In my head .. again

No doom this time though. Whew.

I live in my head a lot. It makes the world much nicer. In my head our house is situated on at least 500 acres of land. The gardens are large and abundant. It's a step back in history to slightly before the time our house was actually built.

This morning I am in my head once again. Not on my 500 acres though. I am out roaming around the world. I am in my VW Westy, which someday I will actually own.

I am rolling out of it, foggy headed & with wild dreads, and I am ambling over to the campfire. Stirring the coals back around, starting back up a small fire so that I can cook breakfast. Hmm .. I think this morning's breakfast is definitely bacon & potato hash. Smoke from the burning wood drifts into the VW and swirls about inside like incense.

What will the day hold for me? Where will we wander about? We are free today to do as we please. Laugh, drink, sing, roam, explore ... imagining all the possibilities.


In reality, I hear beer bottles clinking outside. Today our Belgian Blonde Ale will get bottled. The beer is calling to me heavily already this morning. Some Sundays are perfect for sitting out on the deck and sipping on beers.

Yesterday was good. We moved the chickens back to the yard and cleaned out their Winter Chalet. We set up the new mini-greenhouse and started some seeds. We were outdoors most of the day and it was magnificent.
Justin has had a beef roast going in the crockpot since yesterday and the aroma of it is driving me out of my mind. I think I my drooling could compete with the Mastiff's.

The roast wasn't ready for dinner last night, so we picked up some fresh made North Carolina BBQ from a couple who has set up shop on Main Street. A small trailer with a impressive smoker rigged up next to it. How can you deny the allure of the smoker?

Today we will likely plant some more seeds. It is that time of year and since we missed out on it last year we are looking forward to it all the more now. The trees are blooming, going from bare branches to full blossoms overnight.

I am ok with my head and reality not quite syncing up right now. Both are fantastic worlds to be in.

Ramblings and Ana Pascal

There are several things I could write about right now. The first would be how many times you hit the keys "g," "h," and "j" in regular typing. I only note this because these keys are currently NOT on my keyboard thanks to the curiousity that arises out of two young boys the moment Mommy leaves the room (and, no, they aren't just snapping back on ... I'm luckily able to hit the little "buttons" that are under them to get the letters to work).
I could write about the moving of the new biddies (our Ameracaunas) into the larger tractor. This we did Saturday night, with Justin and his brother Matt lifting the tractor and me sliding the Ameracaunas (cage & all) into the tractor, while also trying to pull Jomo back OUT of the tractor. I am quite certain that his only motivation for continually running into the raised up tractor was to insure that none of the older birds (who were mostly asleep) ran out. That or he was trying for a freshest of fresh snack of spilled chicken feed and chicken poop.
But, no, what is going through my head right now is Ana Pascal. She is a character from the movie Stranger than Fiction, and I love her. I love her character and why she is who she is. I love the relationship she develops with Harold Crick. Here is a link to a beautiful moment in the film: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1291950080/ch0008721 -- Harold is trying to give her flowers ... but rather than just give her a bouquet of flowers, he brings her a box of flours, as she is a baker. Ana has this wonderful line in the movie, explaining why she left Harvard Law School: "I just figured that if I was going to make the world a better place, I would do it with cookies." (pardon any misquoting there .. I think that quote is dead-on accurate, but am not able to verify at this precise moment).
I love that sentiment. I love baking, I love the thought of baking. The true comfort in it. When I crave chocolate it is not a candy bar that I crave but something freshly baked and still warm. Until I worked in a bakery I never knew the utter decadence of a pile of warm, yellow cake tops. We trimmed the tops off for a flat work surface, and would pile them up in huge piles: a pile of chocolate, one of yellow, one of marble, one of white almond, and on special days, one of red velvet. Warm cake, no icing, just the warmth from the oven in that moist texture .. I gained several pounds working there but when I look back they are some of the pounds I was happiest to gain and some of my favorite pounds ever.
I love being in the kitchen when the air is cool. I love the feel of natural materials (which my kitchen needs more of) surrounding me: brick flooring and old brick walls, antique wooden working surfaces. And then there is the delight of the way that modern, utilitarian stainless steel blends in so well.
If you haven't seen the movie, I would highly recommend it. It is a wonderful story, perhaps that is what makes it such a delight. It is well acted, the characters are believable, the plot line isn't too mushy, though there are so many scenes I can't get through without the inevitable shedding of tears. But I love the narration that takes place, for it is truly like a good book, and being read to in such a captivating manner is something that is getting rarer and rarer these days.