210412 Mumma's Busy Day
Apr. 12
The sky is turning pink along the south hills. (I was up today before the dawn.) A Ruffed Grouse is drumming on the ridge. Sounds like a gas generator starting up. And a woodpecker is knocking. A skein of geese went over, honking.
I seemed to have a lot to do yesterday. My father, after he retired, used to say he didn't know how he found time to go to the office! I did some laundry, loving the laundry butter *, which gets the clothes clean with very little suds. Of course the dirt is cleaner, no pollution or city dirt. No dryer, so softener, just pure water and sunshine and clean air for drying.
Each week I cook a batch of beans. Yesterday it was two pounds of chickpeas, soaked overnight then cooked for one hour. They are still a bit firm, but if you cook them another ten minutes, they start to lose their exquisite flavour, nutty, with butternut squash notes, tasting pinky-gold. I reserve some of the broth and freeze it in small amounts for soup and for adding to recipes. Froze two batches of peas, kept a third batch in the fridge for a curry, and with the rest I made falafels. Mashed by hand with my small-gauge masher, the mixture is coarse but works very well, if a bit crumbly. Because I am not using a food processer, I poached the garlic cloves in some chickpea broth so I could mash them for the falafel and the tahini sauce. I am taking a "no-cooking-oil" challenge this week, so the falafel was "fried" in a dry non-stick pan. (A "Rock" brand skillet that I got second-hand: when do I ever buy something new?) The little cakes browned nicely! I rinsed the pan free of crumbs between batches. Falafels is an easy meal: prepare the lettuce, onions (always the red ones for the antioxidants), and drained canned tomatoes, because they are always in the cupboard and don't need to be bought with time-sensitivity, like fresh. Cucumber is nice too, if you plan in advance and purchase some. Then mix up the tahini sauce - few ingredients, always in the pantry, and fry the falafel patties and you're done. (Hm... soak and cook the chickpeas, mash them, mix the falafel dough, then all the rest - easy? ... yes, because it doesn't all happen in one go, but is spread out through the day.) We like the falafels stuffed into a 1/2 pita with the veg, but they are nice as a salad topper too. Tried a new method for shaping the falafel, pressed it flat, like biscuit dough and cut it into squares. It held together about as well as my hand-shaped patties (less messy!), so, successful on the whole.
I love to see the dinner all set out.
*****
Fig is a like a baby now, needs to be fed several times a day, and likes to be near me all the time, unless he's sleeping. Murmurs at me all day, like a needy toddler, follows me about, when I go out to see the day, to watch the birds, when I am working in the kitchen. If he hears the car keys, he's at the door making sure I don't leave him behind! He is so thin and frail-looking, weighing half what he used to, but he continues to run outside to see Blackie and bring me his toy to play fetch. He likes to come out and see the day with me: he goes exploring around the lawn smelling everything and barks at his own echo until I tell him to hush! Here he is in the sun, and playing fetch with his toy dog, and with me, of course.
I cleaned up the ground in front of the woodshed (wood debris) and broke up some small branches for kindling, brought them in to the woodpile by the stove. Walked around the lawn and apron looking for what is beginning to grow. Took Fig down the road past the vineyard and found a pussywillow! It was already turned into catkins. I must remember it if we are here next spring! I'll put it in my calendar for mid-March, 2022. The daffs are out by the apron and there is a clump in front of the chicken house!
K and I went for a walk in the morning, down to see the "not-a-pond-anymore" at the bottom of the meadow and then up through the woods to the second meadow, past the ridge pond and home.
Here is the not-a-pond. That rock used to be under water, and the raft to the left was floating. I hope we can figure out how to restore it. Below are frogs eggs in the swamp at the bottom of the "pond". The little black thing in the next picture is a salamander swimming along under the water!
The trout lily leaves are up. Telltale purple spots. This little flower is a Carolina spring beauty.
Here are a couple of orange coltsfoot like I have seen in Ontario. This green thing looks exciting, but I've no idea what it is, yet!
The temperature climbed to 20 degrees and the sun was hot on the porch. I spent a lot of time watching the birds and the distant hills while Fig lay in the sun.
I begin to feel like I have always been Mumma Yaga! Somewhere inside me she has been growing, learning, but there has always been the busyness of being a mother, a daughter, grandmother, wife, working at all the small jobs a woman, a person, does, pasted over with the emotional stress of it all, sometimes the struggle of depression, always the clutter of daily life. Here I feel free of the clutter, matured into my new skin, in my element suddenly, and with the knowledge and competence to be who I am. I am very happy. Last evening I practiced some guitar, playing along with some songs in my library. What a nice way to end the day.
Can you see the pink in the tree tops among the evergreens? The trees are budding; some are flowering before their leaves come out.
* Laundry butter, from Produits D'Ici, in Knowlton
A beautiful read to end the day! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLove the sound of this laundry butter.
Would love to hear you play guitar again some day!