MaryAlice Musings and More

Unbelievable, the month of January is almost done. Just as the month seemed to fly by, it also feels like years ago that I made black eye peas for New Years Day.   We, as a nation, have survived an insurrection. Fewer have survived another month of Covid.  The pandemic rages on, especially in the U.S.   I have vaccine envy and no appointment.   The past president has been impeached again, the only president to be impeached not once but twice.  We have a new President, a new Vice-President and people who actually can do and want to do their jobs for our country.   My kicksled has made it from Finland, to Ely, Minnesota and is now on it's way to Willow Street in Patten, Maine.   And I keep making ice globes.  I am happy hunkering down.  I seem to be very busy.  My volunteer life has somehow turned into "work-life" and my days are busy.  Time at the computer.  Time on zoom and calls.  I have had good connecting even tho...

  I ventured out of my house today!  I really have no idea when I have left Patten or taken a drive through Shin Pond and the to the North End.  I think it might be three weeks, but who knows, it's Covid time.  I had a number of stops and things to do in making my big trip to Millinocket!  I just laughed out loud about a day of "to do's" in Millinocket.   I left home mid-morning and headed to Millinocket Floral .  I dropped off two of my favorite vases and set a time to stop back to pick up my transformed vases.  I love fresh flowers.  They are a very special treat especially in the middle of a winter that has more than our share of very gray days.   It feels decadent to have not one but two vases of beautiful flowers, and Rhonda has made such beautiful bouquets and they last so very long.   Besides flowers, I was able to have brief, safe visit with Emilie and Will.  I was working at the library today and Emilie and Will s...

    The winds have stopped and the temperature has moderated a bit.   I am stepping aside from the "bluster and righteousness" that is coming from our nation's capitol.  The same capitol that was attacked just twenty days ago.   Today I got my latest installment of ice globes ready for their debut.  I put a favorite bench out on the front lawn, and after dark tonight I put my six globes out for display.  I called Ted and Terry and asked if they could see them from their house - they could.  I was delighted.  Simple pleasures and simple action.  Let their be light.  I can be a light!  

  I found myself feeling a little sorry for myself today.   I am so ready to have someone else's cooking, to go to a really good restaurant and enjoy exploring dishes I seldom or never have tasted.   Instead of encouraging a downward spiral I pulled out one of my favorite cookbooks and I am making a recipe that I have never made from the book.  While I finish this blog my first attempt at Chicken Masala is bubbling away on the stove. I made my own mixture of Garam Masala.  I have the jasmine rice warming in the rice cooker.  The aroma coming form the kitchen is really good. I am imagining walking into a neighborhood, sit down and pull up your sleeves and enjoy whatever special they have for the day. Today's special Chicken Masala with Jasmine rice and steamed green peas.  While the masala is cooking I have a tray of ice globes that are getting frozen.  I am hopeful that I can bring them by the end of the night.   I did try some food...

I have two ice globes  sitting on a TV Tray on my front porch and they look much better than this picture of them.  That may be your invitation to make your own ice globes and see how beautiful they are when shining in the cold darkness.    I have for the past two weeks been trying my hand at making a functional snow globe.   The first batch of balloons I bought were not very flexible and didn't make for a shape that would hold a candle.    My other challenge was it was not really cold enough.  It needs to be cold enough to freeze the outside of the shape but not freeze all the way through.    I have a small odd size globe glowing it is actually sitting on it's side, and I had to work make a space large enough for a candle and also stay safely in place. On Friday I bought some other balloons and today I had a bigger more successful globe.  They are both glowing. I am going to make more tomorrow.  I plan to move the gl...

  I may be the world's worst selfie taker.  I already have a problem - when I laugh or smile my eyes pretty much close - if I open them wide I look like someone else. On top of it all  I really don't enjoy taking my own picture.  But this morning I was moved to make my "unfinished" selfie.   My hair is longer than ever, even in my most absolutely hippest of hippie days.  Funny I never really felt like a "hippie",  I felt like me in experimentation.  I was discovering the world.  I was open.  I was young.  I liked the Grateful Dead.  I had long straight very dark hair.  Fifty years later I have long, straight white white hair and I have braids.  I don't think I wore braids, at least not often, when I was young and a hippie.  Now I wear braids, even before Covid, I wore braids, I think my braids are a part of my grand-mothering self and I like it.    And I still like the Grateful Dead, I don't l...

    I have no need to write my words,  this day has come.  Respect, Dignity, Honesty were promised and Amanda Gorman, Inaugural Poet, the youngest broke open our hearts.  The President is already at work.  The new Senators are sworn in by our first woman, black, south Asian Vice President.  A new day has come.    The Hill We Climb When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry. A sea we must wade. We braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one. And, yes,...