Photos from morning walk

By Elizabeth Prata

Photos from my morning walk. I saw the bright red cardinal several times, but he hid well when I approached. I never could get a clear shot of him.

I get a kick out of the lush and huge clover thriving in my concrete patio. Now the clover's flowers are blooming.

The old-growth greenery and verdant spring colors are beautiful

The leaves grow so big! The soil must be rich.

Fig leaves are huge. It's no wonder Adam and Eve reached for them to sew together.

Frugal Cooking this week: April 30-May 5

By Elizabeth Prata

Since COVID-19 began, I've decreased my outings as mandated by the Governor. I only grocery shop once every two weeks, instead of every week like I did before this started. This gap in shopping introduces some mental gymnastics in scheduling and planning meals.

Just as you put the hardest vegetables in the soup pot first, the carrots, potatoes, etc,, and work backward to the softest, mushrooms, tomatoes...I do the same with planning meals for two weeks on the same grocery trip.

Plan a meal using the most perishable items first. Not everything will stay fresh for 2 weeks of course. Spinach will need to be used quickly (or cooked and stored for later). Strawberries need to be eaten first. I wash them and then core them and chop, putting them into a covered container. They keep well for a week. When I buy a bag of mandarin oranges I put half in the fridge to keep and half in the fruit bowl on the counter. They last a week or two. I buy two loaves of Gluten free break and put one in the freezer. Proteins don't last, so I either buy frozen like shrimp or tofu, which keeps a while. Root veggies like beets, turnips, carrots, and potatoes keep.

A friend stopped over and delivered a bag of fresh veggies that she could not eat.

The first week I ate meals using the delicate perishables, and this 2nd week tends more toward the things I can make with cans and the hardier perishables. This week I'm preparing:

Soup. Lol I always make soup. I prefer this type of 'everything but the kitchen sink' cooking because I can toss in whatever I have on hand without disrupting a balance of something or other. Casseroles, stir fry, soup, stews...it's more flexible for me.

The soup: A friend dropped off some veggies, including kale. I like a kale and white bean soup, but due to FODMAP digestion issues I can't eat the white beans. I substituted chick peas. I added chicken because I had to use it up.

Quinoa bites. I used half of the rest of the spinach, quinoa, and cheddar cheese, plus a few eggs to make these.

Pumpkin-cornbread muffins. Jiffy Cornbread muffin mix whips up in a Jiffy, and cans of pumpkin are loaded with good nutrients, and also make the muffins more moist.

The recipe I have always makes a bit more so I offload the rest of the batter into a loaf pan and cook that too!

Lobster cakes: Since the oven was on I popped the last two into the oven to have for dinner tonight and tomorrow.

Tofu-green bean-rice noodle stir fry. This whips up quick so I didn't make it ahead.

Tuna/Salmon sandwiches or salads.

I cut up a bunch of radishes celery and carrots to have on had as a side dish or snacks.

So that's it!

Travel Vignette: Cat in a harness

By Elizabeth Prata

My husband and I traveled from Maine to Key West, along the southern US border to CA, then up the Pacific Coast Highway as far as Carmel. We wanted to spend three months escaping a Maine winter.

We had a 1982 Westphalia camper pop up van, with a diesel engine. This last part was important. Its chassis was heavy but the engine was a rabbit 4 cylinder. This meant it went slow. But the diesel got 24 miles to the gallon and that was all right by us! We saved money and we weren't in a rush.

When we decided to take the winter and just "go" we had a cat at the time. I loved her to pieces but she was definitely a special ed cat. She was unpredictable, grumpy, nice, scratchy, affectionate ...a bundle of contrasts. No one would take her in when we left for the winter. They all knew about 'Abby the Menace'. So we had to take her with us. Some time before we left we trained her on a harness and when it was time to go, we plunked her into the van, turned on the engine (which was a loud diesel as you know diesels can be) and took off.

