tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130494582024-03-13T14:18:24.797-06:00Quid Nunc?Where do we go from here?marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.comBlogger128125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-13672232750656672362012-03-14T12:22:00.000-06:002012-03-14T12:22:16.333-06:00The Coming of the Green<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Because being retired in a recession is just not fun; is, in fact, quite scary, when Continuing Ed at UNM yelled for help a couple of weeks ago with two ESOL classes whose instructor resigned in mid-term (to take a job through the State Dept, teaching in Brazil - oh how sad for her), much against my will, I said yes. They pay well, and because when we decided to retire early, we foolishly imagined our retirement savings would be making some decent interest, and now find the joke to be on us - this will be a welcome financial addition to our summer travel fund. So, to my sorrow I'm now spending a lot more time indoors than I want to at this time of year.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GFRrH6XybkU/T2Dgr0ejWzI/AAAAAAAABfA/t-k_TQlYo4o/s1600/seedlings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GFRrH6XybkU/T2Dgr0ejWzI/AAAAAAAABfA/t-k_TQlYo4o/s320/seedlings.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>It's currently that week that always comes too soon, too early, and tricks us into believing that it's spring. I didn't have class yesterday, so - so I was able to spend a good part of the morning in the yard, mostly watering, but also doing some of the vast amount of clean-up that needs to be done before everything bursts forth. While I was at it, I cleaned out the big planter on the back patio, fluffed up the dirt with a little new compost, and threw down some seeds of green stuff: cilantro, arugula, some lettuce. We eat a lot of salads, and are constantly finding that we're out of something vital and green. Being able to just step out the back door and pick a colander full of what we want to throw in the salad is so much better than daily trips to La Montanita or Whole Foods. This whole week is going to be warm and sunny - a storm will blow in from the Pacific NW late in the weekend or early next week, but only supposed to bring rain and somewhat lowered temps. I might even be seeing green sprouting by that time, and rain will bless its progress far more than what comes out of the hose. Although I still have water in the collection barrels from Saturday's snowmelt off the roof. It's nice, so nice, to have something positive for which to wait, to look forward with happy anticipation.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-88957202538998649362012-03-06T08:19:00.004-07:002012-03-06T09:09:30.686-07:00Something Completely DifferentPENGUINS!! I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time watching this after I posted it on Facebook, but I want to link to it here so I can find it even after the FB post disappears down the page. What we have here is an exhibit at the San Diego SeaWorld of 300 live penguins - all sorts of penguins! - It's for, and in concert with, the Discovery Channel's coming series Frozen Planet. I don't get the Discovery channel, but these penguins are making me very very happy. Jessica - I think the girls will be crazy about this - as will you too. At times it's as if they were looking right at you - do they actually know there's a camera there? <br />
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I think I have embedded it on this post, if it doesn't work for you, please let me know. You can make it fill your screen - and it's like you're right there with the penguins. If the video isn't working for you, <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/penguincam">this link will take you to it, I hope.</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.ustream.tv/facebook" style="background: #ffffff; color: black; display: block; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal; padding: 2px 0px 4px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; width: 400px;" target="_blank">Live Video app for Facebook by Ustream</a>marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-65636124613607794732012-03-05T19:41:00.000-07:002012-03-05T19:41:31.447-07:00January, Great Horned OwlI haven't managed to write about the Alamosa owls, but before I finally leave the subject of owls behind, I looked up a poem I wrote some years ago, when we still had the guest house in North Truro, and were spending the winters in Dallas. Another gift of visitation from a great horned - in a house we rented that winter - we also rented a hot tub to put out on the patio, and it was one of the best winters of my life. A yard full of pecan trees, a nearby stream, a sun porch looking out on it all - and birds galore.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <b> </b></span><b>January, Great Horned Owl</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A hot tub soak</div><div class="MsoNormal">to wash away midwinter’s</div><div class="MsoNormal">aches and pains,</div><div class="MsoNormal">alone, I thought,</div><div class="MsoNormal">under January stars,</div><div class="MsoNormal">high bare branches</div><div class="MsoNormal">of the pecan grove, </div><div class="MsoNormal">naked and alone</div><div class="MsoNormal">in warmth and steam.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Until I heard him hunting</div><div class="MsoNormal">in the trees along the creek,</div><div class="MsoNormal">heard the voice that sent</div><div class="MsoNormal">all small things scurrying for cover</div><div class="MsoNormal"> in the grasses, under rocks.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Silence then, </div><div class="MsoNormal">bubbling jets the only sound</div><div class="MsoNormal">in waiting breathlessness.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Rags of cloud chased moon</div><div class="MsoNormal">through branches,</div><div class="MsoNormal">chased his shadow sailing in</div><div class="MsoNormal">on silent wings to settle </div><div class="MsoNormal">on a limb over the roof,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a place where we could </div><div class="MsoNormal">watch each other for a while.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I was not prey that night,</div><div class="MsoNormal">though naked, soft and warm,</div><div class="MsoNormal">perhaps my steam and bubbles</div><div class="MsoNormal">were mysteries to him,</div><div class="MsoNormal">as his immensity and silence</div><div class="MsoNormal">were to me.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Though stars and satellites </div><div class="MsoNormal">continued on their journeys, as did I,</div><div class="MsoNormal"> that night is with me still:</div><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">a visit from the great dark god.</span>marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-87990828741318362132012-03-04T19:25:00.000-07:002012-03-04T19:25:00.534-07:00Twilight OwlsLisa's comment on my last post, about not seeing a single "wild" owl this year made me remember a wonderful experience Gail and I had last fall in Alamosa, CO. We were staying in a campground just across from the Alamosa NWR, and on our last evening there decided to take one last walk in the Refuge. It was later than made sense to head out into an area where we hadn't walked before, but the trail called us ever on. We were walking along one side of a drainage ditch, in the gathering twilight, when we started hearing a great horned owl calling somewhere ahead of us. There was one tall tree further up the bank, and we headed towards it. As we got closer we could tell that the call was coming from somewhere in that tree, and as we drew even closer, I finally saw the bird out towards the end of an almost bare high limb. It moved its head every time it made its call, otherwise it was perfectly still. We stood and watched for a while, but the approaching darkness turned us around to head back. As we started back along the trail, we heard another great horned called from the opposite direction than the one we had first seen. We stood still to listen, and had the amazing privilege of hearing what I can only call a conversation between the two birds. The calls were coming from both directions, and each bird would answer the other. We kept scanning the trees across the ditch as we headed out, but never managed to see the second bird. It was too dark, and the trees where the call came from were too thick <br />
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If I were Mary Oliver I could have captured that heart-stopping moment of awe and wonder, that experience of great gift, in a poem - but there is only one Mary Oliver, and she was not there with us. I have tried writing my own poem about it, and will perhaps continue to work with it. It was really beyond words for me, however, it was spirit in its purest form.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-13733770361657819702012-03-03T10:00:00.001-07:002012-03-03T10:04:07.794-07:00Warm and Wonderful<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PpU3EEPs-SU/T1JKA8XgjhI/AAAAAAAABdw/hBQzxBCJxQk/s1600/DSCI0608.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PpU3EEPs-SU/T1JKA8XgjhI/AAAAAAAABdw/hBQzxBCJxQk/s320/DSCI0608.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>The green chile cornbread I just pulled out of the oven, that is. Food is really my favorite subject, and I can't bear to start yet another blog just for the purpose of food-blogging. So, as I don't have much time right now, and I am determined to keep my hand in at this - just a little note about how happy I am that vegan baking is so easy, and the results so wonderful. I love to bake, always have, and was afraid that it would have to become a thing of the past once we switched to a vegan diet. Instead, I find myself baking much more often than I used to - as finding baked goods that are vegan and either lowfat or fatfree is no easy thing. If anyone's interested, I'll try to recreate the recipe later today. It's a conflation of two real recipes, and my own creative touches.<br />
