Upside Down with Purpose

 

Upside Down. 

 

Sometimes, upside down is OK. 

 

Not, of course, if you're stuck at the top of a Ferris Wheel, but maybe just in the course of day to day life.

 

Because sometimes you do just feel upside down. Not really wrong exactly, but not quite right.

 

It happens to me a lot in the fall. I love the hot summer days of flip flops and short sleeved shirts, longer brighter days of not always being chilled to the bone.

 

I hadn't seen my younger son in almost a year, it was getting darker earlier, I'd had a birthday and was getting . . . you know . . . older, prices were through the roof, our politics were in shambles, and the upcoming holiday season whirlwind has a tendency to be hectic.

So I was OK, just a little upside down. 

I walked out front one day a few weeks ago, and saw this little oak leaf on my walkway. We don't have oak or maple trees but, whatever, I'm sure the wind blew it here from somewhere.

As I walked past the leaf, I saw that it was upside down and, without really thinking about it, said under my breath "I know how you feel, buddy."

 

 

It was a dreary, cloudy day, in keeping with my mood, I guess. And it doesn't help that there's so little color mother nature shares with us this time of year, in contrast to the bright hues of spring and summer. I suppose that might be why, coming back into the house, I turned the leaf over saying (well, I said it in my head, I don't want you to think I was standing outside my house talking out loud to a leaf) "don't hide, show those pretty yellows and browns and greens." 

Sometimes, we need a little encouragement to show our colors to the world.

 

 

The next day, I'd been working in the kitchen and, as you might imagine, wasn't giving any thought to the leaf on the walkway.

Banana Spice Cake

(an upside down dessert)

 

When I went out to get the mail, I noticed that leaf, still there, right in the middle of my walkway.

 

Upside down.

 

And a little worse for wear. Curled in at the edges. 

 

I left it like that. Because sometimes you just have to feel your upside down for a while, keep your colors to yourself, and block out the world.

 

I get it.

Now, I'm sure you're thinking that I'm reading a whole lot into a biodegrading leaf on the sidewalk, and you could very well be right.

But I happen to believe that you take your life lessons from wherever they're presented to you.

"Tomorrow," I thought, "if that leaf is still there, and still upside down, I'll turn it over again."

Because sometimes you're just not ready the first time. But maybe, just maybe, it'll be ready to shine.

Banana Spice Cake         

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
about 1 1/2 bananas

2 TBSP butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 tsp cinnamon, divided

1 box yellow cake mix

3/4 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup speculoos (cookie butter)

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1/4 cup sour cream

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan.

*Slice the bananas into approximately 1/4 - 1/3 inch rounds.

*Melt the butter, mix in the brown sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and spread into the bottom of the pan. Place the banana slices into the butter mixture, singly, in two rows along the bottom and barely up the side of the pan.

*Whisk together the cake mix, remaining cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg. Separately, whisk together the oil and speculoos. Add to the cake mix, along with the eggs, milk, and sour cream. Beat for 2 minutes.

*Slowly pour the batter into the pan with the bananas, trying to keep the bananas in place as much as possible.

*Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until the center of the cake springs back to the touch. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edge and inverting onto a serving plate.

Hide nor Hare: Word Counters

 

 

Counting my words again. 

Today my fellow Word Counters and I are sharing our monthly group post. Each month one group member picks  a number between 12 and 50. All participating bloggers are then challenged to write something (or a few somethings, as the case may be) using that exact number of words. Today we all share what we came up with. 

 This month's number is 43. 
It was chosen by Diane of On the Border.

As I've been doing in these Word Counters posts, I've chosen a theme and am using my word count multiple times in keeping with the theme. This month I've chosen the theme Missing (i.e., where have all the rabbits gone?).

 

~ I write, each year at this time, about nature, what we see in our yard. I talk about the flowers that grow in my gardens, the trees along the wood line, and the critters (large and small, scary and interesting) who wander about.

 

~ I've written about woodpeckers pecking holes in our siding, costing us hundreds of dollars in repairs each year. I've written about the majestic hawks who come right up and sit on our deck. And the owls who perch on our roofline to hunt.

~ Turkeys who come to visit, sometimes right up to our door. There are geese, deer and fawns, moles who do their own damage, but to our lawn, a fox now and then, possums, moles, raccoons, and the pedestrian rabbits, spiders, squirrels, bees, flies . . .

~ Today, some are missing. I'm not sure why. I went to sit on the back deck today, looked down to see a spider crawling on my leg, decided my three seconds outdoors were enough and came back in. Nope, spiders aren't missing. Figures.

