AVOCADO INSPIRATION

Several avocados sitting in a wooden bowl on my counter kept calling my attention, and my appetite as well.  Our favorite way to eat them is, without a doubt,  guacamole and chips. 

 And so the decision to make a Mexican meal was made, along with the guacamole....

 The simplest and most delicious version is:  mash ripe avocados with a fork in a bowl; mince onions to taste, garlic to taste, and cut a tomato into very small pieces.  Salt and pepper and a dallop or two of mayonnaise (not salad dressing!).  Mix together, taste and adjust.  This is truly a mouth-watering appetizer.

 Spicy black beans another of our favorite dishes, perhaps not quite so simple, but simple enough.

1 can black beans drained and rinsed; one (or to taste) dried cayenne pepper minced and reconstituted in a cup of orange juice; saute one small onion, one carrot and one stalk celery and one sweet red pepper, all cut into small pieces, in olive oil.  When onion is soft, add the orange juice with the cayenne and a pint or so of whole tomatoes, and let cook for about 20-25 minutes.  Taste for salt and pepper, and make necessary adjustments.

Spanish rice...

Once again, saute chopped onion, sweet red pepper, cilantro, garlic, in olive oil, add one cup rice and saute until golden.  Add either tomato 'juice' or whole tomatoes, stir and cook until rice is tender.  I add salt, pepper, a bit of dried oregano, some cumin, and a touch of chili powder.

Chicken enchiladas...,

Saute chopped onion, garlic, sweet red peppers in olive oil , add cut up chicken breasts, saute.  I then add some enchilada sauce that I made last fall and froze.  This basically consists of pureed tomatoes, cumin, oregano, salt/pepper, and some pureed onion/garlic.

When chicken is cooked through, lay out tortillas and put a scoop full down each one, add a little salsa, roll up and place in a 9 x 13" oiled pan with salsa spread thinly over the bottom.  After the pan is full, spread more salsa over the top, grate cheese over this and cover with an oiled piece of tin foil.  Bake in a preheated (350 degree) oven for about 40-45 minutes.  The last 10 minutes remove the foil, and let the cheese brown.

OLE`

BEAVERS AND OTHER MISPLACED THINGS

Oh, the snow is melting,

the river is flooding,

and beavers are crossing the roads!

Something is very wrong here.  Two days ago, at the end of the road on which I live, not far from the stop sign at Hwy 131, there was an animal lying dead in the road.  I had a difficult time recognizing it, and on my return stopped to examine what it was.  It turned out to be a beaver.  Yesterday my daughter saw a beaver crossing the road on her way home from work.  I have never in all the years I have lived here, seen a beaver outside of the river and its near surroundings.  It is a very strange happening, and however confused I am about this, I imagine the poor beavers are truly distraught.  Is it this strange, very strange spring?  Is it global warming?  Is it the river flooding?  I have seen the rivers around here flood many times, but I have never seen misplaced beavers.  I doubt it is just the flooding.  I deeply wish there was something I could do to help these poor creatures.

To say this is a strange spring is to put it mildly.  Spring generally brings, at least for me, a bit of anxiety...unlike the 'caving up' of winter where contemplation, solitude, and quiet seem to prevail.  Spring brings a multitude of necessary actions, some of them quite pleasurable...

like having found, for the first time, San Marzano tomato seeds, the primier tomato in Italy...

...and starting my own plants.  Oh, I have high hopes for these San Marzanos, and despite the package count stating about 32 seeds, mine held at least 67....I hope they survive and grow and produce.  I hope to share some of these plants should they continue to grow so well.  I also have cucumbers, egg plant, spinach, Italian Heritage slicing tomato, and cherry tomato seeds sprouting.

That is the pleasureable side, but for us vineyard owners of over 850 vines, comes pruning time!  This weather surely is not cooperating with our need to prune, we have 22 rows, and inbetween rain, snow and deeply cold temperatures,

we have so far pruned, perhaps 3/4 of the vineyard.  This pile of prunings, which we must collect from the vineyard, is an exceptionally tall and very wide pile, which when it becomes dry enough, we will burn.  (One wants to remove and burn prunings to inhibit any chance of disease or fungus from spreading.)

