The edge of weather;
I watch the clouds’ fast approach.
The garden hopes, too.

After the cloudburst,
Quick sun and diamond drops.
Glittering new world.

Go to Boxer’s blog and check out the other haiku in the comments section of the post linked above.

down into little hidden dells and mini-canyons

The last time we were in this particular place was a couple of years ago, around February or March, and the whole little dip was full of bluebirds.  It was an amazing sight, those little blue bullets zizzing back and forth and around the car.  This time, we didn’t see bluebirds, but did spy a couple of these magnificent birds in a tree:

They were big, maybe 18 to 20 inches, and took off shortly after I shot the above. We watched them wheel slowly into the air and float over us, observing. We had a nice walk around the place, enjoying a trickling creek

that led to a bigger, open area of water with a nice layer of ice even the sun couldn’t quite melt

After a good walk in the quiet, finding some lovely feathers that were all that were left over from Mr. or Mrs. Hawk’s dinner, we decided to head back home.  As we drove up out of the dip and back on to the high bluff that overlooked the entire lake to the east, G pointed out over the prairie south at some animal that moved.  Turned out it was another large hawk, rising up off the ground like a winged cloud, just skimming over the surface of the ground. We thought it might be after some prey, but in a moment it was clear that the bird was actually aiming to fly right in front of the car, which it did, and then came to land on a fence post just a few yards ahead.  These barbed-wire fences mark off the public, reservoir land from private state-held land.  I pulled up even with the bird, not wanting to startle him.  He had his head cocked, taking in the vehicle.  I rolled down the window and regarded him.  He was all of about ten feet away, a magnificent bird of prey. The camera, of course, was in the back seat.

“Hello, lovely,” I called to him softly, “Do you want to race?”  As if he had been waiting for me, he launched himself off the fence post, but not high in the air, staying right even with the height of the car window as I accelerated, trying to keep even with him.  He outflew me easily and went perhaps another hundred yards or so before landing on another fence post, where he perched and waited.

Again, I came even with him and spoke out, “You’re a fast one, aren’t you?” 

He cocked his bright eye toward me and I could have sworn he winked, then took off again, this time going higher, but staying in a tight circle right over the car as we headed on our way. He stayed with us until we were almost back on the main road, then spiraled higher into the sky and was off on his own business.  Magic, pure and simple.

GG

Everybody happy and feeling good.  It’s a great photo, if I say so myself.  So, with that image firmly in mind, I’ll try to start at the beginning.

A few months ago, in the evening, G went to pick up Peaches and put her on the bed.  She (Peaches) started to practically shriek in pain and would not stop, no matter how we comforted her.  This led to a trip to the ER vet.  By the time he saw her (not a long wait) and examined her thoroughly, including firm palpation all over and around her abdomen, everything seemed back to normal.  She didn’t let out one whine as he poked and probed.  He also did an ultrasound on her and said he found an “unusual” area in her liver. As with human doctors, sometimes it’s hard to sort out the real information amongst all the what ifs and maybes and probably-s.  G opted not to have any further treatment for Peaches at that time, but did call our vet who came out to the house about a week later, did another exam and said she was looking pretty good for her age (somewhere between 11 and 13).  Her energy level was good, her appetite, etc. good.

Then, over the past few weeks, she seems to have gotten a little slower, not wanting to walk as long, a bit more skittish around loud noises, a few accidents in the house, but not bad. She had lost some weight, but again, was eating well.  So, G took her this weekend to her old vet who had to give up her practice for business reasons but has recently opened a weekend clinic.  This doc took blood work and we got the results on Tuesday while we were up in Colorado Springs.  Looks like there’s a lot going on with her liver and the vet recommended a visit to a more specialized doc, luckily also in Pueblo.  We went this morning. 

She called Peaches’ liver “mad”, enzymes very high, losing lots of protein in her urine, so her kidneys may be involved too.  She is still eating and drinking well, and today I started making her food with rice, small diced veggies (carrots, zucchini, and green beans) a smaller amount of chicken with chicken stock.  I mixed it with about half the amount of dry food that she normally gets and she pushed the bowl across the room trying to get every last molecule.

Bottom line is–we don’t know.  The vet was really good about being open to holistic treatment for Peaches.  I mentioned milk thistle (good for liver function) and she said I beat her to it. She said what I had fixed for her to eat was what she would have suggested.  G found a nutritional supplement online that’s a liquid that contains all the herbal things the vet suggested which is good because lil’ prima dona will NOT swallow pills.  She also got a dose of antibiotics for a week, just to see if there was any kind of infection in her liver and also to help her oral germ load since we can’t put her under right now to have her teeth cleaned.  We were very clear with the vet that we were both opposed to “heroic measures”, both for philosophical and financial reasons.  I wouldn’t want all that stuff done to me; why would I do it to an animal who can’t understand why she’s getting poked and stuck?

