I feel safer. It is night. A day is over and I am in my room now. My room is my own at this point basically, but it used to be our library, and you can tell this from all the shelves and books, duh! I share it now, after adding a queen size bed set, as a bedroom with my 170 pound dog. He sleeps on the floor and spends his night in light sleep ever ready to growl or bark to protect me. Snow plows this winter have been especially threatening.

Night means I can play at the computer. I am a grown-up and can stay up until four in the AM if I want to! There are emails and face book and the New York Times to read. There is an almost nightly netflix movie. There is no sex, a trade off because of some decisions I have made, but then now that is really fine with me. Experiencing peace and being in control of my own experiences is really what I crave most at this time in my life. Wanting such solitude might have been unfathomable by me as recently as 7 years ago, but circumstances change as does need. Safety and time that is mine, and mine alone, all alone, works best now for me.

Now let me leave this blog and see what is in the Science Times for tomorrow. Tuesdays and the NYT Science Times are delicious.

Time to one's self feels very safe in my room. and I even have a huge dog to protect me.

mid November thoughts

My Yiayia’s sister Thea Elaine would have been 109 (I think that is her number) on Sunday, the day after my birthday. She lived the longest of anyone whom those of us still living have met in our Greek family. She got to be over 92 by a couple of months.

There were rumors of family members in Greece making it to 100 or so. Our Papooie would regale me with stories of the longevity of his clan in Greece.

He also told me about the time he was "dead"!

Apparently he was laid out and his body all washed and dressed (albeit prematurely) by the village woman. His family of Mildreds and Katherines and Louises and Nicks (remember they used those same names over and over for centuries) were in deep mourning when he “came to", all sobbing and whaling loudly. He loved telling me this story of how he had been thought dead and how crazily everyone reacted to his coming awake. His take on it was that he had gone into a deep coma after hitting something when in the sea swimming. So he almost drowned, and maybe that was from his first receiving a concussion. He was not sure of the order.

He was swimming and things just went blank for him and next he knew he was on a slab at the village where the village ladies prepared the dead for the funeral service and burial. They did not embalm, fortunately. He said that he was about sixteen years old at the time.
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He apparently at the time had no near death experience and he never once mentioned Jesus or God in the telling of these stories, nor were there dark tunnels or such, which is interesting to me. I seriously doubt that he was very religious when I recall this story and how he told it.

What he did stress to me with a smile and his crinkly eyes though was that if he had died, then I would not be born.!That really make me think! Getting to be born seemed pretty special and a result of everything going just right. I started to grapple with all this at my Grandfather's knee.

As I turn 65 it is a real pleasures is having Aunt Mary, his youngest daughter, to chat with a bit each day. She has lots of stories for me of when I was very little. Not so many folks have those memories these days. I love the stories about my hiding under tables to avoid Yiaya's watchful eye. She loves to tell me this one and I love to hear her tell me. Family stories are just family stories, but I think they have great importance to us.

(pictured to the right is Aunt Louise, Yiaya and Papooie's 2nd daughter and my Godmother - taken a couple of years before she passed at 87+ and to the left is a photo of my Aunt Mary, Papooie's youngest daughter of his eight children. She is holding Aunt Louise's great-grand-daughter, Lilli)

Fisher, our new neighbor! Run, Porcupine, run!

Our orchard as many of you may recall has suffered for several years now at the claws of Porcupine who climb our fruit trees, the cherry and plumb being favored and eat the tender shoots, leaves and tear away and discard the branches.Disassembling a fruit tree doesn't take many days and metal wrapped around trunks and fencing only usually helps. Sometimes Mr. Porcupine gets through the barriers. A stripped tree cannot photosynthesize properly and some of our trees have died. Numerous have become misshapen.

Something very nice happened in our neighborhood today. We have a Fisher! The fisher is the primary predator of the porcupine. I could not be happier. Kill and eat, Mr. Fisher. Smack those lips. We love our fruit trees:)

We will try to catch some mice - will this result in a Pool of Tears?

I saw a little furry brown fellow scurry behind a big piece of mahogany furniture in the Library. He turned around and looked at me. He was really very cute but he turned and high tailed it to the opposite wall and the security behind the heating pipes just under the bookcases. He was gone in a flash actually. But he is instilled in my mind.

I posted my Mouse and his arrival on my Face book page. People made comments trying to be helpful:
Lee Saltzsieder said:
"Well fed kitty's tend to lackadaisical hunters. Either sharply reduce the kitty kibble or buy a couple of traps. The old fashioned snap kind work best. Just a tiny dab of peanut butter in the bait hole works wonders. "
Rachael Snedden:
"Want me to send Kobe? He's got two kills & scared a rat right out of the house! Danny want everyone to just be friends. But Kobe's got killa' instincts!" (*These are her Labs - my previous Blog as to their lineage)
Beth Vogel:
I used to have a big fat cat that would sit on the sofa and watch me chase the mouse around......I'd offer to rent out Sophie to you but now that her thyroid problem is under control and she isn't hungry all the time, not sure she would still be a willing mouser..... :)

Yes, we had tried Quincy the big fat resident cat and she just has paid no attention to the concept of mousies at all, so Clark bought traps.

