Z is for Zilch

Which is almost the way I ended the A-Z Challenge! Yikes! I was out-of-town on a mural installation and got home way too late last night. I'm fried, and I wish I could do Zilch today, but I have to finish reading Eric Maisel's new book, Making Your Creative Mark: Nine Keys to Achieving Your Artistic Goals. It's a terrific book meant for professionals in all the arts, and you can read my review tomorrow at the Blood-Red Pencil blog.

I also have to plant Zinnias, because I just found another huge bag of seeds. Apparently, I had Zinnias on the brain when I ordered seeds last autumn and this spring. Which is okay, because I love them. I plant California Giants from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds up the centers of each of my raised vegetable beds, and they not only look colorful and gorgeous, they shield the tender lettuces planted on either side from too much sun. I love those hot colors - these are the colors of my youth - groovy man!

I'm off to Zip through the day, my friends. It's going to be a Zoo around here today. Thanks so much for visiting me during the blogging challenge, and I'll continue to add your names to my special list. We can keep visiting each other, right? Just leave me your blog link in the comments and I'll continue connecting with you.

Y is for You

I'm embarrassed to admit I've written just under 1,000 words of my 30,000 Camp NaNoWriMo goal. I have written about 10,000 blog words just for the A-Z Challenge. What about you? How did your month of writing go in April?

X is for Xeriscaping

Definition of XERISCAPE

A landscaping method developed especially for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques (as the use of drought-tolerant plants, mulch, and efficient irrigation).

 

But contrary to popular belief, it doesn't mean zero-scaping. There are many ways to plan a water-wise garden and still create the visual beauty all gardeners love to see. It's all about clustering different textures, colors, and heights in a visually attractive manner. Here are some examples:

 

What do you think of this look? Do you live in a dry area and grow drought tolerant plants in your garden? What's your favorite flower, grass, or shrub? 

Here are some links you might find useful:

Colorado State University Xeriscaping Factsheet
Denver Water
Plant Select

W is for Water

That precious resource: water. When I was very young, I was married to a water engineer straight out of college, and I remember well the conversations about the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, that reservoir of life lying under a multi-state high plains region as pictured here:

There was much concern that the water levels were dropping by a few inches every year - today the depletion has increased to a few feet annually, and some community wells have simply run dry. In a time of extreme drought, there is little chance of the aquifer recharging. Knowing what we knew 30 years ago, how could this situation have become so dire?

That isn't the worst of the problem though. Energy companies are buying up water and mineral rights throughout the country, and are using precious water resources to engage in hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a natural gas mining process that risks contaminating water supplies needed for agriculture as well as human consumption. Just last week on the way to the city, we noticed the first fracking rig in our area along the highway, and never was there a mention of the development in any local newspapers.

Of even more concern are the laws around fracking procedures. In 2005, the Clean Drinking Water Act was passed by Congress during George W. Bush's administration, and  de-regulated injection wells to exclude contamination from hydraulic fracturing. This exclusion has been called the "Halliburton Loophole" after the company formerly led by former vice-president Richard Cheney. Halliburton is the world's largest provider of hydraulic fracturing services. Do you see an issue with this situation?

During President Obama's administration, fracking has become even more popular, in support of energy independence. However, the potential for natural gas exports has become the primary focus in the natural gas scenario. Here is a recent article at Salon.com about the upcoming boom in the fracking industry, and why environmentalists and local governments may find themselves at odds with large energy companies seeking to mine in any area with the slightest hint of resources. Even beautiful landmarks like Monterey Bay in California are at risk.

Is fracking coming to an area near you? Here's a map:

If you're in a drought or low water area, be afraid, be very afraid. Especially since you may not have a say in the future, depending on what state you live in. This article in The Atlantic covers a few more of the issues and offers even more maps.

If you're concerned about this issue, there are lots of anti-fracking groups popping up in major states. Here's a list to get you started. Better now than when your water supply is contaminated and undrinkable. There's so much of this activity starting up, where would we move to get clean water? This is not an issue that is going away by itself.

Save Colorado From Fracking

V is for Vines

I love arches. Arched doorways. Arched gates in the garden. Curving arbors with vines spilling over them. Flowers ranking upward, like roses and clematis and sweet peas. There is something so romantic and European about this idea.

Alas, I can't seem to grow the flowers that embellish an arched trellis, though I've tried for years. My clematis languishes. The roses die back by mid-season. Sweet peas hate the heat and don't even try. I've almost given up too.

But last year we tried some grapes. It appears they may actually come back this year, and if they climb, we might even get enough leaves to brine for stuffed grape leaves at our annual Greek feast. The heck with actual grapes - we're easy to please. Just a few dozen nice-sized leaves to put up. Is that too much to ask?