And today, we had a lovely, beautiful walk on a gorgeous January day.  We’re not looking at time limits, we’re going to focus on quality of life, for Peaches and for us. I’m doing reiki on her.  We have a friend who’s made a little MMJ tincture for her, and we’re going to focus on the good things and keeping her happy, comfortable and loved.  I think on the whole this is a good thing.  It will make us more mindful.  I told my daughter so she could let the boys know. We’ve already emphasized to them that Peaches is an “old lady” so they need to be extra gentle with her.  The adore her–after all, she’s been the dog at our house since either of them can remember, the one consistent animal of all the pets that have come, gone, disappeared or been left behind in their lives.  She’s a great little dog and I know she’ll be with us for quite some time to come. That we don’t know how long is fine.  It makes each day a gift.  A good lesson and something to think about every day.  Thank you, Miss Peaches.

We’re counting on you!

Oh, and by the way, THIS, right here, is my 850th blog post!  Wheee!

It took me a while to settle on my ingredient.  At first I thought about choosing another meat form after having so much fun with bacon, but I realize there are a lot of vegetarians who participate and I want everyone to have the opportunity not only to create a wonderful dish but to be able to eat it as well.

I thought about grains.  I thought about the season.  I tried to remember other smackdown ingredients.  And then, I stood in the store trying to complete my grocery list and it hit me.  Therefore ladies and gentlemen, gird your loins for:

Battle Cabbage! It’s plentiful, it’s in season, and I’m a wee bit early, but hey, it’s in time for St. Patrick’s day.  It’s red, it’s green, it’s smooth, it’s curly.  I love cabbage although I know it’s often the butt of culinary jokes.  I think it’s wildly versatile and that’s why I picked it for this month’s challenge.  I can’t wait to see what all of you do with this oft-maligned vegetable.  Bring it, babies!

The veterans know the rules but for any new folks who are thinking of playing, here’s how it works:

1. Prepare a dish that includes cabbage and as many other ingredients as you choose. If you’re inspired to make more than three dishes, please self-select which you wish to enter.

2. Post at least one photo and as much description as care to on your blog, then come back and leave a comment here letting everyone know you’re “up.” If you don’t have a blog, email me, and I’ll do my best to include you.  Email is mrfsealah AT hotmail DOT com.

3. Recipes are helpful but not required. If you base your dish on a recipe you found elsewhere, please do the right thing and credit/link to the source. If you wing it (as I did for parts of my tofu pizza) that’s fine too. But it would be swell if you gave us a clue as to your ingredients/methods even without measurements.

4. Deadline is February 21. That’s a month from today.  I was thinking about going all the way to Leap Day, so if ya’ll want that extra week, let me know and we can go back to the actual month by month challenge. 

5. I will make my own dish but it will not be a contender.  I will have the final say as to the winner to whom the Culinary Smackdown torch will be passed, and I will post the results as soon as I can.

And there you have it.  I am really looking forward to all the creative and delicious dishes that I know you’ll prepare, elevating the lowly cabbage to new heights!

GG

Winter moon hangs high,
fiery dawn chases behind.
Each day, fresh beauty.

Seductive beauty,
Yes, please, I’ll have another!
My strange addiction.

She caresses me;
Strength and gentleness combined.
She holds beauty here.

In other news, notice was given and accepted at the job. I have a few more days of work then I will be on VACATION from Jan 24 until Feb 2, back at work for 2 days, then another weekend off.  I’m not going anywhere, just hanging out around here for a solid week.  I honestly can’t remember the last time I did that.  Right now it sounds like the most luxurious thing in the world. Sleeping in!  Hanging with G in the morning! Maybe a couple of day trips to Denver or Manitou Springs! Do I know how to live or what.

And I have to come up with my ingredient for the next smackdown.  I’ve got a couple of things simmering in the back of my head, and I will probably make the announcement in a day or two.  Till then, everyone keep your mad skills honed and ready. Have a great weekend! 

So, the options are stay, bitch and worry about finances or strike out to hopefully greener pasture.  I chose the latter, tested with a company I’d heard about and lo and behold, they called me and offered me a position.  Now, here’s the real shakeup:

I’ll still be working from home, and I’ll still have my Tuesday/Wednesday off. In fact, the recruiter seemed surprised when I told her I worked both weekend days and didn’t mind it.  They usually try to schedule people to have at least one weekend day off.  But I like my weekdays with no crowds and no lines and since G doesn’t work, it’s all good.  However, I will now be working NOON till 8 p.m.  The more I thought about it, the more excited I got.

I am the quintessential morning person.  And I have been having the dickens of a time trying to get myself motivated to train for this damn triathlon I seem to have talked myself into.  In just a little over two more weeks, I’ll be able to get up, take a bit of time, and do my exercise in the MORNING, when I most love to do it.  I’m really excited about this change in shift.  I’m discovering that as I get a little older, I’m not so eager to go out into the freezing cold as I used to be. At least not until the sun is up. I warm up quickly, but just dragging myself out of a nice warm bed on a cold, dark winter morning, well, even the “Rocky” theme music doesn’t help anymore.

Now, I’ll be able to get up, still have my quiet time in meditation, stretching, t’ai chi, etc. and then I’ll be able to walk, bike, even swim if I want to get there by 6:30 a.m. and THEN I can settle down to work.  Or I can sleep in and have coffee and breakfast with G and still get in a walk.  AND, in the hot summer when it’s nearly impossible to help her outside after I’m done at 3–we can get out when it’s most beautiful and work in the garden together. Yes, I AM excited.  I’ve been needing some kind of a shift in my life and I think this is just the ticket.

