Fleurs and a Personal Challenge

Aaand, spring ….. go!  Aaaah, I love spring so much!  So much so much so much.  Flowers have to be the best thing ever.  April in central Texas has to be the most beautiful thing.  So, I have made a resolution.  I am going to pick five pictures and do something art-and-or-craft-ish with them.  Dunno what, but I’ll do something.  OK, and Picture #1 doesn’t count, because Audrey is just adorable.

#1 - I love the delicate white and the blue of the sky, and the rich greens, and dots of flowers.  That’s the best.  This was so wonderful in the breeze, the petals fluttering about.

#2 - Indian blanket.  I chose this because this daisy-ish flower is one of my very favorites, but also because of the many textures of this shot, from the petal veins to the spiky bits in the center, to the soft and delicate aspect of the petals.

#3 - Have to research what this flower is.  I like the blue/yellow element, and that there are several blooms on a tall stalk.

#4 - Strong color, simplicity of elements, strong shape, slight petal texture.  Clarity of color, mostly.

#5 - I like the varying shapes in this picture, from the stalk to the long, slender, dark leaves, to the flowers with multiple types and colors of petals, to the darker red unopened buds, and of course the dark, sunlit browns of the ground.

Interested to see what I’ll come up with.  I think I’m going to have to get out some floss.  Maybe some special fabric … hrm …

I escaped the poison ivy

This past weekend I trekked back to Goliad and went camping.  I love camping.  A lot of work, yes, but I always get there and wonder why I don’t do it more often.  This particular weekend the wildflowers were out in force.  If you don’t know this already, know that wildflowers are third in priority behind friends and family for me.  Don’t know why, but they are.  However, the flowers are (mostly) for tomorrow.  Today’s photojournalism is South Tejas camping (with a recipe at the end).

This stuff goes under the heading “stuff that I find inspiring.”  At some point in my life, I might actually learn how it is, what switch in my brain I have to flip, so that I can take the things I love, that I find inspiring, and actually do something creative with that inspiration.

Pretty place, Goliad.  Going in February actually made me want to go back.  I didn’t visit the mission this time, as I had the pup along (not allowed on mission proper), but the grounds are quite nice.

IMHO, one should not go camping in Texas, generally speaking, between May 1 and September 30.  It’s miserably hot.  And there are too many bugs and poisonous snakes around here.  For example, this area of south Texas has an abundance of cottonmouths, copperheads, rattlers, scorpions, black widows and tarantulas in the hot months. Yipe!

There have been days in my life when I was tempted to try out some kind of survivalism thing.  Camping, however, reminds me that I am indeed a modern person, and entirely ill-equipped to handle such a challenge.  It’s all right to rough it for a weekend, but a true lack of modern conveniences would surely kick my ass.

Nevertheless, cooking over fire is eminently preferable to anything else.  And if you give me mesquite or apple wood, I’ll be even happier.

There were lots of onion flowers out.  Humble plant, really, with a very strong onion/garlic smell and taste as well as a simple, pretty flower.  It’s what the onion was before it got genetically modified.  I was reminded of my dad picking these and cooking the bulbs with mushrooms in a wine reduction sauce when I was younger.  I recommend that.  Highly.

Pet Peve about Tents:  you cannot stand up in many of them.  I hate trying to put on clothing in a tent.  I don’t like the idea of getting a larger tent than what is absolutely necessary, but … well, sometimes it’s the small things that make the biggest difference.

I find the out-of-doors and small towns to be more inspirational than anything else.  However, I have to admit that’s probably because I live in a relatively large city.  Still, it’s nice to see the stars at night, and I think a lot of inspiration is about getting out of your element, and seeing textures and objects that are new, instead of getting stuck in the same ol’ rut.

Always remember 3 things:  bug spray (Off), sunscreen and a first aid kit with benadryl.  Guess which one I didn’t have?  That’s right - SUNSCREEN.  Ow ow ow crispy.

Leave time to sit in the shade and sniff the flowers.

