Posts Tagged ‘scones’
Real Reality
One of the precious things about spending a lot of time in the great outdoors is how it contrasts with present-day depictions of various versions of reality projected in the media and social feeds of our fabulous world wide web. Each day, it becomes harder and harder to sift through the enshitified world of the internet.
Cyndie and I spent a couple of hours following along with the return of the record-setting Artemis II moonfarers last night, mesmerized by the spectacle that brought back memories of the thrills we experienced watching the Apollo splashdowns when we were kids. This morning, I noticed a Redditor lamenting that all he could find in a search for information on his Instagram feed about the astronauts’ return was posts by flat-earthers (or scheming antagonists with some psycho agenda from a bizarre villain world-domination fantasy script) flaunting how dumb grown adults must be to believe the “theatrical performances” by NASA.
Oy. I can’t even…
What is absolutely real is standing on a large mound of the winter’s worth of horse manure to break it up, turn it over, and shape it down with a pitchfork and rake. In a slow process of years, I am endeavoring to develop a high spot in the large paddock that protects a drain tile line from the spigot in the barn that comes to the surface within the horses’ domain.
Why would I make up something like this?
While I worked the pitchfork yesterday, with Asher watching over the horses and me, I was enjoying the sounds of nature around us. At one point, as my inner narrator was marveling over the call of a pheasant across the road, my brain kicked in to clarify that I was hearing, “Gobble gobble gobble.”
That’s no pheasant. It’s a turkey! Some Tom was announcing something to the world. We’ve been noticing a remarkable presence of a larger-than-usual pheasant population this year. Maybe the wild turkeys are competing for territory.
The reality in the kitchen this morning is a full-on production of Cyndie’s popular scones being baked.
If the internet provided you with aromas, you would surely know how real this is. Go ahead and check the image to see if it is AI. No, I did not Photoshop those ingredients onto the counter. Some lucky volunteers for an organization Cyndie is involved with will be getting a treat today!
I will not be left out, since my role as taste tester gives me the privilege of finding out if they are good when still warm out of the oven. It’s a tough job, but that’s my reality.
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Small Banquet
Once again, the phrase “dined like royalty” comes to my mind to describe the homemade feast Cyndie served yesterday for a visit from our son, his wife, and their friends. Beyond her classic culinary artwork of two varieties of scones, Cyndie tried her hand at making hummus out of peas and baking naan bread for the first time.
The main dish of curry chicken and roasted vegetables was followed by her version of a turtle cake from a copied recipe of St. Paul’s Cafe Latte.
As often happens, there was so much delicious food consumed, there was little room for dessert. That’s no problem for Cyndie. She had “to go” containers available so slices of the chocolate caramel decadence were sent home to be enjoyed later.
We were blessed with an afternoon of warm sunshine that felt even nicer than the actual temperature, especially compared to our recent extended spell of rainy, snowy days.
The horses had been brushed earlier in the morning but were perfectly covered in mud by the time we all showed up to visit after a stroll in the labyrinth. While Mix showed interest in checking out the new guests, the other three paid little notice, choosing instead to linger in the altered state of almost sleeping, but not really.
The day was a wonderful celebration of sharing the wonders of Wintervale while we are mired in the muddy conditions of early spring.
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New Project
A new opportunity has unfolded for Cyndie to practice her skills as a baker from our own kitchen. A nearby organic berry farm where she shops for strawberries that she cans as jam was looking to expand their offerings and sell baked goods to their customers. Cyndie volunteered to drop off some samples the next day.
Her almond-cherry scones were an overwhelming hit and led to requests for additional varieties, to which she gladly complied.
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Strawberry hand-pies and chocolate-raspberry cookies soon arrived along with her masterpiece of lemon-blueberry scones. They want ’em all.
She is packaging the treasures for individual sale.
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I’m confident there will be some very happy berry shoppers after their visit to the farm today.
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Some Days
Yesterday at work I found myself a little short of feeling like my best. Was it simply a result of it being a Monday? Possibly. More likely, it had something to do with a sub-par night’s sleep. I couldn’t get myself to turn off the Cubbies Sunday night as they eked out a victory in game 5 of the World Series. That kept me up past my bedtime.
In addition, my days of having the whole bed to myself came to an end when Cyndie arrived home from visiting the Morales family in Guatemala in the wee hours of oh-dark-thirty. That’s about the worst time of night to have a sleep cycle interrupted.
As I sat at my desk trying to shake out the cobwebs, the thought crossed my mind that maybe I should have just stayed home for the day. It wasn’t anything physical. I felt fine, I just didn’t feel all that… fine.
Then an issue needed to be addressed, and another, and another. Good thing I didn’t stay home. I may not have been my best, but I was present and available to at least contribute in the moment. Some days we need to allow ourselves to accept this as good enough. Half-speed is better than no speed at all when there is work to be done.
So, Cyndie got home in the middle of the night and I left for work in the dark of morning. She was back, but I hadn’t seen her yet, so I was getting excited to get home. I had no idea I would find this:
She had a fire in the fireplace and the kitchen filled with the aroma of fresh-baked cookies, there were scones she’d baked for breakfast, and that bread was rising on the stove. Oh, and it was nice to be able to see her, too.
As it was, a day that started out less than fine, turned out pretty darn good in the end.
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Relative Something 