Jelisava

If I had a hammer, if I had a guitar, ... / Feb. 2014

Nothing will tell you
where you are.
Each moment is a place
you've never been.

~ an excerpt from "Black Maps" by Mark Strand

Walking: meditation and meandering / Jan 2013

Buddha was asked, "What have you gained from meditation?" He replied, "Nothing! However, let me tell you what I have lost: anger, anxiety, depression, insecurity, fear of old age and death."

Ideas on knit fabric / Dec 2013

“If you have a good idea, use it so that you will not only accomplish something, but so that you can make room for new ones to flow into you.”

~ Deng Ming-Dao, Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony

Cardinal flying in the wintry field / Jan 2014

"It is believed by the Delawares that every one has a guardian spirit which comes in the form of some bird, animal, or other thing, at times in dreams, and tells them what to do and what will happen. The guardian spirit is sent from the Great Spirit."

~ from Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape, 1921, p.80, by Mark R. Harrington

Lanesplitter in progress / Feb 2014

Knitting in the sounds and surroundings. The colors and conversations. Knitting is time solidified.

A fire-breathing dragon sets down / Feb 2014

When you're being creative, you confront things. You ask questions. You think, "What could that be? Why is that like that? Isn't there another way to do this?" It's an atititude.

~ Paula Scher

Over there / Feb 2014

It's been a wild winter in Jersey. Intense fog this morning. Then thunder. Lightning. Today walking it was over 50 degrees. There are still huge piles of snow and most lawns are snow-covered. A gentle wind that turned alternately warm and cold blew by me. Like swimming in the lake in the summer when you hit warm and cold patches...

"Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will" ~ Karim Seddiki

In the early morning light / Feb 2014

"The snow came last night...
Now, in the morning light,
she greets us gently,
a prayer shawl donned upon the land."

~ Ken Herburn (via Mitza)

An interview in the NYTimes with movie director and Baltimore native John Waters inspires some thoughts on two Christmas foodstuffs / Dec. 2013

We always had sauerkraut with our turkey at our Baltimore Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. It's taken me a long time to appreciate the pairing, but now turkey seems bland without the pungent sauerkraut. A turkey-day discussion about favorite foods inspired me to find a recipe for a sauerkraut chocolate cake. You rinse the kraut in cold water and then chop it before adding it to the batter. It adds a nice texture to the cake, and if you didn't know there was sauerkraut in it, you'd never guess. My grandmother's family sold produce (including cabbage) from an outside stall at the Hollins Market in Baltimore. Her father Jake, and his father (who came here from Germany as a boy and "farmed and tilled" in the Mount Winans area of Baltimore) sold produce in the city's Lexington, Hollins, and Hanover Markets. When I wore my fingerless gloves on a recent cold day, my dad remembered the relatives working at the market wearing gloves without fingertips when it was cold so they could feel the money and make accurate change for customers.

Like John Waters, my grandmother always had a coconut cake for Christmas. It had two layers and a sweet, thick frosting. It was so sweet that I couldn't eat a whole piece in one sitting. I make it every year using her hot milk cake recipe that includes this precise atmospheric direction: Bake on a nice day only. To reduce the sweetness, I make a lighter frosting using whipped egged whites and toast the coconut that goes on top.

Winter's early morning sun / New Jersey / Dec. 2013

It snowed and the flakes clung to everything they fell on. It turned suddenly cold. Brisk, but not biting. I pull on my leg warmers and Mitza laughs and says they would make GGMom (the Jelisava) happy. As an infant, when left to her care, she swaddled me in whatever she had around to keep me safe and warm. Like socks on my hands. Now I swaddle myself in colorful neckerchief bandannas knit with soft wool and silk, wrist warmers on the pulse points, and leg warmers around the ankles to keep out the cold and warm the feet. As Pappy would say, I get it honest.