Cornflowers

Wild cornflowers are currently growing profusely along our back roads.  They are considered undesirable weeds, despite delicate blue blossoms that could easily hold their own among cultivated beauties in a florist shop.  However, in various ancient frescos and tapestries, cornflowers symbolize attributes like fidelity, reliability, power, and magnificence.

Just another example of how beauty and value reside in the eye of the beholder.

Never Say Never

Sometimes when the creative juices start rumbling, another healthy dessert shows up in my kitchen.  Today’s experiment involved making a gluten-free, dairy-free (meaning cow product), sugar-free cheesecake with blueberry goo.

I’m learning to never say,  “It can’t be done,” because it probably can.  Even cheesecake comprised of goat cheese, eggs, vanilla and stevia baked atop a crust of nuts, quinoa, and coconut oil.  Slather the cheesy slab with fresh, cooked berries thickened with tapioca and yummy-ized with coconut oil, stevia, and cinnamon, and it becomes truly decadent.

Good-for-you desserts don't get any better than this.

Art

Hi.  My name is Art.  That’s a nickname, short for Artist.  I’m a painted turtle with a dark top shell and artistic patterns of yellow and red on my underside.

I was sitting on the road today, minding my own business, when a woman stopped her car, got out, and picked me up.  Three little girls were also riding in her car.  She invited them to touch my shell; they squealed and laughed, and seemed thrilled.  I pulled my head in and stayed quiet.

They took me somewhere and put me in a bucket with a lot of seaweed, hoping I would feel at home.  They thought I was acting sluggish and wondered if I was sick.  Honestly, I was terrified.

I’m currently in the bucket – my bedroom for the night. Fortunately they brought me inside the house, so I’m safe from coons. I’m supposed to sleep here until morning.  Tomorrow they say they will set me free in the lake.  I hope so.  It’s going to be a long night.

Weaving

I’m always on the lookout for new craft projects to do with my grand-girls, and last night experimented with a small weaving loom.  The resulting sampler (still unfinished, I plan to have little hands help me fill the remaining exposed warp) incorporates ribbon and lace with fuzzy and 3-ply yarns.  A tinted feather adds a jaunty touch.  

Peaceful

Stars hover over the lake, fiery pinpricks staring through an inky canvas.  Night air hangs heavy and still.  I try to envision the fiercely roaring flames of these distant suns, and wonder at their consuming heat as it disperses into deep space.

The lake, silky to my touch, awaits beneath the spangled canopy, a smooth sheet of black glass waiting to witness a shooting star. 

Our thoughts reflect our whole life. If our thoughts are quiet, peaceful, and full of love, kindness, and purity, then we have peace, for peaceful thoughts make possible the existence of inner peace, which radiates from us. However, if we breed negative thoughts, then our inner peace is shattered. 

- Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

The Flexaboard

It was an epic flexaboarding day here at the lake as two four-year-old and two six-year-old granddaughters took turns like old pros.

The flexaboard was handcrafted by my husband in 1977.  He decorated it in decoupage with pictures of Count Dracula, Bert, and Ernie from Sesame Street – our then four-year-old’s favorites – which have faded into smudgy, grayed-out oblivion over the years. 

Sometimes life just doesn’t get any better than flexaboarding with cousins on Grampa’s old board.

Princess Horsewoman

Sometimes you happen to be wearing a fluffy pink princess dress with a gem-studded neckline when it’s time to hit the trail.  So you just pull on jeans and riding boots, snap the chinstrap (as your blonde mane flows out the back of the helmet), and get on with it.