Email me at sinclair@naturewithme.com
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Our existence on the skin of this earth is a fragile one; give it strength through the work of your hands.
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Mr. Nature and I had a lovely anniversary. Amilia visited family while Mr. Nature and I had a day in town. We shared a yummy portobello burger, and he had lentil soup while I had Brazilian black bean soup. Hummus happily accompanied the blue corn chips on our plates. Americano coffee tied it all together.
We reviewed our years together and considered what the future might bring. We discussed the economy and recent lack of employment opportunities. We shared our thoughts on the direction this country is moving. We mulled over the wonders of the universe and the path our creator has laid for us. We discussed the many things for which we are thankful, and recognized our many blessings.
It was cold and overcast, with a chill breeze blowing. Near our lunch place, there is a public area with benches and tables. Mr. Nature saw a homeless person wrapped up in a sleeping bag and huddled for warmth on one of the benches next to her worldly possessions. This site is all too common, and I lament that there is tragedy in the world. He bought her a bowl of soup and some bread and delivered it to her bench. We wish we could do more.
The man I married is a marvelous example of caring, giving, and empathy. Early in our relationship, he helped me help someone in need. It was then that I knew he was the one for me. He doesn't like to have it recognized. I do not recognize it for accolades, but as a battle cry. There is so much need in the world, and so many who have so little.
I want to embark upon the New Year with hope.
I want to gather that hope and share it with all who hope with me.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the day I met Mr. Nature. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day we were married. Those events did not occur in the same year. It was not a Vegas celebrity wedding, sheesh! Now that we have that cleared up,
I confess that I have nothing to give him for a gift this year. I meant to have it, but the days have slipped by such that I am unprepared. We usually stick to the traditional gift for the appropriate year. But I am still knitting Christmas gifts that weren't ready in time. I am swamped with a lineup of charity knitting projects that must be completed.
My consolation is that I am certain he has nothing yet to give me either. But we do not have to give tangible gifts to one another in order to celebrate the years we have spent together, or the wonder of our meeting in the first place. We don't need goods. We just need a segment of time to give each other some undivided attention and a walk down memory lane.
With the dusting of snow and the lot of rain and our distance from town, the ability to give that would be a worthy gift unto itself.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday, and if you don't celebrate, I still hope you had a wonderful few days. I wrapped all but two of my gifts in furoshiki and I really liked the way it looked under the tree. The one complaint I heard? It doesn't rustle when you are opening, and you can't excitedly tear into it the way you can with paper wrapped gifts. Hmmmm.
Still, I think I will make it a tradition, and next year, I will have fabric specifically cut and finished for the occasion. I have several pieces now that are ready for assignment when needed. I will wrap birthday gifts this way as well from now on, provided that the shape and size of the gifts permit.
For the pink one on the right (below), I wrapped a more traditional way with the cloth, and used colorful selvage edging as "ribbon." I liked the result. The ribbon did not have to be untied, but only slipped off both ends. Did you know there are whole quilts made with selvage edges?
For this one, I did use a satin ribbon to tie on a gift tag and a panda finger puppet. This one housed a simple, classic, Made in U.S.A. metal slinky. I was able to use a small piece of Bob the Builder fabric I had in my stash box, and it sent out a bright and playful call to Amilia to "open me on Christmas Eve!" Now, it's a wrap. Time to look toward the new year - and resolutions?
I generally do not make resolutions, but I think I may put some into play this year.
Because I do sometimes do product reviews for which I have received the product to try as a sample, I guess I must officially have a disclosure policy on my blog. I don't believe that little personal bloggers like myself who occasionally try consumer goods and tell my opinion should really be in the category of media people subject to such disclosure, but apparently all blogs and bloggers are included in disclosure regulation, so:
This policy is valid from 28 December 2009: FCC disclosure policy: This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. At this time, this blog does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, we will and do accept and keep free products, and will accept if offered services, travel, event tickets, and other forms of compensation from companies and organizations.
The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.
The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely of the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.
To my knowledge, this blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.
To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org
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Wherever I see words, I also see words misused. I was always the "word police" in my family, and when we would go on trips I was always pointing out word misuse and misspelling on signs and in print. I am notorious for being bothered by signs at roadside stands that say "Strawberrys" instead of strawberries. To be fair, I give them the benefit of the doubt and think perhaps it was an issue of space. That extra letter in the correct spelling may have proven too much for the width of the sign, after all.
There are several others, but the most frequent are the mix-up of "there", "they're", and "their" and the transposition of "your" and "you're." How exciting! I found a little quiz on the subject! It is on a site with several other grammar lessons and quizzes. Fun!~
There is an adverb, and can be used to tell where something is located. As in: The books are over there. It can also be used to discuss a particular point at which something begins or ends, or can be use as an interjection. THERE!
They're is the contraction of THEY and ARE. It is used correctly as: They're going to the theatre this evening. They're in the city for the weekend.
