Christmas Day...

Doesn't seem to have much 'meaning' any more, especially now that the kids are all grown up. In all honesty, it's nice to support the grandkids, but I really don't get any spiritual investment or support out of this holiday.
I do enjoy thinking reflectively about the solstice, and I feel a bit lost or not as in touch with the naturalistic spiritual roots these days. I'm still having problems adjusting to the light time is now increasing again...it hardly seems so already. Some of my feelings stem from the weirdness of the weather these days for sure: and now it's below freezing every night but we have had no rain so far this winter. The garden went from tomatoes still on the vine in November to frost in December! All this seems odd and I start feeling out of the touch with seasons and my part of my cyclical naturalness.

Hmmm...I never thought about the changes in the weather and the seasonal weather patterns as a human-made nature-person connection disruptor before...I hope that sentence makes sense!
In other words; we are part and parcel of nature and the natural world. Because of the global disruptive and destructive activities ('fraking' being the latest example of environmental destruction, or the recent Gulf oil spill disaster) of the vast majority of human-kind, we are, in effect, poisoning the well; cutting the ever frail connection between us and nature, with the spiritual effect of us becoming more dis-connected and less intrinsic to nature herself.

In any case, I was recently wowed by pictures of Mermaid Isle = http://www.mermaidisle.net/ and the stunningly beautiful pictures from that area. You'd never know that long-term changes are afoot, but maybe that feeling is just my projection? Idk, but it's sad to think about...

May we have peace and health this year.

Wonderful winter salad...

I can't quite claim all the responsibility for this idea of a winter salad; only this specific version. It was scrumptious - juicy, a bit robust (due to the arugula), and both tart and sweet!
You could easily add some rotisserie chicken to this salad for a more main course salad.


Wash and dry a few large handfuls of romaine lettuce and arugula (I like more arugula than lettuce)

De-seed 1 small to medium pomegranate

1 medium apple (I think we used 1/2 a Cameo and 1/2 a Honey Crisp) peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces

A good handful of some Feta cheese crumbles

A small handful of candied walnuts (I bought these from Whole Foods but you could make your own)


Dressing:
Canola oil
A bit of Agave syrup
Rice wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar
A dash of water
salt and pepper

Put the salad veggies in a large bowl, toss with the dressing, and serve!

This recipe fed two people (me and Russ!).

I wish I could be a FOOD EVANGELIST!

make a career out of my love and interest and passion for food; all natural, healthy, how-to select, prepare, nutritional benefits of, etc. I call it being a food evangelist.

LET'S GIVE EVERYONE THE OPPORTUNITY TO GET INVOLVED WITH FOOD; GROWING, COOKING, EATING, TEACHING, TASTING, ETC. FOOD IS LIFE!

Hey, you over there! look at this!...try some!...

If you eat this you just have to KNOW you'll be doing this for this...and it's sooooo very good for you! It's yummy, isn't it?

Dinner tonight

Cooked a nice dinner tonight; gluten free penne pasta mixed with a little marinara sauce, with carrots, swiss chard, onions, zucchini (from our garden!), and a bit of sweet red pepper sauteed in garlic olive oil.

Covered with a mix of Havarti cheese and some Parmesan, baked till lightly browned.

Of course some salt and pepper and some red pepper flakes (just a little).

Served with some steamed baby broccoli with toasted almonds and butter.

Yum! It was really good!

New FAV LOVE: The Large Hadron Collider

Just had to take a quick second to upload some pics so I can remind myself to make a full no-holds-barred post about my unabashed swooning over the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider.
I swear, not much gets me hot these days like this!

Am I a writer?

In the process of reading a number of book reviews and stories about the authors lives, I wondered if my journal keeping makes me a writer. In the I-can-make-become-a-published-author way, in the would-anyone-ant-to-read-this? way.

I've kept a journal, one and off (but mostly on) for over 30 years now. Wowser, that astonishes even me.

