On Gypsy Curses & Grilled Mangos

Nothing more wonderful than having a completely new experience with something familiar. I've long thought that one can live on the same short block and still not have seen & experienced all that it has to offer in the course of an entire lifetime.

I revel in life's smaller pleasures-Just discovered Grilled Mangos with Raspberry Coulis at a local deli counter. These are the perfect marriage of fruit & fire...(mangos, lime juice, brown sugar & raspberries.) The pyromaniac in me has always approved of the charring, smoking and grilling of various vegetables & fruits but I somehow failed to consider the mango as a candidate for the grill! I love the smokey tartness on such a hot day-we have somehow skipped spring here in Tucson. While much of the country is digging out of the snow-we are at the mercy of the sun once again here in the desert.

Over the past few weeks I feel as though I have somersaulted several times and have come up in a completely different place in my life. Everything is familiar but slightly changed...

Have felt as though I am under the spell of an ancient gypsy curse this past week. Feel like a big bubble of inauspiciousness popped on my birthday. it has released it's greasy air in a vaporous cloud which clings to me. I blow it away and it's reappears around me. Have a cold that will not go, a flat tire, & check card fraud. It rained a cold drenching muddy torrent on my birthday-which I normally welcome (especially here in the desert!) but on this particular day I REALLY wanted to pitter around in the garden... very strange indeed as both the day before & the day after were lovely and spring like! Today I witnessed a rear end car crash right in front of me and when the system crashed at the post office while I was being assisted I felt oddly responsible! Almost funny but not quite; must find a four leafed clover...

Despite all of this I feel at peace!

As well as reconnecting with family members in California (which was LONG overdue!!!) I have also experienced the joy of connecting with my beautiful family in Zambia, Amsterdam & Boston. Can't even begin to express the pure excitement I'm experiencing in getting to know my beautiful step mother, 6 stepsisters & 2 stepbrothers. Life is something else! I feel completely giddy! I am learning to speak Bemba!

Life is beautiful, gypsy curse & all...

Inspiration!

Kate MacDowell

Kate MccGwire

Cal Lane

Love these works! Inspires me to pick up where I've left off with my own Installation Projects!

On Sickness and Small Comforts

Sick in Bed=Happy Cat

Haven't quite felt like myself this past week...A nasty cold has ravaged my household. Ever since the surgery I swear I have caught EVERY cold bug possible... soon I will petition Guinness World Records as the champion of most cold viruses ever endured. (or Guinness for several pints to numb my throbbing head!!!) I am an influenza trendsetter... first on the block every time... on to the next/the latest-before the masses catch on (or catch it!) Luckily, I have never been seriously ill. Pretty sturdy composition when it comes down to it. My body is still working on 'growing bone' from the bone grafts in my L5 vertebra-so I guess I'll cut it some slack! In writing that I realized that I never asked my surgeon where the bone material came from... do I really want to know?!!? (My imagination is now running away with itself!)

Haven't felt like making art... haven't felt like cooking...(or cleaning.) Just want to pull the covers up over my head... curl up within the cat incubated sheets and sleep the discomfort away. Follow the trail of kleenex... the sniffles and whimpers and you'll find me wrapped in a cocoon of blankets in the dark... nose blown red raw.

I usually awake to find one cat on each side of me. (Both cats on the same side ALWAYS results in a fracas.) I've got the drill down. Sometime in the wee morning hours I receive a visit from Ophelia who signals her desire to crawl beneath the covers by licking my forehead once AND/OR Lucciola (LuLu) who claws at the sheets until I lift them for entry. We settle back into sleep... warm, dreaming, whiskers twitching. A small comfort.

The Family Name

Luker's Pub-Ireland

I am so excited to reconnect with family after several years...so much catching up to do! How did so much time pass so quickly!?! Found This Fabulous Pub in Shannonbridge County Offaly Ireland. The perfect place to meet for a family get together!!!

Reconnection & Letting go.

I am reeling from the news that my Uncle passed away last Saturday.

It had been awhile since we last saw each other but I have always loved him. How did so much time pass so quickly? We are such a strong, stoic & enduring clan. Reconnection...

I will miss you very much Uncle Stan. Your sense of humor and your wide smile will always hold a place in my heart.

Hooray for Community Supported Agriculture!

(lovely photos from Sleeping Frog Farms)

I had a Eureka! moment this week when I discovered Tucson Community Supported Agriculture.

Even though The CSA concept has been thriving since the 60's-70's; I somehow missed the memo! What a brilliant way to eat locally and organically in an economical way while supporting local enterprise & family run farms!

I love the idea of eating locally and have tried here and there to adopt a more conscious way of shopping-but have found it to be really difficult on an Artist's budget (Translation: Penniless.) and in the Desert. I love the various spices and prickly delicacies that the desert has to offer- The roasted chilies out here are the best I've ever had. Although, I learned that New Mexican green chilies are quite different from their bland Californian cousins. I grew up believing that GREEN=MILD. (The joke was on me!!!)

I am really looking forward to experimenting with Mesquite flour/meal.

Scraping The Skillet
mesquite flour pancakes

It was much easier to find local, organic, in season produce in California. (easier but not nescessiarly cheaper!) I do miss shopping the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market in my more flush days! It was a bit of a Snob-O-Rama but the selection was/is? wonderful! Who wouldn't want to savor a brioche while perusing quail eggs! (The Bay Area must be taken, at times, with a grain of salt!!) The 'other' side of the tracks was no less bountiful-so many side of the road produce stands! Cherries, artichokes...right from the farm. (Still suffering from homesickness.)

I became so thrilled when I started researching a couple of the farms near Tucson which are offering CSA shares. I've been looking at Crooked Sky Farms & Sleeping Frog Farms. I would love to have a garden of my own; I miss digging in the dirt and tending to my plants. I worked for two different Nurseries in my youth and have spent many a happy day weeding & pruning. I really want to start a couple of raised bed gardens in my tiny back yard but it has become such a huge & insurmountable project that I'm fearing it may not get off the ground any time soon. Same story with the process of obtaining a plot in a community garden. The idea of becoming a CSA share holder is so perfect for me right now-I love the idea of receiving a box of fresh, organic, in season local produce (and goat's cheese) every week. (for about $20-30 a week.) What a great way to diversify my menu. It's got to be a much healthier way to eat-more variety & exposure to things I might not gravitate to in the store. Love that it forces a weekly exercise in creativity. Here is a turnip-how are you going to prepare it!!??! Just like the good ol' Art School days where I had weekly assignments which kept the creative muscles warmed up. I really love to cook but have fallen out of the habit. Can't wait to get this going-Have to wait until May! Phooey!

Who's your Farmer?

Farmer Frank Martin owner of Crooked Sky Farms