Pruning this year is more difficult then any year I remember.  For some reason the vines grew quite vigorously last year, and it is the norm to be unable to prune the one vine in front of you, until you have removed the 30-40 feet of vine growing from a plant that is three plants away!  This is a teadeous job, and moves quite slowly.

...a close-up of a vine needing pruning...



...vines just pruned and tied....

As we are being thwarted from pruning by this unusual weather, I go to the garden to see if the soil is yet loose enough to plant peas, lettuce and spinach.  It is nearly ready, but it is very, very wet as well.

Walking around outside, which is generally such a pleasure, especially in the stark, pure white beauty of winter, isn't quite so pleasurable right now....

As the snow leaves, it also exposes all that needs to be done...

old, dead refuse to be removed, last year's growth to be cut away...

Ragusa Roses to be transplanted, 125 strawberry plants to be freed of the up-close and choking weeds that surround them, limbs fallen and littering the lawn to be removed, garden to be prepared, revealed trash to be collected, and on and on.  I know that spring is a time of renewal, but right now I only feel its pressures.

I know this will pass, and that I will soon be reveling in the joys of sun and new growth...I think.

WRESTLE-MANIA

Perhaps spring has really arrived, although I wouldn't bet on it.  Still, I pulled the last of the strawberries and rhubarb I froze last spring, to make a pie.  I love making pies, and for some reason it is about the easiest dessert in the world to make.  Preparing the pie crust, rolling it out in a nearly perfect circle, (my mother's wasn't nearly perfect, her's WAS perfect), is a wonderfully nostalgic, meditative 'exercise' for me. 

I always brush the just-ready-for-the-oven pie with half and half or milk, and then sprinkle it with a bit of sugar...which makes for a lovely browning.

I almost always have pie dough left over, and one of the things, as a child, I loved most when my mother was baking a pie, was the left over crust...

made into what she called 'tarts'.  Here are tarts cut with a cookie cutter, brushed with milk, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

Truly a delicious treat.

This past 'Nonnie' day, Grandpa came home early before the girls left for the day.  This always excites the girls, and after the initial hugging and teasing, this Nonnie Day the girls wanted Grandpa to wrestle with them, one of there very favorite Grandpa activities....

 now wrestling, for them, has a little bit different take.  First they have Grandpa lie on the floor on a rug, then they pile pillows on him

and take a flying leap from the couch,

(I don't know the reason they laid the towel on his head, perhaps it offers some relief????)

Elsa ready for the take off...

Quite honestly, I think Grandpa loves this just as much as the girls do, and they of course, think he is invincible.  

  Nonnie day is always a day full of wonder and delight not just for these girls, but for me as well.  They never cease to amaze me with their sharp yet unsophisticated awareness and deep knowledge.  They enrich my life exponentially!

BLESSINGS

After completing a few rugs and a couple of wall hangings, I still had extra linen warp on the loom.  As I was unsure how much I had left, I did not want to start another rug, so I decided to remove the center two sections of warp and weave two matching pot holders at the same time on the remaining two sections of warp. 

Here are two potholders being woven at once, these are not identical, because the one on the left is being woven by three year old, Elsa, the the one on the right is being woven by six year old, Iris....my grandgirls.

One of the projects for our 'Nonnie Day, at their request, was for them to help me take these off the loom, which we did yesterday.   In the end, their 'pot holders' were destined to become rugs for their dolls.

One of the amazing things about these home-schooled girls is their insatiable desire for learning, in all its simple and 'old-fashioned' forms.   It is easy and for me, exciting, to find and offer 'lessons' for them on 'Nonnie Day'.  They find fascination in the smallest things, and are eager to learn by doing and by reading, and electronics is the farthest thing from their minds.  Not that they would not be interested in watching a video on weaving, for example, but the use of, say the computer, is nowhere near the top of their list of how to come to know.

...close up of Elsa's...

...close up of Iris'...

...the first of my completed pot holders...

Our second project for this Nonnie Day was to make Hot Cross Buns, something I have done for more years than I can count.  When they saw the eggs I had blown and subsequently drawn upon, they very much wanted to do the same...

 

 and as the recipe for Hot Cross Buns called for two eggs, I blew them out, (a bit beyond what a 3 and a 6 year old easily could do),

and the girls, with great focus, drew on them, too.

On to baking....

 

...kneading the dough...

...and rolling out the buns...

