Mellow Marshy Mallows of Mystery

So I decided to make my first attempt at marshmallows in time for a Independence Day bonfire. I thought I would rush them, but there is no rushing the mello mallow. I say mystery because it does seem that it's a bit of a mystery that such a thing can come out of the humble farm kitchen. Though how humble a kitchen with a Kitchenaide mixer is, is debatable, I shall maintain my humility and questionable grammar and punctuation.

 So my gooey gob of mallow-ness is curing for day two after reclining in the fridge overnight, were I thought the cool air would speed up the alchemical process. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I was able to coax it from the pan without it falling to pieces (insert Patsy Cline music). The fluffy mass was gooey around the edges when I loosened it from the pan so I don't think it's ready to cut up yet. Sigh. Here is day two picture, notice my lovely wall hanging in the background, pattern soon to appear on my etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/SewKayBoutique 

Quilt-o-journalistic musings

I was thinking of an occupation; you've heard about "photojournalists" who tell their stories with photographs.  Well how about one who tells their stories in textile arts?  I want to do this.  I have some good stories to tell.  Colorful stories.  I could use a mentor, a coach, someone to help me keep on task.

What are some of the images I might portray?  To me, an image from early childhood has become sort of iconic of that time in our lives.  It is the image of our International Scout truck piled high with boxed belongings, a truck bed topper stood upright against the cab to house our goats.   Also in the picture, set at a gas station stop are;  Wayne, Kate, 3 scraggly young children, a dog with one blue eye, at cat in a produce box.   Border images could include the Hole in Rock swimming hole along the river, the dome, the army tent, Henny Penny (the only chicken to survive wild predator attack).  The oak grove with moss covered boulders.  The dilapidated log cabin on the neighbor's land.  A signpost on the road pointing to Oregon.

I write this for myself.  If you enjoy it or not, go your way in light and blessing,   The Wendy Flower

New Mexico Road Trip, day 4, The House

The house that we stayed in belongs to some artsy folks,  the metal sculptures shown are just one of the delights to be viewed here.  Maka house-sits at this place from time to time, and so it is now that we find the place to ourselves.   The woman who makes her home here with her family does many things including beekeeping and Hoshindo.  Hoshindo is the therapeutic use of bee venom on acupuncture points for healing. Madrid (pronounced Mad-rid) was once a coal mining town.  It lay defunct and abandoned for many years and then in the 1970's was revived by artists and hippies who squatted here.  Today it is a thriving artist's colony and tourist stop.   It's quaint and little, just what I wanted. :) The home we are blessed to be staying in was once part of the mine operation and housed a gigantic pulley used for transporting coal or slag (shrug) I don't know. 

 It's quite nifty having been converted and added onto to become the interesting house it is today.   You see the outside of the house in the background of the sculpture photos above.  Here is a snip of the interior.  The steep ladder you see goes up to a storage loft. The door to a bedroom. The master bedroom was added on, probably constructed of adobe or cob. The interior has all the sculptural beauty that I associate with cob.   My first morning I was awakened by what must have been a coyote very close to the house.  It was a very high pitched cry/bark.  I wondered if this were a daily experience, like the rooster that crows on a farm.  But it only happened once.  

Lady Guadalupe is something of a regional saint, so my first assumption was that the lovely painting from Brazil that hung on the wall was Her.  Then it became clear that Guadalupe was always shown with a cherub and crescent moon at her feet.  So I researched a bit, and the iconography I was able to find suggests that this is Mother Mary.   

Maka's friend Gail whom we had enjoyed the Ojo Caliente with came out to visit and we all went down into Madrid to check out the boutiques, galleries, and The Holler.  The Holler is a local restaurant with good chef prepared food. I had a nice big fat burrito with sauteed mushrooms, black beans and cheese then smothered in green chilies.  It seems to be a bit of a hang out for the locals as well.  I forgot to bring a camera so will pop down there on another day to get better acquainted with the town and take some pictures to share.

New Mexico Road Trip- Day 3 Arroyo Seco & Ojo Caliente

In the Morning I had a chance to visit with Anna Ruth, a lovely Guatemalan woman of about my age who had provided refuge for us on the second night. Maka had met Anna Ruth a few years back and was drawn into friendship when she discovered that Simon, Anna Ruth's young son, was learning about beekeeping. Anna Ruth is a strong woman, a single mother, and an artist. She avoids crowds and loves to hike with her dogs.