Their is the possessive pronoun one uses when discussing what belongs to them. As in: They left their home very quickly.Their food was getting cold.Their ship just came in.
To use all three together: "They're over there in their hut."
Your is an adjective describing possession or direction. As in: Your books are on the table. They are on your left.
You're is a contraction of the words YOU and ARE, so would be used to describe your current state. You're late. You're fired. You're sad. You're going to be so happy when you hear the news. You're not going to believe what happened!
Your work is not finished because you're daydreaming.
Another that I have seen lately is the use of "rod" instead of "wrought" in connection with iron. I poke about on the internet looking for cast iron cookware, and often find incorrect offerings of "rod iron" items as well.
Wrought iron is malleable iron that has been worked into shape [by a blacksmith]. Merriam Webster says:
Allwords.com says that "rod iron" is a common misspelling of "wrought iron." However, Red Willow Forge does offer "rod iron art" which is comprised of items created from rods of iron. Thus, the term "rod iron" may have some place in the world of blacksmithery.
Keep and eye out on Facebook and Twitter and other places you go on your internet journeys.
I could not resist sharing this slice of subpar advance planning with you. At the end of the summer when we were putting all things in for the coming cold and covering things for the winter, we applied a tarp to the top of the spa. The spa cover is aging and is beginning to crack from the years of weather, so we needed to give it a little extra waterproofing.
The tarp was not long enough to tie down and cinch around the spa, so we decided to weight the four corners. With one gallon glass jars full of water. Brilliant! Not so aesthetically pleasing, but it got the job done.
Until we had that cold snap recently with 4 nights of 10 degrees. And a few other days in the high teens and low twenties. Oh, yes, you have already guessed it and are having a good laugh right now, aren't you? The water froze. The jugs broke. Now shards of glass are left hanging from the four corners of my spa. And cleanup on aisle west deck is in order.Why do I share? Because maybe somewhere out there somebody else lacks the same forethought as myself. And I can spare you the catastrophe. That, and I just found it funny.
As promised, here is the soup, but I warn you, I am not a recipe writer and though it was very simple, I realize that it makes for a boring read!
First, I bought some organic chicken legs (4) because they are inexpensive and perfect for using in soup. When I got home, I put about 6 cups of water into a stock pot and boiled the legs until they were fully cooked. This created the broth.
Then, I took them out of the pot, while leaving all the liquid in the pot and leaving the temperature on low. I pulled every bit of meat possible off the bones, and shredded it by hand. Once the meat was separated and shredded, I put it back into the pot with the broth.
I tied a sprig of rosemary and a couple sprigs of thyme into a cheesecloth and dropped it into the broth with the meat.
[earlier] Just after I got the meat in to boil, I cooked 2 cups of rice in a separate pan. For rice, I use a deep stainless steel skillet. I put 4 cups of water in and bring to a boil. Add a pat of butter. Once the butter is melted and water boiling, I put in the rice and stir one time. Then, place the lid, and do not touch for 20 minutes. Done.
While the rice was cooking and the meat boiling, I sauteed an iron skillet full of celery, garlic, and yellow onions.
Once the meat was cooked and shredded and back in the pot, I added 1 cup of the cooked rice and the sauteed celery, garlic, and onions to the pot with the broth and chicken. I added 1/2 tsp of salt. I added 1 more cup of water because I wanted more broth. I added 1 cup of broccoli. I let it all simmer together for about 45 minutes. Then, I pulled out the cheesecloth, and the soup was ready to serve.
I put it into bowls and sprinkled scallions and cilantro on top. I salted and peppered to taste. Yum!
Ingredients: chicken legs (4) 1-2 cups rice 1/2 cup celery (approx.) 1/2 yellow onion (or whole yellow onion, depending on size) 2-4 cloves garlic 1 cup broccoli 1/2 tsp salt sprig of rosemary 2 sprigs of thyme
scallions to garnish cilantro to garnish
In my seconds bowl, I sprinkled cumin on to taste. Mmmm. The next night when we had the soup again for dinner, I sprinkled some yellow curry on mine. Not bad!
Note that I made two cups of rice, but only put one in the soup. This was because I always make 2 cups at a time. I wasn't sure how much my soup would want, and we used the rest for teriyaki stir-fry lunch while we waited for the soup to cook. So, adjust as you will.
Have you heard of this little kitty boy who really is a Siamese kitten, but thinks he is a Chihuahua? Well, he really WANTS to be a Chihuahua...his alter ego, Skippito, is a weeckid Chihuahua!
We first ran across Skippyjon as a board book when Amilia was a toddler. She and I both instantly fell in love with this little figure, and we were amazingly daft about his species for quite some time. He looks like a cat, but in the board books, he looks in the mirror and sees a dog. So, we thought he was just a cat-looking chihuahua.