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I'm off soon to the New Volunteer Brunch at the Rio Grande Nature Center, where I have been a volunteer since soon after we moved here. The "veteran" volunteers give the new volunteers a welcome brunch at the end of their training - and this year's is today - the cornbread is my offering - and I'm having a hard time not cutting into it right now, while it's warm and fragrant and I have a hot cup of coffee to go with it.<br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/">Here's a previous post about the Nature Center</a>, from some time back. My volunteering is sporadic, largely depending on if I am also teaching, how much I'm traveling, and so forth. But I always go back, and of course visit often simply for walking the trails, birding, watching the river. It's a major hangout for the sandhill cranes during the winter - but they have just about all left for parts north at this point. There's a great horned owl nest in some high branches back in a ways off the bike path through the Bosque, at the edge of the park - an owl has been on the nest for a while now, incubating - and I'm hoping for some babies when I go take a peek at it today.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-1401871933098401062012-03-02T14:12:00.001-07:002012-03-02T14:13:43.283-07:00OverwhelmedWhen last I was here, I posted that I was going to be a better blogger. Write more, and more often. Well, I'm back - in less than a month even - but only to say how overwhelmed I am at, by...everything. The more I read, and think, the less I can write. My head is a wild clamor of so many subjects, so many ideas, so many, just, things. I know I've blamed this inability-to-write problem on Facebook previously - and I may have to do so here again. But in a different way than I've experienced it before. It's a timesuck, that's for sure - but it's also a wide open window on the wide wide world. On it I have access to all the periodicals and bloggers I find fascinating, all the sites with endless realms of information, access to more than I can cope with, MORE, MORE, JUST ONE MORE!! And my head fills up, and my brain spins around, and before I know I have to leave the computer to do the Real Stuff of my life - and no blogging has happened here. <br />
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So for a while anyway, I'm mostly going to use this space as a sort of Commonplace Book. If I can write, I'll write. If not, I'll use it as a place to store things I have found elsewhere, and love - or want to pay more attention to later, or think about further. I've always done this in my written journals, copied in quotes or poems, pasted in cartoons or photos - and here I have the electronic advantage of being able to copy and paste in anything I find and want to keep at hand.<br />
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It just so happens that I have one, that I've been using as a sort of meditation. Someone else's blog post, so all I can do is give the link here, hoping that it will continue to work for a long time. This is a photo essay on the Japanese Gardens at the Ft. Worth TX Botanical Gardens. It's been many years since I've been to these gardens, but I see that is a huge mistake. I often go to Dallas for family reasons, and why not go another thirty some miles and spend a day in Fort Worth. We have a new Japanese Garden here in our own much smaller Albuquerque Botanical Gardens, and it is a lovely place I visit often when my heart and soul need calming. Maybe I'll do a photo essay there one of these days. But, for now, we can all still our souls and uplift our hearts with the beauty of Harry's Ghost's winter tranquility.<br />
<h2><a href="http://open.salon.com/blog/harry_homeless/2012/02/23/japanese_garden_blossoms_in_winters_repose_photo_essay">Japanese Garden Blossoms In Winter's Repose (Photo Essay)</a></h2>marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-41429160834137110492012-02-13T13:41:00.001-07:002012-03-02T14:18:31.579-07:00How To Begin - Getting The Fingers Back On The KeysHome alone, except for the cats of course, on a blustery cold grey day, with a buggy tummy that kept me up all night. I should probably be trying to sleep, and soon I guess I will. But the fact that I haven't blogged for over three months, not written anything at all, is beginning to prey upon my soul. I <b>think </b>about writing, I write all kinds of things in my head in the middle of the night - but then when daylight comes, about all I manage to write are a few necessary emails and some this 'n that on Facebook. <br />
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I have noticed that some of my dear old friends (Lisa, Robin, Jackie, Kat, Judith) from early blogging days, when we called it journaling, are writing copiously in their blogs - and my resolution is to spend some quality time reading back through their posts, both to get caught up with their lives and thoughts, and to hopefully inspire my own fingers to move on the keys. I follow many blogs, at least nominally, but I don't often really sit down and do consecutive reading of posts. This seems to me like a mistake, and one that I am going to try to rectify. I will begin today, while I feel too crappy to do much of anything else.<br />
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P.S. - March 2 - It takes a LONG TIME to read through my friends' blogs. I haven't gotten very far, got caught up on a couple of people's older posts, and then of course they have to go and write NEW ones. So I'm behind again on even those blogs. Plus there are all the others that I haven't even started on yet. Perhaps more of a Sisyphean task than I knew when I decided to undertake it?marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-74396058315541074622011-11-06T20:04:00.000-07:002011-11-06T20:04:31.327-07:00Long Day's Journey Into Family<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8O-53kwq2Ug/Tra2J0hrtFI/AAAAAAAABcA/qsXGqKbEEbM/s1600/Bride+and+parents.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8O-53kwq2Ug/Tra2J0hrtFI/AAAAAAAABcA/qsXGqKbEEbM/s400/Bride+and+parents.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>Long time passing with no blogging here, due to Life Constantly Happening. As long as I am tethered to a desktop computer (laptop stolen soon after we moved to ABQ) I can only blog when I'm at home, and at home with nothing else to do, at that. This seems to happen very seldom. Much of August was spent traveling across the country to get to my niece's wedding in Philadelphia, a lot of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee in between - along with a little Virginia and Maryland. The wedding was a delightful gathering of the clan, my niece was beautiful, as she always is, my brother and sister-in-law were proud and happy, the groom seems like a really great guy. Having made the mistake of moving so far away from most of my family, occasions like these are wonderful opportunities to see everyone, watch the kids growing up, meet the newest family members - and, since a big party was involved, dance our butts off. I have lots of adorable nieces and nephews, as well as a growing number of great-nieces and nephews, and most of them were there in Philadelphia for the wedding.<br />
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But, the New England gang wasn't able to come - so, as we were only a day's journey south, when the Philadelphia diaspora happened and everyone packed up to head home, Gail and I headed to Cape Cod, where we met up with my niece Jessica and her two little girls for almost a week of camping at the beach. My nephews, Jess' brother Tom and her partner Steve, were able to come out for the first night and join in our big cookout, so I was able to see everyone I am related to, with the exception of another nephew who wasn't able to get to the Cape, during this big trip East.<br />
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We had of course planned this camping excursion well in advance, and I have to say it was just more fun than should be legal - but it ended in a scramble to leave the Cape before Hurricane Irene got close enough to blow us off. Jess and the girlies went back to Rhode Island to get their own digs battened down, and Gail and I took down the tent and spent our last night in the car (it's a Honda Element, so we often sleep in it when camping anyway), got up before dawn and made it off the bridge before the traffic piled up on Rt. 6. This time by the water filled up our ocean-homesick souls, and sent us back to the high desert vowing to immediately start saving for next year's sojourn on the Atlantic coast. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8_0zgHu84Jw/TrdKnSqma5I/AAAAAAAABdQ/L17md-AmSQY/s1600/DSCI0588.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8_0zgHu84Jw/TrdKnSqma5I/AAAAAAAABdQ/L17md-AmSQY/s320/DSCI0588.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-7768805590948808812011-08-14T06:46:00.000-06:002011-08-14T06:46:24.388-06:00Postponing The Final AnswerI've been working on Robin's third question, <i><b>What do you consider to be the big question or conundrum of your life?</b></i> for several days now. I'm off on a three week trip for several family events on the east coast, and this question has done what perhaps it was meant to do - made me start deeply thinking about a lot of things in my life up to this point - where I've been, where I am now, where I can possibly go from here. I am saving what I've written so far in a separate post which I may eventually publish, or it may turn out to be too personal to want to put it out there in public. In any case, I don't have time right now. I will be thinking on this as I visit my nephew in jail, attend my niece's wedding, camp with another niece and her two little girls in North Truro, see my remaining siblings, all my nieces and nephews as well as great nieces and nephews, and in general have family immersion therapy. The answer I am working on to this question has everything to do with family and home, so it will be most interesting to see what comes up over the next three weeks. <br />
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I think, Robin, you may be as good a pastoral counselor as I imagined you might be - to get me thinking like this by your virtual questioning - what would you be able to do in person? marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-67613445714331329202011-08-11T21:50:00.004-06:002011-08-12T17:04:41.264-06:00Okay, I'm GameOver at Robin's blog <a href="http://metanoia-mrc.blogspot.com/">Metanoia</a>, something interesting is going on. In a post titled "Try This" she offers five lists to make - no explanation, no context, just do it. So, okay, I will.<br />
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1. Five Colors:<br />
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Leaf-green, Sky-blue, Brown, Smoky grey, Bright orange<br />
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2, Five Cities:<br />
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Boston, San Antonio, Paris, Santa Fe, San Fransisco<br />
