We have visitors from Connecticut (Joyce and Robin and their dog Manny) this week and Leon was excited to show them around his office at the Bureau of Land Management. So we went to the area where there are petrified trees.
It is not an easy ride or an easy place to find. We took our 25 year old four wheel drive Ford F250 diesel. The land is located between the Santo Domingo and San Felipe Pueblos. Down miles of rocky, rutty, hilly, and rough dirt road. Leon knows just about every square foot of the territory. He spends hours on patrol, cleaning up after inconsiderate visitors, mending barbed wire, and "ground truthing" (something like checking out the actual on the ground satellite images of unidentified structures, roads, features and documenting his findings). I must say that I am so happy for him that he has such a great job. Somehow our move to New Mexico almost seven years ago has been a fortunate decision.
We've been here in the petrified forest of New Mexico before and I've posted about the place before but it is always a fun and interesting place to explore. What makes it special is that it is on public land, free, no where near an Interstate or highway and remote enough and difficult enough to get to so that there are few if any human visitors.
So, in case you may have missed a previous post about our New Mexico petrified forest here is a recap from today. Glorious sunshine and blue skies made it a great outing. Enlarge the photos for a more intense experience. Even then, they do not do justice to the views or the fossils.
New Mexico goes legal
and it's not an April Fool's Day joke.
Cannabis, marijuana, or as we used to call it, pot, is now legal in New Mexico.
Personally I smoked more than my share of weed back in the 70s and spent many hours with my hippie freak friends listening to music and getting all philosophical and paranoid and spouting words of wisdom and frivolity.
That was when a an ounce was $20 and there were "dime" and "nickle" bags. I think they had just invented zip-lock bags for the purpose back then.
I remember saving some seeds from a particularly nice bag of pot and growing a few plants. I went up to the college town over the summer and planted the marijuana plants on a hillside near a lime quarry. It was just across the road from the rural college I attended. It turned out to be quite a crop ready for harvest when college resumed in the fall!
I've always loved growing things.
We were "One Toke Over the Line" pretty often back then.
And here's one you never heard of. If you can suffer through this you might get high just listening to it without smoking anything...The lyrics are interesting to say the least...Wait for when the Captain walks around the wheel house....
Here is an article and some links to help LGBTQI Ukrainians. I have not researched or verified any of this information and have not yet made a decision about which of these organizations i will support. You might want to do your own due diligence before making any donations.
Just something I whipped up in my spare time today. When you're out of bread and don't want to drive the 35 miles to town for a loaf. Besides this is better than anything in town.
Dandelion greens, lacinato kale,wilted in olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes; cannellini beans, very little Italian sausage just for flavor, black pepper, chicken stock. Served over a little white rice and topped with grated parmigiano reggiano.
Note: I remember way back when my aunts would all go out together in the spring to the Connecticut dairy farmlands (now upscale housing communities or shopping malls) to pick wild dandelions. Now we pay $3.79 for a bunch which is maybe 10 ounces, grown on California farms for people like me craving the food of my ancestors.
P.S. I am not ignoring the news or current events. I just have nothing of import to add to the commentary or sentiments that I read or hear or see every day. My heart is weary and I cook.
I would like to re-post the entire article about the ACLU Lawsuit against Texas on behalf of the trans children and their parents who are being made in to criminals in Texas, but I will only post the link here.
Please read the post. The right-wing evangelical hypocrites are waging all-out war on LGBTQ Americans...because they sense the "climate" is right to take away all of our hard-won civil rights. Bills in legislatures all across America are being put forth to destroy us, to make us criminals again, to wipe out our marriages, to deny transpersons the right to medical care for gender dysphoria, to make it against the law to even TALK about sexuality and gender in a classroom, to eliminate gender studies at the university Wyoming) and to build a colossal closet of legalities and booby traps.
It sickens me that the attacks are predominately against trans children. At least when we marched and protested and even got arrested for our rights most of us were adults. Children should not be expected to take to the streets to defend their right to be who they are.
What is happening to our country? These fucking republicans are pure evil.
