iron jenny bonney

Did I mention that I was a birthday party pirate about a month ago? Yes, it is what you think. I dressed up as a pirate and led a bunch of 10 year old boys on a treasure hunt. I know it sounds sort of cheesy and horrible but I had a blast.
First of all I got my Halloween dress-up fix at last. I unearthed all of the favourite costumey bits I have squirrelled away and wore them all at the same time (pirates like to layer). It's funny that dressed up as a pirate was the most glamourous I've felt in ages but it felt great to put on the layers of heavy, full skirts, the cinching belt and vest, a big blousy shirt, rings on every finger, ratty gloves and a sleek silk kerchief. And I wore make-up for the first time in a long time. Alright it was brown eyeshadow smooched across my face and knuckles but it still required some preening time in front of a mirror. I admit I felt a little self-conscious toting my lantern along the subdivision sidewalk. Methought my coin belt jangled a wee bit too much but I tried to swallow my nerves and look tough.
And it rocked! 10 year old boys are not afraid to admit that they are having fun. My cousin (the mom) had devised a devilishly intricate hunt that took us two hours! We got to tear through the park after dark looking for clues! We got to dig up the back yard! I got to talk like a pirate all night! And now! I get to write about it ! using many exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Monkeyboy takes his mother's silliness very seriously.

this one's for meg!

*surprise!
*because you are thirty-two now
*because I forgot your birthday
*because I know you peek in here now and again and hoped you might be pleased by your own personal birthday message post - Ta Dah! - even though it is a week late and there is no excuse for that.

So,

Song for a Tall Brown Haired Gal (sung to the tune of your choosing but make it snappy)

(p.s. imagine the bracketed bits are back-up singer bits)

She like to siiiiiing
A lot. (want to start a church of singing)

She wear her birthday bli-ing
To clean the house. (ooo la la tiara)

She teaching Eng-
-Lish in Korea. (why why why teacher why?)

She wishin she could fliiing
A snowball. (poof. thud.)

She cool! (she cool) She funny! (so funny) She thoughtful! (full of thought) She a honey! (yah!)
Yah!
Yah!
Yah!
Yah!

Mmmmmmmmwah.

stitchhead

The month-long hiatus. Yeah. I know. Bad. But I have been knitting. Productively. Actually finishing projects that actually fit the people they were intended for. HaveI done a bad thing by making monkeyboy a knitty addict as well? He actually climbed up into my lap this morning while I was (quickly) checking my email and said, "Hey Ma, let's look at some knitting!" (italics his). I kid you not.
So my current mess looks somethings like this. Snow melt and mud by the front door obscured by piles of bootshatsmittsscarvessnowpants. Dining table covered by Christmas gifts, wrapping stuff from last year that I want to reuse, half-addressed cards, bags of pinecones, The Trumpet of the Swan (our new chapter book) and a pile of ironing. Kitchen counter covered by good intentions ingredients (I keep meaning to get to some Christmas baking...) and dirty dishes (as usual.) Coffee table covered by upturned laundry hamper/kitty cage, goo-girl's beloved board books and broken crayons. The tree is coming in this weekend so soon all of this will also be covered by the ubiquitous, prickly spruce needle. And more snow. Monkey boy is addicted to Fraggle Rock and googirl just wants to keep changing her outfit and climbing up on chairs. And spinning on little rugs. A very good time.
Smith is cranking out the orders back there, lord love him.
I have to go back to work in a few weeks. I am ignoring this.
Monkeyboy and I are working on a big snow-sculpture of Herbie the Love Bug. We are just in the planning stages now.
Last night I went out for dinner for Willy's birthday. A New Zealand feast. I have always said that I hated lamb but I was wrong, so wrong.

be hopeful

Both of these have been moving around my house for the last couple of years, either taped up inside my kitchen cupboards or stuck on a my junk board. I thought that typing them out again and sending them into the blogosphere would be a good meditation, a good remembrance.

Discourse on Good Will

May all beings be filled with joy and peace.
May all beings everywhere,
The strong and the weak,
The great and the small,
The mean and the powerful,
The short and the long,
The suble and the gross:

May all beings everywhere,
Seen and unseen,
Dwelling far off or nearby,
Being or waiting to become:
May all be filled with lasting joy.

Let no one deceive another,
Let no one our of anger or resentment
Wish suffering on anyone at all.

Just as a mother with her own life
Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
So within yourself let grow
A boundless love for all creatures.

Let your love flow ourward through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.

Then, as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.

(from the Sutta Nipata of The Buddha)





Now, When the Waters Are Pressing Mightily

Now, when the waters are pressing mightily
on the walls of the dams,
now, when the white storks, returning
are transformed in the middle of the firmament
into fleets of jet planes,
we will feel again how strong are the ribs
and how vigorous is the warm air in the lungs
and how much daring is needed to love on the
exposed plain,
when the great dangers are arched above,
and how much love is required
to fill all the empty vessels
and the watches that stopped telling time,
and how much breath,
a whirlwind of breath,
to sing the small song of spring.