Okay, I confess. I harbor fantasies of a grape-covered patio like this. With big, ripe clumps hanging down just waiting to be plucked. A person can dream, right?

What's your elusive gardening dream?

U is for Unbelievable

And isn't there a lot of unbelievable stuff in our world lately? But I'm not writing about anything in the news today. I'm simply going to share my favorite chocolate frosting recipe, which is unbelievably delicious. I know this to be true, because I just taste-tested two of these beauties:

Today I made cupcakes from a cute little cookbook I downloaded to my Kindle, titled Cupcake Recipes by Suzie Johnson. It was free and the chocolate cupcake dough is very good, except it's enough for 24, not 12 cupcakes as stated in the recipe. But don't let this stop you. Freeze the extra cupcakes for another time!

I frosted the cupcakes with my all-time favorite chocolate truffle recipe from my ancient Dr. Oetker German cookbook. You'll have to suffer through metric measures as the book is written that way. Oh, wait, I can help a little:

Chocolate Truffle Frosting

125 gr. unsalted butter beaten until smooth (about 8 tablespoons)
150 gr. powder sugar (.652 cups)
100 gr. Dutch cocoa (.85 cups)

(I think you'd be safe using 3/4 cups of each of the dry ingredients)

Gradually beat dry ingredients into butter

1 organic (local if possible) egg

Beat whole egg into butter mixture until very creamy and smooth

Rum or rum extract to taste (I used one serving teaspoon)

If frosting is very soft, refrigerate for a short time to slightly firm it up. I usually place it in a pastry bag right away and squirt thick spirals on the completely cooled cupcakes.

This frosting recipe is also awesome as a candy. Form into small balls and roll in chocolate sprinkles.

Keep cupcakes and candies using this frosting refrigerated. If they last that long!  Nom nom nom.

What's your favorite frosting flavor?

And how's this for unbelievable? The weather! Sixty degree temperature swings within a week!

T is for Tea

I have a large mismatched collection of china teacups from my art gallery days. At The Peanut Gallery (yes, I really named it that), I often had afternoon meetings and served Low Tea.

Need I say that I have always had a slightly warped sense of humor? Small wonder I became a professional artist. We get away with anything!

Long past my gallery days, I still serve tea every Saturday afternoon, sometimes for guests, but always for the hubbster and me. Most days it's a simple spread, other times we go all out with various sandwiches and more than one sweet concoction like scones, puddings, cookies, and cheesecakes, almost always home-baked. Pavlovas, cream puffs, on occasion butter-cream torts. Lemon pies, shortbreads, brownies, well, the list is actually endless.

First we start with really good tea. I like to buy an assortment from Grace Rare Tea Company which carries my favorite, Winey Kemun, among many other fine imported teas.

I like a nice tea pot and this is my favorite in the collection because it has the perfect spout:

It's a gorgeous and large porcelain pot made by Crown Dorset in England.

I always set a nice table with linens and fresh flowers and, of course, good treats. Take a peek:

Well, you get the idea. After a long work week, it gives us a chance to do something a bit different from the usual meals - to sit down together for a relaxing chat, either just the two of us, or with neighbors who drop by to catch up with doings. It's festive, like a little party for no reason at all.

What about you? Do you do anything special on Saturdays? Here's a fun idea. Click on the T for Translate button top right column and read this post in a foreign language. Just because you can!

Remember what I said about that warped sense of humor. Zum voll! Would you like some sugar with that? Do sit down and have a spot of tea.

S is for Sins

We all do it. Bad things like lying. In religious circles it's called a "sin". If you follow the ten commandments, it doesn't have to be anything seemingly big. Modern behaviors like swearing and sleeping around are mortal sins if you buy into the Christian credo. Even something little, like lying, is considered a mortal sin.


So let's use that last one. Lying. With the Internet and all the fact checking information available to us, we should be able to verify just about any bit of information we choose to. But do we? We see a clever meme about someone we don't like - say the U.S. president - and we decide to pass that critical bit of information forward without checking it out. Take for example a recent series of memes showing Barack Obama with his hands folded in front of him as others stand at attention. The meme claims he will not salute the flag, say the Pledge of Allegiance, even sing the National Anthem. Here's an example:

But a quick check at the Urban Legends and Snopes websites, gives several logical explanations. Can you guess what the explanation is for the next picture?

On many such occasions, the band is playing Hail to the Chief! Wouldn't it be weird to salute yourself? Here's more at the Snopes website about this issue as well as flag etiquette from an expert.
 
My point is simply that you can take this sort of criticism a bit too far. I call it "bearing fall witness against thy neighbor" and if you follow the ten commandments, you really should make sure you check your facts before prevaricating in public. That's an even more serious sin!