~ My giant bees are. First time I saw them, I ran, screaming. Eventually they'd buzz around me while watering my plants, then follow me on to the next pot. We'd meet daily, they were harmless, friendly even. We got used to each other.

~ Yes, I've been drinking. But that doesn't change the fact that after years of expecting to see them, this year I'm watering alone. Of course the smaller yellow jackets, wasps, and hornets, you know, the ones that sting, they're still around. Of course.

 

Blackberry Lemonade Fizz

~ The strangest thing is the rabbits. Normally, they're everywhere, like the squirrels. We see them all over the lawn, from large rabbits, to tiny babies in nests dug into holes in our lawn, to young ones, scurrying away when we open the door.

~ Rabbits are everywhere in spring. There's a reason they say "breed like rabbits." This spring, we saw none. The woods, the lawn, the gardens, neither hide nor hare. The hares were hiding. Didn't see our first bunny until July, we've seen five since. 

~ We heard of a coyote out back this spring. Supposedly it went after a neighbor, but he (the neighbor, not the coyote) still has all of his body parts (the ones we can see), so he's superman, or that story may be exaggerated. 

 

~ I can see you making the correlation, enter the coyote, exit the rabbits, making a Sherlock Holmes style deduction, that the coyote ate all the rabbits. But every single one? Skipping the squirrels (and the spiders, but they're probably not quite as filling).

~ So where did all the rabbits go? The giant bees, too. And while I'm asking questions, anyone know how to talk a coyote into eating spiders (without getting close to him . . . just in case I happen to look like a roadrunner). Meep meep.

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:

On the Border 

Messymimi’s Meanderings 

Blackberry Lemonade Fizz  

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes about 3):

12 blackberries

1 bottle (12 oz) hard lemonade

4 oz vodka

8 oz blackberry lemonade sparkling water 

 

1 cup ice

OPT: blackberries and/or sliced lemon to garnish

Directions:

*In a pitcher, mix together the lemonade and vodka. Add the blackberries and refrigerate for 4 hours.

*Divide the ice into 3 (10 - 12 oz) cocktail glasses. Remove the pitcher from the refrigerator, scoop out the blackberries and add 4 to each glass. 

*Divide the hard lemonade mixture evenly into the 3 glasses. Fill the glasses the rest of the way with the sparkling water. 

*Garnish with blackberries and/or sliced lemon, if desired.

Fairest of All: Secret Subject Swap

 

 

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This month 5 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to all of today’s other Secret Subject participants.

 

My subject is: What is your favorite flower, and why?
It was submitted by: Rena of The Diary of an Alzheimer's Caregiver.

I've talked about, and shared pictures of, flowers before. In Flower Power 2.0, I talk about how flowers can make me smile, their beauty can impact my mood. I've also mentioned, in the time of Covid, the lengths I went to in order to have them to plant in my outdoor pots. Some things, many things, changed when Covid hit, making the impact of an art show put on by nature even more significant.

 

I have not, however, in all the times I've mentioned flowers, picked a favorite. So I'm taking that on as my challenge for today.

 

There are so many kinds of flowers, so much to consider here. There are flowers you grow in the yard, flowers you plant in outdoor pots, and those you are gifted. That's a lot to choose from.

 

There's another kind of flower, the symbolic one, used in a truism that makes the rounds now and then, and is especially salient in this age of Covid. I may have added another line to the end there, not that I'm affected by the current political climate or anything . . .

 

 

 

 

So back to actual flowers . . .

 

There is, when gifted flowers, the added value of them being a gift. Choosing a favorite, however, depends on the occasion, the meaning assigned to certain flowers, like roses, and even to the color of the roses.

My mom loves Alstroemerias. They're delicate, multicolored flowers that mom almost always has in a vase on her kitchen counter. I love them because of what they've come to represent: don't wait for others, surround yourself with beauty, make yourself smile, buy yourself flowers. Always.

Also because of their meaning, there are flowers that hold a special place in my heart. I grew up with a line of rhododendrons just outside our front door, irises by the back door, a few lilacs in the side yard, and forsythia along our property line. I remember, just at the very start of spring, when the forsythia were the first to bud, her trimming big stalks and putting them in a tall vase and watching over the next few days, those buds opening into delicate yellow flowers letting us know that winter is officially gone.