Well, she spit fire for a few hours but then something strange happened. The noise of the diesel and the swaying of the van seemed to calm her! It was like the white noise of the interior canceled out her interior stress, and she became a model citizen.

It was back to the old Abby when we turned off the engine though, and she was her unpredictable self.

At the start of our journey we had the harness on loosely, concerned with her comfort and not wanting to cause chafing. We were still kind of feeling our way long with the camping thing, the cat in the van thing, and the husband-wife thing driving and never asking for directions thing. (This was before GPS and I as the navigator had the map, but when I said 'turn right here' I was usually met with an 'Are you sure?' Husband made it out alive...but barely).

Sometimes Abby would escape her harness. This was a problem. Here is the vignette:

Abby got out of her harness and we had to put on gloves and a thick coat and grab her by the neck and literally wrestle her back into it. I ended up with scratches, she's fast asleep in the way back, and husband is looking for a pet store that sells harnesses "she will never ever get out of...she'll be buried in it!"

Remains of the Day

By Elizabeth Prata

Several other people have remarked on the string of great weather plus lockdown equals unexpected enjoyment I'm usually working until 3:30 and by then the sun as gone behind the house. By the tie school gets out it's too blazing hot to sit on the concrete patio in the humidity. I enjoy sitting on the patio in these mild days. A lot. I like the delicate lavender of these wildflowers on the lawn-

I've been watching the birds. We have Carolina wrens who have flown the nest but are still living their little birdie lives around here. We also have a mated pair of Eastern Phoebes, fr the first time. Another mom is VERY busy all day catching insects and bringing them to her nestlings in the big birdhouse at the back of the yard. She works all day! There's a red flash of the cardinal I can never quite spit fully. And of course the mockingbirds. I'll post more photos of the yard action at the bottom.

This morning dawned a bit chilly so I fired up the oven to roast the root veggies a friend dropped off to me the other day. Beets, Turnips, and one honkin' huge russet. This will kill 2 birds with one stone, warm the kitchen and give me some already-cooked veggies to have for dinner and lunch tomorrow.

I halved the russet and drizzled oil on the cut sides. I sprinkled paprika and Parmesan on top of that, along with some cracked pepper. Roast cut side down. My gaffe today was not greasing the sheet enough. The potatoes stuck to the baking sheet.

I peeled and cut the turnips and beets and tossed them in oil too. Spread in one layer in a baking dish and salt and pepper them. (You can add whatever spices you like beyond that). I roasted at 400 degrees until soft and crunchy. Yum! Forget lunches and dinners I had some for breakfast!

FODMAP issues force me to monitor what I consume. I absolutely love roasted beets and I was hoping against hope when my friend dropped them off that they would be on my "OK to eat list." Phew, they are, but only 20 grams at a time. That is 2 small slices. OK, well, better than nothing! I can have about twice as much turnips. I ate a quarter of the potato due to carb issues. I don't want to fall asleep when I just got up!

Here are the birdies of the yard today. They are enjoying the weather too! Apparently Eastern Phoebes when they perch, bob their tails up and down. Both the male and female feed the babies. Also, they fly fast and catch their insects in the air. I watched one actually hover like a hummingbird. They are expert are flying fast and catching those bugs. When I came out and sat down at the table the bird began flying around the roof to get to her nest. She had been flying directly to it but my presence meant she'd have to fly by me so she created and alternate route.

I think this is a Carolina Wren mama bringing food to her babies. The birdhouse is about 150 feet from where I was sitting so it's hard to tell for sure that it's a wren but I'm pretty sure. But look closely. Not only is the mom bringing the food but inside the birdhouse you can see one of the baby's mouth wide open. Cute!

The days just sort of blend one into another, don't they. We are still on lockdown here but it is supposed to lift by May 1 with staggered openings and a slow getting back up to speed. School will remain closed though. We are working from home, meeting with students virtually, and doing lots of professional development and communication.

