The View from Here

Secrets and Lies

I’ve been accused a time or two of being “too honest”. Also naïve and unrealistic, perhaps too easily disappointed by others. However, this week I’m going to defend that stance. I’m AM disappointed. I AM being “too honest” and I don’t care.

I happened across a gardening blog post that left me feeling not only disappointed, but downright cheated. I’ll link to it in a minute so you can see it for yourself, but first I have to vent. The blog post is about how gardens are faked for photos. I’m not talking about tweaking the photos with computer software. I’m not talking about stuffing a few extra blossoms into the camera frame. I’m talking about creating a garden, or the illusion of one, where it DOES NOT EXIST.

Okay, okay, not a serious concern for most of you. Commercial photographers have been doing the same thing with food photos for years. I even visited a studio once and watched them put together a food layout with plastic ice and shaving cream and…well, nothing anyone would really eat. The excuse was that it took so long to take the shots and the hot lights would melt the food. I was okay with that because I knew ahead of time that magazines did it. I even thought most of it was just pretty clever. If I remember correctly, only Gourmet magazine insisted on using real food for their photos. I saw a news report that showed them preparing multiple copies of the same dish at different times, so they could take all the shots they needed. I even recall them making a dozen or so turkeys because they were looking for the best looking cooked one. They could have easily “created” one in an art studio somewhere. But they wanted their readers to believe that it was possible to recreate the same bird at home.

I suppose that’s why I’m offended by the idea of someone taking a truck load of potted plants, gravel, and a few props, and creating an “instant” garden to photograph. Or maybe I’m more offended that a magazine would find the practice acceptable and even pay someone to create a phony illusion that I can’t create at home in a real garden. As a gardener, I don’t need or expect perfection. And I do understand about trying to make things look a little better. When I take photographs of my own garden or flower beds I look for the best angle. I trim anything dead or unsightly. I’ve even gone so far as to take a blossom from one side of a plant and attach it to the other side in a better light or next to another blossom. But I’ve never passed off some clever combination of potted plants as my “garden”. I’ve never resorted to total artifice in order to impress someone.

Now I’m going to doubt every photo I see in a garden magazine. Along with that I’ll be questioning their advice. If they can’t find a real garden as an example of their expert practices, then maybe those practices don’t work! It’s discouraging. I don’t know what to do except keep gardening. At least I can still believe in real plants and real gardens.

We have fake food, fake people, fake photos, fake resumes…fake, phony, pretend…I’m tired of lies. Let’s return a little honesty to our lives. Let’s teach our children that some things must be real in order to be fulfilling. Read the blog post at Gardening Gone Wildand see for yourself. (You'll need to check the archives for "The Camera Always Lies".) Maybe it's not a big deal. Maybe fake gardens are justified by public need. Maybe I do overreact. You tell me.

 

Not Much

I got home late last night (9:30 LOL) so I didn't have time to blog. We went to the Caddo-Kingston basketball game. Fun for me since I taught at Kingston for two years. Also fun because one of my former students from my daycare days was playing last night. They do grow up!!

While we were gone my daughter called to ask me something and she was rather shocked that we were out on a school night. Our children seem to have the impression that we are old. Truth is that very few things will get me out of the house in the winter- basketball, a good movie, good music, a meeting I must attend. Other than that I'm pretty much curled up by the fire.

Got to talk to one of my friends from Kingston and I was thrilled to hear that the baby Vitex tree I gave her years ago is flourishing. That Vitex is a descendent of my great-grandmother's tree.

I have lots more to say later about a very disturbing gardening post I read on another blog. Tonight!

'tis the season...

There are ten sure signs that winter is upon us.

1. I crave cookies, cocoa, and chocolate.
2. My skin is so dry I can see cracks in it.
3. Despite wearing a long-sleeved shirt, sweater, and sweatshirt, I am never quite warm.
4. I want to sleep, sleep, sleep- preferably under an electric blanket.
5. The cats become my best friends and want to sit on my lap any time I’m still for more than three seconds.
6. The very thought of going to WalMart makes me grit may teeth because I know I will have to walk in the cold from my car to the door, fight the crowds, and endure long lines at the checkout.
7. I suddenly want to contact every person I’ve ever known and wish them a Merry Christmas. However, I’m only sending out 35 cards, maybe 40…
8. School days seem longer because we often miss recess due to wet and/or cold weather.
9. School weeks seem shorter because we are trying to complete so much work before the winter holidays.
10. Football seems to be on 24/7.

