Turkey Day

Tomorrow is Turkey Day! Traditionally, Thanksgiving has been the beginning of the “Stuffing Season” for me. I love sharing all the rich foods with friends and family at Thanksgiving.

I just calculated that I would have to walk 17 miles to compensate for my Turkey Day Dinner. Wow, I think that I will reconsider how much I will actually eat tomorrow.

Wondering just how much walking you'll have to do to burn off that Turkey Day dinner? Find out here.

White Deer Gang Seen by Side of the Road

A dozen white deer loitered nonchalantly in the shade, and apparently entertained by folks driving by. When I jumped out of the car to take their picture, they just stared at me. Finally, when I started moving toward them, they reluctantly sauntered away.


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My Favorite Cranberry Dish

One of my greatest joys is preparing fermented foods. I enjoy making kefir, sauerkraut, kim chi, and other fermented dishes. Last holiday season I created Cranberry Chutney and I continue to make it whenever I can get my hands on organic cranberries. Recently I found a group that is as crazy about fermenting as I am. You can reach them at Microbial_Nutrition@yahoogroups.com.


SkyWatcher’s Cranberry Chutney

3 c. cranberries (organic preferred--regular are grown with lots of pesticides)
1/2 c. nuts (pecans are my favorite)
1/2 c. rapadura sugar (if you can't get it use regular sugar)
2 t. sea salt
1/4 c. whey (drained from kefir or yogurt)
1/2 c. prune juice
1 t. cinnamon (or 2 drops of cinnamon essential oil)
1/2 t. cloves (or 1 drop of clove essential oil)
Juice from one orange (or 2 drops orange essential oil)
Juice from half a lemon (or 1 drop of lemon essential oil)
I lightly pulse the above ingredients in my food processor. I like it
chunky.
Stir in 1/2 c. raisins (that have been soaked)

Let ferment for 48 hours--then refrigerate. The biggest problem with this is that it gets eaten so fast that I have to make more.

Ocean through the Trees

Yesterday we went to Mendocino and visited one of our favorite spots. Located at the north end of the village of Mendocino, this magic vista forms part of the headlands there. More times than not we have seen a wedding or memorial being celebrated.

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White Buck and Harem

This is a shot that I took on the way to work this morning. I feel so blessed to live in Mendocino County where beauty abounds!

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Hard on my Feet

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Sexy Shoes Hard on Feet

Last weekend we went out and I wore a gorgeous new top that my friends, Lee and Mike, had given me for my birthday. Usually I dress casually, but this evening I wanted to dress up. So, I wore some slinky pants, and some sexy high heel shoes. The outfit looked terrific! I thought that I would surprise my sweetheart, Steve, because he hardly ever sees me wearing anything but sensible shoes.

My daughter, Christina, and I met Steve and our friends at the restaurant. It was about a twenty minute drive wearing those “hot” shoes. When we met everyone at the restaurant they commented on how great my outfit looked! Cool—I always like complements. A few hours later, after a delicious leisurely dinner we got ready to leave. As I walked to the sidewalk I became aware of how much my feet ached. My left foot felt like the outer bone was warped. All I could think of was getting out of those damn shoes. I told Steve about how I wore them to impress him and he said he hadn’t even noticed my shoes (they had been under the table during dinner).

So, now I remember why I wear sensible shoes—they support my feet. Even though the high heels looked good Steve couldn’t see them, and so they didn’t have the effect I intended. I guess that I will save my sexy shoes for “special” times when I am not really walking in them—just for decoration in the bedroom.

Dreamy Pink Clouds in Santa Cruz

Last weekend, we celebrated our daughter, Christina�s birthday a few weeks after her actual birthday (October 23). I took this photo Sunday evening after walking along the beach in Santa Cruz. Pink clouds accented the almost full moon that hung low in the sky.


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Firey color outside of my classroom. In a matter of days, all the leaves may be gone.

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Teaching Art is One of My Passions

I may not have mentioned what I do for my day job. I am an art teacher at Ukiah High School in Northern California. In fact, that is how I came to the Ukiah area in the first place. In 1971, I received my life teaching credential in Physical Education and Art from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. After living in Cayucos (a cozy little beach town on the central coast), I vowed that I would never move back to a big city (I grew up in San Diego).

In 1971, I was hired by Ukiah High School to teach Physical Education while Nadja Larson was having a baby. At that time, I went by Ms. Stone (Dirk, my first husband, never moved up to Ukiah, which broke my heart). I was young and fresh out of college. Oh yeah, part of the agreement to get the job was that I would coach girls’ volleyball, basketball, and track while also teaching full time. I didn’t realize I wouldn’t have a life outside of school, though it turned out to be a great year!

I didn’t get hired the next year—Nadja got her job back. I went to Europe for the summer and had a blast hitching with my younger brother, Eddie. When I came back I taught PE part-time through the Adult School in Ukiah. I won’t go into all the different jobs had over the ensuing years, but I started teaching art at UHS a little over ten years ago. The last few years, I struggled with lyme disease and had a difficulty working full-time. Last year, I taught at 80%, and this year I am working at 60% and I’m better able to deal with the stress of working with teens and dealing with lyme disease.

I get a large quite a range of students in my art classes. Some students are incredibly talented, others aren’t interested. One of the things I really get off on is showing their art to the community. We have an art display window (which I helped manifest several years ago, but that’s another story) at the high school in which student work is available for viewing by everyone passing by.

Five years ago, I came upon a site, Artsonia.com, that displays student art from all over the world. Artsonia inspired me to get a digital camera so I could take pictures of student art and started posting it. I thought you might want to take a look at what some of my students are doing—I hope you will be impressed—I know that I continue to be!

Soggy but Still Precious

I went for a walk in the rain late this afternoon. While I was in the garden, I took a picture of this wet peace rose. Well, everything was wet including me. We still have almost three more feet until our pond is full. At that time, we will feel comfortable turning our hydro on. Until then, we are running off our batteries that are filled by our solar panels that aren't doing very much in the rain. Thank God/Goddess that we have a propane generator for back up.

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My Honey is a Heart Channel

It has been raining on and off this weekend, and I have been spending most of my time indoors. Besides making tasty winter-type foods (like steaming hot squash soup with a dollop of crème fraise on top), I’ve been helping my sweetie, Steve, with his book, Awakening to the God Within—Wisdom Teachings from the Ocean of Joy. He’s been getting the book ready to send to the printer. Steve is a heart, or essence, channel of a being who calls himself Arondoho. Most of the book comes from Arondoho’s perspective.

Steve’s blog, What Would Love Do, is once again active. He has been too busy even to think about blogging for several months. He plans to make posts once or twice a week.

If you would like to be notified when I post a new blog, you can now sign up by clicking on the sidebar where it says Subscribe to Living My Passion.

The Other End

I took this shot a few minutes after the previous photo, looking over the west end of the pond to the north--where it is shallow enough to wade in on a sizzling summer day. The glassy pond perfectly reflected the swiftly moving clouds chasing sunset into the night.

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Salmon Colored Clouds on my Pond

I went for a walk this evening just after the sun dipped out of the sky. As you can see, the water was so still that it looks like salmon colored clouds are floating on the surface.

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White Buck Needs Driver's License

Do you think that this white buck was trying to hide behind the tall grass. Yesterday, he was actually walking down Orr Springs Road the same direction that I was driving, but in the other lane. I passed him on the right. He was huge! His antlers were taller than my car. I wasn't able to take a picture in the dark, but I was able to get this shot this morning.

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