Music

Every Sunday after Mass my Dad and I would sit on the dining room floor listening to records. Always Simon and Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album which included the lyrical Scarborough Fair and my favorite Homeward Bound.

In the 1960’s seeing the weirdly disembodied faces of Frank Sinatra and Count Basie on the album cover of It Might As Well Be Swing lying on our red carpeted floor. I have an image of my parents dancing to Fly Me to The Moon across that same red carpet - real or imagined, I’m not sure.

Regretting forever the time I did not turn my car around and go back to visit longer with my father who was in a short-term rehab facility after surgery for cancer. Getting into the car, cranking up Little Feat’s live version of All That You Dream (probably the best lead-in build-up to any song anywhere, anytime).  The slightly lost look on my father’s face up against the self-imposed work deadline. My gut told me to turn around but the deadline won out. I would do it differently if given another chance. Songs do that, remind you of the regrets, the wished for do-over’s.

Recently I went to the Dublin Ohio Irish Festival specifically to see the incredible Eileen Ivers. But an unexpected surprise happened, the discovery of a band called Slide. Their singer Dave Curley’s version of The Maid of Culmore was a gift.  If you are not Irish or part-Irish, that band, his singing, that song will make you long to be.

Download The Maid of Culmore at:www.slide-ireland.com  
Album: Slide BEO-Live

When my father was going through cancer treatments, I would drive him to his doctor appointments. Every time we got to the end of his street he would say, “Hey instead of going left (towards his Doc) let’s go right to Jersey to see your Aunt Jill" (his much loved sister). The other day I was on my way to my own doc appointment, one that always makes me nervous - when I turned on the radio and Homeward Bound was playing.

Sampling from Beth’s IPad:

Chasing Strange - Lizz Wright

The Needle and the Damage Done - Neil Young

Soul Cake - by Sting

The Maid of Culmore - Slide, sung by Dave Curley

These Days - Jackson Brown

The Way you Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra

Classical Gas - Mason Williams

County Line - Pousette Dart Band

Moondance - Van Morrison

Don’t you Worry ‘Bout A Thing - Stevie Wonder

A Taste of Honey - Lizz Wright

Blackbird - Sarah McLachlan version

Ohh Ooh Child - Valerie Carter

Perfect Weekends

This weekend was perfect!  On Friday, dropped off twelve photos at TwistStyle hair Salon for their community artist wall - the theme “Women.”   Later a visit to ComFest - a community festival in its 40^th year - nothing like a good-old fashioned hippie alternative funky festival to kick off your weekend.  Had a couple of kids over for the weekend - always great to have children in the house. 

Saturday started with the Clintonville Farmers Market for fresh flowers and amazing organic cheese followed up with a walk in my childhood neighborhood - big old houses and shady streets.  Quick stop by Ragorama vintage clothing shop - purchased a pair of classic brown corduroy pants for a nephew. 

On Sunday fourteen photos put up at Corner Stone Deli. Then a trip to the Columbus Museum of Art - free admission on Sunday!  Meanwhile had  been thinking about making lemon cupcakes. After endless looking through my cookbooks with no luck decided to wing it and use a simple white cake mix from the internet, adding  my own touches to create a lemony flavor.

White Cake Mix - to Lemon Cake

1 cup sugar

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk, ¼ half & half (or just use ½ cup whole milk)

Zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon

Mix wet ingredients

Add & mix well:

1 ½ cups flour (I like unbleached)

1 ¾ tsp baking powder

Cupcake liners in tin, pour ½ full in each

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

Icing

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

1 to 2 tsp of vanilla

¾ box of confectionary sugar

Touch of milk

Mix until creamy smooth

Add & mix:

Juice of one lemon

Zest of ½ lemon (or more if you like)

Beating the Heat

For the last several summers we have enjoyed sitting in our walled backyard observing  Mrs. Squirrel and her annual brood.  Two summers ago we watched her move her young babies, one by one, carrying each one protesting and mewling in her mouth, jumping from one branch to another on to the roof-top to their new location.  Why she decided to move her offspring is still a mystery.

