Bird Bread

Once I lived by the ocean, north with a tragic black rock coast. There was a blueberry meadow behind the house and in the distance, apple trees snuggled among the maples and oaks. I mixed, kneaded, poked down and kneaded again, the dough for two loaves of bread twice a week. Oh, the flour mess! Gradually I moved on to other culinary attempts.

Time went by and the bread maker was invented. I poo-pooed it as a very costly product. Just how many loaves of bread would one have to bake to make up the cost of the machine? Several years later I reconsider when I realized that all the ingredients went into an enclosed container to be processed. NO flour mess! OK, now I'm ready, hang the cost. The first loaf was akin to an adobe brick. I have no idea what I did wrong. It was winter and I put the compressed offering out in the snow for the squirrels. They wouldn't touch it. It laid at the edge of the woods until after March. I think the snow and thaws eventually broke it down at some molecular level.

That was 15 years ago and all my attempts since have been quite edible and even wonderful...until I tried a whole wheat recipe that called for whole wheat flour only?? Usually some white flour is added. Shades of adobe! This dough had three opportunities to rise. Nada. I baked it anyway to see if it would grow even a little bit. Nada.

Next, I wired the breadbricks to a tree branch outside of my kitchen window. The Gila Woodpeckers have enjoyed it the most. Their heads bob up and down like jackhammers on concrete. They have carved channels that the smaller birds use to edge out crumbs. The feast lasted almost 5 days. I am thinking about doing another couple of loaves with a seed mixture in the center for my friends of the class Aves to enjoy over the holidays.

Rosemary and Iris

The challenging garden project is the removal of the the rosemary giant. This plant started as a $1.99 sprig in a 2" x 2" plastic pot from the grocery store. After 10 years of sun and water, it has crept to a diameter of 12', yes, 12 FEET! It has the potential to harbor rattle snakes, desert rats, bobcats, etc. so it has to go. First thing in the morning, Ruby and I fill a trash can with cuttings chopped down to manageable size. Four of these bags fill the weekly pick-up can. So I can only do so much a week. Today we found a pack rat's nest. It looked like what Mr. Mole made for Thumbilina. There was a soft downy bed woven from silky grasses and feather down. Also, the pantry was stocked with cactus red fruit and pomgranates. There were all kinds of bits and pieces of wood, stryrene, and little rocks. The most intriquing little treaseure was the the stuffed squeaky toy from Buster's headstone. When Buster was laid to rest, his favorite toy was draped on the stone. It stayed there for many months and suddenly vanished. I thought a bird carried it off to a nest? The behemoth herb is about 60% downed. Still a ways to go.

When asked about a favorite flower? The iris. When this flower comes in from the garden to the sewing room, it cuddles up to applique like a cat to cream. Three shapes up and three down, fringed or not, twisted, twirled, ruffled, with gold fringe tongues from cut satin stitches. The color range embraces all the scraps. The leaves are like javalin points, sometimes bent and beckoning. Even the hairy, hoary roots have curled and twirled ropy promise. And that’s my favorite petal all the way down to the last trailing threads…

Flash in the Pan

Is it Art or just a flash in the pan? The discussion du jour over coffee and kibble was about D. A. Therrien’s “Beautiful Light”. It is a four-letter word suspended between two tower buildings, made of 1000+ light bulbs. It is an unexpected presentation in an unexpected location. The newspaper showed the word TEXT. Does it change or just spell the same word? Don’t know. It is Public Art and as such will bring protest, discussion, denouncement and raves. Thank goodness; it is hard to tell if people are alive sometimes, noses buried in electronic devices, unconscious of the world-view around them. Is it so different from the neon light with the palm tree flashing over the Bamboo Bar? Because Therrien’s work is not selling, directing, forbidding or permitting, does it have no purpose? General consensus over bowls, cereal and more kibble, was that the purpose was to “think”, “admire”, “contemplate”, etc. And that puts it into the art district. Maybe Public Art is like a symphony and the bar sign is like a kitchen towel jingle. Different ends of the musical rainbow. Ruby’s favorite 4-letter words are “FOOD” and “MEAT”.