Skip to main content

A Quick Interlude

Gonna just interject and say that we're home and safe, and all was really good on the New York trip, but we did so much that all we did, pretty much the moment the bus got into the hotel, was go to our beds and fall asleep.

I walked 120,000 steps in New York City, and every one of them was worth it, and I'll be writing it up as I get the pictures up. I loved it all, and when our guide asked us what our favorite part was, it was so hard to say.

I'll first finish up the reunion trip, and say that in the days between the two trips, I got the first two days up, and mostly just did laundry, sleep in my own bed, and figure out how to pack, for the first time in a long time, so that I could carry-on everything.

Red Oak Leaves from Central Park
And I'll leave you with a painting I did yesterday, it's of red oak leaves that I found on the ground in Central Park, and I picked 'em up, washed them off, and pressed them in my notebook. They're a flat, bedraggled mass now, but using them as a reference, I went ahead and laid this out on the plane.

The turbulence was so bad on the plane I couldn't use brush and ink, so I just used pencil on notebook paper to do the initial sketches, but when I had my watercolors and ink yesterday, I painted again. I've signed up for the OAS (Oriental Art Supplies) 30-day challenge, and will be painting every day in June.

So still going full-blast, and I'll catch this journal up as I can. *laughs* I actually want to reorganize this journal a little, get all the old fiction off the sticky page, and do good indices for all the travel entries.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Everything Is A Lot

My mother took my hand, as we were going to leave tonight, and she very deliberately, gently, and slowly pressed a kiss on the back of my hand. And at the look on her face, I clasped her hand back just as gently, but firmly, and I kissed her on her forehead. She smiled and let me go.  Words are failing her. I find it ironic that the only way that I can process her now word-muddled existence is through my long practice with words.  On November 13th, my sister and father did a video doctor's check with my mother. Their GP was so alarmed at her inability to truly respond to their questions made their primary doctor tell them that they had to go to the ER. That there was something seriously wrong with her and they had to get her looked at as quickly as possible. The three of them spend two horrific days in the over crowded ER at UCSD, in order to get the CAT scans and MRI that showed a very large shadow in her brain.  This was while John and I were in Kauai. We heard the begi...

Gumbo Z'Herbes

I'm writing this because my son needs this particular version of Gumbo Z'Herbes as I actually do it. It was based off a recipe in Epicurious that then went to Chow that then went to Chowhound, that then... anyway... I don't know the exact origins anymore, and I've changed it substantially from them.  Ingredients 3  lb  greens (two bags of Costco Super Greens is great for this) 2/3  c  vegetable oil 2/3  c  all-purpose flour 1   yellow onion chopped 1  bunch  scallion chopped 1   green pepper chopped 4   celery ribs chopped 2  cloves  garlic minced 2  t  kosher salt 2  T  Cajun seasoning (preferably Lucille's) 2 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth if you're not going vegan or water 2  whole  cloves 2  whole  bay leaves 3 whole allspice 1  T fresh herb (I never have marjoram, so it's been cilantro usually or parsley)  Gumbo Z'herbes Directions Have a big bowl of i...

Sourdough Bread Recipe and Techniques

Ingredients Leaven 50 grams whole wheat flour 50 grams bread flour 100 grams water 20 grams starter Dough 375 grams warm (90-110 degrees Fahrenheit) water 165 grams Leaven 375 grams bread flour 125 grams whole wheat flour (finer ground, commercial/generic whole wheat) 10 grams salt Technique Mix all the leaven ingredients together. I use a quart sized translucent plastic container from take-out soup because I like to see the level of the dough inside. I put a thin rubber band around the girth of it at the starting level, and place it in a warm spot and let it grow until it doubles in height. It can take anywhere from three to eight hours, so sometimes I use a dehydrator set to 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit to speed the process.  When it's doubled, I take 165 grams of the leaven and mix it into the warm water for the dough (it SHOULD float if you let the leaven rise long enough). I put the rest back into the refrigerator for next time. I actually work it into the water, "dissolving...