I don't remember two consecutive days of sun. Silver is the color now. Rain is the sound. The sun is a caution sign and the moon has gone fishing. Every now and then, cloud pink, but mostly sky silver, which often fades to gray, and an understanding that I am settling into a new and fundamental slow—a different slow from the past many months, a more self-reflective one.
An even more self-reflective one.
(You were thinking it; I'll say it.)
What do the weather, the politics, the economy make of you?
It's been raining here in Eagle Rock for days off and on, but last night it never stopped and is still going strong. Great torrents and sheets of hard rain, a blessing on drought-ridden Southern California but I've had enough of it. I've been sick with the flu and if I go out into the wet, I start coughing. Blah. Puts me in a mood because I know I have to go out in a few hours to the doctor's office and then from there to work.
I heard a bird singing outside my bedroom window this morning, just a few minutes ago and it changed my mood. How can it sing so sweetly? It must be drenched, the poor thing. I hope it's found shelter in some strange, dry spot in the huge magnolia tree in our backyard. I hope its song isn't a cry of despair.
The brave bird (for somehow in my mind, he is now a he and a very brave he) gave me some of his courage to go out and slog through the rain and cold. He put a smile on my face and got me to thinking about birds in general. I found a poem about swallows that I fell in love with from a poet I didn't know. The bird brought me courage, a smile, a poem and a new poet whose beautiful name I covet, think is perfect for a poet and makes me smile more. I think that makes my bird an angel.
Swallow by Paige Hill Starzinger
barbs of outer wing-feather
recurved into minute hooklets
from base to tip a rasping
dusky throated northern rough
as a bolus is pushed pons and pharynx
the anterior tongue lifts to hard palate
elevates to soft and seals
lores darker than eyes bill black
forager with forked tail weak feet
more wing than any other song
To read the rest of this magnificent poem click here. Poetry Friday is being hosted by Mentor Texts and More. Thanks for hosting!
It rained all last night and off and on throughout the day. The grandkids and I were cheated out of our walk but we're happy to have the rain here in sometimes too sunny California. My Grandma Lupe's long-standing tradition was always to make either caldo de rez (beef and vegetable soup) or caldo de pollo (chicken soup) on the first rainy day. It's a great tradition and I've done a darned good job in keeping it. My children always knew the first rainy day meant soup and some kind of baking and now my grandchildren are learning. Traditions are important to me.
It's Saturday. If it had been a Saturday when I was growing up, I'd have been lying under piles of blankets smelling the morning baking my grandmother was doing, smelling chiles roasting, hearing my grandfather banging out tortillas with his big rolling pin. If I had been at my mom's it would have been cartoons, cold cereal and a blanket on the couch. In my house now, Saturdays mean the grandkids are here. Cartoons? Once in a great while. I do work in animation... But mostly, Saturdays - rainy ones mean cuddling on the bean bags and reading stories. Today we read the first chapter of The Wind in the Willows. Isn't that a great book?
After reading, we piled into the car at the first break in the rain and headed to the Mexican market to get groceries for soup. I meant to do chicken but ended up wanting beef instead. I had a great time teaching my granddaughter Jasmine how to pick out the right vegetables. We had so much fun smelling herbs, squeezing lemons, looking at tomatoes, discussing chiles and laughing at the funny sounds of words in Spanish, English and Nahuatl. Words like loroco, flor de calabaza, tomatl, tomate, tomato. She has a good sense of what we need and she's only four. She knows that we want the juiciest, darkest red tomatoes for salsa, the firmer Romas for Spanish rice and things like salad. She knows the difference between the smell of oregano and thyme, can tell you what we use it for and that spearmint tea will take away a tummy ache. She's steeped in tradition and in her culture and that makes me happy to know that things like my grandmother's recipes won't be lost.
We bought chamorros de rez (beef shanks), soup bones, loroco, mexican squash, chayote or chayotl squash, squash flowers, fresh thyme, fresh oregano, chiles of four different varieties, lemons, new potatoes white and purple, tomatoes, carrots, white Mexican corn on the cob, celery, cabbage, cilantro, garlic and onions. We bought fresh Mexican white cheese (queso fresco) that crumbly mild almost ricotta-like wheel of cheese that is my favorite and Monterey Jack. We also bought huge pink and white marshmallows and a big pumpkin.
At home again, we set the soup bones and chamorros to mingle with fresh thyme, cilantro, oregano, a head of garlic and two quartered onions in boiling salted water while we read more about our friends Toad, Mole and the rest. I got in some crocheting while the grandkids napped and thought about next weeks Poetry Friday (yikes I'm hosting), Robert's Snow and the upcoming Cybil Awards. I have the honor of featuring four illustrators on both Cuentecitos and AmoXcalli for Robert's Snow - Blogging for A Cure organized by Jules and Eisha of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Those two are the most organized people I've run into in a while! I also have the honor of being a panelist again for graphic novels with the 2007 Cybil Awards. I'm going to be a busy girl!
Several hours later, we had a great beefy stock going. We pulled out the herbs, garlic, meat and bones and strained out the stock. We then added quarted potatoes in their skins and the carrots chopped into chunks. We let that get halfway done, then added chopped celery, chunks of chayote squash and fresh Mexican white corn on the cob and while that was cooking we sliced into paper thin wheels, the zucchini and Mexican squash which we carefully laid on top to steam along with a quartered cabbage. We put the lid on the pot and let that simmer for five minutes just long enough for the cabbage to wilt and change color.