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3. Five Landscapes:<br />
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Cape Cod dunes, Ponds at Bosque del Apache at sunset when the cranes fly in, Sandia mountains when the setting sun colors them red, Chincoteague beaches, with ponies and waves,Texas Hill Country in the spring, with bluebonnets.<br />
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4. Five Interiors:<br />
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My sister's beautiful redone basement (I could describe it, but you have to take my word for it), a friend's herb shed/workshop on her farm, our own living room in the winter with a fire in the kiva fireplace, any darkened bedroom with the sound of sleeping children breathing, my mother's kitchen (this one is just a memory now, long gone) with the long table where we all used to eat, the big stone fireplace, the wonderful smells.<br />
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5. Five Things You Might Wear:<br />
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Big linen shirts, sandals, jeans, gardening gloves, straw hats.<br />
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Okay, there's my lists. It's past my bedtime, but I may have to go see what happens next. There's a second question coming up, and I have to at least go see it.<br />
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So - Second Question: <b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Within each of your groups, do you see commonalities? </i></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">1. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think the commonalities here are that these are all colors I love in nature - the first two are obvious, smoky grey is the color of winter skies, and right now my backyard is riot of oranges, in the flowers that are blooming.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">2, Yes, absolutely commonalities - these are all cities that are sui generis, each one unique, with histories, representing a culture, brimming with culture in fact - great walking cities, cities with great food.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">3. All of these are places I love, places that have spoken to my heart, places I'd gladly have my ashes deposited so I could be part of them forever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">4. This one is a little harder - but I think they are all interiors that connect to my family or friends, that say something about life to me, life as we humans live it, especially together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">5. All comfortable, practical things. It's all I can stand to wear. I've just been through a week of shopping for something to wear to my niece's wedding later this month - and in the end it's going to be: big white linen shirt, a pair a of black linen trousers, black strappy sandals, with turquoise necklace and bracelets. That's as good as it gets, for me. </span> <br />
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marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-29095352963820130262011-07-21T08:49:00.003-06:002011-07-21T10:36:06.943-06:00Purslane, The Wonder Plant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kg47wr7wEmw/Tigyp8AY1qI/AAAAAAAABbg/0gtM7u-Rkp4/s1600/DSCI0521.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kg47wr7wEmw/Tigyp8AY1qI/AAAAAAAABbg/0gtM7u-Rkp4/s200/DSCI0521.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>When I <a href="http://marigolds2.blogspot.com/2011/07/if-it-werent-for-delicious-coolness-of.html">posted yesterday</a> about my wretched gardening summer, in which I had no food crops, I forgot to mention a very important one. I can make no claims to planting this or tending it - I have no credit whatsoever for its thriving in an empty planter where a lot of things died during the winter. This crop is considered a noxious weed by people who have velvety lawns, and the internet is full of advice on how to remove it from your lawn or garden. But purslane (<i>Portulaca oleracea), </i>the crop in question, is anything but noxious. It is, in fact, one of the most nutritious of green plants. My niece Jessica was the first to inform me of this plant's virtues, when it showed up in our lawn in North Truro. Jess is a wild-forager, and very knowledgeable about herbs and edible wild plants.<br />
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Purslane (also called by older names: Verdolaga, Pigweed, Little Hogweed or Pusley), is native to India and Persia, has a lengthy history, grows all over the planet, and is eaten as just what it is, a leafy green vegetable, in most other cultures. We have such a plentiful crop of it this year that we are eating it daily in salads, where its sour/salty taste adds flavor to the other greens. It is full of vitamins (notably A and C) and minerals (just about all of 'em), and more omega-3 fatty acids than fish oils. It is such a valuable food that last night Gail jokingly said "maybe all we should eat this summer is purslane!" And maybe she's right; it's both free and ultra-nutritious. But what about dark chocolate? Maybe dessert after the purslane? Anyway, while researching the plant for this post, I found links to tons of recipes using it, mostly for salads, but it's also recommended for stirfries. When the weather gets cool enough to use our stove again, I will certainly throw it into my first stirfry dish. Here are some good links for recipes and general info on purslane for your eating pleasure:<br />
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<a href="http://www.prairielandcsa.org/recipes/purslane.html">http://www.prairielandcsa.org/recipes/purslane.html</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.culinarymusings.com/2008/06/purslane-not-a-weed-but-a-wonder/">http://www.culinarymusings.com/2008/06/purslane-not-a-weed-but-a-wonder/</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.prodigalgardens.info/purslane%20recipes.htm">http://www.prodigalgardens.info/purslane%20recipes.htm</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pLy2IgII400/Tig6y5TxQII/AAAAAAAABbk/2d0egyQ880o/s1600/DSCI0519.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pLy2IgII400/Tig6y5TxQII/AAAAAAAABbk/2d0egyQ880o/s320/DSCI0519.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> If you have a yard or a garden, you have purslane., I promise. You may have been weeding it out, but today's the time to start improving your health with a healthy serving of little hogweed. Here's a photo from my planter to help you recognize it. The purple flower is not part of the purlane plant, but a sprig of Russian sage that is flopping over onto it. It forms a spreading mat of succulent leaves on thick round stems (all of it is edible), has small yellow flowers, grows anywhere and everywhere it can find enough sun. It thrives even in our drought, and, as you can see, has eternally endeared itself to me this year.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-33680692143379577942011-07-20T22:20:00.001-06:002011-07-21T07:38:49.122-06:00Oh, at last!!And then, this evening into tonight - it rained. When I came out of the Continuing Ed building at the University, it was starting, and as I drove to pick up our takeout dinner from Thai Vegan it really poured. The streets were a nightmare of oily runoff after so long without rain to wash them, water in the gutters two feet deep, people driving like drunks - myself included - half the time I couldn't see a thing with all the water from the gutters and puddles being splashed on the windscreen - and it was a joy, a carnival of delight. I called Gail to make sure it was happening at our house, and it was. I sat out under the back portal after it got dark, soaking in the sounds and smells as the sweet slow rain kept falling. No watering for me tonight, just sleeping with the fan blowing in the soft mists, the chorus of deliriously happy crickets, maybe a little thunder from time to time. <br />
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It rained, I'm saying. It really rained, real rain. It rained!!!!marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-5269714077196160902011-07-20T09:16:00.002-06:002011-07-20T09:18:40.681-06:00In The Good Ol' (But Very Difficult) SummertimeIf it weren't for the delicious coolness of the early mornings, I think I'd be a stark raving madwoman by now. I head out as soon as it's light to see what's happening in the yard, do a little hand watering of pots, deadheading, and just commune with whatever is making it thru these deadly months. Summer seems to be an endurance course this year, with the heat and drought the hurdles I'm having a very hard time getting over. It is well into the monsoon season now, and though it has rained in some parts of the state, mainly northern areas, here in the Albuquerque area there have only been spot showers of very brief duration. We can practically count the drops. Every afternoon the clouds build up, both east and west of the city, but aside from some thunder, nothing happens.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nNT68__YQ1s/Tibux47rcaI/AAAAAAAABbU/IelDSknkVIs/s1600/Geranium+Pots+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nNT68__YQ1s/Tibux47rcaI/AAAAAAAABbU/IelDSknkVIs/s400/Geranium+Pots+2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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In the spring planting season I could already see what was coming, and we were already well into a drought (no precipitation since sometime last October), so I held off on planting anything. No food crops this year, no lovely spring lettuce, no summer tomatoes or peppers, not even much by way of herbs. My thyme and variegated sage bought it during the subzero winter temps, so I was only left with oregano, chives, garlic chives, mint and culinary sage. A month or so ago I couldn't stand the emptiness of my gardens, so I stupidly went to Lowe's and bought a few perennials to put in pots, deciding to simply think of them as annuals and not be upset when they didn't make it. Which is a good thing, because most of them have already decided to leave plant hell, my yard, for plant heaven, wherever that may be. Our water bill for last month was outrageous, so I am going to night watering only, except for things in pots which I do by hand with watering cans. I am very worried about the trees and shrubs, which I drip water, but am adding some hand watering at night when it won't evaporate.<br />
