2014

Another view if the ice/snow storm

2014 ice storm

The view at 5:44 on Wednesday , January 29.

January 24 2014

Homemade pizza

Are you a bird?

A bird came down the walk: He did not know I saw; He bit an angle-worm in halves and ate the fellow, raw.
–Emily Dickinson
I read this in my daily Hazeldon reading and while the reading went on to talk about how we all see things and each other differently; the first thought that popped into my head was *how often do we do this to our fellow man?*
We think others don’t see when we judge another person; but often our facial expressions shows our every thought. We think others don’t hear when we say something negative about our fellow man-but even a change in our tone can reflect our true thoughts. And let’s not forget about all the times we blantantly say derogatory things about another regardless of who is hearing. Or what about those times we simply ignore another person, shun them as it were, acting as though they were invisible. Do we ever consider that these very actions are the same as cutting a worm in half and eating it raw.
While we watch the bird perform this very action and ‘know’ that this is a *bird thing* and we know we would never do such an act because, well, humans just don’t eat worms—yet every day of our life there is a possibility that we have performed this same action (in principle) toward our fellow man; the same fellow man that was created in the image of God just as we are created in the image of God.
So, regardless of what we think of the birds need to cut worms in half and eat them raw; regardless of our fantasy that our thoughts and actions and words are secret; let us remember that while we may hide our ugliness from the most of the world, we can never hide our ugliness from God. Let us live our lives so that each day we cannot be ashamed of our words, thoughts or actions, but instead grow more and more Christ like each day.

Two oldies united

The sewing machine cabinet was my grandma’s…the old, old type with a treddle. I can remember playing on it as a kid. Later on when that machine bit the dust, grandpa made it so grandma’s new-fangled electric machine would fit in the cabinet. That machine had long stopped working, but mine (the one resting in the case now) is still going strong. Dad bought it for me when I was in the 8th grade. He had told me if I learned to sew he would buy me a sewing machine. I did and he did. The other day I took grandma’s dead machine out of the cabinet and with Ana’s help we put mine in it. Yay!!!! Life is good.

Ana in mobile tunnel

 

As we went to Foley during the Christmas holidays, our route took us through the Mobile Tunnel. Ana has been through it, but she was very young and didn’t remember. I captured this expression as we made the ride through it .

Orange marmalade

 

I was blessed with an abundance of oranges, lemons and grapefruit this year so I put them to good. I juiced the grapefruit and put it in the freezer in the form of concentrate. I juiced the lemons and froze that juice, unaltered in ice trays. Each cube is approximately 2 tablespoons, making it easy to use in recipes. I took a few of the oranges and turned them into this beautiful orange marmalade using as a basic guide a recipe from Alton Brown on the Food Network. I added 2 whole, very large, grocery store bought jalapenos and a good chunk of grated ginger. My aim was to add some spice to the marmalade. However, I said “grocery store” jalapenos for a reason. My experience is that none of them are as hot as the ones I can grow. So next time I will attempt to kick up the heat just a bit.