Refrigerator Soup

 Grey skies to the east - morning snow

Wind chime against light snowfall

daily tanka

President's Day

Lincoln and Washington

great men in their time

both saw their people struggling

what struggle would they see now

Soup for a Thrifty President

Leftover meat or tofu chopped small

1-2 Tbsps olive oil

1/2 small onion chopped

1 clove garlic chopped

1 large yellow potato diced

2 large fresh tomatoes skinned and diced

(or as in my case 1/2 can leftover diced tomatoes)

1 can low sodium chicken or vegetable broth 

2 Tbsps chopped basil
1/8 - 1/4 tsp cayenne

Saute the meat in the oil if uncooked.  Remove and set aside.

Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until transparent.

Add meat, diced potatoes, tomatoes, basil and broth.

Bring to simmering point; turn down the heat 

and simmer for an hour.

Serve with toast points or crackers.

Today I woke up to grey skies and snow flurries with a colder day forecast. I slept in and then got a series of phone calls so felt I was behind - then told myself it was alright as it was a national holiday anyway!  

By the time noon rolled around I felt like some homemade soup. So I looked in the refrigerator and made the recipe above with a couple of skinned and diced Italian sausages that I needed to use up.  Ate a late but delicious President's day lunch.

A Gift of Daffodils

An Ex-Patriot Thinks Of Spring

In January snowdrops push

Their sleepy heads through ice and snow,

To shake their white and emerald bells,

While we wait for spring.

On February’s sunny days

The crocus flings its petals wide

In gold and purple majesty,

Then spring is on the way.

Beset by March gusts, pounding rain,

The daffodil on sturdy stalks

Waves cheerful trumpets as we pass

And spring is here again.

On sunny April days we walk

By green and mossy country banks

And gather creamy primroses

And then we know it’s spring.

In May through wood and copse we stroll

To stop and sigh and wonder there,

At bluebells bobbing mile on mile

To celebrate the spring.

When Rose and Lilac scent the lane

We know that spring has yielded now

To summer’s warmth, and buzzy bees

Know spring is on the wane.

© C.Valentine 2009

 

Thawing Out

 Certificate of Completion - Welch Cancer Center

 Gift of quilt from Tongue River Quilters

February Thaw Photos

 Ice from new drain - it works some of the time!

Driveway is a sea of mud

daily haiku

in mid winter sun
snow turns to slush and mud
a joyful mess

A joyful mess indeed! The warmth is appreciated, the mud only as far as it indicates better weather. Cold waves will come in again, but right now it is great to see the sun most days and walk outdoors in the 40's instead of indoors on the treadmill.

It is good to be writing in my blog again; I haven't had the time or inclination to do so over the last few months. It seems a long time mentally and physically since my last blog on November 10th.  

In August last year - my annual mammogram returned a verdict of abnormality. It showed a cluster of calcium crystals that could indicate a malignancy. I had a second opinion which said the same, that a biopsy was needed.  The biopsy showed malignant cells present. I was diagnosed with DCIS (Duct Carcinoma In Situ)  The news was bad, but also good. DCIS stays in the duct and is not invasive - good; I needed a lumpectomy - bad. So in October and November I had two surgeries. The second just to take more tissue because the pathologist felt not enough tissue had been removed on the "edges" of the site the first time. All pathology came back as non-invasive.  After this I was scheduled for 33 radiation sessions.  Surgery plus radiation raises the chances of the malignancy or other malignancies NOT occurring up to the 97% percentile so I felt it was worthwhile. The sessions were daily Mon-Fri at the Welch Cancer Center in Sheridan. I completed last Monday, January 28th 2013, and am at home healing, thankful that it is all over. 

I am so very thankful about many things. The first that I live in the age of the mammogram and it was found even before a lump had formed. The second for the staff and top rate equipment at the Welch Center in Sheridan who have been my friends and encouragement team for the last 5 months. And for my family and many friends who have given me their love and support throughout, especially Thelma who gave me a home and caring friendship throughout the operations and therapy sessions; Owen and Diana who looked after my house while I was away during the week; Aaron who listened to my anger and understood; Art and Kathy who continued to write daily and listened to my occasional whining; and all those friends who prayed for me - I know it makes a difference. 