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Gardening has always been my way of enjoying the summer months, a form of recreation, exercise, enjoying the outdoor environment, as well as meditation and destressing. This year it has become its own form of stress, which is really silly. I'm starting to detach from obsessing on keeping things in perfect shape, just trying to keep what I can alive, and enjoying whatever IS alive, especially whatever is managing to bloom. The yard is still full of birds, butterflies and bees, so life does go on, and I continue to hope for those afternoon clouds to drop some blessed rain before monsoon season is over. There are some pretty good chances for this to happen later in the week. We shall see. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qw7WP1WxGYU/TibxHIlUgII/AAAAAAAABbc/e7cMNdWPtkM/s1600/DSCI0499.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qw7WP1WxGYU/TibxHIlUgII/AAAAAAAABbc/e7cMNdWPtkM/s400/DSCI0499.JPG" width="400" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">( </div><br />
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Photos: 1. Geraniums in pots by front gate. 2. This year's favorite hollyhock color. 3. A crowd of Mexican Hats.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-17047494848455608512011-05-21T12:04:00.001-06:002011-05-21T12:29:02.621-06:00The Joy of Composting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Eating as we are has a side effect that could either be considered a drawback or a gift, I suppose. It is the enormous amount of organic waste that piles up daily in the compost bucket by the kitchen sink. Everything goes into it: peels, cores, shells, rinds, trimmings, grinds, teabags, even used paper towels and coffee filters. The paper towels are made of recycled paper and the coffee filters are unbleached (most of the grinds go right under the roses as food for them). So, drawback or gift? For me, no question - a wondrous gift. All of this stuff goes into the compost bin in the backyard, where it gets mixed with mulched up leaves and plant clippings. We just mulched up leaves last week, and they aren't too well-incorporated into the pile yet, but they will be soon.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WmLa0na7APM/TdfxYBwRIXI/AAAAAAAABbI/biGRxBDm-qM/s1600/Compost.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WmLa0na7APM/TdfxYBwRIXI/AAAAAAAABbI/biGRxBDm-qM/s320/Compost.JPG" width="320" /></a>The center of the pile is full of fat happy worms, turning cantaloupe rinds, peapods, wilted cabbage leaves, onion skins, and old tea leaves into black gold. We've been here five years now, moved the compost bin with us from Delaware (although we did leave the compost there, dumped it out into what had been our big vegetable garden, and our neighbor came over and scooped much of it up for his garden across the street), and started filling it up from scratch that summer. Since then I have emptied it several times, using the resulting product in garden beds, planters and pots. It is very full right now, with the addition of the leaf mulch, but it really needs some time to cook before I can use it. Workng on the compost always makes me so happy, makes me feel connected to everything I love: the earth and the cycle of life and death that is constantly happening all around us. Because of the drought we're in and the recurring cold weather, weather which froze the emerging leaves on several much-loved plantings, I haven't really done much planting yet this year. I think June will be my big gardening month, and hopefully there will be some loads of compost ready to go. The slogan "Compost Happens" is a fun euphemism for the real phrase, but in fact, it doesn't just happen. It entails some knowledge and a bit of work: Here are some links to sites that can get you started on your own Black Gold project if you don't already have one going, and maybe give you some tips if you are not quite sure what you're doing:<br />
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<a href="http://www.compostmania.com/">Compost Mania </a>offers both advice and equipment (although really, equipment is nice, but optional). <br />
<a href="http://www.journeytoforever.org/compost.html">Composting Section on Journey To Forever </a>advice, philosophy, The Big Picture<br />
<a href="http://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm">163 Things You Can Compost</a> - A fun list of just exactly what it says. <br />
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-- "Man's work with Nature that furthers Nature's aims is the work that rewards him the best." (I-Ching)marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-63522621776539080902011-05-18T22:47:00.004-06:002011-05-19T12:26:07.843-06:00Is Vegan Pizza Our Favorite Supper?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k_e4WFGsseo/TdR-0gGV_cI/AAAAAAAABac/KC2cPLOMOh8/s1600/Vegan+pizza+to+die+for.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k_e4WFGsseo/TdR-0gGV_cI/AAAAAAAABac/KC2cPLOMOh8/s320/Vegan+pizza+to+die+for.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div>I ask myself this question, but I find I do not know the answer. It is our favorite supper when we are having it for supper. As we did tonight. A big fat pizza full of veggies, of which we could only eat half, so there is half left for lunch tomorrow. It is for sure <b>one </b>of our favorite suppers. And here is how I make it:<br />
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I am a big fan of shortcuts when cooking, as a pizza like this would have taken me all afternoon to make, if I made everything from scratch. This would have left no time to work in the yard, go to the Y for the daily workout routine, and pick up a few things at <a href="http://www.traderjoes.com/">Trader Joe's. </a> So, the first shortcut is the crust - we love <a href="http://www.rusticcrust.com/pizza-crust-products.html">Rustic Crusts </a>line of pizza crusts, the Tuscan Six Grain being our favorite. I bake the crust for about five minutes on a pizza stone, then haul it out of the oven and let it sit and wait for the toppings to get ready. For the topping I use a mix of fresh and frozen veggies. Tonight's fresh veg were zucchini, mushrooms and garlic, the frozen were the SW blend from Whole Foods (red and green peppers and onions), roasted corn kernels (from TJ's). I added some green chile to the mix, sauteed it all until it began to soften. I used TJ's no-salt-added fire-roasted salsa on the crust instead of tomato sauce, as this pizza has a Southwestern bent, then piled on the veggies. I sprinkled it all with <a href="http://www.daiyafoods.com/">Daiya shredded cheddar cheese </a>alternative (a great find, it melts and tastes truly almost like cheese), put it back on the pizza stone and baked it for ten minutes in a 450 degree oven. <br />
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The first time I tried to make a veggie pizza I didn't prebake the crust, didn't precook the veggies, and it ended up a total catastrophe. I kept on trying to figure it out, and tonight's was the best ever yet. I use different vegetables, sometimes use the Daiya mozzarella fake-o cheese, and just have fun with it. With a big green salad it is a supper that makes us feel happy and blessed to have such a delicious and healthy treat!!<br />
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P.S. - Ho! No sooner do I mention Daiya cheese sub in a post, but Ellen Kanner writes about it in her Miami Herald column, The Edgy Veggie. She includes a recipe for cheese grits, a dish I learned to love as a high school boarding student in North Carolina. Feels good to be in such exalted company. <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/19/2222711/at-last-a-vegan-cheese-that-tastes.html">At last, a vegan cheese that tastes like the real thing. </a>marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-65447522813081104822011-05-18T12:09:00.004-06:002011-05-18T18:10:17.434-06:00Forks Over Knives, or How To Save Your Own LifeSo, life (thank the goddess) goes on, and I seem to have less and less time or inclination to sit at the computer. Well, no, the truth is that I quite often have the inclination, but since for the past almost seven months now I have been exercising more and more often than in the past forty or fifty years put together, and have become convinced of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17sitting-t.html?_r=2">real dangers of spending too much time sitting in a chair</a>, I don't very often act on that inclination. I do miss spending time writing things longer than emails or Facebook status posts however, and since we're all going to be raptured (or the Chosen will be raptured, and I guess the rest of us will just fall into the Great Void) when <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/may-21-2011-judgment-day_n_804166.html">Judgement Day </a>happens on Saturday, I thought I'd spend a little time on the old blog today (with frequent intervals to get up and jog around the house, mind you).<br />
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It's really too bad about that judgement day business, especially if it really happens. Gail and I have been spending so much time and effort on getting healthy and fit at this late day in our lives, and wondering why we waited so long - be a damn shame to waste it on getting tossed into <i>la nada</i> by worldwide earthquakes and so forth. I personally would really like to go down a few more sizes and maybe run a 5K race for a worthy cause of some sort before it's all over. Maybe even a marathon eventually. Well, I guess we'll see.<br />
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In the meantime my more immediate goal is to be able to see a movie whose progress I've been following for a while now. It's called <a href="http://www.forksoverknives.com/">Forks Over Knives</a>, and it's about the benefits of exactly what Gail and I have been doing since her Coronary Artery Disease diagnosis in September, eating a plant based, nutritionally dense, vegan diet. We've also been doing yoga, working out on the treadmill and weight machines at our local Y's, and as soon as the outdoor pool is open (Memorial Day, and we can't wait), swimming, daily. The movie apparently doesn't deal much with exercise, according to <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110511/REVIEWS/110519995">Roger Ebert's review</a> <i>"...Although regular exercise, especially walking, is invaluable, the film shows only a little exercise and focuses singlemindedly on nutrition." </i>Ebert is most enthusiastic about this film, and says what we have found to be true during our Medical System Journeying after Gail's diagnosis:<i> " 'Forks Over Knives' is not subtle. It plays as if it had been made for doctors to see in medical school. Few doctors seem prepared to suggest proper nutrition as an alternative to pills, stents and bypasses."</i> No doctor has recommended the path we've taken; quite the contrary - the recommendations are all for invasive procedures and/or medications. The reactions to our telling them our plan has universally been snorts of derision. So, we took the initiative to read the very doctors featured in this movie, <a href="http://www.theecologist.org/how_to_make_a_difference/food_and_gardening/886459/can_we_cut_cancer_and_heart_disease_rates_just_by_going_vegan.html">T. Colin Campbell</a> and Caldwell Esselstyne, and embark on our own vegan adventure.<br />
