March Around Oak Meadows

Around OakMeadows

Arrrgghh! I had 3 books on reserve at the library and all three of them came at the same time! I will never be able read all 3 of them the the 3 weeks that I can have them. I won't be able to renew them because there is a long waiting list for all 3.  Well, I will start with The Summer before the War by Helen Simonson because I just loved her previous novel, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.

The first hummingbird has arrived and departed. He is on his way north and I am glad he got to refuel with fresh sugar water at my house.  We should be seeing more soon. 

I ordered a Medical Alert system. It has a necklace that I wear so that if I fall or need assistance, I can push the button to call for help.  It also has a fall alert so that if I fall, they will automatically call and if I don't respond, they will send help.  I mostly want it for when JMM is away from home.  It is $44/month with no contract and no fees to begin or end the service.  

It has been overcast and drizzly for two days now and I am ready for some sunshine.  We are planning a trip to the Hermann Park gardens on Monday if the weather will cooperate. 

Quilting is still on hold but I plan to get back at it tomorrow. 

I am still aghast at the level of Republican political discourse this year.  I hope this doesn't become the norm for election years. 

That's all the news from OakMeadows for now. Only the usual cooking and cleaning and reading this week. 

Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze

I make this cake almost every Easter. 

Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze

3 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 cups sugar

6 eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Grease 16 cup tube pan. Dust with cake flour; tap out excess flour. (I just spray my nonstick tube pan with Pam.)

Sift flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl.  Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar. Add eggs 2 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition.  Beat in lemon juice and peel.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Mix in sour cream. Transfer batter to prepared pan. 

Bake until tested inserted near the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 30 minutes.  Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Loosen around edges with a knife. Turn cake out on rack and cool completely. 

Lemon glaze

Melt 1/4 cup butter in microwave

Sift 2 cups powdered sugar in large bowl

Add butter to powdered sugar

Add 2 tablespoonful lemon juice

Add 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Stir until smooth and creamy

If too thick add a few drops milk; if too thin add a little more powdered sugar

Drizzle over cake

Enjoy. 

March Meditation

That is one good thing about this world....there are always sure to be more springs.

L.M.Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Goals for the Week March 27 - April 2

Spiritual

     ABF/Church

     Daily Bible Reading

     7 Women by Eric Metaxas

Physical

     Healthy Snacks

     Water

     Exercise DVD

Quilting

     Layer and baste quilt

Reading

     SPQR by Mary Beard

     Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham

     The Waters of Eternal Youth (Commissario Brunetti #25) by Donna Leon

Cooking

     Beef and Barley Soup

     Seafood Pasta

     Cutlets, Sweet potato, GB

Home

     Plan Bathroom update

Personal

     Chico's

     

Desiderata -- Max Ehrmann

Desiderata
By Max Ehrmann
1952 

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story. 

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. 

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism. 

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass. 

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself. 

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. 

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. 

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy. ”

-  Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, 1927.  Max Ehrmann (1872–1945), a poet and lawyer from Terre Haute, Indiana.  

March Around Oak Meadows

Gorgeous spring weather here. Wildflowers are blooming. Our much loved swallows are back and repairing their nests. We have Monarch caterpillars chomping on the milkweed; JMM counted 16 on one day.  The trees are leafing out and the grass is growing.  Very few bees around the Mexican heather so far though. And best of all my hands and feet are thawing out! 

I watched Bridge of Spies this evening on a Netflix DVD. It was about the exchange of Francis Gary Powers, an American U-2 pilot shot down over the USSR, for a convicted Soviet spy.  Tom Hanks did a superb performance as the lawyer who first defended the spy and then negotiated the exchange.  I remember the tense times of the Cold War in the early 1960s and I remember the downing of the U-2 spy plane but I don't think I knew much more than that we got him back.  Excellent movie.

Quilting has just come to a complete stop.  No real reason, I just haven't gotten around to doing any of it.  

Politics, at least on the Republican side, is a complete circus.  Can anyone explain to me why Jeb Bush decided to back Ted Cruz and not the more rational John Kasich? It's a mystery to me. I'm a Bernie supporter but will vote for Hillary if she gets the nomination so I should be glad the Republicans are stark, raving bonkers but as a citizen, I find it distinctly embarrassing. 

I've been cooking as usual: We had Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Carrots on St. Patrick's Day and I made Pioneer Woman's Chicken Parmesan on Tuesday. Right now I have a meatloaf and sweet potatoes in the oven. Strawberries are coming in so I think I'll make a pound cake, slice some fresh strawberries, and whip up some whipped cream for strawberry shortcake. 

I finished The Gilded Age by Sara Donati and it was excellent historical fiction. I can hardly wait for the next book in the series to come out. I've got another 140 pages to go in Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham. It is ungodly long but well worth the time reading.  And for fun, I've started the latest Commissario Brunetti book by Donna Leon, The Waters of Eternal Youth.  So many books, so little time. 

That's all the news from OakMeadows where the deer are eating the new plants and the people are helpless to stop them.

The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati

The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati

This is the best researched book of historical fiction that I have ever read. The story is set in New York in 1883 and everything about it is thoroughly researched and portrayed.  Whether describing the streets and buildings, the public institutions, or the practice of medicine and surgery at that time, the book is accurate to both the overall and the detail.  

The story and the characters are complex and quite believable.  It is a very long book and takes quite some time to get through it. But it is so well written that you just don't mind reading and reading and reading until you absolutely, positively must turn the light off and get some sleep because you have to get up and go to work the next day. 

I did not realize that this book is part of a series.  It reads completely well by itself.  I only mention this because there are several loose threads that are not tidied up by the end of the book and I was puzzled by this until I read on the back that this is the latest book in her Into the Wilderness series.  So I can look forward to seeing what happens to the characters in following books. 

A really good read.