then after 11pm I am literally up and down until i give up and just get out of bed permanently

Last night in my last stretch of sleep between 5:29 am and 6am I had a vivid dream that I was assisting in some kind of high school setting , and had prepared at home some steamed vegetables and my job was to get 4 or 5 kids, specific kids, to come and eat a cup of steamed vegetables before or after their lunch......it was a failure of a task, I only ever got one kid to even take a cup of the healthy food....so as I was packing up to leave this school, a school I had never been to before, I ventured into the cafeteria, which was more like a series of concession stands selling items grouped by type of food, there was a fruit stand, a cracker stand and a beverage stand that i remember vividly, having a sore throat I wanted a slurpee, they had cherry or coke flavors and they cost $ 1.05 each for a very large container......the attendant refused to sell it to me, saying it was a waste of calories, and she showed me the cup and right on the cup was printed in large font, 7,000 calories.........I was indignant, i had a sore throat and i wanted it regardless.....she refused still to do it, but said if I put my money on the counter I could dispense it myself....which i did and left, vowing to never go there again.......

my big lesson in waking was, hey if we really want to educate people about food choices, why not put the calories, food content, nutritional value right there on the container in bigger font size than the logo......and the answer as to why we do not, it does not help sell more product, an uneducated consumer is a better customer and money maker to the manufacturer than a fully aware consumer......and the truth is, if I wanted a slurpee, i would still get one even knowing it was 7000 calories, not every day granted, but there are some times that the icy crystals are the only thing that cools off a hot or sore throat.......why do i have such dreams?

the gift of sight

2010-01-13T17:26:00.000-08:00

We are by nature observers, and thereby learners.

That is our permanent state-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Much like William Blake's famed passage from the Marriage of Heaven and Hell

"to see the world in a grain of sand, heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour"

I saw many things in the ice crystals, prisms of color, reflections of the emerging sun and magic in the delicate nature of the fine bits of water preserved for mere moments in their lacy pattern, lucky me to have seen it before it was absorbed into the mass of snow as i shoveled the driveway

New Year Realizations

2010-01-05T22:07:00.000-08:00

this shot was taken by the munchkin with his new digital camera the grandparents gave him for christmas....I cannot tell if it is him or me, I think it is me but then it looks alot like him today he woke up and was doing math without flashcards or paper or finger counting, he was negotiating his show watching with me and I said 2 shows, he said 5....then he said well it is only 3 more than you want, so I did every variation of 5, what is 5 minus 4, if you have 3 and add two how many do you have, he went back and forth with the correct answers and partials of 5 until he realized it was eating away at his show time before we went to the play group and off he went, later today i revisited the whole subtraction and addition and he was not even looking at me and said the right answer while rolling a truck on the floor......so he may not be 4 but he seems to understand the concept of addition and subtraction in some natural organic state with the correlation to numbers.

sporting and playing in the snow

2009-12-28T18:08:00.000-08:00

We escaped the toy store that is our home for the wilds of Genoa, Nevada on the afternoon after Christmas Day. It was magical and mesmerizing to watch the deer, a few came right up to me and let me photograph them at close range, I then turned the camera and showed them the shot on the viewfinder.....they seemed unimpressed, but it was nice to talk to them and see the features so perfectly

I spent alot of time freezing in the cold photographing the wild deer and made the above video just from persistence, the bucks came close enough to photograph, my only missed shots were my attempts to get the deer jumping over the fence.....saving that for the next trip!

winter wonderland

2009-12-24T22:39:00.000-08:00

May your winter be full of wonder and your land be full of peace

Happy Solstice

Merry Christmas

Happy New Year!

kids are noisy!

2009-12-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

our smallish house full of 3 loud, rambunctious kids......headache inducing.....suffice to say outdoors is best!

I am proud of this trunk baby

2009-12-19T23:13:00.000-08:00

Joyeux Noel!

lots of work, phenominal taste and made me realize I like using art and food together....this is more naturalistic than most cakes!!!!

Food as Art

2009-12-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

I have been attempting to clear out the freezer and cupboards, too much going into a season that needs some room to store food, granted I canned lots this year but it needs to be eaten to be of value!

Why wait for the power outtage to clear it out? let's make room for the buche de noel and roast chestnuts I have in the offing!

Today for lunch I made this recipe from the pioneer woman! A perfectly crusted pork tenderloin with a cranberry onion glaze, I served it with some leftover gratin potatoes and fresh apple slices.

YUM perfectly tender and nice crust with some sour chutney......i think it looks beautiful on the plate!

my angel in the snow

2009-11-23T13:58:00.000-08:00

We had a great time watching emerson play in the snow....he loves to throw snowballs and make snow angels....he is our angel....so sweet!

All Hallow's Eve

2009-10-31T16:15:00.000-07:00

Somehow our toddler has managed to finally go down for his nap at 3:30 pm.....it has been a challenging week of sleep, so I am thankful for any time he sleeps....but now it is time to get ready to go to the Halloween Carnival and I refuse to wake him, we do not need an ANGRY bee............the carnival goes until 7pm, chances are we will catch the end of the event, all fine by me!

Natural encounter

2009-10-18T09:49:00.001-07:00

I have been stalking the fall colors, trying to capture them at just that right moment......so we have had many sojourns into a variety of trails around our home, the light is usually wrong, the leaves hide from me, sick of seeing me I am sure.....but this day, this moment, with the sun high enough to illuminate some leaves and some trees displaying orange and gold I was happy with some of my captures of trees and shadows and leaves......then just as we were about to head back home, I heard another photographer say the magic word "BEAR" we ended up staying another 2 hours and taking tons of photographs, most a blur, badly composed or too dark to see the bear......this is my favorite capture, our 3 year old and I watched this large mama bear pluck a salmon, yes the salmon are running and there is a gate right where we were....the bears know how to fish and especially with trapped fish!.......the baby had eaten some 4 already on its own, but this moment we saw the mama put a fish in the baby's mouth......nature, nurture and noble!

Happy Fall!

2009-10-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

While we had an early bout of snow, we are looking forward to some semblance of fall.....I love this shot taken with the full moon over the sleepy hollow pumpkin patch, evocative of that idyllic harvest complete with pumpkins and spooky stories!

he loves music

2009-10-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

We went to the Camp Richardson Oktoberfest for the first time this year and our munchkin loved the fun he had! in this video he is saying that he is making the music with his horn, granted a peanut butter bar, but he did have the timing and loved the oktoberfest music!

it snowed

2009-10-06T06:48:00.001-07:00

October 3rd and October 4th of 2009....it snowed a bit, enough for there to be chain controls on the highways and had us thinking of a white halloween.......it is the white pumpkin, charlie brown!

pine nuts

2009-09-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

I have been obsessed with picking them all up as they are strewn on their papery wings by the wind from the still attached to the tree pine cones that are opening, maybe from our mega heat wave, i see them flutter and everywhere I go there they are......once crushed by car tires they leave little oily stains on the blacktop from the pure nutrition mother nature is providing, sadly so much is concrete and pavement, the seeds have no chance to plant in the earth......I collect the loose abandoned nuts and have picked up about 20 cones to strip soon.....what to do with all these free foraged pine nuts?

welcome home jaycee

2009-09-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

we went to the parade, walked and then were surprised with our son being on the end of the video above.....he is sooo cute and we are so blessed to live in such a community that out of the horror of jaycee's abduction developed a program called "a fighting chance" as well as the closing of the basins highways to stop any potential criminal from escaping the video below from cnn, features the story of how the program saved a boy from abduction as well as countless others given the insight to trust their gut.

it begins with a color challenge

2009-08-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

this week's challenge was to find a vintage photograph and create a life story for a stranger in the photo.......I tweaked it a little and wrote the life story of the photographer of this photo here it is (from the flickr group post)

I happen to have picked this photo for the clothes on the clothesline...it drew me in then you think someone in the 1940's clicked this photo to show the family members, yet there are the clothes on the line prominently displayed......seems like back then they took photos sparingly and made sure to focus on the subject......yet here we have the background more in focus than the faces

so for my challenge I am focusing on the story of the PHOTOGRAPHER....here goes my fiction

this was taken on a summer day with family visiting by a woman! a woman using her husband's new fangled camera, he is at work, she is not usually the photographer, she is the mother of the baby in the photo.....and the woman holding the baby up is her sister, visiting from far away.....the photographer is a new mother for the first time and she herself is young.....under 20 and her sister in the photo is her oldest sister, she is from a large family in the midwest, and she has moved west with her veteran husband, he has taken her away from her family and familiar surroundings for his job, I suspect this is after world war 2 has ended and her elder unmarried sister has come west to see the newborn nephew on her vacation from her job, she began working soon after high school and continued to this day, now in her 30's and husbandless and childless, living at home with her elderly widowed father.

back to the photographer, her name is Katherine, her hubby calls her katy but her family calls her Kay, Kay married her high school sweetheart, he was 2 years ahead of her in school, and he went straight into the service upon his graduation, she married him after her high school graduation when he was home on leave that fall/winter...it was like marrying a stranger, he had been away all of the years she finished high school, but she thought he was handsome in his uniform and it felt patriotic to marry him.

