wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.


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Crispin’s Christmas Dinner

Hi, I’m Crispin.

Time for my Christmas dinner. I know that little seed in front of me doesn’t look like much, but there are more in the jar.

I’m just saying grace before I eat this special meal. See how I put my hands together to say grace? I don’t care for turkey so I’ll stick to sunflower seeds for this Christmas. All you turkeys out there, you can thank me later.

 

I put my hands together

And say a little prayer

Of thanks that in this weather ,

My dinner’s always there.

 

I know that I could look for,

And find my food alone,

But no one needs to cook for

This lad; I’m on my own.

 

My dinner is a yummy seed,

I’ve many in the jar,

My hostess knows just what I need,

She’s never very far.

 

So merry Christmas holiday,

Be thankful for your lot,

Appreciate your meal today,

Be glad for what you’ve got.

 

 

Here I am eating my Christmas dinner. Seasons greetings to you all.

 

Anneli sends her apologies for the last few seconds of blur when she tried to zoom in and messed things up.

But in the Christmas spirit, I forgave her because, in the first part of the video, I think I look pretty cute.


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Crispin ‘s Weather Forecast

 

Waking up, he checks the yard,

Feels like snow that freezes,

Not quite yet, but blowing hard,

Come the northern breezes.

 

News is written on the wood,

Writing looks Chinese,

Anyway it’s not so good,

Says it’s going to freeze.

 

No, oh no, oh no-no-no-o-o-o-o!

This is not good news,

Says right here that it will snow,

Time to start my chews.

Here’s some rope to line my bed.

Captain won’t be pleased.

Likes his ropes kept in good stead,

He’ll be really cheesed.

 

But the Cap’s retired now,

He won’t miss this rope,

If he used it anyhow,

He’d be quite a dope.

 

Watch me shred this fuzzy line,

Stuff it in my cheeks,

It will make that bed of mine,

Warm and soft for weeks.

 

Ropey fibre dries my throat,

Swallowing is pain,

But let’s see what’s in this tote,

Tub has filled with rain.

Watch this clip and see my feet,

See my special toes?

Talent like this can’t be beat,

Every squirrel knows.

 

 

Ahhhh! That’s better. Now to go

Off to make my nest,

Deep inside a woodshed row

Safe and warm, it’s best.

 

 


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Fishy Placemats

These are the fish placemats I started almost a year ago. By the time I got to the nearly finished stage, I had lost my enthusiasm to do much quilting in between the fish. You might be able to see where I did a tiny bit of quilting in the second to last placemat, but I soon decided that it was a waste of time and not really necessary.

They are each flawed in their own way, so that makes them unique. That, and the fact that I was making it up as I went along without a pattern or any idea of where I was going with it.

The back of the placemats is of the same material as the binding around the edges. When I get tired of looking at fish, I can flip the placemats over. This project has taken me so long that by the time I was putting the binding on, I didn’t much care if the corners weren’t exact or the edges a bit wobbly.

I was just glad to get them finished.

Now all I need is a meal to put on the placemats.

 

I wonder what would happen if I served fish on these mats.


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First of December, First Snow

Evening darkens, snow clouds loom,

Heavy grayness hovers,

Every creature, filled with gloom,

Looks for extra covers.

 

Snowflakes drifting in the breeze,

Flutter to the ground,

Blanketing the dens with ease,

Whiteness all around.

 

Morning sunlight filters through,

Birds emerge from shrubs,

Now they wonder what to do,

Where are all the grubs?

 

“Where’s my breakfast?” they all cry,

“How will I stay warm?”

Shivering with cold, they sigh,

This is not the norm.

 

 

Robins tweet their invitations,

Gathering for flight,

Needing lower elevations,

Snow-free woods in sight.

 

 

Holly berries, mountain ash,

Worms and bugs to eat,

Having fled the winter’s lash,

Birds escape defeat.

 

Though it’s pretty, snow reminds,

How cold it will be,

Warm vacation, I must find,

Lovely sun and sea.

 

Meanwhile Emma snuggles in,

Fuzzy blanket warm,

Softly curled up to her chin,

“Now bring on the storm.”

 

 


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Owly Nights

Stay hidden now, my furry friend,

Be still as you can be,

Though warning sounds that night air rend,

Send chills through you and me.

The great horned owl gets hungry too,

He craves a juicy meal,

Let’s make him think you’re tough to chew,

Your flavour’s no big deal.