I tried growing many of those childhood favorites here in the Midwest without much success. In fact, it was soul crushing having to remove the dead plants from the yard. I did make some adaptations, though. I have lilac shrubs along one side of our house. Instead of iris, I have a plethera of day lillies, and in place of rhododendrons I have azaleas.

  

But if I had to choose, really had to sit down, think it through and make a choice? There's one that is a frequent companion of mine, keeps me busy, and nurtures my creativity. Although rarely seen outside (well, in its pre-arranged form), I brought it out to my back deck so I could take a picture for you. See it there, just below this year's pot of planted flowers?

 

Isn't it beautiful?

 

 

 

Apple Pecan Monkey Bread

 

 

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver 

Climaxed

What TF Sarah

Part-time Working Hockey Mom

Apple Pecan Monkey Bread       

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
4 TBSP butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 TBSP apple juice

2 apples, peeled, cored, chopped

1/3 cup chopped pecans 

1 can (8 biscuits) refrigerator buttermilk biscuits

 

Directions:
*Grease a 10 inch deep dish pie plate. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

*Melt the butter. Whisk in the brown sugar, cinnamon, and apple juice. Mix in the chopped apples and chopped pecans.

*Peel the top half of the layers of the biscuits off so you have 16 biscuits, half the size of the originals. Cover the bottom of the baking dish with 6 of the biscuit halves. 

*Dollop 1/3 of the apple mixture onto the biscuits in the dish and spread around. Top with 5 more of the biscuit halves, another 1/3 of the apple mixture, then the remaining biscuits and the remaining apple mixture.
*Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Autumn Lessons

 

 

 It started about a month ago. Right around Halloween. Autumn was already long here, but before then it had been in name only. Now, it was in temperature as well. After waking rolled up in a ball with my head under the covers three mornings in a row, I finally gave in and turned the heat on in the house. Hubs shut down the sprinkler system and switched prominent garage status from the lawn mower to the snow blower. 

 

The leaves were turning color and falling. And due to a simple decision about a screen, I'd seen something in the yard. Something that compelled me to go out and take a picture. While there, I saw something else, just as noteworthy, and snapped a picture of that as well.

 

I wasn't sure what I'd do with the pictures, but their presence had felt important to me somehow. Embodiment of life lessons type importance. So I did what I always do, just let it be, let it germinate, tell me what I wanted to do with those pictures, to say about them.

 

Just for context, although many of you who read this blog regularly already know, let me just say this:

 

I grew up in New England. Fall is beautiful there. I've been on the Kancamangus Highway, seen the rolling mountains bursting with the colors of the season, reds and yellows and browns and burnt oranges and even greens all decorate both sides of the road.

 

Living in the Midwest, I always laugh when people who've never been anywhere else talk about the beauty of the Fall leaves. They have no idea. This, my friends, is nothing.

 

 

 

My house backs up to woods. Although, when I venture out, there are a few different colored leaves on trees here and there, what I get is just green, yellow and brown. Not that those aren't perfectly fine colors, but they are one-note, and I'm someone who's heard the symphony.

I wrote a blog post right about that time, published just a couple of days ago, called I Can See Clearly Now. I talked about the difference when we took the screen out of our kitchen window, the sharpness of the view. I credit that new clarity for, while working on a recipe, thinking that I had caught something out of the corner of my eye. 

Sweet Potato Mix Rolls

 

It was just a quick glimpse. The wind was gently blowing and leaves were falling. The lawn was not yet dormant, but was covered in a brown and yellow carpet. But when that wind blew, did I see a variation along the woods line? A deviation from the norm?

Truth is, had I not been so used to my monochromatic view, I would never have paid attention to the flash of color, even seen it, perhaps, let alone gone out to investigate. I wouldn't have been treated to the lesson embodied by nature, nonconformity is noteworthy. There is beauty in difference. Highlighted, no doubt by the juxtaposition of that difference among all that conformity.

There it is. Can you see it? Way over on the far left? Red. Hanging out there, just being red.

 

And had I not been out in the back yard acknowledging, documenting, that difference, I never would have taken that second picture. 

 

 

There among the dead leaves and half dormant, wilting plants, stood one Daylilly. On one single stock, one single hearty, fully formed flower that, despite the odds, was determined to have its one single day in the sun. 

 

Perseverance, determination, they can pay off. You can't know unless you try. That's what I got from that little yellow flower.

 

But for me, the main lesson, one we desperately need to acknowledge in this country, is what those red leaves so beautifully personified, just by being the only thing they could be. There is beauty in diversity.