I did not share what I was going through with my neighbors here, only my close friends. Cancer is a scary condition - many of us have relatives and friends who died from it. But as time elapses more and more therapies are available that are creating a big pool of us "cancer survivors" which is getting larger with each succeeding year. I did not want to be affected by attitudes of negativity, and in that way I could stay positive and involved with my own self-caring a day at a time. If someone we know is diagnosed with a malignancy - we owe it to them most of all to project hope. 


Right now I have hope for my own future and ripe old age - after all my great-grandmother was over 100 yrs old when she died and I use her as a role model!  In the meantime - to all women who read this - don't play with the date for your annual mammogram get it each year and on time. And to the men who love them - make sure they get it - be aware of which month of the year the appointment comes up and don't hesitate to give reminders. Mammograms save lives. I know firsthand.

 

 

 

First Snow

daily haiku

six months of drought

the first good moisture is snow

white irony

Our first snow today. Yesterday it was dark and snowing but cleared with two inches on the ground. This morning I went to draw back the curtains, saw the white light shining through and I knew we'd had more. A total of around six inches.  With low temps forecast for next week we can expect it to go into the ground - how marvelous! I feel cold despite the house being at 70' and I know I am experiencing what my husband used to call the Radiating effect - the walls are cold and pull the heat away from your body.

Household hint #1

If you put brownies in the oven, 

don't go outside and rake leaves!

Household hint #2

If your brownies are over-baked,

crumble them in a dish, top with ice cream and a jolt of chocolate syrup :-)

Senegalese Soup for two - on a cold day

1 chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces

2 Tbsps finely chopped onion

1 garlic clove finely chopped

1 apple peeled and cored - finely chopped

1 carrot peeled and chopped

1 stick celery chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 can low sodium (or homemade) chicken broth

1 Tbsp curry powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Place the chicken in a 4 qt Crockpot.  Saute the vegetables and apple in the olive oil, in a small pan until soft. Add to the chicken. Pour the the broth over the contents and stir in the curry powder. Cook on high
for 2 hours. Season with salt and pepper if you prefer.  Serve with a dash of cream or just as it is.

Consumer Research

 Sunrise #1- November 1st

 Sunrise #2 - November 1st

 Keeping It's True Colors

 Light through lilac leaves

 Tongue River - Hill House shows above the island

daily tanka

tan ecru umber
the colors of late autumn
wait for the first snow
when blankets of white contrasts
bark against montana blue

We are having typical fall weather - bright sunshine, azure skies and days in the fifties.  Also as is usual in fall - no rain. The weather forecasts call for showers and we get an occasional twelve drops. The fire danger is still there but with no lightning to set a fire, it is much lower. 

The flies know it is fall and have moved into the house in abundance, along with wasps. After having used spray for years and hating it, I found the perfect answer - a Dustbuster! I happily suck them up and then empty them outdoors - who knows with their dogged persistence I may even be recycling them! 

I have been busy with fall chores and insulating every nook and cranny I can find where cold air might enter when winter comes. My best friend is Rope Caulk these days; you can tear off long strips and place along the windows and other places then peel it off come spring leaving no residue to clean up. 

Along with fall come the catalogs - a full two inches of them on Mondays - and I am doing my Christmas consumer research :)   Here is a piece that I wrote about ten years ago.

Catalogs

Everyday the mail can hold untold pleasures for me. I love the letters, hate the bills, but I adore catalogs!  I savor them, divide them into groups for reading at different times of day, and dedicate special time to what I humorously refer to as my  “Consumer Research”!  My husband is fascinated that a person can read so many catalogs, not once, but several times over. He even e-mails me at work as to the number of catalogs that arrived in the mail that day!

I jokingly refer to myself to friends at work as the “Catalog Queen”, and we laugh.  The funny thing is, I know many women who also love catalogs, but they keep it a hidden secret.  Like hiding and eating their Twinkies and Little Debbies, they stash their catalogs in the bathroom or laundry where they can indulge in fantasies of wild clothing, expensive household gadgets, or gourmet foods, unobserved by others.  I say to these women, “Stand up to the secret majority in your mind that you think might label you dumb, or that would judge you as an airhead because of this past-time! Consumer research has it’s place in the world. The Direct-Mail Industry needs us!”

                                                                                               

Reading catalogs has a dark, downside however. In November I receive a pile in the mail each day fully two inches or more in thickness.  All the delights of Christmas consumerism descend to cheer the gloom of November days. But then in January when the days are short and the cold reaches into your bones, add to this dreariness a lack of consumer reading materials. Catalog withdrawal sets in!