I'm reading Robert Capon's The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection, a sort of religious/cooking/philosophy book. It defies description. Also Ferrol Sams part 2 of his fictionalized autobiography The Whisper of the River. The cat and I are doing well. At night I've been enjoying the Sherlock Holmes series Elementary and also the Hulu series Mrs America, about the divide over second wave feminism in the 1970s. How are you doing?

Lucy Liu's wardrobe in Elementary's early seasons

By Elizabeth Prata

I love art and design. I've written about art before, I review tv sitcom apartments, took note of the Kinfolk Aesthetic, delighted in fonts and book design, propaganda posters' graphic beauty, basked in The Brady Bunch set design and original house's renovation on HGTV, and the like. I also enjoy wardrobe design.

It's interesting to see how clothing choices affect the viewers' perception of character development and how those two things mesh. The 1970s tv show Marty Tyler Moore costumed Mary expertly for the character and the show. Her wardrobe could stand today as timeless. In fact, it does stand today, as we read in this article-

"Mary's clothing in particular really evolved with her character. She started out wearing miniskirts and boots and ended up wearing some real power suits by the end. Another wonderful detail is that the costume designer would allow mixing and matching, just like a regular woman would do. So you'd see repeats," explains Armstrong. 

America's would-be fashion designers were watching the Mary Tyler Moore show, too, either the first time around, or in reruns on cable TV. Her signature '70s collars, sweater vests, pea coats, flared pants and graphic print shirt dresses helped shape American style, including visions of modern women's work wear in the collections of Tory Burch and others that reverberated in the forthcoming spring 2017 collections.

I just find costuming a fascinating part of television.

Wardrobe affects the atmosphere of the show. When it's seamless, it's glorious. When it's not, it's heinous. I wrote this in 2018 about one of the two reasons I quit watching the Hallmark vehicle, When Calls the Heart- this is the WWI period drama set in the Canadian Rockies. One reason was encroaching feminism in the script. The other was wardrobe. Here is what I wrote-

The first season was lush and the scenery and cinematography was a feast for the eyes. The wardrobe was terrific and beautiful. The suits, coats, and dresses were absolutely gorgeous. However in the second season, they changed the wardrobe person and the clothing became anachronistic. Hallmark intentionally did this, seeking a less historical feel and ‘blending’ of modern. I don’t know why. Maybe the expense. However, in my opinion they went too far and the clothing became too modern and did not match and 1910’s setting. It drove me crazy, it absolutely did. My brain screamed every time they emerged from some house wearing modernish-looking clothes. I couldn’t take it.

I’m not alone in this opinion. There was even a petition to bring back a more historically accurate wardrobe in season 2 of When Calls The Heart.

That was my opinion of the wardrobe change from season 1 and season 2 of WCTH.

During this pandemic time, I've been bingeing at night on the Sherlock Holmes show Elementary. Sherlock was played by Jonny Lee Miller. It debuted in 2012 as a modern update to the canon written by Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 1800s of the same character. One of the TV show updates was not only the timing, the show was set in present day nor was it solely the location, NYC instead of London. The show also updates the Dr. Watson character and made her a woman. She was played by Lucy Liu.

I was initially against this change. It is a major difference from the canon to change a character's gender. But once I began watching I grew to enjoy both characters immensely. I loved the show. I enjoy that it's quiet. Both main characters speak softly. Sherlock's penchant for florid prose was kept and I love it. He also speaks many facts, which I also enjoy, because I learn something each time. I love how they might be looking at a crime scene on a bridge in the city and Sherlock erupts with 'Did you know..." and goes on for a minute about flowers, though no flowers are at the scene, and circles back to the punchline and suddenly we see he has delivered a major clue and it all falls together. I love this kind of circular talk, starting off seemingly as a non sequitur but making the point at the end of the anecdote. I do it myself. I know it wearies the listeners though. Sherlock does too, but he doesn't care. He's so brilliant he doesn't need to care.

The procedural itself is always creative, the crimes are unique without being gory and Sherlock's methods are of course unique above all other detectives. It's what has made the original canon so enduring.

