Blipfoto newbie

Well, what's (almost, excluding the obvious) the most fun you can have on a cold winter day?  Creating a blipfoto journal!  See it here (blipfoto home).  You can see MY journal at Life Naturally.  Will be adding a quick access gadget soon as the tech work is done by my computer-whiz friend, Lenna.  Will the wonders of the internet never cease??

Heard an interesting NPR story yesterday about the advances in technology just since 2000.  Several young people were interviewed - 20-somethings who were just 10+ in 2000.  Young people who have nooooo memory of life before tiny cell phones, life when AOL was king, and who remembers carbon paper???  Haven't we just leaped with gusto into this new-ish century of ours?

This said, I do believe adamantly that technology is far from the answer to everything.  We are very much removed from our biologic roots and our connection to the earth and it's many wonders.  Who knows how to bake a loaf of bread, milk a cow, till a field, grow some green beans - many of us just have no clue, and would be quite helpless without the packaged goods in our super markets, ready-made clothing, and no electricity.  We can kid around about or scoff at old fashioned homemaking/farming skills, but as 2011 approaches, let us all hope against hope that we can continue to enjoy these pursuits as voluntary enthusiasts, and not because the world as we know it has fallen apart and we must learn them in a hurry or perish.  I'm a boomer with my feet in two centuries, fortunate to see the best of both worlds past and future.  Where are you?

a little philosophy and sometimes a food blog ;-)

This first photo is of the rising moon last evening - the moon that would become a rare full moon on the day of the Winter Solstice, and even more rare, a moon which would soon be in total eclipse.  Went outside at about 3:20 AM 12/21 to see the shadow of our Earth on the surface of the moon.  The air was winter crisp and dry, the sky black, the stars (and Jupiter) twinkling.  Could see my breath, and heard an owl hooting.  A time of cosmic mystery and magic - explained in some ways perhaps by modern science, but the secret thrill can't be so glibly parsed.  Sometimes an accurate description of a fact doesn't really explain it on an inner and personal level.

To celebrate the Winter Solstice, I have of late been making a Buche de Noel, or Yule log cake.  (See photos which follow) It is a chocolate confection composed of sponge cake rolled around chocolate whipped cream and iced with a chocolate buttercream.  This year's meringue 'mushrooms' weren't quite as pretty as they sometimes turn out, but they taste just as yummy as ever!  The dessert is quite a bit of work and involves many bowls, pans, beaters, sticky counter tops and probably uses more electrical energy than is green, but making this cake connects me in yet another way to the mystery of the seasonal patterns, and to the ancients who must have awaited the return of longer days with great relief.  Lacking a fireplace in which to burn a real Yule log, making the cake serves as a reminder to appreciate each season of the year as it passes, and also to celebrate each season of my life - past, present and future.

Wishing all who visit here a joyful holiday and Blessings in 2011.

post office reactions

Never made it to the PO yesterday(I was a willing victim of Sloth!), but when I went this morning, the USPS staff behind the counter loved the envelopes I'd made (see yesterday's post please).  They shared them with the folks waiting in line (which extended their wait time, of course, but nobody seemed to mind!).  Felt like a celeb for about fourteen seconds!!!  Don't you just love it when people ask, "You really made this yourself?"  I'll admit it, creating little snippets of beauty for others to enjoy is a kind of high unlike any other.  Well cooked meals, a lovely bit of landscaping made by the sweat of one's brow, or the perfect home made pie, cause the same kind of thrill (for me, anyway.)  Not huge or expensive pleasures, but so real, so real.....