After a leisurely morning it was off to check on the honeybees in Arroyo Seco, a little artist colony off-shoot of Taos. I still cannot get too much of the coral hues and rounded corners of the adobe buildings and walls that abound around each and every corner. Hollyhocks, chicory and Russian sage bloom from every patch of earth and blue silled windows keep watch over the activities in the street. At Moyra's house Maka's top bar bee hive was bustling with activity and bursting with fresh honey. We were able to harvest about 5 combs of honey, slicing them off the the bars into a 5 gallon bucket. I helped Moyra move two of her hives off tall stands that were not working out as they were too high to access the combs to check on the bees. Then after visiting a bit and jumping on the trampoline with Ruby and Ellie Mae (Moyra's hound dogs) we were ready to continue our adventure.

Serendipitously another friend of Maka's, Gail, was headed for Ojo Caliente, famed mineral hot springs south west of Taos in the parched desert near Three Peaks. Three Peaks is a funky off-grid community with apparently no planning ordinances to nuisance the rugged folk who make their homes there. Upon hearing from Gail we turned right around and headed to the springs ourselves. Maka shared with me the story of how the springs land was won from from the local native people in poker game by one of the great grandfathers of yet another friend, MJ. Eventually the interests in the place had been sold off by divided relatives and MJ was maneuvered out of her inheritance. The place was refurbished into a chique spa vacation spot for the rich to play.

Today there are 4 different mineral baths, each with different temperature and mineral content, a cooler swimming pool, a mud bath and private mineral bath-pools that can be rented by the the folks with silver lined pockets. Spa services such as massage and facials are available. And Just in case you were not getting overheated enough with the regular fair, there are sauna and steam rooms. A gift shop, posh restaurant, and room rentals complete the extravagant amenities available. At each pool a sign indicated the minerals most abundant and their health benefits. I noticed that no sign was indicated by the mud pool. At the mud pool there was a large cement bowl of slippery mud that you would slop onto your body. A sign disappointed guests with the instructions to not climb into the bowl of mud which was large enough for an adult to sit cross-legged in. The instructions were to slather up with mud, bake yourself in the sun, brush off the dry mud and wash in the muddy pool, then after another rinse in the nearby outdoor showers you could continue to enjoy the other mineral pools. I decided that increased merriment was the primary benefit of the mud bath. There was much laughter and interaction of strangers as we helped each other muddy up and then laughed at how silly we all looked.  Apologies we did not bring our cameras in with us.

That does sounds like a full enough day does it not?  But there is more...  We journeyed on to Santa Fe destroying my illusions that it was a quaint artist's colony.  Santa Fe has turned into a big city (yuck).   I did a tuck and roll at the Whole Foods Market while Maka hurried over to a meeting regarding an event she had been invited to volunteer at.  I ate some yucky food from their hot bar and used the WIFI.   Then it was off to Green Tara practice at a little Tibetan Buddhist studio.  We turned out to be the only two who showed up and the nun was new to leading this particular practice so we sort of hacked our way through it.  To me the best part was when the nun chanted a piece in Tibetan.  It had been a long day and I was cranky to get going but Maka wanted to visit with the nun, I got squirmy and went outside to lay on a picnic table and commune with the trees.  Finally we were off to Madrid. (pronounced Mad-rid), where finally we could sleep.

New Mexico Road Trip, day two Crestone & Taos

 The second day, after green tea and conversation on the patio Maka took me up to see Crestone and the row of temples there. I had brunch at a little cute hippy place called Shambala. And we explored the little gift shop and poked around in the "World Famous" Crestone free box. At a temple dedicated to Maha Lakshmi (great mother) there was an earthship with a gift store. All the stuff you'd expect to see was there. Statues of the Hindi gods, photographs of various esteemed teachers, prayer flags, post cards and candles. I gravitated to a rack of clothing where a carnelian orange garment hung peeked out at me. Taking hold I said "What is this giddy-up and go?" It was a 3 piece East-Indian outfit, it fit me and was quite affordable as the garments had been pre-owned. It's coming home with me (big smile). 

