The Presidents

Around here, we use the word 'peak-bagging' to describe climbing the many mountains. It occurs to me, not a climber, but a reader, that I am 'president-bagging.' When I was a girl, I read a lot about the Kennedys. And later, I read the first in the Lyndon Baines Johnson trilogy. But since then, I haven't read much until we saw a PBS program on Theodore Roosevelt, and this began an interest in the man which resulted in becoming a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association. I've since read many books about him, and one by him, A Bully Father - his letters to his children. Thankfully, there are still many I haven't read. Last year I read No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin (who is working on a TR biography - hooray!) about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt; and John Adams by David McCullough. This week I finished listening to Truman, also by McCullough (37 tapes!). And I am just awed and wowed by all these books. I find them more interesting than just about anything else I've read. Today I'll begin His Excellency George Washington. Having read 1776 recently, I just had to read more about Washington. On deck is General Ike, written by his son, and then I want to read the Perret book on Eisenhower. There are a couple on Andrew Jackson I'm looking forward to, as well. I also want to read Goodwin's Team of Rivals. And on it goes.

It is so, so easy to criticize the Presidents, and even easier to limit them to one or two things we may know of them. But when I read these long, in-depth biographies, I learn about them as people with the complexities, faults, and gifts we all have. I have come away from each book with huge respect for the men, and indeed the women, their wives whom I'm also learning about. I've read Margaret Truman's (the President's daughter) book called First Ladies, Cokie Roberts' Founding Mothers, and I can't wait to read her new one, Ladies of Liberty.

Helene Hanff wrote that she could never "get interested in things that didn't happen to people who never lived." And though I do enjoy fiction, these biographies are my bread, the staff of my reading life.

Today's cd/These Streets

Paolo Nutini
These Streets
2006

What a wonderful album this is. Paolo Nutini is such a good writer and singer. I hear hints of Simply Red, and going back further, a little Marvin Gaye. He is very soulful in his music and words. Sometimes in a song a phrase will jump out at me and I'll think, how perfect. He is asking a woman to grant him a last request (before she leaves) and he says,

don't shrug your shoulders

I like that. It is just right. It is exactly what a disinterested, already-out-the-door person would do. 'Oh, okay, but then I'm gone' sort of gesture.

He sings of love, and those "New Shoes", and about leaving home.

cross the border, into the big bad world
where it takes you 'bout an hour just to cross the road

these streets have too many names for me
I'm used to Glenfield Road and spending my time down in Orchy
I'll get used to this eventually I know, I know

I like the way he personalizes a common experience. Most of us have been through it. Some stay on "those streets" and others come back home. When we are young, we just live through the days, unthinking, unknowing that change is coming. Then it hits us in our early twenties:

where'd days go when all we did was play
and the stress we were under wasn't stress at all

The insert has a photo of his late grandparents, and beside it are the lyrics to "Autumn."

I can hear you saying
my little fish don't cry, my little fish don't cry

Again, he puts in a personal phrase like that, a loving name, which brings it right home to all of us who have lost those in an older generation.

The songs are pensive, bouncy, humorous, deep. I just love this album and can't recommend it highly enough. You may learn more about this young man, and listen to some songs, here and here.

Mrs Bale is aghast!

Quote du jour/Harry S. Truman

When President Harry S. Truman was an old man, he was asked if he liked to read himself to sleep at night.
No, young man, I like to read myself awake.

Who are those kids?

It was 31 years ago today we got married at the Register Office in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England.

Today's cd/Me and Mr Johnson

Me and Mr Johnson
Eric Clapton
2004

"You better come on in my kitchen
'Cause, it's gon' to be rainin' outdoors."
Robert Johnson

This rainy, 45º day is just perfect for some blues, and this cd is one of my favorites. I love it when musicians pay homage to older influences and that's what Clapton does on this album. On the liner notes he says:

It is a remarkable thing to have been driven and influenced all of my life by the work of one man. ... I am talking of course, about the work of Robert Johnson. Up until I heard his music, everything I had ever heard seemed as if it was dressed up for a shop window somewhere, so that when I heard him for the first time, it was like he was singing only for himself, and now and then, maybe God. ... It is the finest music I have ever heard. I have always trusted its purity, and I always will.