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I've been writing about this adventure in this blog since we started, and think it's time for a little update. Gail, who was not really overweight to start withbut did have some of the dreaded <a href="http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/article.html?article_id=49855">belly fat,</a> has lost fifteen pounds, her cholesterol has dropped many points, her blood pressure is now very low normal, and she never has any angina, even when racing away at high speeds and inclines on the treadmill. I, who was quite overweight, have lost almost fifty pounds and my blood pressure is closer to a good normal reading than it has been in my entire adult life. I won't have a physical and tests until November (first apptmt I could get), but I am expecting my cholesterol to be lower than it has been since I started having it tested in my forties. It has always been high, and doctors have wanted to put me on medication for years now. So, Gail and I are living proof of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t-colin-campbell/forks-over-knives-how-a-p_b_861672.html">this movie's premise, laid out here by T. Colin Campbell himself: </a><br />
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<blockquote>For more than 2,800 years, the concept of eating plants in their whole-food form has struggled to be heard and adopted as a way of life. However, recent evidence shows that more than ever a plant-based diet is not something to be ignored. In fact, eating a plant-based diet has become an urgent matter from several perspectives. Not only will it improve your health -- and the evidence behind this claim is now overwhelming -- but it will also dramatically reduce health care costs, as well as reduce violence to our environment and to other sentient beings.<br />
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The fact is our nation's economic stability, already crumbling due to the repeated bursting of bubbles such as technology and housing, has been hard hit by spiraling health costs that seem to have no end in sight. Despite this, as a nation, we are sicker and fatter than we have ever been. The epidemic of obesity and diabetes, especially in the young, forecasts an economically unsustainable public health challenge with the gloomy prophecy that today's children may not outlive their parents.</blockquote><br />
<blockquote>Who will protect the public? Not our government: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's nutrition pyramid is laden with food that will guarantee millions will suffer ill health. Not the American Dietetic Association, which is controlled by food corporations. Not the insurance industry, which profits by selling plans to the sick. Not the pharmaceutical industry, which pockets billions from chronic illnesses. And not the medical profession, in which doctors and nurses receive virtually no training in nutrition or behavioral modification, and are handsomely rewarded for administrating drugs and employing technical expertise.<br />
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What can save America is a plant-based diet, which will help individuals recover their good health, and which in turn will set our health care system right (as well as our economy). However, for this plant-based diet to take hold, the public must be endowed with nutritional literacy, the kind of knowledge that is portrayed in the new documentary, "Forks Over Knives."<br />
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"Forks Over Knives" focuses not just on the research that both of us have been engaged in over the last four decades, whether in China and Cornell or at the Cleveland Clinic; it also traces the journey of several Americans as they move from a lifetime of eating mostly animal-based and processed foods to a whole food plant-based diet, and the extraordinary medical results that follow. It is educational, entertaining, and literally life-saving.</blockquote><br />
See this movie if it comes to a theatre, or even a town, near you. It would be so great if this movie actually provided the impetus this country needed toget itself off the track of degenerative illness and onto one of real health care. (Cross-posted to <a href="http://womenon.blogspot.com/">Women On</a>.)marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-40261544949914477172011-04-23T20:20:00.001-06:002011-04-23T20:23:13.831-06:00Getting Ourselves Back To The Garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z8uj15aoNR4/TbN-m3Fr7YI/AAAAAAAABZ0/6Y8u9Y9ku0U/s1600/Black-crowned+night+heron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z8uj15aoNR4/TbN-m3Fr7YI/AAAAAAAABZ0/6Y8u9Y9ku0U/s320/Black-crowned+night+heron.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>Recently we treated ourselves to an <a href="http://www.cabq.gov/biopark/garden/">Albuquerque Biopark </a>membership, something we have meant to do ever since we arrived here five years ago. Now that we have it we go to the Botanic Garden at least once a week, sometimes two or three. Of course this is the best time for those trips, weather still very enjoyable, everything in the gardens coming into bloom, birds everywhere, air full of pollen and allergens, no no, forget that part - we just take our Zyrtec. Yesterday we thought the myriad of irises in the Gardens would be coming into bloom, and we are mad for irises, so we spent over an hour wandering from iris patch to iris patch, lost in delight. They are just coming into bloom, with millions of buds to come, so we are very happy to have future delights in store.<br />
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We finally ended up at the <a href="http://www.cabq.gov/biopark/garden/exhibits/japanese-garden">Japanese Garden,</a> joining a family enthralled by the swarming hordes of koi in the water beside a rocky platform at the edge of the pond. We soon discovered why the fish were swarming there, the kids were dumping Doritos into the water. Not a good idea for the koi, I'm pretty sure, but I was not the boss of them, and their parents were right there, so I kept my mouth shut. When I lifted my eyes from the koi and looked across the water, I was amazed to see a very plump black-crowned night heron sitting on a rock gazing intently into the water in front of it. I've never seen one of these birds there before, and knowing that it is a fish-eater I felt sure a nature documentary was about to play out in front of us.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YZe3XYYegHg/TbOAKpjxWBI/AAAAAAAABZ4/coPguMmpEcI/s1600/koifishforsale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YZe3XYYegHg/TbOAKpjxWBI/AAAAAAAABZ4/coPguMmpEcI/s200/koifishforsale.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Most of the larger fish that live in the pond were over by the Dorito kids, but there were some still swimming elsewhere in the water. The heron waited and watched patiently, then suddenly spread its wings, leapt into the water and stabbed a pretty small koi with its beak. It had a hard time clambering back up onto the rock with the fish in its mouth, and I wasn't at all sure it would be able to enjoy its wriggling sushi snack. But it managed to gobble up the entire fish, over a period of about fifteen minutes. We walked around the pond to get a view of this meal from different angles, wishing devoutly that we had a video camera with us. Koi disposed of, the heron resumed its vigil, although I can't imagine how it could manage to down another one. I understand why it was such a very stout bird, and suppose that it has taken up residence somewhere near the koi pond. The gifts of the BioPark are many and various. The wood ducks who were also enjoying the pond ignored the whole scene. They were simply enjoying the wind, the sun, the water, the lovely afternoon. We left them all to their own pleasures and went off into the nearby <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosque">Bosque </a>for a very long walk by the river. A lovely afternoon of enjoying the bounty of Mother Earth on her name day.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-67756516726529070532011-04-23T19:19:00.002-06:002011-04-23T19:23:18.697-06:00Earth Day Thoughts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q80KwLMmlwE/TbJBczXn2dI/AAAAAAAABZw/X45dcUeWVTg/s1600/earth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q80KwLMmlwE/TbJBczXn2dI/AAAAAAAABZw/X45dcUeWVTg/s320/earth.jpg" width="261" /></a></div>I posted a very crabby status on my Facebook page this morning, an Earth Day status, but not one of flowery hope and cheer. I don't have much hope, flowery or otherwise, and I have been sadly dead out of cheer for several weeks now. This is what I posted this morning: <br />
<h6><i><span class="messagebody"> <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Yes, it's Earth Day, the one official day we set aside to celebrate the planet. What if we all really believed, and lived as if we believed it, that every day is Earth Day? We've had Earth Day once a year for forty-one years now. It's time to start having Earth LIFE, not Day. Time for serious legislative actions, not symbolic ones.</span></span></i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"></span></h6>I posted that crabby message after seeing a photo on an AOL gallery of photos from Earth Days starting with the first one in 1970.When I went back to try to get the photo, the gallery was gone, so I can't put it in this post, but it was of a protest somewhere, early in the history of Earth Day. The photo was of protesters in front of a building (maybe the EPA) who had poured out oil on the steps of the building, and were holding signs demanding safer regulations for offshore oil drilling. This was a photo from possibly <b>forty years ago</b>, and look where we are today. Look at all the "earth days" that have gone by, and almost exactly on Earth Day of 2010 itself we had the monstrous BP Deepwater Horizon blowout and nonstop oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. Really, we are such silly people - for forty-one years we have celebrated one day out of the year with local fairs featuring recycling demos, booths selling herb and vegetable plants, maybe someone showing how their solar thingy can heat a bucket of water, and so on. Symbolic acts have been the hallmarks of our Earth Day celebrations for as long as we've held them.<br />