Instead he sits up on that branch,

And tries to scare some rat,

Whose face with terror then will blanch,

And that, they say, is that.

You can hear the great horned owl shrieking, trying to scare the rat (or anything that moves). He’s hard to see in the dark, but watch to the end and you’ll hear him screeching back and forth to his girlfriend, telling her to come over and have supper with him.

Turn on your sound. If you click to make the video clip full screen, it will look better.

 

My five novels are now available on Amazon for Kindle for only 99 cents in time for the holiday season. Just click on the cover images on the side of the blog post.

If you have another kind of e-reader, you can visit smashwords.com where you can download my books for the same price of 99 cents for your type of e-reader.

 

 


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Cranberry Upside Down Cake

Just in time for Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law sent me this recipe. As it happens, it’s a great recipe for any time of the year and any occasion. It was my first time making this cake, but it wasn’t that hard to do, and because it tasted SO GOOD, I have to share it.

I used my Kitchen Aid mixer but it occurred to me that it might have been even easier with a regular handheld mixer because you can just stick the beaters into a different bowl rather than wash the bowl and reuse it to do the two steps of mixing (you’ll see what I mean).

Step One

Take an 8″ square cake pan and put two tbsp. melted butter in the bottom of the pan. Then spread 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the bottom of the pan.

Set this aside to put in the oven at 350 degrees for a couple of minutes just before it’s time to add the batter. (You need to have time to make the batter before heating the butter/sugar mixture).

The recipe says to add about a cup and a half of fresh cranberries (or even two cups) to this butter and brown sugar mixture. I always have frozen cranberries for my baking so I put them into a big measuring cup and add hot water to thaw them, draining and replacing the hot water a couple of times to thaw the cranberries. These will be added later to the heated up sugar/butter combination.

About 1/4 cup of pecans will also be sprinkled onto the bottom of the pan after the cranberries are added.

** I heated the oven and put the pan in to melt the brown sugar into the butter when I was finished making the batter in the next step.

Step Two

Now let’s make the batter.

Put these ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix after each addition:

3 tbsp. softened butter

1/4 cup white sugar

2 egg yolks (save the whites in a little bowl for mixing later)

1 tsp. vanilla

Step Three

In a separate bowl, put the rest of the dry ingredients together:

1  1/3 cup flour

1  1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp.

Step Four

Add the flour mixture to the batter, alternately with 1/2 cup of milk, ending with the flour mixture. If the resulting batter seems a bit too stiff, add a couple more tbsp. milk.

The second time I tried baking this cake I did add a bit more milk (say, almost 3/4 cup altogether) and it was better.

Step Five

This is about the time when I put the pan into the preheated oven, because the next step takes about the right time while the brown sugar is melting into the sugar.

In a clean bowl, put the two egg whites you have saved from when you put the egg yolks into the batter. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff.

Fold the egg white mixture into the batter. (Don’t stir it in. Gently fold it in.) The batter should look slightly foamy.

Step Six

Take out the pan with the heated butter and brown sugar, sprinkle the warmed up cranberries evenly over the brown sugar. Then sprinkle a few pecans over the cranberries. If you have a nut allergy you can easily skip this step.

Pour the batter over the cranberries in the pan and spread it evenly.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

When it is done, let the cake sit for a few minutes; then loosen the sides by running a knife along the sides of the pan. Put a plate over the pan upside down and invert the cake onto the plate.

Step Seven

Make a pot of tea or coffee and cut the cake. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or just have it plain. It’s really good all by itself.

The photo below is from my second try, where I added a tiny bit more milk and used 2 cups of cranberries rather than 1 and 1/2 cups. Better, I think.

 

I want to add that my five novels are now available on Amazon for Kindle for only 99 cents in time for the holiday season. Just click on the cover images on the side of the blog post.

If you have another kind of e-reader, you can visit smashwords.com where you can download my books for the same price of 99 cents for your type of e-reader.

 


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The Fate of Trees

Montana is proud of its cottonwood trees,

So tough when the weather is bold,

Steady, prevailing, along comes the breeze,

It brings northern winds and the cold.

 

The trunks with their lumpy bark, stem the wild winds,

The texture adds warmth to the trees,

Though winter has threatened, the sun soon rescinds

The sentence the north wind decrees.

A lonely fatality, victim of spray,

Was covered with poison by chance,

Its skeleton stands, to remind us, each day,

Its beauty was all in our hands.