There's a YouTube video of Clapton talking about Robert Johnson. He says it would take a lifetime to really copy the way Johnson played. Whew! The song he plays is not on this album, but it will give you a great idea of the sound. You can buy the cd and or go right to the source, and get some Robert Johnson at iTunes. Great, great music.

The Elvis Sandwich

I've had this recipe for many years, and though I don't make it too often, I so enjoy it when I do. Today I had it for lunch.

Elvis Presley's Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich

2 slices of white bread
2 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter
1 small ripe banana mashed
2 tablespoons butter

Spread the peanut butter on one slice of bread and the mashed banana on the other. Press the slices gently together. Melt the butter (or to be truly Elvis-like, melt bacon fat!), over low heat in a small frying pan. Place the sandwich in the pan and fry until golden brown on both sides. Eat it with a glass of buttermilk.
Please note: Elvis tended to eat 12-15 sandwiches a sitting (Not sure I believe this!)

My notes:
I use my homemade bread.
I butter the grilling sides of the bread rather than melt butter in the pan.
I spread just one side of the bread, in this order: peanut butter, honey, and mashed banana. I don't measure, but I definitely don't use as much pb as he did, and I use just 1/2 banana.
This makes a very tasty and quick lunch that stays with you a long time.

A change is as good as a rest

Well, the past week I had both. It was Tom's April vacation. The weather was absolutely perfect. Warm, with a little breeze, and sunny every single day. We did a lot of outdoor stuff, got together with great friends, visited a museum and went on a house tour with a dear cousin. Tom walked the land with a forester in anticipation of some more logging work. Apparently the zillions of balsam firs we have are now very "bankable" and we can make a bit of money from them. We are going with a different logger this time; one who has a chipper because we would like to clear some paths of slash, so we can more easily walk through the woods. We bought a new cell phone, with one of those great "qwerty" boards that slides out from the main phone. I can take pictures and use my iTunes songs for ringtones.

What I didn't do much was read my books or blogs. I have missed a lot of your news, but I'll catch up this week. I did manage to jot a few things down here, but I still want to write about the museum and house tour.

So, today it is back to normal, which is very fine, too. Today's cd is playing on repeat all day, chickpeas are cooking in the crock pot for a hummus supper, the washer is humming away, I'm doing some cleaning, and the dogs are mostly sleeping, all tuckered out from their busy outdoor week.

Today's cd/Little Voice

Sara Bareilles
Little Voice
2007

For a while now, I've been hearing this terrific song, Love Song, on the radio but as so often happens, I haven't been in the car when it was announced who the singer was. And then I'd get busy and forget, until the next time I heard it. Early in April, I got an email from an old internet friend, Brenda, telling me about this artist she thought I might like. I was thrilled to find out this is the singer of that song! I bought the cd at iTunes, and I love it. She can be added to that list I wrote a while ago of new, young, fantastic singers. She has a great voice, and she writes wonderful songs. I think you'll like her.

Today's picture/Wanna know what I hate?

I took this photo last May of a tick who was full. Yuck! This year looks to be a very big tick year. So far, Tom and I have had like seven or eight on us. Yuck squared.

Quote du jour/Donovan

Sunshine came softly through my window today.
Donovan, Sunshine Superman

Garden Notes/Peas, first planting

Today I planted two 25-foot rows (two 1 ounce packets) of Green Arrow peas bought from High Mowing Seeds, in an E-W double row (bucking the traditional wisdom of N-S rows). The plan is to put in another two packets in ten days - Cinco de Mayo! - to prolong the eating time of wonderful fresh peas.

Cornmeal Muffins

Cornmeal Muffins
from Mrs. Appleyard's Kitchen by Louise Andrews Kent

This recipe makes the best corn muffins imaginable. And according to my blogging friend, Night Stranger, these are a 'northern' variety. I promise I'll make your southern recipe soon (sans sugar), but these are to be a gift and I wanted to use a tried and true recipe. When someone gives me food in their container, I like to return it with something homemade inside. Tonight we are going out to dinner with some friends, the same friends whose garden I wrote about last summer. That evening, we brought home some leftovers from our great supper with them, and tonight they'll get back their dish with corn muffins inside.

