For Gordon’s 80th birthday, through the urging of his sister Dottie, we collaborated to make a video of his life from a drawer full of unorganized pictures. We are all still speaking to each other. It is presented here in two segments: one from the early years and one from the last several decades.
There are about forty households in the three miles up here at the end of our road. Over the years outsiders have used this steep terrain to dispose of things they needed to ditch (literally!). About thirty of us met at our house up here at the end of the road and spent the day working our way down and cleaning up the ‘hood. One neighbor had a large trailer, another a small bulldozer. We roped ourselves down steep hillsides and found more than we expected–including an empty open safe, an old toilet, a sports car hulk from which the motor had been removed, an old entertainment center and enough old tires to outfit FedEx.
I took pictures and put them together into this video. Although I intended it just for the neighbors, we were able to use it to get the County to waive the considerable cost of dumping this trash. They also recognized us at a Board of Supervisors meeting and gave us a plaque.
When Mother decided to move from her apartment to the health care center in the wake of her 98th birthday, I pitched in to give her a hand. I went down the week of the move and here is my story.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
On Sunday I took a leisurely drive down I-5 on a stunning day through miles of blooming almond groves. I by-passed the Grapevine and L.A. in favor of the Tehachapi Pass, crossed the desert, and landed in Redlands for the night.
On Monday morning passed throught the windmills outside of Palm Springs, crossed the many desert miles to Phoenix and arrived around 2 p.m. My only regret was that I did not get up early enough to stop for a date shake in Palm Desert.
Monday and Tuesday
I had planned ahead and talked to various people at Royal Oaks. The room that Mother was moving to was ready to be occupied, so I hoped to talk her into going there to spend the night. There were chairs, a bed, and a TV there already. The next day we could orgainize the rest of the move. She agreed. I stayed in her apartment. On Tuesday I took over clothes and furniture and tried to make things comfortable. All went very smoothly
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
The rest of the week was spent walking a million miles between the assisted living apartment and the new room, which are at opposite sides of the campus, as we made sure the right things were moved.
What was left, I took to the Thrift Shop (six or seven trips), a shelter for battered women and children, the local food bank, or sorted through and kept, shredded, or discarded. And, of course, there was the paperwork and plenty of conversations with Mother’s friends and well-wishers.
As you can see, everything fell into place. The staff even brought Mother a beautiful quilt for her bed after she had explained that she did not have an appropriate bedspread.
This is a good salad. The lime dressing fits it perfectly. It was a recipe from a Cook’s Country magazine. It is especially good when topped with diced avocado, shredded pepper jack or cheddar cheese, sliced red onion, and sour cream or plain yogurt
2 T. lime juice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 t. ground cumin
1/3 c. plus 1 t. olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 T. chili powder
1 T. tomato paste
1/2 c. water
2 hearts of romaine, shredded
2 tomatoes, chopped
4 c. corn tortilla chips roughly broken
1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
(I expect you could use leftover chicken in place of the ground beef and spice things up with a jalapeño or some cayenne.)
Combine lime juice, 1 t. minced garlic, 1/2 t. cumin, 1/3 c. olive oil, and salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Heat remain tsp. oil in a skillet until shimmering. Add beef and cook, breaking up clumps, until lightly browned. Add remaining garlic, cumin and chili powder and cook about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato paste and water and simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
Toss lettuce, tomatoes, and chips with lime juice dressing. Divide salad among individual plates and top each with some meat mixture. Sprinkle with cilantro and any additional toppings.
Here are some glimpses of our family trip to Utah in December 2008.
Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but even pictures can not capture the time we had together.
Here, by popular demand from the Christmas 2008 family rendezvous in Utah, are the muffins Gordon thrives on. He found the recipe in a Cooking Light magazine in July 2007. It was adapted by Charlotte Moore, M.D., from a recipe that has been around for a long time. Her recipe has been modified slightly by Gordon. It is not only delicious, but also so crammed full of healthy ingredients that your general well-being will be improved by simply reading the recipe!
Cooking spray
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. regular oats
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1 T. wheat bran
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
1 c. plain fat-free yogurt
2 bananas
1 large egg
1 c. chopped pitted dates (about 20)
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. dried pineapple
(For fruits and nuts, you can substitute almost any dried fruits and pecans for walnuts. A 2 oz. or #16 ice cream dipper leveled off yields about 16 muffins and is much easier than spooning the dough into the muffin cups.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place 16 or so muffin cup liners in muffin cups; coat liners and metal surrounds with cooking spray.
Combine flours and next 6 ingredients (through salt) in a mixing bowl and mix to combine. In processor bowl, combine sliced bananas, yogurt, vanilla, and egg. Process until smooth, then pour into mixing bowl with dry ingredients and mix until just moist. Add chopped fruit and nuts and mix to combine. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pans immediately; cool on a wire rack.
Although I failed to take a “before” picture, I am sure anyone interested enough to view this page can clearly picture it.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday was demolition day. A new double-paned skylight went in to keep things cozy when the cold winds blow, but we were down to the studs with a hole where the window used to be.
Today the plumbers were here. Mimi inspects their work.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The new window is in. It is smaller and higher so that you can’t fall into it or out of it while you are in the shower.
Friday, March 28, 2008
The blue board is in. (Actually it is purple.) You might think we would want to keep this color–but no.