<br />
In Bolivia they <a href="http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-20-01.html">celebrated their Earth Day </a>(which they call the International Day of Mother Earth) with a law granting rights to Mother Earth equal to the rights shared by humans. In this document Mother Earth is defined as: "a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings. The Morales government in Bolivia also plans to establish a Ministry of Mother Earth to implement this law. The rights for Mother Earth include:<br />
<blockquote>the right to maintain the integrity of life and natural processes <br />
the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered <br />
the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration <br />
the right to pure water <br />
the right to clean air <br />
the right to balance, to be at equilibrium <br />
the right to be free of toxic and radioactive pollution <br />
the right to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities</blockquote><br />
So, maybe this law will also only be symbolic, but what a huge symbol, what an ongoing committment to the earth. Here in this country our government can't agree on a single action to actually DO something about climate change and the rest of the imbalance we are imposing on this planet. I find it hard to get excited any more about Earth Day.<br />
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P.S. I wrote most of this yesterday, but finished it today. Don't know how to change the date so it shows yesterday, April 22, 2011. But that's the correct date for this one.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-73074037389808922282011-03-01T18:03:00.001-07:002011-03-01T18:06:56.395-07:00Vegan Foodies Continued: Ellen Kanner<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Sndy6o7TdGk/TW2XGw728nI/AAAAAAAABZo/vrLXpx2nbjo/s1600/quinoa-with-vegetables-300x256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Sndy6o7TdGk/TW2XGw728nI/AAAAAAAABZo/vrLXpx2nbjo/s200/quinoa-with-vegetables-300x256.jpg" width="200" /></a>This may turn into a long ongoing series that nobody but my vegan niece will read, but oh what the heck, I'M having fun!! One of my favorite new foodie gurus is <a href="http://ellen-ink.com/">Ellen Kanner</a>, another writer, like Mark Bittman, with a long food writing pedigree. I first discovered Ellen as the author of the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-kanner/meatless-monday-part-of-t_b_827559.html">Meatless Monday blog</a> on The Huffington Post, and still enjoy reading her weekly wisdom there. Not least because she always closes the post with a recipe. This week's MM post is particularly wonderful to an old sixties hippie like myself. And, in addition, in it she introduced me to a new vegan foodie, Nava Atlas, about whom I will soon be posting. Ellen writes <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/ellen-kanner/">a column for the Miami Herald, </a>, has a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/edgyveggie?ref=ts">Facebook page</a>, as well as a thoroughly delightful blog called <a href="http://www.edgyveggie1.blogspot.com/">Edgy Veggie </a>(loving that name so much) in which she doesn't write anywhere near often enough to suit my tastes, no pun intended. However, who am I to talk? Her CV includes writing for all the top foodie print mags, as well as a novel, which I am about to put on my waiting list from the public library.<br />
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This is a snippet from a piece called "Welcome to the Broccoli" under the "Culinary" tab on Ellen's website:<br />
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<i>"When the goodness of real food, fresh produce and lovingly cooked whole grains gets into you, it makes you feel terrific, too, in a way that a can of diet whatever can’t touch. It’s food that lets you know you’re being nourished, cared for – there’s not enough of that, as far as I’m concerned. I think it’s one of the reasons we’ve got a problem in this country.<br />
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You’ve heard of the French paradox, that mystery enabling the French to eat lavish, leisurely, artery-clogging meals while remaining svelte and chic with cholesterol levels that don’t make their doctors scream and hurl statins at them.<br />
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The American paradox, by contrast, is just depressing. We know more than we ever have before about nutrition and diet, yet we’re in an obesity epidemic. Obesity goes far beyond not being able to look hot naked. It compromises your health, period.<br />
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You know this. Everybody knows this. And what are people doing about it? Pointing fingers, filing suits against food manufacturers for making them fat, drinking soul-destroying diet meals-in-a-can or saying damn the torpedos (or scale) and ordering double-cheese pizzas. Eventually, though, the binges and the blaming, the purges and the pills lose their luster – and let’s face it, when it comes to instilling healthier lifestyles, not to mention joy, they just don’t cut it.<br />
Eventually you’ve got to get back to yourself and get back to real food. There’s you. And there’s the broccoli. So let’s begin."</i><br />
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I have to say I'm only sorry that it took me until I was 67 years old to get down to the broccoli.<i> </i>I had a realization of just this, the "goodness of real food letting me know I was being nourished, cared for" yesterday after supper, when Gail and I were eating our incredible navel orange sections (with a few squares of deeply dark chocolate, yes) after dinner, and I was ruminating on what we'd had to eat all day - the fresh blueberry oatmeal, real oats with big fat juicy bursting blueberries cooked in for breakfast, the quinoa/vegetable soup, with raw veggies and eggplant hummous for lunch, the vegan spinach lasagna I spent Sunday morning making, with a big salad of organic greens and cukes for dinner. As I thought about it all, I had that ahah!! feeling, a feeling of gratitude and wonder at how good it had all been, how good I felt after eating it. It's one of those moments I will have to engrave upon my memory, for when the chipotle cheese burger commercials late at night make me want to bash my head against the wall.So, thanks for the inspiration Ellen Kanner, and keep that broccoli comin' on. <br />
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</i>marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-6086094740742378752011-02-25T12:10:00.020-07:002011-02-27T22:56:49.158-07:00A Whole New World: Vegan Foodies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>As a former all-foods foodie, in the days when food was for me, not merely nutrition, but reward, self-medication, and entertainment, there were many food writers whom I enjoyed reading, both as inspiration and just for the fun of it. There are not only cookbooks, and food memoirs (Ruth Reichl is my favorite in this category) there are websites and blogs, Facebook pages....ah, the list goes on.<br />
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In my new incarnation as a vegan foodie I am challenged by the search for replacements for these sources of fun and inspiration. And to my mild surprise, and great delight, the discoveries are piling up. I will be writing more about this in future posts, but my latest discovery is the one I want to address today.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xFgqrvjTdN0/TWf_g_LuSqI/AAAAAAAABZY/Ty2rsWtc9KI/s1600/mcdonalds-236x200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xFgqrvjTdN0/TWf_g_LuSqI/AAAAAAAABZY/Ty2rsWtc9KI/s200/mcdonalds-236x200.jpg" width="200" /></a>Some of you may be familiar with <a href="http://content.markbittman.com/about-me">Mark Bittman,</a> a professional food writer since 1980. Mark is currently writing in the "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_317934913">opinionatorblogs</a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://bittman.blogs.nytimes.com/%20%20">"</a> at the New York Times, as well as in <a href="http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/author/mark-bittman/">The Diner's Journal blog</a> at that same paper, <a href="http://markbittman.com/">has a website,</a> a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/MarkBittman">Facebook page</a>, has made numerous TV appearances (Good Morning America, in particular) and quite likely more media presence that I don't even know. His writing is omnivorous, not limited to vegetarian or vegan, but does include those modes, in his articles and in his cookbooks.<a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/how-to-make-oatmeal-wrong/"> His recent column on McDonald's new addition </a>to their breakfast menu, their "Wholesome Oatmeal" has garnered a lot of publicity all over the Internet, and is what has truly endeared him to my heart. We were so happy when we saw this announcement, just before a road trip to Texas. Road trips are especially trying for us as newly-minted vegans, and if the ubiquitous eatery was going to be offering something we could eat on the road for breakfast, we were thrilled. Our first bowlful of this "wholesome" item cured us of this naive hope. We declined the brown sugar and the cream that McDonalds adds to a bowl of cereal already evidently containing <i>"11 weird ingredients you would never keep in your kitchen,”</i> as well as <i>"more sugar than a Snickers bar and only 10 fewer calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger or Egg McMuffin...Even without the brown sugar it has more calories than a McDonald’s hamburger." </i>poured on our own unsweetened soy milk and managed to eat that morning's breakfast. It was our first and our last. Without even knowing about the weird ingredients, it bore no resemblance to the oatmeal we make in our own kitchen every morning. For our next road trip I made up a pan of <a href="http://marigolds2.blogspot.com/2010/10/great-breakfast-treat-oatmeal-cake.html">Oatmeal Cake,</a> cut it into squares, wrapped them up and tossed them into our Road Food bag. If we stay someplace with a microwave, we can warm it up and have it with soy milk, if not we can just eat it as is. Either way it only has ten ingredients, not a single one of them weird.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OCB4WjKBtKA/TWgADNwQpyI/AAAAAAAABZc/rIq6ppixAFI/s1600/Food+Matters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OCB4WjKBtKA/TWgADNwQpyI/AAAAAAAABZc/rIq6ppixAFI/s200/Food+Matters.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><br />
