Serpentine

a serpentine course grows naturally out of an open round, for the leader of the line may digress from the steady circling to describe meandering figure 8's, zig zags, spirals, or what have you

(chaos is not disorder but an invitation to the dance of life)

phase known as new skin for old (shed old skin / grow new tale)

the ecdysis process begins from 10 days to 3 weeks before the actual shedding and is indicated by the snake's loss of appetite (a bloated body might inhibit the process), a bluish cloud over the eyes, a few tears (maybe a lot), a dull cast to the skin, a pimple or two, and a marked negative turn in the snake's (subject's) disposition, indicating some discomfort

to each thing there is a season

i am giving up a whole bunch of stuff / turning a corner / and changing my tune

i'll never admit it weren't fun

~~~~~~~~~~


Remember your insights
Acknowledge your visions

You can't pretend
That you're not where you are

(from Long Pants by Michael Ontkean)

no i dont have permission to copy this and he doesnt even know i have a his book which he autographed and gave to a someone i know who didnt want it anymore / i loved this book so kept it / it was published in / oops / seems to be misplaced / was about 1970something / time to declutterfly my books

All Fired Up and Fully Fused

a successful first firing of my glass kiln !

so much more to learn and so much more fun to have !

"Someone" asked if I were happy

Happy is not the operative word (in this phase)

I am more like Released / Relieved / Relaxed / ReInventing Myself

Re-Creating and Restoring Power

Regurgitating (urp) the deadness of the past

(my pressure relief valve is functioning well)

there is no Rush

but plenty of Quick

as in Quick ! Alive ! and all that Jive !

A little memory from life in rural Vermont

one night last week the old lady who lived across the street died

today her family had the funeral and walked by my house on their way to the cemetary which is across the brook by way of a foot bridge directly behind my house

they buried her there and then came back by my house and across the street and had a lovely family party in their front yard / i have noticed that the folks in this village often have their outdoor parties in the front yard instead of the back / maybe so everyone in town can see what is going on

later i walked over to pay my respects at her grave / there was a pile of dirt remaining so i went home and got a bucket and shovel and brought dirt home to plant tuberous begonias in a big iron kettle

thanks, old lady

i now remember that one of her family placed little wooden tulips at her grave / i think one of the children made them in wood shop

(memory from sometime in the 90's Chelsea, Vermont)

Hocus Pocus Sharpen Your Focus

the way of the improvaho is the path of surprise

revisiting the past

topanga canyon diet :

a joint
a toot
a cuppa joe

sit in the sun
and have some mo'

(sometime in the seventease)

in the mail a clipping from the Topanga Messenger describing a house that cd only have been mine

Happy Trail Spider Works and Bubble Preserve

located at the end of the trail in the thicket of high resolve

'72 - '90

oh that time ! learned carpentry / tiling / how electricity works / plumbing / how to rebuild windows / how to start a restaurant on a shoestring / tune up my car / pour cement / grow pot / fix the roof / what kind of fire wood to use in each of the wood burning stoves / how to keep warm and those were the days when Tony Grant on the radio said if you are with a man to keep you warm at night you might as well have a dog / i created a lovely terraced garden / i shopped in the creek (water most of the year too) for rocks for the walls and walkways / and i shopped at the beach for driftwood and to run along the waters' edge at low tide / and in the house i had the tides phone number / gosh / i lovve that / calling up to check on low tide so i cd go down for a run in deep wet sand

&&&&

i had a lot of dogs / cats / ducks / chickens / angora rabbits

DreamBoat was my wheels

her license plate was the much envied and coveted POTANGA

people not dyslexic asked, what's POTANGA ?

the Improvaho nirvana, i replied

++++

*and when you get there, you say, Now What?"

that's right

??????????

meanwhile the little pieces of glass are in their little stacks sitting on the kiln shelf waiting for tomorrow / i took some pictures / i want to see if i can match the fused ones with the original stack / just for fun / i look forward to lowering the shelf into the kiln / there is barely finger room between how you hold the shelf and the kiln inner walls / there is a litle pyrometer jigger that sticks into the kiln so the shelf must be slightly tilted to pass this / so what / if the glass pieces rearrange themselves i can rearrange them back

priscilla, my glass fusing mentor. sez Never Refuse to Refuse / she sez its like when i was teaching her to knit and then advanced knitting and custom construction we were on the phone all the time and now it is pay back time / she is teaching me how to fuse glass and she reminds me that i told her if she got the knitting wrong the first time take it out and do it again / some people gasp at this suggestion / i think doing it over and over and over / eventually you get it the way you want it and the pleasure of the process is the raising of your skill level / practice makes improvement