Both girls seem deeply interested in baking/cooking, and Elsa usually says to me, "Nonnie, can I help get the ingredients out?", while Iris is off reading until all is ready.

I believe that these girls are budding into great cooks and bakers!

...ready for the oven...

...just out of the oven...

There are many stories and legends behind Hot Cross Buns, among them: if eaten on Good Friday, good luck will be yours; if given to you by a friend you will have abundant blessings; if you hang one in your house your year will be blessed.

On top of it all, they taste mighty good.

 May your Easter season be filled with blessings, too!

THROUGH THE WINDOW

Here it is the 18th of March, and a new snow storm is upon us.  It is relatively gentle and quite lovely, however it has brought about three inches so far.  They prove to be a very treacherous three inches as our walkway, and the long driveway to my cabin were nothing but sheer ice, almost like skating ice, and now it is all covered with snow so one can't see the ice. Even stepping carefully, with ice spikes on my boots, I still wiped out! 

Generally after a brief lunch, I sit on the couch and read for about 15 minutes.  The couch has a nice view out the window, which I find myself constantly looking out, and today....

one by one

one by one...

and one by one

a parade of turkeys slowly marched by

they gathered near the top of this hill,

but never even walked in twos...

it was one by one, with great spaces in between, kind of like the 4th of July Parade.

Wish I could take advantage of this snow and go skiing, but although I have finished painting the two rooms, I have shelves to paint, floors to mop, rearrange, etc.  Far to go yet.  

But doesn't a new snowfall make the world pristine and beautiful?

CONFLICTED

Several years ago, using a warping board, I made about 20 sections (of twenty cream-colored wool yarns each) perhaps three to four yards long, on a warping board.  My intention was to warp my loom with these and proceed to weave.  However, and it is a  huge however, I forgot to make the necessary cross of threads, and thus was unable to warp the loom.  I was decidedly frustrated and annoyed thinking I had just wasted tons of good yarn.  This yarn has sat in a basket for years waiting for some inspiration.  Not long ago I decided to dye the long hanks in shades of burgundy and blue, and use them as the weft, that is the yarns that get woven, and did in fact make several items.  Just the other day, my waste not attitude still in high gear, and having some linen warp still on the loom, I thought a small wall hanging using these hanks might be nice.

This hanging measure about 18" x 24"...

this detail shows how I used snippets of the hanks to form rya knots to make flowers....

This past Saturday the Kickapoo Valley Reserve held an Art Show and Sale with 16 local artists, myself among them

...here is a photo of my 'booth' at the Reserve, showing woven lampshades, bags and rugs among other things.  It was a good day, the weather cooperated, and many people came out.  Bonus, I even made a few sales!!

I am so anxious to get back to the loom today, BUT there are two rooms in the house that have recently undergone re-plastering in many places and are demanding priming and painting.  And as we are living in the mess of everything that should be in those rooms being elsewhere in our living space, I am also anxious to get this done.  So, this week will be devoted to the house and not the workshop.  I know I will appreciate it once the work is done, but right now all I really want is to weave.

WEAVING AND WEAVING

I am back at the loom, and quite honestly, I can't imagine how I stayed away so long.  I am loving the colors, the textures, the solitude, the meditative rhythm as I look out the picture window in front of me at the winter vineyard.  

The fourth rug since I began....

...reclaimed wool, which began as old blankets, cut into thin strips and woven on a linen warp.

One can get lost in the repetition of warp--weft--warp--weft...

...going to inner places of healing.

Once I finished the above rug, I still had linen warp remaining on the loom, so I decided on a mixture of colors that would represent the rock outcroppings and ledges here in the Kickapoo.  Again I was using reclaimed wool blankets, but also used some of the wool rug yarns I have collected over the years.  I am really happy with how the colors turned out to look so much like the many ledges I have seen on my countless journeys through the Kickapoo Valley Reserve: hiking, skiing, snow shoeing.

Still something was niggling at me and the thought of another wall hanging emerged. I decided to make this into a wall hanging using the Friends of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve's logo as the central theme. 

The making and appliqueing of this logo was anything but easy.  I almost gave up, researched and drew a large Blue Heron to applique, but in the end went with the depiction of pines, ledges, and the river.

I am happy with the end result.

Still, I did not use up all the warp and my next project has begun!!