My life on a dresser

I'm taking an online class for which this week's assignment is a self portrait, and I was going to think about this project for a bit before doing anything with it, but as I was getting ready to go to bed last night I just started shooting into the mirror. When I looked at the images I was surprised to discover that the top of my dresser currently holds a flashback of my life: a photo of my father, one of me with my mother, another with a former boyfriend, a crucifix, items of my mother's, jewelry my father made, jewelry I made, jewelry of my mother's, wedding bands, broken bits of jewelry I keep saying I am going to repair, essential oils, a bracelet made by Alisa Burke, and on the wall a painting by another former boyfriend. The only things missing are photos of my dogs. It was a strange realization.

Before going to bed last night, and oh how I love setting those clocks back, I decided what I could do with the rest of the amaranth I made yesterday.

It gels, sort of like cold oatmeal, so I heated it up in the microwave with some rice milk, added defrosted mixed berries, walnut pieces and maple syrup and had it for breakfast.

Delicious and satisfying.

I'm still going to look up some recipes for it, just not today. I have a long list of things I would like to get done, but if I can't get to them I will remember the poem I read here on Judy Wise's blog.

It's another beautiful day in San Francisco, and one of the top items on my list is to clean up my messy plot at the Argonne Community Garden.

Have a great Sunday!

A Spectacular Day from Start to Finish

The day started out sort of gray, but as soon as the sun came out I took Eden and we went to Golden Gate Park.

Everything was absolutely shining, and I had decided to take my new iPod nano with me instead of my camera, because it weighs nothing and takes videos. I regretted this about 50 times because this tiny gadget does take videos, but I have an awful time using it for a couple of reasons. One of the problems is that I have Eden yanking my arm whenever she sees a squirrel - no off leash today because the street was not closed to cars - and the other is that this video-taking iPod Nano has the controls and the lens/microphone on the same end, but on opposite sides, so 1) it's very difficult to keep your fingers out of the image and 2) it's hell trying to stop the recording without making everything jerk around. After several attempts, this is the best one I got. Maybe I need to learn how to use iMovie to edit...
By the way, I don't know where the southern accent is coming from and that is NOT a burp! I am throwing my head back to look up into the Eucalyptus trees. Really.


I've taken a couple of online classes from Mary Ann Moss, who writes Dispatch from LA, and what she actually says is "I like it. I like it a lot". Love her and her blog.
Anyway, I went back home, but it was so beautiful out that I grabbed my camera and went back out, this time without Eden. It was sort of lonely without her, but it was also more carefree and easy. I got to photograph a squirrel, something Eden would never let me do.


I got close to the ground and enjoyed the view from down there.


I photographed someone else's black dog running with abandon.

Next it was time to get some candy and help out at the Argonne Community Garden where I am a member, although you wouldn't know it from my plot which is currently completely overrun with Rugola/Rucola/Arugola/Rocket. It's still edible, but it doesn't make me look like a good gardener. But first, since I couldn't find my pink cat ears, I put a little black pencil on my face. Scary enough for ya?

Rugola gone wild.

The president of the garden and his wife went to a lot of trouble to decorate the garden for Halloween and greet the neighborhood children. They put up luminaria all the way from one end to the other, lit up the greenhouse and made it red, with scary sounds coming out of it.

And even put on a costume

.

Which did not scare his wife much..

When it got dark I walked home and tried not to be toooooo scared. What a day, and I'm not going to let Blogger ruin it!

Amaranth is so cute.

(click on photo to enlarge it)

I decided to cook up some Amaranth that I had purchased, for reasons I can't remember, and even though I do not like its smell while it is cooking, and I find the taste strangely "smoky", I must say that I was smitten by its cuteness.

Particularly when it's sitting in a spot of sunlight on the kitchen counter.

I just looked up Amaranth on Wikipedia and discovered that in its wild form it is Pigweed. The whole story of Amaranth is pretty fascinating. I will have to find some interesting recipes for it, perhaps like the Mexican one the article mentions, where it is popped and mixed with honey. Not something I want to try, however, without precise instructions!

In the meanwhile I am stirring it to some soup I made yesterday with fresh chopped cabbage, carrots, a bag of frozen shitake mushrooms, chopped garlic, chopped fresh ginger, all cooked in filtered water with a bit of sea salt. To make it more flavorful and even more nutritious, just before serving it I add in some organic yellow brown rice Miso paste and, once it's in the bowl, a tablespoon of that fresh cultured Live Salsa I'm loving so much.

I've felt a resurfacing of the cooking urge lately. In fact I recently bought Super Natural Cooking by  Heidi Swanson, local author and the creator of the excellent online recipe journal 101 Cookbooks. Maybe I should look in there, I bet I'll find something with Amaranth. Do you have a favorite way to use it?

40th Anniversary of Woodstock - Part 2

I'm stubborn, so I refuse to let Blogger get the best of me and I am going to continue my previous post where I left off, in the hopes of having better luck this time with the spacing issue.

 Fashion

Great body, but maybe wrong party?

5' x 4' sculpture

Teepees

Tie-dyed backdrops

A magnificent tree that has seen it all many times over

Something this little girl really wants

Statements

There was one naked man, but it wasn't this one. It would have been better if it had been.

Believe me.

I held up for 3 hours. By the time I left, at 1:30 p.m., the crowds had grown, the sun was high, and I was craving cool air and quiet.

Ahhhhh.

40th Anniversary of Woodstock

I spent three hours today at the 40th anniversary of Woodstock in Golden Gate Park, and I survived. I survived the inhalation of three kinds of smoke: copious Marihuana, sage smudge sticks, and, worst of all, billowing clouds from the burning flesh of chickens and pigs coming out of the food vendors' stands. I'm not a vegetarian, because I do eat fish, but egads, that smell was bad and I could not find a thing to eat. All I really wanted was a beer, but there was no alcohol for sale. It seemed like all they were selling was water, so maybe I missed a whole section, which seems unlikely since I walked back and forth from one stage to the other under the blue skies and energizing sunshine, at least four times.

When I got there at 10:30 the crowds were still sparse but very colorful and already joyous.

There were even entrepreneurs in the mix.

It was really too hot for dogs, but there were many, some enjoying it more than others.

Good boy, human and dog

What I enjoyed the most were the colors, particularly on several buses.

Blogger s making me crazy...just saying. I am going to end here before I lose the entire

post.

 

I'm loving this stuff

(click on any photo to enlarge it)

Yes, it's purple, because it has cabbage in it. Sort of a salsa/sauerkraut. I love it but I can eat only one heaping tablespoon at a time, because, well because it's like sauerkraut.

So this morning I sauteed some potatoes with turmeric in butter and olive oil, scrambled two eggs, put a little ketchup on the potatoes, with the Live Salsa on the side, and savored every delicious bite.

Instead of coffee I had a cup of Matcha, something I just started yesterday. It's supposed to be very good for you. Friends say so, Dr. Weil says so. Amen.

It's expensive, but if you actually get 75 cups out this, as the label says, then it comes to about 24 cents a cup, which I think is very reasonable. The orange thing is a squash.

A squash that looks like a bird.

I've but him in his nest for the night.