Poof!

On By StefanieIn Food, Gardening, joy, Spirituality

My two-week vacation serenity evaporated within a few hours of returning to work on Monday. Poof! I was only away three extra days than everyone else—the library was closed for all the other days—but yet I still had a pile of things to sort through on my return. I am the only one in my library who does my job, and when something complicated arises while I am away, everyone sets it aside to await my return.

In addition to that, professors are supposed to have their class syllabus and online class sites ready to publish by tomorrow even though class don’t actually start for another week. Part of my job in the library is creating resource lists for professors with documents they have written for the class as well as links to digital materials—cases, statutes, law journal articles and so on (you could call this a digital course reserve that is created just for each class and connected directly into canvas, the online course management system the university uses). I proactively requested updates from professors at the beginning of December, but of course I didn’t receive them until over the holidays when the library was closed and during this past week. So I spent my week scrambling to make updates and find poorly cited new resources as well as filling requests for a few professors who asked for brand new resource lists.

I was so tired in the evenings during the week that I did nothing but what I absolutely needed to, which means this weekend has been far from the most relaxing. Tomorrow will be another scramble as I attempt to finish up all the resource list things that I didn’t manage to do last week. When that is all done I will still be busy catching up on all the other less urgent parts of my job that I pushed aside. I am hoping by the end of the week to be all caught up with everything so I can enjoy a 3-day Martin Luther King. Jr. holiday weekend.

Back in 2016 when Trump was elected the first time, there was a huge march and rally at the state capitol in St Paul that James and I went to—a women’s march. It was an amazing experience with all the pink pussy hats and singing and dancing and speakers. On the 18th the same people who organized the women’s march have organized a “people’s march.” I’m sure it will also be amazing and I would like to go but I just don’t anticipate having the energy for it. Not to mention the forecast is for a high of only 15F/-9.4C. It was in the mid-twenties fahrenheit in 2016 and in spite of the crowd and excitement, the hours of standing around left James and I both uncomfortably cold. So I hope there is a huge turnout in spite of the cold, but we just can’t.

read and black buffalo plaid fleece slippers
Like a warm hug for me feet

Even though I had a stressful week, there was still joy to be found. I got new slippers! They are warm and squishy. I was in great need of new slippers because I had worn the soles on both heels right through to the inside on my old slippers.

There was also a lovely little snow on Thursday. It was so cold it was the light, fluffy kind of snow and it wasn’t a lot, just enough to brighten things up. Biking through it on my way to and from work was so much fun since there was no ice beneath it or any car-created road slush. The studs on my bike’s snow tires make a sizzling sound like something frying in a skillet when I ride on bare pavement and it’s kind of noisy. But with this little bit of snow, my bike was suddenly quiet and the tires only made a quiet shoosh as I rode.

At our Buddhist sangha Thursday night we had special guests. In one of the suburbs is a Vietnamese temple that practices in the Plum Village tradition as does my sangha. The Abbot of Temple Bo De was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in Vietnam. Several of my sangha members have visited Temple Bo De and have been instrumental in creating a relationship between our two sanghas. So it was wonderful to have the Abbot, Thanh Hiep, visit my sangha and facilitate a meditation and give a talk. However, he doesn’t speak much English. He would talk and then another member of the Bo De sangha would then translate. It all went very well. He spoke about forgiveness, and brought a beautiful peacefulness with him. The evening was an oasis in my otherwise stressful week.

On Friday the sourdough cookbook I ordered from which my successful Solstice sourdough recipe originated via a vegan recipe blog, arrived. The book, Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa has me dreaming of bread baking. James makes all of our everyday bread and I hope he doesn’t worry that I am barging into his domain. I don’t generally enjoying working in the kitchen but I did like making the Solstice sourdough. I’m thinking sourdough might be a once a month sort of undertaking, so James doesn’t need to be concerned. I’m more of a specialty dabbler than a serious baker. I already let him know that I’ll be making a fresh loaf next weekend. It will be a plain one, just to make sure my first try at Solstice wasn’t a complete fluke. If it’s a success then my next loaf will be something different from the cookbook. I’ll let you know how it goes!

