Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving proper with HE's Benson side of the family at the Masonic Temple in Gorham, Maine. There was an abundance of delicious food, beautiful old dishes, a coffee can moose call demonstration, and plenty of room.  We even had live music (see photo ) although the artist was reluctant to play requests...we got all original material, but it sounded alot like "Chopsticks".  Friday, we are to have another meal at HE's mum's and then Saturday we are doing a meal for HE's father and stepmother and my aunt. Thanksgiving is my favorite day, so I have no qualms about it being extended.

During this season, may the earth bless you and keep you.  May your loved ones be near in body and spirit.  And may all the gifts, wonders, kindness and abundance of life surround, guide, and protect you. Happy Thanksgiving.

one indignity down

Well, Maisie has gotten at least one indignity (in my experience and that of a number of friends anyway) out of the way...she shat her self in public.  You might think, "What's the big deal?  She's a baby.  She does it all the time."  Which is true, but this was really an exceptional episode as we were in Whole Foods and let's just say we came home with less food than we originally had in the cart.  That's right...the blast blew out or more like, leaked out,  her britches and into the cart.  I will qualify it and say she does have a touch of a GI disturbance, but still it reminded me of  my first retail related bruhaha.  I was in high school and shopping at a mall in Albany, NY with a girl I was trying to impress and her family.  I believe the scene of the crime was JC Penny.  I gave her all my money and asked her to go buy me a new pair of jeans.  After what seemed an eternity in the stall, I heard her mother calling my name and asking me what was going on.  Now, her mother looked like a hotter Shirley Feeney, so you can imagine the degradation.  There was also two sisters and an aunt involved in aiding me in my situation.  The decision was made (and not be me I might add) that we would not buy me new pants and we would go to the aunt's house and do laundry instead. This entailed all new levels of humilation from leaving the bathroom, riding in the car, stripping and borrowing clothes while the wash was being done to explaining to the 14 year old nephew and husband exactly why I had taken to bed in the middle of the afternoon.  I feigned illness to explain the untamed outburst from my nether regions, but the truth was I felt fine, although now of a more dimunitive stature.  To their credit none of them ever gave me grief about it, mostly likely because it or something similar had happened to them or they realized it was just a matter of time.  

INFO OLIO

I want to chronicle a few unrelated happenings, so it would appear we are lacking a theme, hence the olio.

We planted lettuce to see how late into the winter we could go.  It seems as though we have been pretty successful so far.  tonight will be the true test as it is COLD...18 degrees at 10 p.m.

I was walking the dog in the hood the other night (No, this is not a euphemism) and there was a relatively large skunk ambling across someone's yard...I am so happy to have a wildlife sighting, although it did remind me of when I lived in Alfred.  We had huge snow banks one winter there and I was going into the garage one afternoon in February. Suddenly, this sweet faced little skunk came up over the top of the bank and was eye to eye with me.  He was nonplussed and I actually had to get out of his way.  Later that week, our neighbor told a story about a skunk on someone's back porch who had porcupine quills in his face, but was letting the people at the house pet him and then a few days later I found him staggering down the middle of the road, like a drunken sailor giddily making his way home after a bender. The animal control came and ...well you can imagine the rest of the story.  Rabies is like the Alzheimer's of the animal world.

Also, we have discovered the secret to youthful looking skin.  Yo-Baby Organic yogurt.  Use it as you would a facial mask or hand cream...you'll never look more glowing.  Leaves one with a creamy, natural complexion.

The Power and the Promise

I spent today at a beautifully repurposed space at YAI in South Portland attending a Sowing Seeds workshop presented by The Institute for Humane Education .  It was a great mix of lecture, discussion, and activities exploring the arenas of animal rights and welfare, media literacy, environmental issues, and consumerism.  To be encouraged to think critically and temper it with kindness...what a concept.  I would recommend this group to anyone looking for more guidance regarding their own choices/dilemmas regarding "doing the right thing" and how to communicate the far reaching impacts of how we choose to live.  As part of the workshop we received the book The Power and Promise of Humane Education and I bought Above All Else, Be Kind, both by Zoe Weil.  The second one is about raising children to be compassionate and aware and intra/interpersonally powerful in a challenging time.  It is pretty mindblowing to think of Maisie as a changemaker...although she already is as she has transformed me.    

"She loves the bare, the withered tree"...from My November Guest by Robert Frost.

The Artist's Way

We were busy "creating" the past few evenings.  After living with Maisie for the past ten months I can honestly say "Yes, artists are tempermental!".

Redneck Baby Proofing

The title for this post is HE's contribution and refers to the duct taping of the liquor cabinet to keep one VERY active and curious 10 month old out of it.  At least this is not the door to where the actual alcohol is stored, but there is plenty for her to get into with red wine tumblers and vintage glasses.

The banana bread is my tweeked version based on Marjorie Standish's recipe from Cooking Downeast.  I add chocolate chips, walnuts and coconut and undercook it a little bit...it is d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!

November is my favorite month.  I love the bare bones of the trees, especially at night when the stars peek through the branches. I love the squeaking sound the trunks make as they rub against themselves in the cold. I love the first dusting of snow and the way the cold air catches in your throat...it reminds me of a line from an all time favorite poem of mine about November...it is joy, and joy outright. There is so much more I adore about this month...the smell of woodsmoke...I could go on and on. When I was growing up this was the time of anticipation for dogsledding seasons arrival. There are many Saturday nights I am wistful for the Greystone; a local dive, really, in upstate NY.  The worn wooden floor, the jukebox playing old country tunes, the woodstove, cheap drinks,the smell of the cold clinging to patrons jackets as they come in the door, playing pool, the stars twinkling like frost in the sky, snowmobiles lined up in the parking lot...it is a palpable yearning for a different time in my life; a time when people I loved were alive and everything seemed so much more innocent. I am lucky I had the opportunity to relive some of this with my family and friends in my adult life. It and they were the balm that held me together through the deaths of my parents and for this I am ever so thankful.

I hope you all have your own love affair with this season.  Blessings upon you.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

We went to Wolfe's Neck Farm today for an outing.

It was simply stunningly beautiful today, made all the more so by my rapid recovery from yet another gastrointestinal bug that ripped through my system on Halloween. 

With regard to what is beautiful, these turkeys were iridescent in the sunlight and the flesh of their wattles are polychromatic, even though taken as a whole their appearance can be be quite shocking.

And Maisie finds her stroller to be mesmerizingly beautiful...glad she appreciates good design.