 

Sweet Potato Mix Rolls       

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 package (5.6 oz) Betty Crocker Homestyle Sweet Potato Mix

1 1/4 cup milk

1 cup hot water

4 TBSP butter, divided

2 1/4 cups flour, divided

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp allspice

 

Directions:

*NOTE: this recipe calls for a package of sweet potato mix, this recipe does not use the entire prepared mix.
*Prepare the packaged potato mix with the milk, hot water, and 3 TBSP of the butter in the microwave according to package instructions. Set aside, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

*Cover a kneading area with 1/4 cup flour. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 cups of flour with the baking powder, salt, and allspice.

*Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

*Add 2 cups of the potato mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until incorporated, then, on the floured kneading area, knead for just 1 minute.

*Form the dough into 12 balls, place on the baking sheet and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt the remaining 1 TBSP butter and brush onto the tops of the rolls.

*Bake for 20 minutes.

Birds in the Belfry

 

I have birds in the belfry.

 

I don't actually have a belfry, but I have a chimney. And I definitely have birds.

 

Living in a house that backs up to woods is a joy. It's beautiful, peaceful, often serene. In the spring and summer the whole backyard boasts multiple shades of green. In the winter, the snow on the bare branches creates its own form of beauty.

And there is wildlife. I've pictured many of them in my recent blog post Multifaceted. We have, like most people, squirrels and rabbits. We also share our yard with deer, possum, raccoons, and voles, as well as snakes, coyote, and fox, to name a few. 

 

And we have birds, lots of them. Birds of all types and sizes and colors, from large Red-tailed Hawks turkeys, and owls, all the way down to little hummingbirds buzzing around my potted plants.

 

Living in a house that backs up to woods can also be misery. And expensive. Because animals can cause damage. We are constantly battling with voles for possession of our lawn. Step on an area where they've built their underground labyrinth and you could break your ankle.

 

But the birds. When it comes to destruction and expense, Alfred Hitchcock's got nothing on me and my birds. 

I wrote a post last year called The Birds and the Bees. I talk about my friends the bees and my nemesis the woodpeckers. How pretty these living jackhammers are, we've seen the the red-headed woodpeckers and the blue and grey ones too. But they're also destructive. And that destruction is expensive to repair. They'd poked holes in the lower part of the siding of our house by the chimney during mating season. It cost us hundreds of dollars, but we had the holes closed up and the siding replaced. Done. Right?

 

 

Not even close. This year those woodpeckers got their revenge. Not only did they peck at the siding directly on the chimney line, but the sudden loud tinny echo in the house would scare the cr@p out of me in the late mornings while I'm preparing lunch. Without warning, the house would go from blissful silence to a sudden cacophany of metallic rat-a-tat-tats.

Blueberry Bagel Salad

 

And that's not all. They moved up the chimney. Way, way, way up. So high that when the contractors came to quote us on the repairs, they'd be much more expensive requiring a high ladder as opposed to last year's repairs which could be made standing on the ground.

But wait, even that isn't all. Yes, there's more.

We were in the house one afternoon before the repairs had been made when our neighbor rang the bell. "Do you know you have birds in your chimney?" he asked. Yes, we knew about the woodpecker holes. "Not the woodpecker holes, who's living in them."

Living in them?

Yes, apparently birds had built a nest in that top hole, right on the edge actually, and my neighbor saw them going in and out.

 

 

So now the repairs are on hold while we await the birth of the next generation of uninvited guests. 

 

Checkmate goes to those damn woodpeckers for this year.

Next year I may need to call in the big guns. Elmer Fudd, forget that wascally wabbit, I've got a new challenge for you.

Blueberry Bagel Salad     

                                                     ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

2 blueberry bagels

2 tsp olive oil

5 oz blueberry Greek yogurt

4 tsp olive oil

2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1/4 tsp salt

1 TBSP poppy seeds

 

6 oz spring greens salad mix

1 cup fresh blueberries

6 oz grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup sliced radishes

2 chicken breasts, cooked, cooled, and sliced

Directions:
*Chop the bagel and place onto a toaster oven sized pan. Drizzle with 2 tsp olive oil and toast until brown. Set aside.

*Vigorously whisk together the blueberry Greek yogurt, 4 tsp olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, and poppy seeds.

*Place the salad greens in a bowl. Sprinkle with the fresh blueberries, tomato halves, sliced radishes and toasted bagel pieces. Top with the sliced chicken. 

*Drizzle with the blueberry yogurt dressing and serve immediately.