Monday, November 30, 2009
Roses and guns
Sunday, November 29, 2009
A wonderful quilt
She made it for her annual quilt exchange, and the lucky lady who got it lives in Canada on a farm where she cares for (formerly abused) donkeys and goats. She describes the winters there as "goat-clump cold." I like that expression!
If you're a quilter, you know applique this detailed is tons of work and challenging even for an expert. Julie said, "I used six different presser feet for the sewing machine, three kinds of machine needles (and broke two of them while sewing on the red chain ball trim), and oodles of different colored regular and metallic threads."
What a masterpiece! And thanks for sending me the picture and story!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Thank you friends and family
http://sue-feathersandflowers.blogspot.com/2009/06/country-horse-city-horse.html.
"Blogging for Dummies" said I needed a plan, and so I decided my goal would be sharing stories and photographs, and to write about ordinary life in a short and interesting way. In other words, not be a bore. Unfortunately, when we ARE boring we don't know it, and must rely on others to tell us outright (unlikely) or ignore us (more likely.) But if you have Statcounter installed on your blog, you will always know when you are being ignored. :-)
What I am trying to say in a round-about and possibly boring way, is thank you dear friends and family who take a minute out of your day to drop by Feathers and Flowers. In particular, those of you who have given me kind words of encouragement, and shown your support by joining my little group of followers. On this weekend of thankfulness for so many blessings, I just wanted to say a special thanks to all of you out there!
Friday, November 27, 2009
The sun
Old Johann Wofgang Von Goethe can be pretty heavy going, but here's a beautiful, simple poem he wrote about the sun:
Something Like the Sun
The eye must be something like the sun,
Otherwise no sunlight could be seen;
God's own power must be inside us,
How else could Godly things delight us?
Johann Von Goethe, 1749-1832
It looks like a much nicer day ahead today. And here's a sunny little face that can brighten even the darkest November morning:
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Grammy's potato dressing
Pennsylvania Dutch food has a reputation for being heavy, and potato dressing sounds like a real carb overload. But it is surprisingly light and delicious, and I've never met anyone who didn't like it. Most of my life I thought it was Grammy's own invention, but now the Internet tells me there are recipes out there, although none of them sound like anything she made. I know she certainly didn't use sourdough bread, bacon or strange herbs. She seasoned mostly with salt and pepper, and perhaps some sage, but I don't know for sure. I'd have to ask my Aunt Doris sometime. I don't know if this is family legend or true, but my Dad says she used her wash tub to mix up the dressing, they ate so much of it.
Anyway, Grammy didn't often use recipes, and like her I wing it every year when I make potato dressing for Thanksgiving. So if you're interested, I can give you my method but not exact instructions. Add it to the list of things I can't make the same way twice!
I just bought a Kroger turkey for $5, but poultry was once an expensive treat, and a turkey dinner a once a year occasion. And Thanksgiving dinner at Grammy's farm was very special indeed.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Beef goulash
I see there are many recipes for goulash on the Internet, also a big entry on Wiki. My method is not authentic, but it's a good way to stew up an inexpensive piece of meat, like chuck steak. Amanda is into cooking comfort food right now, and I tell her if you put the right things together in a pot and cook it long enough, the man will adore you.
I start by slicing the beef into strips, then browning it well in olive oil in a heavy pot. While that is happening, chop sweet peppers (red or yellow) an onion, and several cloves of garlic. Add this to the browned meat and cook for a few minutes more. Then dump in a small can of stewed tomatoes, and some seasonings. I use smoked paprika (a great product if you aren't heavy-handed) cayenne pepper, black pepper and a touch of salt. This mixture (below) does not look promising, but put a tight lid on it, and simmer as slowly as possible for at least two hours. Eventually even the toughest meat will fall apart, and the delicious rich sauce basically makes itself.
I bought these fine egg noodles at Big Lots, where I grub around sometimes for bargains. Their food section is pretty scary, but occasionally there's a find. The package says these were made by Amish ladies in Fredericksburg, Ohio.
And here's the Sunday Blue Plate Special:
John often complains that I have a hard time making exactly the same thing twice. He's right. Hey, I'm just a home cook, not a chef. And the lesson is: When you get it, enjoy it!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Improvising Mozart
This afternoon at the symphony we heard pianist Gabriela Montero play the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21. It is also known as the Elvira Madigan, named for an obscure film that featured the andante from this beautiful work. Elvira Madigan was a real person who lived from 1867-1889. She was a Danish tightrope walker and trick rider, whose illicit affair and death at the hands of her lover were the subject of the 1967 Swedish film. From her photograph above, she looks like a real handful.
