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!