I am now a faithful reader of as much Mark Bittman as I can find, am going to pick up his book <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?r=1&isbn=9781416575641&itm=...&if=N&cm_mmc=markbittman.com-_-k224938-_-j28926037k224938-_-fm">Food Matters</a> today if I have time. Because although his new slogan is "Eat Real Food," I think that this phrase "Food Matters" is the heart of Bittman's philosophy, as it now is also mine. On my way to fifty pounds lighter than I was at the beginning of this journey, I am able to see that food does indeed matter, in ways that are new and wonderful to me - as nutrition, as fuel for my increasingly more fit physical self (a post on this is in the works too!), as a way I can contribute to the healing of this planet.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-30364625515516734432011-02-24T17:33:00.004-07:002011-02-28T10:32:09.073-07:00Eating AnimalsI have just finished reading <a href="http://www.eatinganimals.com/">Jonathan Safran Foer's book, <i><b>Eating Animals</b></i></a><i><b>,</b></i> and I will never be the same again. My partner and I became vegans just over four months ago, after several years of being mainly vegetarians. Our earlier decision not to eat four-legged creatures was based mostly on our experiences of driving through the Texas panhandle, seeing, smelling, and being horrified by, the feedlots full of cattle wallowing in mud and excrement along I40 and other highways in the area. We continued to eat the occasional chicken and fish, as well as eggs and dairy, but came to feel worse and worse about the whole thing. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://bookcoverarchive.com/images/books/eating_animals.large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://bookcoverarchive.com/images/books/eating_animals.large.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>As I have posted here, and on my Facebook page, the ultimate decision to eat neither animals nor any animal products, came about for reasons of personal health, when Gail was diagnosed with coronary artery disease, and we began our research into ways other than invasive procedures and medication to help her recover. I know people, most notably my niece and her partner, who have been vegan for many years now out of a moral conviction that eating animals is wrong. Reading Foer's book has placed me someplace I never thought I'd find myself, squarely in that "eating animals is wrong" camp. It's not exactly the "I'll never eat anything that had a mother and a face" position that my niece holds, but it's getting closer. I love Saffran Foer's writing, have read his earlier books, both novels, and much to my suprise found this nonfiction book equally engaging. His writing here was as offbeat and captivating as his fiction, and I read it straight through almost without stopping. To quote the book's website:<br />
<br />
"Like many others, Jonathan Safran Foer spent his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood—facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child’s behalf—his casual questioning took on an urgency. This quest ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong. <br />
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This book is what he found. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir, and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many stories we use to justify our eating habits—folklore and pop culture, family traditions and national myth, apparent facts and inherent fictions—and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting."<br />
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In the past couple of days I read that Duke University and Univ. of North Carolina have chosen <b><i>Eating Animals </i></b>as the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2011/02/summer_reading.html">summer reading assignment </a>for their incoming freshmen. It is an excellent choice for young people on the brink of being in charge of their own life decisions. As one of the students on the choosing panel stated: "For me, it's not just a book about food, It's a book about being really active in making your own decisions." It delights me to think that Saffran Foer may be instrumental in helping them make some very good ones.(Crossposted to <a href="http://womenon.blogspot.com/">WomenOn</a>)marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-53583797756622363862010-12-17T13:19:00.108-07:002011-02-28T10:31:04.453-07:00Frosty Paws<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PqFeAJ9cdO0/TQvMUJInbVI/AAAAAAAABY4/oE_0cu_O0_M/s1600/Icicles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PqFeAJ9cdO0/TQvMUJInbVI/AAAAAAAABY4/oE_0cu_O0_M/s320/Icicles.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>So, here I am, sitting in the room we call "the office" since it is where our desks, file cabinets, supplies, computer/printer and so forth are located, trying to keep the circulation going in my fingers by typing. The circulation is imperiled by the fact that when I woke up this morning I discovered that the furnace was not working. At all. We don't keep heat on at night, as we sleep in flannel, down, quilts, and cats, and rarely need any extra heat. But as soon as I get up into the icy winter house, I turn the heat on. Our highest setting at any time of day is 69, once in a great while 70. This morning when I turned the thermostat up to 68, nothing happened. And it still isn't happening. It's 33 degrees outside, and it sure feels a lot like that in here, despite the space heaters I have going in this room and the kitchen. I've closed these two rooms off to the rest of the house, and from time to time I go turn on the oven for an extra little blast of warmth. We called the company that services our heater and swamp cooler as soon as we could, and supposedly at some yet-undisclosed time today a technician will show up to see what's going on and presumably fix it. This happened several weeks ago, on one of the only cold days in November, and THAT technician seemed quite vague and unsure of his fix. It's a quite new furnace, and this is a mystifying problem. I don't want to build a fire in the fireplace, as I keep imagining that the fix-it guy will come and I'll be released from my waiting - I have a lot I need to do do in the world outside this house, and don't want to leave a fire burning while I go to <a href="http://www.lamontanita.coop/">La Montanita</a> for food resupply. <br />
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I'm always amazed when anything of this nature happens: malfunction of necessary systems, power outages, big roof leaks, and so forth - to see how dependent we really are on these systems. We have all come to take heat/light/water on command as a given, as well as all that comes to us piggybacking on those utilities. We take having what we want where we want it when we want it as the Natural Order of the Universe, and when that order of the universe is interrupted, we freak.<br />
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I think of my friend Kathy, working with <a href="http://www.innovativecommunities.org/">Innovative Communities.orgFoundation</a> in Guatemalan villages, where there are no systems to malfunction, where poverty and natural catastrophe are the governing orders. Kathy and the people she works with are replacing traditional unvented open hearths with safe, fuel-efficient stoves, installing water filters for families at risk from water-bourne illness, providing school supplies and library books for children. I knew Kathy when we were both privileged young women studying abroad in France, and we have remained long-distance friends ever since. The work she is doing is amazing and the people she works with are the ones who should inherit the earth when all our power systems finally wink out completely as <a href="http://www.collapsenet.com/">our way of life collapses.</a> As I do believe it will, perhaps even within my lifetime. I should be learning to live much more sustainably, to depend far less on these external-to-me systems. So, I put on more layers, I eat two zucchini-mushroom tamales,( warmed in the microwave, because not all of my systems have yet collapsed), let the fix-it guy in, he finds it to be a bad pressure switch, and now he's gone to pick up a new one. A good one, I hope. And then I read <a href="http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20101217/tuk-heating-oil-crisis-over-weather-and-45dbed5.html">that in England, where they are having a terrible run of freezing weather:</a> "Thousands of homes could run out of heating oil over Christmas and rationing will be introduced if the freezing weather continues, the Government has warned." None of us are ready for what is eventually coming down the pike.<br />