And today, I completed placing all my seed orders for the garden. Here’s what I’m getting new this year:

Fedco Seeds:

  • Grusha Galia-type Melon
  • New York Early Organic Yellow Storage Onion
  • Rossa Lunga di Tropea Red Summer Onion
  • Plain Leaf Parsley
  • Piracicaba Non-Heading Broccoli
  • Horehound
  • Lady’s Mantle
  • Zaatar Oregano
  • Spilanthes, also known as toothache plant
  • Ruby Parfait Organic Celosia
  • Honesty, also known as money plant
  • White Snakeroot

Pinetree Garden Seeds:

  • White Moonflower (for moths)
  • Resina Calendula
  • Bright Lights Swiss Chard
  • Angelica
  • German Chamomile
  • Borage
  • Lemon Balm
  • White Sage
  • Lamb’s Ears
  • Evening Stock (for moths)
  • Only the Lonely Nicotiana (for moths)

North Circle Seeds:

  • Ukrainian Squash
  • Red Kaoliang Sorghum
  • Yellow Cabbage Collard

Baker Creek:

  • Orange Peach Tomato
  • Pink Evening Primrose (for moths)

Burpee:

  • Lazy Housewife Pole Bean

Lots of herbs and medicinal plants, flowers for moths, a few vegetables (and a grain) I have never grown before, and a few I have but are new to me varieties. These will join the flowers and vegetables that I have already grown in the past and for which I’ve saved seeds. So exciting!

Because of my hectic week I am behind on replying to comments. I hope to be able to respond this week.

Reading

  • Book: Little Lazarus by Michael Bible. This came into James’s bookstore as an advanced reading copy and he snagged it because two tortoises are a big part of the story and I am a fan of all critters turtle and tortoise. It is a short novel told by four different narrators. First, Francois, a human, followed by Lazarus, a 100+ year-old tortoise, then Eleanor, a human, and finally Little Lazarus, a young tortoise. It’s about time and memory, relationship, desire, grief, love, and forgiveness. A lovely story due to be published in April.
  • Article: Planning for spring’s garden? Bees like variety and don’t care about your neighbor’s yard. Bee researcher Laura Russo explains that bees zero in on the kinds of flowers they like best and don’t pay attention to the surrounding landscape. Meaning, if you plant it, they will come no matter if your flowers are surrounded by nothing but mown lawns or pavement. So focus on planting a lot of different kinds of flowers. To help you out, Russo provides a bee dinner menu.

Quote

“My father was a quiet man on most days but when he got angry he became a different person. There was something secret in his past that no one could know about. It was guilt or shame, something he had done to someone or something that was done to him. I never knew. My father was as big a mystery as God. He worked every day for a man he hated. I used to think that was pathetic. I thought that kind of life was small and embarrassing. It took me years to realize that I should have been mad at the world instead of him.”

~Michael Bible, Little Lazarus

Listening

  • Podcast: Listening to the Land: Myth, Story and Traditions of the Land. This is the first episode of a new to me podcast. The hosts talk to psychologist and mythologist Sharon Blackie and writer and documentary maker Manchán Magan about how to overcome our historical separation from the land and how to cultivate relationship with the land. I’m a fan of Sharon Blackie so I found this enjoyable and thoughtful. I’ve always been envious of folks in the UK and Europe who can reach back to the folklore and myth of their landscapes, because in the Unites States, as a descendant of settler colonialists, I have no land-relationship traditions here. While I have German and Irish ancestors, those stories don’t fit this land and I have no right to appropriate the stories of Native Americans. But Blackie is aware of this and says that people like me can still build a relationship with the land, I just have to pay attention and the land will share stories if I listen.

Watching

  • Series: The Detectorists (2014-2022). We just finished watching season one. A coworker recommended the show to me. It’s a quiet, quirky, UK series about two friends who are metal detectorists who spend their free time searching the fields for Viking gold. It’s funny and sweet and a nice antidote to the daily news.

James’s Kitchen Wizardry

This week James created an original miso-based soup that incorporated the resilient brown beans I grew in the garden over summer. The soup was delicious. This is the first time we’ve eaten the beans and I will definitely be growing them again next year. He also made a small, tasty loaf of onion bread to go along with the soup. Yum.

