Inventory 29 August 2009

The starting-point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is, and is ‘knowing thyself’ as a product of the historical process to date, which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory…therefore it is imperative at the outset to compile such an inventory. - Antonio Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks:  Selections 1929-1935

I’ll try to keep this brief so as not to bore you and to satisfy my ever-increasing desire to unplug.

We’re here.  In our spacious, nearly empty Seattle home.  JumbleSon will be starting school soon.  So will I.  (We’re making 5 Orange Potatoes’ Elderberry Syrup today (using Agave Nectar) so we’ll be ready for the back-to-school germs.)

Our things remain in Boulder.  And, I’m OK with that.  In fact, I’m not sure I want them back.  Life here is so very simple without all our gear.

My days are spent trying to choose the most perfect lunchbox systems for both of us (that’s an entire post of its own), reading book after book with JumbleSon on our shady front porch, studying Festivals Together and Halloween costume hunting, visiting thrift stores in search of treasures that we need but don’t have waiting for us in Boulder (like baskets … I’m so done with plastic containers).  We visit different libraries many times each week.  And of course, coffee shops (with seating) nearly daily.   We walk along the ship canal and sit under tall trees, waving at the boats & kayaks gliding by.

I find myself watching JumbleSon play, eat, climb trees, draw, etc. with a goofy grin on my face.  My heart is so full.   I wonder if this bliss isn’t how most parents spent their newbie days – watching their quiet, peaceful newborns (something, sadly, I never have the pleasure of doing).  I am drinking in every ounce of him, and wanting no distractions.  Us.  Just us.  Time alone together in these last lazy days.

At the same time, I’ve started acquiring and reading my texts for school.  I remain terrified, but so grateful for the opportunity I’ve been given to stretch my mind.  With that comes the need for integration of my Selves – my Mama/Wife Self and my Student/Teacher Self.   This will take all the energy I have for a while.

And so, like many bloggers before me, I will close JumbleBerry Jam for Inventory until further notice.

I love and miss all of my friends here very much.  So please, if you are interested in keeping in touch with me, please let me know.  I will check in with your blog from time to time (until my Reader explodes ).  And hope that we can stay connected until I can post regularly here and on your blogs again.

Thank you so much for being here for me these past 9 months!!

Purple Berry Bunny Sea Summer 21 August 2009

Our summer comes to an end today. We pack up all that we arrived with in our tiny Celica & a bit more (how does it accumulate so fast?!?), and walk down Rose’s garden path from our guest house for the last time.

Burned in to my memory of this summer are

the smells of bee balm & Corsican mint in Rose’s garden
the sound of hundreds of bees humming in the gardens & seagulls calling (and now geese!) overhead
the sight of purple fields full of lavender
pints upon pints of berries being devoured by JumbleSon (most of which he picked himself)
visits with our friends & their animals at Black Rabbit Farm
tribal arrivals
time sharing the wonders of this place with Colorado friends
the miracles that unfolded here (new work, wonderful preschool and new home)
and of course the ocean & forests surrounding this amazing place

Oh, we’ll be back. For Rose. For us.

But, visiting is never the same as living it daily.

As your summer comes to a close, what will you remember/miss most?

Lammas Loaves 1 August 2009

Today is the first of three Autumnal harvest festivals that we celebrate (often called Lughnasadh or Lammas – because we can actually pronounce it .

It’s so wonderful to be back here where I feel connected to the Medieval calendar because everything – the weather (which, happily has returned to normal – I’m layered in a long sleeve top & sweater), the flora, fauna and agricultural flow (watched hay harvesters today) – are in sync. It is starting to feel, smell and look like Autumn is coming!

Our first harvest of the day was in the veggie garden…collecting all the bolting lettuce to take to our furry friends at Black Rabbit Farm.

