Quitting challenges

I withdrew from both these challenges. I've written to the women who created them to let them know. I've found my life to be a bit busier than I expected when I signed up, plus some long-awaited books have come in at the library and I want to read them.

Today's cd/Back On Top

Van Morrison/Back On Top/1999

Tom chose this for today's cd, and I couldn't be more pleased. Everytime I hear a Van Morrison album, I say, oh, this is one of my favorites. But honestly, this one really is. :<) It contains one of his saddest love songs, Reminds Me Of You, with the chorus:
Sometimes I'm knocking, on your front door
But I don't have nothing, to sell no more

And a lovely one called When The Leaves Come Falling Down which talks about as I'm looking at the colour of the leaves, in your hand as we're listening to Chet Baker on the beach, in the sand.

Two great websites where you can learn more about Van the Man: his official site and one of the best fan sites you'll find on the internet.

And you might want to visit the excellent blog I have listed on my sidebar, Van Morrison News.

Quote du jour/Sir Harold Nicolson

Only one person in a thousand is a bore and he is interesting because he is one person in a thousand.
Sir Harold Nicolson

Quote du jour/Alex Levine

Only Irish Coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food
groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat.
Alex Levine - Irish actor and musician

Daffy-Down-Dilly

Daffy-down-dilly
Has come to town
In a yellow petticoat
And a pretty green gown.

Cynthia's Banana Bread

This is one of my favorite cookbooks. It has passages from the Mitford books, followed by a recipe for the food mentioned. The note on this banana bread comes from A New Song. The bread is quite wonderful, with a nice hint of lemon.


Cynthia's Banana Bread

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup softened butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 large bananas, mashed with a fork
2 Tablespoons lemon zest, I used zest of one lemon
2 cups flour, I used 1 cup white, 1 cup whole wheat pastry
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350º. Grease a 9 x 13 pan.

Place sugar and butter in the mixer, and cream until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs.
Add yogurt, lemon juice, bananas, and lemon zest.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Turn down mixer and add dry ingredients.

Add chopped nuts.

Pour into pan, smooth the top, and bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then invert onto the rack to cool completely.

Quote du jour/Adlai Stevenson

Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation.
Adlai Stevenson

Mrs Bale cries, oh, no, not snow

Yes, it is snowing. Lightly, but still. What a week this has been. Is anyone else having trouble with the time change? I've been out of sync since Sunday. I'm eating supper too late, staying up too late, hating to get out of bed in the morning, and dragging through the days. It just isn't right to mess with time like this. There was a comic piece on Letterman the other night and the guy was running for President, saying, "Are you sick of the government telling you when to change your clocks!" Well, I sure am. Plus, after days and days of bright sunshine, it has been cloudy all the time. The upside is we've had some nice warm temperatures, along with melt and mud. Mrs Bale and I want to see some color like this



and this

Today's cd/Last First Kiss

Tony DeSare/Last First Kiss/2007

This is the second cd by a wonderful young singer. It opens with a great surprise, Prince's, Kiss. In the hands of Tony DeSare it's a perfect jazzy romantic tune. His choices are just right, from old standards like, They Can't Take That Away From Me to Carole King's, I Feel The Earth Move. The album also features some of DeSare's own writings which I love. Lots of information and song clips on his website.

You may listen to an interview with him on National Public Radio. A great talent!

Today's cd/So Much More

Brett Dennen/So Much More/2006

Perhaps you've seen the Rolling Stone quote about Brett Dennen:

He's timeless, he's probably twenty-five, but he seems like he's twenty-five in 1972.

I read the quote before hearing him, and of course it piqued my interest because I was twenty-five the next year. I wondered about him and looked forward to hearing him. Then one day on the radio, this most amazing song was playing called Darlin' Do Not Fear. I stopped in my tracks and listened very carefully. I've heard it over and over since, but still find it fresh and important. Well, now I own the cd and what an artist this young man is! Unique voice, but more importantly a unique slant on life. I love every song. You may visit his website and his myspace.

In gratitude

Look at that little thing. It's available in gold or silver. I think I'm more a silver kinda girl, so I chose this one. Now, you might ask, what is it? Why is it there? Well, yesterday, I was astounded to find that my blog was chosen for a Thinking Blogger Award. Les' words brought tears to my eyes and warmth to my heart and a lilt to my step. I feel so honored. And I am so grateful. I am grateful that my blog means so much to her, and I am grateful to the bloggers I read who add so much to my own life.

It seems that I must choose five blogs which I haven't seen chosen before. That is the only reason Karen's and Les' blogs are not on my list. But since I can't choose them, I'll at least say that they are the two I always visit, the two I need in my daily life. Les, because, well, because she is Les. My husband calls her my little sister. We think the same thoughts, we share a common soul. And Karen, because of her kind and gentle spirit, along with a whimsical sense of humo(u)r that pervades her blog.

Here is what it says at the original meme.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).


The rules may be simple, but choosing just five blogs which make me think is not at all simple. I'm having to leave out some blogs that I have recently found and truly love and enjoy because I can't list more than five.

I'm listing them in alphabetical order by blog title except for the first two.

