Linda Hoye's Blog, page 185

Country Roads and Wild Flowers

Gerry and I took a drive up into the grasslands yesterday, stopping now and then to take photos.

Each time I stepped out of our vehicle I was struck by the silence, the sweet spring smells, the warmth of the sun on my shoulders, and an overwhelming calm fell upon me.

Nature does that if we let it.

Dusty roads beckoned us to travel them, old derelict houses whispered mysteries of a bygone era, sleepy doe-eyed free-range cattle glanced our way as we passed. Our imaginations were ignited.

Birdsong, from birds whose name I don’t know filled the air. Flowers whose name I don’t know adorned the fields as far as the eye could see.

Somewhere along the line, the value of these wild flowers–weeds, some might say–has been diminished in our eyes. We covet orchids and exotic roses and birds of paradise for the vases that fill our homes and office buildings. We forget that there is a simple and timeless beauty just outside of our back door if we head to the quiet of the country.

These wild flowers often grow in harsh habitats, they have adapted themselves so that they flourish in the midst of conditions that would make short work of those more exotic blooms. They are strong; they are hardy; and yes, they are beautiful too.

Next time you see a wildflower–a weed, if you prefer–stop and take notice of its simple beauty. Consider its ability to persevere and to bloom right where it is planted. Year after year.

There’s a lesson there.

Slow Food – Homemade Yogurt

This morning I stood at my stove stirring a pot of warming milk. The smell was comforting; it reminded me of childhood and hot chocolate and butterscotch pudding. The meditative stirring took me back to cold winter mornings when I stirred pots of porridge for my children’s breakfast. The comforting smell of warm milk reminded me of other smells that are pleasing to me like that of a hot iron on hot cotton that I wrote about briefly many years ago here. The very act of being in my kitchen and preparing food to be enjoyed later for some reason reminded me of standing at the sink washing dishes at my aunt’s home on the Saskatchewan prairie looking out over the flat landscape. It’s funny how a few minutes spent in the kitchen can take your mind on a journey to other comforting times and places. We miss out when we’re too busy to take the time to prepare our own food.

I was making yogurt this morning. I dabbled with this while I was still working but I got away from it when the effort it required, which really is minimal, was pushed aside by other seemingly higher priority activities. Now, in retirement, I’m delighted to have the time and desire to resume this activity. It requires a bit of planning. For example I put a batch on late yesterday afternoon that needed to be removed from the incubator to the fridge at 10:30 last night–not a good idea for someone like me who is typically in bed long before then.

Making yogurt is easy: it’s basically just heating milk, cooling milk, stirring in some kind of starter and setting it aside to incubate.

I started with pouring 42 ounces of fresh pasteurized milk from a local dairy into a pot and heating it.

The rough recipe I follow says to heat it to boiling, or about 185F – 195F. I use a thermometer to check the temperature but I expect after I’ve done this a few more times I’ll be able to skip the thermometer.

Once the milk is up to temperature (and you’ve allowed yourself plenty of time for reflection) allow it to cool to lukewarm, or about 95F. I like to put the pot in a bit of cold water in my sink.

Once it’s down to temperature, whisk a bit of the lukewarm milk in with about 6 ounces of plain yogurt. I purchased a container of plain Oikos Greek yogurt to use for this. Going forward I’m going to try using the last jar of my own batch as starter instead.

Then, combine this with the larger pot of milk and stir well. Pour the mixture into glass jars and set in a warm place where the jars will not be disturbed to incubate for 8 or so hours. I use a yogurt maker which is basically just a heater with a cover. I’ve read where other’s have used a cooler filled with warm water, a heating pad, a slow cooker, even an oven on low temperature.

This makes a batch of plain yogurt. You can flavour it when you’re making it with fruit preserves but I prefer the plain.

Easy right? And you know exactly what’s in it. I enjoyed a jar of this homemade yogurt this morning with a bit of granola on top; store-bought granola…making it myself is my next project.

Photo Friday – My Finch Friend

This fellow, and his wife oftentimes, light on the rail of my upper deck and greet the morning. What a joy to wake to the sound of their serenade!

A couple of days ago I opened the screen door and waited quietly for them to appear so I could snap a few photos.

Here is a sample of the song of the house finch. Is it any wonder that I welcome their presence?!

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/house_finch/sounds

Happy Friday! I hope all has been well with your week. What weekend plans are on the horizon for you?

My Writing Process Tour

There’s a blog tour going on called #mywritingprocess that writers of all genres all over the world are taking part in by sharing insight into their writing life through answering a few simple questions. I was invited to participate by my long-time writing and blogging friend, Kathy Pooler, who is on the cusp of publishing her memoir Ever Faithful To His Lead: My Journey Away from Emotional Abuse, her story about the power of hope through her faith in God.  