Kay stayed with her father and 3 older sisters when he returned to the war, she also had 2 younger sisters and 2 older brothers, they were a family of 9 children, one had died before she was born, and her mother had passed away when Kay was 10, but with the 3 older sisters she was never lacking in mothering love, she was the first sister to marry.....both boys had also married and had children and were living their lives away from the modest family homestead......Kay was 20 at the time she took this photo and overwhelmed with the duties needed to keep house, tend a baby, care for a ladder climbing husband that kept inviting suave people to dinner for drinks and cards on wednesday nights.....she was expected to keep a perfect house, prepare gourmet faire, have her son in bed and asleep when her husband returned from his day at work...all on a meager income that seemed unable to keep the lights on, she felt alone and had longed for her family to visit......now her sister was visiting and she wanted to savor the visit but still had the mounting chores to do, I think in this photo she is unable to not focus on the clothes drying since they are her work, her pride, her proof of worth to the family back home in the midwest....she had sent them birth announcement photos, professionally taken, they had seen her cherubic son, and here she can share the cuddly one with her older sister while she is able to do her housework

Kay went on to have another child, a little girl after her husband returned from the Korean War, she spent those years of his military service in the company of her older sisters, who had moved west after their patriarch passed away and it was somehow easier with the four women and children in the house and slowly they found their new house in California to be home, but when Kay's husband returned from the war the second time, it was stressful trying to balance time for him with the sisterhood time, Kay always felt pulled in every direction, there were few photographs taken of her because she was always busy tending to someone......her greatest joy was seeing 2 of her 3 older sisters marry and stay in the neighborhood, albeit late in life and without children, her sister's husbands came into the marriages with children so there were children for her 2 kids to play with at holiday parties.......and what parties they were! One of her brothers in laws, Sid, came from money and spared no expense when family gatherings occurred, he would provide catered goods and staff to let the family relax and visit, all of this seemed nice but still added stress to Kay's life having to listen to her husband complain that Sid was showing off and making them stay in their place.......but she could see how happy her sister was with Sid and that Sid was just jovial and goodnatured and never mentioned the money......but marital strife always followed these family gatherings for Kay, to the point that she began to dread the holidays.........that dread continued for 10 years, until that bright day that she became a Grandma for the first time.........seeing her first grandson be spoiled with a rented santa claus and lavished with gifts as the first grandbaby amongst the extended family....was priceless......and from that point on Kay seemed brighter and happier about the holidays

She never was a great homemaker, her sewing and laundry skills were good but her cooking and time management were always lacking, her husband discovered that he could tolerate her cooking much better AFTER 3 cocktails.....and so was their life until they found themselves nearing her husband's retirement from a middle management position where he could wield his power ego at work, as the months quickened to his time at home with her full time she began to dread every DAY......until she saw an ad in a lady's magazine for beautician's college......before her husband retired, she approached him with the smart idea that she could get training and work to help earn money while he enjoyed his retirement golfing and fishing with his veteran buddies......he balked at the cost, but she had the numbers crunched and suggested that if she worked full time she could recover the school fees in the first 2 years! He agreed, she excelled at her chosen late in life profession......she loved being with the ladies in the salon all day, chit chatting and looking glamourous, it was the 60's after all and she was still young enough looking to pass for 30, her continued education in the beauty world led her to attend many hair shows, rub elbows with Vidal Sassoon, train with him and be hit on by him, she was married and it made her smile to think that someone found her attractive of such fame and glamour....she went on to become a favored hair stylist to the stars and was soon enough not working the floor of a salon but on call to homes, studios, movie sets and award celebrations!

While she moved with the times and seemed to be gone alot, she still was there for all of her grandson's events and her children knew she was enjoying her time away from the kitchen.......funny how in the 1960's and 70's she seemed to wear ALOT of dry clean only designer clothing and mini dresses that required no IRONING, her husband never felt wanting since most of his retired buddies had wives at home that were more than happy to have another to dinner and keep their husband's out of the house golfing, fishing, playing cards.........Kay became more than she ever dreamed she could, and her grandkids still talk of the day gramma met rock hudson and doris day on a movie set, kay is still setting hair and performing makeover's in her current residence at sunset acre's retirement village, the ladies still request her, she has enjoyed seeing her grandson's have children and occassionally misses her husband, he passed away from lung cancer 5 years ago, but she does not miss that clothes line!

seeing the forest

2009-08-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

While we seem to live in paradise, with beautiful vistas all around us, I sometimes seem to be blind to the forest for the trees, we survived the Angora Fire and still shudder when we smell smoke.....brings the memories rushing back of the evacuation the first time voluntarily and the 2nd time while we were in Reno, 2 hours away at an appointment......I despise heights, especially precipice type forest roads on which my husband likes to drive i think just to hear me scream, but the views were incredible this weekend, seeing both the beauty and the wrath of nature from one spot on the forest service lookout road

weather and stress

2009-08-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

We had snow in early august, not inches of depth but enough to make you know it was snow, then the reoccurring heat wave from hell, no air conditioning or insulation makes this house an oven, the cold is easier to deal with, we have a forced gas heater as well as a gas burning pellet stove and gas oven.....anyway it got hot and humid about last week and I had a HUGE amount of fresh farm stand produce that was not getting eaten fast enough and led to the lovely addition of fruit fly annoying insect things into our mix of enough spiders and mites to start a mite farm........sooooo my cooking was diminished by heat and disgust, we ate lots of fruits and vegis raw and in salads and sandwiches, but gourmet faire it was NOT and everytime I cut into something I would curse at the flying bombers attempting to beat me to my prize......no fun I think the flies are on the wane and the rain finally came sunday morning, whether caused by chem trails or mother nature I am just glad to have the humidity decreased......in this same week we have had many extending family medical stress, pending results causing more stress than good, by tuesday we should know the path of treatments for the multiple family members in the care of specialists, so knowing will lesten the stress but I suspect some of this underlying waiting stress has helped the three year old discover new boundaries to push.........and saturday was a true brat fest and refuse to use the potty day, after 3 good potty days......just makes me scream louder NO, stop, please do not do that.........and more than one night of the 3 year old rolling and tossing so much in his sleep that he fell out of bed more than 3 times in 2 days.......literally moving and crying most nights, growing pains, nightmares.....all just more than normal! I have had my escapist moments into books and I watched some movie on Lifetime just to escape, somehow I neglect to acknowledge how truly lucky I am, to be able to be present in my son's growth, the mistress of laundry that never ends, the dishes that call my name only, this week ends with me on the high of a julia child story, some peaches to replenish my peach cucumber fest, blue skies revealing a lovely sunset and hopes of restful sleep for all!

my local source

2009-08-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

I love our local south lake tahoe farmer's market, as I have mentioned in previous posts...and older posts....out of town farm stands..as a matter of fact I started my blog with a farmer's market love.....it makes me happy......my favorite farmer had beets this week, the sweetest most perfect small beets with perfectly sweet tops.......biodynamic farming....I am thrilled with the grapes being available again, pesticide free and a toddler favorite from the booth that sells organic raisins, nuts, peaches and tomatoes....I have been buying his tomatoes since the first week of this year's market, he has had greenhouse grown tomatoes since MAY....yummy and perfect both raw or cooked in tomato goodness! I was happy to get some onions, eggplant and peppers from the market and made ratatouille this week twice! I also bought a crusty loaf of bread and drooled at the pot pies and pastries! Great photo pool of tots @ the farmer's market, and a giveaway here http://foodietots.com/2009/07/31/foodie-tots-love-farmers-markets/

passion

2009-08-07T16:56:00.000-07:00

I think part of the reason I loved the book Farm City was that Novella Carpenter's passion is evident .......in every word you read you can hear her breathing with passion the air of the east bay and today when the happy coincidence of hearing that she was being interviewed on KQED made me find the link and listen to the streaming audio on the laptop while I processed 3 bunches of beets and watched the toddler while doing 2 loads of laundry...it was a GREAT interview, her diction and cadence perfectly beautiful in words and passion, the passion I have for eating yummy food and photographing it all needs to hear that my small world which collided with Flickr and the inspiration that is TheseDaysinFrenchLife led me to read the book written by the sister of Garlic Breath and that is a good thing!

