Stephanie says

First the quince, now the lone azalea in bloom. Hooray for spring!

I’ve been following the “Primal Blueprint” for seven weeks now and have lost nine pounds and my lipid panel has improved. It works! And it works for me because I like to cook as much as I like to eat. Very simply stated: Primal Blueprint is a lifestyle of eating organic meats, vegetables, and fats. As I had followed the Atkins diet since August 2010 I was used to eating very little of grains & rice, legumes, or processed foods. These foods are discouraged in Primal. Hmmm, taco chips are processed – and they were my last holdout junk food. And I do love black beans and rice… I eat meat. I eat dairy. I eat fruits and vegetables. I eat fat, my favorite food group. I recommend reading the book for all sorts of informative and thought provoking information on nutrition and exercise. Primal’s dietary structure is in direct contradiction to the Food Pyramid, the dietary guidelines promoted by the USDA which touts eating a diet heavy in carbs and light in protein and fats. Interested in th...

Yesterday at work I received a call from my neighbor saying my dogs had opened the gate and escaped. Russ lured them back into the yard with dog treats but they’d figured out how to open the latch and they escaped again, (they’re smart and persistent). He corralled them back inside the yard but this time twined the gate shut. I was intensely thankful, envisioning them hurt, lost, or stolen and sold to the dog factory. Gulp. The ground had shifted since the fence was installed, pulling the gate post out of plumb and leaving a gap on the latch just the right size to be dog-nosed open. I’d fleetingly considered how to fix the gap, and discarded the “best” method of actually resetting the post as too labor intensive. I figured there must be an extender that would pull the latch up snug against the fence post – so I was off to the hardware on a quest. In these situations I gravitate toward the seasoned (okay, older) clerks as their experience results in a higher level of knowledge and creat...

I've been thinking about weeding my garden plot. It has a nice, sunny location and is much favored by numerous garter snakes. I was turning the soil last season and located many, MANY snake burrows, each one giving me a nasty turn even though I was protected by boots and wielding a long-handled implement. So wondering if surprise burrows with sleeping snakes are in store for me this season brought to mind the following stories: Story 1: To: Tim My fierce hunter Rosie killed a snake and brought it home for me. I wandered out to the lawn and immediately noticed the distinctive white underbelly of a dead reptile prominent on the green grass - then noticed the lovely tan diamond pattern on the other side. Yikes, a friggin rattlesnake. I kept hoping she'd eat the damn thing and relieve me of disposing of it - but no go. She had a great deal of fun tossing the carcass in the air - it kept moving all over the place and I jumped and shrieked numerous times discovering it in a new locat...

I drink a lot of tea and tisanes, (a non-tea herbal drink). I’ve been amassing recipes, searching for ingredients I can grow in my garden. There are gazillion tisanes besides the standard mint or chamomile drinks. Inspiration struck when I walked past a violet patch, its wonderful fragrance catching my nose and imagination. I take delight in growing or gathering edible foodstuff. I must have been a medicine woman in a past life, gathering roots and berries and making concoctions to soothe a bellyache or ease a sore throat. Or maybe it’s now that I really am on my way to becoming a herbalist. This all fascinates me. I found recipes for violet syrup, jellies, tisane and a LOVE POTION. “In some countries people wear a violet leaf in their shoe for 7 days to find a love and treble that in terms of leaf and days on occasions, depending how desperate they are I suppose. Mixed with lavender flowers, violets are said to be an aphrodisiac, whether in a tisane or just the smell is not clear.” (f...

Have read the first three chapters - and found this book to be uproariously funny. I've been chortling! Claire Dederer's writing sytle is conversational and breezy.