pie validation

 I was busily peeling and cutting apples when I noticed that a couple of them had a Liberty Bell-shaped sticker.

That's it! It's in the oven.

feast of the Holy Trinity

 Spirit of the Father and the Son,
ripen your fruits in our hearts:

Grant us patience and gentleness,
charity, joy, and peace.

- from Magnificat, May 2026

Well, last week was finally Pentecost, the end of the Easter season, and today is Trinity Sunday. It's very springlike, and pleasant out. Yesterday it was fifty five, wet, gusty and cold! Well, we'll be in June tomorrow, and done with that sort of thing, hopefully.

We had a nice Memorial Day and before that, a visit with an elderly aunt, my mother's remaining sister. She is ninety four, and doing as well as she can - still at home!

I finished the daffodil dress, except for the hem. I really like those sleeveless, a-line shifts for hot summer days at home, so I plan to make a couple more. I put the green blouse project aside when the heat rose - couldn't stand the thought of it. 

A beautiful Tasha Tudor book was dropped off at the library, in perfect condition; I took it home to read. 

Filled with quotes, poems, prose and everything romantic, I wouldn't put it in the children's section, even though it looks like all her wonderfully charming picture books for children - no, this one would go over the heads of the little ones. Apparently, if you have a toothache, you should kiss a donkey.

That was from Germany. But you're out of luck if you don't know anyone with a donkey, aren't you?

"In the Middle Ages they kissed the newborn baby three times 
in the name of the Holy Trinity."

-  Tasha Tudor

resisting the machine

Spring is definitely in the air! It's warmer, but not terribly; but the birds are singing, the daylight lasts longer, the paths my brother plowed for the rabbits are showing grass! Everything feels like it's coming alive. Under the surface, of course, except for the birds - they're the ones who show it.

I am almost finished reading Defending Middle Earth by Patrick Curry. I picked it up when it was dropped off at the library. I do not exaggerate when I say that not a day goes by when someone does not drop off books at their local library - at least, I assume it happens everywhere; it sure does where I work! And of course I have to look through them. 

Anyway, Mr. Curry defends the Lord of the Rings stories, and their focus on the simple enjoyments of home, community and nature. He tries to explain the popularity from different angles. I feel I should read it again, so I put a note in it to that effect. Anyway -

"Why can Tolkien's 'mythology' be described as universal? I have already shown that it embodies an attack on unchecked modernity in all its worst aspects, and presents a world of community, nature and spiritual values that successfully, albeit barely, struggles to survive such destruction. That world seems to be a different one, with strange people and places; yet at the same time, it is also recognizably ours. And because the processes of rampant modernization - economic, political, cultural - are now truly global, the potential appeal and relevance of Tolkien's attack and alternative are also effectively universal. This is a social and historical development; there is nothing necessarily mystical about it. 

But his universality comes about in another way, too. For the very terms of his critique are mythic; after all, that is ultimately the most (and perhaps even only) effective way to counter a worldview which is rigidly rationalistic and scientistic. And there is literally nowhere in the world without some native tradition of a mythical way of relating to the world in which it is alive and saturated with spiritual meaning - enchanted, in a word. Those traditions may be deeply buried, but - like the gods they embody - they can still be revived by recognition."

This book was published in 1997, and even back then he was speaking of "re-enchantment". There's a lot of talk about this: that, in a nutshell, we have lost the ability to take true delight in the world, and we need to re-enchant our way of seeing things, like they did in the Middle Ages. 

There is an article in Plough by Paul Kingsnorth about this very thing, speaking about his new book, Against the Machine: "Its modus operandi is the abolition of all borders, boundaries, categories, essences, and truths: the uprooting of all previous ways of living in the name of pure individualism and perfect subjectivity. Its endgame is the replacement of nature with technology, in order to facilitate total control over a totally human world."

According to Patrick Curry, the popularity of the Tolkien books shows that we really don't want a world like that, whether we realize it in this way or not. 

Brothers and sisters: We speak a wisdom to those who are mature, not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather, we speak God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew; for, if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,,,, For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.