I'm a freak...

          I think I’m beginning to be a “concern” to some of my friends and family. LOL Because…I can spend hours in the genealogy library. I love to prowl around the museum for old stories and ideas. I take photos of headstones. I start sentences with “did you know that in 1880…”  I got up at 5:30 this morning to search for someone on Ancestry.com. And yesterday I ate my lunch while reading a paper entitled “Counting Sioux: American Indian Newspaper Perspectives on the Proposed Lakota Removal to Indian Territory, 1876”, which was presented by Richard Mize at the Seventh Native American Symposium at SOSU in Durant. I’m a freak…I’m absolutely fascinated by history, especially local history.

          I guess I’ve always loved history. I remember reading about the Civil War when I was in the fifth grade. I became so engrossed in it that I ended up reading dozens of books, and writing a paper that was so detailed my teacher kept it as a reference for future classes. Of all the projects I wrote as a young student, the ones I still have are two of my social studies reports. My favorite television shows and movies were always westerns and pioneer shows. I read all of the Little House books, watched the television series.

          Now, researching families and events is a passion. I snoop around and ask questions and read old newspapers, and talk to people until I have a clear picture of what happened and who did it. My friend calls me “girl detective”. I love that!

          It’s ironic that so few people in our area realize what an intriguing history we have. I suppose I ask more questions and demand more answers because I haven’t spent my whole life here. Familiar surroundings seldom inspire curiosity-people who have looked at these buildings and headstones and streets for 30, 40, or 50+ years don’t wonder “why” as much as I do. I consider this a “win-win” situation. I get to be a history freak, and the community benefits from my research. 

Nature-Deficit Disorder

It turns out that my parents were right- staying outside for hours at a time was a good for me! Yesterday I read an article in USA Weekend about “nature-deficit disorder”, a recently documented condition explained in Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. “He concludes that the absence of nature in many children’s lives is key when it comes to problems they increasingly face, such as obesity, attention disorders, depression and stress. Louv posits that exposure to nature can help prevent these ills and enhance our children’s academic and emotional growth.”

I suppose I hadn’t thought much about this problem since I live in a rural area where children are outside more than their city counterparts. However, I usually have at least a couple of students who seldom, if ever, play outside for extended periods of unstructured time. I suppose safety is the big concern these days. Parents don’t want to send their children outside for unsupervised play, and they are too busy to join them. Another concern is germs. Parents don’t want their children playing with dirt and bugs and sticks and other dirty things. Better to be inside where everything is washed down with anti-bacterial soap. Better to have them in the house playing video games or watching television where it is safe. Turns out that safety is only an illusion. They may be safe from physical harm, but their brains and bodies are turning to mush.

I guess my parents didn’t think much about safety. They must have figured I was smart enough to take care of myself most of the time. I remember spending hours outside- exploring the woods or walking through the fields, digging in the dirt, catching bugs, wading in ditches, watching birds, chasing squirrels, and daydreaming. I could sit in a tree or lie in the grass for hours just thinking and dreaming and creating stories in my head. 

Sometimes I had playmates. My brothers were old enough to play army or cowboys and Indians, but sometimes those games just seemed too limiting. I usually left them and went off on my own. When we visited Oklahoma I played in the woods with my cousins. In warm weather we swung from a rope and dropped into the pond, or just wandered through the woods in search of critters.

When we lived in the city I had to make do with crawling under a bush, but I always found a way to be outside. We went to the park on Sunday afternoons and fed the ducks. We ate a picnic lunch and read the paper and just relaxed. My parents seemed to know instinctively that even though we were poor life couldn’t just revolve around work and school.

Oh, there were times when things went bad. I remember playing with a group of neighborhood kids who put me down in a empty canal, told me the water was going to be turned on any minute, and left me screaming. I don’t know if she heard me or some kid told her, but Mom came to rescue me after a while. I also remember a couple of close encounters with snakes. I fell once and hurt my ankle. I almost got lost when my cousins got too far ahead of me in the woods. But I survived. And it turns out I probably have a more creative mind and relaxed personality because of my time outside.

I thought it was interesting to note that the author says organized sports don’t fulfill the same function. Many children spend more time watching their teammates than actually participating in their game. Also they are not free to think or act freely. Perhaps that is the real key. Time outside needs to be unstructured. “The Nature Conservancy found that kids under 13 now take part in freestyle play outdoors for only a half-hour a week.” Half  an hour a week??? Good grief! I would have gone crazy! Even now, I think that is why I have a garden. It’s the adult equivalent of “playing outside”.