Dear Rachel
This is a blog I rarely read. I can't bear it, though I almost make myself visit because I want so badly to help this man in his grief and deep sorrow. Sometimes I can't read it because it is so very personal that I feel like I'm imposing on his life, but then I think he wouldn't write it on a blog if he minded someone reading.

Stop All The Clocks
This is a blog written by Les about the same young woman in the Dear Rachel blog. Again, I rarely read it, but I think it is so very important. I'm sure that both these blogs are of great benefit to those who have lost a child. Here is a place to go with that grief, that worst of life's tragedies. Here are two people who will understand, who are at the same place. They are both very, very difficult blogs to read for those of us who have children, especially daughters near to the age Rachel was when she died. We do not want to think of the horror that could come to us as well. Thoughts of our own deaths are as nothing compared to the late night worries and fears about our children.

Keep The Coffee Coming
I love this blog. It's the only "music" blog I visit. Every day there is a song. Mostly folk music, but often pop songs from my teen years. We are of an age, Kat and I, and she writes about my past and the music I know when she writes about her own. She offers incredibly evocative black and white photos which I look at so carefully.

Maude & Mozart
Laura may well be the cheeriest soul I've ever known in "real" life or online. Her joie de vivre literally leaps off the page. When I need a smile, I pop over to her blog. Her enthusiasm is a rarity; something we need more in this world. She is kind and giving to her friends and to perfect strangers.

The Quiet Country House
I have known the woman who writes this blog for a lot of years. Her writings are thoughtful and friendly, filled with love for her family and her home and her life. She inspires me to slow down, to quiet myself and look around with fresh eyes. Her blog is a soothing balm in busy, noisy world.

My other inbox

This is the mailbox that was here when we bought the house in 1981. We have no idea how long it had been in use before we arrived. We've painted it a couple times, but it fades and chips pretty quickly. It doesn't close quite all the way. It leaks when it rains too hard. But it is an old friend and we can't bring ourselves to part with it for a new updated model.

Mrs Bale reports on the fifth season

"Mud, mud, glorious mud." Between winter and spring, we have a truly lovely time called mud season. I could barely get up our dirt road today. I had to put on my Wellies just to unload the groceries from the car.



Footprints



Looking up to the house

Tools of the trade/Coffee

Upsidedown Berry Crostada

I recently saw Giada De Laurentiis make this on her Everyday Italian show, and knew immediately that I had to try it. Well, today was the day and it turned out wonderfully. She suggested serving it with a marscapone cheese, cream, and honey topping, but I didn't have the cheese or cream, so ate it plain, and it is still a fantastic dessert. My notes follow her recipe.

Upsidedown Berry Crostada

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons ice water

5 cups frozen mixed berries, thawed (about 30 ounces)
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

2/3 cup mascarpone cheese
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons honey

To make the crust, combine the flour, sugar, lemon zest, and salt in a food processor and pulse to blend.
Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
Add the ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until moist clumps form.
Gather the dough into a ball then flatten into a disk.
Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Stir together the berries, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch in a 10-inch diameter round baking dish.
Roll out the crust to a 14-inch diameter circle.
Place the crust over the berries in the baking dish.
Fold the crust over itself until it fits just inside the baking dish.
Cut a 2-inch slit in the center of the dough.
Bake until the crust is golden and the berries are bubbly, about 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, whip together the mascarpone, heavy cream, and honey.
Cover and reserve in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
To serve, scoop out the crostada into serving dishes and top with the whipped mascarpone.

My notes:

I used part white flour and part whole wheat pastry, regular table salt, salted butter.
Instead of a 10-inch baking dish, I used a 9 x 13 pan. And I baked it at 375º.

Today's cd/Sophie Milman

Sophie Milman/2004

A wonderful cd by a new young artist. You may read more and see videos here.

You may buy the cd here.

Freesias

Freesias are not a flower I knew in my childhood. I first heard of them in the 1970s when I began reading the books by Derek Tangye about the life he and his wife lived in Cornwall, growing flowers.

I loved these books, and their way of life so much that when we were on our honeymoon, we went to visit, walking through fields of gorse with lovely ocean views. We met Derek on the way, and he asked if we had seen any donkeys. We said we hadn't, but that we had just gotten married, and were coming to see him and his wife, Jeannie. They were so welcoming, as if we were long-awaited friends. Their home was truly an enchanted place. It was beautiful beyond words. They were so in love, and were living the life we, too, wanted to live. Rural, quiet, lovely, with animals and gardens. We have pretty much been living that life ourselves ever since.

A Sunday walk in the woods

With the temps in the mid-thirties (above zero!), finally we could take a walk up the road into the woods. The first interesting sight was this tree. The man who is logging here told us a porcupine has eaten all this bark.



More logs at the landing.



New growth where logging was done fifteen years ago.



One of the many springs on the hill.



Doggedly walking home.



Posing for the camera.

Quote du jour/Gladys Taber

I do wish the government would have one time all year and keep it.
Gladys Taber, Country Chronicle

March snow

Not exactly what the lyricists of those songs we hear in December were talking about.

We're riding along in a wonderland of snow

We're gliding along with the song of a wint'ry fairyland

In the lane, snow is glist'ning