BirchLane.net

December 2008

 

Monday 29

Like Frosting a Cake.

 

Sunday 28

Saturday 27

Friday 26

 

Thursday 25

Wednesday 24

Tuesday 23

Monday 22

Sunday 21

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
  – Percy Bysshe Shelley
 

I am an incorrigible optimist. I’m aware of the threats that surround us, but I haven’t lost my faith, I haven’t lost my hope. And I haven’t lost my confidence that people working together harmoniously can bring about a change for the better in the world that our children will grow up in.

It’s not for governments to improve our lives. It is for each individual to ask himself or herself, “Should I continue to make things which destroy life, or can I lend my expertise and my experience to benefit life, to help life?”

We get discouraged because we don’t see life as it is. We feel we can’t make a difference because we don’t see things as they really are. When we see life as it is, when we see people as they are, all sorrow will fall away, all suffering will come to an end. This is the great message of all religions. When we see life as it is, all sorrow falls away.

~Eknath Easwaran, Thought for the Day

Saturday 20

Friday 19

Thursday 18

 

Wednesday 17

Tribute. (coming) I am thinking of the tribute Susan wrote for Bernadette this morning.

 

Tuesday 16

Interior Design. (coming

 

Monday 15

The Day The Deer Died. (coming)

 

Sunday 14

The Paint Job. (coming)

 

Saturday 13

Lunch with Cheryl. (coming)

 

Friday 12.

Santa Baby. (coming)

 

Thursday 11

Artists Who Work to Remember. Writing in her blog today, Sexuality in the Arts, Sia  profiles a few photographers (freaulein 2eck, Carol Woolgar, Lauren Ulm, rougerouge, and me, Bruce Barone. She writes:

Artists Who Work To Remember

“Such a lust for life . . .”

I realized today that many of the artists I follow of Flickr appear to have a similar interest of not wanting to forget personal memories.

Here are some artists I adore who, for various and intriguing reasons, regularly work to remember moments in their lives:

.......

Bruce doesn’t only see the art around him.  Bruce works every day to make the world around him more artistic.  I’ve never met Bruce, but I get the sense he would be unconsciously and consciously bothered by environments that are  inconsiderate of artistic sensibilities.

For Bruce, life is art.  And life without art would lose a great deal of meaning....

I think Bruce believes in the importance of well-framed memories....

Wednesday 10

Pork Loin. With Apricot Marmalade. Spinach with Scallions and Red Pepper. Oven-roasted "Potato Chips."

Tuesday 09

Bernadette. Susan's best friend and travel-companion (They visited Italy, Iceland, London, etc together) passed away today.

The Traveler

By James Dillet Freeman


She has put on invisibility.
Dear Lord, I cannot see—
But this I know, although the road
    ascends
And passes from my sight,
That there will be no night;
That You will take her gently by the
    hand
And lead her on
Along the road of life that never ends,
And she will find it is not death but
    dawn.
I do not doubt that You are there as
    here,
And You will hold her dear.

Our life did not begin with birth,
It is not of the earth;
And this that we call death, it is no
    more
Than the opening and closing of a
    door—
And in Your house how many rooms
    must be
Beyond this one where we rest
    momently.

Dear Lord, I thank You for the faith
    that frees,
The love that knows it cannot lose its
    own;
The love that, looking through the
    shadows, sees
That You and she and I are ever one!

Monday 08

Roast Chicken. I roasted a chicken tonight. Seasoned with lots of fresh anise. The roast chicken made me think of family, of family dinners, as roast chickens often do. Mom and Dad. Children. Gosh it is a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Which all reminds me of a paragraph in Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits that I found particularly funny (I devoured the book, often laughing.):

...Nigella (Lawson) is a celebrity, no question about that, but is she a chef? Of course not. Which is fine. Her show is about eating well, not so much about cooking--about the good stuff, like pork fat and pork skin, becoming approachable, even fun......(she) share(s) a common appeal, I think. If you're like millions and millions of others of generation X and Y, or a lingering boomer, maybe......As you sit in your lonely apartment, you feel a yearning, a longing for a sense of family, of belonging......A vestigial "nesting" impulse takes hold and you find yourself (thinking)..."I wish Nigella were my sister, or mom, cooking for me that slow-roasted ham. I wish that leftover scrap of pork she's nibbling on in the middle of the night were in my refrigerator."

Let's face it: Nigella probably cooks better than your mother. And she's alot better looking, and cooler. Nigella wouldn't mind if you smoked weed in your bedroom before dinner, would she? She wouldn't criticize you if you came home with your nose pierced and a fierce, full-back tattoo depicting Saint Peter and Dee Dee Ramone shoveling coal down the crack of your ass. Of course not. She'd say, "Remember to clean that nose with alcohol--and wash your hands for dinner! We're having roast suckling pig with quince chutney."