 -  1 Corinthians 2:6-10 

crow on the shed

gingerbread spice recipe

 Last year, I was looking for a gingerbread spice recipe/formula - I had lost mine. I found four or five and made one - wasn't too keen on it. But I saved the others and tried another this year. Oh, the fragrance! 

GINGERBREAD SPICE

2 T allspice
2 T cinnamon
2 T ginger
1 T cloves
1 T nutmeg

pinch black pepper

This is from a website called Liv for Cake, but I saw it somewhere else, too, so I don't know where it originated. But I love it!

a Happy Thanksgiving

 Well, it was a nice day and we had a good time. The cats didn't end up getting any turkey - they were sleeping while we ate. Daisy, of course, was at hand when I set the table.

Don't tell me I should have driven her off as soon as I saw here there - I already know that. I think she liked the tablecloth.

On the subject of cats, my brother went to the church early in the morning; his intention was to go to Mass, but first to the office, where he had to use the copier. He noticed some bags on the steps of the church, but did not investigate - this was before seven. At eight thirty, it was still there - it was an orange cat, in a carrier, with all its possessions, i.e., bowls, harness, etc.. As he was wondering if he should just bring it home, the organist came along and said he'd take it, and see if the local vet could find a home for it. So he took it upstairs in the choir loft, where the poor creature was crying. But there is a crying room up there, so that's where the kitty went. We are looking forward to Sunday when we'll see him, to find out the rest of the story.

I was pretty shocked at this - I follow several cat rescue channels on youtube, and see this sort of thing all the time. But I never saw it here. That is probably naive, to be surprised. 

Anyway, we are hoping for a happy conclusion to this Thanksgiving story. 

My autumnal display on the front steps looks pretty, I think.

Everybody likes Thanksgiving.

"In sober moments [Sir Walter] Raleigh's friends had no faith in his stories, but tonight he held them spellbound. In America, he said, vines laden with grapes cling to tall cedar trees, and sitting beneath them the natives drink the powdered bones of their chieftains in pineapple wine. 

Why? asked Nicolas....The customs of these people seemed to him odd.

That they may have their courage in them, of course, cried Raleigh, bringing his knife-hilt down with a crash on the table. Don't you know that we all of us feed on the courage of the dead? If there had been no valiant men in the past to show us the way to live would we be anything today but spineless idiots? 

Tell us some more, said Philip with kindling eyes. Is it very beautiful, that land?

                                                          -   from Towers in the Mist, Elizabeth Goudge

"As we have grown and prospered in material things, so also should we progress in moral and spiritual things. We are a God-fearing people who should set ourselves against evil and strive for righteousness in living, and observing the Golden Rule we should from our abundance help and serve those less fortunately placed. We should bow in gratitude to God for his many favors."

                                               (thirtieth) President Calvin Coolidge, 1925

wishing for more

 I keep seeing what look like orange berries in the hedge outside my window, so I went outside before dark to get a closer look; they had an autumnal look.

They are not orange, but I may cut them tomorrow if I can find a suitable pot for the front step area, and get the pot filled. In between sprucing up the living room, changing the beds, making the squash pie, the gravy and the Winter Vegetable Gratin. It may rain.

"Time is something people take for granted, wish they had more of, complain they never have any of for themselves, and waste as if they had flowing wells of it in their back yards."

                                                -  Rachel Peden, Speak to the Earth

autumn things

 I was in the kitchen a lot today, but in the midst of it found time to wash another window - one left! (the dreaded over-the-sink window) and the back door. 

Among my pinterest recipes, a pumpkin molasses quick bread caught my eye, since I'd opened a large can of pumpkin the other day and some was left. Even while mixing it up, I asked myself if I really needed to be trying this recipe, since I have a few favorites I like to make - why try another? It might be a flop. Well, it was good, and I'm glad I made it. 

There's no chocolate in it, even though it's dark. It called for a half cup of molasses; I had about half that, and the other bottles I had were all blackstrap! Why do I have two and a half bottle of blackstrap molasses? But I used it to top off the amount - had to. And it's fine, it's darn good! I didn't bother with the powdered sugar on the top. It's sliced up and in the freezer.