I love classical music, but I have a lot of insecurity because I never learned to play an instrument (I know... it's never too late, but the clock is ticking.) So the technicalities of scores and composing will aways be like another language.
"Improvising" on Mozart sounds like a sacrilege, but Mozart himself never performed a piece the same way twice. He wrote the basic framework in a hurry, then added the flourishes on top of his compositions when he performed them. Many, like the concerto we heard today, were scratched out the night before. So I've been thinking about improvisation all week and boring John with my questions, because Gabriela Montero is apparently famous for it. There was a gushy review in the local paper about her, including comments about her unconventional dress in the concert hall. Think tights, lace, and short black baby doll dress.
Needless to say, Seattle loved her! She did an encore improvisation on the opening of Beethoven's Fifth (da da da DUM) that brought the house down for a second time. We also had a Norwegian guest conductor, Arild Remmereit, an energetic young man who accidentally flung his baton into the front row during the Tchaikovsky 6th Symphony. Never mind that, we think he has his sights on Gerard Schwartz's Seattle conducting job, when he retires next year.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
So we'll go no more a roving...
So We'll Go No More a Roving
by Lord Byron (George Gordon)
So, we'll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon.
Lord Byron never knew that one day his sad and beautiful little poem would become a sad and beautiful little song recorded by Joan Baez. You can listen to it here:
http://new.music.yahoo.com/joan-baez/tracks/so-well-go-no-more-a-roving--1598378
Friday, November 20, 2009
Flickers on Flickr
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wind storms and leaves
Robert Frost didn't mince his words. And when winter hits in the Northwest, I always think about how puny humans are, and that Nature will have the last word. If you watch the Weather Channel, you'll see us hit by one storm after the other as they race in from the Pacific. Just a reminder we're perched on the edge of a cold ocean, in a place that was a wilderness only 100 years ago. So trees fall across roads and come down in housing developments causing all sorts of expensive havoc. I remember when one wind "event" a year was more typical, but this November we've had several already.
If you live in a place long enough, you'll notice changes in weather patterns. This makes you feel old as a glacier.
But on the bright side, the temperatures have been relatively mild so far and the beautiful gold leaves have lasted a long time. Between storms yesterday, I got out to plant a big hydrangea in one of the flower beds I'm re-working. I took this picture of our neighbors' birch trees, which are nice to look at year round.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
A dog's life
Roger is a sweet, good-natured dog. Although he's probably wondering why he has to be playing horsey already.
Here's some dog Haiku poetry to make you laugh:
http://dan.drydog.com/patsyann/doghaiku.html
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Battle of the Fig Tree
At least 25 feet tall! So Carlos and his helpers went to war with a chainsaw and did a top amputation. The chainsaw won:
Monday, November 16, 2009
Dark-eyed Juncos
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Piano practice
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Chrysanthemums
Maurice Maeterlinck
I think chrysanthemums are evocative flowers, and these pink ones are in the kitchen window box. Their distinctive scent is not pleasant (or unpleasant) but the colors are vibrant, and they bloom so late in the year.
I remember reading a beautiful short story by D.H. Lawrence called "The Odour of Chrysanthemums." The story is simple and sad, but dense with symbolism. Like most of Lawrence's best fiction, it is based on his own life. The imagery is so powerful, to this day the story comes to mind whenever I see fall chrysanthemums.
Friday, November 13, 2009
The difference a day makes
Thursday, November 12, 2009
A new Nova picture
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Arts and Crafts wallpaper
I remember my parents re-papering rooms in our old farmhouse every few years. Stores like Sears and Montgomery Wards had big wallpaper departments, where your Mom would page through books of samples while you hung out and got very bored. Patterns like ivy and flowers were popular, also geometric designs which were easier to "match." Paper wasn't pre-pasted then, so you had to mix up a big batch of wallpaper paste. Sounds like messy, hard work.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Washington coast
I was sorting through old photo files, and ran across these from a past trip to the ocean. I remember peaceful walks down to Ruby Beach, and another near Kalaoch Lodge where we stayed. We also took a dirt road detour through a clear cut, blasted landscape to see a single magnificent tree named "The Dunbar Cedar." At 178 feet, the world's largest living Thaja Plicata (coastal red cedar.) It looks dead, but no it is not. By some miracle (I don't remember the story) it was spared by the loggers who went through this whole area like the Huns on a lumber rampage.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Vino is back (again)
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Chocolate and Russian music
Later, there was another kind of eye candy on the stage, when the handsome young Greek Leonidas Kavakos played the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at Benaroya Hall.