(As usual, it's early morning and I'm writing this, trying to have concentrated 'private' time (which is funny within itself because this is a public blog after all and it's certainly not private!). Parts of my family are awake and walking around, which generates a resentment in me about not having any privacy or time to myself any more)...

Back to the journal; There were some gaps in those 30 + years, of course. I don't think I wrote much around the time the boys were born...WAY too busy to write! I feel I am more prolific when I can be more reflective; but that's common, right?

I scanned and uploaded some of my Singulation stuff into this blog too, and my next project is to scan and upload all my weekly menus that I usually tack onto the fridge each week, as a shopping list, and to give the family an idea about what we are going to eat over the next few days. For some reason, these menus also help me think of new meals to make too.

Loss of...

diversity in nature, and what to do about it, really.

Talking to Tim yesterday about his bees, and whether to help them/treat them for the mites that his hives seem to have. It's a sensitive question, as everything one does now-a-days (as opposed to a long time ago) (more on this later), had so many related and inter-related consequences it's hard to figure out a course of action.

I remember playing in the park across the street from our apartment on Superior Rd in Cleveland, OH. I used to walk home from school along the trail and the creek. There were always insects and fish and animals to check out and see; worms after a rain storm, grasshoppers, leaf hoppers, fireflys in the dusk, crayfish and minnows in the stream, drangonflys around the creek banks. I remember being down at my grandparents farm outside Albany, OH... moths flying around the porch lights, chiggers on your legs, bees; so many bees!, wasps, hornets, honeybees, bumblebees, many different kinds of ants, big fat tomato worms, Japanese beetles around the rose bushes in my grandfather's garden, Luna moths on the cool wall of the house, pill bugs, tons of circadias, gnats...and I know I'm not getting them all written down here.

Where have they all gone? Today, as I walk up at Briones with the dogs, I don't any insects, any bugs, hardly any birds, nothing but weeds, no plant or animal or insect diversity.

I truly believe we have lost an incredible amount of natural diversity in the last 30 years alone!

In trying to find a couple of pictures for this posting, when I searched for garden insects it kept matching to garden pests instead!

I'm simply overwhelmed by these feelings this morning and this information, which becomes more apparent to me day by day.
Is this loss process 'normal' as man continues to overtake and control and dominate the natural world?
Is this just Darwin's survival of the fittest?
Is there any way to change this loss?

Wowser...

Do I ever miss writing! it's not that I haven't felt like writing, it's that I haven't had 1. time, 2. focus, 3. enough of an urge to overcome my apathy (I may come back to that feeling later...)

In any case...how much positive can a girl say about the New Yorker!? If I have said it once I've said it a million times...I love the New Yorker. In the Sept 12 2011 issue George Packer wrote an incredibly depressing article about how our country (since 9/11) is 'coming apart'; that was also the title I believe. Packer profiled Mt Airy NC as one of our cities that is feeling and experiencing this decline and loss, and oh my, there are no easy answers when it comes to vets returning home w/o futures, loss of jobs and what used to be called the local industry, and just general malaise on the part of many of these rural small towns across America.

Of course I spend the rest of yesterday and today trying to feel optimistic and brainstorm some ways that towns and realities like this could be re-vitalized again, and for the long run. My mind seems to always turn to agriculture as an option; and I think Packer mentioned something about small towns doing something local and home-grown, but that in effect all it was doing was supporting the ever-widening gap between lower and upper class and the haves/have nots. What came to my mind was a small rural farm producing organic meat that then gets shipped off to CA to a restaurants that charge $20 a pound for it (of course Packer gave a economy/financially framed reference). I thought my idea wasn't a bad one, in that NC had lots of land, farmers who know how to raise cattle, etc. already in place, but I too was saddened to think that putting that kind of industry in My Airy NC would only support the capitalism and have/have not mentality already in place and most probably not 'do' anything substantial for re-building a long-term economic solution to what's already been destroyed. (At least I thought of something though!)