Autumn carries more gold in its pocket
than all the other seasons.

- Jim Bishop

crawling along

 I awoke nice and early this morning, but the cats were before me; I heard the running, then the skidding, then a bang, as someone hit something - maybe a chair leg. Everyone involved seems fine.

I mentioned a while back that I wanted to get back into knitting. Years ago, somebody donated lots of yarn to the children's department at the library, and a few skeins of it were actual wool. We certainly don't want to use that for crafts, so I got some. I've had it for years, but I'm wanting to use it. I think I have enough to make the Ranunculus, but it requires a certain cast-on that I just couldn't seem to figure out from the youtube videos I've watched, and there are many - this sweater pattern has thousands of women who've made it, and many of them have made it more than once. 

Well, today I pulled down a book I forgot I had, called Cast On Bind Off, and the author's explanation with photos was easier for me to grasp than an actual video. I practiced it on large needles with some super bulky yarn I got from Goodwill, and now I understand the technique. But I've got this thrifted skein of yarn - just the one skein, it's entirely acrylic, I can tell, but it's full of autumnal colors which are so pretty, and I decided to just knit it up into - something. Just a thing, I guess, because I don't really like the yarn and don't want any hat or mittens made from it. But if I just knit a rectangle, maybe it can be - something useful. We'll see what it turns into. 

I'm reading The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. Very interesting!

a thought for Labor Day

 I came across this somewhere and wrote it down. I just found it again today.

"Do not rush after the planned work. Trust that the time to finish it will be given sometime, and keep a quiet heart about it."

it could be worse, I suppose

 I was listening to a podcast the other day, with Huw Richards and a fellow named Patrick Holden - fascinating, by the way - anyhow, they mentioned the name John Seymour, as a pioneer of self-sufficiency and re-learning some of the lost skills. I found we have three of his books at the library! From one of them:

All I can say is - we are a pitiful lot compared to those before us who could use a termite nest to bake bread in! 

found at a coworker’s desk

 

moving along through summer

the little landscape round was green and woody, and refresh'd the eye*

 

Summer is moving along too fast. I've worked extra a number of times; the heat has kept me in more than I would like - I think, after today, we'll have a break in the hot and humid weather. We haven't even opened the windows the past two nights, but it looks like the upcoming evening temperatures will be down in the sixties - I feel cooler just thinking of it!

There are a few youtube sewing channels I like to follow - these women like to sew all their clothes and they seem to whiz along, so even though I don't, watching them is motivating. My blue linen top just needs the hem binding, and will be done. I realized I've got a lot of blue in my summer wardrobe all of a sudden - oh, well. I think navy suits me pretty well. 

I bought a new rug for my bedroom; Daisy is often on it. I came home from work yesterday, and she was there. It's wool - can it be she has an appreciation for quality?  :D Annie also likes it, but Daisy is with me more often.

*  Coleridge, from Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement

"It was a spot which you might aptly call the Valley of Seclusion.......it was a Blessed Place."

life and growth

A rabbit got into the garden last week. He didn't seem to eat anything we would regret. They seem to find so much among the grass, God bless them. A simple diet is best, isn't it? Then I didn't see any rabbits for a week, until today when there were two baby ones, running around the hedges. So, it continues. 

Look what somebody dropped off at the library this week.

I love this story. Look at the cover!

So elegant, with the gold edging. But there's a fragrance, like the previous owner wore perfume and now the book has it. I might just bring it back - I don't fancy having to smell that whenever I read it. Such a disappointment.

I was reading in St. Matthew's gospel, near the beginning, and it said that after the Magi came and asked where the child was who was born king of the Jews, "he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him". I never noticed that before - all Jerusalem was frightened? How interesting. 

I picked a handful of beans today and steamed them; my brother can have them with his eggs tomorrow for supper.

solar summer - who knew?

