March

 

It's been awhile since The Crew have made an appearance here. There doesn't seem to be a right time to put up a silly blog post while a facist dictator is terrorizing our cities and killing school girls in Iran. I have spent the better part of this year worried about the safety of my family and friends who live in the Twin Cities area. I'm pround of them, they've held up well, but having to live with an invasion of ICE agents murdering their neighbors hasn't been easy. There are fewer masked agents now but wisely, no one is letting their guard down. When we don't stand up for what is right, the assholes win.

Earlier in the month, our local art center stunned us with a subtle statement on the current administrations assault on migrants. Every other year The Paine Art Center and Gardens invites area florists to show off their special artistry. I have to admit it would be great if they did it every year because walking through rooms filled with flowers is always a welcome diversion at the end of winter. This year's exhibit in the art gallery featured the folk art of Mexican festival culture. The elaborate masks and dance costumes are on loan from the collection of The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington. 

There is a tradition throughout Mexico of creating colorful, handcarved masks and elaborate costumes to be worn by performers during danzas, the communirty celebrations that take place around religious holidays.

The masks portray a wide variety of subjects taken from religion, folklore, politics and popular culture. Everyone is fair game with a good dose of humor and a fair share of political commentary. The carving on this kindly elder is amazing, you can see him passing out candy as well as sage advice. 

Can't imaging what tales these guys might be intended to illustrate. Maybe there were some members of the community who needed a reminder not to stick their noses into everyone's business? This seems like the sort of exhibit that would travel around and it's funny and not too scary for all ages. I'd recommend checking it out if you happen to notice it in your area.  

In the rest of the art center (or what passes as a historic home here) the floral arrangements could only be described as profuse but naturalistic. Most of the flowers were noticably darker and subdued. 

There was a noticable amount of Resistance Yellow here and there. In the "Great Hall" of this Tudor inspired 1920's mansion, tables and chairs are set up by individual florests to show off their skills at creating tablescapes for special events like weddings. They're intentionally over the top, fantasy pieces but this year, among the half-dozen dining tables, covered with flowers and china, there was one was done all in black. Everything from the floor length tablecloth to the place settings. It puzzled me at the time but later I realized it was in remembrance of lives lost unjustly. There was trail of artificial monarch butterflies leading through the gardens from the mansion to the conservatory. They symbolize resilience and migrant justice but they are also our nation's only monarch. 

Next, on Pi Day, His Madness had to stand up for science in the light of all the funding cuts to research projects and education. The government has to pay for all those masked ICE agents somehow, they can't expect the billionaires to chip in.

In spite of the ire involved in creating it, the result was just peachy.

Now for something silly. Nothing says spring in our neck of the woods like big piles of ice blown ashore on the lake. Anytime we drive through the park it seems like half the town is out crawling around on them. To be fair, it doesn't happen every year and you can never tell how big they will get, but it is a sure sign that winter is almost over.

Three days later we got over a foot of snow, hello spring!

Fortunately, most of it melted just in time for the No Kings Rally! I kind of messed my sign and HM's broke but we showed up and that's all that mattered. 

This was the morning rally, there was another downtown in the afternoon. HM has declared himself to be the offical Mad Pinhole Photographer of civic events. It was one of those rally situations where everyone lines up along the street and hopes no one shouts anything mean while they drive by. That rarely happens and also, it was 25°F. so nobody was rolling down their windows. Lots of horn honking in solidarity, that's okay, but really loud.

There was the usual heavy police presence. The officer was kindly explaining to HM that it was okay to photograph him but he couldn't pose for a photo. 

Abraham Rochlin was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1917 and emigrated to North Carolina. His company eventually became one of the nations leading producers of plywood. I love a good sense of irony.

The officer may not have been interested in posing, but you can always count on a unicorn!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone had a good weekend. 

See you soon!

Keeping the Party Going?

It's hard enough to give up the cookies and candy that come with the holidays, but then there's the dreaded job of taking down all the decorations and hoping they'll still fit in the closet. Facing the prospect of spending the rest of the winter in dimly lit rooms with all the life sucked out of them, I'm thinking, what's the rush? 