So, even if you have doubts about the scientific accuracy of “nature-deficit disorder” (and I’m not a big fan of labeling) it is obvious that all of us are spending more time indoors than our ancestors. Something to think about. So go outside and think about it.

Stuff and nonsense...

I've been struggling to breathe and talk for the past few days so forgive me if I'm a bit behind on posts. Allergies are bothering me during the day and keeping me up at night. I got up at 2am and looked at my friend's school website for about thirty minutes while I waited for my medicine to work. Ugh!

Today was one of those strange days that just sort of evolved. Didn't plan anything, just ended up doing a few things that needed to be done. Went shopping at Books A Million and bought little books for my student's Christmas presents. Went to Hobby Lobby and bought a piece of green cloth to use for a backdrop for our Christmas with Santa party next month. Gary is going to take the Santa photos. Last year we used a white backdrop and it was awful. So this year, green. Also looked at the hundreds of ornaments and bought one for one of the grandchildren. 

Went to lunch at Carl's Jr. and I HATE their new talking order machine, or whatever they call it. The most annoying thing yet!!!! Not only is the voice annoying when you are placing your own order, but then you have to listen to it as every other customer places an order. I don't plan to return.

Went to WalMart to have some film processed. I don't mean to offend my friends who are "dog people", but I was just totally shocked by what I saw today! Went to get some fish food and noticed some frilly little pink and black nighties hanging across the aisle. Thought it was a strange place for doll clothes until I realized they were DOG clothes. Now I understand the whole concept of keeping your little "pretend dog" (anything you can carry) warm in the winter with a sweater. But come on!! A nightie?? What's up with that? And there were hair bows and matching collars in hot pink. Someone is crazy and it's not me!

I told Gary I can just imagine what would happen to me if I tried to put that outfit on one of my cats! You wouldn't recognize me until I healed! LOL

Spent the afternoon at two different cemeteries, taking headstone photos for other people.

Planted about a hundred daylilies this evening. Late in the year, but a friend was kind enough to give them to me. It's still warm here and we are still picking tomatoes, so who knows what will happen.

Time to cook dinner. 

Holiday Wishes

As a child I often contemplated what I would ask the “genie in the bottle” or the “good witch” or my “fairy godmother” if fortune ever smiled upon me. Of course I always felt stymied by the bothersome rule that you could only have three wishes, so I usually expanded it to at least five. One of my brothers tried to point out to me that if you just wished for perfect health, all the money in the world, and a new car you had everything covered. Sort of took the excitement out of the whole process. Besides, I couldn’t drive.

I never wanted good fortune to be quite that easy. I wanted to think about my wishes. I wanted to anticipate them. I wanted to think they were possible, or at least plausible. I wanted them to be creative, specific, and “guilt-free”. I wanted to deserve them. Even as a kid I instinctively knew that if I had “all the money in the world” other people would have to suffer and I would feel bad. My Sunday school teacher must have been a good one!

I was thinking about this today because my children always ask me what I want for Christmas. I’m not one of those people who has a list going of what they want next. I have so much already. When I think about what is important I am a blessed woman. Good fortune has smiled upon me several times- not in monetary ways, but in ways that calm the soul and nourish the heart. So it is difficult to come up with a list of “wants” for the holidays.

However, if I just let my imagination run wild, if I return to the belief that a genie could grant what I truly wanted… these would be my holiday wishes. (I’m giving myself five, because I get to make up the rules. And although two of them are not possible now or in the near future, I plan to live to be very old…so those of you in control have lots of time to work this out.)

1. I wish I could spend one Christmas with all of my children in the same house at the same time.

2. I wish I could spend one Christmas in Monterey, CA.

3. I wish I could build a better park for the children of Caddo.

4. I wish I could buy an acre of land for my dream garden.

5. I wish I could give all of my children the gift of peace, health, and joy. 

Thanksgiving Dinner

I’m not quite sure what we are going to have for Thanksgiving dinner since my oven isn’t working. I am sure I’ll think of something. After all, it’s not really the food that is important. However, in honor of the holiday I took my Welcome Baking Powder cookbook off the shelf to see how the housewife of 1890 might have cooked dinner. I’m doing this early so that you’ll have plenty of time to make all of your preparations- including killing the turkey.

