Monthly Archives: August 2011

Orchid on a String

Posted by Lesley on August 25, 2011 None comments

More aftermath from the Great Grapefruit Massacre of 2010…

When the grapefruit tree was full and lush, out of season the spiders would move in and create a hammock of webs along the bottom branches.  Spiders eat wasps, and they never interfered with the grapefruit harvest, so I learned to duck when mowing under the tree and left them alone.  But this year I feared strangulation by spider strings as the webs began to envelop my orchid.  The orchid didn’t bat a bloom.  It started budding in the beginning of the month and is now in full bloom with its blossoms strung up marionette-style.

The orchid’s brilliant blooms in the midst of an overbearing web reminds me again of a quote my sister recently texted me:

The peacock eats poison and that’s what makes the color of its tail so brilliant…the poison becomes the source of much beauty and joy. -Pema Chodron

The orchid without the spider last year was about to plummet out of its lopsided pot, but this year the orchid was lifted up by the creepy, sticky, usually unwanted strings of the spider’s web.Imagine me as a porcupine voodoo doll, trade the quills for poison pins.  But inspired by the beauty of the peacock and the orchid, I’ll keep on blooming with tolerance and joy.  Wonder Woman was my hero in childhood; Pema Chodron is my hero in adulthood.

The Florida Circle of Life

Posted by Lesley on August 21, 2011 None comments

When there’s no fresh produce in Florida, there’s always fresh seafood.  Tonight’s main course was caught and cooked by Cooper – flounder.

My father forced me to eat a mussel as a child, and I didn’t eat seafood for a good 10-15 years after.  It was slimy and chewy and something I still won’t eat to this day.  But I’ve been living in Florida for the last 16 years, so seafood has naturally become part of my diet.  It doesn’t happen every time, but it is such a treat when John comes home with fresh fish.  Tonight it was flounder, and it was Cooper’s catch, but John has brought home mahi-mahi, snapper, grouper, and snook before.  It’s the equivalent of walking outside to pull a grapefruit from the tree.  The finest restaurant in town can’t serve me anything fresher.  “Fishy” flavors take time to evolve; our flounder didn’t have a hint of it.  The fish was light, flaky and delicious.

Cooper was successful today; he won our dinner.  Luckily, the two hawks that swooped down into our yard yesterday didn’t win theirs.  I was out at a baby shower, but John was inside when he heard the squawking.  Oreo had run into the back corner of her coop, and there were two hawks outside her door.  They were too big to get in, and John scared them away when he opened the door.  Although one was only scared up; he was still lurking on the utility wires.  John got this photo with his camera phone and then got the pellet gun.

The hawk must have felt the scope on him because he flew away before John could fire a shot.  And FYI: the pellet gun wouldn’t have killed the hawk.  The hope was just to scare him enough so he won’t come back.  The hawks scared us enough that we’re back on vigilant Oreo-watch again.  We got a little too comfortable with her getting bigger and always standing in Luke’s shadow.  She’s still at quite the yummy age, and the hawks aren’t her first visitors.  A stray cat was trying to get into her cage a couple weeks ago.  But sleep tight, Oreo’s safely in her coop for the night.

{this moment} Chicken See, Chicken Do

Posted by Lesley on August 19, 2011 None comments

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo [three photos] – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember [because it just makes me laugh]. -Soulemama [& LettuceShare]

Free Range Chicken

Posted by Lesley on August 17, 2011 2 comments

“I’m going to put her in her cage.”  Did I say that?  Because that didn’t happen.  There’s quickly becoming a new meaning to free range chicken around here when it comes to Oreo and me.  The bigger she gets, the more uncomfortable I get handling her.  My garden gloves were driving my nerve for a while, but that’s over.  She’s found her voice now, and every time I go to grab her, she squawks at me loudly.  After 15 minutes of chasing her in circles around Luke and his bone, I left her outside.  An hour later she returned to her coop of her own accord, but when I came within three-feet of her, she hopped right back out.  She’s a little bugger and her squawking is quite unnerving, but at least I’m not Luke.

