Summertime, and the livin' is busy...

Wouldn't think summer would be so busy but this year it certainly is. We have been walking down at Powell Gardens, which is way more fun than a treadmill. Garden is coming in quite well this summer, harvesting tomatoes, peppers, zucchini. Then there is keeping up with the weeds, I mean grass, as it grows. Last year we couldn't get enough rain. This year it is there regularly. Which is great. My flowers haven't looked so good. Things are coming up all around that I forgot I even planted last year.

Then there is the distraction of our new addition to the family, my birthday present, a kitten! She is the cutest little black kitty, and we named her Violet, because of two literary Violets. One is the cat in Jan Karon's books, and the other is the orphan girl in the family of Lemony Snicket books. My Violet was cast out of a truck window as the fool drove up the back roads. She was rescued by the Director of the Board of Sheltered Services. When I went to the board meeting, I told him I would think about adopting her because it was my birthday. So he brought her out to us and after all her Unfortunate Events, she has a new home. We have a bunch of new kitty toys all around the house now--jingle balls in different colors, little furry mice in dayglo shades, feathers on a stick, the bigger cat's tale, and on and on.. So here she is in her debut on the web.

July 4 Celebrations

We went to Powell Gardens to celebrate the 4th this year, and truly enjoyed ourselves once more. It has become our favorite walking site, with trails winding through flowerbeds and woods, past waterfalls and the lake. They had a "Booms and Blooms" weekend, with their daylilies all in bloom, a daylily sale, and a concert with fireworks on the 5th. We came home with a sack of daylilies in the morning, after walking the trails, and then returned in the evening with a sack picnic dinner from Subway, and our lawnchairs, along with about a million other celebrators. There was a blues/jazz singer concert first, then the Lee's Summit Symphony orchestra played, on into fireworks time. The weather was perfect, a beautiful summer evening, balmy breezes, temperature in the 70's, no mosquitoes to carry us off, and spectacular fireworks display over the lake.

Finding the car afterwards was interesting--I thought we had parked in the furthest field from the entrance to the gardens, and it was dark in the parking lots, except for our flashlight, car headlights, and some spots up on stands. So we walked way down to the furthest end, hitting our remote buttons, no response from any car around. Then we walked way back up to the entrance, and found a traffic director, who asked us when we had arrived. Thankfully he directed us to the right lot, and this time when we hit the alarm button, it went off! What was really funny was that you could hear the same thing happening all over the lot, others doing what we were doing. And as we reached the final turn out of the lot, another senior couple was also wandering back toward the entrance. He was saying to her, "well, if we just wait until they all leave, we should find our car!" I think we considered that a few times too. Senior moments on the Fourth(Fifth)!

Book pages

I don't know how many of you are planning to visit China, and particularly the Summer Olympics, but for most of us, we just plan to sit at home, and watch it via satellite. In anticipation of this event, I read a new book, by Matthew Polly, "American Shaolin", and decided it was well worth the read, and I certainly learned more insights about China and the Chinese than I would if I had made the trip. Since I do not speak Chinese, reading/traveling on the coattails of Mr. Polly was an excellent idea. And since I am not a martial arts expert, I truly enjoyed reading about his experiences, because he was the one getting beaten up in daily workouts with the Shaolin Monks, not I. He wrote about his year abroad at the Shaolin Temple, as the only American there. Luckily for him, he spoke "pretty good" Chinese-- "where, where where?" was his idiomatic reply when he received that compliment. And also lucky for him, he was able to master sanda, the Chinese form of kickboxing, to the extent that he could perform in competition with Chinese masters. There were some very interesting political observations, and one truly scary one, where he and a Shaolin monk compared countries and their ability to win in a full-out war. Can you spell "Korea"? Now I understand why the Chinese are so anxious to invite the world in, and show off their economic accomplishments while they compete in the Olympics. If you have seen the movie "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", you will enjoy this book. And if you haven't seen the movie, go rent it after you read "American Shaolin"--makes you appreciate the kicks without the pain!

A Little Crafty

Last week I was inspired by our trip to Sedalia. When we were in one of the flea markets, I stumbled on some beautiful quilted bags. That is the rage this year--travel and personal quilted bags. Of course I didn't like the prices, and remembered that I had some fabric set aside from my favorite quilt fabric store, The Quilter's Harvest, in Higgingsville. The ladies there had helped me put together a selection of fabrics, all nicely coordinated, starting with the Mary Engelbreit pre-quilted fabric, and on to fat quarters and eighths. So I was ready to sew!

Originally I had intended to just make a purse, but thankfully, those ladies at Quilter's Harvest can also read minds. I had enough to make a bigger tote! So got it put together in record time for me. To complete the bag, I used my beading skills to put together a beaded charm, with an angel pendant. Then, because I still had some leftover fabric, I sewed up one of those Wonder Wallets, having gotten the pattern from Miss Dixie, our Elderberry Leader. Now I am ready to travel in style!