Recipe for simple, yet tasty stuffed jalapenos follows:

Mix 1/2 small tub of lowfat vegetable cream cheese with about 1/3 cup ham that’s been finely diced.  Crab will also work.  Wearing gloves (as in latex gloves), cut 6 large jalapenos in half and remove the stems, seeds and membranes.  Spoon cheese mixture into empty jalapenos even with the top.  Line a baking sheet with foil (or just use foil) and line the jalapenos up in 2 rows.  Cover with foil.  These can be baked at 275 or put on a grill.  The key is to bake them slowly until they are soft and no longer bright green.  Eat!

Photojournaling: a small trip and a few thoughts

Yesterday I was going to clean house. I didn’t. Instead Jeff and I took a nice drive into the hill country toward Fredericksburg. Aside from my family living in Texas, the hill country is what has made me return to Texas more times than I’m really comfortable with (is that an accent creeping in?). It’s rocky, half-arid and hilly, with lots of limestone and some seriously hot weather. This time of year, the wildflowers are just starting to bloom, the land is thinking about going nuts for 2-3 weeks of riotous spring before summertime hits.

A consequence of having the flu (twice), going to a conference and having a busy workplace is that it’s easy to get seriously behind at home. I’m struggling to catch up to myself, and as I’m still under the weather I’m finding it pretty difficult to keep up with my normal pace. But really, it’s too soon to play catch up. I still don’t feel like myself at all. I haven’t been this run down in a long, long time.

I found a real live antique store yesterday. You know, the kind that hasn’t renamed all its old stuff “vintage,” started a hipster tea shop in one corner and marked up all its merchandise 300%. This is the kind that has booths from different people, sections of random cast-off miscellany of unknown lives. Each booth is different. I found a lot of glassware I liked, a whole array of crochet and a little bird fluttering about building nests from pieces of old clothes.

Outside there were the smells of barbeque in the air - the smell of mesquite smoke on the air, a faint vinegar tang and the unmistakable aroma of large amounts of brisket. This particular little town believes in things that large cities are trying to push with limited success … local business and homegrown food. I really liked seeing a reminder what these things were before all the ad campaigns got hold of them.

Lately I’ve been going a lot more off of main roads to the point of getting lost. I may not be sure of where I’m going, but I think I may be feeling less urban, which is rather surprising if you’re me. Meanwhile, you see that sky there? I like western states because of skies like that. One of my very favorite things is traveling states like Wyoming, Montana and Kansas where the land is so empty you can watch the shadows of the clouds racing across the ground.

That picture (above) reminds me of opening a door very much like this one at camp when I was about 12 and getting stung three times by yellow jackets. Heat index that summer (temp in the shade) was 120 degrees.

So my cousin Chelsea, who’s in that mid-teenage, low-effort (dare I say lazy?), I’m-trying-to-be-a-pain-in-everyone’s-a$$ stage, told my grandmother this past weekend that she couldn’t help her sign up to receive my blog by email. Her reason? She made something up about how I had to do it. I’m rather irritated. Chelsea, should you ever read this, gee thanks for the help. And after that lovely long email I wrote you about how to help grandma and your mom with signing up? Was I difficult like this when I was 14? I was, wasn’t I? I apologize to the whole world who knew me.

When Jeff and I are tired, we tend not to eat at home. This is bad for the pocketbook and the health. So part of my process of getting back into life after the flu has been cooking, which has essentially involved the crock pot. I was really quite nervous about leaving it on all day to cook like that.  However, I have done so three times now and my house is still standing. I’m still not convinced, but dinner was so very nice, as was coming home to find it done. I have also long been sketchy about the crockpot as an evil tendril of Suburbia creeping into my urban life, but I give up. I grew up in Suburbia, and I have Major Issues with it and its evil domestic minions, but the crockpot is certainly heckuva lot easier than standing at the stove at 7 wishing I could just sit down.

Well, keep your fingers crossed for me and my flu, folks. I’m hoping one of these years I’ll start feeling like a human again instead of a well-worn rug.