I don't even use the mixer for this recipe. It is very quick, both in the mixing and the baking. Only eight would fit in the dish, so Tom and I just had two each with glasses of milk out on the patio in the spring sunshine. It couldn't have been nicer.

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour (I use 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat pastry)
1/2 t. salt
4 t. baking powder
1/4 cup sugar

2 well-beaten eggs
1 cup milk
2 T. melted butter

Mix together and bake in greased muffin tins at 400º F. for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12.

Garden Notes/Daffs, squills, daylilies

The first daffodil bloomed today. I looked back a couple years and found the earliest blossoms were on May 5, so we are a little earlier this year. Tom tilled the garden on April 23, and yesterday, the 24th I put in a little row of shallots. The Siberian squill was the first flower to open here, maybe a week ago. I ordered it from Old House Gardens a few years back. If you have any interest in heirloom plants, this is a wonderful place to visit (and buy from!). I just ordered some dahlias from them prompted by reading a post on the Soliloquy blog.

Tom cut down the old maple we've always thought of as a sort of faux-maple. It was between the two big sugar maples, but it never grew. It has been pretty much the same height since we moved here in 1981. The reason we decided to cut it down is because when Tom built the patio, he had to move a bunch of orange daylilies. He planted them along our road, and without even planning to do so, he planted 55, the age he was that year. They haven't bloomed because of the shade from that little maple so we both thought, let's remove it. I'm eager to see a drift of that beautiful orange color as we drive into the yard.

Please feel free to leave a comment on the Garden Notes posts if you have thoughts on any of the plants mentioned.

Jan Karon article

The May-June issue of Victoria Magazine has a very nice article on Jan Karon. I was so, so delighted to read more about her, and to see some pictures. For a long time, there was just that standard photo one sees everywhere, and then lately there was one taken in her barn. Well, this piece shows not only a couple photos of her, but also of some of her books.

Quote du jour/Tamasin Day-Lewis

Other people are prepared to put so much effort into other areas of their lives. I mean, nobody says it's wrong to go out shopping for hours on end. People go to salons and have their bodies mucked about with and have their hair and nails done. But five or six nights a week, they come home and they don't want to cook when it takes only half an hour to make a good supper. It's actually quite a relaxing thing to do at night.
Tamasin Day-Lewis

Vegetables

I headed over to the co-op food store today, and came home with these wonderful colors. The tomatoes are from a regional greenhouse, but those peppers are from who-knows-where. Both are organic. I do love the notion of eating locally but if one lives where I do, there wouldn't be much food unless you had a big, big garden and a way of storing potatoes, etc. I'm doing my best, as I have for almost forty years, but it will never be perfect. The faraway foods I bought today are scallions, leeks, lettuce, olive oil, basil, bananas, garlic, and the peppers. The foods from much closer are those tomatoes, cheese, butter, apples, some bread for supper, and potatoes. Everything was organically grown. I was thrilled I could buy that much. The hundred-mile limit was probably broken but at least they are from the next state, and in the case of the potatoes, Quebec. Tonight we are having my variation of Gladys Taber's Leek Soup:

3 cups leeks cooked in 1 T. olive oil and 1 T. butter
4 cups chopped potatoes
5 cups water
a little salt

After the potatoes are soft, I put the soup through a food mill, and heat it again at a low temp.

Addendum May 4, 2009: Over this past winter, I've cut the amount of leeks down to maybe 1 1/2 cups. 3 cups seemed like too much. I even wonder if way back I used 3 leeks rather than 3 cups of leeks. Anyhow, we both like it better with less leeks. It still has great flavor but is not overpowering.

Addendum Two - March 31, 2010: I used just 1 T. butter instead of butter and olive oil. I also reduced the water to 4 cups to make a thicker soup.

The bread was toasted, and served with roasted garlic and roasted tomatoes.

Quote du jour/Julie Zickefoose

Grace visits often when you live deep in the country, but she seems to come around more than usual in April. I spend the month in a state of building ecstasy as one wonderful thing after another unfolds, each a fresh surprise yet old as time.
Julie Zickefoose, Letters from Eden

Today's picture/Powered Paraglider at sunset

Today's pictures/Origins

"Origins" sculpture by Mark di Suvero outside the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH.