Enter the actual Skippyjon Jones STORYbooks, and we learn that he is, in fact, a cat. Who thinks he is a dog. Because his ears are too big for his head. And he thinks chihuahuas are fiercely cool. We learned this from the book "Lost in Spice" which we recently borrowed from the library. It came with an audio CD, and I MOST HIGHLY recommend it! And wonder of wonders, Mr. Nature found a little snippet of the adventure here on YouTube!
Even if you don't have kids. Or if you have grand kids. Or nieces or nephews. Or cats or dogs or plants who like you to read to them. This book is wildly fun and charming and peppy. We love it.
So much that we had to purchase a copy for ourselves, er, Amilia. Shhhhh! don't tell!
It's a secret for Christmas morning. One of very few breaks from handmade this year. But books are always okay, because the funds support the authors who crafted the story. Which ensures that they can give us another story in the future.
Enjoy! And tell me how you feel about Skippyjon...
If you were not enthralled with Stephanie's story last week, then hop onward to another blog and check back tomorrow. If you were wishing for the next piece, here it is.
Stephanie has this quote by Washington Irving pasted to her refrigerator:
"There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity."
It is true that adversity is what has the most potential to build character, to test strength, to renew faith, and to spark hope. When life is tough, may we all rise to the challenge at hand.
But, when life is good, let us paste this on our refrigerator as well, and give a nod to what we have been given by adversity. Remember to be thankful for every day and every blessing received.
Soon, I will share with you a chicken and rice soup recipe that I just worked up off the cuff Friday evening. For those of you who know that I am was a (95%) vegetarian of the lacto-ovo variety, I announce that I am handing in the keys to the Vegetarian Room.
I am, once again, fully a meat eater. We are again a meat eating family. But only at home where I know that I have the best, cleanest, organic and naturally raised meat available. (If eating out, I think I will still eat vegetarian. Unless it is at one of the two places I know that serve good, healthy, locally raised meat.)
Why have we purchased this new, one way passage on the "meatitarian" train? Because there is a ridiculous anomaly in this mortal coil called perimenopause that thieves your muscle mass and fat stores and leaves you a skin-stretched skeleton on the verge of anemia. And for me, it just makes good sense to give my body what it seems to be craving for proper balance.
And yes, this phenomenon CAN strike people who are just past mid-thirties...okay, nearing 40. Don't let anybody tell you it cannot. It began before 40 for my mother, and apparently, that trend continues. I will spare you the details, but there have been telltale signs for over a year now. It is a natural occurrence, and my blog is all about Nature, after all. I do think there should be discourse somewhere because it was left out of the aging manual I received. Wait, you mean there IS no aging manual? Exactly!
So, chew on that tasty morsel for a bit while I work up the recipe...
Did you know that a red fox could climb a tree? I had not heard of this. Last night, Mr. Nature went outside to adjust the heat in the well pumphouse, and when he came in he shared this tall tale:
A family of foxes who are familiar to us here at Deer Palace were in the yard, and one of them climbed up into the apple tree. Since I could not catch this on film at night in 28 degrees, I went to You Tube to see if others might have fared better.
Indeed, others have. So I share with you a video from Ginnymo62.
1. That Cascade Farms changed the formula on their Purely O's and did not disclaim it on the box. We bought TWO boxes, only to realize when we got home that something was amiss. They removed the barley and added molasses, tapioca syrup, and sugar. Which added 2 GRAMS OF SUGAR perserving. And changed the color and texture. Amilia won't eat them, and I don't blame her. They went from 5 simple, wholesome ingredients to 9 ingredients of superfluous sweetness.
When I called to lodge my complaint, the customer service rep was very pleasant, and is sending me a refund.
2. That it has been 10 degrees overnight the last three nights and my poor water pump is freezing and refusing to supply the house with more than a trickle of water. We have added more burlap and straw in the pumphouse, so keep your fingers crossed!
However, I am still counting my many blessings and finding thankfulness in many places and having happy holidays with my family.
Like so many, I know her from Etsy and the silhouettes she used to create.The word is that she is creating them again as she is able. Email stephanienielson@yahoo.com.
I know her from her blog, NieNieDialogues. I know her most especially from her plane crash, on August 16, 2008, to now.
Most recently, Jaimee Rose has written a very thorough and heartwrenching account of Stephanie and Christian's journey from just before the plane crash and through the long, dark days following. It is a journey of pain, despair, hope, faith, amazing fortitude and a firm resolve to live.
Read the story on azcentral.com. If you were having any trouble looking past whatever hardships you have in your own life, or if your list of thankfulness was too short, or if you had lost faith or thought things could not get worse, read the story. Read it ALL. Make sure you have Kleenex with you.
Stephanie will renew your spirit, your resolve, your faith, and your well of thankfulness.
Mr. Nature and I had a lovely anniversary. Amilia visited family while Mr. Nature and I had a day in town. We shared a yummy portobello burger, and he had lentil soup while I had Brazilian black bean soup. Hummus happily accompanied the blue corn chips on our plates. Americano coffee tied it all together.
