Return

And...I'm back.

The garden is progressing nicely. I check on it two or three times a day, which is also the frequency with which weeding must be done in order to keep things in check. The upside down tomatoes are growing exceptionally fast!

Yesterday, perched atop a squash leaf, I found a pile of legs and wings. Nothing else, just the bits that something found inedible. That is, I think, the best possible way to find remains. All the gross bits tidily nibbled up by whatever did the killing. I also watch for our turtle, who I've named Mr Snappy. I'm 95% sure he's a snapping turtle, but he's quite small and so not too worrisome.

The distance traveled since I last wrote has been immense, but I'm in no place now to go through all of that, but perhaps I will, one day.

For a While...

I am taking a Gent-enforced break from the computer. So, no blogging, no reading of the blogs, no other stuff I do on here all the time... I will likely go into withdrawal, but expect to survive.

Until I'm granted that use of my time back, phone calls and emails are best. If I read you regularly, just email me your posts :)

Kitchen Confidence

I have a huge radish crop coming in faster than I can even keep up with. The greens are huge beyond belief while the roots are exactly as you'd imagine. Being me, I refuse to waste an edible vegetable (cruciferous veggies rock and the sulfur content makes my skin oh-so happy) and so have been madly researching and experimenting with all the yummy ways to eat radish greens.

Today was radish top soup, with slices of radish root as garnish. It is a fairly basic onion-red potato-radish greens concoction and I used goat's milk butter to pre-saute the veggies, but when the Gent called and told me he had arranged dinner plans with friends and that we'd be taking the soup, I still felt an amusing jolt of panic. But...I've never made this soup before! I have no idea what the end result will be, and now I have an audience?

I better go man (woman?) the pot and make sure nothing goes wrong. It smells good.....

Quiet

It has been quiet here, and I haven't meant for it to be. It's just one of those terrible times, when both parties are going through shit and so the interactions are mismatched and before you know it, there are tears and hurt feelings and lots of anger and acknowledgments of how much healing there is to be done...and well, I don't care to air my dirty laundry in public and I'm sure as shit not going to air any of his!

I have taken to keeping a journal recently, of a different sort. This one actually gets written in with a pen or pencil! I'm focusing heavily on mindfulness- ways I am winning and places I need more practice. A secondary focus is my service. Unfortunately, I have recently been stricken with might-be-physical-sickness-might-be-emotional-toxicity and so have done very little for the past few days, which does forward proper housekeeping or service. *shrugs* Either way, it's sickness. It is just that the physical sickness is a lot less....stigmatized?....than the emotional.

Beltaine

Happy Beltaine, sisters.

I dreamt of fruit crops so abundant they were beyond understanding.

I also dreamt of being married to Adam, among other things. When my alarm went off, he was on the phone with me, upset about something that had happened, and I was telling him to not worry, that our blueberry bushes had overflowed and I was with my mother, sorting out the fruit, but the alarm went off, and I didn't get to finish telling him. I didn't finish....ah well. As in life, I suppose.

Now I'm off for a weekend of family, hopefully with wonderful sex snuck in somewhere, although I halfway feel like we should go outside and lay down on the freshly tilled earth to fuck.....

Wrong vs Right

First- the lid did fit the bucket, I was just doing it wrong. (You had to remove a certain bit that was all hidden and such. Instructions would have been nice, bucket company).

Doing it wrong. Oh yes. Let's see. Sleeping, I did that wrong, in that I didn't sleep. Not really..not much. Scheduling, I did that wrong. In my attempt to schedule more company for myself, I seem to have instead isolated myself- first for 5 hours in the office nobody else is here, and then later in the afternoon when they would be around, I'll be back home on my own, unless the Gent's work call ends miraculously early AND he doesn't have a work call. Should have slept in, hit the plant sale, and gone to work in the afternoon. Didn't. Cold and lonely at work. Maybe I'll come back to work after plant sale. Probably worthwhile, Friday afternoons can be rowdy around here what with payday for the minions and all.

However, there has been a little bit of doing it right. So, we all know that biscuits are delicious. And not very healthy. I have in fact found a way to make awesome southern-style (fluffy, flaky, layered perfect) biscuits without lard, but they still aren't exactly super-healthy.

Still, last night I made up a dough with whole wheat pastry flour, coconut oil, and water. The high melting temp on the coconut oil worked perfectly, and also meant that I could let the dough soak overnight (which creates more bio-availability in the grains, helps with enzymes and so on. soaking grains is a really good thing) and just add the leavening ingredients in the morning. So I did, and it was delicious. Whole grain and not quite fully southern, but definitely passable as a biscuit, texture-wise.

Wrong might have more tally points but those biscuits were seriously yummy :)

Grrr

Today, I bought a bucket, and brought it home. I washed it up, mixed up my magic ingredients and filled the bucket. Only to discover that the man gave me the wrong lid for it. The lid doesn't fit and I have a five gallon bucket filled with cooling (and therefor solidifying) soap. The lid is sitting on top and really, the worst part will be explaining to the Gent that no, I didn't check before I got started, and well, I'm not sure I can take it back and well....yeah. Then again, he never does laundry, so if the soap was already there when we got home, he might never notice. Only...it's fucking heavy and I'm not sure I can carry it that far until it's solid.

Mrph! Of all the nights for him to be getting done with work early. (Well, early as in 10:30....theatre schedules can seriously blow)