What a Challenging Week It's Been, and Continues to Be

Challenge. It breeds character, maturity, strength, all that stuff. And I should be a better person as a result of the challenges this week.

The first week of the month is always a trial, or should I say trial balance, because my "real" job is closing the books of a large hospital, so I'm wrapped up in the "close" (pronounced with a "z" sound, like "cloze", or "clothes"). My life revolves around all my responsibilities in the close. This is the first month of the new fiscal year and we had a new subsidiary charging system come on-line. There were a few problems, but nothing I couldn't overcome. It was just annoying that I kept finding them. I like things to go smoothly. Having to fix them takes my mind away from its smooth-running, orderly monthly checkoff list duties. (Just don't look at the snow of paper on my desk.)

So, it started last Friday, and I was already behind. I kept finding things and fixing them.

Great weekend. I cooked a lot and weather was great.

Monday, I received a call from the Emergency Room. It was The Artist. He still had all his fingers, but he had taken Mother of Artist to the doctor for her normal visit and the doc wanted her to be admitted. Off to the ER. Nothing too life-threatening for a hardy 91-year-old, but she did require a few days' stay. Monday, I spent lots of time in the ER. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurday, I spent all my breaks, and probably more, visiting her and Friday AM some time on discharge planning.

I work for a hospital, but am usually so far removed from the main business of care-taking, that it is sort of on-the-job training when I really have real, personal business being on a patient floor. It's very interesting and completes the full circle of issues in working for a hospital: the staffing issues, the computer on wheels, the time clocks, the dispensing machines, the needle collection boxes, real medical equipment, not just a tag number in a computer system.

It was difficult getting all my real work done. In July, new spreadsheets with new budgets and new prior years have to be set up, so that takes even more time than usual. The year in some computer systems has to be rolled forward. New process. Finally got the last one resolved at 4:00 yesterday. How I got everything accomplished that I did, I will never know.

Challenge. Character-building.

Great August Weekend - Blueberry Scones

Nothing special. Just a great, relaxing weekend in August.

Up at 9:30. (If only I could do this every day!) I made fresh blueberry scones for breakfast, used self-rising flour and they were incredible. (I love scones. Sweet or savory, they are a wonderful, hearty breakfast.)

Here's the recipie from Saveur (cut down for 10 large scones and liberties taken in preparation):

3 1/3 c self-rising flour (I store mine in the freezer)
1/4 c sugar
2 sticks cold butter
1 egg
1/2 c milk
1 c blueberries (plus or minus)

Preheat oven at 400.
Whisk flour and sugar
Grate butter (sounds strange, but I picked this up from a hint in Fine Cooking)
Work with your hands until texture is like cornmeal.

Whisk egg and milk together
Add 1/2 c milk to flour/butter mixture (reserve rest of milk)
Mix with hands until dough is soft, not tacky
Mix in blueberries very gently with hands

Transfer to a lightly floured surface
Pat dough into large circle, 1" thick
Brush with milk mixture and sprinkle a little sugar on
Cut in wedges with a long knife into about 10 wedges

Using long spatula, place on baking sheet (I use my fish spatula)
Bake for 20-25 minutes

Transfer to a wire rack
Best when eaten warm

So, The Artist and I ate four smallish ones for breakfast, I put four in the freezer, and two in the fridge. Reheat in toaster oven.

I have a whole bunch more huge blueberries from the Farmers' Market. What will I do with those? Will The Artist make blueberry pancakes? Will I make blueberry crisp? Tune in later in the week.

It's Showtime!

These little guys have been in Bellevue, Washington with us over the weekend for the Bellevue Arts Fair. The Artist started driving up last Tuesday and I flew up after work to meet him Friday night. These little guys are on the tuning pegs on a rote, a type of lyre. The Artist is on his way back, coming down the Oregon Coast, enjoying a well-deserved vacation, I hope. (But I do miss him.)

It was a good show, but it's a tough 3-days, from 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM. Lots of dogs, large and small, which I'm just not used to, and lots of kids. Some kids were extremely well-behaved and smart, a few were rude and undisciplined. I though I did quite well with the dogs. I usually run away, but I actually tolerated them.

Bellevue is a lovely place, and I wish I could have enjoyed it longer. I love to do excellent craft shows with my husband, despite all the work. I get so excited by all the work and love discussing the craft business with all the artists and artist assistants.

But I'm tired. Goodnight.

Plums are In!