 Here is a link to an article about solar summer - for Gretchen, and anybody else who's curious!

getting outside in between the raindrops

 It's pouring out now, and is supposed to continue tomorrow. But it was beautiful out earlier and I took advantage of it - I pulled up weeds in the two raised beds I'm going to use and dumped a bag or topsoil in one of them. This bed has been the repository of all kinds of raw kitchen scraps and sticks for the past year, and I usually have not bothered to chop up very much of it. So, you'll never guess what I found out there - 

This was growing out of a turnip.

Amazing. And I guess the seeds are in here 

I have never entertained the idea of growing turnips, but I should look at these and see if there are seeds in there. Don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth!

I plopped it in the hobnail "basket" on the table, and you-know-who was unable to contain her curiosity.

It was very mucky outside, around the raised beds; my brother rototilled the pathway around the beds but inside the fencing, but if the weather doesn't get drier, I don't know how he'll manage. His approach to gardening is different from mine. I spend the money to enrich the soil - yes, it's an expense and that's why I am focusing on them, one at a time. His philosophy is that a summer garden should save money, and so you want to spend as little as possible. He knows what he's doing and has gardened many more years than I have, but I want to improve the soil, not just grow things. We will also have to try to keep our rabbit friends out, but that will be trial and error. 

There is a particular rabbit who I often see out my bedroom window, eating his grass or just resting amongst the forsythia hedge. It seems that every year there is one I can watch out there, but it can't be the same each time, since I don't think wild rabbits have a long life, being a prey animal. But there's always one who enjoys this patch and I'm happy to see him out there.

I like this photo.

He has seen the starry hours
And the springing of the flowers;
And the fairy things that pass
In the forests of the grass.

- Robert Louis Stevenson, from The Dumb Soldier

I've happened upon Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, with illustrations by Tasha Tudor. 

Delightful beyond anything, a match made in heaven. 

returning things

 I saw two rainbows today, and almost by chance. We went to the supermarket as it was getting dark, with a thunderstorm looming. It didn't come to fruition, but as I was putting away the groceries I just happened to see the first one out a window, nice and clear. 

After supper I was reading and turned to look outside for no reason, and there was another, and in a different spot than usual. They always appear in the back yard, but this was over to the side.

The catbirds are back. Or, one is. I don't know how many return every spring. Anyway, I'm happy to hear their warblings and mewings.

With skirmish and capricious passagings,
and murmurs musical and swift jug jug

-  from Coleridge's The Nightingale

we have today

 I slept with my window open last night. It didn't get below fifty, although the wind was forceful and there was rain. It actually got up to sixty two today, for a while. Now the wind is blowing like crazy again, and colder air is coming back - this is normal for March. But the warm spells are so enticing.

I finished my skirt the other day, and got the waistband just right, thankfully. I used elastic, since this fabric is a knit - a zipper wasn't necessary. I am not going to hem it. Knits don't fray, and I'd rather not add bulk to the bottom by turning it under - I don't think anybody is going to notice. So today I took the leftover and walked around the house with it to see if the colors would look nice anywhere. The spare bedroom has a small pillow which needs a cover, and the velvet was pretty with the bedspread, so I haphazardly made a zippered cover. 

That background color was advertised as brown, but it's dark red to me - at least, a reddish brown. But at least I found a use for some of the leftover. 

I noticed this on the back cover of Plough's winter issue:

"Someday, all of us will spend our lives in our own school, the world. And education - in the sense of learning to love, to grow, to change - can become not the woeful preparation for some job that makes us less than we could be but the very essence, the joyful whole of existence itself."

                                -   Marshall McLuhan

I never look on back covers. 

It's Lent again.

"Faith is a strange thing. In our little church one feels it strong and firm among the farm people and the retired people and the city week-enders who have been able to stagger out for service. To lose faith in the ultimate good in life is to lose life, I thought, as I came down the steep ancient steps of the little white building. The world news may be especially grim, disaster strikes in a home, any one of the ills flesh is heir to may strike us, and it becomes easy to give up. And yet the gathering together of people to pray and worship God, according to their choice of church, whatever it be, is a strong bulwark against defeat and despair.

The very act of saying, 'I believe,' is a renewal of faith. As for the world, it has been in a parlous state so long that there is no sense in worrying about the future. It is better, I think, to go on believing in goodness and beauty and truth and in God, no matter how we define these terms each of us for ourselves.