Option One – Lawn decor?
You may wonder how we are managing while our only bathroom is in transition. We actually now have two (well, really three) options.
Option Two
dubbed “the palace”
Option Three
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
One of the carpenters installed the half wall that includes a built in magazine rack and toilet paper holder. No joke.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The tilers came and put up the chicken wire base for the tile. This shows the work of the day.
What a difference a day makes
By the time I got home on Friday, the place was starting to take shape. Mimi and I inspected it. Guess I need to get the cabinets painted this weekend before they tile the counter top next week.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Yesterday was D-day (Done! Well, not quite) The shower went in and was measured for doors, the toilet was hooked up—
–and the built-in magazine rack was installed and inspected by you-know-who. You may see evidence that someone has taken a shower. The blue tape on the walls indicate the location of grab bars and the shower curtain will be replaced with a glass wall and door.
Today I fininshed painting the walls and the cabinet interior.
The palace, still here, has been abandoned. The lawn decor has vanished.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
I finally finished painting the cabinet doors and–even bigger deal–got the new hinges adjusted so the doors close almost properly, a task I have managed to put off for a while. Here it is all dressed up to have its picture taken. There may eventually be an update if I ever get around to weaving the new rug I am planning for it and buying Gordon the new black washcloth he wants.
My first tapestry was created for a mask exhibit for the Conference of Northern California Handweavers. The yin-yang woman measures 9×10.5 inches. One earring is a diamond, the other a dangling espresso pot.
For Carrie
The second of my woven women was done in honor of a talented friend who died suddenly and prematurely from leukemia at age 53. Two bags of her beautiful thrums (for non-weavers: these are the leftover warp threads when a piece is taken off the loom) were left after a sale of items from her studio. I used them for this 11×11 inch tapestry woven in 2002. It is my first attempt at doing a tapestry from my own drawing.
Follow Your Star
A book of Chinese lattice designs gave me a starting point for the design of this tapestry, my first experiment in using my own handspun, hand-dyed yarns for tapestry. It measures 12×31 inches.
Ghost Ranch Tapestry
The WARP (Weave a Real Peace) annual meeting in 2000 was held at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. During one afternoon and evening at this beautiful spot I wove this 3.5×5.5 inch tapestry using the back of a small notebook as a cardboard loom.
Gringo Ganado
My mother and father spent their honeymoon in Arizona and New Mexico many years ago. They spent all of their money on two Navajo textiles and had only a crate of peaches to eat on the way home to Iowa. I have one of the textiles, a striped saddle blanket. The largest, a Ganado red, went to my brother. Although my rug is not as large and is not the same design as the one they bought, I made my first large Navajo piece, measuring 30×46 inches, in the Ganado style.
Nearly Navajo
After following Noel Bennet’s instructions on building a loom and weaving in the Navajo style, I designed this 20×27.5 inch Navajo-style piece by looking at several catalogues of Navajo textiles.
Landscape
This 14×17 inch imaginary landscape is somewhat evocative of my mountains with fog above the San Andreas Fault in the valley between our house and the next ridge. It was one of my first attempts at adding textured yarns and multiple strands in a tapestry.
During our restaurant days, I bought up the rest of a pumpkin patch every year after Halloween so we could continue to make pumpkin pies until spring. I still buy pumpkins every fall, although not on quite such a grand scale. I cook them and freeze the puree. So when I saw this recipe at Whole Foods Market, it seemed like a natural.
1/4 c. butter
2/3 c. finely chopped onion
1/2 c. finely chopped celery
1/2 c. finely chopped carrots
1 T. minced shallot
3 1/2 c. pumpkin puree
2 c. chicken or vegetable broth
1 1/2 c. water
Thyme leaves (about 1T. fresh or less dried)
1/2 c. cream
Salt and pepper
French bread
Blue cheese
In large saucepan, melt butter. Add onions, celery, celery, carrots and shallot. Saute until onions are soft.
Add pumpkin, broth and water. Cook until vegetables are tender.
Puree in a blender or processor. Return to pan and add thyme, cream, salt and pepper. Reheat without boiling
Slice French bread and broil until golden and crisped. Sprinkle with blue cheese. Serve soup with toasts floating on top.
This comes from The Grains Cookbook by Bert Greene with a few changes. It is easy and doesn’t require the oven. I made it first today when it was 94 degrees outside. (Now it is 80 outside and 84 inside so I have opened the doors and windows.) If you are averse to jalapeños, use some other pepper, but jalapeños are GOOD and not very hot.
1 chicken (mine was about 4.5 pounds)
4 sprigs of parsley (abundance in the garden now)
2 fresh sage leaves ( I also got from the garden but a 1/2 tsp. of dried would do)
1 clove garlic
1 1/ T. olive oil
1 jalepeño
3 slices of hard salami, chopped
1/2 c. white wine
1 c. rice
Parsley for garnish
Stuff the chicken with parsley and sage. Smash the garlic and rub it on the chicken. Then chop it.
Heat the oil in a large casserole or Dutch oven. Add the chicken and brown well, about 12 minutes
Remove the chicken. Add the onions, garlic, and jalapeño. Cook about 5 minutes and then add salami.
Return chicken to the pot and pour the stock and wine over the chicken. Heat to boiling. Turn down and simmer for 45 minutes.
Stir in the rice around the chicken and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the rice is done.