It's a bumper crop for plums this year! Everyone has them! Share, share share! These, in the alley, are green gage or some variation thereof, we think. Lots of Santa Rosa, usually rather spare and unpredictable. Someone brought in shiro Japanese plums at work. Both the green-leaved and red-leaved tiny, tart "alley" plums have been plentiful. Even 3" nectarines (grown from a pit?) are juicy and ripe, again in the alley. That's my orchard, I guess. I've never seen so much fruit there. I'm trying to decide which tree I'll plant in my orchard. Maybe an avocado? No one has any of those, but we may be too close to the ocean.

There may be a housing problem in the rest of the country, but in our two block deep by six or seven block long neighborhood bordering the ocean, the hammering never stops. The gorgeous craftsman style home across the street from us is almost finished (we have the best view) and today the house on the other corner next to it bit the dust. That one is expected to be Mediterranean style. Whereas the craftsman is green, green, green, modeled on Green and Green, and uses salvaged materials all the way, the new one is a straight tear down and rip out.

A port-a-potty was delivered Friday. A giant flat bed trailer arrived this weekend and dropped off a bulldozer. We knew the end was near. I stopped by this morning on my way back from my walk, pulled up and took home some dormant bulbs which have lovely spring flowers I have enjoyed. The Artist went to see his mom and get her groceries this morning and when he returned, the house was gone! All piled in a big heap in the middle of the lot. I counted eight houses being worked on in sight of the walk along the cliff. Now mind you, I'm not nostolgic about this house, since all sorts of yuckos have lived there, so I understand, but two new houses in our vision while the rest of the country seems to be falling apart is a little much.

Even the "house on the point" is being ripped apart. It's been a vacant eyesore for seven or eight years and was involved in lawsuits regarding structure problems. Since it's within 200 feet of the ocean, it's subject to Coastal Commission rules, delaying new plans. Now it's being torn down! Hoorah!

P.S. We have had lucious strawberries from our self-seeded plants. The neighbor's figs are here, and so are the birds, sigh, but I've managed to snag a few.

Life in the Fiber Lane

Fiber art, fiber art. The past weeked I dyed. I really love dying, but it can be so messy and involved. The Artist agreed to let me have my half of the garage for a day to use for the weekend, minus my tiny auto. (He tends to take over the garage and make a lot of sawdust.)

Avoiding the phrase “I don’t have time...”, will soon help you to realize that you do have the time needed for just about anything you choose to accomplish in life.
~ Bo Bennett (whoever he is...) A juicy Thought for the Day from work.

Three Day Weekend

Mother of The Artist lives in a retirement home on the other side of town. Close, but not too close. Every year, the residence has a huge Fourth of July barbeque with entertainment and lots of red, white and blue. The Artist and I always attend. It's great fun, great music, great food. I usually bring a bundt cake, which disappears fast. (You need a cake like that at a picnic, I think.)This year I had a taste of lime jello salad, which I haven't had in years. The chile is outstanding. Cheeseburgers terrific. Hot dogs? Not for me, but The Artist and his mom love them.

Each year, we sit with different people. This year, I got to talking with Max, who was a machine gunner in World War II. (He showed me a photo taken next to his tank. What a good looking guy!) Found out that another resident at our table, Jim, and I came from the same neck of the woods, so we had a lot to talk about. Also spoke with Marie, 101 years old, who told me that if she knew she would be living there 17 years she would have bought new furniture when she came. (I'll have to remember that one.)

Great party, great day, great people. (Big thank you to The Artist for a stitched photo.)

Big Sur Fire

We live on the California coast at the northern end of Monterey Bay, actually north of the bay about a mile. On a clear day, if you walk the half block down to the end of our street and look across the bay, you can see what looks like a huge island. That is no island; it's the Monterey peninsula, the southern end of the bay, sticking out into the ocean. Beyond that is Big Sur, the beautiful, desolate, sparsely populated stretch of mountains and coast extending down the middle of California.

Above is a photo The Artist took this morning of the view across the bay. It's about 75 miles as the crow flies to that plume in the center of the picture. That is no volcano. It's a forest fire that has been raging for almost two weeks, since a lightening strike during a rare thunder storm. The fire is only 3% contained, reports say. It's been 3% contained for the life of the fire.

Big Sur was evacuated today. The entire town is deserted. Gone. Nature is hard on the residents of Big Sur. Whether it's earthquakes, storms or fire, It's a tough, but beautiful, place to live.

For more info on the origin of the fire and views of the storm that caused it, see June 21.