what i want to do with the little glass pieces is pour them all onto the kiln shelf and then arrange them in clumps and clusters / oh i cant wait for the tweezers to arrive !

see after the glass is washed and dried touching them will leave organic residue / smile / you want them nice and free of impuritease / while i wait for the right tweezers to arrive (i didnt know there were so many kinds of tweezers !) i am using a pair of needle nose pliers / they work okay / i didnt need to order tweezers or have frank yama order tweezers or have Priscilla send me tweezers

and on that note. . . . . . . . . .

Con Fusion

the little bits of glass are laid out on a clean white dishcloth

they have been washed so they will be free of finger marks and other impurities

tomorrow they are going to be carefully stacked this way and that and placed on the kiln shelf

i will carefully lower the kiln shelf into the kiln so as not to jiggle them out of place

i will close the lid

turn on the heat

crank it up to 1600 degrees

the little bits of glass will melt and fuse together and bring me all kinds of surprises

and then i will carefully control the heat as the cooling off and annealing processes take place

i am so excited

this will be my first firing all by myself !

sizzle

Georgia Cracker Salad

now i've seen everything

Paula (of Paula's Home Cooking / sheez a Georgia gal) hand crushes a tube of saltines into a bowl / adds chopped fresh tomatoes / sliced green onions / and several big gobs of mayonnaise !

a little pepper / not too much salt cuz of the saltines

serve scoops of Cracker Salad on lettuce leaves

when fresh it is crunchy and when it is not fresh it is not crunchy but, Paula says, some people like it like that

well / hmmm

Ritz Cracker boxes at one time featured an "apple pie" recipe made with Ritz crackers instead of apples

i guess Cracker salad compares to Tuscan Bread Salad which is a way of using up stale leftover bread

Giada is Silvana's granddaughter

the lovely cook of Everyday Italian, Giada DiLaurentiis, is indeed, the granddaughter of Dino DiLaurentiis and therefore of Silvana Mangano, known as the sexy star of Bitter Rice in 1949 (when she was 19)

i was tickled to find out by googling / a commenter on a gotham food blog provided the info with expressions of love and admiration / "I love her big head" he wrote

i love her big smile and her liberal use of butter (burro in Italian)

today Giada made Florentine food / for the first time i wanted to make a cake known as Zucotto just like hers

slices of pound cake drenched in brandy (nearly all Italian desserts are soaked in booze) line a deep bowl, then filled with a chocolate/cream that coats the cake slices and then filled some more with whipped cream loaded with toasted almonds / put more brandied cake slices on top / cover with plastic

chill for hours or over night / then turn out onto a platter / sprinkle with cocoa and dig in / it is a dome of a cake / una duomo dolce or something like that

little cups of espresso will help it all go down

espresso with a twist of lemon is considered a digestivo in Italy

just a tiny little cup, that's all

which makes me wonder how Starbucks plunked down at Piazza di Spagna is doing with their giant Americani doses of coffee

can you smoke a Gauloise, for example, in Starbucks in Rome ?

hmmm

Presidential Debate #3

we are making popcorn for this one

Everyday Italian

Everyday Italian is my current favorite cooking show on the food network

La cuoca bella is Giada diLaurentiis / the pretty cook !

i wonder if she is a member of the Dino DiLaurentiis cinema family

one reason i wonder is because my former husband, The Actor, had a contract with the DiLaurentiis Studios back in the spaghetti western days / he was a Clint Eastwood look-a-like

the other reason i wonder is because the production values and camera work on Everyday Italian is far superior to many other cooking shows / some really talented people involved here

extreme close-ups of Giada's hands plucking a perfect bulb of garlic from the bowl / scooping up pinches of coarse salt / even turning off the water faucet / just lovely / and of course the food itself / so fresh and so colourful / so Italian / so many dishes the colours of the Italian flag

red ripe tomatoes / crisp green parsley and basil / creamy white mozzarella and parmigiano

the garlic (aglio) olive oil (olio) sale (sale) pepe (pepper)

this is like a kitchen chant : olio aglio sale pepe ! singing in the kitchen : cantare alla cucina

too darn yum and so much fun

what i learned when i lived in Italy was not how to cook so much as how to eat / how to shop and how to enjoy food and the pleasure of sharing meals with friends and family in liesurely ways / taking time / La Dolce Vita

i learned cooking too / when one is a foodie one is always learning to cook / there is no end to this most delightful process

for example i am trying out Elizabeth David's braised breast of lamb one more time / after the lamb breasts (riblets) are braised with onion and carrots and herbs in stock for three hours / it is cooled / the rib bones are gently removed and then another process is to take place involving slicing the meat / coating it with mustard and bread crumbs / letting it dry / and the grilling it

