Category Archives: Uncategorized

individual Ingredients

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My magic ingredient in the kitchen is originality.  I am incapable of following a recipe without adding at least one new ingredient.  To my sister’s stroganoff shepherd’s pie, I added chopped and sauteed green pepper. To cookies and cakes, I add nuts.  To my favorite spaghetti sauce recipe, I added a dollop of red wine and chopped green olives.  It’s as though following a recipe exactly is a challenge to my creativity. It would be fun to post a recipe and ask every viewer to vary it a bit and tell me the results.  Perhaps I’ll do this!

Actually, even more fun.  I’m going to start a cumulative recipe.  I’ll start with one ingredient and ask each successive commenter to add instructions about what to do with that ingredient and then to add one more ingredient.  By the end, we should have one delicious recipe.  Are you game?  You’ll have to read my post and each comment to see what stage we are in.  Be a sport.  Participate!

My ingredient is 4 medium-sized white potatoes. The first commenter should tell me what to do to prepare them and to add one more ingredient.  The second commenter should tell how to prepare that second ingredient and add an ingredient of his/her own.  At some point along the way, cooking instructions should be added. Let’s see where this leads!  Be sure to look at comments before you add your ingredient for this will be one recipe…not a number of them.  Bon appetit!

DAILY PROMPT: Ingredients–What’s the one item in your kitchen you can’t possibly cook without? A spice, your grandma’s measuring cup, instant ramen — what’s your magic ingredient, and why?

DOORS: Cee’s Thursday Challenge

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This is the door to my art studio. Diego is the handsome dog who remains outside by virtue of a screen door between us.

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This is the door to Zasu Pitts’ home in Santa Cruz, CA.

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This trucker’s companion is well-trained not to exit even when it is an almost irresistible temptation.

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What makes a door noteworthy?  Sometimes it is the person who lived behind it, sometimes what is beyond it.  Some doors are important because we choose not to walk through them and others change our lives when we do.  Aesthetically, metaphorically and psychologically, doors hold an importance to us our entire lives.  Here are some of mine.

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/06/11/thursday-doors-june-11-2015/

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Mountaineer

I am a mountain waiting to be climbed,
its slopes slippery and rough
with fortifications.
Each poem is the face I am inviting you to scale,
not taking the clearly defined path
that prose would provide,
but a harder course with handholds and footholds
that will not give way if you
use your mind to select a wise course.

If I did not trust you so, I would give you a secure railing
like one provided in showers and bathtubs
for the elderly;
but I know, if you have made it this far,
that you have the stamina to make it on your own.

Every mind is both a mountain waiting to be climbed
and a climber sometimes bent on climbing,
at other times, content
to stand at the mountain’s base,
waiting for the scree to come to him.

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “I Am a Rock.”— Is it easy for you to ask for help when you need it, or do you prefer to rely only on yourself? Why?

Bob Tale

The Prompt: A Dog Named Bob–You have 20 minutes to write a post that includes the words mailbox, bluejay, and ink. And one more detail… the story must include a dog named Bob. Confession, I took 40!

Bob Tale

My brother’s coon dog name of Bob was lying by the sink.
He was a pretty good old dog, but man, he had a stink!
I opened up the kitchen door and said he had to leave;
but when he tried to lick my hand, I met him with my sleeve.

“Out boy, now!” I yelled at him and pushed him towards outside.
Smelly dogs are something that I can’t abide.
I’d told my brother that I’d keep him for awhile
’till he found another owner, for dogs just weren’t my style.

I was almost done with breakfast, licking syrup from my plate
while waiting for a letter, but the mail was late.
I could watch the mailbox from the comfort of my chair.
I’d been waiting for an hour, but still it wasn’t there.

A bluejay sat up in a tree looking at the scene.
I hoped the mailman didn’t know that bluejays could be mean.
That letter from my true love I’d been yearning for,
standing at the window, pacing on my floor.

When I heard the mailman’s engine and ran out to my stoop,
that bluejay came right at me, with one big threatening swoop.
The mailman dropped my letter and ran on up the road–
fleet of foot in spite of his rather weighty load.

I stood up and tried to run to my letter box,
that bluejay  pecking at me from my collar to my socks.
I  grabbed my letter from the road and ran back towards the house,
putting my love letter in a pocket of my blouse.

But that bluejay was a devil, he stayed right up with me,
stabbing at my earlobes, pecking at my knee.
Then he spied the letter and before I could react,
he held it fast within his beak. My letter had been hacked!

I thought that I had lost it–and all hopes of romance.
I went from hopeful thoughts of love to feeling I’d no chance
of ever falling fast in love with someone I had met
on a social network on the internet.

He’d said he’d write a letter giving his address
and if I didn’t answer, I’d have no redress.
He’d close up his account and bother me no more.
And that is why day after day, I’d waited at my door.

I saw that bluejay flying low, my letter in his beak.
I put my head down in my hands, but then I heard a squeak.
I glanced up fast to see that jay sitting on the fence
not knowing  Bob crept up behind, he offered no defense.

Bob seized him fast around the neck before he’d time to think,
and the bluejay got a message that wasn’t written in ink!
He dropped the letter and made off to other Bob-less lands
while Bob came up and placed my letter gently in my hands.

And that is how I came to have a family of six
and how I came to treasure all Bob’s nuzzles and his licks.
And how Bob, too, came to have a chance to be a dad
with the lovely Irish Setter that my true love had.