Packer refereed to what it used to be like in these small towns, and I know them too, having spent a great deal of time on my grandparents farm outside of Athens Ohio; families within a community, local businesses, usually some kind of larger industry (in NC's case it is/was textile manufacturing), local schools and businesses, etc. But what with that industry now shipped overseas, Packer raises some solid issues to think about, and I nearly came to the conclusion that small towns like that are pretty much doomed when these kind of changes occur.
I still think this story supports some of my strong feelings that,
1. We need to amend public education to include much stronger training and development programs for the trades (and not just heating and air conditioning repair),
2. We need to include a much more pragmatic curriculum, such as balancing a checkbook, how to cook and eat healthily, how to sew, etc. (more Home Economics)

Since I think about eating and nutrition and food production a lot, I was hard pressed to come up with any suggestions for other possible routes of rural renewal that didn't or lessened promotion of that ever-widening gap...it's a tough, complex issue and Packer was saying exactly that.

Overall, Packer wrote a fine article that has me thinking.

(Speaking of thinking; I will have to check out Bath and Body works (I think that's the company) that went into Athens OH to start their business (I believe he owner lived in that town as a boy?))

And that's a street in My Airy NC in the picture above...all nice and 'normal' looking, uh?

If it's June 4th...

...it shouldn't be raining! But it is!

What is up with that?

In all cases, it's been raining, but not cold, for over the last 2 weeks or so. It seems in years past (and I say that knowing that there doesn't seem to be a normal or usual anymore), we have been swimming in the pool by mid-May! And by this time, it's usually or normally in the mid-80 degree range.

My garden is growing, albeit slowly.

Going electric

Well, really, I'm thinking about going electronic, but electric sounds sooo much more vintage!

I'm looking at Pinterest today, and it reminds me of my notebooks for designing, DIY'ing, etc. but it's electronic and you can share it. Wow, I got quite lost in the site, mof. It's like a site/ideas version of Tumblr .

I like the concept of Pinterest; interesting ideas, projects, etcs that you catalog and then can share.

Oh, yeah, too: Erin and I are getting ready for my 5th or 6th tattoo and her first one. I'm thinking a paisley pattern on my right forearm that sorta connects up with the one on my shoulder. Erin found this pic (above) and I like the paisley pattern on the right leg (as you look at the picture's right-hand side).

What do I want my kids to know?

I must have been remiss about making sure all my kids have all the necessary skills to be able to survive (thrive would be best) in today's world...Two of them don't really know how to shop and cook...instead of ragging on myself, I think the better idea would be to list what skills I think are necessary to have by the time you move out from your parents and are on your own.

1. How to shop economically - this is for food and everything else too

2. How to drive a stick shift

3. How to balance your financial account (god, it sounds so old-school to say checking account, so I didn't!)

4. How to cook at least 7 different meals (1 for each day of the week) during at least 3 different seasons, using local and seasonal food

5. How to fix/repair/maintain something (i.e., change the oil in your car, put together a simple bookcase (with written directions), sew a patch on something, etc.).

6. How to use a library

7. How to do laundry (sorted by color and water temperature)

8. How to ask for/find assistance/help

9. How to grow something

10. That they are important and loved, but that they aren't the center of any universe

11. That you should treat others as you want to be treated

12. Life isn't fair so stop expecting it to be (the sooner they realize this the better!)

13. How to see beauty in all things

14. Try to think positively

15. How to choose friends and be a friend


(I did some searching on the 'net on this subject, and lo and behold, I'm not the only parent thinking about this :-) From others;

16. Money doesn't influence happiness

17. All people and cultures are equally valuable

18. Travel - the world is a wonderful place; get to know it!

19. Try to do what you love

20. I really like this one, as it's oh so simple: No matter how much you know, earn or have, life is about getting along with others.





I know there are more!