Pasture Water

Tom is our guest commentator today, as he was here and here.

There are many signs of spring, but none as convincing as the pasture water coming back. Since the source of the water is just a shallow pool which catches the runoff from our spring, in late November or early December it freezes up for the winter. From then until now I haul water in buckets from the house. I don't really mind the chore; it's just part of the daily routine. But it is nice when the running water returns. The water comes into our old cast iron tub via plastic pipe laid on top of the ground. Every year when the snow melts I go up the hill and make any repairs needed, encouraging the water from the pool through the various sections of pipe and, finally, into the tub. The flow is strong and steady in April and May, and then settles down to a thinner stream during the drier months of the summer. The barn animals, as you might expect, welcome the event--the water is flowing and fresh all day. It's noisy and doesn't freeze up at night. But it is the chickens who seem to enjoy it the most. They gather "downstream" of the tub's overflow and linger even after they surely don't need any more drink. It must be the taste of fresh spring water.

Book Report/Living With Dogs

Living with Dogs
Text by Laurence Sheehan
Photographs by William Stites
nonfiction, 1999
finished, 4/18/08

Living with Dogs might be described as a 'coffee table book.' Well, yes, maybe. It is large, and it does feature many dog pictures, but it is really more than this. I found it enchanting, and filled with the love that people have for their canine friends. We see some 'doggy' collections such as figurines, paintings, mugs, etc. There is a dog camp where owners and their pups can go. There's a chapter on The Leash, a club in NYC for 'sportsmen and dog fanciers.' This may sound trivial but it was started in the 1920s by people who served as watchdogs - pardon the pun - over the American Kennel Club. Their goals were met, and then it became more of a place for dog lovers to get together. There is a whole chapter on herding dogs, and another on the late Brooke Astor, a great dog lover, who said: I don't like people who don't like dogs - I just don't. This is a woman who married a man when she was sixteen years old because he promised her all the dogs she wanted!

I loved this book, though I wouldn't recommend buying it until you borrow it from the library and see if it is a book you want in your collection. I probably won't buy it, but I sure did enjoy reading it and looking at all the great photographs of people who are just as wild about dogs as I am. A reader named April recommended this book to me when I wrote my annual Westminster Dog Show post back in February, and I thank you so very much.

Book Report/Forward From Here

Forward From Here
Leaving Middle Age – and Other Unexpected Adventures
by Reeve Lindbergh
nonfiction essays, 2008
finished 4/18/08

Whenever I read a book by Reeve Lindbergh, it is like visiting with a friend. It feels as if we are sitting outdoors on a warm spring day, just like this one, and she is telling me all her adventures since we last met. I didn't know she had a benign brain tumor a while back. I didn't know she does some of her writing in a library I love to visit. I like catching up with her kids; her two oldest danced with my daughter in The Nutcracker, when my girl was only five, and her son went to the same high school as my boy. No, we don't know one another, but we live in the same area, and experience the same weather. We share a bookstore and a local diner. But that's it, until I settle down with her books, and then I know we are friends. I am so calm in her company, and so interested. I loved reading about her chirping to a caged zebra finch (given to her when a daughter moved), and how she's still doing it when she is alone in the house, even though the bird is long gone.

It's just so hard for me not to chirp. For four years, I chirped three or four times a day or even more. I chirped every single time I walked through the living room, and I got an answering chirp in return. I liked this, and I miss it. For both of us it was a kind of acknowledgment. 'Hello, I'm still here, are you? Hello, and yes, I'm here, too.' Not just one voice gone from that conversation, but two, and I miss the sound of mine as much as I miss the other.

So she chirps. Don't you just love that?

I found out that she has a number thing, as I do. I remember phone numbers and birth dates, even of folks I barely know and never see. It just came up the other day as my husband and a fellow teacher and friend, were talking about another teacher whom they worked with in the 1980s. I piped up and told everyone that his birthday was the same as Abraham Lincoln's. I know. I know. In this book, Reeve tells us all her childhood phone numbers.