Here is hoping I get some passion injection from seeing Julie&Julia tomorrow.....if that book was made into a movie, I totally think Farm City would make a great movie since her characters are so well drawn and from real life as well!

shadow and light

2009-08-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

I felt fine yesterday, bright, energy laden, and then today a dead battery....just no energy, somehow when hubby got sick I seem to have gotten it back......I love this photo with the playing munchkin and the shadows and bright sun...taken in emeryville at the city hall....yesterday this 3 year old and I dug up part of the front yard.....where nothing ever grows, not even weeds or clover......i dug some of the most concrete like earth i have ever seen.......we pulled up tree roots and then mixed a whole 20 pound bag of soil ammendment into the remaining broken up dirt.....we watered it heavily, stomped in the mud, made sure the dirt was draining and holding water rather than acting like concrete and just sheeting it off.....then we planted marigolds and sunflower seeds.......no photos, just 2 messy and sweaty gardeners that came back in the house for showers........now, today, I marvel that i did it, since my energy has vanished I just fear i have the cold again.........here is hoping the light returns and i am back to myself soon!

I am crabby and craving crab

2009-07-30T10:53:00.001-07:00

I came home from the bay area, with the slightest bit of sore throat, I thought from reading aloud to the family the whole book, FARM CITY.....but in reality it was the beginning of some cold.

UGH I hate being sick, and am a horrid patient......hint number two that I was sick should have been my taking a nap with the munchkin, usually I use that time to get work done.......I went to work on Wednesday with sniffles and came home early with the desire to lay and sleep, anywhere, bed was not neccessary....just the sleep.......now I am just hungry, crabby and from overhearing the show deadliest catch in my on and off sleep last night, I want CRAB, fresh and now, I still have a headache, never had a fever but did get HOT then cold, for no apparent reason, kind of just been out of it.....I worried that the munchkin was sick....especially when he threw up all over me and the walls and bathroom at work......but he seems full of energy and shows no signs of illness.......granted every time he coughs I go running with a towel......I am getting dizzy again, I better go lay back down to dream of crabs and crab pizza and crab cakes and crab salad......

one saturday in july

2009-07-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

What a glorious saturday we had, canoeing at kiva beach on the shores of lake tahoe with our free within 4 miles from home commute, just easy parking, early enough to literally park right next to the trail to the shore......yes we got a bit sunburned and tired but it makes the living in a tourist resort seem understandable, there is a reason tons of people flock here for their vacations, there is a reason most summers we are at fallen leaf lake mid week after work, to avoid the crowds and still appreciate all the natural beauty we live in the midst of

then driving home after the birthday bar b que for hubby's birthday we were blessed with the most incredible sunset, raspberry and blue and just magical.....the magic and beauty are there all the time you just have to look for it!

gratitude

2009-07-11T07:35:00.001-07:00

I awoke friday morning by noises, sure it was a bear, never saw it but knew it was here......I am overwhelmed with a sense of happiness, lucky to live in an area so rife with natural wonder and beauty as well as man made history and innovations. I am so blessed by our family situation to see my son experience new milestones up close and personal....to be home most of the time with him and living our little simple life, laundry, dishes, home cooked food, mending and stretching what we have, trying not to be influenced by the trends of the day......it is the little things I notice most, the askew bird feeder, that has been empty for weeks, but put back on the stand since we had company, to make it look nice. This friday morning the bear had looked at that bird feeder for sustenance, but I KNEW it looked askew............later in the day a neighbor confirmed it, they had seen the bear in our yard...took photos even, but in the dark of the early morning no visible evidence........I am grateful that we spent the day together today, just the 3 of us, running errands to the hardware store, playing in the yard......watching a glorious sunset together and hearing our 3 year old tell us about things he has gleaned from his overhearing us talk or answering his questions, one small example was this morning when I was hanging the sheets on the line to dry, he was playing underfoot and picked up 4 sticks then told me he was building a see-saw car so it could be taken apart when he moved it and when i glanced at the piles of sticks.....he had two in each direction rolling along like axles supporting the top 2.....something in me just pounds harder when he exhibits this "natural" learning...not from our direct instruction but maybe just from our providing the environment for him to experiment.......

performer for a child

2009-06-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

This is the boy at the center of his universe, he actually thought the 120 other kids at the south lake tahoe library on this friday were there to see him, when in reality all were there to see the Bubble Lady and celebrate summer reading with free ice cream on this hot afternoon!

He was spinning and not keeping his bottom on the ground like normal, he got in other kids faces and wanted to hug and kiss and perform for everyone, the loudest laugh in the room, the loudest clapping, the most enthusiastic volunteer that never was picked......he just exudes the "look at me gene" one would expect from professional performers and he did have those adults around us cracking up with his acting....but alas we had to leave early he would not stop distracting other kids!

waking up to make pickles?

2009-06-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this with I am NOT pregnant

I woke up a little early, munchkin still sleeping, hubby not up yet for work and had the ferdent desire to make pickles......why? I did buy some pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market and had made some fridge pickles last week....but today I wanted to do bread and butter pickles, and while perusing recipes found one for Branston pickle, and lucky me having some apples headed south and dates in need of use, I used up the end of my cauliflower in the branston pickle

The house smells odd, the dishes need to be done, but somehow I find the bottled cucumbers etherial and pretty......the branston is yet to be bottled still cooking.....all have to sit for 1-4 weeks before they are perfectly edible but I will be impatient I am sure!

3 farmer's markets in one week!!!

2009-06-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

I went to our local fabulous south lake tahoe, california tuesday installment (on hwy 50), then the following day went to the carson city, nevada pony express pavillion offering at mills park (on hwy 50) and then sunday had me pushing the family to placerville, california for the founders day celebration and wagon train arrival/parade and we made it and parked and were able to attend the placerville downtown weekly offering saturday morning (on main street that backs up to hwy 50)......what a great week for me! I got some great eggs at two of the markets and peaches at all 3, I have to say the corn from carson city was not great, and the onions from south lake were super HOT......The fabulous vegetables have been great in everything and we are eating a tomato or two a day, they are just the best, how they make the horrid grocery store tomatoes seem like a whole different item, like comparing a cup of coffee to water, the flavors and scents are that different!

trying to cook myself out of this bad mood

2009-06-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

blame the moon or the weather, I am just in a bad mood for going on over a week, my poor family is hiding.... I can suddenly snap and start emitting dragon like fumes and just feel like I am going to explode over small trifles......of course does not help to have hormones that seem to pour kerosene on my fire.....so today I baked these items, made fab food from the farmer's markets into meals.....yes i mucked up a bit and burnt some oatmeal and toasting nuts enough to make the house stink! I hate throwing away food, but the burnt nuts were never going to enhance the bread.....so i made the bread without the nuts, plenty crunchy as is!!!!!!

Farmer's Market finds me giddy!

2009-06-09T20:39:00.001-07:00

The Farmers Market was FABULOUS today

tomatoes, berry bush, red onions with tops, baquette, rainer cherries, spinach, honey tangerines, salsa, nettles, peaches and eggs all found their way home with me!

time stands still for no one

2009-06-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

I am proud of this capture, the floating fairies of dandelion puff seem to linger and dance in the shadows of the trees in our backyard on a sunny sunday morning

tears like a river

2009-06-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

This weeks It all Begins with a color challenge • Contrast •

These pink blossoms are a local wild growing bloom, so delicate and romantic, contrasts with this rock and stone man made waterfall......the rocks are hard and stand the test of time, letting the water flow over them and keeping shape, yet the bleeding hearts easily dislodge from the stems with a brisk wind......

