Strawberry rhubarb pie; my little crabapple tree; that last cupboard in the kitchen!
For Mother's Day, I made myself a strawberry rhubarb pie! Deirdre and her kids came over (John was painting at a wedding) and we had such a nice day. Rhubarb pie is my favorite, I must say, but to show my love and also to avoid being a total selfish pig, I decorated it to honor Mary, our mother!
I'm actually a bit out of practice in my kitchen work, having been out of commission for so long, but fortunately I already posted the recipe and method here.
As things warm up and our poor pitiful New England spring puts in an appearance, I was gratified to see my little crabapple tree in bloom. I found it a few years ago when we cleared a lot of brush up there and am so happy that we exposed it so we can enjoy it! My photos are not great, because it's so white that it is hard to capture with the phone!
This is our back yard and the tree is right up close to our property line. Above it is an apple orchard but I have no apple trees — other than this little cutie! I made crabapple jelly the year before last (last year a late frost did a lot of damage to all the fruits around here). I'm looking forward to trying again!
Kitchen Corner
Last week I said I'd show you this last cupboard in the kitchen. (I also said I'd show what's in my “active pantry” cupboard next to the stove, but I'll do that later.)
When they demo'd the walls, they found this!
This cupboard here which had been covered in drywall, just behind the chimney breast (they had already put in the beadboard at this point):
Here it is now — I'm giving you a view with the back stairs too. Someday maybe I'll be able to take the carpet out but this is not that day.
The bookshelf had to be moved out of the pantry to make room for the seed bench in there. It will go back soon!
I thought about what to put in this cupboard.
It had to be some category of thing that I wouldn't forget about — in my world, things that are out of sight are out of mind — and also, I later realized, something not affected by the heat of the wood stove; medicines and vitamins wouldn't be good to put there.
Also, inside, it goes back to the right, towards the stairs, in a sort of inaccessible way… it was really hard to prep and paint!
For now I have decided on the unaesthetic category paper goods and light bulbs — putting them here gets them off the pantry shelves where they are untidy and in the way.
So that's a little boring! Maybe you have a better thought?
bits & piecesI loved this consideration of N. C. Wyeth, one of my favorite illustrators. Julian Kwasniewski excellently describes the world we enter when we view his pictures, the influence of his work, and, importantly, the value of paintings over photographs in the formation of children's minds. I am sad to say that the current style of illustration for mainstream (and often Christian and Catholic) literature is in a state unfitting to the genre (since children deserve to be offered the best of our imaginations) and also weirdly, unaccountably uniform in style. We need to revisit the masters of the past to escape from today's commercialism.
Biblical truths turn out to be biological truths as well. A good article on the meaning, in physical as well as spiritual reality, of the one-flesh union of man and woman in matrimony.
An interesting personal memoir of the psychological madness that overtook education in general and Catholic schools in particular in the 60s; the ideology behind it is still with us today and we need to be alert to it.
from the archivesAsk Auntie Leila: Are fairy tales always appropriate?
liturgical living
Tomorrow is Pentecost! What a beautiful time to ask for the Holy Spirit to come dwell with us!
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My book, The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is available from Sophia Press! Also in paperback now! All the thoughts from this blog collected into three volumes, beautifully presented with illustrations from Deirdre, an index in each volume, and ribbons!
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