OMG!! It might be winter!!

  But I'm not gonna get too excited yet.  The weather has taken a turn for the nasty....43 degrees and rainy.and almost 11 AM, so I think we can be pretty sure it won't get much warmer. Although the rain is supposed to stop. 

  Just for today, for right now, I am content to be in my warm homey house, surrounded by yapping dogs and trying to figure out if I can get my bread starter made. I have to go to town early today, and that always messes up my schedule.

**********************************

  My son came today and took my car in for a new front tire. He's buddies with the guys at the used tire place. They got him a really nice tire and it only cost me 30 dollars.  The front end on the car was shimmying so bad I could barely hold the wheel. See, we live out on a county road and they never have the money to properly repair the roads.  Potholes and washboards are the order of the day, and this mess EATS tires. So I never buy new ones anymore, it isn't worth it. I do get gently used ones that come off wrecked cars. The Irishman was worried that it was the tie rods, but number one son says it rides smooth as glass now. Thank goodness--the car repair gods have already punished me enough for one year.  lol

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  I'm going to start a batch of the artisan bread here in a minute, altering the recipe slightly. I'm adding a half cup of Bob's Red Mill 6 grain cereal to the mix. I had some of my friends bread made this way and it was awesome. She told me today that she just made some with raw quinoa added to it and that I should really try it--it was great.  Maybe next time.  When I stopped to buy the cereal last night, I also picked up a bag of flax seed and a bag of corn grits for making polenta. I love polenta...

**********************************

  Not much going on around these parts. I did just get a call from my neighbor telling me that the church's pecan sale started and that pecans were up to 9.00/lb this year. I think that's still cheaper than the stores.  And they're beautiful nuts, I bought some last year.  So, I ordered 3 pounds. That might get me through the winter. I'm going to talk to my brother in Georgia too...maybe his wife can get me some nice ones (she owns a restaurant there). Pecans are my favorite--a versatile nut that can be used in a thousand different ways. I'm on the verge of needing walnuts too...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  I am lazy today. Not really doing much of anything besides the bread dough, which I only have to stir together and leave out on the counter until tonight.  Thought maybe I'd vacuum, but....maybe not. Going in to MissB's early today, and not looking forward to that. She is keeping her house at about 84 degrees all the time since it got cool. We all go in and change it and she goes back and changes it again. I keep mine at 69. I can barely breathe in her house, it's so hot. It makes me sluggish and tired and cranky. She is 82 and refuses to wear anything on her feet or a sweater. sigh...I'm going to be as stubborn as she is when I'm that old, I just know it.  lol

*********************************

 Okay. I'm off to make bread and then go shower. Or...maybe a little nap.....I only got 5 hours sleep again last night and I'm suddenly pooped....

  It's all about priorities, right??

Namaste.

Sunday January 3, 2010

Cold as a well diggers A*# out there!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now a balmy 5 degrees with a Weather Advisory warning out. Wind chill temps will be from 15 to 25 BELOW zero tonight and tomorrow morning. And I have to get up and take himself to work so I can go to the chiro. I've just let the dogs out for their last hurrah of the evening. They'll not be long...it's brutal out there. Although the young pup, Caylee is quite the outdoors dog and refuses to come in most of the daylight hours unless it's real bad...even she won't stay out for long at night.

I dream of the beaches of Waikiki...of snorkeling at Haunemea Bay, of climbing Diamond Head. Of palm trees waving in the breeze and the splash of waves against the accepting sands. I visited there in 1992 and have yet to make it back. I loved every single minute of the 8 days I got to stay there. I got a little island fever-ish at the end, but I would go again in a heartbeat. Especially in January, when the projected wind chill is bringing temps to 20 below....