Leon and I watch the news, we ache in our hearts, we wonder not only about the Ukrainian people but also about the Russian soldiers who are Putin's Pawns in this deadly game of chess he is playing with otherwise peaceful, innocent people.
Living in this new world order where evil and horror and hate and lies and power and violence and irreverence have taken hold is not healthy for the human spirit. I can only hope that somehow this will all implode on those who thrive on spewing their toxic breath on the rest of us.
Maybe it's because I had a cortisone injection into my left knee yesterday after nearly four months of doctor appointments, x-rays, MRI, NSAIDS, and Physical Therapy...I felt ambitious today so made vegetarian onion soup with mushrooms au gratin (had two nieghbors for dinner, one who is from France. The soup passed with approval)
Also made homemade pasta. Tagliatelle and Pappardelle. 300 grams of all purpose organic flour, 200 grams of semolina flour, 5 whole eggs, a little water as needed (because our climate is so dry, the flour may need extra moisture).
Took some videos of that my technique. OK so Pasta Grannies I'm not.
I have a pasta machine but sometimes I just prefer rolling out the dough by hand. It gives me a connection to my heritage and how that did it for centureis.
The pasta board and rolling pin were my mom's. Dad made them for her more than 50 years ago. They are prized possessions and I am reminded of her whenever I use them.
Nor am I a videographer. So here goes nothing (and sorry, that
background noise is hubby running the vacuum cleaner in the
dining/living room. I'm not complaining, I hate to vacuum.) Also you should probably fast forward a lot as I didn't edit. I'm not one to talk incessantly like some cooking videos; I don't know what to say. A picture is worth...
Haven't heard from Trae in a while. He has a knack for getting to the point. Sorry I can't embed the video...I'm getting more tech challenged every day....
Just a few photos of our recent snow storm. Not quite New England, but pretty decent. Not much else to say here...
I've been working on a re-edit of my book for which I have recently re-acquired the complete rights. I am planning on re-publishing it, probably a PDF for free or perhaps installments here on the blog. Not sure at the moment. If anyone has suggestions, glad to entertain them.
I don't think I want to go the print/digital purchase route as that didn't work for me last time. I am not a self-promoter and print books require "marketing" for which I have no patience.
Anyhow...fighting with editing on Mac Pages is taking up my time as I try to stay off my feet due to a knee problem...osteoarthritis, lack of cartilage and a torn meniscus. The knee was the size of a small cantaloupe 10 weeks ago and is now just about back to "normal" but must be careful. I did go out to shovel snow...carefully.
Our Cheshire Cat
Leon
The Giant Yuccas
Under the Ponderosa Pine
Front of House
Mom's Mary "Of the Snows"
Courtyard
Closeup of Above
The Jemez From the Ridge
So Many Junipers
So Many, Many Junipers - Top left - Sandia Mountain (Albuquerque) in the Clouds
I keep having this awareness that we are living in, or about to be living in, a third world country, a banana republic short on bananas.
A viral pandemic, hospitals overwhelmed, health care workers burned out, mass shootings, murders on the rise, guns everywhere, food shortages, breakdown of all kinds of infrastructure, fascism taking hold, the rich sucking the wealth out of the entire society, power hungry autocrats consolidating more and more power, alternative narratives diluting truth, global warming laughed at, melting permafrost and plant and animal species threatened or disappearing, collective amnesia of civility and respect...but there is TV and Jeopardy and Entertainment Tonight, and NFL Football and plenty of beer at the grocery store, and weekend dinner plans....I can go on.
"This is how it happens. Precisely
what you’re feeling now. The numbing litany of bad news. The ever
rising outrages. People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you,
while you think about dinner."*
I came across this short article cited by a reader on J.M.G. (Joe.My.God. - the LGBT News Blog). It is worth a read:
I have been making pizza (wrong) for like 33 years or more. Basically using my bread dough which is less hydrated than authentic Neopolitan pizza dough.
But just made my best
pizza ever after watching this video several times. (see below if you want to see an expert)
Despite the fact
that my oven only goes to 500 F and I don't have a pizza stone (been there done that) and I was
out of mozzarella because I put the last of it in my one-egg omelet for lunch!