Poultry- In choosing poultry, the best way to determine whether it is young, is to try the skin under the leg or wing; if it is easily broken, it is young; or turn the wing backwards; if the joint yields readily it is tender; a fat fowl is best for any purpose. After a chicken or fowl is killed, plunge it into a pot of scalding hot water; then pluck off the feathers, taking care not to tear the skin; when it is picked clean, roll up a sheet of white wrapping paper, set fire to it, singe off all the hairs. Poultry should be carefully picked and nicely singed. If a fowl is fresh killed, the vent will be closed, and the flesh have a pleasant smell.

Roast Turkey

Carefully pluck the bird, singe it with white paper, and wipe it thoroughly with a cloth; draw it, preserve the liver and gizzard, and be particular not to break the gall-bag, as no washing will remove the bitter taste it imparts where it once touches. Wash it inside well, and wipe it thoroughly with a dry cloth; the outside merely requires wiping nicely. Cut off the neck close to the back, but leave enough of the crop-skin to turn over; break the leg bones close below the knee; draw out the strings from the thighs, and flatten the breast bone to make it look plump. Have ready your dressing of bread crumbs, mixed with butter, pepper, salt, thyme or sweet marjoram; fill the breast with this, and sew the neck over the back. Be particular that the turkey is firmly trussed. Dredge it lightly with flour, and put a piece of butter in to the basting ladle; as the butter melts, baste the bird with it. When of a nice brown and well frothed, serve with a tureen of good brown gravy and one of bread sauce. The liver should be put under one pinion, and the gizzard under the other. Fried sausages are a favorite addition to roast turkey; they make a pretty garnish, besides adding much to the flavor. When these are not at hand, a few force-meat balls should be placed round the dish as a garnish. Turkey may also be stuffed with sausage meat, and a chestnut force-meat with the same sauce is by many persons much esteemed as an accompaniment to this favorite dish.

Mashed Potatoes

Old potatoes, when unfit for plain boiling, may be served mashed; cut out all imperfections, take off all the skin, and lay them in cold water for one hour or more; then put them into a dinner pot or stewpan with a teaspoonful of salt; cover the stewpan, and let them boil for half an hour, unless they are large, when three-quarters of an hour will be required; when they are done, take them up with a skimmer into a wooden bowl or tray and mash them fine with a potato beetle; melt a piece of butter the size of a large egg into half a pint of hot milk; mix it with the mashed potatoes until it is thoroughly incorporated and a smooth mass; then put it in a deep dish smooth the top over, and mark it neatly with a knife; put pepper over and serve. The quantity of milk used must be in proportion to the quantity of potatoes.

Mashed potatoes may be made a highly ornamental dish; after shaping it, as taste may direct, trim the edge of the plate with a wreath of celery leaves or green parsley; or first brown the outside in an oven or before the fire.

String Beans

            String, snap, and wash two quarts beans, boil in plenty of water about fifteen minutes, drain off and put on again in about two quarts boiling water; boil an hour and a half and add salt and pepper just before taking up, stirring in one and a half tablespoons butter, rubbed into two tablespoons flour and half pint sweet cream. Or boil a piece of salted pork one hour, then add beans and boil an hour and a half.

Cranberry Sauce

            After removing all soft berries, wash thoroughly, place for about two minutes in scalding water, remove, and to every pound of fruit add three quarters of a pound of granulated sugar and a half pint water; stew together over a moderate but steady fire. Be careful to cover and not to stir the fruit, but occasionally shake the vessel, or apply a gentler heat if in danger of sticking or burning. If attention to these particulars be given, the berries will retain their shape to a considerable extent, which adds greatly to their appearance on the table. Boil from five to seven minutes, remove from fire, turn into a deep dish and set aside to cool. For strained sauce, one and a half pounds of fruit should be stewed in one pint of water for ten or twelve minutes or until quite soft then strained through a colander or fine wire sieve, and three quarters of a pound of sugar thoroughly stirred into the pulp thus obtained. Serve with roast turkey or game.

Cocoanut Sponge Cake

            Beat the yolks of six eggs with half a pound of sugar and a quarter of a pound of flour, add a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of lemon essence, and half a nutmeg, grated; beat the whites of the eggs to a froth, and stir them into the yolks, etc. and the white meat of a cocoanut, grated; line square tin pans with buttered paper, and having stirred the ingredients well together, put the mixture in an inch deep in the pans; bake in a quick oven half an hour; cut it in squares to serve with or without icing.