This year, The Crew decided to add a small, Christmas tree to the holiday decor in our kitchen, mainly due to an overabundance of baking themed ornaments that someone can't stop buying. We were all a little surprised by their choice of color but according to Burt (via Google), black trees symbolize elegance and individuality. They are a modern twist on tradition and can be a bold canvas for personal expression. He also may have accidentally selected black when ordering it. Whatever, it matches the curtains and is a suitable comment on 2025.  

The shipping was delayed so it didn't arrive until last Monday. Putting it away until next year would have been the logical thing to do but that was never going to happen. So, a unanimous decision was made to consider observing the medieval tradition of keeping the festive decor up until the second of February or Groundhog's Day or Imbolc or Candlemas - they all happen on the same day so there must be something special about it. According to legend, decorations left up after Candlemas will become possessed by goblins. That might liven up the rest of the winter a bit but we probably don't want to let things go on for that long.

Since they've committed themselves to the party going a little but longer, Ivy thought it was a good time to try out that white chocolate gingerbread cookie recipe she didn't have time to make in December. Maybe some mulled wine would go well with them and while they're in the kitchen they might as well get some decorations on that new tree, too.

If they can keep it standing up.    

While Ivy stabilized the tree and added some decorations, Burt gave Kib some assistance with the liquid refreshments. Some things are best left up to the professionals. Kib's version of mulled wine is pretty standard but he likes to make it a little extra, so he adds the fruit and spices to a bottle of port instead of wine. It's a team effort, he monitors the mixture until a wisp of steam comes off the surface, then has Burt to move it off the heat. In the meantime, Burt's job is to keep from wandering off.

When the mulled wine was finished he moved onto his next assignment as a tree topper. It's only a part-time job until we find the giant star cookie cutter currently stored somewhere is the basement. 

In the end everything worked out. Who knew white chocolate ginger cookies and spiced port would go together? All those cookie cutter and kitchen ornaments found the perfect home and the Crew got to add another tree, even though they don't think it should count since it's under six feet tall. As much as we would love to keep the party going it's probably time to start to disassemble the Christmas decor   because Poe's birthday is on Monday and that means Valoween is just around the corner. 

Thanks for stopping by, stay spooky and have a great weekend.

See you soon!

A Fruitcake, Some Snow and a New Fridge

 

We have been living in a state of perpetual twilight ever since the snow started to fall a few days ago. As much as my Halloween loving heart hates to admit it, a little sunshine would be nice. Autumn is definitely over if the snow is deep enough to cover the big orange X on our magnolia.

It looks like it's going to be a long winter.

So, we are going to need plenty of dessert.

The day after Thanksgiving The Crew got started on making the Christmas treats. Burt and Ivy would rather spend hours following a long, complicated recipe than be out in the Black Friday frenzy. 

So, they chose to make the fruitcake first because it has to sit around for weeks marinating in brandy before it's edible. That process also keeps a certain individual from snacking on it before Christmas. 

It's wise to check for any leftover pecans.

His Madness was called upon to expend the physical force necessary to mix everything together.

It's always a team effort.

By the end of the day they managed to produce this lumpy stump. 

Luckily, all that unattractiveness doesn't matter because it got soaked in brandy and wrapped up to spend at least three weeks in the fridge. What better way to inaugurate a new appliance (delivered less than a week before Thanksgiving) than by abandoning a fruitcake in the bottom drawer? 

That was the original intention anyway, Ivy let go too soon.

Both Burt and the fruitcake are fine, although the cake does outweigh him.

Eventually it landed in a safe place completely intact, and the marination portion of the process could begin. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take an Instagram-type photo of the inside of the fridge while it's still pristine. There won't be anymore chances like that!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

See you soon!

It's Always Something, Part Two

 

In Part One, while in the middle of preparing for Halloween, Burt discovered our refrigerator had stopped working, for good. Normally, we would have just bought a new one but without a driveway or a sidewalk to maneuver a large appliance into our house, that wasn't possible. The only option left was to throw ourselves on the mercy of Target and beg them to deliver one of their small fridges. 

