Tuesday, 29 August 2017
I reached into the archives for this, from a coffee shop in Taos just before Xmas, 2016. And, yes, there was snow on the ground outside.
These days, I enjoy my hot coffee in the mornings, and a few bites of cold dairy product in the evening. Those are my treats (food treats).
Wednesday, 2 August 2017
If the segment of the great database that is the internet is correct, I learned today that edamame have much more (dietary) fiber than garbanzo beans. However, lentils and split peas have significantly more than edamame.
Sunday, 16 July 2017
Rough on The Guru having to do EVERYTHING for both of us, including all the driving.* I’m so appreciative that he managed to find us an accessible room in rural Ohio, where people have taken refuge in motels because of flooding (same to the west through Indiana and Illinois). At our lunch stop, we got a frequent shopper points reward of a free giant cookie. Mmmmmm sugar, fat, chocolate, and crunch…mmmmmm.
We watched this small section of a rainbow—a rainbowette?—soon after we entered home territory. I’m taking it as a good omen.
Whew. Home safely before 10pm, even with quick stop at TJ’s to get necessary items. It was a quick stop because I stayed in the car and The Guru did the shopping. I must say that late evening TJs is a different place than in the daytime when I almost always visit.
* My enduring thanks for cheerful helpfulness…and over the weeks to come. I am not an adept crutches person, it turns out.
Tuesday, 4 July 2017
I made a big rice salad for our contribution to the potluck Fourth celebration across the way. I used these garlic scapes among the many veggies I added.
Our hosts always supply brats and weiners grilled to full tastiness. And home-baked beans. Guests bring the rest. Extra yummy this year, I thought.
Great company, too. Always great fun to catch up with people we see just once a year.
No sparklers even, and we saw the fireworks on Sunday night…but I still thought about this being the anniversary of the founding of our nation while I chopped veggies…I find these strange times, and tried to be buoyed by the tendency of institutions to perpetuate themselves in much the same form.
On the way back to our place the moon seemed to reign over the orchard and the lake.
Tuesday, 30 May 2017
Melissa and Doug: you can do much better than felt food*.
Like a bison-burger and fries at Clyde’s.
* Or even pre-felt food. 😉
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
One of the larger women’s rooms I’ve been in—and still there was a line! The row of doors is so long it’s impossible to tell if a stall is occupied without walking down to check…and there was a staff-member doing just that…. [Heathrow Terminal 3, the main toilets.]
And, we’re off! [Why include shipwrecks on these flight maps?]
Remarkable Bakery’s “Many-Shaped Miscellaney of Biscuits for Cheese”—yup, all different, all three of them. [I thought the crackers better than the cheese.]
Lookee there! The gold dome! One more bus ride and…a short walk…and home!
Lovely trip!
Monday, 22 May 2017
We had a last drive across the countryside in eastern Ireland, first Northern then Republic. AVS on this truck stands for Ace Vegetable Suppliers. The left promotional phrase is: Suppliers of the best quality chipping potatoes. I was ready to leave chipped potatoes behind (for a while only; potatoes are sacred food to me). And, in the process, leaving Guinness. Sigh.
Along our drive we saw this pedestrian bridge just before we crossed the vehicle bridge…our last crossing of the Boyne.
Once on the ground in GB, we took the train into London from the airport and unwound for a bit, deciding to eat our evening meal in a “good” place. Turns out we went for super-fine. We picked three courses and we were presented with seven different food offerings, several with multiple tastes. This was the palate cleanser after the main course. It had a soft cucumber sorbet (I think) on the bottom, with gin and tonic foam on top. I don’t know what kind of leaf decorated it.
I even splurged and had a glass of Moscato with dessert. Yum. Yup, we changed our dining style!
We walked down to pay homage to the Thames after we ate, and to let our courses and not-courses settle.
We caught the 9pm ringing of Big Ben, as it turned out. This was a few minutes later, after we’d admired the river and communed with a perfect light breeze.
These are the towers of Westminster Abbey. They seem creamier/lighter-colored than I remember, but that’s probably just my lousy memory. [I have spared you many photos of the upper bits of buildings silhouetted against the sky; I’ve been rather obsessed with them this trip.]
Thursday, 11 May 2017
One way to look at today is that there were pairs…of medieval monastic/church complexes and harbor-cities.
These first two photos are of Kells priory. This one was founded in the 12th C by Anglo-Normans—some of the ruins inside the wall. Then, the wall was added in the 15th C, and the whole thing was attacked in the Dissolution in the 16th C. Anyway, the ritual architectural core is next to River Kings, and the adjacent settlement was on the slope above and the hill to the south.
Here’s another 12th-C cathedral complex in ruins. It was sacked a bit later, in the 17th C, and some well-meaning??? Englishman had the roof removed in the 18th C. You can guess my take on that.
This one, however, is atop a limestone outcrop, very dramatic. It also has a wall, but mostly the defensiveness is due to the bedrock it is built upon. Here’s the view of town from just a few feet from the cathedral ruin.
Such different choices…next to the water and the riverine transportation network vs atop a defensible peak. Supply lines are different. These aren’t far apart in space, and the surviving architecture overlaps temporally….
Here’s a view of Cobh harbor. This was the last port of call of the doomed “Titanic,” in 1912. Uncounted Irish set sail from here for the New World, hoping, as is often said, for a better life. I think of Cobh as the outer harbor area in the same estuary as Cork, which is in a more protected location farther inland–but doesn’t have the deep draft for larger “modern” ocean-going vessels.
This is the estuary between Cobh and Cork, and there’s a car ferry that goes between the two cities traversing the River Lee in the shot. Notice how the overcast has set in; we have lost the sunshine we’ve had since we arrived (where’s my raincoat gotten to?).
We’re headed south over the bridge that is where the bridge was in medieval times, exiting Cork to the south. The plan of walled medieval Cork survives as narrow streets and bottle-necked traffic. Charming layout, slightly gritty city (or is the overcast skewing my perceptions?).
Ponder these two cities. One (Cobh) is nearer the open ocean and has a deep harbor, an advantage in “modern” times. The other is farther inland, at the farthest downstream that crossing the rivers that forked around the city was relatively easy. Cork was a Viking stronghold far later than most Viking cities in Ireland; the Vikings liked to be inland of the river-mouth, with the security the protected location offered. Archaeologists have found another Viking settlement with ironworking and other crafting even farther upstream, which was unanticipated and suggests that, at least here, the Vikings located activities that required expensive materials even farther inland in an even safer location.
We kept rolling south to Kinsale. I like that this shop offers bibliotherapy. Maybe you’ve heard of it, but I haven’t.
We even had a fancy fish dinner in Kinsale. Delightful and tasty. For dessert, I swooned over my crème brûlée, and the Guru’s pavlova and strawberries was gorgeous and seductive.
And score another fine B&B for us. This is the view from our room—ignore the overcast….
Saturday, 22 April 2017
Well now, Old Man Time escaped the bounds of…time, and I must do a late-post. My alternate-reality self is in Paris (trust me), and I revere it with this time-shifting plant….
Happy Sattidy night!
For no apparent reason, let me note here that when my fingers learned to type the exclamation point, it was a far different key-stroke-combo than it is now. And there’s no reason to allot blog-space to that observation. Or I could do something totally different, and address recent settlement pattern studies…(I advise:) don’t turn me loose on this….
Tuesday, 18 April 2017
This is Nepalese bheda ko ledho thali. Lamb stew with wee bowls of veggies, pickles, bean stoups, and rice and naan chaperones.
The accompaniment you don’t see: a lesson in blue-dot navigation.