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!

speculoos

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

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

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?

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

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

motivation

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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