Cow Talk

This gallery contains 2 photos.

Five O’clock on Thursday, a friend summons me to her farm.  Excited, I rush from my day to find her 12 miles away at the back of her house on a plank that overlooks green rolling hills dotted with cheerful … Continue reading →

Peonies bloom in May

Every May I am distracted from life by the most fragrant, plump, blooms of peony bushes in parks, allies and yards of others.  The peony has always been my favorite flower, pink, white & reds,a silky soft and fluffy with peddles.  And if you pick them early enough, you can avoid the ants who cannot resist such extravagance.

Why have I not planted my favorite flower before?  Is it because after the May bloom, they are cut down, not to be remembered again until the next spring sprouts nudge me?  Or is it because having such luxury on my own parcel of the earth would fulfill me too completely?

Pondering the Peony, I enjoy dinner tonight with a vase centered on my dining table overflowing with beautiful puffy peddles, fragrant and pink swiped from a neighbors supply.

Yes, it’s simple

This year, 2013 I moved into a home with no dishwasher, no disposal and laundry in a questionable basement.  The bedrooms (2) are small with lighted but limited closet space.  The floors are hardwood but damaged from leaking radiators of years gone by.   I place my cookware on open shelves near the stove.  In this place, I have found profound beauty.  Meditation in the act of washing dishes and flatware; joy in cleaning antique windows.  Sounds of imagined bats, children playing nearby and morning birds have awakened me to other dimensions.  This place, any place different, arouses learning and enlightenment.   When Jesus, Buda, and Rumi explored and ridded themselves of “stuff”, surely they felt the joy of nothingness I have the vague idea of now.  Elimination of worldly distraction yields true knowledge, I think.

Stepping back

 

Disposing of mind-cluttering stuff; unnecessary gadgets and excessive life accouterments.  Eliminating processed consumables, modernities and multiplicities.  Breathing slowly, deeply and with purpose.

Pottery Shop Chapel

Several years ago, a special friend and I ventured out to find a pottery shop in a small town several hours from our own.  Upon reaching our destination, we learned via a note on the door, that the potter had left for vacation not to return for several weeks.  The shop was closed.  Distraught, we googled from our iPhones other pottery opportunities finding one in the most obscure location, deep in the country side, far off beaten paths. We wondered if it was mapping error, but had time and pottery money in our pockets, so proceeded as the GPS directed.

When we arrived, we found an old, country church with a surprising sign, “Cedar Creek Pottery”.   St. Francis would have been appropriate.

Cedar Creek Pottery – Ervin Dixon, artist

Inside was an older man who quickly switched on the lights and what illuminated before our eyes was astonishing!  Shelves and rows of pottery stacked high and displayed with dried flowers, old wooden relics, ancient agricultural tools and tractor parts and items we couldn’t quite make out, but somehow perfectly accentuated the displayed pottery into the masterpieces they were.

 Each dish or cup set was only kind-of the same size, with color variation and design just enough different to make each piece of a set unique to the user, making lunch, dinner or tea a ceremony and celebration of individuality.

 Cedar Creek Pottery can be found scattered about in my home today in nearly every room.  There is a depth of connection, understanding and comfort I feel just being near this beautiful art. To be able to have creativity and beauty with you; in you, in the daily circle of living, changes who you are.

Below is one of my favorite platters whose reflection casts and old potter man throwing daily his clay in the basement of an extraordinary pottery shop chapel.  I hope you can visit the pottery shop chapel someday.  South of Beatrice, Nebraska 8 miles on Highway 136 then a scant mile south on Road 80. JJ

Fresh, Healthy Quinoa Salad

Quinoa Salad

So it’s January 1, 2013.  Once again we start the “Let’s Get Healthy” plan for the year.   I found some organic black Quinoa in the cabinet and began to assemble a healthy salad.  After cooking the quinoa, a product of Peru, I added some chopped raw red peppers, carrots, cilantro, walnuts and dried cranberries.  Then, I dressed it with an emulsified mixture of fresh lemon juice, minced garlic, flaxseed oil and salt & pepper.  It was delicious and even better after being refrigerated for the day.

So, day “one” of the Healthy new year is off to a good start!

Wishing you all a healthy, Happy New Year.   JJ

 

Duck Soup!

Yesterday morning  was filled with disagreeable tasks including tax documentation preparation, accounting entries, checkbook balancing and other tedious chores.  I headed home for lunch late, hungry and crabby to find nothing to eat. In the freezer sat a frozen duck that had been waiting for a dashing chef for nearly a year, then without a thought I pulled the rock-hard foul from the self and searched for a pot.

On the bottom shelf peaking from behind the Tupperware sat a crock pot and I said, “sure I’ll let you cook the duck”.    So into the covered crock pot, set on high, went the frozen boulder with a half quart of water.

Five and one-half hours later, my long, painful day ended. I came home to the aroma of duck soup.  The skin and fat layer easily slid off, leaving the most tender, delicious duck I have ever had. The flavor and moistness was so luxurious that I could not make soup of it.  Instead, by layering the warm duck over fresh  field greens, dried cranberries, pecans, and a bit of blue cheese, than drenched with a warm bacon vinaigrette, I had a duck salad fit for a king!  The leftover duck fat and broth will contribute to some other wonderful dish tomorrow.

Funny how the simplest, easy path can turn out so remarkably some days.  Today was a beautiful day after all.  No beautiful photos unfortunately – we ate the duck too quickly.