30 thoughts on “Poof!”

  1. I hear you! Bye-bye serenity… hello, reality! BUT — I am starting my seed orders soon too. I’m also going to try to start lady’s mantle (and some other herb/beneficial flowers) for this one garden bed that I have been struggling to fill out for the past six years. It gets flooded in the winter and the clay soil dries up to cement in the summer. Lots of compost and amendments and trial and error. Anyway… have you grown borage before? I started with ONE plant and now it is everywhere. It’s lovely, but I recommend pulling it out from where you might not want it because (at my house anyway) it grows VERY large and sort of takes over. It’s easy to pull and very pretty so I don’t mind, but it was a pain to get to my tomatoes this year because I let a borage get huge — couldn’t bear to pull it. Lesson learned. Plenty of borage, it is apparently very happy at my house. Lemon balm and lambs ear are also trusty reliables here. Also I have that sourdough cookbook! It’s a good one. I also recommend King Arthur flour website — lots of good sourdough recipes! I made one today! Happy mid-winter…

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    2. I’ve never grown lady’s mantle before so I’m excited for its medicinal uses but also for its pollinator attractiveness. I have grown borage before. Tried to grow in my herb spiral and two different occasions. The first time it was a sad and stumpy little thing that died in the heat of summer. The second time it only grew a little over a foot tall but it did get some flowers on it. I was hoping it would re-seed but it did not. I am going to try it somewhere beside the herb spiral and may end up regretting it but I’m willing to take the risk 🙂 If it reseeds I will be sure to not be afraid of pulling it out of places I do not want it. Thanks for the warning!

      So many yummy recipes to try in the sourdough cookbook. Glad to hear you like it so much. I will be sure to visit the King Arthur website. Thanks for the tip!

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    1. Thanks you Smithereens, the slippers are wonderfully warm and cozy!

      I hope people went to the rally too even though it’s only -13C outside with a wind chill of -23C. Anyone who went is a hardy soul!

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  4. Seeds and sourdough sound like the perfect antidote to your hectic week! We started baking sourdough bread about eight years ago with a starter that our son Sam gave us; it is still going strong and has survived several international moves amongst other adventures! It’s such a fascinating process, one that I think really connects us with the wonders of nature in the kitchen. Good luck with your next loaf, I’m sure it will be wonderful! We love the Larousse Book of Bread, the sourdough pain au chocolat is to die for! 😊https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Eric-Kayser/The-Larousse-Book-of-Bread–Recipes-to-Make-at-Home/16507878

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    1. I love the thought of your traveling sourdough starter Lis! I hope it made the trek to Wales with you! Do you find the flavor changes depending on where you live? I’ve heard the yeasts in different locations change the flavor. People here in the States want San Francisco sourdough and you can buy the starter in stores, but I’ve heard from a few disappointed people that they got a couple months of San Francisco flavor before it began to change. Baked my second loaf this afternoon and it turned out beautifully so my first loaf wasn’t a fluke! 🙂 I will have to see if I can find the Larousse book somewhere. Thanks for the tip!

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      1. Yep, Yeasty Beastie is alive and well in Wales! That’s fascinating about different flavours, I’ve never heard that before. I can’t say I’ve noticed any geographical difference with ours. I’m looking forward to getting our mill unpacked and in action again as it is much easier to buy grains for milling here than it was in France and there is definitely something special about home-ground flour!
        That’s wonderful news about your loaf, I reckon you’re on a roll! 😊

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  6. I’m always intrigued when people say things like “lovely snow” when they’re out in it–my new daughter-in-law is like that, and it’s so cheerful to think you and she love something about the weather I most dislike and fear.

    I love the article about bees liking variety. The one thing I can do, physically, is plant a lot of different flowers in pots around my back yard! And that’s a cheerful thought.

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    1. As someone who grew up in a decidedly un-snowy place, “lovely snow” is not a thing I ever imagined saying 🙂 But when it’s light and fluffy and gently falling, it is so pretty. When it gets melty and icy it ceases to be lovely.