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only problem we had to deal with. This is how our street looked last year. All of these trees were cut down last March, along with nine others because the water pipes and storm sewer system had to be replaced. Ever since then we have been in a struggle with the contractor to save our magnolia, the last tree left on the boulevard.

The city forester and the project engineer had assured us that it did not have to be removed, then one day I overhead two men talking about how it needed to be cut down because it was in the way of their paving machine. A few days later some jackass spray painted that same message on the grass with an arrow pointing to the tree along with the day-glow orange X to drive his point home. Much to our surprise, the city forester and the project manager didn't give in and flatly refused to let that happen. HM and I were stunned and very happy but it still took quite a beating from all the machinery. Who knows if the poor thing will survive all the damage to its root system but we're hoping for the best. The X has to stay because trying to remove the paint will stress it even more. 

The constant threat of some crazy contractor cutting down our tree was way worse than being without a fridge but they were also continually digging up our internet. It's housed in that round object directly under the digger's blade. A sensible person would avoid looking at what was happening in the street. 

 

It was quite a show and everyone was wondering what would happen next. Would axe-wielding construction workers attack the magnolia or will the internet get dug up, again? 

On the morning of October 29th, the day before our little fridge was supposed to be delivered, construction began on the sidewalk and driveway aprons.

In the middle of all that chaos, a heroic Fed Ex driver managed to weave his way through the cement trucks and lift our temporary fridge over the sidewalk forms!

The final part of the reconstruction got done quickly and we were assured the sidewalk would be open for Trick or Treaters. (I had ninety candy bars!) The driveway was off limits until this week. Parking our cars in the next block for nearly two months was nothing compared to being without a refrigerator for a few days, but neither was really that bad.

Who knew all those curves in the cement that ties a driveway to the street are created with a piece of wood and a hand trowel? The things you don't learn while keeping watch over a tree.

  

The great outdoors has been remarkably good at providing cold storage for our perishable food. Apparently the squirrels and trash pandas were busy elsewhere, so all has been going well.

The little fridge is okay and doesn't take up a lot of space.

A full size one is scheduled for delivery this Friday.

 

Much to my amazement, enough Trick of Treaters showed up at our door on Halloween so there was only a few candy bars left! I wasn't sure anyone would come, especially after I didn't get the lights and garland put up. Our only decorations were four jack-'o-lanterns, which turned out looking very scary! It was cold too, 45 degrees F. and not a great night to be out, especially on a closed street with plenty of stuff to trip over. Luckily, no one fell in the gravel between the sidewalk and our front door! 

On the Monday after Halloween a crew showed up to make a temporary walkway to our front door with some lovely black asphalt. The last of the water pipes that have to be replaced are directly beneath it, and that work can't begin until spring. There is also no way to bring a major appliance into a house with a gravel moat. The bare ground got a thin layer of topsoil and sprayed an unnatural shade of green. We're hoping for an early snow, anytime after Friday.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

See you soon and a belated Happy Halloween!

It's Always Something - Part One

 

Ivy and Kib were putting the finishing touches on the Halloween decor. Not knowing whether we would have sidewalks before the Trick or Treaters started to arrive was getting on everyone's nerves.

The candles had fresh batteries, in case the electricity was suddenly cut off.

Burt just needed to hang the garland.

He had been dreaming about ice cream, so when he woke up from his nap he headed straight for the refrigerator and discovered the ice cream bars had melted!

The refrigerator had stopped!

Panic ensued. After a thorough cleaning of all the vents and fans, following all the directions for what to do when your fridge stops, it was declared a goner. Somehow we overlooked the fact that it's at least fifteen years old.

There's no way a refrigerator could be delivered through this. All the repairmen contacted have refused to even take a look at it. Apparently the equipment and parts needed to repair it are too heavy to carry from even the closest street.

So, it's the beer cooler on the patio. It won't keep anything frozen but we are just a few minutes from the best ice cream in town, so Burt will be ok. I guess it's not always a disadvantage to live up here in the frozen north. Let's just hope the raccoons are busy elsewhere until we find a better solution.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon for Part Two