Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Sage Flower Jelly
I was out in my garden earlier this evening – doing some after work weed pulling – and I noticed that my massive sage bushes are in full flower right now. In previous years I’ve thought it might be nice to harvest some of those flowers and turn them into something pretty – and since I didn’t have anything else to do tonight (besides singing rehearsal and laundry), I figured why not?
Ingredients:
2 cups packed sage flowers
2 cups white wine
4 cups sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 pouch (3 oz) liquid pectin
Process:
- Bring wine and sage flowers to a boil.
- Turn off heat, put lid on pot and let steep for an hour or so.
- Add sugar and apple cider vinegar, bring to a boil and let sugar dissolve.
- Add pectin, bring back to a boil and let boil hard for 1 minute.
- Ladle into jars and process for 5 minutes in a boiling water canner.
This recipe makes 5 250-ml jars. There really isn’t anything prettier than a rosy jelly – now let’s hope it sets!
Progress at Malcolm’s Rise
When we bought our lot ten months ago, it looked like this:
After one more weekend of land clearing (there have been several now), it looks like this:
Additionally we have a name for our property (Malcolm’s Rise), a builder, a set of drawings of our cabin-to-be (will share when we get the final version) and a general idea of when the building will start. We also have the beginnings of what will be a massive woodpile:
It was good to get back up there and finish up the clearing of the build site this weekend – I’ve missed it since our December burn, though we couldn’t even see much of the land on that trip, it was so frozen. I expect we’ll be here one or two weekends a month for the foreseeable future. Next trip will be focused on finishing the outhouse (still needs a seat, a door, steps, a stain job and some wire around the bottom).
Bloom!
Left this morning for a quick trip to our property outside Princeton, but before I did I noted that the warm weather in Vancouver forced the peonies into full, brilliant bloom. My blueberries are going like gangbusters too!
Now that’s an ice cream cake!
I don’t quite know what got into me but this year for Brian’s birthday I decided to make an ice cream cake. From scratch.
As you can see from the photo, and we had the pleasure of tasting last night, this turned out to be an unqualified success!
I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe for Hot Fudge Sundae Cake with the minor alterations of store bought almond cookies for the crust and whipped cream out of a can. And you know, it really wasn’t that difficult to pull off. The main thing is starting a couple days ahead of time so all the ingredients get enough cooling and freezing time.
If the idea of making a treat like this float s your boat then I highly recommend this recipe. It really is as good as it looks!
A festival of grievances
I can really only describe my meditation of this morning as a “festival of grievances” – the phrase which popped into my head mid-meditation as I pulled myself back (for the thousandth) time from thoughts about people who aren’t doing what I want them to do. My step-daughter didn’t acknowledge me on Mother’s Day, one of the members of my work team isn’t very flexible, I’m annoyed by my supervising professor from last semester for not providing comments on my essay, there’s a guy back east who is going to make updating an aspect of our intranet really difficult. Etc. Etc.
Once I owned up to the nature of my distraction, I was then distracted with thoughts about this post by my friend Carmen over at Bicycle Buddah in which she describes a meditation epiphany centered on the root of the dissatisfaction she is experiencing with her practice: “I am hoping that the experience will change. I am hoping that I can fix the problem. I am believing there is a problem to be fixed, and that there can only be one really satisfactory outcome….”
Which of course is the same item at issue with my own practice this morning. I am aggrieved with people because I *wish* or *hope* they would behave differently than they do. This is the heart of it. When I am angry with myself, it is because I wish I had behaved differently and I *hope* I can change myself in the future. It’s the crux of it when we’re unhappy – is that we wish it were otherwise. As I discussed with my counselor on Monday – the problem with my relationship with a certain family member is that I wish it were different. If I just accepted it as it is, and myself as having the relationship that I do – I would not be nearly so anguished about it.
Of course knowing something intellectually and accepting it in the heart-sense are two totally different things and the gulf separating those states is an awful lot of practice. Which is what I am doing every morning before work as I sit on my cushion and direct/redirect my thoughts towards my breathing. Being with what is, watching the emotions rise and move through me, knowing that the feelings are okay but they aren’t the whole of me, don’t have to rule me or my reactions, or complicate the present. Practice, practice, practice.
When I got off the bus downtown this morning I put that practice into action, raised my head and focused on my breath as I met the morning head on. And so much, as I attend to my work this morning, I am so much more accepting of what is. What is right now and not what should be.
Red Cedar 