      Glad you enjoyed the bee article! Your flowers are gorgeous. You do wonders with planting them in pots around your back yard.

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  7. Katrina Stephen's avatar Katrina Stephen

    I love The Detectorists, I’ve watched it all several times and never tire of it – and the music. I’ve been out with my b-i-l’s metal detector but so far have only found junk!

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    1. I hadn’t realized that seed ordering takes place so early in the year! How exciting for you, and now it makes more sense as to why you were looking at your seed catalogs at the end of last year. I love that you’re looking for joy in all the different places, from the sound of your bicycle in the snow, to the plants that you’re going to grow that attract moths. I recently read that we shouldn’t clean up our yards until it’s at least over 50° for a few days because there may be bugs and bees and moths, etc, hanging out in the tubes inside of hollow, reed type branches, or hanging out under the leaves, etc. We don’t really plan to do much with the yard anyway. We haven’t even taken down our Christmas tree yet. And at this point, by we, I mean Nick. Anyway, I sense less despair on your blog, and I hope that’s how you feel in general and not just a brave face that you’re putting on.

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      1. It depends on what you are planning to grow Melanie and what growing zone you live in. I need to start my onion seeds indoors around Groundhog Day and my tomato seeds a few weeks after that. The perennial herb seeds also need to get an early start.

        It is true about not cleaning up your yard/garden until it warms up because of hibernating critters. No Mow May has become a thing here and the city has even agreed to not send out citations to homeowners with overly long grass during the month. It’s kind of cool.

        As for joy, I’m glad you have been enjoying my sharing. As for feeling anxious about world happenings, there is much to be concerned about but I am finding ways to manage my concern in constructive and useful ways instead of just worrying about it. 🙂

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        1. I’m so proud of Minnesota for respecting No Mow May, and I’m so proud of you for managing your concerns and anxieties. I learned in therapy that when I could manage anxiety in my mind, I have more time to do (including activist work!).

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  8. It’s encouraging to think that there were rallies being held, but I don’t blame you in the least for not attending. How anyone hangs around outside in -9 degree temperatures, I do not know. The return to work in dark weather is always exhausting. I love your slippers and am delighted to know you’re going for the sourdough again. That first loaf looked incredible!

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    1. There was a good turn out for the rally, though significantly less than the 100,000 eight years ago. Still, I’m glad people were able to make it.

      Thank you! My slippers are wonderfully cozy. And I made sourdough again and it was perfect! 🙂

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  9. Yay for seeds!

    Glad to hear (via the above comment) that the second sourdough loaf turned out to be super tasty too!

    It’s hard to be the only one in a workplace like that but, at the same time, it’s a strange sort of job security too. Which matters in this economic climate more than it once did I suppose.

    We have had lovely snow lately too. I hope you’ve got some more in store for you yet (and none of the non-lovely kind).

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    1. I definitely have job security Marcie, for which I am grateful! Made a 3rd successful sourdough loaf over the weekend! And we got more snow and it would have been lovely if it also weren’t sleeting needles on my face :p

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  10. Sorry you had to return to all that stress Stefanie. Hope it’s settled a bit now. I did enjoy though reading a bit about your work. I can just imagine professors being late with stuff, and not properly citing it, etc!

    Love that information about bees … I didn’t know that. Would they find a plant on a balcony? Actually, I know that they would because there was a fascinating program on beekeepers on our national television a couple of years ago, and one couple was on a balcony.

    I love this, “It took me years to realize that I should have been mad at the world instead of him”. This and your sangha makes me think you really would like Charlotte Wood’s Stone yard devotional. (There’s a great review in a recent Washington Post – I’ve seen a shared version so don’t have the link.) It’s one of the most beautifully reflective books I’ve read in a long time.

    Love the sound of James’ soup. I’m sure he won’t mind if you make some delicious bread once a month!

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    1. Thanks WG. It’s not quite as bad now, but there have still been quite a few trying moments. However, it is much more balanced with calm, so that’s something!

      Yes, bees will find flowers on balconies. I have a friend with a balcony garden who can attest to it 🙂

      I have Stone Yard Devotional on my TBR list. I will move it up towards the top immediately!

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