There is one fly in the ointment with the show. One hair across the dish. It's Lucy Liu's wardrobe.

Rebecca Hofherr has been the wardrobe designer since the very second episode of the series. I enjoyed the first season's presentation of Liu in hip street wear with an overlay of sophistication.

It was New York gritty, appropriate for the character, the setting, and her job.

As seasons progressed, one would expect her wardrobe to evolve. It did, but so far (I'm only halfway through season 3) I don't like the evolution. She went from streetwear sophisticate to feminine baby doll. Short miniskirts, flowy blouses, even in winter. See:

In one case I remember, it was winter in NYC. The crime occurred in an unheated warehouse. The two beat cops discovering the crime complained about the cold. Upon arrival, Sherlock was wearing three layers, two shirts and a coat. Watson was wearing a miniskirt.

Sigh.

Squatting down to examine evidence at a crime scene in bare legs and a mini-skirt? No. Just no.

I'm not the only person who feels this way. At SciFi Empire we read,

Yet I cannot help but think that Joan Watson wearing a miniskirt to a crime scene was an idea that went too far. I do not know to what regards actresses can choose their own wardrobe, but the outfit Lucy Liu wears are more suitable for a date...

Her clothes, admittedly beautiful and admittedly she wore them well, drove me crazy. It almost makes me want to stop watching, that is how impactful clothing design in television series are to me.

Here is an interesting essay on the beauty of Liu's wardrobe in Elementary: My Dear Watson, I Love Your Outfit.

I don't stop watching because the pluses outweigh this one minus. I love Sherlock's speech, his precisely circular method of speaking, his diction, and the content is always interesting. I enjoy looking at the Brownstone set (Holmes' domicile). I like watching Sherlock solve an unsolvable puzzle crime. But My Dear Watson, put on a pair of jeans or something.

Daily Murray and I think a crane fly

By Elizabeth Prata

Today was change the sheets day. And putting away laundry day. The clean laundry had been in the dryer for 2 days then in the basket for two days so I guess it was finally time to actually fold it and put it in the drawers.

I love clean sheets, who doesn't? I love also how I remake the bed it's perfect. All crisp and aligned and not droopy. I swapped the winter heavy blanket for the summer lighter one. I think it's time.

Murray loves clean sheets day too:

I did my morning routine of reading the Bible, writing the blog, doing the devotional and scanning for the news across my Twitter stream, while having coffee. Then went for a walk, then sat outside for my hour of Vitamin D, reading. Then came inside for brunch.

Early afternoon is chores, e-courses, (school- professional development or virtual meetings with staff or students), professional reading. Sometimes a nap. Sometimes another walk.

Evenings are for TV: I have been going through Elementary, the newer version of Sherlock Holmes. I like it. I am going to do a review and a critique of the series soon.

During my one-hour outside, I snapped these. I saw the little Carolina wren land but then lost him for a moment. His camouflage is quite good! Same with the other bird, I'm not sure what kind it is but he blended in so well to the tree trunk! God's creation is so amazing!

It's a mockingbird I think. The yellowish underbelly threw me. Below, this guy, or gal, seemed to be guarding a nest or nursing some babies or something. It didn't move. I believe it is a crane fly, and harmless. They do not actually eat mosquitos, but they do contribute tot he ecosystem, as their babies, who usually nest in the ground, eat decomposing matter. If this isn't a crane fly and is in fact harmful let me know and I'll kill immediately.

I've had a great day, listening to the birds, communing with my adorable cat, reading, doing chores, some schoolwork. It's all good. Life is good.

So pretty!

By Elizabeth Prata

I had to do an errand this morning so I took some photos along the way. You know, capture different scenes than the same birds, squirrels and blades of grass in my own yard, lol.

Weather certainly does help the attitude. We have had days of just perfect weather. For me that means, bright sun, warm but not hot. Startling clear blue skies. No humidity. light breeze. Lots of birds flying about and chirping, making the yard dynamic along with the gently swaying leaves and branches in the breeze.