I dream of living somewhere warm again, although I am fully aware that it will probably never happen. My youth is gone...the days when I could pull up stakes and go anywhere I damn well pleased. I am settling into middle age [finally] at nearly 57 years old. Attached to a place via the family and friends and things that have taken up residence in my heart. Moving proves entirely too much to consider when there are so many dogs and cats and birds and chickens involved. I do love the spring time and a good portion of the summer as well...before the heat gets so unbearable. But more than that, I am in love with this place I call home...my gardens and my lilies and my fruit trees. The modest little home and its flaws, the place at the pond where the turtles come up every year to lay their eggs. The way the honeysuckle and lilacs scent the air right up to my front door. The blackberry brambles that create a security fence around the sides and back of my yard. The way the tall tulip poplar blooms on branches so high that you cannot make out the flowers...only the splash of creamy yellow against the sky.
Even in the coldest part of winter, my trees and yard are brimming with wild birds. Cardinals, ruby red against the snow. Chickadees and Nuthatches and woodpeckers-Downey and Pileated and Hairy and Red Bellied and Red Heads. And don't forget the brilliant blues of the huge Jays as they swoop from tree to tree, flashes of cerulean startling all the other birds for a moment in their majesty.


Sigh...okay. Why would I ever want to leave here? Am I so fickle that a few weeks of this frostbitten insanity would be enough to make me up and leave all the rest? Of course not.


It's all just a dream on a cold winters night. If I pay attention, I can still smell the remnants of todays bread baking on the air.


And the smell of bread baking is always the smell of HOME. And I wouldn't have it any other way.



Namaste.

Friday in the rain...

It's a been a monsoon out there. Easing up for now, but not sure for how long. 48 degrees and rain makes for a messy stay-at-home-in-the-house kind of day. A perfect day for baking bread. And catching up, as my internet connection has been very spotty, at best, for several days.

And so, my house smells like the corner bakery and I am in flannels and sweats and big socks...enjoying the quiet solitude. Thinking how good a nice stew would be for supper, with thick slices of warm buttered bread alongside. I could make a Jamaican pork stew with sweet potatoes and onions and garlic and celery in it. Not too spicy, but certainly with a little jerk seasoning in it. I have some tomatoes and okra too I could throw in there. That sounds like a good idea. I have some packages of boneless pork country ribs in the freezer that would make a nice base, if I cube them and simmer in the electric skillet for a few hours they will be melt-in-your-mouth tender. Are you hungry yet? lol.. I even have some brown rice from the sweet and sour chicken I made a few nights ago when my sister was here. Sometimes I like these stews over rice..makes a nutrious and satisfying meal.

A woman named Rashanna (who I have lost and cannot find again) taught me years ago how to cook brown rice that (when you're poor) is almost a meal in itself. You brown the raw rice in oil with chopped onion and fresh garlic and celery. You add basil and black pepper and simmer it until the rice is cooked. Browning the rice really brings out the lovely nutty taste. You can add bits of whatever you want to it...leftover cooked chicken or tofu or anything. That's how I cook it most of the time. So, thanks! Rashanna Smith...maybe someday she'll google her name and find me. We lived in Clearlake, CA at the same time back in the 70's. She had moved there from Calistoga, back when it was a little nothing town, surrounded by wineries.

The bread is about 15 minutes away from being done. And so you know that my lunch will be a cup of tea and a slice of warm buttered bread...lol

I was supposed to go hear Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea) speak today at 2. My neighbor and I were going. I started feeling a little punky yesterday and hated to tell her I couldn't go--she was so excited about seeing him. Then I thought, I'll just suck it up anyway...go to the amphitheater in the pouring rain and deal with it. Then she called me early this morning with news that her mother had fallen and broke her hand and was getting 27 stitches in her head and she wouldnn't be able to go with me. So...once again...God does for me what I cannot/will not do for myself. I am fighting off whatever crud has been going around and I don't need to sit out in the rain. The older I get, the more careful I have to be about not getting pneumonia.

Just finished a delightful book by a woman named Martha Cooley. It's called Thirty Three Swoons. About the perfume business and Russian theater history and love and family. Absolutely wonderful...and I read the whole thing yesterday.


I have had a busy busy week, and needed to stay home and recuperate the past couple of days. Glad I can do that today...and not be jumping out of my skin, like it used to be. Soft sounds of jazz on the stereo, a little lunch, and kitties laying in my lap...

It doesn't get any better than this....


Namaste.