Both water and rocks are dense and heavy, yet the bleeding heart is almost weightless and transparent.

Those of us that are easy cries, are sometimes called bleeding hearts, and we cry tears like a waterfall....somehow the crying is a release that can relax the emotional pain, and i always find the sound of water soothing.....it is like mother nature knows if we sit still long enough to listen and hear the trickling flow we might relax enough and be open to hearing some healing....much like the act of crying is a transition.

I love waterfalls and bleeding hearts! The above is my idea of contrast, the challenge this week for a group on flickr that i joined, the group is anchored from this website: apples for poppy anne

ratatouille

2009-06-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

Making this for dinner, just sounds good to me on this dreary day where I wish I was in bed watching chick flicks eating popcorn, drinking citrus smoothies ... hey I might just make some popcorn and take a nap while this cooks the next 2 hours! confit byaldi recipe by thomas keller

I need to win the vitamix!

2009-06-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

I am making blueberry sour cream muffins from coconut&lime recipe is here http://coconutlime.blogspot.com/2004/07/blueberry-sour-cream-muffins.html in hopes of winning a vita mix.....plus I had some blueberries heading south, so the dough is a bit thick, like a bread dough, but I read the comments and everyone said they turned out fine.....I of course had to alter the recipe a bit, I added lemon zest and crushed dried mint leaves to the butter as it melted and a whopping tablespoon of ginger juice from the ginger people, something about blueberries and lemon, and then lemon loves ginger i think! I also sprinkled vanilla sugar on the tops of the muffins before baking, since the sugar with the vanilla pod in it gets clumpy, it is the perfect way to disperse the grains by crumbling them over the tops of the muffins! the recipe is easy, just a few more bowls than I would like to clean, but I am in a bad mood There was an abundance of dough it seemed too much for the 12 normal sized muffins, but I decided to fill them evenly, which meant FULL not 3/4 full, hoping that with the density of the batter they would not run all over and muck up the oven, they pretty much stayed in the tin, just some blueberry juice of bursting berries oozed a bit, but thankfully no mega cleaning on the oven is needed! They are cakelike and moist and not overly sweet.....i bet hubby will love them! I had one with a pat of butter to taste test.....gotta go have another!

Yeah Local Farmer's Market begins!

2009-06-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday mornings have a new rhythm, well kind of like an old rhythm....Farmer's Market perusing, some buying but lots more to see than we buy, so enjoy seeing all the booths, this being the first, the vendor count was a bit low, and it is early in the harvesting of crops, but it was nice to see sooo many selling plants, and starts, lots of herbs, some berry bushes and a fig tree, we got there a bit late for our usual schedule, this son of mine has a new routine of making me chase him for close to an hour to get him dressed, and out the door.....quite tiring and with my mood of late, involves lots of me screaming at him, not my idea of fun!

He talked to a few vendors and told me to take his photo and how to set up the shot near the strawberry booth, so funny a little director!

I am looking forward to figuring out what plants I can get so next week we will come home and plant them! Gotta get the raised beds in, if this rain ever stops....7 days in a row of thunder storms with significant rain, not all day but still odd weather for us!

We are also going to get some beeswax next week from the local honey seller, going to make some orange oil furniture gel stuff, mine is almost gone!

may just flew by

2009-05-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Where did this month go? I swear it was yesterday that it was april.......how does time seem to fly so quickly? We have warm days here with lows still below 40 degrees, my seedlings are dying everytime I transplant them to a bigger container, so sad my babies that I got to grow indoors from a wee seed are now shrively dead leaves, that never fed us a thing! I am going to try to grow some stuff by direct sowing seeds next month outdoors Just cannot believe it will be June next week! our munchkin son is a gallant bike rider and is loving his time outdoors, most days more time is spent out than in, he told me today that he loves to grocery shop with me, of course he had a kiddy cart.......but he can be a big help, he also however, ran out into the parking lot at work, gladly no cars moving, but he is just pushing his limits, needless to say my stomach and heart are still not recovered, he scared me so.....and yet seems to not understand why i got so mad and repeated over and over that we do not walk or run in parking lots without holding an adult's hand! my nightmares have new visuals now, ugh!

bread

2009-05-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

I have some favorite breads, anything from Boudin, truckee sourdough country walnut loaf, bouchon's brioche, pioneer sourdough sliced deli loaf, bialy bagels from I&joy bagels, pumpernickle from western bagel......so in my attempts at bread making I have had meager success.....my highlight being the pretzel rolls, most recently made into hot dog buns.....i attempted the rustic walnut loaf and it was a disaster to clean up as I overfilled the food processor, who thinks it is a good idea to make bread in that thing? not me! but i did it again, ugh with leaking yeast laden warm water running down the counter, I prayed the dough would double, it did, and the resulting baked bread is a bit wonder white smushy, but great a day old and toasted! next time I am using sourdough starter and wheat flour.....but it is at leat edible and great for a pb&j, which is what i ate for dinner last night on my own rustic walnut loaf!

meyer lemons

2009-05-07T22:40:00.000-07:00

I love lemons, especially meyer lemons, so last winter, when we had a visitor bring us a HUGE bag of his home grown meyer lemons, pesticide free, organic and gorgeous I was grateful, the first time I cut into one, I was amazed these were special lemons, the segments were perfectly proportioned, the pith was pristine and white the scent was heavenly, the juice sweeter than orange juice....I baked with the juice, making lemon bread, lemon bars, lemon cookies, home brewed ginger beer with those lemon's juice, made lemonade, used it on fish, in homemade cheese, in pasta sauce, salad dressing, in tea, and then about 2 weeks into the lemon fest I cut into a rather large meyer and for whatever reason the idea HIT me, hey save these seeds.......i did some online research and discovered the method to attempt to sprout a seedling from the citrus seed, I decided to try because the citrus seeds cannot be saved and used later, if you are going to attempt to sprout them they have to stay wet....so in January I put them in seed starting pellets, in the tray on top of the fridge and hoped for some green luck.........I was verbally joking in February and March how I must have been an idiot to think I could do this, the tray had no signs of life, I even opened a pellet to see the seed still there untouched, unchanged........I have been tempted to toss the seed pellets into the composter, or reuse them to grow beets, but for some unknown, uncharacteristic motive of patience I just left them on top of the fridge, keeping them lightly moist and warm with the dome on the case......about late march I saw what I thought was mold on them and again thought to toss them into the trash........but something in me could not do it..........late in April I had forgotten what was in the tray, I have two and never labeled them, so when I saw green under the dome I took the top off and assumed it was the tomatoes I had put in earlier in the month.........but today as they sat on my window ledge I looked at them closer and noticing they seemed to grow an inch overnight, with waxy, shiny leaves, it hit me like a brick...Oh MY freaking Heck, those are Lemon seedlings, not just any lemon but the meyer lemons gifted to me that I respected so much for their perfection I thought I should preserve them.......now ecstatic and joyful, I worry how I will mother them for the 15 years it will take for them to bear fruit!

tortillas

2009-05-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

I have always preferred corn tortillas to flour, when I found the brand locally made in sacramento, ca "mi abuelita" I was profoundly happy, just kept only buying those, or the mega pack from costco, guerrero brand mostly for the freezer and casseroles, well the past month I have been unable to find the mi abuelita brand, so I bought some other brand, brought it home, read the label and was dumbfounded with the 11 ingredient count and the chemicals......decided to make some on cinco de mayo, they were good in taste but not perfectly round, easy to make and I will make them again...with prettier results! I took this challenge from Whatscooking, this photo on flickr got me thinking T for tuesday tortilla and it happened to be cinco de mayo, the challenge changes monthly and this month was Tortillas so I looked around online for a recipe and used this recipe

2 cups masa flour
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
1/2 t sea salt

I mixed it together with a fork, then kneaded it into a ball, put that in a ziploc mashed it into a disc, let it sit 30 minutes then formed 8 equal sized balls, smashed and rolled them (with a french pin) -no tortilla press here, but that would make it way easier to get them into tortilla shapes, sadly mine resembled some free form boot like italian border rather than a circle, I then griddled them on a HOT dry griddle 30 seconds 1st side, 1 minute 2nd, let them rest in a warm place and then fried them in oil and topped them like a toastada, and the bits that broke apart were used to dunk in homemade refried beans very very yummy and delicate Here is hoping next time they are as pretty as the challenge photo, nice and uniform in shape and professional looking!

