STORIES

The stories we live in, my stories and yours,
knit from the wool of our ancestors,
spun on family helixes,
hold our worlds together – for a span.
Garments of swaddle and comfort,
patterns set in warp and weft,
bequeathed by “her” story and “his”
name, tribe, role and fate.

Graciously they wear thin, these stories;
shiny with overuse, one strand tears, and another,
until the fabric falters
under the weight and stock of incarnation.
Stories that once held worlds together
rip and split so that we can fall –
shredded and unraveled –
into mystery.

Here there is nothing;
nothing, but to wait
in the expanse of silence.
Wait until new fibers accrue
and the cosmic force returns
to thrust a greening axis
into the center
and possibility is reborn.

I used to prefer the old stories
with familiar beginnings and ends,
comforted by convention;
the liminal darkness, the unknowing averted.
But now, at last, I am curious
or exhausted,
or perhaps have simply lost my place.

I slip between worlds,
into the darkness,
into the spacious silence,
to wait for the opening line
of a story that has never been told,
a story that begins with a smooth round
circle of breath –
the story that truly begins with
“Once….”

… Joyce Pace Byrd,
Poems From The Labyrinth

What a long strange trip it's been ~ The Grateful Dead

originally uploaded by High Rocky

Thanks to all of you who have been following this blog.  Spring Equinox here in the Southern Hemisphere and it just feels right to move on down the road and retire from the blogosphere.  Got my towel. Got my squirrel. Got my Muse.

She’s apples!

You don't have problems; instead you're immersed in mythic ordeals that rival the labors of Hercules. And you don't have friends; you have allies and mentors in your adventures. ~ Jonathon Young

originally uploaded by mothernature528.

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. ~G.K. Chesterton

originally uploaded by Tomi Tapio

image sourced from tarotdame

FARRO AND VEGETABLE TOWER IN ASPIC
4 servings

2 fennel bulbs
1/3 Savoy cabbage
200 ml/0.85 cup cooked farro
Chives, chopped
200 ml/o.85 cup vegetable stock
100 ml/0.42 cup dry white wine
2.5 tsp gelatin powder
Salt
Extra-virgin olive oil

- Slice the fennel finely and braise it in a little olive oil. Don’t forget to salt it. When the fennel is soft, add half of the wine and cook until it’s reduced to half.
- Put the fennel on a plate and pour the remaining liquid into the vegetable stock and leave it to cool down a bit.
- Shred the Savoy cabbage finely and repeat what you made with the fennel.
- Mix the gelatin (see instructions on the package to get the perfect measure) with the hot stock and dissolve it well.
- Take 4 small ramekins or forms, preferably on the tall side and proceed to make the ‘tower’. Sprinkle some chopped chives as a first layer and then a layer of braised fennel. Next layer is the farro and then one of chopped chives. Follow up with a layer of savoy cabbage and then one of farro. Finish it with a layer of fennel. Push down each layer a little to make it more solid.
- Pour the stock into the forms until it covers the vegetables.
- Put the form in the fridge for about 3 hours or more.
- Before serving you dip the forms quickly in hot water and then pass a sharp and thin knife around the edges before turning them up-side-down on plates.

Farro for Set

Grano Farro has a long and glorious history: it is the original grain from which all others derive, and fed the Mediterranean and Near Eastern populations for thousands of years; somewhat more recently it was the standard ration of the Roman Legions that expanded throughout the Western World. Ground into a paste and cooked, it was also the primary ingredient in puls, the polenta eaten for centuries by the Roman poor. Important as it was, however, it was difficult to work and produced low yields. In the centuries following the fall of the Empire, higher-yielding grains were developed and farro’s cultivation dwindled: By the turn of the century in Italy there were a few hundreds of acres of fields scattered over the regions of Lazio, Umbria, the Marches and Tuscany.

"Frisbeetarianism -- the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck." - George Carlin

originally uploaded by pafotofan

The deeper one digs, the greater the treasure; if one can withstand the pressure of the deep ~ Heide M. Kolb

Kaibab squirrel at Grand Canyon originally uploaded by Live Simply

Nefertiti ~ Goddess of Fertility

Art Quilt by Heather Pylem do the clicky thing to see more

originally uploaded by cienne45