She Brings Me Water
An aeclectic look at the nearby worldArchive for Art
So you don’t have to…
I have a cyber-friend who occasionally puts up a post on her blog that she calls “I surf so you don’t have to”. The posts usually contain many links to interesting, informative and creative sites that she’s run across on her travels through the Web-o-sphere. So I’m taking a page from her book today and posting a few links to some things of interest I have encountered to share with you, beginning with her blog: http://quinncreative.wordpress.com/
I belong to an online community of people who love books; it’s called Library Thing and today they posted an idea they have come up with for the holidays called Santa Thing. It’s sort of a Secret Santa project where you can sign up to secretly give $25 worth of books to someone (chosen by Library Thing) and sign yourself up to receive books as well. They say it’s better to give than to receive but I may be on the fence with that one when it comes to books. Just kidding. Maybe. Oh well, here’s the link: http://www.librarything.com/blog/index.php
Speaking of communities, perhaps you’ve been searching for just the right place to jump into the Web 2.0 world but don’t know where to start? Some places are too huge and impersonal, or have no “real-world” components, or no mission in cyber-life other than to make as many “friends” as possible…here’s a place, a new-kid on the block, where there is a mission and a real-world aspect. It’s called Avanoo and one of it’s founders has just set off on a trip across the US to “Share the World”. Whose world? Go see: http://www.avanoo.com/
But wait! Perhaps you are put off by that term “Web 2.0″; what does that mean, anyhow? Learn all about it, how to participate in it, and all kinds of other interesting things along the way at http://www.dailywriting.net/Wild%20Gardeners%20eLearning/Advent2007.html. Start at step one and work your way down the path. Be sure to bookmark this journey because other steps will be added as the days count down to Christmas. Brought to you by the good people at Soul Food.
Okay, you have a lot to do now, get going on all these links and when you have mastered it all, head over to Web Worker Daily and write up a post (for your new blog or for Avanoo) so you can have a chance at winning a prize! http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/12/06/wwd-giveaway-look-forward-to-2008-and-win/ And if you win, remember who tipped you off! Me!!
And to end on one last shameless plug for myself, a recent commenter on my Proust blog revealed to me that Starbucks (I’m not putting a link here, we all know where they are) carries madeleines! I am not a frequenter of Starbucks but I had to check this out, so last Friday, while on a shopping trip, I stopped in at Starbucks. I didn’t see any madeleines so I asked and sure enough, from behind the counter in a little fridge, they pulled out a box of them. “How many would you like?” the barrista asked. I said, “I was told you had them and just wanted to see if you did”. So they showed me the package (3 madeleines for $1.95!!), I decided to buy one and was asked what I wanted to drink with that? Nothing, I said. Strange looks all around. I put the madeleines in my purse and ate one with my homemade chocolate coffee when I got home. How were they? Okay. But here’s a link to the post, which also contains a link to recipes for regular and chocolate madeleines. Much better and cheaper made at home: http://marimann.wordpress.com/2007/08/06/twice-as-nice-marcel-sightings-4-and-5/
Harvest Home
I ended my last post with a reference to the autumnal equinox and the shortening of the days. This equinox, also known as Harvest Home or Mabon, on September 23 (beginning the evening before), marks the second time of the year (the first is the spring equinox) when day and night are of equal length. After the autumnal equinox, the days will continue to grow shorter and the night longer. Mabon, or Harvest Home, celebrates the “bringing home” of the summer’s crop, the time when harvest festivals (also known as state fairs) are held, and we can begin to relax a bit after the summer’s hard work. We can catch up on our reading, try out some new recipes, do a little painting…
The watercolors above are a set of four ATC’s, or Artist Trading Cards, that I painted for an ATC “swap”. The theme of this swap was pagan celebrations, and so I painted two cards with Ostara (Easter) symbols, one for Beltane, and one for Mabon, in the lower right-hand corner. It’s a representation of the Mayan maize god, depicted as an ear of corn.
Here’s a recipe I made up recently using some sweet potatoes our next-door farmer/neighbor gave us and some of our corn (steamed and scraped off the cobs):
Sweet potatoes, black beans and corn
Peel and cube sweet potatoes, cook in microwave with a little water and butter until tender. Add 1 can of black beans (drained), some fake crab (chopped), cooked corn kernels, shredded cheese (cheddar, colby, or jalapeno jack). Season with cumin, seasoned pepper, lemon pepper, garlic powder to taste. Microwave until hot.
As you can see, this recipe was made entirely in the microwave. We’ve decided not to fix our stove, for various reasons: it uses lots of electricity, not good for our aging fuse box or the environment. We really don’t need it, because of having the microwave, toaster oven, camp stove (on the porch). Most of my cooking involves steaming or sauteeing vegetables, and maybe cooking some rice or couscous, for which I only need a burner or two. To supply this need without having to go out on the porch to use the camp stove in the dark and cold of approaching winter, we are going to purchase a small propane camp stove to set on top of the not-functioning oven. We’re also going to start using our crock pot again, which we’ve discovered uses surprisingly little electricity. In the winter we eat lots of soups and stews, and the crock pot is perfect for that. I also discovered that you can make bread in one; I’ll let you know how that turns out.