At mail time my hopes are dashed. I am lucky to get even one in the day’s mail.  After that one is read, I wander hopelessly around the house like a lost soul.  At first I utter cries of, “I’m bored”, and get no response from my husband who looks at me wearily from his newspaper, having been through this before at the beginning of each year.

At night I pick up books to read, only to set them on one side because they don’t fill the emptiness, and I have an overpowering sense of loss. Eventually I adjust, read books and magazines that I set aside through the Pre-Christmas months, I even write!!  January is my most productive month as a writer. But then along comes February and the White Sales! Oh there is nothing like the Bloomingdale’s White Sale catalog, or the Williams Sonoma Winter Sale centerfold, and after these the new spring clothing catalogs for L.L. Bean and Lands End.  The winter blues melt away as I get into the recliner, put up my feet, and settle down to a mind bending, chills-in-the-spine, all-engrossing session of Spring Consumer Research!

The Gift of Vision

daily haiku

trees are becoming

a river of gold reaching

from mountains to me

The photos don't do the trees justice - too much haze either due to fire or dust - I am not sure which. They are at their peak right now but are beginning to lose leaves mostly due to death from drought.

Yesterday I was with my friend Bruce.  As I parked the car in the parking lot he said,"Why don't you park over there in the shade?" I looked and there was a shady place under a tree. I moved the car and then laughed and told him - "Bruce, it takes a blind person to see things sometimes!" With his disability, Bruce could see what I did not.  Light and shadow. My mind was already in the store searching for the product I wanted to buy.

Often I allow my mind to get ahead of the present and miss something that is beautiful or interesting that is close to me.  I remember when I first started working at the Detox in Lame Deer. So many tasks to do and not many people to help.  My friend Harold Fisher would say to me, "Slow down, Christine, slow down!"  So I would take time to sit and chat with him and have never regretted it. My first husband often said, "It'll still be there tomorrow."  So very true. 

I finally finished a task which I did not attack hammer and tongs, but I did have a vision in mind. The guestroom was full of junk and many, many books belonging to my husband. I just could not face sorting it out - it was too overwhelming. Then I read in my daily Guideposts about using ten minute increments to work on a project - anyone can manage ten minutes a day. So I started, and once started I kept at it a bit at a time until this week I have a clean, tidy and pleasant guest room - the vision.  Books were mailed and donated; old technology taken to the dump - no recycling plant in Birney; I parted with years and years of magazines that I had to admit I had not re-read in at least 5 years; family history papers were mailed to the children who hopefully will pass them on to the next generation.

Last week I was diagnosed with a new health problem. It was frightening, caused me to panic for a while. But I remembered my 12 step program and it helped me to get calm again, and now I have a new vision - me as a healthy old lady!  Thanks to Bruce for his gift of "special" sight.

Fall Creeps In... on little cat feet (apologies to Carl Sandburg)

daily haiku

ash and box elder

flame their way into the fall

equinox this week

Today there is a 20% chance of rain which is pretty low, so I am praying.  This past week we had three mornings with light frost that took cucumbers, tomatoes and all tender plants. It also turned the some trees to gold,. and fall colors are creeping in. If we don't have a big wind I think the color in the valley will be spectacular this year.

Everything around the house looks so sad. The grass is dead; many leaves have fallen from the trees because they died from thirst not frost. Even my hardiest plant - mint - that I use for greenery in this arid climate is mostly dead. I water with the bad methane water hoping that it will preserve the roots so it will revive next spring.

As you can see from the photo we still have smoke around us coming from the many fires further away. But thank God not in the immediate vicinity at present. One thing for which to be thankful are the cooler daytime temperatures in the 70's and low 80's. I was able to sit outdoors and read one day. After I put down my book and just relaxed for a while, a bluebird flitted down and twittered at me from the fence.  I asked him why he had not flown south yet, but he was silent about that. Later he and the missus were in front of the house and checking out the nest under the eaves , so evidently they are nestlings from this year's brood. I saw bluebirds on my daily walk too, so evidently warmer weather will continue for a while yet - bluebirds know for sure.

In contrast to the bluebirds, the herd of Elk are back at the Diamond Cross Ranch; they obviously sense fall and breeding time and sought out their favorite grazing in the alfalfa fields along the Tongue River. Soon there'll be reports of Bears. With the cool nights I can sleep without the air conditioner - such a joy - in the fall I swear the Bear in me comes out too. I sleep so deeply it's like hibernation!