About the little things that matter most : beauty, memory, love, friendships, wonder, awe, taste, travels ... All the things I don't want to forget!
"These moments given are a gift from time. Just let us try to give the moment back to those we love, to those who will survive." --Kate Bush, "Moments of Pleasure"
Cream Scones Recipe from an old raggedy cookbook at the Coop
2 cups sifted white flour 2 tsp baking powder 4 tsp sugar 4 T butter, softened 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, well beaten 1/3 cup milk 1-1/2 tsp vanilla
Optional : dried fruit such as cranberries, dates, currants, etc.
Topping : Sugar Cinnamon Reserved egg white
Sift flour once, add baking powder and sugar and sift again. Add egg and milk all at once and stir carefully until all the dough is dampened. Then stir vigorously until mixture forms a soft dough and follows the spoon around the bowl. Turn out immediately ontoa lightly floured board and knead for 30 seconds. Roll 1/2 inch thick and cut dough into rough trinagles. Place onto ungreased cookie sheet. Brush tops lightly with egg white and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake in hot oven (450 degrees F) 12-15 minutes.
Why does this goofy little video bring tears to my eyes?
It's the same reason I get teary eyed at the Holiday Folk Fair. We live in a Global Village--all of us TOGETHER. We all have hopes and fears and dreams and joys and sorrows. And we can dance together ... :-)
At my Covenant Group this past week (a small group of people from my Fellowship who meet once a month), we experienced belly-dancing as sacred dance with a guest instructor. We rolled our hips, snaked our arms, rolled our shoulders and shimmied -- It felt GOOD to belly-dance for an hour with the ladies from my Covenant Group.
Apparently in Middle Eastern cultures, women gather (like we do in coffee clutches) and they dance together. Belly-dancing is BY women, FOR women. The West made it sexy. It was really hard to find a sample video that was just women dancing ...
My favorite act at the Renaissance Faire in Bristol was always Shaharazade's Gypsy Travelers. A storyteller, a drummer, and a belly dancer. The last time I saw them, the dancer was about 7 months pregnant. She did some dancing and it was neat to see a pregnant belly dancer. That summer, they had a 2nd dancer as the schedule could be a bit strenuous for one.
Apparently, many of the belly-dancing moves are beneficial for pregnancy and childbirth. Those are the muscles needed to bare down ...
Another dance story : When I was in Nigeria, the born-again Christians thought dancing was a sin and that most of the students in our group were going to hell. For relief (and normalcy), I hung out with Jeff Carter, a PhD student from Harvard Divinity School who was studying a charismatic religious group in Ife, Nigeria. This small group was having a revival a few blocks from where we were staying. THEIR services were really interesting. They had a drum-kit set up at the front of the room. Obviously, music and dancing was NOT a sin. Moving your body was compulsory. I got up to dance with the rest of them and I thought I was doing all right when a lady smiled and said, "Don't worry. We'll teach you how to dance." I had to laugh. She just wanted me to loosen up and get comfortable with The Spirit. A few people were speaking in tongues and spinning and writhing around the room. The Spirit doesn't always know what to do with the human body and can be a little clumsy in these spirit possessions. It was really interesting -- and more of what I went to Nigeria to learn about in terms of traditional religion mixing with modern.
This is the china Gramma Pickles got as a gift on her wedding day nearly 60 years ago. It's been in a closet in an upstairs bedroom of their house all that time. Grappa made her put it away and "save it" all these years. That Depression Mentality of his ... If Gramma couldn't use it, she vowed to give this set of china to her first grand-daughter. That would be ME!
I like the contrast of the elegant china with delicate flowers next to the ratty old cardboard box it's been in all these years. Soon, we'll move it to the hutch next to the dining table.
We will definitely take this dinner-ware out and use it at Thanksgiving in November, if not before. We'll have visitors from France in September, too ... This is the kind of thing that is meant to be USED. And we will.
Thanks Gramma. I hope you decide to make the trip down here so you can finally use your China!
CL and Oliver picked almost 35 pounds of fresh strawberries last week. CL processed most of it into strawberry jam. HIs is just as good as Bonne Mamon from France. We greatly appreciate this taste of summer in the heart of January! When he ran out of jelly jars, we turned the rest into strawberry sauce suitable for Shortcake!
Here are a few pictures from my garden. I love Hollyhocks. I let them grow wherever they want to come up--they tend to migrate year to year. Sometimes it's inconvenient, but it's such a joy to see these bloom.
I am currently reading a book called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. It's about 2 girls who are contracted to become best friends back in the days when women had their feet bound in China. It was given to me by my own "laotong" (old same) lifelong friend, J. ;-)
Last week, I was reading this passage :
"... a laotong relationship is made by choice. While it's true that Snow Flower and I didn't mean all the words we'd written to each other in the contract through the fan, when we first looked into each other's eyes ... I felt something special pass between us--like a spark to start a fire or a sees to grow rice. But a single spark is not enough to warm a room nor is a single seed enough to grow a fruitful crop. Deep love--true heart-love--must grow. Back then I didn't yet understand the burning kind of love, so instead I thought about the rice paddies I used to see on my daily walks down to the river with my brother when I still had all my milk teeth. Maybe I could make our love grow like a farmer made his crop grow--through hard work, unwavering will, and the blessings of nature. How funny that I can remember that even now! Waaa! I knew so little about life, but I knew enough to think like a farmer.
So as a girl, I prepared my earth-getting a piece pf paper from Baba or asking Elder Sister for a tiny scrap of her dowry cloth--on which to plant. My seeds were the nu shu characters I composed. Madame Wang (the matchmaker) became my irrigation ditch. When she stopped by to see how my feet were progressing, I gave her my missive--in the form of a letter, a piece of weaving, or an embroidered handkerchief--and she delivered it to Snow Flower.
Nothing can grow without the sun--the one thing completely outside the farmer's control. I came to believe that Snow Flower filled that role. For me, sunshine came in the form of her answers to my nu shu letter. When I received something from Snow Flower, all of us gathered to decipher the meaning, for she already used words and images that challenged Aunt's knowledge." (p.60)
At the same time I was reading this passage, a song came on Public Radio's Prairie Home Companion. The Flower Duet from the Lakme opera. This song synonymous with friendships between women ... If memory serves me, this song is usually sung as a duet between Lakme and her servant (and friend) Malika ...
It's times like this I know I'm in the right place at the right time, doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm so glad I can take time out to notice these synchronicities when they happen. It also makes me wonder how many I miss!
