Closed for the Winter...

This cottage is out on Biddeford Pool. I don't know how many year-round residents there are, but it isn't very many. Most of the houses are closed up. This is one of my favorites because of:

• The natural shingles weathered to a blend-in-with-an-overcast-sky gray
• The tide-rounded stones
• The way the moss/lichen on the stones contrasts with the bright aqua trim of the screen door
• The granite lintel.

But something has to be left to God...

ice amid the rock

I googled: "poetry cold".

Should it surprise me that the first poem I found was by "Frost" himself?

I had not read this one before, but I like it...

Good-bye, and Keep Cold

By Robert Frost 1874–1963

This saying good-bye on the edge of the dark
And cold to an orchard so young in the bark
Reminds me of all that can happen to harm
An orchard away at the end of the farm
All winter, cut off by a hill from the house.
I don't want it girdled by rabbit and mouse,
I don't want it dreamily nibbled for browse
By deer, and I don't want it budded by grouse.
(If certain it wouldn't be idle to call
I'd summon grouse, rabbit, and deer to the wall
And warn them away with a stick for a gun.)
I don't want it stirred by the heat of the sun.
(We made it secure against being, I hope,
By setting it out on a northerly slope.)
No orchard's the worse for the wintriest storm;
But one thing about it, it mustn't get warm.
"How often already you've had to be told,
Keep cold, young orchard. Good-bye and keep cold.
Dread fifty above more than fifty below."
I have to be gone for a season or so.
My business awhile is with different trees,
Less carefully nourished, less fruitful than these,
And such as is done to their wood with an axe—
Maples and birches and tamaracks.
I wish I could promise to lie in the night
And think of an orchard's arboreal plight
When slowly (and nobody comes with a light)
Its heart sinks lower under the sod.
But something has to be left to God.

*****************************************

My mind pops and crackles with the metaphors this orchard represents for me.

How I can't protect my children

(yes, still children to me, although the 20-year-old might pause...)

from the threats to well-being they face when I am not around.

How we have taken care to choose the right exposure.

How we want to gather those who might harm them and give them fair warning.

And then being brought up short: "But something has to be left to God." !

After all...

In the end...

When it comes right down to it.....................

>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<

But my original purpose was to portray the cold as a hostile element, one to be eluded, not one entrusted to protect, preserve, and even prepare.

(The irony of thinking that way after having just posted an ice cream cake, for whom room temperature is the enemy, does not escape me.)

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>

But for me, the cold is, well...cold.

But I know the antidote: warmth

Like Split Pea & Ham Soup

Like a Love Story

Like homemade Corn Muffins

Maybe this meal is a love story.

I know it's a prayer.

Pretty as a Birthday Cake

I had a friend who once said to me "You look like a birthday cake!". I didn't understand, and she explained that it was her mother's expression. When someone looked especially pastel and pretty, she likened their appearance to that of a birthday cake.

I have never forgotten what I was wearing: a soft pink cotton sweater (with a hand-crocheted lacy collar) over a creamy linen pleated skirt with beige/nude pumps.

Today, we finally got Winter. It snowed most of the day and all of outdoors looks like a giant white birthday cake. Maybe like this one.

We have 2 January birthdays. Sean came on New Year's Day 15 years ago, and this was his birthday cake this year. It was my first attempt at making an ice cream cake. (Heck, it was the first cake I'd made in many months, possibly stretching to years!)

I'll be trying again this weekend. Evan turned 18 yesterday, and while we marked the actual day with lemon cupcakes I whipped up from a box mix, I am planning another whack at the ice cream cake this weekend.

I Resolve

...To seek truth, wisdom and beauty...

"Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;

you teach me wisdom in the inmost place." NIV Psalm 51:6

"Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." NIV John 8:32

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair, and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." NIV 1 Peter 3:3, 4

"My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair -- every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." NIV Proverbs 2:1-10

....To love...

"Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." NIV Matthew 22:37-40

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." NIV 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

...To pray...

"...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." NIV 2 Chronicles 7:14

...To serve...

"...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." NIV Joshua 24:15b

...To rejoice...

"Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." NIV 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Baked Beans

I wasn't looking for it specifically...it was on a dusty shelf over a workbench in the garage at my father's house. But there it was, the beanpot I wrote about last spring.
So, I had to make beans.

I followed the recipe in Marjorie Standish's cookbook, but I remember my grandmother putting an onion in the pot. I scored an "X" in the bottom like she did. And I studded it with cloves, because it was New Year's Day and because I was topping my beans with leftover ham instead of bacon or salt pork.

I also used Yelloweye beans instead of navy pea beans like Grammie did, because those have gotten hard to find.

I read once that beans were dinner for many a working family in Olde Boston. Cooking fuel was precious, and you could get your beans ready in the morning and take them to a public oven on your way to work, then pick them up, ready-to-eat on your way home. It's also one of the many old New England recipes to take advantage of the readily-available molasses.

I like cooking them at home, as it cozies up a cold day. It also provides a great warm stovetop for bread-baking days. Maybe I'll try making brown bread next.

Cranberries

I've been walking at lunchtime. We've had a mild season of fall tumbling into winter. So the cranberries growing wild on the roadside weren't ruined and mushy from frost.
I filled my gloves with them and brought them home.

What a fun discovery! How could I have missed them before, so bright and cheery?

As Alice Walker wrote in "The Color Purple", something to the effect of color in nature being one way God uses to get our attention and show us his love. Well, it's working on me -- I get a little thrill deep in my heart when I drink in this lovely color, don't you?

The last time that little wooden spoon looked so pristine.

Boil in half as much water. I had only 1.5 cups of berries, so this is 3/4 c. water. You can hear them pop. 10 minutes is good.

I don't have a food mill - yet, but this sieve worked fine.

Back to the stovetop to boil and stir with 3/4 c. sugar, about 5 min. Then chill and serve. If you have more berries (4 cups, say), you can use a mold.

The pulp stained the spoon. And I'm glad.

There it is: Jellied Cranberry Sauce.

It's risky making homemade. Takes time and makes a mess, and spoils you for store-brought.

My recipe is from the cookbook on the right.

These cookbooks are used a lot in my family. I think they are a little hard to find now, (maybe out of print? What was it you told me, Diane?) And someone "from away" has had the gall to assume the legacy and "revise" and re-publish. Rubbish.

Beginning the New Year

I have so many things I want to post about, and I have been taking pictures, mainly of my exploits in the kitchen. But I can't seem to upload my pictures. Blogger just freezes when I try.

So, I'm going to work on that problem in the background, and I'll just post on other things I have on my mind.

I recently ran across a blog called "Pleasant View Schoolhouse". I have, over the course of a few days, read every post in her archive. Anna gave me a new perspective. As amazing and accomplished as she is, what I have taken away is the inspiration to just live. Live, however imperfectly. Over the years, I have overly complicated my life, and really bogged myself down. I have been heavily influenced by Martha (Stewart), and not so much by Marla (Cilley, FLYLady). Since I have a tendency to focus on details (minutiae, really), I am easily swept up attending to inconsequential matters, while letting important things go neglected. Over time, I have become overwhelmed and discouraged and ultimately ineffectual. In the last several months, I have been making some changes in how I approach my days and my duties. Really, I feel like I have been coming out of a sort of a coma - a minimally functional coma. Oh, recovery is good.