Cuppa Tahoe - inspiring me to return to writing

Well, it was a long silence here.....almost 10 years! I had several friends say they were taking up blogging again during the Shelter at Home Quarantine beginnings in mid March of 2020, I thought that was a good use of creative juices, but did not feel inspired to string words together and wax poetic about what? my lack of styled hair, continually trying to get eggs or toilet paper...especially since I was still working, deemed essential by work since I was filling in for someone and while

Pastry Case with Iced Tea and Water

working my less than full time hours trying to keep her duties caught up with NO training, no clue and all the uncertainty and stress of a pandemic closing in from all corners.

Then today, May 23rd of 2020 I went to Cuppa Tahoe, a book store, tea, coffee, pastry shop
and it was like a siren to my soul.  BOOKS actual hard backed bound pages on shelves for purchase or perusal.  There are sections of the shop with
"touchme readme" books and comfy chairs and kid sections with vintage REAL typewrites, scales, mechanical telephones to touch and play with chalk and board. 
https://cuppatahoe.com/  There is a large and lovely CO WORK space with a living plant wall and waterfall and these tables that call to you to come and touch them with their varnished metals and woods of earthly hues.  The drinks avail in iced or hot varieties. 

The sweets and savories are small delights for tongue and
tummy: LEMON BAR was amazing!!
popsicles locally made of organic fruits and herbs are
in a chilled case for sale. 
Puzzles, Poetry sets, Journals, pens, rubber stamps
and educational gifts abound.....this will be the
place to acquire items for both YOUNG and OLD. 

All aforementioned acoutrements are housed in a strip mall within 2 miles of my home...this must be heaven!  I might have been home too long, but this felt decadent and sinful......i bought a cookbook for me and a self help book for a friend called Pause by Danielle North, about how to reset your mindset and value every minute....and some magnetic poetry kits and a lemon bar that was amazing!!!

The whole experience felt new to me, shopping for books....

..trying to remember the last independent bookstore I was in must have been in Davis, California 3-4 years ago! I forgot how much I love to browse and ponder all the written tomes of old and new.....when I am running through the library on a quest for a precise item, it is not pleasure but precision that drives that duty.  I need to have this store succeed and survive this new world of physical distancing and economic apocalypse for my sanity's sake.

the hiking summer

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

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

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

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

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

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!