Category: General

Posted on

Hang-on

My friend D just had back surgery. This is the third time she’s had surgery to alleviate extreme back pain. By all indications, it seems that this might work. All her friends are certainly hoping so.

While brainstorming what to do long-distance to let her know we care, I was reminded that D has made what she terms ‘hang-on-ladies’ – little clay figures of mature women hanging on for dear life to a beaded cord. She usually gives them with a card that says: “At the end of your rope? Tie a knot and hang on!”

D needs her own hang-on ladies from her friends!

About an hour after that thought struck, I happened to be in my sock drawer pulling out a few items to get ready for our trip north for the Thanksgiving weekend. One of the socks I was going to use had a big, gaping hole in the heel. Just the thing for a h-o lady!

So, with scissors, needle and thread, a few buttons and a bit of yarn, I changed my useless sock into a charming (at least I think so!) hang-on lady for D! (And I’m having trouble getting it to show properly on this blog – darn!)

Well, with Thanksgiving around the corner, I wanted to do something with chocolate and pumpkin – just have a craving for those two together – so I threw some canned pumpkin pulp into a brownie mix and added pumpkin pie spices. Topped it off with a melted white chocolate icing. Not too bad, except the brownie part is pretty dense. I kept telling myself I like dense as I ate my way around the edges. Gotta save some for T-day.

Posted on

Fall signs

It’s real. Fall is definitely here. The telltale sign is being able to see the lights from the neighbors’ houses behind us and across the valley/road. Sounds complicated, but basically, the leaves are off the trees and we are not hidden from view – nor are the neighbors. Definitely fall. We won’t be hidden again until spring. Good thing for the neighbors that it will be too cold to run out on the back deck in my skivvies.
Another sure sign of fall is the turkey festival coming up at our church. Today was spent cooking the turkeys – 170 ten pound turkey rolls. Three to a pan, two pans to an oven, 18 ovens pumping heat. Turkey temperature thingees stuck into each one looking all the world like a tiny bull’s eye – or a belly button. Saturday they all get sliced and Sunday delivered steaming hot with dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, beans, cranberry sauce and your choice of dessert! Sunday I’ll be washing silverware and coming home with prune-hands.

Posted on

Reading

I’ve always loved to read. I remember one Christmas – I received a Nancy Drew book from my grandparents and had it finished before the day was out. I’ve always wanted to rush through a book to see what would be said next.

That contines to be my biggest problem with reading: if the book is a good one, I wind up reading it through the night and then have to face the next day minus a lot of sleep. I’m already losing enough sleep as it is, so I try to avoid the temptation.

The solution I’ve found is to “read” books on tape. Since I’m in the car so much, it just makes sense. Listening to a book while driving does take a bit of practice, though. The first time I did it, I missed my exit off the expressway due to a particularly exciting part. Ive gotten over that and consider myself a fairly good driver while reading.

Books on tape have become a habit for me not only in the car, but while I’m in the studio doing repetitive work. I listen to quite a range, from murder mysteries to political intrigue to historical fiction to comedy – and lots in-between.

The one I just finished is The Full Cupboard of Life from the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. I love the series! The voice of the book is so gentle it pulls you in without thinking. And the characters become close friends.

I have to say that my sons were aghast when I first disclosed this habit. They were too embarrassed to admit to friends that their mom didn’t read but listened to books. As though that made me less literate. Oh, well. They got over it and I continue to listen.

Posted on

Shots

In an effort to be ready for my planned trip to Mali (did I mention this yet?), I saw a travel doc today. She went over my itinerary and pronounced me in need of various inocculations, vaccines and boosters.

Yellow fever, although not necessary due to the low incidence of the disease, is required by the country for permission to enter. So, that was a given going into the meeting.

Flu I opted out of for the moment – haven’t had a flu shot in years and the chances of getting it there are no greater than getting it here, so….maybe I’ll rethink this before I leave.

Had a recent enough tetanus and diptheria shot so I’m good there. Also, all up on the Hepatitis A and Bs.
Typhoid is serious enough that I went ahead with that one. Also a polio booster -couldn’t see how that would be a bad idea even for home. The fourth one was a meningitis vaccine, if I got that right.

Three in the left arm and the YF in my right arm. I expect they will ache a bit for a couple days. Good excuse to lay off any weightlifting for a bit! Not that I do much of that anyway, but still a good excuse.

I also came home with prescriptions for anti-malarial pills and an antibiotic for Traveler’s Diarhrea.

All this to keep me healthy while in Mali this coming January. I’m heading there to play in the mud! Seriously… the origins of bogolan fini (mud cloth) are believed to be in Mali and I aim to work with some of the local artists there. I do a modified version here at home, but there are too many variables to overcome and I’ve not been able to get as dark a brown/black as they do. I’m hoping that, by knowing firsthand how the process is accomplished (I do know what is written and have heard reports), I may be able to modify my modifications to simulate the authentic process as much as possible and create a product closer to the real thing.

Here’s a pic of one of my pieces using dirts from around the country

fe-vestcloseup.jpg

and an authentic Mali bogolan fini showing the front and backside

image007.jpg

More mudcloth pics can be found on my website, if you are interested.

Posted on

Leaves

After a hard frost last week, the leaves have just dropped off the trees around us – you could almost hearing them hitting the ground. My love has been raking and mulching and mowing to abolish all sign of leaves from the grass. He has taken on the yard with a vengeance and I am quite content to let him. I guess I really should have helped, but I convinced myself that I would just be in the way.

Instead, I’ve been playing around on this blog site, trying to get my space to look just right. Still not sure of a couple things, but it will all settle down soon, I hope!

I love the woods in the fall. Besides the crunching sounds as you traipse through, the underbrush is still fairly green, showing off the bare trees quite nicely – sort of like the icing under the candles on a cake. Hmmmm, not sure where that image came from but now I’m hungry!

Speaking of which, I just received an email recipe chain letter. Boy, do I hate chain letters of all sorts! Especially emails that promise all sorts of dire things if you don’t pass them on to 10 of your friends. I am tempted, though, to follow through on this one, just for the potential good recipes. A basket friend passed along a yummy sounding brownie recipe this past week – I might send that one on. And as soon as I figure out how to post it here, I will!