Now our families are mixed and living happily–
all so in love that I’m in risk of writing sappily.
With no fear, the mailman brings us letters every day.
And you can bet for sure that we’ve seen no more of that jay!


https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/a-dog-named-bob/

Number One !!!! (Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge

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Frida is queen of the castle. High up on the dome, she is the “One.” But what could she be looking at?

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This is definitely a possibility, but no, I snapped this picture in the U.S., of a dove perching solo on the neighbor’s chimney.

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Who is Frida surveying from her “oneness” atop the dome? It’s Morrie, the interloper, who has learned to climb the stairs but not how to negotiate the slippery incline to the dome’s top.

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So he had to make do with negotiating the flat border around the dome, where he contemplated jumping down to the teja awning over my bedroom door before I finally saw him and urged him over to the other side, where the stairs down to mother earth were. So Frida remains solo in her domain, as she has always liked it to be.

Other “Ones”

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What chance has any dog of finding this fire hydrant in the tall grass of such an isolated spot?

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“But I just had one beer, officer!”


http://ceenphotography.com/2015/06/09/cees-fun-foto-challenge-one-item/

Post Script re/ Morrie

If you have read THIS blog, you might be interested to know that while Stephanie dashed into a local market to get me one item, Morrie jumped over two seats in the car and relieved us of the responsibility of cooking and eating two chicken breasts that were nestled well down into the grocery sack.  S. was not happy, but Morrie was.

When he got home, he ate a bird, or at least the remains of one as its foot was sticking out of his mouth unattached to anything else when he came to visit S. poolside.  Ah the realities of puppydom.  I think my two are giving him naughty lessons.  Remember that mere months ago, Diego ate 6 raw porkchops from the skillet atop my stove and two days later made off with an entire cooked chicken.

Since my other two canines are named Frida and Diego, we were thinking we should rename Morrie Trotsky–If you don’t know why, this was a well-known love triangle in Mexico.  And, he is a little trotter.

Fernando is a Genius!!!

After an hour long wait on the TELMEX line, I finally got an English-speaking techie, Fernando, who took me through a number of procedures that scored a success!!!  I’m now online with my Mac again.  Such a relief.  I am going to have to acknowledge that I am obsessed with blogging.  I don’t know if there is a recovery program for this or not, but it is really a pretty harmless vice that hurts no one but myself.

To celebrate, I’m posting pictures of the newest (temporary?) addition to my household.  I believe he’s just visiting, but my house sitter Stephanie, who couldn’t resist bringing him home from a local shelter a few weeks ago when I was still gone, adopted him for herself; but since she is a traveling lady who just disposed of all her worldly goods to travel unfettered, she is questioning the sanity of adopting a puppy and assures me that he is available if anyone wants to adopt him.  Can I resist?  What do you think?

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I put the picture of Morrie and Diego in so you could have an approximation of his size.  I put the picture of Frida observing from my dome so you can see how relieved she is that Diego has an energetic puppy/dog to play with so he now leaves the old girl alone.  The puppy (the vet thinks he’s about 11 months old) actually wears Diego out like Diego once exhausted Frida, but both of them love their chasing games, running figure eights around all of my plant islands on the lawn below the house.

Just when I was trying to simplify, should I adopt a third dog? Perhaps if Diego had a companion I could take Frida with me to the beach.  Don’t know.  Stephanie, you opened a can of worms!  But oh, is he ever adorable and well-behaved, at least until my two teach him bad manners.  How cute it was to have three eager kids waiting at the gate to my garage when we got home from the airport. Am I turning into a dog lady? Am I turning into one of these social media people who tell you every detail of their lives?

After 50 days of traveling, I was so excited to get home to a regular schedule–as real as my schedule ever is.  Mainly, I looked forward to being able to wake up and do my blog with no other obligations–free mornings in my own bed to write for as long as I wish.  But, alas, fate has other things in store for me, for although my visiting friend and my Acer computer connect fine to the internet, my Mac and my new iPhone will not connect to my router.  I’m afraid I picked up a virus in the airport–don’t know what else the problem could be.  So, again, I’m on this cumbersome PC  beast I have so many problems with.  I can’t post pictures, can’t figure out how to easily do the links. So, although it is wonderful to be back, I have to be careful not to let this one really big frustration rule the day.  I really do feel on edge.  I think today the prompt was psychic!!!

Traveler’s Log

Colorado was a bog
too much sog
airplane home, pet the dog
took a swim, like a frog
had some grog
tried to blog
Mac Air slipped a cog
off to the techie I must jog
once again, a rolling log

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “On the Edge.”  We all have things we need to do to keep an even keel. What’s yours?

Handmade

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Unless it’s imported from China, everything is home made in Mexico!  These lovingly handmade items were all snapped at the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Patzcuaro last year!

http://wheresmybackpack.com/2015/06/05/travel-theme-handmade/

Perpetual Blog

Perpetual Blog

Posting blogs just never stops—
in restaurants or in coffee shops,
waiting in an airport line
or in a wine bar sipping wine.

When it comes to blogging, I’m not choosy.
In the pool or the Jacuzzi,
my computer on a tiny table,
I add to blogs if I am able.

I admit that I am prone
to posting while I’m on the phone.
In the kitchen while burning supper,
posting blogs can be an upper.

Often, when I’m traveling,
my sister’s patience unraveling
past midnight, when she wants to sleep–
as she lies there counting sheep,

I take my laptop to the loo
to do what I’m impelled to do–
tapping gently on the keys
with my computer on my knees.

But I must admit, when I’m alone,
my favorite way to post is prone.
Flat in bed, from toes to noggin,
is how I usually do my bloggin’.

What’s the strangest place from where you have posted a blog?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/blogger-in-a-strange-land/