sigh / i never get that far / once the lamb breasts are braised and cooled enough to eat / well / shoot / i just cant resist gobbbling most of it down immediately

oh RATS / i got so involved in telling about the fn lamb breasts that my Everyday American dinner is kaput / the cream of tomato soup boiled all over the stove / the favorite saucepan bottom is burned and the grilled cheese sandwich is / well / too too toasted

shoot / phooey

not so bad though if you dont mind the taste of char

Today is the Day

Today is the day i would be prepping to go away
tomorrow if i were but we are not

i only mention it now because jeffrey gave me encouragement
by reminding me of similar apprehensions before the river trip

ah the river trip / smile

ah yes / cdnt miss the river trip

but now / the illness set me back and our plans set so far in advance clearly illustrate Life is what's happening while you are making plans

there is the garden to harvest and plant for winter / there is glass to fuse
and fleece to spin

there is lamb breast to braise and parmesan bread to bake / apples to sauce

'sides any decision based on stubbing your toe requires careful re-consideration

Not for the faint of heart / the squeamish / or the overly genteel

we are composting humanure

the son-out-law built some big bins / one is for the mixing of the compost / one is for the sawdust that is added to the humanure to cover it up and so it wont stink

my daughter and son-out-law are ever into alternate Stuff / they build houses and walls with bags of dirt

they told me i cd participate by pooping in a bucket / covering it up with sawdust / adding kitchen waste and there you go (after you went)

we use five gallon buckets that pickles come in / we get them from an Italian deli over in Grand Junction, CO / i am proud to say i can fill a bucket in a little less than a week / of course i do have a lot of vegetable scraps / smile

http://journeytoforever.org/compost_humanure.html

Earth Shoes

it has been more than 25 years since i wore earth shoes and now i have these :

http://snipurl.com/9o7s

they are really comfortable / soft leather uppers and linings and innersoles too

when i had earth shoes in the 70's i wore the sandals / they were thick slabs of wood with leather straps

i lived in new york city / the east village / earth shoes with their depressed heels were ideal for walking on cement / i could walk miles in comfort / they are kind of wierd when you walk on real earth which already goes down at the heels so after i moved to topanga in southern california i never wore them anymore

i kinda wish i had those sandals for old times sake / smile / they must look like hippie relics today

i dont walk all that much on cement here in the high desert / i havent worn these new ones outside yet / i am not ready to give up sandals and close in my feet for the winter / we are not even finished with autumn / i am breaking them in slowly by wearing them around the house in the morning instead of slippers which i dont have anyway

when i was younger it never occured to me to break in shoes slowly / on saturday we would go shoe shopping for high heeled party shoes to wear that night ! gad / what a painful experience that was / too bad it takes so long to get smart and then when you are you dont wear high heels anymore

well, not since the Rolfing

Amusings

fresh lima beans from the youth garden at the farmers' market / oh you have to shell them the young ladies tell me so i say i grew up shelling peas and beans / i bought them all / to have with boiled red potatoes

maybe next week they will have fava beans / i remember these from Italy / during fava bean season you can go to a ristorante or trattoria and order a big steamed pot of fava beans fragrant with olive oil and garlic and herbs and you shell them yourself / the waiter puts a bib around your neck

today there are apples from the mountains / these are the apples that are so crisp sweet and delicious you will never again eat an apple from new zealand / unless you are actually in new zealand during apple harvest / shine these apples and they glow like rubies or like ripe pomegranate berries / at home my daughter makes apple/pomegranate juice but i made celery carrot tomato juice / all local produce organically grown in our little oasis

high desert honey too

@@@@@@@@

whle recovering from fever i sat in bed with my laptop and watched a movie / this is notable on several counts / one is that i gave up going to the movies many years ago for reasons or non-reasons that may or may not be explained at some other time / i have not gone to the theatre in years / i chose to watch The Talented Mr Ripley because i read the Patricia Highsmith book when it was published in 1955 and i had read the following Ripley books and recently re-read them all / i am a Patricia Highsmilth fan

i was curious as to how this story was presented in the cinema

hmmm / quite a few more characters and embellishments / murders in your lap a bit too much to take / i like the dvd format / so much easier than fussing with the video machine so you end up not knowing how to switch back to the television set

@@@@@@@@@