And better to live a day at a time. This is a hard task, often, for we tend to keep going or the past and trying to live it over again or looking ahead and uselessly trying to forecast tomorrow and next week and next year. But somebody has said all the time we really have is the NOW. We have today. 

Try to use this day well, that is about the sum of it."

                                                                 -  Gladys Taber

Scottish oatmeal - is it really a thing?

 I saw this at the supermarket - Scottish oatmeal. 

Can you see how finely ground it is? Not as fine as flour, but finer than any oats I ever saw. Do the Scots really eat this for breakfast? It must be very mushy; I feel skeptical. But I bought a bag.

It wasn't cheap, but I was so curious about it. I've been putting it into meatballs and meatloaf in lieu of breadcrumbs, and it's perfect for that! But after this bag is done, I'll grind my own.

repeats

 I cut out the front and back pieces for the skirt today; I have to think about the casing for the elastic - I'm not going to fold over the top, but make a separate piece for that. It's a very pretty polyester velvet with a large floral. I sewed the side seams and was walking by a print on my wall. I got it at Goodwill; it's a bowl of flowers, mostly shades of pale to deep rose pink. The background is rather neutral, even the leaves. I realized my fabric looked a lot like this painting.

sorry about the glare

It's not easy to photograph shiny things, I've noticed. Since this is poly, the sheen is almost like a panne velvet, but not quite. The actual color is warmer than this, a little. But very pretty, and would have been festive looking for the holidays, if I'd thought of it sooner. 

There will be no snowfall today - not a nor-easter, not even a dusting. I guess it's gone somewhere else. And since nothing's predicted for the weekend, I guess we can go to church on Sunday for a change! 

I roasted a chicken early in the day, but have no desire for any of it. I hope I'm not coming down with something - stuff has been going from one person to another at work, round and round, all winter. I just want to eat light.

There's a setting on my camera called silky monochrome, or something. It's pretty. 

Is it okay to post a thing on one's blog more than once? 

"It is a comforting thought that beautiful moments never die. One can collect them, store them away, and they are always at hand to bring forth again and appreciate. There are many of them, and all one needs is an awareness to have them."

                                               -    Gladys Taber

There! I don't mind repeating that!

moving along

 

I'd forgotten about this Star of Bethlehem book; it tries to figure out what it was that shone so brightly to guide the three magi to Bethlehem. I had found it on the sale table at the library, and then it got buried under a stack at home. Of course. The author has all sorts of ideas about it. The green cover of the Niall Williams has called to me for years, every time I came across it at work, so I finally took it home. It's the second in his memoirs of life in Ireland after moving from New York. I remember that many years ago his first one was serialized in the newspaper, and was very popular. It's about time I picked it up, I guess.

Plodding along with my dress, I am now ready for the sleeves. Except, like the skirt, the pattern piece is nowhere to be found. But that's okay, because I'm not that keen on the sleeves, anyway. And then I got a catalog from Poetry, and there is this dress in corduroy that's just like the one I'm making, but with sleeves I like a whole lot better. I don't know how long that link will last, so maybe I can take a photo from my catalog another day. Anyway, I went through my patterns and found this blouse one from years ago. I never made it, but it's similar - if I can take out some of the volume it might do. 

It'll be a starting point.

I bundled up and ran outside before it got dark, longing for some fresh air. 

The grass is in its dried-up winter state. I just ran around and breathed the cold air for a bit.

This is what winter looks like where I live. Unless there's snow to make it all pretty. Although I was trying to see the beauty. 

The warped ramp to the shed. 

"A supremely powerful man and a keen politician, Herod usually acted quickly and decisively. Outlaws who threatened his borders on the Syrian frontier were put to death. So were rivals suspected of conspiracy. And, after siding with Antony, who lost to Caesar int he dominant Roman politics of the era, Herod courted Caesar's favor so astutely, his own crown in hand, that he became the Roman emperor's trusted governor and friend."

                                                 - The Star of Bethlehem, Jeanne K. Hanson

I'm curious to see what her conclusion will be.