-Yehuda Amichai
translated from the Hebrew by Leon Wieseltier

my life in the snowbelt begins again

Looking out at the whiteness I remember now why I was so eager to drive my face off for the last six months, going places and visiting people. Because now begins the long stretch of limited and unpredictable vehicular mobility. And getting out of the house with two babes is now going to require two hours of prep time instead of the usual twenty minutes. Goo girl is happy about the whole thing. I'm not sure if I am going to be able to get her snowpants off her ever again. She looooooooooooves them. BIG PANTS! And there will be a puddle inside my front door for the next four or five months that I will always step in, with little wet sock trails leading away from it. And various wet woolen and nylon things hung off of doorknobs and chair backs and spread out in front of heat sources. And bills for said heating sources. And (more) mice coming in for the winter. Note to mice: I know I loved you when I was a kid, rescued you from cats, made you little shoebox houses, then elaborate gravesites when the shoebox thing didn't work out, even though I am reading The Rescuers out loud to monkeyboy, don't think that I haven't changed, inherited my mother's ruthlessness with rodents and things wild that invade my house. Fair warning.
Hey speaking of rodents (for those who can't stand rodents and haven't already been put off by talk of mice, quit reading now...) we went out for Chinese food on Saturday night, before heading out to see the Sadies at the Horseshoe Tavern (which requires it own whole post). We were cozied away in the back room, had just ordered soup and beer when - Ta Da! El Rato! Making a complete and frenzied tour of the room! We laughed. They moved us to the front room (rats don't like the street view?). We stayed and ate - the food was so good, we got drunk on Tsing Tao - although I did experience a full twitch and body shudder and make a "gahhh" noise every time my scarf brushed my cheek or someone's foot touched mine under the table.
It is starting to snow again...

hallowasn't

I'm gonna make this short and snappy because I realize I am missing out on real live social time with smith to be here in cyber space with you (it's not that I don't love you but just sometimes it feels kinda wierd, you know?).
I just realized that this year, the first in my thiry five, I did not dress up for Halloween. I did have a Halloween headress on at some point, one of those headbands with little bats on antennaes and some feathers and glitter thrown in for good measure, but I'm pretty sure I was just wearing it because I was sick of stepping over it in the kitchen. And I was wearing black and orange socks. But really, how pathetic is that for someone who loves to dress up so much that she devoted a large portion of her life to doing it professionally? (I know there is more to acting but I can't tell you how much I loooooooved the dress up part). On the up side I could wax gooey about a certain wiry little bespectacled guy and a very bossy little giraffe who insisted on wearing her rubber boots but I am heading for outer space, i.e. the TV room and parts adjacent.

soup factory

So, last week I made soup. Buckets and buckets of it. And I am still not sick of it. Good thing becuase the weather is gettin nothin but colder. Drove through some snow yesterday on my way home from my weekend off in the city ("The city", as though it were the only one...)




Beets! Look at these darn things! Bottom photo is the white and yellow beets after they were peeled - they looked like a sunset-the top photo is of the beets just out of the oven, sort of scabby and homely looking before the Cinderella effect of peeling them. The fuschia beets went into a big pot of borscht. (front L burner).
And here is the recipe! (It is my Babka's and she is Ukrainian so I don't need to tell you that it is a darn fine borsht. She spells it Borsch. ?)

Babka's Borsch(t)

1 medium onion diced
1/2 cup green peas
1/2 cup potato, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
1/4 fresh dill, chopped (VERY IMPORTANT)
2 tsp salt or to taste
2 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
1 cup or more cream (also good without but....)
1 few fresh garlic leaves if available, chopped
1/2 cup broad beans or fresh green beans diced
8-10 small to medium beets with stalks and leaves
5-8 cups of water or stock of any kind (I usually just use water and it is very tasty).

Wash and peel beets. Rinse leaves and stalks well. Dice beets and put in a large soup pot and water or stock. Bring to a boil and let simmer 10 minutes. Then add all other vegetables, including diced beet stalks. Keep leaves aside for now and add about 5 minutes before other vegetables are cooked. Do not overcook the vegetables. Remove from heat and season to taste with S & P. Add cream and stir gently. Serve with a spring of dill (or lots, chopped) and a dollop of sour cream or a swirl of heavy cream floating on top. Serves 6-8 people.
The back burner was a potato and leek soup - Julia Child's out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And the rest of my fridge cleanup went into a pot of cheesy cauliflower soup with parsley dumplings on top. And here is that recipe, my mom's:



Golden Cauliflower Soup
3 carrots, diced
2 ribs of celery, diced fine
medium onion, chopped
1 small head of cauliflower chopped up smallish
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar
2 cups milk

Ina Dutch oven, melt the butter and cook a medium onion chopped up till tender. Sprinkle flour over this and blend well. Stir in milk and cook stirring constantly till thickened. Pour in the stock and veggies and turn to simmer. Salt and pepper to taste. Drop Parsley Dumplings by teaspoon into soup (recipe below). Cover tightly and cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Then gently stir shredded cheese into the soup until melted. Serve hot - full meal deal.

Parsley Dumplings (I loooooooooooooooooves dumplings)

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cups milk
2 Tbsp fresh parsley or 1 tbsp dried

Stir together dry ingredients. Add parsley. Combine milk and oil and add to dry ingredients all at once and stir only until flour is moistened. Plop spoonfuls into soup! (see above).