chem trails

2009-04-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today is Thursday, I was supposed to work, but got a call before I left not to come in, illness had abounded and the figuring is our 3 year old should avoid it, i was glad for the time at home, had some chorizo I wanted to cook, laundry to do, it was trash day, I took out the last bit of trash and saw the pristine blue sky violated by all these lines, there is no way planes would be flying in such patterns just in normal flight patterns, more or less 10 lines the same age low in altitude and by noon the sun was hidden behind obstructive dense clouds that formed from the center of the sky out, yet along the mountain tops are edges of blue sky, no wind, no storm.....headache here before 9am, i seriously suspect the spraying of heavy metals but why here? or is it everywhere? I am upset, feel like I have no control and wonder what exactly is being put into our air?

tuesday turmoil

2009-04-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

A very windy day here, I tend to be more scatter brained and annoyed in windstorms, messes with my ions i suspect......no ability to focus, trying to plan lunch and dinner, want to make pretzel dogs but fear a muck up or carne asada roll ups, no asada to roll up here, my son is running around calling out his dad's first name and telling me that he has a secret friend coming over for a play date, hmmmm maybe the wind if affecting him too, i just want summer fresh peaches and some ice cream, no peaches until august......but I am dreaming of peaches!

and it snows!

2009-04-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

We of course got our son a bike for his birthday, tomorrow.....and here is the snow again! just our luck!

can't sleep

2009-04-24T04:20:00.000-07:00

As my son's third birthday nears, I have bits to do for that, but the reality is I keep having bad dreams, some not to be mentioned publicly, and some results of too much reality in my night.....we watched what I call a "fish show" a few nights ago on PBS (sidenote, I tease my husband, a marine biology college grad, that i never knew there were so many fish shows on TV...he gets mad saying they are not all fish shows, not all aquatic life is a fish, some are mammals, blah blah blah (because I cannot remember all the species, familia and technical terms he used, but still he is cute and passionate and makes me laugh to tease him) but we really do watch ALOT of water based lifeform TV in proportion to the little TV we watch) Soooooo this PBS show was studying the effects of human caused depletion of the orca species and the toxins carried in human bodies from farming (both food and fish) the show highlighted the negative effect salmon farming is having on the wild species as well as the overall health of the open ocean......it takes some ungodly amount of "wild protein from the ocean" say 1 kilo to produce 1 less than a kilo of farmed tasteless salmon that has thus depleted the food from other species diets while being converted into a product sold as salmon across the world that is not nearly as health beneficial to human consumption as the wild ones were.....long story short we are spending more to make less, sounds like the american way! Then they did some blood analysis of the fishy researchers and discovered the mtbe and other toxin ratios amongst the 5 vastly different diet and lifestyle non-scientific known human specimens......and reality the 4 year old had off the chart levels, and his vegetarian mom was the next highest........what does this tell us about our food supply? She was watching labels, buying good stuff and yet he and she were the most exposed via their environment and food.......some exposure is obviously not food related but she was in tears as was I, watching my almost 3 year old, thinking I am protecting him, how we are ok since we have an older home, old carpet, no new paint etc.....less exposure than the new cookie cutter homes with all their granite and berber, i watch labels, and yet i let him play outside in what i thought was a safe environment then i read about chem trails and see them in our sky above, thinking all those planes were related to our angora fire restoration, surveyance, google maps and normal traffic, when in reality we hear planes EVERY DAY over our house and 2 years ago, it was a rareity to hear a plane once a week! and now I am stupified at what I can do to protect my son from the effects of all this toxicity!

farm stand

2009-04-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

I miss the local farmer's market, it does not start here until may, but on our trip to southern california we were lucky to catch this farm stand open on easter sunday farm stand I bought some seedlings to plant at home, tomatoes, peppers and basil.....strawberries that are so sweet and yummy, tender green beans that are all eaten and the best I have had in years, ok decades, onions, honey, oranges and avocadoes....decadent small haas that I love, and so does my son! Why does it seem to make me happier when I am buying the produce directly from the farmer? no middle man, no market wrapping it in plastic or trucking it across the ocean , I have been in some supermarkets of late (Ralphs in southern California and Save-mart in Carson City, Nevada) that made my cringe to see their produce section, all with labels proclaiming the origin of some far off country, produce that actually looked sickly and shrively and just did not make it into my shopping cart, I was on a quest for sweet potatoes 2 weeks ago, where did I find local healthy looking garnet skinned gems? COSTCO, I bought the box, baked 2 the next day and they were heavenly.....today I am making some into a dinner side dish with onions from the mission hills farm above :)

it is snowing again....

2009-04-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

We got back from our spontaneous trip to southern california on monday in the snow, it snowed yesterday and is now snowing again, albeit litely, we enjoyed the sun and sound of the waves at the beach south of point magu along the pacific coast hwy 101, had a leisurely drive through oxnard and back into the san fernando valley and had a birthday dinner for a friend at Bob's Big boy where they were filming some background for the show dancing with the stars.....such a day, full of unplanned surprise, classic bob's food and a vanilla coke worth the whole drive! Of course amid this was an overly tired toddler, who combined his chocolate shake with his 6 year old friend's sprite on the table like a chemistry experiment....chocolate all over his sleeves and face, he loved playing the kid in a pack of kids.....seemed to never give out in the energy department, and then at the same time seemed happy to be home, the only child amongst a myriad of toys he does not have to share......i look over the photos as i upload them and some came out quite well, surprisingly to me, so here are a few!

bread

2009-03-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

For whatever reason we spent most of last 10 days without bread in the house, just how it happened, not sure, I could have made bread, but did not, just was not inspired, then friday I bought some truckee sourdough and this morning had toast with gina marie cream cheese, I am just so in love with the cream cheese but the bread was so good for me that missed it all week! we had tortillas, burritos, tacos, pasta, we are not avoiding carbs it just was an odd time, the only grocery store I went to was costco and I do not normally buy bread there, so I did not, then realized I was missing bread but never went out for it, just tried to make do, which made our pantry lighter for the use of the tortillas, pasta, rice, but still shocked how good toast can be! the gina marie cream cheese is made by sierra nevada cheese co, and has only 3 ingredients, milk, salt and cheese culture, it is just the best! (local and good) double blessing there!

Friday....TGIF

2009-03-27T00:43:00.000-07:00

It has been a whole week of bad moods, crazy cold mornings, barking dog, boy that says NO way too much, and the whole clinching my jaw at night while I sleep has me waking with weird ear and tooth pains, like I am locking my jaw then digging my teeth into the opposing gum line, listening to the dog snore on the loveseat, hubby and son are fast asleep and I am unable to sleep, worried about my jaw, the squirrels stalking my plants, the new composter attracting the bears, every noise it just setting me on edge, just typing to hear a non-bear noise! Have had no passion for cooking this week, just happenstance this or that, pasta with leftover spinach, turkey tacos, refused to go to the market to get the odds and ends we need, although I do miss bread and english muffins, just have to make it! My seedlings are everywhere, using the stove lights to shine on them at night, trying to stengthen their roots, I felt so bad at how many I injured in the transplanting today, the carrots seemed so fragile, the tomatoes were the heartiest, but I worry and wonder if I will ever get anything edible, I am out of potting soil and black gold, so have to get that this weekend because by monday I will have more babies to transplant, I have the big beverage tubs from our son's welcome home bbq to use and some more milk gallon jugs, the costco ones work great when turned on their side and cut, less dirt height and more surface area to plant! I need to get some photos of them!

sanity may be close

2009-03-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

No sleep for us last night, every hour had the boy up either falling out of his bed, screaming for us, crying, just when hubby would fall back asleep the dog would bark or boy would scream, every hour, the bears have come out of hibernation and the dog is snarling alot, I have new pains where I did not know I had muscles or bones that could hurt lol...but not funny my highlight this am homemade vanilla scented half and half in some lifeboat hot tea with sugar....ahhh...made corned beef hash and egg english muffins, hubby liked them and his coffee, i prefer the tea...need more now! saw a great retweet on twitter to win a free vita mix by entering this contest on the GIANTEMPANADA blog.. I sure could use a vitamix!......link