It took 8+ minutes in the oven. Next time I will
slip the pizza out onto the rack after 4 minutes to get the bottom crust
more brown.
I put three balls of dough into the freezer...I hope they
will turn out as good. Thanks for the lesson, Ciao, Vito.
Granted, this is kind of an advertisement for a very expensive pizza oven, but Vito shows the proper technique. I am learning that hydration (ratio of water to flour) is the key. A 900 degree oven helps.
And if you want to see a REAL Pizza Oven being built you can watch this (in Italian, so you may want to turn off the sound). It looks like a real mess while he's building it, but the final result is ART.
I have to stop looking up nostalgic things and people from my past on
the internet.
I looked up "Smalltown Boy" on YouTube, only to find that Steve Bronski of Bronski Beat died just a month ago in December of 2021. I must admit that I was initially confusing Steve Bronski with Jimmy Somerville who is more well known as the singer with the falsetto voice on the album Age of Consent. None the less...
"Legendary Bronski Beat musician Steve Bronski died in a fire,
friend confirms. Steve Bronski, co-founder and keyboard player of pop
group Bronski Beat, died after a fire in his flat, according to a
friend. The musician's passing at the age of 61 was announced last week,
but no cause of death was given at the time." Dec 14, 2021, PinkNews, UK.
"Steve
Bronski, part of the 1980s British synth-pop trio Bronski Beat, whose
members were openly gay at a time when that was uncommon and whose early
songs unabashedly addressed homophobia and other gay issues, died after a fireon Dec. 7 at his apartment building in the Soho section of London." NYT Dec 22, 2021.
I have been nostalgic of late and focused on remembering the most joyous times of my life. One of those was Disco.
There was the period just after I came out, late bloomer that I was, in 1984 when I would go to the clubs (a lot). The beat of disco music and I could not help but to dance - man, I loved to dance. The music, the beat, and dancing and the sea of sweaty men would get me high.
I would be thoroughly elated, energized and exhilarated. As they say, "Those were the days."
One of the tunes that had a hypnotic beat and great lyrics was "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat.
It was a gay anthem of sorts, a lament of sorts, the story of a kid who didn't fit in. It wasn't exactly my story, but I could relate.
I have the tune in my iTunes library, on my iPhone, and on my Honda USBdrive along with most of the classic disco tunes of the era. I still love them all. I had been just listening to "Smalltown Boy" while riding my bicycle in the garage*.
Then I was curious to check out "Smalltown Boy" on YouTube. There were several videos and in the comment section I was seeing many people signing off with RIP...it was the first I'd heard about Bronski's passing.
Here is an extended version of "Smalltown Boy" featuring Jimmy Somerville, in memory of Steve Bronski:
*doing my physical therapy routine for my bad left knee using a bike trainer stand; ten to fifteen minutes on a stationary bike is like an eternity in HELL; but music makes the medicine easier to tolerate.
Watching Willie Geist interview an English singer I've never heard of despite his record-breaking world tours, I remarked to Leon: I bet there are a hundred other singers, much more talented than that guy, who will never see the light of day." I get philosophical about these things...how very talented people
remain forever in obscurity and many others, some with questionable
talent get fame and fortune.
I was immediately reminded of Jeff Krassner, a gay musician and songwriter whose music I have in my iTunes Library and which we played during our wedding ceremony in 2014. In particular the songs "Strong for You" and "I Hear the Angels Sing".
So I went to Google and found only two references: one was a 1998 article about Krassner getting the opening of Gay Games in NYC and the other was an obituary. It seems that he really had to put out extraordinary effort to see a glimmer of limelight and produce an album.
I could find only a handful of references to him or his album, most of which were dead-ends and not much else. Even his obit was a mere three sentences. Too bad he came before social media and other outlets for artists.
Snippets of the songs on his album "Strong For You" can be found here
But I do find his album for sale on Amazon. I think he was a fine singer and songwriter and am sorry that his life and career was cut short. I join him in obscurity.
This was his only music video I could find on YouTube:
Our internet is down again. Seems to be a regular holiday occurrence. There was snow in the mountains where the transmitter is. Last time it was the wind. I don’t want to use up my phone data so this will be short. Happy New Year.