Last year two tragedies struck. The day after her youngsters emerged from the safety of their nest, tentatively moving up and down their “home” branch scurrying back to the nest if spooked, one fell to our patio and I found the following day. Then in the Fall a fierce wind storm shook the nest down, completely destroying any remnants. In early Spring, the trees still bare of leaves it was obvious that no new nest had been built, much to our disappointment.

But good news,  last week semi-hidden amongst the leaves, the nest is back - same exact location, sturdy-looking and ready for occupancy.  On the evening of this year's sweltering summer solstice (90 plus degrees), low and behold Mrs. Squirrel made her appearance. Stretched out along two  branches, her goofy little front feet clasping a narrow branch, her head resting along side, her big pregnant belly splayed out between the two wider-set horizontal branches. She looked like any soon-to-be mother, ready to burst, desperately trying to find a comfortable position on a hot summer night - waiting, waiting, just waiting for her job to begin.

Irish Recipes

Bread recipe from a lovely cooking book called:  

The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews

Treacle (Soda) Bread

Ingredients:

3 ½ cups White unbleached flour plus more for dusting

1Tbls sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup treacle or Black -strap molasses

1 ¾ cup buttermilk  (save 2 Tbs back for brushing on dough before baking)

Butter for greasing

Mix flour, sugar, salt and soda into large bowl with hands, make a well and add wet ingredients (which have been mixed together) and mix with hands or wooden spoon - don’t overdo it.

Place on floured surface and knead lightly for 2 to 3 minutes

Shape into a round loaf, place on buttered baking pan, cut a cross on top, brush top with the 2 Tbls of buttermilk

Bake at 400 degrees (I would do it at 350 to 375) for 40 to 45 minutes

Serve warm with salted butter

Beth’s Recipe:

Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients:

1 to 2 lbs ground sirloin - browned

1 medium sweet onion - chopped and sautéed

1 cup or more sour cream

Salt & pepper for taste

(Mix all three together and set aside)

Bag of frozen peas (thawed)

6 to 7 Yukon gold potatoes boiled, then mashed with real butter, salt and Half & Half cream - make it loose so it doesn’t dry out during baking

Layering:

In large casserole dish layer as follows:

-Peas

-Meat/onion/sour cream mixture

-Mashed potatoes

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees

My Weekend - New, Old and Redo’s

I recommend all…….

New

Best Ever Ginger Bread by Mary Leffingwell of G Bar M Ranch, Montana

1 cup sugar

1 cup oil

1 cup molasses

2 eggs

2 tsp of baking soda in 1 cup of boiling water

2 ½ cups flour

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cloves

Mix well in large bowl - (per Beth I just hand mixed)

Bake in a 9 x 12 greased pan at 350 degrees - (per Beth I used salted butter to grease the pan)

Or

(Per Beth - I baked it at 400 degrees for 10  minutes and then at 350 for 20 more minutes - made the corners and top a tiny bit crunchy.)

Mary Leffingwell suggests serving with applesauce and whipped cream but since we didn't have any  - we decided a scoop of Whit's vanilla ice cream (or vanilla Hagen Daz would work) was the perfect match!

Old

Started thinking about music that I’ve listened to over the years, Here are two that I absolutely love - YouTube them or download to your Ipod- well worth it.

Ooh Ooh Child by Valerie Carter- from her 1977 Stone’s Throw Away album produced by Lowell George

County Line by Pousette -Dart Band

Redo

I just reread one of my favorite books of 2010, “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson. Even better the second time around - fantastic dialogue, sweet premise, lovely funny story.

Animal Observations

There are few things in life better than watching animal behavior. This morning started with a diminutive red squirrel dangling from my bird feeder while a gray squirrel sat beneath eating the cast-off seeds.  Later during my morning walk I watched Mrs. Robin gathering tufts of this and that to add to her nest. Then further along, a male cardinal sat high in a tree calling out to friends and foes alike.  A few days ago, while walking the same streets I came across an unlikely pair, a Great Dane and a Dachshund - and took their photos. Every animal species whether domestic or wild has a rich and varied social life - devoid of any need for input from us humans.