There was also some nibbling of said lettuce by a JumbleBunny…

We then set out to find berries for putting in gluten free muffins for Angeliki and Tiger. Our first (secret) spot along the side of a country road found our buckets empty – not ripe yet. Plan B – pick our own at the farm 1/4 mile down the road. JumbleSon was not interested as he had his sights set on harvesting from the Farmer’s Market (city boy!). But, Angeliki & Tiger got heaps of gorgeous boysenberries and fat blueberries. We then made our way to the market so JumbleKid could fill his bucket.

On our way home we stopped off at Black Rabbit Farm to share our lettuce harvest & pick up eggs for the muffins – try as I might, I can not successfully bake vegan, gluten free treats. They flop every time. Eggs are the secret, me thinks. So, when we got home I whipped these up using brown rice flour from the amazing Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill in nearby Bellingham. You can find the berry muffin recipe I used at I Am Gluten Free.

While we were out frolicking this afternoon, JumbleSpouse was hard at work.

Gnome-approved cinnamon raisin bread

He is the bread baker in the family and makes a killer loaf of whole wheat bread from scratch. But, it takes nearly an entire day to do so. Not practical for a family that goes through at least four loaves of bread a week!

Although I lean toward Luddite living and loathe gadgets of every kind, it became clear to me months ago that we should consider using a bread machine if we really wanted to cut our grocery bill by nearly $20/week.

However, I’d never had a loaf of bread machine bread that I liked…texture problems.

Enter Rose’s Panasonic Bread Maker.

JumbleSpouse is quite the scientist – even in the kitchen. So, he began experimenting and within 2 weeks, he’d devised the most amazing loaves of whole wheat seed bread. Behold…

If you’ve ever feared machine made bread, give this recipe a try and let me know what you think.

Blessed Autumn days to you!

JUMBLEBERRY WHOLE WHEAT VEGAN SEED BREAD

This recipe is for baking at sea level

3 teaspoons bread machine yeast
3 cups whole wheat bread flour
1 1/4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons earth balance (vegan buttery stix)
1 1/2 cups water
4 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Measure and add all ingredients into bread maker in the order listed.
Set it to “rapid whole wheat” mode (on the Panasonic SD-YD200 – not sure what it might be on other models).
Close lid & hit “start”
Takes about 3 hours to bake.
Recipe makes 2 loaves (if you cut it in half horizontally)

Lavender Mania 17 July 2009

The speed limit in our sleepy seaside town is 25mph. The population sign says “5409″. But today it will be 35,409 as a swarm of lavender lovers will descend for a weekend full of heady herbaceousness (aka, the Lavender Festival).

We’ve been fortunate to have had chances to visit a number of the farms prior to this special event that has the entire town buzzing. So, we’ll be off to Seattle for the next few days as we’re that sort (who leave town when everyone else is coming and stays when everyone’s going).

Have a great weekend everyone!

Making Spring 10 April 2009

Nearly a month ago, our overly optimistic library set out the “Spring” books. We took home a fair number of them, but JumbleSon only expressed keen interest in a few (Ok, so I admit that most of the picture books we check out are for me ).

I’m always intrigued to see which book from our weekly library visits will win the “most loved” award. Since mid-March, it goes to Paperwhite by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.

The art is very simple – paper-cut collage style. And the story sweet – a little rabbit goes to her neighbor’s house for visits throughout the Winter and in to Spring.

Together they plant a paperwhite bulb, then watch it grow and ultimately bloom over the coming months. They also do all sorts of wonderful things together after tending to the bulb – make cookies, craft, play music, etc. – while Spring unfolds.

So imagine our delight when we opened our front door this past wintry Saturday to find a glass jar filled with pebbles and bulbs! Just like Paperwhite!

Thank you! Oh thank you, Angeliki! How did you know?? Now JumbleSon’s favorite page of the book – the stages of growth from bulb to flower – can be observed daily!

And, snowy April aside, we will make Spring just like Miss Mammie and Lucy did.