Kathy posts regularly on her blog Memoir Writer’s Journey where she shares a treasure-trove of information for those interested in writing the stories of their lives . Kathy is one of the most generous writers I’ve encountered. I have, and continue to, learn a lot from her–about writing and life. I hope you’ll stop by her blog and get to know her.

Now, here are my responses to the #mywritingprocess questions.

What am I working on?

A couple of years ago three female characters took up residence in my mind and I’ve been getting to know them ever since. I’ve dabbled a bit with each of them, creating character sketches, writing a few vignettes, even putting them together and observing their interactions with one another. I’ve spent a fair bit of time considering story ideas, jotting down notes, and asking the ever-important “what if” question over and over again as I tried to draw out the story I wanted to tell.

Recently, I’ve been working on a comprehensive plot outline for a novel about two of these characters . In the plotter (one who develops a clear outline before writing) vs pantser (one who writes without an outline by the seat of their pants) debate I’m firmly planted in the plotter territory on this work. I’m not prepared to say much about this project yet–suffice to say that I’ve been deep into character studies, outlining, research, and am just beginning the actual writing process.

Some time ago I started writing about the life of my grandmother who raised three children on her own during the Great Depression after her husband died. I continue to dabble with that project, researching life in Saskatchewan during the Dirty Thirties, and transcribing my aunt’s–Grandma’s youngest child–diary which she kept from age 14 to 17.

I’ve also been working on an audio version of Two Hearts. Stay tuned for an announcement about this soon.

Finally, I continue to maintain this blog where I post regularly about midlife, life writing, my retiree adventures, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I enjoy interacting with readers who leave comments or send me emails about posts.

Why do I write what I do?

The sage advice to writers is to “write what you know” and that’s the approach I take for the most part. I write about what interests me, what I’m passionate about: midlife, retirement, adoptee issues, and family relationships. I tend to be introspective (perhaps to a fault sometimes) and I do a lot of reflective writing that sometimes morphs into blog posts and sometimes stays safely in a file on my laptop.

I’m fascinated by the intricacies and complexities of diverse family relationships and that factors big time into my new work. There are threads in the story from things that have caught my attention in the media lately too. I’ve been delving into them deeper, researching and learning more because they’ve become important to the story but also because they’re issues that have, or will, touch the lives of many of us at some time. I’m hoping this translates into a work that readers will find both interesting and relevant.

How does my writing process work?

As I looked ahead to what life would be like in retirement I envisioned a routine where I’d rise early in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, and head to my writing cave where I’d put in a few solid hours of writing. Now that I’ve actually arrived in retiree-land it turns out my routine is not quite that cut and dried. Some days that’s exactly what I do, other days I linger in bed over a second cup of coffee and a book, still other mornings find me busy around the house and I don’t make it to my writing room until mid-afternoon. And yes, there are days I don’t make it at all.

I have decided to allow myself a period of grace to settle into our new life before getting too rigid about routine and commit to a schedule that works best for me. Still, when I’m not writing I’m usually thinking about writing–whether it be fodder for a blog post or something I want to work into my novel. I find inspiration is everywhere if I allow myself to be open to receiving it and that’s the reason I carry a notebook around with me most of the time. I’ve learned the hard way that not writing down ideas as they come is a sure-fire way to lose them; my aging brain is not as good at retention and recall as it was when I was younger!

For the time being I’m doing a lot of reading, studying the craft of writing, tending my garden, practicing photography, and as I mentioned earlier, writing a novel.

 

Now, I’m pleased to introduce you to three writers I’ve nominated to take part in the #mywritingprocess tour and who will be posting on their blogs about their writing process next week.

Barbara Techel

Barbara Techel “encourages others to live with passion and authenticity and celebrate the human-animal bond which teaches us to enjoy life’s simple pleasures”. She is the author of the award-winning Through Frankie’s Eyes where she shares the story of her journey to the heart of herself and the little dog who accompanied her on the way, an assortment of children’s books about Frankie, the Walk ‘N Roll Dog , and a short story collection For the Love of Animals. Barbara was a guest here last year when Through Frankie’s Eyes was released and she blogs regularly at Joyful Paws.

Letty Watt

I’ve been delighted to get to know Letty through her contributions to Story Circle Network’s One Woman’s Day blog. Letty is a retired librarian/teacher who enjoys spending as much time as possible gardening, golfing, and walking her dog. Winter months find her indoors writing stories that mutter around in her head. Letty blogs at Literally Letty and you can also find her at One Woman’s Day.