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If you'd like to know more about ICO's work in Guatemala,<a href="http://icoatitlan.blogspot.com/"> there is a blog,</a> with wonderful photos and day-to-day stories of what is happening. It will take you right there.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-3436082116733297892010-12-16T16:59:00.001-07:002010-12-16T17:00:43.963-07:00Doing The Happy DanceGetting good news is just such a kick in the pants. And we have great good news. Before we went to Denver last week Gail had a new lipid panel done. Yesterday we saw her doctor for a report on said lipids. And the report has major changes from the one she got in October, the one that occasioned her stress test, which brought the diagnosis of CAD, and therefore our new eating lifestyle. Her numbers have all improved - bad cholesterol down, good cholesterol up, triglycerides waaay down, cholesterol in transition from dense and heavy to light and fluffy (something no one has ever mentioned as a marker before), blood pressure totally normal. So, to celebrate we went to yoga, then to Whole Foods for an enormous salad, then for a forty minute fast walk in the mall. The mall is our least favorite place to walk, but it was dark by then and we had to get a birthday present for my niece anyway. The important things in our lives now are eating vegetables, beans and salads, walking every day, yoga twice a week, meditation and breathing exercises. Gail is by no means out of the woods, but she can at least see the sunlight from within the trees. We are continuing this regime, she'll have more blood tests in three months, another stress test in six months. I think even if she is ever given a clean bill of health we will continue as vegans, perhaps adding in a little of the good oils, and more things like nuts and avocados. We have both lost weight, feel so much better, and are now at least True Believers, if not Total Fanatics.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nouvellesimages.com/img_Green-Vegetables_Atelier-Nouvelles-Images_ref%7EARM920_mode%7Ezoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://www.nouvellesimages.com/img_Green-Vegetables_Atelier-Nouvelles-Images_ref%7EARM920_mode%7Ezoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I have to thank Bill Clinton here, for giving us the original impetus to take this route (rather than the catheterization/angioplasty/stent/medication route) and my niece Jessica for sending us her copy of <i><b>Eat To Live</b></i>, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, (the book that has now become our bible) and for helping me dive into vegan cooking. As anyone who has read the sparse entries in this blog over the past couple of months is aware of my initial displeasure with the diet, putting it mildly. I have had serious mental breakdowns over trying to shop, cook, and eat this way - sometimes daily. Over the past several weeks I have made some peace with chard, black beans, romaine, broccoli, whole grains, etcetera. The results of the diet as shown in Gail's blood tests, and in the fact that she almost never has any angina any more (a small amount once in a great while when we go uphill too hard and fast), firm up my resolve to become the best vegan/low fat/low oil/low salt cook I can be.<br />
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Before we went to Denver I rambled around online looking at Denver restaurants, and discovered an unbelievably wonderful vegetarian/vegan place downtown called <a href="http://www.watercoursefoods.com/">Watercourse Foods. </a>We took Gail's son Evan and his two kids there to breakfast on Sunday - with totally positive results. They do serve eggs, so Char could have scrambled eggs with her vegan French toast, and Ben could have eggs and "normal" pancakes too. The existence of such a place fills me with joy and delight. It IS possible to eat in this hyper-healthy fashion and still be a foodie, it is, it is!!! Watercourse is enough to make me think long and hard about moving to Denver. Do check out the website, it is beautiful in and of itself. The artwork on the site is from the walls of the restaurant, by a phenomenal artist, <a href="http://www.partsandlaborunion.com/">whose other work</a> is entirely different from what is on the walls at Watercourse.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-66503387490619575262010-12-06T12:02:00.000-07:002010-12-06T12:02:32.838-07:00Maybe Life Will Go On After AllOh my, it's over a month since I have posted here, and then it was just a little recipe for Oatmeal Cake. It's been a difficult five weeks since posting that recipe, although it is somewhat embarrassing to admit that the difficulty has been adjusting to a diet that is so foreign to my nature. Embarrassing, but true, that I have spent these weeks in utter misery over missing the foods that I have eaten and loved all my life. Eaten, loved, gained large amounts of weight on (gained, lost, gained, lost - the same old story everyone knows all too well), packed my arteries with cholesterol, raised my blood pressure, reached pre-diabetic status, yes, and so on and so forth. Anyone who has read <a href="http://marigolds2.blogspot.com/2010/10/real-change-of-life.html">my post The REAL Change of Life</a>, knows what I am talking about in terms of this new diet. It's interesting to me that some of my friends seem to have interpreted what we are doing as Vegetarian - when in fact it is so much more radical than that. Being Vegetarian, which we were for some years, seems like distant dream to us now. Even just being Vegan would be a piece of cake (oh those food metaphors, they are everywhere, aren't they?) at this point. My main reading in the past weeks has been Vegan cookbooks and websites, looking for recipes that would make life and eating more enjoyable. But so many of the recipes I find contain oil as a major ingredient, (and oils are off our list) that I haven't found too much to add to my meager repertoire.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.vegsoc.org.au/book_covers/Eat%20to%20Live.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.vegsoc.org.au/book_covers/Eat%20to%20Live.JPG" width="217" /></a></div>But - I've been inventing my own recipes, adjusting other people's recipes to make them possible on our plan, eating far less ( and here I have to cite a post by our guru Dr. Fuhrman about hunger, what it is, how we experience it, how it changes on his diet plan: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-fuhrman-md/redefining-hunger_b_789980.html">Redefining Hunger.</a>), feeling much better physically, losing weight, and constantly bitching and whining about it all. Last night after supper I suddenly realized that all three meals we had had yesterday, all cooked and eaten at home, had been delicious and enjoyable. It was a huge revelation. Yesterday's meals were: for <b>breakfast</b>, oatmeal with warm mixed berries, <b>lunch</b>: pinto beans and rice on corn tortillas, with green chile salsa, the obligatory big green salad (to be known hereafter as the BGS), tangerines as dessert, and for <b>dinner</b>: the BGS and roasted vegetables (fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, red, green and yellow peppers, onions, garlic, butternut squash), apple slices and Barbara's raspberry newtons for dessert. My feelings about yesterday's meals were a huge revelation - maybe we CAN continue with this program, and maybe we can, especially Gail, be healthier than we have been in many years. And, btw, the discovery of Barbara's newtons, several kinds, has been a godsend. <br />
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One of the biggest problems with such a radical approach to eating is that food/eating is one of humanity's biggest social constructs. Almost every social occasion we can imagine revolves in some way around food, its preparation and consumption. Even our neighborhood book club has turned into a showcase for our members' gourmet cooking. Which I enjoyed and participated in while I was eating like an ordinary person, but now we are contemplating dropping out of book club altogether. And as I moaned on Facebook, starting such a program coming into the Major Food Holidays was a crazy move. We couldn't imagine what to do about Thanksgiving, didn't travel to any of our family celebrations, nor accept any local invitations. We did survive the holiday, thanks to great food resources here in this city. With mushroom/walnut loaf and Southwestern cornbread dressing from La Montanita, creamed spinach and mushroom/sage gravy, half a berry explosion pie from Whole Foods, and our own BGS, all of it vegan (Gail didn't eat the pie crust, but I must admit that I did. I am not a saint, by anyone's definition.), although we couldn't know how much oil and/or salt was in any of it - we made a holiday compromise. The food was all entirely delicious, the lack of animal products not a hardship at all. We'll be going to Denver to visit Gail's kids soon, and travel, like social occasions, is another difficult task. We'll take what we can with us for road food, shop at Whole Foods when we get there, and relax a little while we're eating with the boys and their families. Gail is having her cholesterol checked tomorrow, so she feels a little stepping out of the box will be okay. A little. A very little.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13049458.post-11908954452128303432010-10-28T10:17:00.004-06:002010-10-28T10:26:53.756-06:00Great Breakfast Treat, Oatmeal CakeA cold morning, water in the birdbaths lightly frozen over. The birds are emptying their feeders in record time, and I am feeling quite guilty about forgetting to fill them last evening. It's still too cold to go out there and do it right now in my jammies. But it's the perfect morning to bake up a panful of Oatmeal Cake so we'll have it to take as a portable breakfast for fly-ins at<a href="http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=22520"> the Bosque del Apache </a>next week. Oatmeal is a breakfast staple for us in winter, both in our previous life, and <a href="http://marigolds2.blogspot.com/2010/10/real-change-of-life.html">our New Improved Vegan/no oil life. </a><br />
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This is something I used to make for breakfast when we ran Marigold's, our guesthouse on Cape Cod, only now I have modified it for our new diet to exclude eggs. sugar and oil. It is actually quite good, with the banana and applesauce providing a nice sweetness. It makes a grab & go breakfast if you don't have time for a sit-down, or can be heated up with fruit for a tummy-warming morning start. <br />
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<a href="http://anaturalday.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/oatmeal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://anaturalday.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/oatmeal.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
Oatmeal Cake <br />
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1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats (NOT instant)<br />
2 cups soy (or almond/hemp/oat/etc) milk<br />
1/2 cup whole wheat flour<br />
1 1/2 tsps baking powder<br />
1 (or more, as you like) tsp cinnamon<br />
1 tsp vanilla <br />
1 large banana, mashed<br />
1/2 cup applesauce<br />
handful chopped walnuts<br />
1/2 cup raisins (cranberries are also great)<br />
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Oven at 350.<br />
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Spray 8" round or square pan.<br />
Soak oats in milk about five minutes.<br />
Add nuts/raisins, vanilla, banana and applesauce to soaked oat/milk mix.<br />
Mix dry ingreds separately, then mix in to oat mix until well blended.<br />
Pour into baking pan, bake 40 - 45 minutes, until golden crust forms on top.<br />
Let cool before cutting. Serves six, or keeps two in breakfast treats for several days.marigolds2http://www.blogger.com/profile/07683286608066261340noreply@blogger.com0