Masala Dosai for Breakfast
I am looking forward to starting several types of sprouts when I get home. Soon.
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State of the Garden
After almost none all summer, now they’re ripening in abundance. I’ll roast and then freeze most of them to eat in the winter.
I attended yoga class by zoom this afternoon. We worked on the poses that benefit from attention to engaging the major muscle groups of the trunk. And we thought about acting from our center, and finding center so we can better act.
Vegan Butterscotch Apple-Walnut Squares
1. Wisk together in a large bowl until creamy, 2/3 cup Agave nectar and 1/3 cut canola or walnut oil.
2. Pulverize (in a blender or mini-food processor is easier than by hand with a good-sized mortar and pestle) until slightly viscose (this is the egg replacer) 1/4 cup ground flax seed or flax seed with 2 tbs hot water and 2 tbs maple syrup.
3. Blend well all the above ingredients together. Stir in a splash of vanilla extract.
4. In a separate bowl, sift or mix together 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour and dash of salt and cinnamon to taste (1-3 tsps.) and 1 tsp aluminum free baking power.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just completely combined. Please do not overmix.
6. Mix in 1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts are best or another nut that grows in the same climate as apples) and then 1 cup apple (about one small to medium-sized apple) with the skin left on in 1/4 to 1/2 inch dice.
7. Oil a 8×8 inch pan; smooth dough evenly in pan, it will be almost like a batter.
8. (Optional) Combine 1-2 tbs of turbinado (raw sugar) crystals and some combination of cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, Sprinkle as a topping.
9. Bake at 325F (no need to preheat the oven) for 16-20 minutes. Watch carefully to see that it does not burn.
Makes 16-25 squares. They are quite sweet, so a few bites is just the right amount.
(Apologies for the terrible Blackberry Photo)
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Gardening | Photos
Whether It Is Good Weather
When I was out doing an errand at lunchtime, I bumped into a neighbor I haven’t seen in a long time. We did not spend much time talking; I needed to get back home to my work within the short allotted time, and she was meeting someone. “Did I just hear thunder,” she asked. The sky was thick and white with heat and “Code Orange” air. “You might have heard thunder, but there isn’t any rain with it” I replied. We talked about how much we need some good rain. The trees are really struggling. (Note: forget about cleaning any outside things with water. Forget non-edible annuals. Water established trees and perennials very deeply once a week instead of less watering more frequently. Shallow watering in drought conditions promotes growth of fungus and other pesky things.)
As gardeners, my neighbor and I notice how much rain we are getting in any given season and week. We think about whether the rainfall is what the farmers and the trees and birds and wild animals need, in addition to whether it will interfere with a child’s soccer game or a planned outing. We were at the point that we would far rather get caught out in a deluge than miss out on any chance of rain. On the other hand, those in flooded parts of the north are praying for a few warm (but not blazing hot) dry days in a row. Today’s storm is welcome and needed, though one storm does not end a drought. We need some more good ones for days on end.
I think the approach of various classes and intensity levels of asana practice can feel like a whether a thunderstorm is welcome weather. Sometimes an outrageously intense and fierce practice is what will bring me to my fullest possibility of growth and expansion. At other times, I need to step back and rest my body. Restorative and other gently therapeutic practices are what nurtures best. Sometimes, I have long, steady periods of moderate practice.
The more sensitive, aware, and knowledgeable I get about the weather outside and how it impacts life around me, the better able I am to take care of my garden. The more I am sensitive and open to the weather inside and the more knowledgeable both from study and experience of how my practice best aligns with inner and outer weather, the better able I am to live out the yoga principles I seek ever better to follow–the most important being to see the highest first and to be of service.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
State of the Garden
There was one week with highs below freezing and nights in the teens fahrenheit, but other than that this winter in my garden has been perfect weather for greens and root vegetables.
Tyrone came for a quarterly check for various vermin (yes, I know that rats and termites are no less divine than anything else, but it’s much easier to think that of them when they are not in your dwelling place). I followed him out into the garden. He said that last time I gave him some carrots that he ate in the truck.
I found a couple of good carrots and enough turnips and kale for both of us. It is time to eat up the vegetables that wintered over to make way for new planting.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Coincidence or Correlation (and Overnight Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal)
On my way to and from work, I watched the buds and blooms–some brown, some bravely hanging on, some withering around the edges and starting to wilt; the cherries–mostly in bud or just starting to open–that haven’t fully blasted yet, will do so by the end of the cold period following the storm.
I’ve seen years when the cherry blossoms were torn from the trees at their lushest by a violent storm coming through with a cold front and and years when a spring snow added to the blossoms and years when the blossoms were well before or after the parade. I haven’t seen a year in my over 30 years here, where the blossoms just died from a weirdly early false spring followed by a winter storm with bitter cold. I am sure it is just coincidence and not correlation that this sorry withering of the loveliest part of Washington spring happened this at this particular time.
In the meantime, I am certain that I will need to go out first thing in the morning to shovel and then will need to turn on my computer and go to work. I’m sure I will find the snow (when I am not thinking about the impact on flowering and fruiting perennials), even the shoveling, invigorating and somewhat enjoyable. To provide nourishment that takes into account the extra exercise and how the shoveling time will impact my usual morning routine, tonight after washing up, I put up overnight apple oatmeal. Into the slow cooker went a couple of diced apples, a handful of raisins, steel cut oats, cinnamon, a bit of butter, and a dash of salt. When I wake up, It will smell something like apple crisp, and it will be just the thing to fuel snow shoveling. With the extra, I will make muffins for later in the week.