Denise Roessle

If memory serves, Denise and I first connected when I was privileged to read and review  her memoir, Second-Chance Mother: A Memoir of Adoption, Loss, and Reunion for Story Circle Book Reviews in 2011. She subsequently agreed to do a guest post here and our mutual interest in adoption issues and life writing resulted is us staying connected over the years. I was honoured to present with her on a panel discussion about The Healing Power of Writing Our Truths at the 2013 American Adoption Congress conference (along with adoption educator Judy M. Miller).

Making Tea With A Few Hundred Friends

I made a five-gallon bucket full of tea today. Worm tea.

I wrote about my initial foray into worm composting in a series of posts a couple of years ago. In case you missed the excitement, or are interested in learning more about vermicomposting, here are the links to those posts:

Preparing the Worm Hotel
New Residents at the Worm Hotel
An Update From the Worm Hotel
Meanwhile, Back at the Worm Hotel

I got the worm hotel up and going again with a fresh batch of Canadian red wigglers about a month ago. Well, those worms have been very busy in the past few weeks and I’m so happy that I’m not forced to put kitchen scraps in the trash anymore.

I keep the worm hotel in the garage just next to the door so it’s easy to get to when I want to add new scraps or check on the progress of the industrious worms.

This afternoon I moved the lower bin–the one that the worms have transformed from kitchen scraps to vermicompost–to the top. Exposing it to the light encourages any worms that have not yet migrated into the bin with fresh scraps to move down. Just look at all of that wonderful compost they’ve created!

I scooped out about four cups of the compost and tossed it in a bucket.

The theory is that if you leave the bin in the light for long enough all of the worms will migrate downward and you won’t need to muck about too much. I’m not that patient and have no qualms about picking through the compost, extracting any rogue worms, and depositing them into the lower bin to speed up the process.

Once I had enough compost, I tossed the bucket into the back of my car and headed down the hill to my community garden plot.

There, I tucked the bucket in the corner of my plot next to my guard chicken and filled it up with water.

(That’s borage and nasturtium next to the guard chicken, planted to attract bees.)

It’s just that easy. I left the bucket there to steep overnight and tomorrow I’ll use the tea to water my plants.

 

Kitchen Update

We’re ready to declare a moratorium on home improvement projects for the time being. The weather is warming up, the sun is shining, and it’s time for golf (for Gerry) and gardening (for me). Gerry has joked more than once that since we retired it feels like every day is a Saturday because we’re always working on something and have made more than our fair share of treks to Home Depot.

The kitchen update has been in the forefront most recently and the finishing touches are just about done. We put a bit of sweat equity into this project as, after the countertops were installed, Gerry and our son Michael spent a busy weekend installing the tile for the kitchen back splash and a few days later I–brave woman that I am–applied the grout.

There were moments when I was laying across the countertop to reach those pesky under-counter areas, and others where I was sitting in the sink applying grout to the window sill. Thankfully there are no photos of those contortions to share with you. I will say that the evening after the grouting was done I was one sore and tired retiree.

Anyway, thought I’d show you the changes. Here’s what the kitchen looked like a couple of days after we moved in:

And here’s a photo taken this morning:

I love the new countertops! They look like granite, yes? They’re actually Formica FX made to look like granite. We raised the level of the one countertop that was, we’ve since found out, built that way to accommodate the short-statured woman who lived here when the house was originally built.

We have a new, much larger refrigerator that I adore; it’s almost the same as the one we had in WA that we originally intended to bring back to Canada with us. Gerry and Michael had to alter the cupboards so the new one would fit. The older, smaller, one that was here when we moved in has found a good home at our kid’s place at the lake. We also put in a new, more efficient dishwasher. I decided to keep the smooth top stove and, though I’m lamenting the loss of my gas range, I’m happy with this one.

Gerry had to talk me into this natural granite composite kitchen sink. I’m so glad he succeeded in winning me over.

 

Check out the marble back splash that our son and Gerry installed, and take special note of the fantabulous grout applied by yours truly. The windowsill also has the marble tiles and has a cute little ledge fashioned by my talented tile-installing son. That ledge with my pot of herbs, an orchid, and my little Red Rose Tea animal, Bobby, who has watched over every kitchen I’ve had and who I’ve written about here before, make me smile every time I stand at the sink.

One of the things I appreciated about my WA kitchen was that I could look out into our backyard while I was standing at the counter working. Today, the view is different, but I can still stand at the counter working and look out over a spectacular view (the hills are green just now, but they’ll soon be turning brown as the hot Kamloops summer settles in).