This morning we baited the those standard issue mouse traps from the store with peanut butter and are waiting.

But like Alice in Wonderland, after catching them will we reside in a pool of tears?

So Innocent, but not Forever. Thoughts on the Doggies' Little Sister

This is my newest friend on Earth. Her name is Concordia Elizabeth Howland Snedden. She is a Pisces and that must make her almost seven months old now.

Already I feel love for her (I swear this) but I have never met her in person yet in this life time, as she lives near Ithaca, New York, while I am in Maine. I have adored her Mom and Dad now for a few years. I have gazed at many photos of her, and I did hear background babbles as I chatted with her mom the other day.

I know how much she was desired. I watched her parents give love and "parent" two Chocolate Labs for several years before her arrival. Now these strong mischievous Lab boys are her older brothers, Dani and Kobe. She may believe them to be her siblings at this point in her early innocence. I would guess that if she attempts to figure out relationships in her world of Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and so on, she will see the dogs boys as other kids of her Parents. And this is true, but only figuratively, of course.

The pups may most likely think of her as a late arriving litter mate. The boys never really asked for a little sister, but, hey, one day there she was! I am told that they are respectful of Concordia and have discovered quickly that their parents' attention on the new little one has given them more opportunity to be more free. Many a night I hear they have had to be rounded up after figuring out how to leave their Momma who is busy with with Concordia and run out into the night to frolic. Boys will be boys. "Brothers", thinks Concordia, "don't always behave!"

At what point will her innocence give way and she figure out the truth?

When will Concordia Snedden figure out that Kobe and Dani are the family dogs? When will she realize that she is not just their little adored sister but indeed their Mistress/Master?

And along with that revelation and the fact that she is as smart as that proverbial tack, there will be more revelations to her.

She will learn that wood stoves although giving warmth are also very hot and can burn. She will find out that stairs are a bit dangerous and tricky although very accommodating to get from one floor to another . She will discover that roses smell nice and are beautiful but that rose bushes have prickly thorns. She will learn so very much and so very soon now.

It hardly seems fair that such unblemished innocence cannot go on forever in the completely innocent state we clearly see in this beautiful baby candid photograph. It is a good thing that there are the pictures though!

Welcome to the World, Sweet Concordia! I know that you will have some fine adventures and wonderful times -- and from the looks of you now, that you will be able to "call up" that "innocence" with a seconds notice whenever needed!

Should you have 23 - 24 hours to devote to a recipe, may I suggest . . . yes, seriously!

Extra-Tangy Sourdough Bread
This bread, with its mellow tang, is perfect for those who like their sourdough bread noticeably sour, but not mouth-puckeringly so. For extra-sour flavor, add 1/4 teaspoon sour salt (citric acid).

Ingredients View by: Volume Weight
1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
5 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon to 5/8 teaspoon salt
8 ounces "fed" sourdough starter from King Arthur dirctly or a friend (mine came from Poet friend Darla)
12 ounces lukewarm water
21 1/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 ounce sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon to 5/8 teaspoon sour salt or salt (citric acid), optional, for extra-sour bread
Directions
1) Combine the starter, water, and 3 cups of the flour. Beat vigorously.
2) Cover, and let rest at room temperature for 4 hours. Refrigerate overnight, for about 12 hours.
3) Add the remaining ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough.
4) Allow the dough to rise in a covered bowl until it's relaxed, smoothed out, and risen a bit. Depending on the vigor of your starter, it may become REALLY puffy, as pictured; or it may just rise a bit.
5) Gently divide the dough in half.
6) Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves, and place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until very puffy, about 2 to 4 hours. Don't worry if the loaves spread more than they rise; they'll pick up once they hit the oven's heat. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.
7) Spray the loaves with lukewarm water.
8) Make two fairly deep horizontal slashes in each; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here.
9) Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it's a very deep golden brown. Remove it form the oven, and cool on a rack.

This recipe needs your attention for over a 23 to 24 hour period, so you know, but it is beyond delicious with its hard European peasant bread crust from any old ordinary oven!

Gravitas

A blog, started with frivolity and the lightest of hearts a couple of months ago, and suddenly now there is "gravitas" here as I sit in front of my lap top.

Yes, last night I could "Fiddle De Dee" it, but tonight is different. Tonight (for the first time) I have an audience. I actually have two followers! Well maybe it is not really a big a deal, but somehow it all feels "different". The words I type may be read! This is no longer for my own amusement.

If the tree falls in my forest now someone may hear it. I feel a bit self conscious. It sort of feels like company is coming. Should I get out the linens, better china and the sterling?