One number succeeded the other over the years, and all of them were secret, sacred, unforgettable. When you are taught to memorize your home phone number and never to reveal it except to close relatives and maybe the family doctor, you don't forget that number.

Of course the Lindberghs would not ever tell those numbers. I'm sure there were many, many safety precautions those children grew up with because the brother they never knew was kidnapped and killed before they were born. That changes how a family operates.

But after she tells us, her reader friends, she says:

These numbers are all meaningless now, but they still perch on the roost of memory with weighty importance. Seeing them on this page sends a ripple of guilt through me to this day. My parents are long dead, the houses we lived in have been sold or torn down, but I have revealed our secret numbers to the world, and still my Lindbergh training whispers to me, Oh, boy, are you going to get in trouble!

And how many writers include at the end a reading list? These are the books I was reading or thinking about while I was writing this book. I wish every writer would do it.

As with all friends, there are some subjects we agree on and others we don't. She refers to her sheep as dumb, and she eats them. I believe sheep are intelligent (bucking traditional wisdom), and I haven't eaten one in 37 years. But oh, we are simpatico about dogs. Tom and I aren't the kind of people whose kids left home, and then we substituted dogs. We had dogs nine years before kids, other dogs all during the time our kids lived here, and now we have two who arrived after the kids moved out. We've always, always been dog lovers. We treat them like people. We try not to be away for long. I buy them really good dog food. They don't sit on the furniture, and they don't sleep upstairs, but the latter is only because Sadie can't climb up. It seems that Reeve and her husband feel the same way.

The dog has her own sofa now. Why not? Nobody else is using it. Lately she has been known to creep up onto other pieces of furniture as well: one really comfortable armchair, and our bed. I don't know how that happened. ... How did we end up with a full-sized Labrador retriever sleeping at, and on, our feet?

This book is full of serious, funny, and sad essays about life, and about growing older in this life. At a little beyond sixty, she writes:

So far, though, I just seem to continue being me, the same person I was at twelve and at fifty.

I'm so happy to have a new Reeve Lindbergh book to add to my shelf. She is one of my favorite writers of this time, and all time. If you didn't happen to read yesterday's entry, you may find a great article on her here.

At this moment

What I saw: my water glass and my Reeve Lindbergh book. The chickadees, juncos, and nuthatches finishing up the last of the bird food. When they're empty, I'll take down the sunflower and suet feeders, but will leave the thistle. We did that last year, and I think it kept the goldfinches living here all summer. The reason we remove the other feeders this time of year is that the bears are waking up, and they do love to raid bird feeders. We've not had any visitors, but I sure don't want to draw them either. They are definitely in the neighborhood.

What I heard: those aforementioned birds, and the chickens clucking away in the barn.

What I smelled: the fresh air of spring.

What I tasted: my water.

What I felt: the warmth of the air - our warmest day so far, with temps in the low seventies.

I so enjoyed your comments last time I posted an 'at this moment', and I would love to read your own. It is a nice way to stop and really pay attention.

Addendum: A reader has just let me know that there is a wonderful article, with terrific pictures, on Reeve Lindbergh in today's New York Times. You may read it here.

Book Report/The Abracadabra Kid

The Abracadabra Kid
A Writer's Life
by Sid Fleischman
unabridged audio read by Nelson Runger
autobiography, 1996
finished 4/17/08

Even if you've never read any of Fleischman's children's books, this is a most enjoyable story of his life. It is the story of America, as well, during the Great Depression, the Second World War, and beyond. He has led a fascinating life as a magician, a soldier, a husband and parent, and a writer. He has a way with words that drew me right into the book, and again, I stayed up way too late two nights in a row caught up in the man's story. Although I haven't read his books, I still enjoyed hearing how he got his inspirations, and about the actual process of writing. He is very prolific, and along with the children's books, he has written screenplays over the years. His son, Paul is also a children's author, and together, they are the only father and son to have won the Newbery Award. Each chapter of the autobiography begins with a delightful snippet from kids' letters to him.

I don't like your stories. You use those weird words.

I despise reading, but The Whipping Boy is a book I could not stop reading.

Here's my phone number, but please don't call collect.

I suppose you want to know all about me, so heregoes.

Why are there so many words?