The dam in its cruelty drowned every tree,

The water rose into their crown,

Decay and slow death in the newly made sea,

Leave once noble sticks breaking down.

The nuthatch is happy to drill a new nest,

Admiring a tree with such soul,

She praises the tree and says, “You are the best, 

Not just a utility pole.” 

 

As evening approaches, the cottonwoods sigh,

And whisper with shivery leaves,

The autumn is golden, but soon by and by,

They’ll run out of short-term reprieves.

 

 

 


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The Good Old Days

When I was a young girl,  and had finished elementary school, I had to go to a school closer to downtown to attend junior high. I used to love walking home from there, past a traditional neighbourhood like this one with its huge, well-established trees.

It was different from my own neighbourhood where newcomers had built their  homes on the outskirts of town, without even a proper street in place yet. Our house was reached by following tire tracks in a grassy field. Much later the roads were built, and eventually the town even put in ditching to redirect spring meltwater that had been running over the road and into everyone’s basement each year.

But closer to downtown, the homes had been there long enough for large trees to grow and add a stately touch to the neighbourhood. Sidewalks were a luxury. We had none yet. I felt as if I were walking through one of the stories in my grade three reader, where people lived in perfect suburbs – the kind every middle class family could be proud of in the 1960s.

The yards were untidy enough to be something close to natural, but not wild and messy with garbage. Safe enough for a person to go for a run without fear of being mugged.

Back then, people were not afraid of being hit on the head or stabbed or shot when they went into town to do their shopping. The worst thing that happened was that someone went up our street at three in the morning stealing the milk money from the empty bottles everyone put out for the milkman each day.

Most townspeople had never heard of home invasions. Many of the houses didn’t even have a lock on their door. We didn’t.

Can you even imagine that?!

Back then, I would have loved to live in a neighbourhood like the one in the photo above.

Of course we have more modern houses now with all the special gadgets and electronics to run our appliances and Internet to put us in touch with the whole rest of the world, but I wonder if I wouldn’t be tempted to give it all up to have the laidback lifestyle of those days back again.

How about you? Are there aspects of those more gentle days that you wish we had been able to keep?

 


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A Jay-ded Viewpoint

Water cooler gossip flows,

Fast as water from the hose,

Each one spouting what he knows,

As their petty nature shows.

Who does Princess think she is,

Wanting me to call her ms?

Prissy Missy minus fizz,

‘Cept her hairdo, which is frizz.

I see better from up here,

I can take my time and leer,

At her vanity severe,

Does she think we all will cheer?

 

La-dee-dah, the world is mine,

I’m a princess, looking fine,

Hollyhocks all in a line,

Happy shivers down my spine.

 

Of course you know this kind of talk is all for the birds.


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Black Walnut

In a couple of weeks, this black walnut tree will get a good pruning, as it is getting quite leggy. But first I wanted to harvest this year’s walnuts. The tree was loaded this year. Unfortunately, these “black” walnuts are not the same as the ones we find in the stores near Christmastime.  Those would be from the English walnut tree – different leaves and different nuts.

The black walnuts are very thick shelled and hard to crack, and even then, quite bitter to eat. But the squirrels like them.

In order to save the squirrels from breaking their teeth, I collect the walnuts, take the husks off them, and crack them a few at a time to put in their food dishes in the woodshed.

This is what they look like on the tree, encased in a thick green covering.

 

Below is a picture of the English walnut tree which has the kind of walnuts we are used to eating. Notice that the leaves are quite different from those of the black walnut tree.

But this day I was dealing with black walnuts. I wore gardening gloves to handle the nuts as I hit them lightly with a short-handled axe to split the husk and stockpile the walnuts in a separate box. Then, I took the axe and whacked each nut harder – much harder – to crack them open so the squirrels could get at the inside and I put some of the cracked nuts in a couple of shallow jars for the squirrels to find in the woodshed. A nutcracker would not open these nutshells. They are so thick and tough!

The squirrels really like them and these nuts are free food for them, so everyone is happy.

The birds have found out about them and wait for the supply to be freshened up daily too.

But what a surprise I had when I went into the house to get cleaned up. I mentioned that I wore gardening gloves. Still the stain from the walnut husks went right through the gloves and now I have hands that look like those of a heavy smoker. And it doesn’t wash off!

 

So if you want to dye some furniture, just grow some black walnuts and you can do your own furniture restoration.