May

The Book of Hours calendar page for May shows young nobles and ladies riding in a procession in front of the Palais de la Cite, the Duc du Berry's residence in Paris. In France, this May jaunt was called the "joli mois de Mai," where rich people wore green clothing and paraded on fancy horses. I suppose the poor had to be content with wearing a spring of green. The sun chariot rolls on at the top, and the Gemini twins lead the zodiac.

The earliest May Day celebrations were pagan and appeared in Roman times, with the festival of Flora, the goddess of flowers. In Europe and America, May Day was known for dancing the Maypole and crowning the May Queen. A tradition of leaving "May baskets" on neighbor's doorsteps is (sadly) gone. Years ago, the little girls next door to us would run over and hang paper cones of flowers on our doorknob; it was very sweet.

We are starting the month on a happy note here. Amanda and Nova just arrived for a short visit, and Amanda's best friend from the Peace Corps is also here for the weekend. New Nova pictures coming soon!

German potato salad

I cook for a person who won't eat mayonnaise, so German-style potato salad is an alternative to the fattening kind made with gobs of real mayonnaise, eggs, celery and sweet pickle. I think American potato salad is delicious, but that might be because I don't get it very often.

On the other hand, served warm or at room temperature, German potato salad is lighter and goes better with almost any meat. I remember my grandmother Anna used to make it with roast chicken for Sunday dinner, along with spaetzle noodles and gravy.
As usual, I don't have a real recipe to share with you, but nothing could be easier to make by taste. Of course you start by boiling and draining the potatoes, then slice them thinly. Mince 2 or 3 slices of smoky bacon and sauté until crispy.
There are no unusual ingredients. I chopped some chives from the garden, because I didn't have green or red onions on hand.
Add the bacon (with a little of the fat) and sprinkle the potatoes with whole celery seed, about a teaspoon of sugar, some salt and pepper. I think this salad is better with plain old cider vinegar and vegetable oil, but I've also tried olive oil and white wine vinegar. Use a generous hand with the oil, the salad should be shiny and not dry.
It was good the other night-- we had chicken baked in the oven with a Parmesan breadcrumb crust.

They're back...

Each spring I say I'm not going to buy so many new plants. Ha! I'm a sucker for the weird grasses and sedums, especially black and gray ones. We've had wild weather in Seattle this week. Yesterday I beat the storm home, and dumped these plants at the back door right before the deluge started again. Bright sun in the morning, followed by heavy rain and thunderstorms, even hail in places.

My barn friends are on the lookout for swallows; they're late. Some sort of gnat plague just hatched in the damp weather, pestering the horses. We need some flying insect eaters. Yesterday afternoon, Jennifer our barn manager called me at home to say she saw the first one, and no doubt about it. They found our little barn again-- and what a nice person she is to call, just to tell me they're back...

Willa Cather's Nebraska

Barren Prairie
Allie Benbrook

Imagine a world without TV, radio, electricity, or cars-- no airplanes, computers, texting, email, movies, video games, Ipods or cell phones. Imagine a world where life revolves around the seasons, crops and caring for your animals. Where kids did chores after school instead of being chauffeured to activities. Then imagine this life in a place as bleak and flat and dull as rural Nebraska in the late 1800's. Finally, imagine young people who don't know the meaning of the word bored. Who find enchantment in nature, and happiness in family and friendship.

This is Willa Cather's world in her novels "Oh, Pioneers" and "My Antonia." Cather moved to Nebraska as a child in 1883. These stories are beautiful reminiscences, but there isn't anything saccharine sweet about them. There was no shortage of hardship and tragedy. I like to read these books again every few years-- the writing is wonderful, and they put our soft lives into perspective. But you have to appreciate this irony: I just downloaded a free copy of "My Antonia" to read on my Kindle...what would Cather think of that?

Here's a quote from the book about the Nebraska winter:

Next to getting warm and keeping warm, dinner and supper were the most interesting things we had to think about. Our lives centered around warmth and food and the return of the men at nightfall.

Well, some things never change.

Snake plants and Mother-in-Law Tongues

Evil sounding names for nice houseplants. I always thought they were the same, but the Internet tells me the snake plant (below) has white horizontal bands, and the mother-in-law tongue (above) has leaves edged with yellow. Nice.
I put some of my scruffy houseplants outside to fend for themselves, so I've been on the lookout for new ones. I dug this big snake plant off a packed pallet at Home Depot; really a bad place to buy houseplants, although you can get lucky if they're fresh off the truck. It was top heavy and root bound and tipped over in the car, making an awful mess. Snaky thing. I transplanted it into this heavy blue pot, and put it where it won't be moved until Christmas. They like low light and low water-- in short, neglect.

Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) is native to places like the Congo and Nigeria. It's supposedly one of the best houseplants for removing pollution from indoor air.

Spring picnic

Nova and her dad, getting ready to leave on a weekend hike...
Amanda and Roger in the spring sunshine (he's always ready for a family walk!)
And Nova eating oranges for lunch...

Amanda was telling me yesterday about the latest milestones:
Nova crawls everywhere-
Nova pulls herself up to standing every chance she gets-
Nova drinks from a sippy cup-
Nova says ma-ma and da-da-
Nova likes avocados and oranges-
Nova laughs at funny, rude noises (and lots of other things, too)
Nova steals the show wherever she goes!