Waiting for Jessica at Yoder’s Fresh Market

Posted by Lesley on August 16, 2011 None comments

I was all excited that Jessica’s Organic Farm reopened for the season last Friday, but then I didn’t go!  What’s wrong with me???  The stand is only open Fridays and Saturdays.  I worked both days but could have made it before they closed on Saturday.  I went to OfficeMax instead because it was closer, I was feeling lazy and the Siesta Key Farmers Market is held on Sundays.  Well, that just didn’t work out for me.  The Siesta Key market was rainy and bare.  There was only one produce stand open, but nothing was organic.  And for being chemically enhanced and covered in wax, the produce still didn’t look that good.

But my point is not to bash the stand or the market, it’s to share this quote from the Suncoast Locally Grown Online Farmers Market newsletter, “According to Kathy and Susan of My Mothers Garden, this time of year the definition of locally grown is anything south of the Mason Dixie Line!”  So I went looking for and found some Georgia peaches at Yoder’s Fresh Market that can tide me over until Saturday.

Although after visiting Jessica’s crop schedule, which doesn’t even list the months of August and September, I’m counting more on organic than local.  This far into the summer, I’d be ecstatic over regional.

It was nice to visit Yoder’s for a change.  They may not carry organics, but they’re another good source for local produce in season.  Last December they expanded into the building next door.  I only noticed it recently; today was my first visit.

Both buildings carry Amish jams, cheeses and cookies, but I only saw the pies in the newer, yellow building.  If you’re a Sarasota local, it’s most likely you know someone who has a favorite pie from Yoder’s.  John’s is banana cream. Yoder’s started with the restaurant; all three buildings are side-by-side on Bahia Vista Street.  I vaguely remember eating at the restaurant once, but the taste of their pies are clear in my mind.  They remind me of holidays, and the market has miniature versions!

But since they didn’t have banana cream, I came home with fresh-made granola and wheat bread instead.  Bread may not seem as exciting as pie, but squeeze it before judging.  The market carries some other staple items too-pasta and flour-but mostly it’s a nice Amish deli.  I’ll go back to try lunch; they offer fresh-made soups, salads and sandwiches.

…and it just dawned on me that peaches are on the Dirty Dozen list.  I pulled it up and not only are they on the list, peaches are ranked Number Four for containing some of the most pesticides among all produce.  Imagine me shrugging my shoulders here, “What can you do?”  This peach didn’t kill me, I’m guessing the four I bought today won’t either.

And since they’ve been a recent topic, avocados rank Number Four on the Clean Fifteen list of produce containing the least pesticides.

Avocados, Make Me Beautiful

Posted by Lesley on August 14, 2011 None comments

I love Toby’s gift; I just don’t like avocados.  John-I love him too.  This was our dinner conversation over Creamy Avocado Pasta:

Me: “I don’t like this.”
John: “But it doesn’t taste like avocado; that’s a huge success.”

If no one else is laughing, I was.  I’m usually the one laughing loudest at his jokes anyway.  He’s funny, supportive and always optimistic; it’s nice to be around that sort of person.  So à la John, I took my lemons avocados and made lemonade beauty products. All day I whipped, blended and pampered.  I started with this…

And ended with this…

With avocados on hand, I didn’t have to leave the house for a thing.  All the ingredients were ready to go in the refrigerator and cabinets – milk, eggs, lemons, oatmeal, and cornmeal.  That covered not just my face, but my hands, feet and legs too.  I made a face mask, facial cleanser, foot scrub, and hand treatment.  Plus I set aside slices of avocado to use under my eyes and a couple of peels to moisturize.  It was time to relax…

And relaxing it was…the house was cool and quiet, not even a murmur of a TV or the chirp of a phone.  The boys were out all afternoon being loud at someone else’s house.  It was a very good day, and I’ll absolutely make these products again.  I loved all of them, especially the face mask.  It dried like any store-bought mask but was easier to wash off.  The ingredients are 1 egg white, 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 1/2 avocado mashed.