Welcome Spring! 20 March 2009

Spring Azures

In spring the blue azures bow again
at the edges of shallow puddles
to drink the black rain water.
Then they rise and float away into the fields.

Sometimes the great bones of my life feel so heavy,
and all the tricks my body knows —
the opposable thumbs, the kneecaps,
and the mind clicking and clicking —

don’t seem enough to carry me through this world
and I think: how I would like

to have wings —
blue ones —
ribbons of flame.

How I would like to open them, and rise
from the black rain water.

And then I think of Blake, in the dirt and sweat of London — a boy staring through the window, when God came
fluttering up.

Of course, he screamed,
seeing the bobbin of God’s blue body
leaning on the sill,
and the thousand-faceted eyes.

Well, who knows.
who knows what hung, fluttering, at the window
between him and the darkness.

Anyway, Blake the hosier’s son stood up
and turned away from the sooty sill and the dark city —
turned away forever
from the factories, the personal strivings,

to a life of the imagination.

- Mary Oliver, New & Selected Poems

Spring 2008

Peep! 18 March 2009

I couldn’t help it.

Bunny Luv 17 March 2009

Of late, JumbleSon has taken to putting animals in his “pouch” and going for a little hop. His oversized sloppy joe (sweatshirt) has served as the best pouch so far, provided its inhabitant has arms long enough to hang out over the neck of the top (lest it fall out the bottom).

Given that there are a few design flaws in this animal-wearing mechanism, I thought he might enjoy a new pouch/animal combo. With Eostre just around the corner and his penchant for hopping, a rabbit seemed the logical choice. And what better chariot for a rabbit than a carrot?

Taking the bunny pattern from here, the pouch idea from here, leftover felting supplies from gnome making and other crafts (HalfPintPixie, what am I going to do now that I’m out of your gorgeous paper flowers??), borrowed orange thread from Angeliki, clues about what a whip-stitch was from here, and how to make a knot from here (yes, I’m embarrassed that I had to have a tutorial), I came up with this.

Even though the Equinox is on Friday, we’ll wait to celebrate with our friends in Santa Fe. I thought we’d surprise the kids with these (and a few other things I hope to put together and share with you here before then) when we wake up on Sunday morning.

How do you like to celebrate the rebirth of Spring?

She wakes 1 March 2009

King Winter sleeps. Persephone rises from the Netherworld and beckons Spring.

Moving Beyond Mardi Gras 24 February 2009

Fat Tuesday is here!  And I am feeling it.  This time last year I was nearly 15 pounds lighter.  If only I was one of those people who stopped eating when depressed!  But, in typical Jumbled form, I just stuff my face like mad.  As this day of revelry comes to an end, so must my sad feeding frenzy.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lovely Blisschick post.  She suggests planting positive seeds this Lenten season.

I was not raised Catholic, so I don’t necessarily have any negative associations with it.  To the contrary, I rather like the idea of giving up something for 40 days each year.  The first time I tried it, I celebrated Carne vale style (from the Latin meaning “farewell meat”) by going vegetarian.  That has been one of the most happy abstinence experiences of my life.

This year, I feel a strong need to move beyond letting go, and look towards holding on to and reclaiming pieces of myself so that I can move on to the real work at hand – reinventing myself.

Most of the “old me” was shattered with JumbleSon’s birth.  But there are parts that I should not try to live without:

• daily running meditations
• eating healthy foods in moderation
• limiting chocolate consumption
• foregoing comparisons

Especially during difficult times, I must have these things.   While I have ideas about how I might bring these things back in to my life, I can not see how they will actually manifest into reality.  So, I must go to work.

Starting this new moon I will lay the groundwork over the next 40 days for reclaiming the healthy pieces of myself.  And perhaps the woman behind the mask will one day reveal her true Self once more.

How about you?  Do you use the Lenten Season (or any other time of the year) to reflect on, and/or recreate yourself?  If so, what are you working on this year?  What can’t you live without?