Here's a quote from the Seattle Times review:
"Kavakos ranks among the greatest instrumentalists of our time. Equipped with a formidable technique, the charismatic Greek drew from his 1782 Guadagnini violin a tone at once pure, warm and voluminous, seeming to sail effortlessly through the richest orchestral textures. Within the past three years, he has given us superlative performances of Bartók's Second Violin Concerto and Shostakovich's late, great sonata for the instrument. Now it is heartening to find him equally at home in a standard romantic concerto that is too often treated as a mere vehicle for technical display. While throwing off the virtuoso passage work with thrilling brilliance, he yet fully realized all the elegance and nobility he has said he finds in the piece."
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Dante and Beatrice
Dante is best known for his epic poem The Divine Comedy, one of the greatest works of Italian literature. The work is composed of over 14,000 lines, and even most English majors haven't read all of it. But some of us remember a semester laboring through Dante's Inferno, the famous first section of The Divine Comedy. And if we were lucky, the edition we read kept our young interest with lurid illustrations of the sins and graphic punishments in the 9 circles of hell. For example, the creepy drawings of Gustave Dore.
The pretty painting above shows Dante smitten by Beatrice as she trips down the street in Florence with her ladies. Beatrice died at the sad age of 24, but Dante stayed madly in love with her his entire life in that medieval "courtly" way: secret, unrequited, respectful, spiritual. Both were married to others anyway, and only saw each other from a distance a handful of times. After her death, Beatrice was immortalized in Dante's poetry, and much, much later by the Pre-Raphaelite painters, who were ALL OVER this kind of romantic legend.
Friday, November 6, 2009
A good day for mulching
I had the idea I'd splurge and mulch this year with a load of fresh, nice compost. Then I did some rough math, and realized I'd need about 4 cubic yards to cover all the beds 2 inches deep. I'm not good at geometry, but I remember a cubic yard of anything is a big pile o' stuff, and a friend told me 4 yards might be about 1/2 of a dump truck. The thought of waiting by the sidewalk with my little wheelbarrow while that much compost is dumped on the sidewalk was just too much. Maybe next year.
So... I went back to the cheap leaf mulch method. It isn't fun either, because I have to cross the street with my garden cart many times to help to myself to the maple leaves over there. People probably think I'm a neighborhood saint, keeping the storm drains and gutters clear. But I'm just grabbing some free mulch (not that there's any competition for it!)
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The "Slow Garden"
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2010112419_pacificplife01.html?cmpid=2628
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Thanks, Marji
November
Well, November isn't all THAT depressing, although pulling down tangled vines and raking wet leaves put me in a dark mood yesterday morning. Still-- the sun was out, Nova was babbling over the phone, there were sweet friends to see and a nice pork chop for dinner. Life is good.
As I was poking around the Internet looking for William Morris, I ran across some exquisite blogs-- what an inspiration. If you're interested in beautiful Pre-Raphaelite art, here's some eye candy:
http://www.theearthlyparadise.com/http://thebeautifulnecessity.blogspot.com/
http://preraphaelitepaintings.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Eggplant Parmesan
I've had eggplant Parmesan in restaurants a few times, and it really wasn't very good-- more like a cheesy casserole with a piece of soggy eggplant on the bottom. But if you have time to make it at home, it's so good and not too heavy. We had it last night, so I took a few pictures of the easy method.
Step one: Slice the eggplant and salt it heavily on both sides. Let it "drain" in the colander for about 20 minutes, then rinse all the salt off. This helps remove any bitterness.
Step two: Prepare three dishes of plain flour, egg mixed with milk, and seasoned breadcrumbs (like Progresso Italian.) Coat the slices FIRST with flour, then egg/milk, last the breadcrumbs.
Step three: Heat about 1/2 inch of oil (preferably olive) in a heavy skillet. Fry the eggplant slowly on both sides until it is brown and the inside is tender. This takes a bit of patience, because it is very easy to scorch it.
Just right!