Sunday 07

Preparing The Way. Woke to snow. A dusting. Nothing more. But beautiful nonetheless. The small pine cones like bells in the backyard:

Out front an abstract painting:

In church, this the second Sunday of Advent, we recite the Prayer of St. Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

 Amen

After returning home I went to Mittineague Park to photograph the bridge and stone walls.

The image below makes me think of The Civil War:

This is my favorite:

Late in the day, Susan and I went to an open house at Ane Marie Walts' The Loft Salon Studio, where we had a wonderful time and were photographed by Ann Marie in her studio.

For dinner I made Roast Beef Bash and a Poached Egg (It was declicious!):

Saturday 6

Song and Stories. Today was a day of music. Of song. Of stories. But before the day really got started I noticed that the water in our birdbath had frozen and took the shape of a bird arising out from the water.

Beautiful song and story were heard at Storrowton Village. The warm and lovely April Grant delighted us with seasonal stories and songs; she even recited The Night Before Christmas. Afterward, we walked the grounds and toured the 19th century buildings--and petted the Nigerian Dwarf Goats! I want a few for Christmas!

The afternoon found us at the First Congregational Church in Westfield; the church we have been attending the past few Sundays. Today the church presented the Family Carol Festival for choir and audience featuring Novi Cantori, in which our friend David sings.

Friday 5

Food. Last week, my son (and my daughter and her boyfriend, too) said I should open a restaurant. A few days later a friend asked me when my cookbook was being published. And today another friend asked about the cookbook. Food. Food. Food. Today, Susan and I talked about not finding much interest in any restaurant in our happy valley. One of the last times we ate out the service was abysmal; I consider waiting ten minutes for a cocktail at the bar unacceptable.

Michael Ruhlman writing today on his blog:

A few years ago, my friend Eric Ripert asked me if I’d be interested in chronicling his restaurant from the inside, to show the true behind the scenes portrait of a four-star Manhattan restaurant.  I would have loved to but my living in Cleveland made it impractical.  He asked his friend Alan Richman, and that didn’t work out.  Eventually, he struck a deal with New York Times writer and editor Christine Muhlke and the two, along with their publisher Ann Bramson and a great design team, Helicopter, have produced a book, On the Line, that fulfills Eric’s initial conception.  And then some.  It’s truly a fascinating and honest (not self-promoting, though it does do that, nor self-congratulatory) portrait of a restaurant, with diagrams of the stations on the line, day-in-the-life-of timelines, portraits of key players from the kitchen to the business office, a list of cardinal sins to avoid in front-of-the-house service, excellent documentary and finished food photography.  The second half of the book is devoted to recipes.

This is must reading for anyone thinking of getting into the restaurant business, or looking to make theirs better, and I’d recommend it to anyone already fascinated by the inner gears of restaurants or any service business.  Eric and his team have done a terrific job.  And if you haven’t seen his website, aveceric, it’s very snazzy, beautifully produced and worth a few clicks.  Really impressive, all of it.

And there on his Blog, all these delicious Chef Blogs:

Who needs to cook and eat when we can read all day and night about food! Alas, for dinner I did make Sockeye Salmon with thinly sliced fennel and orange with roasted asparagus.

Thursday 4

The Best Chicken Ever! "You talk like a teacher," the man outside the library said to me. A teacher? Maybe. In my hand I was carrying three books. Three books about food.

Note: find these two books:

  1. On The Line by Eric Ripert and Christine Muhlke
  2. The Complete Robuchon by Jeff Robuchon

Also, someday, when next in California, go have dinner at The French Laundry.

Wednesday 3

The Lower Mill Pond.

Tuesday 2

Art Education.

Eugene Ashton and Ella Perry publish the Perry Magazine for School and Home through 1906. The Perry Magazine was a marketing and communications vehicle from a company involved in schoolroom decoration and the picture study movement at the end of the nineteenth century. The magazine promoted the use of small, inexpensive, reproductions of fine art and contemporary photographs in lessons. Many of the articles in the Perry Magazine contained lessons about moral and ethical issues as well as art history and art appreciation. The content of the Perry Magazine was determined by the economic, social, and political issues of the day. Eugene and Ella met as school principals in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The story of their marriage and business is one of success as capitalist ventures. Having been teachers they understood what teachers needed. The Perry Magazine had a large influence on the introduction of art appreciation and art reproductions into the public school curriculum. Before the publication of the Perry Magazine only the elite had access to fine art.

~Ann Rahoi

Monday 01

Anticipation.