i slightly overboiled the potatoes so i threw in some cream and butter and mashed them up a bit / i have to go now / i absolutely do not want to overboil the baby lima beans

ciao

What to do with Celery Hearts

what with being feverish and fasting and not having an appetite nor the desire to go on the hunt for interesting and diverting foodstuffs i concentrate on using up that which is in the refrigerator

there are several walla walla onions / a package of celery hearts the outer stalks of which have been forced through the juicer with the last of the carrots and the juliette tomatoes for a tasty glass of V-3

there are some nice crisp apples

several potential menu items come to mind

sweet onion / celery / apple salad dressed with the bottom most smear of mayonnaise left in the jar spritzed with a little homemade fruit wine vinegar (choices here at apricot and mulberry) / this will require a lot of chewing

celery and onion stir fry dressed with the last of the pad thai sauce / throw this on to the leftover rice or better still fry up the rice and throw a beaten egg on that !

hmmm / things are looking up / epicurious.com offers a number of exciting options like braised celery

cream of celery/onion soup with the rest of the chicken broth (there are two kinds : the homemade chicken jelly and that which is left in the purchased box of chicken broth / there is enough cream and/or half n half to make this quite sumptous and will need less chewing and has a higher comfort level

or

just stuff the celery with peanut butter and be done with it

Fast Fasting

well there's nothing like having a high fever and being unable to eat to drop off the five pounds you put on with the bacon and baked apples with creme fraiche
for breakfast menu

Pep Talk

i decided i wanted to do Something Completely Different

something i dont usually do / in fact, something i dont even have an interest in doing

my daughter is going to a Heal the Heart Foundation gathering for a three day camping out and vegetarian meals 3 X a day in California

when she first asked me if i would like to go i said no

then Toe Stub Clarity during a time of indecision / i stubbed my toe so badly stumbling around in the dark on a deliberately uneven rock path created by me that i saw stars and my life flashed before my eyes

i still have a Toe Rag tied around to keep the little rascal warm and hidden from view

yeah, so i decided to go along for the ride / get out of my space / change my pace

i got out my tent / the one i bought for the river trip / i ordered an air mattress and a traveling (battery powered) Water Pik so i can floss my teeth in my tent / i lined up a couple of motels in Watsonville, just in case so i wont miss the third Presidential Debate

sigh / i dont want to go anymore

Pep Talk time to convince myself that my decision to go is an honorable intention / when i visited my best friend in the spring time in northern California it all seemed different / different climate / different geography / i did the same things i always do in slightly altered ways / contrasting versions of the same / it was extraordinarily satisfying

practice putting up the tent / blowing up the air mattress


pep up / perk up / put up or shut up

Tomato Jam

the persimmon tomatoes are roasted / toasted / garlicked / gingered / and canned

what a glorious colour !

ready to eat with homemade cream cheese on focaccia

buon appetito

The Eyes Have It

I saw the eye doctor this morning and my eyes were blurry all day

He told me a cataract is the lens we are born with and with age it gets OLD

Some cataracts can be removed and replaced with an artificial lens

Cataract surgery is the most common out-patient medical treatment in the country

It is a simple procedure / yeah sure / but does require some sedation so you dont leap out of the chair

I googled up some alternatives / N-Acetyl Carnosine are drops for "senile cataracts" / put in your eyes several times a day for four months and if they dont work you can get your money back

There is also Ocuzyme which promises the same results

Ayurvedic treatments are a possibility / one therapy is to stare at the sun as it comes up in the morning / possibly every day for the rest of your life

This reminds me of a woman i met when i lived in Rome. She was a Christian Scientist and she was a very elderly lady. I read some Mary Baker Eddy because of her. She told me that she had gone to Capri for a visit and while there sat in the sun and let the sun warm and bathe her eyes and this completely restored her vision. I believed her.

If you are on LSD however, as i recall, staring at the sun is not recommended.

Secret Service

i've been watching campaign rallies on C-span

you know what is fascinating ? the Secret Service and how they follow the President and the Candidates when they plunge into the crowds and are surrounded by people reaching out to touch them / enveloping them and the Secret Service Men are always there / at first you dont notice them and then There They Are / they wear suits and sometimes sunglasses / suddenly they are the most interesting thing happening / how they look constantly in all directions and yet stay close to the person they are guarding

they are constantly in restrained and extraordinarily alert movement/attention

you can just think that they dont miss a trick

hope not, anyway