Whether you consider yourself a religious person or not, the following is excellent advice:

There are six things that the LORD strongly dislikes, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

—Proverbs 6:16–19

R is for Rest

It's been a long, hard week, and that is what I plan to do for the weekend. I hope you get some rest and rejuvenation too. Happy weekend.

Q is for Quantity vs. Quality

As I type this, a new complex of storage units is being built in my little rural town. I guess all the barns packed with equipment and accumulations of other junk are full and folks need to pay someone to store more of their excess. Stuff they obviously don't need since they aren't using it, and will probably be sold by the family after they die. Why do Americans do this? It's peculiar to this culture - an entire industry has evolved to store our collections of junk.

And junk it often it - you can bet most of those storage units rented by Americans aren't filled with Waterford crystal or fine wool carpets. It's a huge quantity of stuff that has very little real quality.

In Europe, the mindset of consumers is more along these lines: buy the most expensive you can afford, buy less of it, and use it as long as you can. Sometimes, with really good quality items, purchases are made once in a lifetime, as in furniture for example.

This past week and all the horrific news has me thinking of the information overload in our society too. With the Internet at our fingertips, we have access to an outrageous quantity of information every second of the day. But is it quality information? Much of it not. Not only is it negative and sensational, it's repeated over and over. Example? The relentless imagery of the Boston bombers which looks to be just another sad story evolving. Yet the conspiracy theories and racial profiling will persist in quantity - no quality there - and it's all getting packed into our little brains.

Think about what you let into your life today, whether it's junk you buy, or thoughts. What if you have to live with it forever? Would you still take it in? Do you really want that outfit that will be out of style next year? Would you wear it in five years if you couldn't get rid of it? More importantly, do you want those thoughts and images to live in your brain and heart for as long as you live? My advice: get in the habit of opting for quality only. Your life and the world will be better for it.

P is for Peace

I had a long post ready to publish about pain and prisons. I can't bear to print it right now. Instead, I'll simply offer a link about Peace: The Biography of a Symbol published by National Geographic.

Peace be with you. Pass it on.

O is for Oracle

It’s a frightening time we live in. We have challenges on Planet Earth. War and strife seem constant and potentially increasing around the world. Weather becomes ever-more intense, fueled by environmental damage caused by mankind. Population growth exacerbates the problems we face in the future. Increasing stressors result in more human strife, and the cycle accelerates.

In the midst of all the turmoil, a few oracles stand tall and sane. One organization I respect deeply in the environmental movement is 350.org, a group of people working vehemently to stall the building of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline construction, a project that has the potential of slicing a disastrous and damaging route down the center of North America. Led by author, Bill McKibben, these people have the courage to risk imprisonment for their civil rebellions. My heroes in a world gone mad!

Others have spoken out before. I recently thought of Don McLean’s gentle protest songs of decades ago, so relevant even today in their poignant plea for stewardship and sanity. Give Tapestry a listen and heed the words:

There are other modern oracles as well. When librarians and nuns, those gentle intellects of a more civilized way of life, strongly supported the efforts of Julian Assange and Wikileaks, I raised an eyebrow. I still have mixed feelings about the methods employed by this organization, but in principle, see eye-to-eye with the efforts of exposing fraud and corruption. When a society’s government strong-arms secrecy, especially secrets shrouding despicable actions, the oracles are the good guys… not enemy combatants. Perhaps it doesn’t seem that way now, with the skewed values and wants of modern living, but I suspect history will cast a different light on these people and their actions. The past holds many souls who have suffered the consequences of their beliefs to create a better world for all living creatures.

Photo credit: Greer Studios

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, I applaud all the heroes of kindness, all those calling for patience and tolerance, and send a message of love and solace to those who suffer from this tragedy. May those who died rest easy. May we all find inspiration to become oracles for peace.

N is for Noise

http://www.noisecontrol.com/news-on-noise/

Spring has sprung,

The grass is green,

Boom cars make me

Want to scream.

Most years of my adult life, that’s been my clever little complaint as the weather warms up. Lovely as it is to see the end of winter, the noise level also increases, and often in most unpleasant ways. There’re the sounds of cars with blasting radios, mowers clipping the vast expanses of lawns, and the endless barking of dogs. Where I live, you can add to that the roars of farm trucks (now industrial-sized semis), heavy farm equipment, and outdoor intercoms from the nearby high school and John Deere center. O-la!

Is it any wonder I’m grateful for my diminished ability to hear? Over the past three winters, I’ve had increasing loss of hearing from Meniere’s Syndrome. It’s worse during the cold months due to inner ear pain. The hearing usually increases a bit as the temperatures warm and with accompanying changes in barometric pressure. I don’t think this year I’ll be able to get back to telephone use, or spend very much time enjoying music or movies. Restaurants with music, and other venues with ambient sound levels are also an issue. Time will tell how this impacts common activities.