Happy St Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T09:18:00.001-07:00

so, today finds me in another bad mood, just annoyed with it all, dropping things left and right, a dog that pees on everything, could be that i need to eat, not sure what that might be, tea for sure, hate these dark mornings, miss the sun, sick of grinding my teeth, feeling my nose congested, itchy scalp, sick of clouds, sick of snow, sick of spiders, sick of stinky stuff, where is my I AM HAPPY for a cupcake day? have to find the thing to be thankful for today...it is st patrick's day, i started the corned beef, might make bread and butter pudding but just am not in a cheerful gleeful mood, last year we were in the dc area at this time, visiting friends and family enjoying new sights, great food and getting lost every time we drove anywhere........those stately home tours and fabulous Lincoln Summer Home tour seem such a distant memory, I will never forget seeing my son hold the same handrail that President Lincoln used...that will be forever burned in my mind, thankful for him walking and talking and amazing me every day with some new tidbit!

march moon

2009-03-12T08:53:00.001-07:00

I really like this shot, mesmerized by it actually, the glow of the break in the trees, the green spot, the overall impression is the claddagh.........the heart brightest, the crown and band more foggy....I think she is trying to remind me to cherish what I have, that grateful for something every day, hard to do when I am in a bad mood....seems like all the time, just grumpy and quick to yell, wishing I could regain some calm in my mood! another bad shot by me, but the green refracted light made me think of st patricks day, you know, that US holiday where americans use it as an excuse to drink green beer and eat corned beef, the one thing no true irish born person ever ate at home! the overall impression of the moon through the trees with the green at the bottom kind of looks like a clover, but is it 4 leaved? what do you think? happy st patrick's day, the day we all pretend to be irish and I at least always wish the wind to be at your back and the slope to be easy on your knees as you wander the path with the sun on your face! actually the more I look at this it looks like a claddagh www.irishcharm.com/claddagh.aspx

my snow helper!

2009-03-04T21:03:00.000-08:00

Who knew a kid could love snow soooo much? he begs to shovel, then play on the slide after his "work" as he calls it is done! He also told me he wanted to sleep in a sleeping bag outside with a pillow for his nap, so darn cute....but i hauled him in the house after about 3 hours outside in two bursts, the first had to have a hat and shirt change since he face planted in the snow and got snow on his face, head and arms.....thank goodness for the waterproof snow overalls, they kept him warm and these lace up boots stayed on!

Dalmation Cookies

2009-03-01T12:03:00.001-08:00

Dalmation Cookies, originally uploaded by mtkatiecakes.

i have to make these soon, these are not mine, but i am posting them here so I remember to make them!!!! recipe global gourmet and culinary concoctions by peabody

bear attack!!!

2009-02-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

We had a bear invade the house tonight eating all the pie and ice cream he could find!

human cub tracks

2009-02-26T11:22:00.001-08:00

human cub tracks, originally uploaded by glitzypursegirl.

why does it seem so hard to keep my sanity with this almost 3 year old....he has slept a total of 5 hours in the past 24 hours, I just got him to nap finally at 11am........i am on edge screaming when he jambs the cabinet or wreaks havoc on any sense of order this house has....so I yelled at him NO in a very mean tone, he is tired he sets off crying tears and sobs, then when I cleaned up his mess, well part of it, I look over and he is cuddling a towel, a towel he got out of the linen closet just then and he announces to me that this is his new mommy, the towel mommy he cuddles it and sets me into tears, why is this so hard?

gardening season

2009-02-20T06:50:00.001-08:00

gardening season, originally uploaded by glitzypursegirl.

My first attempt in ummmm 12 years or so to grow anything, I planted meyer lemon seeds from some fabulous home grown lemons given to me over the holidays........alongside some mint seeds, yes mint and in the lapse of time nothing not one sprig of green......I am a black thumb, but thankfully my son is sprouting up, taller everyday it seems......and cuter too!

cinnamon rolls!

2009-02-15T14:35:00.000-08:00

I cannot figure out why I only make them once a year, they are easy and we love them! last january I made the brioche sticky buns from the bobby flay throwdown recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/sticky-buns-recipe/index.html (suffice to say they cost more in ingredients than i could have bought them for!) but they were very very good, if not a little sweet and rich this year I did simple, cinnamon rolls just shaped like hearts for valentine's day cheap and easy and all gone now!

all bottled up

2009-02-06T16:37:00.001-08:00

This was just part of what I accomplished Friday, from left to right 1.silver cocktail shaker (a free gift on thursday from my employer! also got some cool bushmills whiskey glasses celebrating their 400th year distilling) 2.stout reused jam jar full of homemade simple syrup (1.5 parts sugar to 1 part water heated on moderate flame until liquid then cooled and bottled-kept in fridge for use in cocktails, tea, coffee, whipped cream and baking) 3. day1 of my homemade vanilla (1 cup vodka, 4 fresh vanilla beans cut into 1.2 inch segments, will be kept in the dark and shaken daily, ready to use in baking in about 3 months I hope) 4. homemade chicken stock - I yielded 13 cups of the yummy goodness from one chicken carcass, skin and some vegi ends.....making risotto with it soon! 5. homemade vegi stock - i yielded 11 cups of this dark stock from 2 weeks of vegi ends, including all 17 onions skins (we eat lots of onions and garlic!), about 4 leek green sections, approx 10 tomato ends and stems (I freeze these since they might mold in the fridge since I only make stock about once a month), lots of other odd bits of vegis- this is the reddest I have ever gotten probably from the tomatoes and yellow onions!) 6. homemade ranch dressing recipe here thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/homemade-ranch-dressing/ and last but not least 7. my whey remnants, which got used in the pasta, ranch dressing and mayo today! I have less than a cup left, better make cheese this weekend! lol it was quite a day today....this kitchen was working! I am not sure if I am bottling up my self into compact little parcels, just seem obsessed to do this all NOW......yet I am tired and sore and every pan and funnel in this house has been used today!!!

storm coming in

2009-02-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

I totally feel like crap, last week's back ache to knee ache has mutated into some kind of left calf/ankle pain...it is like it radiates down, hopefully out soon! Today's healthy lunch of homemade navy beans with a side of spanish rice has caused hubby and I to be processing too much fiber, not comfy stomach and intestines and we are tired, I was hoping for rain or snow so we could cuddle in bed and hear the rain, but it turned icy cold so we are destined for snow and ice, maybe that is why my aches are manifesting?

another reason I am in a bad mood

2009-01-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

I just cannot shake the aching back, and seem to be extra cranky, then I read this news story, another that will never be headline news, but just drive home my theory that every big corporation has the ability to cause market prices to climb for no apparant reason......it seems like the grower of tomatoes gained no added profit, just the middlemen and buyers, while the unknowing consumer paid extra money for more processed food that just adds to my fervant desire to do away with processed food! http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/38506614.html

I finally made good enchiladas!