After 15 minutes or so, I used a warm washcloth to remove the mask and used the deep cleanser next.  The blender came in handy for this recipe.  Whisk an egg yolk until it’s frothy and add it to the blender with 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 avocado mashed.  Anything applied with a cotton ball is preferable without chunks, so I strained to be safe.  And this is one I’ll be using tomorrow too.  The cleanser can be stored in the refrigerator for 48 hours.

After rinsing off the cleanser, I used the avocado peel as a moisturizer.  The peels contain humectant, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a substance that promotes retention of moisture.”  Although it left me looking a bit like Fiona from Shrek, it felt like rubbing my face in a drape of slick velor.  I kept circling it back over my lips like it was a tube of glossy lip balm.

Next up: feet and hands.  I preferred the foot scrub to the hand treatment.  It left my skin smoother, most likely due to the cornmeal.  The original recipe called for 2-3 tablespoons of cornmeal mixed with 2 tablespoons of mashed avocado, but the avocado I was using wasn’t as ripe as some of the others.  Having nearly no experience with avocado, it was lost on me how much this mattered until my spoon slid into a truly ripe one.  To improvise with the not quite ripe, I added a little olive oil and lemon juice to moisten and smooth out the texture.  It worked out so well that the leftovers ended up on my legs.  I’m now soft, smooth and completely relaxed.  Yes, it was a very good day.

Homemade Avocado Beauty Recipes

Oreo’s Weigh-in

Posted by Lesley on August 13, 2011 None comments

I was on the phone with a friend earlier and ventured a guess at Oreo’s weight and said 10 ounces.  She has about tripled in size, but her size is deceiving because most of her growth is in feathers.  She was just a four-ounce fuzz ball when we first brought her home.

That was her first weigh-in, and it was much easier.  She wasn’t flying then.  This time around she immediately flew off the scale taking the bowl with her.  John settled her down, and take two went much better.

That’s the difference a month makes in chick-land.  Chick no more; we can add the -en now.  She’s looking like a full-blown chicken.  Her little chicken face has started to develop, and she has actual feathers.  And her weight?  Ten ounces…a mama knows.

The Latest Doorstep Delivery

Posted by Lesley on August 11, 2011 None comments

We have great neighbors.  They don’t throw wild parties or leave old cars out to rust on their front lawns.  They smile as they pass by, and they share their fruit.  Toby from next door gets the shout-out today for sharing her avocados.  By the time I reached the door, she was already across the street making her rounds with plastic bags full of them.  She yelled, “If you need more, I’ve got ‘em.”  And she does…the view from our fence:

Avocados aren’t my favorite, but I found some recipes to try and an all-natural facial is now on my weekend to-do list.

I have high hopes for both pasta dishes because I really want to like avocados.  According to the California Avocado Commission, “Avocados provide nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid.” But here’s something I didn’t know, they’re also known as alligator pears.

A Forced Friendship

Posted by Lesley on August 10, 2011 2 comments

Some video I shot on Sunday of the new BFF’s…

Terra Cotta Craft Therapy

Posted by Lesley on August 8, 2011 None comments

The results of my retail therapy turned craft therapy…

Projects like this validate my hoarding tendencies when it comes to crafts.  Anything else goes to Goodwill or the trash, but every little trinket or button gets shoved into a box somewhere.  It started with mosaics, the first of my major craft obsessions.  I realized that with a bottle of Goop and a box of grout, almost anything could be broken and put back together again, better and cooler than ever.

My mother and sister disagreed with me on this point for a while – my mother when I smashed her wedding dishes from Ireland, and my sister when I tiled over a frame she gave me.  Before you flip about my mother’s dishes, she’s been divorced from my father since 1978.  Trust me when I say there was no sentiment lost by the head of my hammer.  It was only because they were expensive in 1967, but I broke them 40 years later.  I think she got her money’s worth.

And I got mine out of these pots.  They turned into a bit of a never-ending project…in a good way.  I just kept adding little things here and there – coke caps, tiles, beads, bits of old jewelry.  Since the girl in the napkins is headless, I contemplated decoupaging my face on her but went with a watch face instead.  Then there were a few napkin scraps left over, so I found a third terra cotta pot to decorate.  There was nothing pressing beyond those pots.  It was exactly what I needed; therapy accomplished.