I’m also just beginning work on another possible novel.  It’s much darker than my last, but a character emerged one day while I was sitting around thinking “what if” and I’m going with it.  It feels good to be getting words on paper again. We’ve got new garden seeds again and G found Mortgage Lifter seeds at our favorite local garden shop.  We had to take down one of our trees recently, as it was nearly dead. It was a variation of a willow that we planted right after we moved in and thought it was supposed to be shrub.  But, the energy of our place had other ideas and so it became a tree.  Now we lost our screen from our across the street neighbors and our next door neighbor lost his summer parking shade.  We haven’t decided yet what to plant. We’re thinking Rose of Sharon or possibly a lilac.  Lilacs grow huge here.  I’m also thinking of some kind of native grass that gets real tall and thick, if there is such a thing.  Any suggestions from the gallery?

And, in other, sadder news, my daughter called today to say that GS1 got suspended from school until Tuesday for apparently fighting with or ganging up on another kid. This happened on the way home from school yesterday, right at the edge of school property. I don’t exactly know what happened, since it was “observed” from a distance and reported by another parent.  My daughter was shocked–as was everyone. This kid has NEVER been in trouble since the day he set foot in school. Not once. In fact, just last week, he was bragging about how no one had picked on him or given him a hard time since he started 6th grade.  Please, everyone send some good vibes that the other parents don’t press charges because if they do, apparently it will be a felony.   I haven’t talked to him and I only told my daughter to try to stay calm and let him tell her what happened.  I really hope it’s all a tempest in a teapot. With all the other past history, this is not a shake up we need.

And, so not to end on a down note, yesterday, I decided to start participating in this really good thing. I read about it in the comments section of another blog, checked it out and it appealed to me.  If you love snapping photos and carry your camera everywhere, it’s definitely something to think about.

Oh, and I’m going to start participating in Haiku Monday.  If you want to check it out, go here and read about the theme for this coming Monday. It’ll be another way to combine my words and my photos–and good writing practice as well.

So, now that I’m shaken, not stirred, I’m going to retire and watch a bit of TV. The Mentalist is on tonight and I’m a big fan.

Take care, everybody!

GG

So, I did what any good, aspiring smackdown contestant would do–I grabbed Bittman’s “How To Cook Everything Vegetarian” and started reading.  I learned a lot about tofu before I ever went to the store to buy any. Then my little wheels started turning.  Most everything I’ve seen, read, eaten of tofu has been on the Asian side.  I decided I wanted to do something decidedly different.  After perusing the book and running around the Internet for a while, I decided on my entry for this one: Pizza with tofu pesto for the sauce and marinated tofu as a topping. Tofu Italiano! And two ways on one dish!  Can’t get better than that, right? So, before I did anything, I roasted some garlic:

You just never know when you might need to toss some roasted garlic cloves in something, so better to have them on hand.  Then, I had to prepare the tofu:

This package was enough for both of my purposes.  I cut the block in half, left half of it in a container of water and pressed the other half per Bittman’s instructions. I wanted to get as much water out of it, and have it quite firm for slicing and marinating.  I set it up and then we were off this morning to run errands:

Afterward, the paper towels were saturated and the tofu was much drier and quite firm:

Then, I  made a marinade with about 3 of the roasted garlic cloves, some really good balsamic vinegar, some dried basil tops/flowers from the garden this past summer, a bit of fleur de sel, and olive oil:

And in went the sliced tofu:

While that  marinated, I made the tofu pesto.  I found this recipe online at Eating Well, and I like it.  I would make it or a variation of it, for a low-calorie, low-fat dip or again for pizza sauce.  It’s quite easy:

1-1/2 cups fresh basil leaves (I didn’t use this many, just a small package from the store)
1/2 cup silken tofu (firm works fine)
1/4 c pine nuts (I did not use these, pine nuts taste metallic to me)
1 Tbl evoo
1 clove garlic (I used 4 roasted)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 Parmesan cheese

Put all the ingredient in a food processor and process until you get a spreadable consistency:

With the pizza sauce made and the tofu marinating, I moved on to making the pizza dough. This recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, “Fields of Greens”, given to me as a gift long ago and still cherished.  It makes a perfect dough for a 15″ pizza, and I just happen to have a round pan. In the interest of brevity, I won’t post the recipe, but if you want it, e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.

With the tofu pesto sauce:

Then I assembled the rest of the pizza.  I laid down a layer of baby spinach, then added the tofu:

Then I sliced up about half a zucchini, a few mushrooms and added some dried yellow pear tomatoes from last summer’s garden:

I topped it with a bit of mozzarella, popped it in the oven and about 12 minutes later…voila!

A friend of ours just happened to drop by just as I was taking this out of the oven, so she got a piping hot piece and pronounced it “awesome”.  G liked it too.

And there you have it, Two-Way Tofu Italiano Pizza!  I just ate a piece cold and I have to say, that is pretty darn good pizza.  So, get yourself some tofu and get creative!