“How isolating”, someone recently sympathized. But you know what? Mostly I enjoy the lack of noise. It affords me a level of peace I don’t get when I hear everything around me. I really enjoy the bliss of quiet. I can still hear many things I love. For example, my husband whistling a piece of classical music. I’d miss that, but then, I’d miss him were he gone. Loss of hearing isn’t nearly as traumatic to me as loss of sight. I had that experience for a very brief time after cataract surgery, when I couldn’t see well enough for months to be able to read or paint or do any small handcraft. Oh, my. That was like hell.

But noise? No. That I don’t miss for one second. What about you? How do you feel about noise? What kinds do you notice? Are there certain times noise is more obvious to you? Do leave me a comment, please!

M is for Many

M is for too many choices! My alphabet list and all the brainstorming I did last month is making it really hard to choose a blogging topic. Let me give you some of my choices for M:

Mongolian - after discovering those terrific yurts yesterday, I found myself completely enthralled with the style and decorations of their clothing and furniture. Deserves more research.

Marco Polo - one of the first serious importers, and why we all enjoy things like spices, coffee, tea, olive oil, wine... and all kinds of other goodies locavores can't easily grow. I try to eat 80% of my foods from within a couple hundred miles of where I live, but the other 20% are Marco Polo foods that I love and refuse to do without. Like chocolate.

Merchant Mariners - people like my Prussian Opa who had a barge and traveled the Oder River importing goods from afar. I would love to know where he traveled and what treasures he brought home. I'd also like to know more about his eldest daughter, my aunt, who wanted to be a sailor herself. Rumor has it she absconded with the barge after my Grandfather died, but that is unverified. Still, it makes for a great story!

Money - because it's tax day and who couldn't use a few extra coins? Have you ever visited a numismatic museum? The story of coin design is quite fascinating. Here's a money magnet my husband created. It's available at CafePress.

Marketing - that's what the previous comment was about.

Manners - I could write a book about this topic! In fact, I have one half-finished.

Mosquitoes - they spray Malathion in my neck of the woods which is highly toxic to bees. With the issues of diminishing bee populations (and the resulting impact on worldwide food supplies), I wonder if the EPA will put a moratorium on that practice?

Millet - husband is thinking of trying to grow some this year.

Marigolds- I'm trying again even though the grasshoppers chomp them down before they ever set blooms.

More? Do you really want more?

Mulch - I'm using grass clippings instead of straw this year - the bales we got last year are full of kochia seed. Bleh! One of the more invasive weeds in my stretch of the middle.

Milk - I get raw milk from my neighbor and that deserves it's very own post, so watch for that!

Migas - one of my favorite breakfasts and I'll pass along a recipe at some point.

Mystery - my very favorite book genre. On my reading list is Susan Wittig Albert's newest China Bayles mystery, Widow's Tears. Have you read it? Click here to order and read the prologue. I love this series!

 
Mess - describes my mind, and I think this marvelous mish-mash of M-words proves it! Hey, it's a minor miracle I got this much written. Mercy! 

L is for Little

I confess that big houses give me the willies. I don't like visiting huge homes, and I especially don't like sleeping in them. I think this is because I was born in Germany and grew up there, and most of my family had normal German homes - that is to say, quite small. My Oma lived in two rooms for her entire retirement and shared a bathroom with two neighbors who were also elders. Nobody complained. Even in modern-day Germany, homes tend to be the size of what many Americans would call "efficiencies" or "starters". This scenario is the standard in most of Europe. Needless to say, the environmental footprint of those countries is much smaller than in the United States. Americans have few bragging rights when it comes to downsizing for the sake of the planet.

Just for fun, I thought I'd share some very creative and beautiful little homes that you might not think you can live in full-time, but could consider as small offices or studios. I'm more of a monk and would certainly live in one of these full-time, and maybe someday, you will consider it too:

A converted caboose

A yurt imported from Mongolia
This is my favorite and I was able to find more information online.
Google as authentic yurts are now on sale in the U.S. and Australia.

Under 500 s.f.

A posh interior

Victorian charm

Converted metal storage container

Only 312 s.f.

Very tiny

When the garden takes top honors

Are these clever, or what? There is truly a tiny style for everyone. You can find more listings at Tiny House Listings and on their Facebook page. All their homes are under 500 s.f. Most of the ones pictured here are 200-300 s.f.

And if you're now as yurt-obsessed as I am, click here. And here. And here. And here for the one above. We actually considered buying a yurt about ten years ago, but the selections weren't nearly as handsome as the real Mongolian yurts on these pages!

Have you ever considered downsizing your lifestyle by choosing a smaller home? How small do you think you could go? Please leave me a comment!