 

The day continued with much journeying as we made our way to Taos New Mexico. This was my first time there, and it was love at first sight! It seemed they may have a city ordinance to keep buildings in the old southwest adobe style that I love. We bopped around town a bit and I requested we find a nice place to just hang out, relax & contemplate since I was feeling a bit off from being stuffed into a car for two days. The Hanuman Ashram was perfect for this.

The rain had been pouring down most of the day, fading light added a glow to the rain washed gardens. Wanting to capture the intoxication of this beautiful setting it, I wrote some prose as my thoughts wandered about. I had asked Lady Mirya to inspire me regarding the the talk I was to give on her feast day, the 22nd of July.

She is in everything.

Here now, look as she dances forth from between the apple trees
 and again through the blue door on yonder pueblo.

And there She is descending? Ascending? 
 No She is Transcendent as Her radiance emerges from
 the center of a wheel of clouds blanketing the sky.

I find her in the wholeness of this flower garden, rain drenched at twilight;
 Beet red amaranth against the eerie green bells of Ireland,
 a backdrop of luminescent blue-violet delphiniums...
 The pad of the black cat there exploring this wonder.
 Yes she is in everything.

A cob horno wonderfully round and womb-like,
 fashioned by loving hands, encroached upon by vines
 and standing ready under the watchfulness of 
the regal Scottish thistle in the fading light. 
See? Yes, She is there too.

Mother's tiger lilies stand
 in resplendent greeting as you approach the temple.
Soft chanting, drumming and clapping
  of Hanuman suppliants creates trance
 as they  live their devotion.

Though the Ashram is dedicated to Hanuman it is 
Her arms that hold this place in loving embrace.

Breathe in deeply now,
 and with attention, you find Her in your Heart
 where She has been waiting for you all along. 

New Mexico Road Trip 2012, day one Cañon & Crestone

On the first part of our journey, I was looking at all the life.  There were plants and birds and rocks and things...  We drove much, and stopped somewhat frequently and briefly to get gas or food and to stretch & pee.  Nearing our destination we drove through the Rio Grande gorge seeing, increasingly, signs about UFOs.  In Canon Colorado at a place called Pizza Madness, build into an old tavern or dance hall down town, there were spacy sculptures.  One of a giant UFO with funky aliens popping out the top.  Below it sat a old hippy grandmother, full of character in her thick glasses, a crocheted shawl over one shoulder.  She was there just enjoying a solitary meal, and I regret not having spoken to her, for I'm quite sure she would have many a story to tell.  In twelve hours we reached our destination for the day, Crestone Colorado.  My lovely soul-sister-mama Usnea was welcoming and beamed about finally having her own home.  As we lay together in her king sized bed that night with the blind Jack Russel terrier named Derby warming up between us, we caught up.  I spoke of my skirt designs and of the lovely Thunderbird cloud pattern than 'flew' slowly over the Hemp Hoedown under the full moon to the strains of Lee Walsh's psychedelic music.  She spoke of camping with her friends in the sandy outbacks where the only amenity was the 'bear box'; a container to keep your food safe from the bears and of UFO sightings in her area.  I told Usnea about my truck and how I had plans to build my gypsy camper onto it.  We talked of hippy celebrations and communes around the country we'd like to visit in it.

My no-gathers gypsy skirt! 

(Summer 2013 update, you can order a copy of this pattern from:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SewKayBoutique)

Oh how I get sidetracked.  However, though it's been over a year since I blogged, I can say that this time has served as a gestational period for much creativity.  And like the action of spring after too long a winter my creativity is about to burst through the nourishing soil to grow and bloom above ground.  A stack of cut and drilled wood sits in the garage ready to be assembled into the framework my gypsy camper, patterns for skirts and quilts lay about my studio in various stages of finish and berries and herbs are ripe for picking in my garden.   At the same time I am poised on the edge of a journey, a road trip, to the Taos mountains of New Mexico.  My traveling companions and I will meet with old friends and meet new ones.  We will harvest honey from a friend's hive, visit a Buddhist temple, talk late into the night over homemade wine and soak in natural hotsprings.  You can virtually come with me, as I will do my best to record my journey in pictures and words for you here.