I was captivated by the humor, the description, and the very details of this man's long, good life. As far as I could find out, he is still living, at 88 years old.

Quote du jour/Mark Twain

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug.
Mark Twain

A poetry reading in lieu of Today's Poem

You may hear Maxine Kumin reading some of her poems here.

Crying in my soup :<)

A song, and a poem express pretty well what I am feeling today.

The song first, the Barenaked Ladies' "If I had $1,000,000". Then Browning's poem, "Oh, to be in England, now that April's there."

If you read Elaine's comment on the preceding post today, you'll know why. The Importance of Being Earnest is on stage at the Vaudeville Theatre in London. This is good enough in itself, but with Penelope Keith, Janet Henfrey ("our" Mrs Bale), and Lol, also from As Time Goes By, appearing, I could just cry that I can't be there.

Quote du jour/Mrs Bale

I was born punctually and saw no reason to be anything else for the rest of my life.
Mrs Bale, As Time Goes By

Book Passage/Life Is Meals

From an entry called Manners in:

Life Is Meals
A Food Lover's Book Of Days
by James and Kay Salter

The true mark of courtesy is for the host or hostess to casually commit the same mistake as the guest to show that it is perfectly all right. The opposite of this once took place at the White House after lunch when President Calvin Coolidge, a taciturn man, put some milk into his coffee and slowly poured it into his saucer. His guest politely imitated him. Then Coolidge reached down and put the saucer on the floor for his cat.

Mrs Bale's mid-April weather report

Mrs Bale prefers to avert her eyes from the window this Sunday afternoon, so she doesn't see this.

Or see this information on the computer:

36º, feels like 28º, light snow shower, 10 mph wind from the WNW, 64% humidity, and 7 miles visibility.

Quote du jour/Peter Gzowski

We need spring. We need it desperately and, usually, we need it before God is willing to give it to us.
Peter Gzowski (1934-2002)

At this moment

I realized I haven't done an "at this moment" for a while so here goes, at 7:30 pm on a Thursday evening.

What I saw: sunset. I was sitting on the porch, and it actually wasn't as dark as the picture.

What I heard: glorious robins and song sparrows.

What I smelled: spring in the air, and a hint of wood smoke because yes, indeed, we are still using the woodstove.

What I tasted: my cosmo. :<)

What I felt: a cool breeze.

Today's picture/Under the wire(s)

Quote du jour/Jean and Lionel

Jean: Why are you reading Winnie-the-Pooh?
Lionel: I went to the library today.
Jean: You didn't tell me you went to the children's library.
Lionel: No, I got some other books as well. I've got more time for reading now so I thought I'd catch up on all the books I think I've read but actually haven't: Grapes of Wrath, Mill on the Floss, and Moby Dick.
Jean: Winnie-the-Pooh.
Lionel: Yeah.
Jean: Don't you think you're a bit old for that?
Lionel: I wouldn't like to think so.

Jean proceeds to read to Lionel from Winnie-the-Pooh and then says: Yes, you're right. Nobody's too old to read that. Can I read it when you're finished?

Today's poem - The Wash by James Hayford

The Wash
by James Hayford

Already on the line
Sunning and well astir,
The wash'll be dry by nine
Or earlier.

The catbird in the bush
Is helping things along;
He gives the air a push
With his mad song.


You may find two other Hayford poems I have featured here and here.

I've just begun hanging clothes again, and though there isn't a catbird, the song sparrow who returned this week is doing a wonderful job of giving "the air a push." Isn't that the best image?!

What is it?

This is on the base of our outdoor table, and I wonder if anyone knows what it might be. It seems like an egg collection, but I've never seen anything like it.

Spring has sprung

Lacking flowers, I shall show you signs of the arrival of spring at Windy Poplars. Yesterday, we set out the outdoor furniture.

The page 123 book meme

Kat tagged me for the page 123 book meme. This was fun because in Living With Dogs it is a double page photo of dog bowls. I won't tag anyone but click on her name for the rules if you want to participate.

Today's picture/Mealtime in the barn

Quote du jour/Lionel

Little by little, I am learning the art of being quite content with doing very little, slowly.
Lionel on As Time Goes By