Art (and stuff) that I really don't enjoy looking at

Why is the urge so strong in me to look away (usually with either a grimace or a fake smile) when I see something (in this case, this morning, is was an artist's art (more on that specifically in a minute)) that generates or I respond to with any or all of the following emotions and thoughts;
1. embarrassing
2. doubtful
3. troubling
4. off-putting
5. overtly realistic
6. not beautiful
Beside the artist below, I even found myself looking away a few times during the play we saw last night, when there was a moment of flub-up, or a dangling awkwardness of a mis-step, etc.
Oh - The artist is Berlinde De Bruyckere, and here's some of her work
Check out the ones that look like dessicated parts of humans, or animals...yep, that kind of art and stuff do it to me.

It's my birthday!

And I'm freaking 55 years old!!! OMG! How did this happen???

All kidding aside, I'm seriously wishing myself a happy birthday year, with many happy more to come.

I'm in Santa Rosa today, at Peet's Coffee right now, on Mendocino Ave, around 9am. I just dropped Erin off for her Chanticleer's Lab Choir performance at Santa Rosa HS. I don't have much 'planned' for today; hang out, I think I'll check out some Goodwill stores in the area, try to get down to SSU and find Goelz...

It sure seems like 10 years or so has and has not changed Santa Rosa, of which both statements are true!...It's been 17 years since I lived here?!...the JC looks bigger and has a large parking garage now; 4th street looks the same (pretty much); it's still quiet and more country-like...

OK...over and out for now...I feel like reading my current book (haven't read a book in about 6 months); Benita Eisler's O'Keeffe & Stieglitz. It's very interesting.

Just a poem...

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is a society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in it's roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel,
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
---Lord Byron

So much...

...loneliness and isolation in our culture. So much loss of a feeling of connection, and intimacy. So much depersonalization, which nearly becomes a sense of overpowering numbness.



I'm just saying.

Photo: Mary Ellen Mark

Somewhere...

"To be whole, let yourself break.
To be straight, let yourself bend.
To be full, let yourself be empty.
To be new, let yourself wear out.
To have everything, give everything up.

Knowing others is a kind of knowledge;
knowing yourself is wisdom.
Conquering others requires strength;
conquering yourself is true power.
To realize that you have enough is true wealth.
Pushing ahead may succeed,
but staying put brings endurance.
Die without perishing, and find the eternal.

To know that you do not know is strength.
Not knowing that you do not know is a sickness.
The cure begins with the recognition of the sickness.

Knowing what is permanent: enlightenment.
Not knowing what is permanent: disaster.
Knowing what is permanent opens the mind.
Open mind, open heart.
Open heart, magnanimity."

Not sure who said this, but I like it!

Menu for this week...

We are pretty broke this week (as my Mom used to say: Why is there so much of the month left at the end of the money?) so the menu is a s-t-r-e-t-c-h version with the theme of making more with less. In that vein...

1. Mexican chicken and rice casserole, with a black bean and corn salad
    We have one pack of chicken breast tenders, so I used 3 of them for this meal, and the other three for the Thai noodles dish. I usually make my own sauces, but I picked up (on sale!) a Rick Bayless tomatillo-based enchilada sauce to use in this dish. I cooked the chicken in the sauce, made white rice in chicken stock, then layered the rice and chicken mix with shedded cheese and sour cream. I covered it and baked it at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, then took of the cover, sprinkled some leftover semi-crushed corn chips over the top mixed with more cheese and a small bit of the last of some pico de gallo and let it brown about 10 more minutes. 

The corn and bean salad is/was excellent; 1 can of whole black beans (drained and rinsed), 1 can of corn (drained), lots of finely chopped green onions, cilantro, a couple of pinches of salt and some pepper, 1 crushed garlic clove, some cumin, chili powder to taste (You want it favored, not spicy). If I have it, I also add sliced or diced jicama and some finely chopped jalapeno pepper. Lastly, add some olive oil and red wine vinegar, and lime juice to taste. Delic!

2. Thai noodles, with chicken and tofu

3. Fried tofu with greens and rice

4. Go green! GF pasta with pesto

5. Scrambled eggs and home fries (also called breakfast for dinner!)

6. Grilled cheese sandwiches with french fries