2009-01-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

this is a mistake gone right type of dish.....completely cucina povera, saving food from the trash heap of mistakes by an inattentive cook (above photo is before it baked in the oven, I failed to get photos of the yummy onion cooking and the chicken and green chile addition, it looked yummy though) this dish began as garlic flavored ricotta, on monday.....the inattention of moi let the milk boil over and the cheese never did curdle, so I decided I had a scalded milk bath of 9 cloves of grated garlic, garlic milk....save it for pasta sauce during the week, used some to make a ranch dressing, super yummy, then hubby decided to take me out for our anniversary, I was to make shrimp garlic alfredo with it, but alas twist my wrist, lol......we had some chicken left from monday, well lots of chicken actually, so I asked hubby last night, pasta or what for lunch? he said enchiladas.......little does he know this is the best enchilada i have ever made.....I am calling it Garlic Suiza Verde chicken mushroom Enchiladas I am sure I could never duplicate it, but for those willing to try, lol: make lots of mistakes! Begin 4 days earlier than you want to cook it, measure 2 cups whole milk and 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice, pour into heavy bottomed pan, then with a microplane carefully grate 9 cloves of garlic into it and stir and in an attempt to make ricotta, overheat it, ignore it and let it scald and boil over making a huge mess on your stove......with the remaining milky mess in the pan, think posiitive and let it cool on a trivet for about an hour, then try to strain it through a colander lined with cheesecloth, curse every bad word you know when the whole thing except the garlic chunks end up in the bowl under the colander........feel tired and lazily funnel all this into a canning jar then scrape the poor garlic into the jar to swim with the milky mess, put on top shelf of fridge and let it get frozen and weird, so that when you decide to make ranch dressing you have to chip through the ice to get the whey....act surprised when the bottom of the jar kind of looks like cheese and the top is yellow and whey like, with optimism strain on day 3 and then curse again with the whole mess going through the cheesecloth, dump it all back in and scrape the garlic back into it's icy bath and keep in the fridge.......refuse to throw it out because It is 2 cups of milk, well it was 2 cups of milk! Begin the enchiladas (with the knowledge that you make crappy enchiladas and assume this will have to be eaten with chips like a dip) ingredients the above mentioned milk mess 3/4 cup cooked shredded off whole roasted chicken dark meat(legs) 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1/2 can black olives (about 14) 1/2 onion (sliced roughly into wormy strings) 6 sliced mushrooms 1 tablespoon butter handful of chopped cilantro 6 flour tortillas 1 can verde enchilada sauce (10 ounce) small size salt pepper In large saute pan put butter and onions and let them soften and caramelize then add mushrooms, let them brown a little, add chicken and stir them around until it looks like it is well incorporated, then add can of verde enchilada sauce, stir it to coat the chicken and then add the milk mess, the thinner whey stuff save the thicker cheese like lumps for the final sauce......let this bubble and toil on a low heat for about 5 minutes, making sure all the stuff is coated equally taste and add seasoning as you need it I added a little cracked black pepper but found it plenty salty, then lay the 6 flour tortillas on top of the pan to soften and let the bottom one get wet with the sauce, flip tortilla pile and using wet one put it in a buttered casserole dish wet side up, with a large slotted spoon get about 1/3 cup of the meat/onion and let the sauce strain off, put a handful of cheese on the tortilla, then the meat mixture, roll and put seam side down in the pan, repeat....when pan is full and all the meat mixture is strained out, turn the heat up a little and add the cilantro and that clump of garlic creamy milk and stir to incorporate into the already cooked sauce, try to scrape everything off the pan and make sure it gets in the sauce.....in about 3 minutes you should have a nice pourable smooth sauce..taste it and see if you need salt or pepper...at this point i added a little sea salt.....pour this over the enchiladas then top with the last handful of cheese and the sliced olives, bake in a 350 degree oven for 40ish minutes, I let mine go an hour but did turn the temp down to 260 as I was timing hubby coming home for lunch, and he was late.....i served them topped with avocado and raw diced onions, quite yummy and not too spicy, I am not a fan of huge spice but they are very garlicky and that I love!

new day dawning

2009-01-19T18:37:00.000-08:00

I feel it in my bones, I feel a change coming.....here is hoping it is all for the better

I made cheese!

2009-01-16T19:33:00.001-08:00

I have wanted to try making cheese and yogurt for a few years and today I did it, first try, no rennet, just lemon juice and a great recipe from "these days in french life" link at left......1 liter of milk yielded 1 cup of ricotta.......I messed up the recipe because I had a toddler under foot and was distracted, but I found a way to make it work and it did! I was so excited, made calzones with it tonight, then made my hubby make cheese after dinner, and his flopped, no curds at all, so we are trying to salvage this liter by reheating it longer......wonder if my original misstep made it work, if so, maybe our altitude is playing havoc with the recipe derived at sea level! anyway I am so thrilled it worked the first time I am going to make it work again and again and again....yummy and fun! this weekend if our travels lead to reno we are finding cultures so I can made cheddar and jack!

Tuesday dinner

2009-01-14T15:46:00.001-08:00

Monthly Mingle Healthy Family Dinner

Tuesday dinner, originally uploaded by glitzypursegirl.

I was craving stuffed squash, but overcooked the squash in the oven, so i turned this into a rice casserole with a squash layer, super yummy and healthy, served with a salad on the side. INGREDIENTS

1 cup brown long grain rice
1 bunch of carrots (yes those with the green leafy tops...i put the tops into my vegi stock)
4 crimini mushrooms
4 cloves of garlic
1 sweet mama squash
2 leeks
1/2 white onion
approz 1 1/2 cups browned ground beef-but turkey would work too, we just had ground beef leftover
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup finely grated cheese (i used gouda-we had some, but parmesean would be great too!) it kind of needs to be a harder drier cheese to not make the rice gooey

I roasted my sweet mama squash at 375 degrees for 45 minutes on a cookie sheet with the squash skin facing up and filled the pan with water to kind of steam it, removed it from the oven and it was left to cool but since the skin seemed to fall apart I opted to layer the rice with the squash flesh in a casserole pan instead of stuffing the squash for fear it would leak! I browned the onion in the butter on top of the stove and after the onion carmelized I added the white sections of the leeks, thinly sliced, then let them cook about 5 minutes and then added the garlic thinly sliced with the mushrooms and let them meld together while the rice was steamed with just plain water and a basket of carrot sliced steamed above the rice, when all was done I layered 1/2 the rice, all the beef and onion into a large bowl and mixed it with the remainder of the rice and 1/2 the carrots to get it all incorporated then I put about 1/3 in a round casserole dish and spread a layer of squash over it then another layer of rice mixture then the cheese was grated with a microplane over the rice and the remaining rice was added, i baked it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes and served with a salad of green organic lettuce, steamed carrots, slice mushrooms and croutons in annie's shitake mushroom vinagrette dressing...YUMMY!

obsession # 1 of the new year

2009-01-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

I tend to get obsessed with things, and currently am with big huge labs fd flickr toys, been perusing old (40+ year old) photos and playing with the toys and tools with new photos of my son, amazing the similar poses and photos we take of him, he looks so much like me, lucky me cause he is soooo darn cute!

where did the time go?

2008-12-26T21:32:00.000-08:00

It is so hard to believe this is my son's 3rd Christmas, he is such a toddler, no more baby :( , has to "do it all by myself" as he likes to say.....this is the first gift giving experience where he actually opened gifts himself and went from zero to overload in about 1 gift, when we told him he needed to stop playing with it to open the next gift he had a tantrum, we had to hide the item from him and then he kept asking for it, it was a tool kit, and he is obsessed with tools and how things work, so we also did not start with the right gift, he has had two bad nights of sleep, not that any are great, but christmas eve he slept a broken 6 hours and then christmas night was a broken 3 hours....culminating with a bath at 5am after vomiting and then he was up playing and vomiting until 10am when he napped for about 3 hours, just now got him to fall asleep and i looked at him sleeping with naked feet, because he is hot, no temp , just bodily warm to the touch, his feet are HUGE they look like little boy feet gone are those baby feet, where did they go? how does it happen so fast you just turn around and suddenly they are almost 3 years old and slowly needing you less each day....i miss the baby and watch in wonder as this little boy shows us the man he is becoming.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

No doubt we are having a white christmas, it has been snowing and snowing and snowing, supposed to get a foot christmas eve, but then again it was not supposed to start snowing until 6pm, rather it started at 6am.........my son asked me where the sun was! Wishing you and yours a safe and warm holiday spent with those you love!

stressful business

2008-12-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

I feel an urgency these past two days, so much to do, while we got our tree, it was very dry and needs lots of water, so we have been giving it as much as it will take, so far about 4 liters....we have yet to hand lights or decorations on it, hopefully later today, but I need to make 2 batches of dog treats, one of delcos, then hang some ceiling tiles, move a hanging lamp upstairs and a floor lamp downstairs, the hanging lamp is an antique and cannot be stored in any position other than hung or it will stress the glass......and I am so stressed to find all my hidden surprises for the family and wrap them then put them under the decorated tree......just feels like there is not enough time, since we are both working this week and have a charity dinner tuesday night and then christmas celebrations with my family christmas eve, this all needs to be done before tuesday night! not to mention the normal 3 meals a day, laundry, baths and keeping it sll together, oh and i still have some dvds to make as well!

we finally got our tree

2008-12-20T07:53:00.000-08:00

I have been accused of many thing and one of them validly, I am a control freak, I have this order of things in my head that must happen, sometimes I express it verbally, sometimes not, after more than one bickering match, I finally let my husband in on some part of my christmas secret code, my christmas cards must be done first, and i prefer they mail on the 10th, I was late this year, then I bake or make items as gifts, some flop so we have to eat them, sad us, lol, then at some point around the 15th i like to get a tree, preferably tall and skinny or at least not 85 foot in diameter at the bottom, then after the tree is trimmed, i wrap presents since I now have somewhere to put them, why wrap them just to hide them in a closet or pile them in an unused room? We got our tree, it will be decorated today and i can then wrap and artfully place the gifts, which are not going to fit where they need to as it is, we have gotten a small tree and put it on our hearth, so there is limited space in which to place the gifts, so I am having to move some hearth items to the laundry room, mostly......thankfully the tree will only be up about a week, so less mess we can hope!

