Many Crowns

Inspiration, at last! In response to recent post, The Whole World in Our Hands , I have made these with my own two little hands... not bad tasting either. House smells great; and we are ready should the queen pop by for tea! Thanks, ihs..

Abundance v. Scarcity

Good Morning, fair reader.

I thought that I'd write this post quickly-- get the thought "out there" while fresh. 

Kids say the darndest things-- a truism to be sure. Case in point, I offered my resident teen some ice cream a few nights ago as he was  eyeball deep in homework. To my surprise, he replied, "yes please"; he's a teen remember? I asked him if he preferred vanilla or chocolate. He asked are they in the same carton? No, separate cartons, I replied. The teen, "I'll have whichever is less meager."

Less meager??! Down which logical labyrinth is he leading us? "What does that matter?" is my counter-reply. "I like to keep them even (in quantity)". Wow.

I had to chuckle and informed my teen that "one can take the kid out of Montessori; but you can't take the Montessori out of the kid." His penchant for symmetry and balance still remains to this day, expressed even in his druthers for ice cream flavor.

The Modern Suburbanite muses on...

The Whole World in Our Hands

I must say that I move in the company of extremely talented and creative ladies and gentlemen. Not only are they bright, dynamic, and caring, they are uber-modest, kind of like the Kardashians, but in reverse.

So I just had lunch with an LHS alumna and look what she shared with me... She promised to make me a sample so that I would be able to attest to their taste (a future posting); but this small sample of her handiwork stirs an irrepressible smile in me. You may be interested to know that the same artist will draw a faithful rendering of "the Merry Chicken" (based upon S. Boynton) upon careful and persistent requests.

Butter cookies made by ihs

Photos by ihs

Upstream Swim

Food again! This time just a straight-forward recipe recommendation. I made these salmon burgers with Green Goddess dressing figuring a 50-50 chance of kids eating them. Jackpot! They inhaled them-- just as advertised. So now I am recommending this recipe to you, fair reader. They are a tad (just a tad) bit labor intensive, what with all the chopping; but if you put the salmon fillet in the freezer for under 30 minutes, you will have an easier time with the task. Keep the spatula turning to a minimum; you will be rewarded with a brown crust and burger disk in the united round (not in several equally delicious pieces). Shown in original recipe atop salad greens; but I served on golden brioche rolls.

Yummy! Making again for lunch today....

salmon burger with Green Goddess dressing

Driving Miss Sunshine

Perhaps our search for self begins as if we are transported around town by a beneficent chauffeur with a  black limousine. At first, we don’t have any idea where this chauffeur is taking us. Then with the routine of life, the embarkation points and destinations become familiar as we look out the window. Our chauffeur eventually shares with us, the dutiful passenger, his or her route and interesting landmarks that we pass. We begin to ask questions and express our preferences of route and eventual destination. Why are we going there now? I’d like to go to the ice cream shop instead of the zoo. This road is very busy and jammed at this time of the day; let’s try a different route, okay?

Then we may graduate to driving our own sensible car. We learn to prepare a route, to study the map, to back-track when we take a wrong turn, to ask for directions from trust-worthy persons. Perhaps we become ambitious and earn ourselves a red sports car that is capable of great speed and consumption of high octane fuel. We consume with little regard of our exhaust, of our carbon footprint, for our neighbors. We are on a mission of our own definition. Our red speedster turns heads; garners covert, envious glances of approval; sustains, promotes our worldly status. Or so we tell ourselves…

Then life may show us off the expressway via accident or blinding moment on the Damascus road. We now ride a motorcycle for more adventurous exploration. Now, we are not watching television through the side window or through the windshield. We have our helmet, leather boots, and tough outerwear between our tender hearts and the indifferent elements. We are immersed in the surrounding environment, racing to our calling. It is exhilarating and breath-taking. Even the pelting, soaking rain engenders vitality.

After a while, perhaps exposure to the rawness of life wears upon us. We need a bicycle energized by our own muscle and sinew. Still we direct ourselves to where we want to go, perhaps with less drive, with more attention. The air of the sunlit-dappled mountain trail is sweet and cool. We feel the life of the unseen in the forest.  We are the “raindrop filled with joy as it enters the river” (Sufi).

We learn the pleasures, the necessity for the soul, of contemplation, attention, intention. We dismount the last vehicle and sit on the inviting boulder to rest and to wait. The bluebird chirps, the stream babbles. Our soul calls and we listen. And after we tire of attending, we just are.

Ed. Note: I have read over the last few years these books:

Let Your Life Speak by P. Palmer

Through the Narrow Gate by K. Armstrong

Always We Begin Again by J. McQuiston II

Dreams: God's Forgotten Language by J. Sanford

Following the Path by J. Chittister

Paint on the Walls

Now for something a bit different from previous posts. It may not come as a total surprise that given my eye for color and light, I was intensely curious about wallpaper samples provided by the esteemed English paint house, Farrow and Ball.

These samples are simply astounding. What you cannot experience, dear reader, from these images is that these papers have actual texture; the texture created by paint applied as the design shape. I wonder how it is done exactly?

It's seems to be akin to a craft with sponge imprinting with heavy paint on heavy paper. One can feel where the lifting of the "sponge" leaves raised "ripples" of paint. Thus the texture is imparted.

http://us.farrow-ball.com/st-germain-bp-1415/st-germain//fcp-product/201415#








 http://us.farrow-ball.com/the-vermicelli-papers-bp-1525/vermicelli//fcp-product/201525

This "Vermicelli" wallpaper is equally intriquing to my sensibilities. I believe it is the sense of scale that renders the rather ornate micropattern into a more soothing effect at the macro level (image below). The coral color is also rather fantastic.

http://us.farrow-ball.com/paint-and-colour-in-decoration/see-all//fcp-product/500001

So this post must seem like an advertisement for F&B; but the products explain the long-standing nature of this company. I also particularly enjoy the above book, "Paint and Colour in Decoration" that I picked up in an interior design shop a few years back. The chapters organize the book into color families; and the photography within many stately homes in Britain shows off  F&B's product quite effectively. I recommend it.

Life Promise

Did you miss me? Well, I'm back with more images and thoughts to ponder (please share a response by commenting).

Here we have the stalk that would bloom! It was a bit touch and go there for a while, especially when the other promising stem fell over as a result of over-eager pruning. But "life would find a way" as my mother would say. The excellence of this bloom lies not in the sheer size of the flowers posted in Topsy-turvy Eden (August post); instead, the lovely quintessential quality of the sunflower has grown with hope and expectation of the gardener.

Something on the same theme of the promise in life.... Here's a rainbow after a terrific drenching; getting a lot of these this summer. This storm was a hurricane aftermath, I believe. We would have driven right past this sight, if I hadn't happened to glance out the side window. It was breath-taking in scope, since it was almost the full 180 degree arc. We were able to make out the umbra of the double rainbow as well.

The last time I saw a double rainbow was on my solitary ride from Charlottesville to DC in the early 90's. I almost drove right off the Rte. 29!

'Bow over the Beltway