I live in a wonderfully rural and pretty area of Georgia. Rolling hills, lots of green, pastures with lots of different animals like donkeys, cows, sheep, horses...

I'll post the photos below.

The industrial park water tower

Weeds against the fence at a pasture

Baby birds above the gas pumps

A resting bike

Lonely chair at the salon

Golden Hour spring photos

By Elizabeth Prata

Spring in north Georgia is glorious. It is a long season, too. In Maine where I used to live, spring came abruptly and lasted about two weeks. Spring in Maine is also called Mud Season, since all the slushy snow is melting and turning into mud and it's just a mess.

Spring here is gentle, with low light at dusk, peepers, and birds. I love listening to peepers at night as I go to sleep.I went into the yard this evening as the sun was sinking low. Golden Hour, when the sun's rays turn golden and everything looks as if it has an Instagram filter on it, but it's real life not virtual so of course it's even better.

Go outside, it's great.

Here are my shots of the yard while strolling the golden hour. The day was warm, the sun was bright, and the birds sure were busy! They are feeding their babies now. Life is good under the sun.

The mama Carolina wren was having a busy time feeding these bruisers! She was on the constant prowl for insects. Later that day, they flew off. Phew. Mama can rest now.

Standing far off, I see a lot of activity back and forth at the birdhouse.

I zoom in. A mama bird is feeding her young 'uns. I can hear their chirps from 100 feet away
I'm coming, kids! she might be saying as she rounds the corner

And pokes her head in to feed them.

Gently rolling lawn, bushes, school across the street. Sun is low, see it behind the trees?

The side yard, manicured, glowing, calm as the sun sets.

But wait? Who is this bounding across the green? He's finding a lot of nuts and enjoying them as he goes-

You just knew he'd make for the tree eventually!

Hay! What's going on over there?

A bush. The colors didn't translate. Oh well!

Wild violet. They are such a pretty color and so delicate.

Murray watching me!

Flowers from my yard

By Elizabeth Prata

I am blessed to live at a place that has a large yard. It is a yard with variations, with trees, bushes, lawn, shade, sun, sheds, and birds, lots of birds. There are also a lot of wildflowers around. Here are some photos of a few. I like flowers, don't you?

Perfect weather

By Elizabeth Prata

If the weather got any nicer I'd be thinking I was in heaven! So perfect. Warm sun, bright blue skies with occasional puffy cloud, NO humidity, and mild temps in the low 70s. What could be better? Oh, maybe being allowed off the property. That would also be nice, but it's bound to happen sooner or later, so in the meantime I'll enjoy what graces the Lord sends.

After a nice breakfast of a few quinoa-egg bites, a pumpkin corn muffin and fruit salad of pineapple and blood orange, I spent some time outside reading and watching the birds. I don't remember a spring where the bird activity has been SOOO active, and I sure do love it. I saw a mockingbird scare away a huge crow to keep it away from her nest, a Carolina wren bring constant insects to her babies (who I could hear chirping inside the nest), and the cardinal pair flitting from tree to tree. Not to mention the ceaseless rooster next door who crows mightily at all hours. I love having an active and dynamic environment around me Here are some of the scenes.

One cloud feels lonely

Oh there comes his friend

The on-sale welcome mat I scored at the Dollar store the other day when I went to buy laundry soap-

This hosta is growing like crazy. Tomorrow I will split it.

This Carolina wren makes a huge noise of aggression and warning whenever she returns with her insect for the babies. She is territorial about her nest. Such a huge sound from such a small bird!

I caught a mockingbird that flew up from the mailbox post where he likes to perch, into the tree towering above. This yard has magnificent trees circling the yard, surely an attraction for these many birds.

I had a good time outside today. As I was reading, basking, and watching, the mailman came up the driveway to deliver a USPS priority package. Ah! My stamps I'd ordered. Time to write some letters.

Have a wonderful weekend!