a perfect blueberry cheecake

I have raved about this cheesecake recipe before, and I'm perfectly willing to do it again. But I almost went astray to try a different one.

I'm a sucker for a beautiful photo, and I had this image on a pinterest board of things to try:

I did not make this

It was called Icelandic Cheesecake, but the link didn't end up leading anywhere. After examining the image I thought that if I spread some blueberry jam on the cake, I could place some fresh blueberries on top and they'd stay put and it would look just like this pretty picture.

At the supermarket I found this,

which ended up being perfect, and the blueberries came straight from the freezer. 

It was entirely delicious. And since I used Siggi's yogurt, I guess I can call it "Icelandic"!

a hope for the world

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine;

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:

But other hearts in other lands are beating

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,

And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;

But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine:

O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and for mine.

May truth and freedom come to every nation;

May peace abound where strife has raged so long;

That each may seek to love and build together,

A world united, righting every wrong;

A world united in its love for freedom,

proclaiming peace together in one song.

- text, Lloyd Stone/music, Jean Sibelius

Sweetie listens to the ball game

Today could have been August - it was ninety, and humid. I was smart enough to get up at the crack of dawn and got a lot done before it became uncomfortable.

The cats ended up laying around limply, like in Gary Larson's Far Side comic - the Boneless Chicken Ranch.

(I hope it's not illegal for me to show this here)

Anyway, have I ever said how Sweetie jumps on my little radio, (like, every day), stepping on the buttons and turning it on, off, or changing the station?

I went to my room to find her sacked out on the bed, head near the radio.

I heard something - it was on. 

It was the Red Sox game.

like dew, like light

For God, the living God, I thirst.

Like dew upon the fleece come down,

Like rain upon the desert sand,

Like light into a darkened room.

-    from Magnificat, May 2018

the gardens at Peacefield

adjusting a new bed skirt

I got another bedskirt on ebay. It's certainly easier if you can find a used one - easier than making it, I mean. But I still had to alter it, because it was for a regular twin bed, and mine is a daybed.

This one is soft cotton, like bleached muslin, with a row of faggotting, not ruffled but with a pleat here and there. But, like any bedskirt it has two long sides and one short. On my bed I need one long side, and two short. I cut off the long side which would be along the back of my daybed and cut it down to attach part of it to the short side which is "bare". I make quick work of it, not bothering to strive for perfection. But now I'm glad to have two, so when one needs washing the bed isn't unmade half the day until it's dry.

goodness

We took a trip the other day to the home of my favorite president. The gift shop was excellent, but I chose just one thing, a (recycled) pewter bracelet, with a quote from the man himself engraved on it.

"To be good and to do good is all we have to do."

                             -  John Adams

I am absolutely thrilled to have been there. 

flowering trees and politics

It was breezy today, and petals from our neighbors' crabapple tree have been flying by in blizzards, so the glory of the flowering trees is already waning. Our own cherry tree's blossoms have gotten paler, but they're still attached.

I'm still enjoying the garden book:  About A Gardener's Book of Plant Names (1963), by A.W. Smith, a British military man who later settled in New England - "Under PINE, he reminds us that in the seventeenth century all the noble New England white pines whose trunks measured twenty-four inches or more were marked as Crown property and were cut and transported to England to be used as ships' masts, and that as a consequence it is seldom that a pine board wider than twenty-three inches is found in early New England houses. He reminds us, too, that this confiscation was one of the many causes of dissatisfaction leading to the Revolution."

And, about the first named variety of apple in America, the Blaxton's Yellow Sweeting: "was introduced around 1640 by the Reverend William Blaxton, one of the best gardeners of his day, he also trained a bull to the saddle and used it to ride around Boston on his daily business."

I got to see Darkest Hour, which has brought me to pick up Boris Johnson's The Churchill Factor again.

Churchill:  "...it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time..." Yes.

a Big Deal

Henry is so uncatlike sometimes - the other day I picked him up, holding him firmly about chest height. He is a cat, right? No, he can't be. He was so nervous at being up high, I felt sorry and put him down. 

He doesn't play, or hardly at all. He used to follow the laser light once in a while, but as for anything else, he just watches when the other two are chasing something. 

But recently he's showing an interest in a certain ball, of two bright colors and something that rattles inside. He is drawn to it and will "play" with it - for maybe five seconds, or ten. And then one of us will say, "Look - Henry's playing!", because it's a Big Deal.

unshaken and joyful

Be joyful, Mary, heav'nly queen, alleluia:

Your Son who died was living seen,

Alleluia, rejoice, rejoice, O Mary.

The Son you bore by heaven's grace, alleluia:

Did all our guilt and sin efface,

Alleluia, rejoice, rejoice, O Mary.

The Lord has risen from the dead, alleluia:

He rose in glory as he said,

Alleluia, rejoice, rejoice, O Mary.

O pray to God, O Virgin fair, alleluia:

That he our souls to heaven bear,

Alleluia, rejoice, rejoice, O Mary.

"May we, most of all when it seems madness, keep our faith in the Risen Christ unshaken in our hearts."

                                     -  Caryll Houselander

from Magnificat, May 2018

brave little tree

I say this every year, I think.

But it's working so hard on blooming.

Between this and the fireflies of summer, it's our annual enchantment.

such a difference a day makes

Oh, May 1st and it was around seventy today - tomorrow, eighty five! The warmth just changes everything; after work I decided to wash my winter gloves - not the hand warmers, mind, I used a pair this morning - but the gloves. I didn't tell myself don't bother, you've been working all day, you've done enough. Spring is in the air and I wanted to get it done. 

Now they're drying on a towel in the spare room. Yesterday I put away my tights, tying each in a knot and storing them in a tote bag. I feel like I'm getting somewhere.