Icing

            Beat the whites of two small eggs to a high froth; then add to them a quarter of a pound of white sugar, ground fine, like flour; flavor with lemon extract, or vanilla; beat it until it is light and very white, but not quite so stiff as kiss mixture; the longer it is beaten the more firm it will become. No more sugar must be added to make it so. Beat the frosting until it may be spread smoothly on the cake. This quantity will ice quite a large cake over the top and sides.

Lost

I’m looking for a photo. I know I have it somewhere among the thousands of photos I have sorted and filed and boxed. I can see it in my mind. I know I’ve retrieved it and looked at it within the last year. I probably even have the negative, even though it is over twenty years old. But I can’t find it. Obviously my filing system has failed me. Or I’ve failed the system. And this bothers me more than I can even explain.

I’m one of those people who can organize things. I can figure out a logical order for almost anything. I can categorize and color code and file. I can classify and sort with the best of intentions. But I don’t always follow through. I get off to a good start. I use whatever system I’ve devised…for a while. Then the contents overflow or the sorting doesn’t quite work anymore or I move, and then it’s back to losing things. And I hate that.

Between photos and writing and genealogy and school and bill paying and personal projects I store a tremendous amount of stuff. I have files for three organizations. I have boxes of papers and photos for my Caddo research. I’ve always kept sentimental things-“junk” my son calls it. I have my fifth grade social studies project. I have nearly everything my mother ever wrote. I have letters from friends and relatives dating back to the sixties. I suppose I have an excuse for occasionally losing something. But I don’t want excuses. I want to be able to find anything I need, when I need it- like tonight.

I’ve always wanted to have one of those beautiful organized, efficient offices where there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. Instead I have bankers boxes and file cabinets and binders and folders and photo boxes and shoe boxes and plastic containers. I have three book shelves, but I need five. I have one storage closet, but I need three. I have two desks but, well, that’s probably enough since I also have a table. LOL  My mother always said your stuff grows to fill whatever space you have, so it probably wouldn’t do any good to have more room in my office. I’d just fill it up. Perhaps I should take my son’s advice and get rid of some junk! I keep telling him that I HAVE gotten rid of some stuff. Honest. I threw away lots of papers and things when we moved. Who knew I had receipts from 1996???  They were filed. Out of sight, out of mind. I’m working on it…

So now I have to find that photo. I may have to “sleep on it”. That helps sometimes. I’ll wake up and remember where it was the last time I saw it- in the photo box labeled “family”, or the file drawer labeled “family”, or the plastic box that isn’t labeled but I know contains family photos, or the bankers box labeled miscellaneous photos and papers.

Now that’s where I got into trouble…miscellaneous.

That’s not a filing system, that’s procrastination in disguise.

No wonder that photo is lost!   

Weekend Plans

Where did the weekend go?? I accomplished very little on my list and yet here it is, Sunday evening and almost time to cook dinner. Yikes!

           We went to the Calera basketball game Friday night. Go Dawgs!! Both great games, but I’m rather partial to watching the girls play. Caddo doesn’t play at home until later in the month.

           Worked downtown yesterday morning for about three hours. We have a serious Bermuda grass problem in our largest flower bed. We’re pulling and digging out everything and starting over. I’m going to put some of the plants back, along with some daffodil bulbs. Also have the wildflower bed ready for next year. Let’s just hope we get a good germination rate on the seeds that fell. I only reseeded the poppies. I love those things! The flowerbed next to the REX II has really been great. Now that it is established it requires very little work. My kind of flowerbed!

           Worked in my own yard a bit. I have a couple of areas cleaned out for some spring flowers. Still working on some problems. Removing a wood pile. Creating a new path. Getting ready to plant some trees.

           Worked on a couple of school projects. Now is the time to really concentrate on individual needs and individual tutoring. I have some students who will be spending some quality time at Mrs. Maurer’s desk. J

           Managed a quick trip through Craighead’s and bought two more coffee cups. No, I didn’t need them- I just love coffee cups and they were on sale. Craighead’s will be having their anniversary sale in a few weeks. I can hardly wait! Time to buy new Christmas ornaments I don’t need!

           The weekend wasn’t all devoted to work. We went to the afternoon matinee at the REX II and saw 3:10 to Yuma. Great western! Have I told you before that I LOVE westerns? Many happy childhood memories of  Saturday mornings with Hopalong Cassidy and Zorro. 

           Finishing up the evening with a little laundry and some computer work. What I really need is a secretary. And for those of you who read my other blogs, yes, I will catch up by about Wednesday. City council meeting tomorrow night, but no other evening plans for the week. Later…