I spent a good deal of my life being paid to watch animals - in my case captive gorillas.  Mornings in the Ape House were spent prepping and feeding - giving drinks, handing out vitamins, cleaning cages, hosing sidewalks, washing windows, refilling cages with bales of fluffy hay then spreading seeds, popcorn and cereal for the gorillas to search through for later.

Late in the morning after shifting animals outside, making sure everyone was settled and comfortable for the day we would get supplies - more hay, more bags of monkey biscuits, more seeds. 

After lunch we sat and watched gorillas. In the winter it was lovely to be in the building (which was closed to the public) and observe gorillas being gorillas - playing, sleeping, nest-building, browsing. The layers of heavy hay bedding sent dust-motes floating up through the shafts of light from the overhead sky-lights. The building smelled of gorillas - a strong musky odor. Rumblings of contented adults searching for food bits in the hay echoed down the row of cages, youngsters played Tag or King of the hill or just wrestled with one another - issuing their deep-throated chuckling laughter or letting loose with a a deep-bellied sigh, trying to catch their breath before starting on another round of play.

In the middle of the night I have been privileged to observe a mother and her new-born in the quiet of the dimly-lit building. The mother looks down at her clinging son, pulls his hand then his feet away from her own body to carefully examine each finger, each toe - when the baby squeaks in protest the mom vocalizes a soothing rumble and quickly gathers the infant back against her body in a warm embrace  - as if in guilty apology, as if she simply cannot help herself, her delight in her infant is just too obvious.

Small Space Gardening

Have no yard but want to garden - no problem. I love to garden but in essence we have no large ground space available to us- not to worry as small spaces can be just as effective and transformative as large spaces - in fact I prefer them.  Many Europeans (Holland for me was a gardening revelation) have small plots in which to garden and I find their gardens inspiring. 

Most of my gardening is done with container pots but we do have two small plots of ground that I use for my bulbs, perennials as well as annuals. In the back yard the “garden” measures a mere 23  x 23 inches,  I have planted tulip bulbs, tall phlox and there is a pink flower (that somehow got in there and I have no clue what it is) all make their lovely appearance known in early Spring. Once the tulips have had their run, I’ll plant that area with annuals such as wave petunias  

Our front garden plot measures 35 by 83 inches. Each year I plant tulip, grape hyacinth and daffodil bulbs as well as some creeping phlox. Interspersed among the bulb plants are the hostas which are now just breaking ground  - daily unfurling their tightly folded  deep-green leaves like some hidden treasure - they make great ground cover plantings and come in a variety of green colors, some solid and some variegated.  Other perennials are also making an appearance such as the wild geraniums. Once the hostas are done revealing themselves it’s time to plant annuals to fill in the space - pink & white impatience, blood-red geraniums, purple salvia.

It is a pleasure to walk out every single day beginning in March/April to see the emergence of buds, the sprouting, the colors changing. I’m already thinking about what bulbs to buy for planting in the Fall for next Spring.

What influenced my interest in gardening:

·        -My Mother’s row of tall red tulips in front of our white fence and black lamppost

·        -May Sarton’s memoir, “The House by the Sea” given to me by my friend Cici back in my mid-twenties

·        - Living briefly in Amsterdam

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Recommended reading:

Container Gardening: the complete practical guide to container gardening, indoors and outdoors By: Stephanie Donaldson & Peter McHoy

 The House by the Sea by May Sarton

Best buys for flowers and containers: 
TJ Maxx on Henderson Road for inexpensive and unusual pots and containers.

·         Marc’s grocery store on Henderson Road: Best prices on annuals, they do have some perennials but is limited - check their stock frequently throughout April and May - have had great luck with their flowers - always hardy and healthy.

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