So that’s it, the kitchen where I’m spending a lot of time these days trying new recipes and enjoying my home. Inhabiting it, thankful that the dream I had a few years ago has come true at last.

Photo Friday – A White Lilac and a Pink Carnation

It’s been a busy week. Not much writing time but lots of family time. We’ve been blessed to have the sound of children’s laughter in our home and, on the other end of the spectrum, we gathered to remember Gerry’s brother who left us much too soon.

I found a bit of time one morning to play with one of my retirement gifts–a macro lens for my camera. Here’s a couple of images I captured of the remainder of the pink carnations my mother-in-love gave me on Mother’s Day and the sweet-smelling lilacs from the yard.

Photo Friday

It’s been a busy week. Not much writing time but lots of family time. We’ve been blessed to have the sound of children’s laughter in our home and, on the other end of the spectrum, we gathered to remember Gerry’s brother who left us much too soon.

I found a bit of time one morning to play with one of my retirement gifts–a macro lens for my camera. Here’s a couple of images I captured of the remainder of the pink carnations my mother-in-love gave me on Mother’s Day and the sweet-smelling lilacs from the yard.

Photo Friday – The Mid-May Community Garden

A few pics from my community garden plot to share with you today!

Within the garden, some of the plots are simple with only lettuce, onions, and garlic growing (I’m amazed by the number of people who have garlic growing in their plots! I plan to plant some in August/September for next year too). Others, more elaborate have the plot divided into sections of raised beds. One plot in particular with a trellis-like structure for squash, a tidy place underneath for lettuce, and sacks for growing potatoes that has me drooling. Many gardeners, many different plans, a place to learn from one another and find inspiration.

Traditionally this weekend is the kick-off of the gardening season in Kamloops so the garden is a beehive of activity right now. Still, it’s a place to go to feel grounded and find peace. I absolutely love it there.

Nine of the thirty tomato plants I started from seed there are in the garden. Others have been gifted to friends and family and two remain at my house while I waffle back and forth about attempting to plant them in pots at home and somehow foil the deer.  Marigolds planted nearby to keep them happy happy, and a pot of mojito mint in the foreground.

Seven pepper plants, also grown from seed. In the background my Alderman tall telephone peas. These guys will get to be over six feet tall! To the left of the peas the rainbow carrots, three varieties of lettuce, and two varieties of radishes are starting.

Another view of the peas. In the foreground, just starting to come up are borage and nasturtium plants to keep the bees happy. Next to them bright lights Swiss chard.

And another view of the tomatoes. In the upper right quadrant, not yet up, are two spaghetti squash and one yellow crookneck squash.

I am enjoying tending this garden plot so much! It’s such a joy to stop by every day to water, sow, weed, and chat with other gardeners. This is, indeed, a community of gardeners. This place has become my happy place, my meditation place, my quiet sanctuary. I am tending the garden but it’s giving back to me so much more.

Photo Friday

A few pics from my community garden plot to share with you today!

Within the garden, some of the plots are simple with only lettuce, onions, and garlic growing (I’m amazed by the number of people who have garlic growing in their plots! I plan to plant some in August/September for next year too). Others, more elaborate have the plot divided into sections of raised beds. One plot in particular with a trellis-like structure for squash, a tidy place underneath for lettuce, and sacks for growing potatoes that has me drooling. Many gardeners, many different plans, a place to learn from one another and find inspiration.

Traditionally this weekend is the kick-off of the gardening season in Kamloops so the garden is a beehive of activity right now. Still, it’s a place to go to feel grounded and find peace. I absolutely love it there.

Nine of the thirty tomato plants I started from seed there are in the garden. Others have been gifted to friends and family and two remain at my house while I waffle back and forth about attempting to plant them in pots at home and somehow foil the deer.  Marigolds planted nearby to keep them happy happy, and a pot of mojito mint in the foreground.

Seven pepper plants, also grown from seed. In the background my Alderman tall telephone peas. These guys will get to be over six feet tall! To the left of the peas the rainbow carrots, three varieties of lettuce, and two varieties of radishes are starting.

Another view of the peas. In the foreground, just starting to come up are borage and nasturtium plants to keep the bees happy. Next to them bright lights Swiss chard.

And another view of the tomatoes. In the upper right quadrant, not yet up, are two spaghetti squash and one yellow crookneck squash.

I am enjoying tending this garden plot so much! It’s such a joy to stop by every day to water, sow, weed, and chat with other gardeners. This is, indeed, a community of gardeners. This place has become my happy place, my meditation place, my quiet sanctuary. I am tending the garden but it’s giving back to me so much more.