Pancakes

Since I'm gluten-intolerant, I've developed many recipes that are tasty and easy to make using rice flour. The rice waffle is one of my favorites and this time of year the blackberries and blueberries can be used as a syrup or mixed into the batter and, viola—delicious, flavorful cakes for a Sunday morning breakfast. Sunshine coming through the window, a pot of coffee, a plate of waffles, perhaps some farm fresh eggs, and we're in like flin—fine dining. Oh, the recipe. I cup rice flour, 1 egg, 1 tbl. Baking powder, 1/4 cup Melted butter, a pinch of salt, milk or soy milk to make the batter the right consistency—approximately ½ cup. Don't stir much, barely in fact, so the rice flour will stay tender. If you want to mix in berries, toss ½ cup berries in a bit of flour first. I don't use sugar in my recipe because the flour is sweet and if you use maple syrup, another sweet. Ahhhh! Now I'm hungry. This recipe can also be made into pancakes. Try very thin slices of apple mixed in the batter. Always use real maple syrup.

So this is Labor Day. This was the weekend we moved into the condo. A honeymoon getaway to recharge our marriage. It was a year ago on the following weekend that I was asked for a divorce. So a year later, things are pretty tied up. It took longer all together, the demise of this union. It started back in 2003—when I knew I'd have to move on. Five years—that seems too long, but there was therapy in there and graduate school, and unexpected developments. Marriages like gardens have to be examined carefully to discover the real problem. Perhaps a year off is a good thing. In the bookThe Marriage Sabbatical the author says that women rarely get to take time away from their marriages without everyone thinking, oh the poor husband. He'll be lonely and therefore will cheat while she's gone. Whereas, if the man goes off on a business trip or is transferred to another town, everyone expects the wife to hold down the fort, they never say to the man, won't she cheat, she'll be lonely. It is an interesting book exploring women and retreat time.

Moving on: clean out closets, turn over garden, get the rugs cleaned, eat better, cry more, focus on your work. Well it is all good. All of it. My sister says she just thinks of everything as a blessing. Even when she lost her son two years ago. Me, I'm a little more callused and bitter. I'm emotional to a fault. I just can't help it—or perhaps I can. Perhaps like the garden, I could mend my soil. I could water myself more frequently, I could put more space between the rows. I'm not sure at this point. Everything is too new. Everything is different once again. I'll be at meditation at noon today watching my mind.

Happy happy,
Flower

Garden Decor

I fetched from my old home a sundial, a purple glass garden globe, a rusty grate I found on the beach, and a potted fern (a gift from my gardening friend.) These items are in my garden room, (my community plot) the room without a water view--I'm not bitter.

I told you about garden rooms before; you can make them out of patios, in conjunction with outbuildings, in groves of greesn, in different parts of the yard, and around porches. I now will attempt to make my plot into a garden room--have no idea how I'll do that yet, but I carted a couple of things over there today--so soon, I'll upload a picture of what I'm attempting to create. I imagine myself sitting there in my garden, watching the foot long beans grow.

Now this is an amazing thing, the zucchini plants are acutally growing, as are the beans. I saw the sweet little spinach double leafs have popped through the soil--huh, maybe that was the kale. In any event, things are up and growing. Guess the garden just needed some heat.

At the old house (not really old, just nearly no longer mine) raspberries are taking over the garden plot. And fruit trees that the arborist suggested we pull out and plant tiny trees instead, are huge. Don't be fooled by semi-dwarf--what you want for a small space is dwarf. Whether or not those big trees will be replaced with smaller trees is no longer my choice. Oh well. What's the saying, ke sura sura.

Did I say the ivy is overgrown again. Another item to not encourage, that and butterfly bush.

What I learned this weekend: let go. Life is short. It will change whether you're willing to change with it, so might as well get on the band wagon; create what you want. If you stay stuck in what is not working, it will continue to not work. Create something new. Gardens know all about this. Create something, anything, even if it is a weed.

Oh, those are more pictures of old growth forests. They are creating new by growing ferns along their mossy surfaces--and other plants. They are giants, so awesome I'm still breathing in their essense.

More later. Flower!

Gloomy Morning

Well, I really am having trouble letting go of my almost-ex-husband. So what does that have to do with gardening? I'm not sure, but there's all that mint that has trouble letting go of the soil and water, all lush in the corner of my garden plot. It's so tenacious, the roots traveling underground, new stems coming up along the runners. In the woods around here, when a cedar tree falls, it becomes a nursery log and new trees sprout in it's composting trunk, so the new trees grow in a row. So sweet. As far as a fallen marriage goes, I guess new parts of me are being forced to grow along the fallen parts. Each part of me has to break down, turn to compost and then regrow something new. The part I'm working on now is letting someone else have him. Ooh, that bothers me. But everything is impermanent. The garden teaches me that. Plants have a short life cycle. Although I do have a Hoya that is 32 years old. I've carried it from one residence to another. Funny how things work out. Something that seems permanent, isn't.

So the garden rules summarized:

1. A plot cannot be left unattended for more that two weeks. (Oops!)

2. No weeds pulled and left in the garden.

3. Conserve water.

4. Rocks go in rock pile.

5. Weeds go in compost pile.

6. No pets and keep tabs on children.

7. Weed-free and looking neat please.

8. A plot not maintained for more than 30 days will be re-assigned.

9. Fencing within plot borders only.

Etc.

Here's the grandbaby. I'm feeling better now. Ciao!