MO Berry Picking

A few weeks ago when we did the "Ozark run", we returned with a huge bag of freshly picked Arkansas blueberries. Those were already picked by people in the field. Today we picked our first black raspberries of the season. Practice run for hitting the blackberry bushes. First you put on jeans, and long sleeved shirts, then hats, then spray head to toe with Deet, grab a bucket and go. Our patch was luckily at the edge of our woods, so we didn't have to go very far, and also luckily it had just rained during the night, so we didn't get overwhelmed by ticks or chiggers. Or maybe they just didn't like our sprayed bodies. So we got about 2 cups in this round. Have to return in about 2 days. I guess we could go up there tomorrow morning for a breakfast bowl of berries, but it's just too much effort to prepare, so the little woods critters can enjoy the ones that turn today. After picking, I wandered down to our garden and cut a bunch of rhubarb, and after chopping and de-stringing it, got about 4 cups worth. So of course I had to make a raspberry rhubarb crisp out of all this wonderful fruit. Perfect for tomorrow's church ice cream social!

Recipe for Raspberry-Rhubarb Crisp

2 cups fresh raspberries (wash and rinse well, sprinkle about 1/8 cup of sugar over the berries and let set in a bowl)
4 cups diced rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch

Drain raspberries, reserving juice. Add enough water to this juice to make 1 and 1/2 cup liquid. In a large pyrex mixing bowl, mix together the cornstarch and sugar. Add the liquid. Microwave on high, stirring frequently, until it comes to a boil. At this point, I use a wire whip. Continue to boil 1-2 minutes, still stirring every 30 seconds, until thickened. Now add the berries and rhubarb to this mixture and set aside.

In another bowl, mix together:
1 and 1/3 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup melted butter

Set aside 1/4 cup of this mixture for the topping.
Press remaining mixture into a PAM sprayed 13X9 inch pyrex baking pan. Bake in a preheated oven 8-10 minutes until set. Remove from oven, spread fruit mixture over the flour mixture, sprinkle the topping over all (I threw in a couple of tablespoons of chopped pecans for texture in the topping), and put back into the oven, baking for 35-40 minutes, or until the rhubarb is tender. By the time this is finished your whole house will smell wonderful! Cool the crisp and serve with ice cream. I got this recipe from Taste of Home, my favorite cooking magazine, but adapted a bit.

Now you can go berry picking in your woods, or grocery store or farmer's market.

Book pages

Discovered a Nebraska writer who writes about Missouri, and thought her latest book, which takes place in MO, was worth a book talk. Jonis Agee is the author, and the book is entitled "River Wife". The story begins during the New Madrid earthquake, in 1811, and centers on a young teen girl, Annie, who is abandoned by her family during the earthquake, because their cabin collapses on her, her legs are crushed, and they leave her to a certain death. She is rescued by a French trapper, Jacques, who cares for her and eventually falls in love with her. They marry, open an inn for river travelers on the Mississippi, and he becomes a pirate. Boats are deliberately led astray onto shoals and banks so he and his buddies can strip them, passengers and crew members are murdered for their cash and jewels and Jacques begins to build a grand house to store his wealth. Fast forward to the 1930's, future generations of this same family. Clement, a grandson, brings his new bride back to the house and becomes a whiskey smuggler during prohibition. Again, wealth is brought to the family, along with great pain, because he gets caught up in murder, prostitution, and general violence. The stories are told in Annie's diary, and by Clement's wife Hedie, and describe a different river life from Mark Twain's, yet with the same sense of yarn spinning. The perfect book to grab and read while you set beneath your porch ceiling fan and wait out the heat and humidity.

MO travels--Part II

This week we went on another Elderberry trip, called a "Mystery Trip", because only our fearless leader, Miss Dixie, and the bus driver, Bob, knew where we were going. It was another fun-filled bus trip. She had planned a little rail trip, but Amtrak got their trains stuck up in Iowa because of the flooding, so that was ok, we just pretended to be on the rails. We ended up in Sedalia, where we toured the Pettis County Historical Society Museum, saw Katy the black bear, named for the Katy Railroad, and had an interesting tour of their artifacts. Then on to the Sedalia Train Depot, an historical brick and limestone structure, which was lovingly restored to its original beauty. We toured that, and had a wonderful tea luncheon in the women's waiting room side of the depot. During our luncheon, we were treated by a Vintage Fashion Trunk Show, presented by Mrs. Carolyn Miller, a local Sedalia resident, who collects vintage clothing and accessories, and does professional shows with them. She talked about the history of clothing from Victorian times to the 70's, and shared stories of each era with us, which illuminated an interesting part of women in history, through their clothing.

Then we toured downtown Sedalia, and various local residents boarded our bus in costume and character, representing local professions and areas of town, such as the bordello district (yes, we had three of those lovely ladies on board), and of course the local mortician who measured our own mortician who is one of the Elderberries. This was a great trip back in time, and all the local residents did an excellent job recreating history for us. Got to do a little shopping and exploring the tea shops of the downtown, and then stopped at the Russell Stover store as we left the area--chocolate fixes for all!

We completed our trip with a fantastic dinner at the Settler's Inn by the Arrow Rock exit on I-70. If you are ever out that way, be sure to call them for reservations--their meals are excellent! Everyone left stuffed and ready for the last leg of the journey home.