Tales From The Labyrinth

Cobbler

This is my favorite summer desert...

The recipe is actually known as "Mrs. Murphy's Peach Cobbler..." given to me by a very special woman of my heart many years and life times ago...

You can use any summer fruit (or in a combination of your liking), such as peaches, pears, plums, apricots, or any berry, like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, boysenberries... or apples in the summer or winter!

These proportions fill a 9 x 9 inch baking pan...

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Fruit of your choice (enough slices to fill your baking pan)
1 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
6 tablespoons of melted butter (and a little extra butter to rub over the bottom of your baking pan)

Rub the bottom and sides of your baking dish with a little soft butter...
Slice enough fruit to fill your baking pan. I used six medium size pears.

In a separate bowl, whisk your egg and add the flour, sugar, and salt... hand or spoon mix into a very loose crumble... sprinkle over the fruit mixture...

Then drizzle the melted butter as evenly as possible over the crumble mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until the top is bubbling and has begun to turn a crisp brown...

You can serve your cobbler all by itself... or with a dollop of french vanilla ice cream, or mascarpone, or even whipped cream... Other variations are to add a little nutmeg to the fruit or crumble, you can cut back on the sugar, or exchange half of the flour with oatmeal. I always come back though... to this pure essence of the recipe and it never, ever fails me... yum... Enjoy!

A Sunday Through The Looking Glass

What an amazing, magical Sunday...

Ulla and her daughter Rowan picked me up and whisked me away to a place that was indeed... way beyond the Looking Glass...

A group of blogging women, artists extroidinaire, all gathered at the beautiful home of Lauren...

and pure delight ensued... conversations, laughter, sharing of ideas and creativity and a gifting of gifts and heart that was moving and precious...

So many topics were discussed in all directions... new friendships made... older connections renewed, and new connections made of those not even physically there... like Shelly who will hopefully read this and discover how loved you are, finding that there is a group of us who consider you a kindred spirit!!!!

 

It was quite profound to have all these "urls of cyberspace" all in one place, real, tangible, three-dimensional... able to respond to you in the exact moment...

I searched for a poem to capture this essence, this feeling, and these were the words that came to me in a quiet moment when I slipped down the hall to write...

A Sunday...
where magic
comes
to rest in lace and antiques,
in color and grace...
where laughter
dances and bubbles
through rooms
and halls
of beauty...
where friendships
feast on
a love of sharing
passion
found in the solitude
of creating,
where a simple pulse
of current
takes form...
spirit into matter,
this gift of word and image...

Thank you Lauren and Callen, Corey, Mary, Nicol, Donna, Sharon, and my dear Ulla (who is so always full of surprises...) and Rowan for such an amazing and magical day through the looking glass... and thank you each, for the beauty, joy, and laughter that you bring into form, and into the world...

July's Thunder Full Moon

July's Full Moon...
is the Thunder Moon...

Summer clouds
pregnant
with hot rain...
fall,
and fall,
and spiral
down, down
filling my parched lips,
tongue
face,
cupped hands
in wet ecstasy
in joy receiving
of life giving
water,
of thunder pounding
the beat of my heart...

acrylic on canvas 2003

Mortar & Blue Star Creeper

My sweet, sweet husband...
lent me a helping hand and bent knee for beginning to place the mortar...

soil, and blue star creeper...

while the Buddha watches over us all...

Morning Glories...

Morning glory…
beacon of light
into the fog of my day,
into the muddled places
of frustration
that fold into greens, pinks, blues,
and shades of moments
waiting,
unfolding,
turning inward and outward…
winding,
capturing
my breath in awe,
in wonder,
transforming the day
into this simple moment of being...

 

Sunflower Feeder

It's come time...
for the giant sunflower in our front yard to transform...

Milt did the job, as this was his sunflower, so to speak...

Then with stakes, a triptych fleur-de-lys top, and twine...

I made a bird feeder!!!

a feast awaiting the winged friends who stop by...

All The Bricks!

The seventh ring began circling in a clockwise motion...

like a river rushing towards the ocean...

the pile of bricks... melting like magic...

until... POOF!!! They are gone...

only to reappear...

in seven concentric rings... the labyrinth path complete...

now for mortar and ground cover,
the empty space to fill...

but for now... walking and playing...contemplating... and looking inward... then outward... as I follow the path in and out...

A Little More Magic...

Just one more picture from our Harry Potter Night of the littlest witch with her magic friend, Nikki the fox dog...

Harry Potter Weekend

The wait, the crowds, the late night... was worth it all...

Such a tale... I laughed, I cried, I've dove back in again and again, re-reading and wondering and marveling at this story that has sparked the imagination in so many... and brought back reading as something magical and adventuresome for kids who had never known the wonder of curling up into a book...

My Friday evening started with a little witch (aka Gigi) who sparkled us all with pixie dust before we left for the gala event...

while her older sister was transforming in the next room into Bellatrix Lestrange right before her mother's eyes...

Not soon after... we took off on our trusty brooms and stood in line for a few hours... but had lots of friends to share the evening with!

Here is Tonks (aka Rowan) and Belletrix (aka Trixie)

and Professor Trelawny (aka Nash) with her tea leaves and tea cup (I heard that she gave several profound predictions that night) and Bellatrix again!!!

Me~ as Professor Spiral, and Professor Lucille (aka Lucille) with her poisoned mushroom regalia...

and once again with her colleague Professor Junipera Quirk (aka Lynnette)...

Can you believe it? Early in the evening, while we were in line, some git attempted to spoil the book by flying over Santa Rosa in an airplane with neon sign giving away important pieces of the plot!!!!

But it didn't matter, nothing could take away from reading the story, word for word, or the fun we had in dressing up and waiting together to take our copies home with us. I leave you with this quote, written by Chauncey Mabe from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel...

"As one character replies when Harry asks if what he's just seen in real or only in his head: 'of course it's happening in your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?'

That's a declaration of real magic, the magic of the imagination, and it could serve as a manifesto for all great fantasy."

A Magical Day...

Today is a magical day because...

• I've been waiting eight years for tonight and the release of the last Harry Potter book... I'm going to get my copy of the seventh book with all of my neighborhood friends and kids, who are mostly dressing up as characters and made up characters from the series... pics to follow if and when I get to the computer tomorrow...

• My mother got in and behind the closed door on J K Rowling's website and read to me over the phone what J K Rowling wrote... it moved me so deeply that I cried... By the way... I haven't been able to get behind the door myself, needed my mom for that!!! Thanks Mom!

• My sweet husband and step-son went off for the weekend, which means I get to be on retreat here at home and come tonight and read as late as I want in the comfort of my own bed...

• During the day, I can curl up on my second favorite spot to read...

  

• I finished the sixth ring of the seven rings of my labyrinth today...

  

• I found out that today is the fiftieth birthday of my blogging friend Constance of Rochambeau... Happy Birth Day Constance! And thank you for bringing so much beauty into the world!!!

• I got a photo of this 1/2 inch surprise that is blooming in my front planter...

  

• Our sunflower is now 1 foot across and going to seed...

  

• I'm on my way with my faerie god daughter Beatrix to get temporary hair dye for her costume tonight as she is going as...