snow snow snow and boys

2008-12-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

I have icicles hanging off the roof, the deck, the truck, heck even me, it is bitterly cold, that dry cold that makes your lungs hurt to breathe.....what we got today was all powder...pure perfect powder flakes that keep coming even now but not as large and heavy, we live in the mountains in a neighborhood where most of the homes sit empty as 2nd or vacation homes for bay area residents, some homes are vacation rentals and I think in this housing glut some are being rented yearround to the young 20ish kids that snowboard and seem to be mostly guys, well the house beyond a vacant wooded lot from us just rented last week to 4 of them, i think the home is maybe 1000 square foot, so yesterday when the snow began to fall they put a ramp, my husband said a half pipe and let the snow cover it and then today they spent the better part of the day, 5-6 hours, shoveling snow into a full on half pipe, now they have a subaru with a tow rope and a snowboard connected guy that gets towed up the street then back down at about 40 mph then the snowboarder lets go and goes up the ramp and back down, but to me it looks like they are trying to get air.......they groom the slope and have industrial lights out to light it, just wild! my fear is I have a son, how long until I am worried about him and his hijinks?

my mind lets go a thousand things....

2008-12-14T19:57:00.000-08:00

like dates of wars and deaths of kings, yet remembers.....this very bower..... THE world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 10 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. 1806. why are wordsworth's words stuck in my head today???? Could the hub ub over the holidays and the purchases made be driving me to remember that once during the Romantic Age some fine scholarly men, and women, less famous, thought their society had run amuck......well here I am saying society has run amuck!!!

moon photography

2008-12-13T23:23:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason, I had a nutty time, while doing dishes I spotted the clouds breaking over the trees and an almost full moon emerging, the urge hit me to try to play with the settings on the camera and capture this oak moon, this bitter cold, huge moon of december......having battled the camera last sunday and then again today with the effect being NO photos of my son with santa, I was in for it.....first trip out front the camera will not leave aperture mode, becomes frozen and even after turning it off and on again no photo taking ability, yet the battery reads full.....decided to swap out the batteries........I came into the house a partial icicle to discover that the spare batteries were not where they should be...in the camera bag, remembering my issues last sunday, I looked in my purse.....not there......then tore through the diaper bag, the back of the truck, a toy box, a bin of rubber stamping supplies....no batteries, in my utter annoyance my husband offers to help look, he begins tearing apart things, so then my son thinking it is fun, dumps all his toys from the toy box.....I ask my husband to go through my purse.......after his 2nd try he finds them and i have a small purse but he always jokes it is like mary poppins carpet bag cause it looks small but i manage to pull things out of it all the time that should not fit! Batteries changed i reset the camera to night landscape mode and clicked about 30 photos from the front yard......of course i had to wait a few times for the clouds to thin out, then hubby tried from the backyard but our motion lights made lighting an issue......I thought some turned out best and surprisingly the best mood shots were the ones with clouds glowing pink!

a white christmas is probable

2008-12-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

winter feels like it has set in, that full moon beckoned us to look to the sky, it was a huge moon a few nights ago, making me unable to sleep but with more energy than usual, and now, we cannot see the sky for the clouds and snow falling, windy last night, forcing us to bring in our holiday decor, and now just icy crunching and cold darkness that makes you colder for noticing that you cannot see the mountains.

christmas cards

2008-12-11T22:08:00.000-08:00

sorry but this year they feel like work, just no fun, i have about 6 left to make, I am so tired my eyes hurt......just hands all inky and dirty, so many margins left uneven and bad trimming on the wallets, I find it obvious that I am not into the greeting of the season this year, usually I feel the love for each person as I make them, so each one is always unique and like a little gift to that family friend, but not this year, just wham bam get the stamp on it and send it, sorry all! they are all unique, imperfect in their own way this year!

the tenth of december

2008-12-10T23:33:00.001-08:00

my cards are not done, 7 ready to go 2 in the 80 percent range, another 60ish to make.....and just basic double faced taping photos of son to green pre-folded cards and then rubber stamping a few things on the paper, not much effort this year, sorry all.......i will finish them this week but worry our friend overseas will get them late......bear photo in the paper this week was taken on our street, the bear looks very large and was climbing down a tree a few blocks away, so much for them being in hibernation.......at least i do not have to make a card for them! off to try to sleep!

photo tag

2008-12-10T17:04:00.003-08:00

this is my 4th photo in my 4th file, emerson's 1st santa picture at mom's old work, the elf is mom's old boss, kathy we love her! I cannot get the linky thing to work, so this is a tag from my life in germany....4th photo 4 file

My life in Germany: Random Facts Tag - thanks Crystal!

2008-12-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

My life in Germany: Random Facts Tag - thanks Crystal! Random Facts Tag Here are the rules: 1) Link to the person who tagged you (check out her beautiful belly!) 2) Post the rules on your blog (copy and paste 1-6) 3) Write 6 random things about yourself 4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them 5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog 6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up. So here goes: 1) I love the smell of coffee, but do not drink it 2) I am not in the mood for holiday cheer 3) I am currently baking a berry galette 4) I cannot find any red pens in the house for my christmas card creation 5) I stub or hurt my toes at least once a day 6) we are watching the bbc news on bbc america right now

just cannot get in the mood

2008-12-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

I seem to be languishing in some form of denial , I mean Christmas is less than 20 days away and I cannot get one christmas card made, addressed or even thought about, it seems like the older I get the sooner the season seems to be marketed, and when i saw christmas goods on the shelves before back to school this year, that meant august! it just made me ignore it all the more, maybe next weekend i will put up a tree and getting out some of our decor might boost me, but somehow I need to get these cards made and mailed before the 10th, I had some wallet sized pics printed, so might just tape them to some holidayesque paper and call it good! here is hoping the funk lifts and i get some cheer!

eating pecans at 4am

2008-12-05T05:30:00.000-08:00

what is wrong with me? I slept precisely 7 hours and 6 minutes, cannot sleep, just tossing and turning and uninspired to make the christmas cards that i try to send by the 10th of december, i even had my son color the background paper, but no themes are coming no sentiments to share, just a big blank! I was craving strawberries, out of season, so i mixed some strawberry preserves into some plain yogurt and after eating about 8 ounces was still hungry saw the jar of pecans in the fridge and ate about 3 handfuls, and i still feel hungry! I decided to clean the stove in hopes of my cooking adventure today, it makes it easier to have an empty sink and clean stove like a new pallate that i will mess up soon enough! thankfully boys still asleep, i miss our dog, she went to the grandparents for a visit, they decided to keep her an extra night, she would be up with me laying on my feet while i type. It is now 530 am and i am on my second cup of tea, thinking i might just send photo cards, but cannot even fill out the greeting in the online card customizer, ugh but i do want to make ginger ale/beer today my bug is ready to go! and cornbread and beans, but i did not soak them overnight, will try the quick soak cook method......and i am craving lemon cream pie, so i will attempt some kind of lemon curd from the lemons i have and hope it is enough for a pie.....and am also craving delco cookies or rugalah or whatever that fab kosher bakery called them, the cream cheese based cookie/pastry wrapped around a fruity filling.....every time i make them i eat more dough raw than i eat cooked......but they make nice fancy presents, who do i want to give some to though? me me me!

I love apple!

2008-12-04T09:47:00.001-08:00

Ok, I freely admit I doubted we would have our laptop back before christmas, it just flat out died on the wednesday before thanksgiving, hubby arranged for it to be picked up under warranty, i wondered what week the empty box to put it in would show up, to my surprise it was the friday after thanksgiving, and we were home! we packed it and called fedex for the pickup, they picked it up before 3pm that same day! The repair location in Texas got it monday am and reshipped it repaired that same day, we got it tuesday before noon, so literally under a week with a HOLIDAY....wow and it works like a charm and we lost no date or picture or videos!!! thank heaven for that, we need to back it up properly now! Thank you gods of the orchard for your whiz bang service!