Littlest Valentine

Sun Starlings and Woodpeckers and....Pottery

The sun has been out for several days now.  It's wonderful to see and enjoy from the confines of my home.  The wind has been blowing for it seems two weeks now, it wakes me frequently at night.

This morning as I stood by the kitchen sink eating a late breakfast I watched 1 to 6 Starlings coming and going, eating whatever bugs (?) on the bare ground spots in front of each garage door.  Most people hate Starlings, Crows and Blackbirds, not me.

I enjoy the very activity of Starlings, they march, head down looking intently for food while doing this little Charlie Chaplin march.  It's funny to watch.  I have 3 crows that come and go in the back yard.  One crow is there right now in the afternoon sun.  It's pecking away at the little bits of suet that the Woodpeckers drop while they feast.

Crows are wily birds, careful, observant, used to being shot by some person.  Well maybe not here, but in the cities where people hate crows.  Next month the crows will flock in my yard and side yard where the beech nuts survived the winter and the deer.  They wait to sprout, but mostly snatched up, gobbled up by hungry birds and animals.

I have numerous kinds of Woodpeckers in the yard now.  Some this is their first winter, like the very pretty Red-bellied Woodpecker.  The rest of them are around all the time.  Pileated, Downy, Hairy, oh yes the beautiful Red-headed who  I have seen only once at the bird feeder.  He is so gorgeous!

Pottery.... now that is a very long story, explanation, excuse, procrastination, and great source of aggravation, frustration, guilt.....but my heart still is in the mud.

I put another 20 pounds of red clay in water last night and have not checked it yet.  It had some white mold on it and smelled mildewey.  It won't hurt the clay though from what I have learned about clay.

Regrets, Mary Mother of God, I have a lifetime of them.  Let's see?  There is no use of going down the mile long 60 year long list,  I have one good reason, the best one in a lifetime for trying to do pottery.  Well two reasons, 

it will make me happy

Me being happy will make my daughter smile and probably shed a little tear.

I love you! Elizabeth, with all my heart and soul.

Pottery and Soup

I have been on the net, as usual, scouring site of potters.  Getting back into pottery is slow.  I have two buckets of reclaimed clay, one porcelain and the other red earthenware.  It is well homogenized with the water and sitting to firm up getting ready for something handbuilt. 

I found some very intering incised stamps to make myself to imprint tiles or any other item, and am excited about that project.

I also read tons of blogs that other potters have on the net.  No lack of them!  Thank goodness I don't want to sell my work, the world all over is saturated with etsy.com sites to sell potters work.  No selling for me, just projects that I want for myself.

Some of the things that I want to make;

Wall sconces
cups, tiny tea cups
Stamps for my own work
tiles for my house
cannisters for the kitchen
Christmas ornaments
 Dishes of sorts, serving bowls, cereal bowls
A big bean pot for baked beans
pie plates
etc. etc. etc.

But today it was cold outside and I had fresh broccoli.  We like cream of broc soup, so I made a small recipe for 4 servings, with bacon.

Here is the recipe

3 C Broccoli, stems removed and chopped small
1/2 small onion chopped small
3/4 C Diced cooked Ham or 3 slices crisp fried bacon.
2 C Chicken stock or 2 C water and 3 Tablespoons chicken soup base mix
2 C Half & Half, or Milk for less fat.
Salt & Pepper to taste
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons bacon grease, left from bacon combine with 2 Tablespoons of butter.
    OR
4 Tablespoons Butter
6-7 Tablespoons white flour.

You will need a saute pan and a soup pot for this recipe.

Cut stems from Broccoli, using only the most tender parts of stem,  Chop onion and broccoli stems and saute in the Olive Oil, till barely tender, about 3-4 minutes.  Use the soup pot to add  Broccoli florets and  water or chicken stock and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes, till barely tender  Saute Ham or crisp fry bacon,   Add, meat to  soup mixture.
 .
Using reserved grease, OR use butter to make a roux with 6-7 tablespoons white flour.  Add half and half or milk stirring constantly to prevent lumps.  Add cooked broccoli with liquid into the roux gravy in small amounts to prevent lumping, stirring constantly keep adding the rest of cooked broc till all combined.  With heat very low continue to cook, taste to season and continue to heat till done. about 5 minutes

Makes 4-5 servings.

Salty flavor in this recipe comes from the chicken soup base and bacon, add more to suit your taste.

One Less Coyote

Last Wednesday the coyote came back as my husband and I came home from the store.  We were gone a total of about 15 minutes.  In that time, I think the coyote slipped under the back porch.  When we headed for the back door the coyote slipped out from the other end of the back porch.  I reached for the loaded rifle behind the back door and gave it to Al.  I crept to the front door to see if the coyote would again go down the driveway instead of the deep snow.  This image kept replaying in my mind.  I looked out the door and there hiding at the side of the porch, Coyote literally peeked around the lattice work to look for his enemy, Man!  Al was still behind the house, but with a view of the driveway.  Coyote crept down the front path to the driveway, stood looking at the back of the house, apparently not seeing Al.  So Coyote started down the driveway, that was when he got the first cartridge of buckshot.  His leg hurting he turned and looked at Al again in time for the second gunshot blast.  He was dead almost instantly.  Thank you Lord, for a clean kill and the poor sickly animal did not suffer any longer.

It was all very disturbing for me, having lived in hunting country for so many decades but never having seen any animal killed the scenario was imprinted in my brain.  I thought of it for days and was tortured by the scene over and over again.  Until Saturday morning, waking and immediately seeing the vision of that desperate animal peeking around the porch for an escape.  ((((((shudder))))))  I had to talk to myself.  Coyote was full of Mange parasites, had lost all the hair off it's tail and bald spots on his legs and rump  it was suffering horribly and starving.  Shunned from the pack it was on it's own.    Well.....I hope he is in Coyote heaven and eating grass instead of bunnies.

The Coyote is back

At 8 a.m. this morning my husband said "look in the driveway!"   There was the coyote in daylight, again, coming down our driveway.  It must have heard us in the house.  It stopped for a second then came towards the backyard again, stopped, turned around and walked out past the front path, turned and came back to the back porch.  I went over to the dining room window in time to see it go right beneath the porch.  We never saw it come out the other side.  My husband called our neighbor who shoots everything and he said he would come down. 

One hour later here comes Ed, course no sign of the coyote, he is probably long gone.  At arounnd 10 a.m. Ed brought a 20 gauge down for us to use.  I had thought that Ed, for all his talk would have come down to shoot the thing himself.

Well this poor bedraggled coyote is in very tough shape.  Well now I have a loaded gun in the house, which bothers me, a very sick coyote around and I can't let my cats out of the house.  I called the Vet and they said that Mange can be transferred to domestic animals.  The whole situation creeps me out. 

....later, Al came home for lunch and told me that others have seen this coyote hanging around the general area.  With others seeing it, hopefully someone will shoot it....since the Great White Hunter up the road won't come down and shoot it.