I had made fresh roasted salsa earlier along with squash flower and loroco quesadillas and Spanish rice. We cut quesadillas into little crispy triangles oozing the mix of cheeses with little green and yellow flowers cascading out and arranged those on a plate with a little bowl of salsa in the middle. I stirred the meat back into the soup and served it out into each bowl making sure everyone got an ear of corn. The traditional way is to scoop out a spoonful of rice in the middle of the bowl then serve the soup right over it. We sat down to squeeze lemon over the hot soup and rice, nibbled quesadillas along with the soup and most of us scooped the salsa right into the soup as well. For dessert I had made hot Mexican chocolate with cinnamon covered by the huge marshmallows in pink and white and the fresh pumpkin empanadas that are my son Albert's favorites. My grandchildren are sleeping now full of stories, food and tradition.
Aren't rainy days wonderful?
Priscilla and the Splish-Splash Surprise
Author: Nathaniel Hobbie
Illustrator: Jocelyn Hobbie
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0316010464
ISBN-13: 978-0316010467
Book Description
Here is a second clever read-aloud starring Priscilla, who is upset as rain comes down in buckets for days on end! When our intrepid heroine ventures outdoors to perform a rain-stopping dance, she meets Posy the Pixie, who shows her around the magical land of Primrose and teaches her to appreciate both rain and sunshine. Priscilla’s story is told in lyrical verse and young girls will enjoy reading her pixie land adventure aloud.
“On Priscilla's planet, which is not so far away, the sky is a purple, green-brownish gray hue today. The sky had not been blue for days. Then the raindrops began to fall and rain became the word of the day.”
Priscilla is back in another rhyming adventure! In Priscilla and the Splish-Splash Surprise, Priscilla is not having a good day. She hates the rain and wishes it would just go away. At the edge of the forest near her home, she meets Posy the Pixie and other characters in the forest. Posy teaches Priscilla about the wonders of rain. The illustrations are colorful and bright.
School Library Journal didn’t like this book for some strange reason but I loved it. My three year old granddaughter, who is very critical about what books she likes, loves the Priscilla books and especially this one. She too was not loving the rain since she couldn’t go to the park and after reading Priscilla and the Splish-Splash Surprise, she immediately wanted rain boots and to go out and hop through the puddles.
I always think it’s great when a book makes a child laugh out loud, when it captures them and makes them think. That to me is the gauge for a good children’s book. I loved the magical pixie world beyond the trees and the bugs and characters that live there. This is a perfect rainy day book for little girls.
About the author and illustrator:
Jocelyn and Nathaniel Hobbie are the talented son and daughter of New York Times bestselling author Holly Hobbie. Jocelyn is a painter and lives in New York City. Nathaniel works with glass and steel at his workshop in Massachusetts.
I don't remember two consecutive days of sun. Silver is the color now. Rain is the sound. The sun is a caution sign and the moon has gone fishing. Every now and then, cloud pink, but mostly sky silver, which often fades to gray, and an understanding that I am settling into a new and fundamental slow—a different slow from the past many months, a more self-reflective one.
The economy doesn't touch me. We bottom of the bunch simply stay bottom of the bunch and if we can hold our own, eat, underwear, well, we're doing well. Politics - not so pleased up here but what am I going to do until the next Federal election. Weather - well now, I was just thinking while walking tonight how unme I will be for two more months. Bring on fall and the layers and I'll be at home.
The weather, politics and economy....well...it leads me to my garden to weed, plant, reflect, watch and listen to the birds, say "hi" to people passing by. It all takes me to needing to be in a place where I spend time with my plants, trees and time reflecting on all that is good.
More importantly, it all makes of me a more prayerful and hopefully thoughtful person.
Doesn't sitting at your desk, staring out at the rain, inspire you? As you said, more reflective, but that can have great results, because staring into the unknown blanks out the mind and all of the sudden, the epiphany...like what comes next in your book.
Just finished No Such Thing as the Real World. My top 3 stories were yours, Chris Lynch's and KL Goings. What Hannah must have gone through. I can't imagine.
Have a glorious rainy day.
My office (a converted wardrobe that I can CLOSE :-) is right next to a window overlooking our backyard.
Sunny days are wonderful for enjoying the growing identity of our garden - flowers, herbs and veg.
But the cloudy, overcast and, yes, even rainy days allow me to imagine my backyard is the lush forest where my uncle lives in Brazil, or the primeval stands of trees from where my west coast friends mock my claims of 60 year old oaks, smug amongst their giant red woods.
I learned in school that water conducts electricity - it can also transport the mind....which should be focusing on much different "more productive" things, I suppose.
The economy? Politics? They have no place in my rainy wanderings.
In Norway we have a saying that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes....so this morning, the sky as happy as ever playing its rainy games, I put on my waterproof (including waterproof mascara) and jogging shoes and just opened the door. It was....lovely......
The sun is a caution sign and the moon has gone fishing - ah - love your words....
In Toronto we have every sort of weather, often on alternating days. It can be quite cold, then boiling hot, rain and sun. This has been even more so in the last few years. Our politics--yikes. We're like you guys down south only 10 years behind so we have to get through our mini-bush era. Our PM is scary but in a small country sort of way. It has less world impact but we have a decent country here I don't want to see him ruin. The opposition parties aren't strong enough yet to win an election so they look like wimps because they keep giving into him in order to gain time to strengthen their parties.