Wishing you warmth and a bouquet of late winter flowers, wherever you are.
Polly
Tag: Celestia
A Year in Little Pudding 2017
This year I’ve created a second, entirely different calendar in addition to the more “grown-up” still-life calendar. It features the inhabitants of the village of Little Pudding, about whom I’ve been inventing stories since my daughter was in kindergarten.
Unless you prefer to be surprised, you can scroll down to see the twelve scenes of village life featured within. (Click twice to see the image larger.) The calendar is 8-1/2” x 11” and printed on sturdy satin stock, substantial enough so the images can be saved as prints.
A single calendar is $20; a set of two is $36. Shipping is 3-day Priority Mail, domestic US.
If you are in my area, you can obtain a calendar from me directly without shipping—just let me know.
Single calendar:
Set of two calendars:
The old year now away is fled
The old year now away is fled,
The new year it is entered;
Then let us all our sins downtread,
And joyfully all appear.
Let’s be merry be this holiday
And let us run with sport and play
Hang sorrow, let’s cast care away—
God send us a merry new year!
—English, 13th century
Christopher
Jacky
À la recherche du temps perdu
Today is the birthday of Marcel Proust (1871-1922), and so I post this sketch, in remembrance of things past (his and mine).
This image is available as a high-resolution print on 8.5″ x 11″ archival paper.
Joy of Pancakes
Today is the birthday of Irma Rombauer, author (with her daughter Marion Rombauer Becker) of that kitchen classic, The Joy of Cooking. In her honor, I post, along with this sketch, my family’s favorite whole-grain pancake recipe, a standard here for everyone’s birthday breakfast, as well as for many Saturday mornings. I have tried out quite a few pancake recipes on the gang over the years, but they always insist on this one from good old Joy. Happy Birthday, Irma Rombauer! I hope that wherever you are the food is good.
Joy of Cooking Whole Grain Griddle Cakes
Sift and measure: 3/4 cups whole grain flour 3/4 cups cake flour (but I use unbleached white) Resift with: 1 tsp salt (but I use just a pinch) 3 T sugar plus 2 T molasses (but I use 3 T brown sugar instead) 1-3/4 tsp baking powder Beat lightly: 1-2 eggs (depends on egg size) If you double the recipe (which I ALWAYS do), you can separate the eggs and beat the whites separately. Mix beaten egg (or yolks) with: 3 T melted butter 1-1/4 cups milk (but I use buttermilk) Then blend wet and dry ingredients. Fold in stiffly beaten whites gently, if you have reserved them. If it’s a birthday, I make shaped pancakes (animals, hearts, initials). I use a pointy spoon.
Alanna
A word from the pilot
He who would travel happily must travel light.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, whose birthday it is today. And it may be much-welcome advice for those struggling to get out of town.
Marilyn
Trevor
New Year’s Resolution: Library
On my list of things for which I am grateful is the public library, which I consider one of the greatest blessings of modern civilization and which is one of the first things I think of when I pay taxes. I have memories of libraries going back to childhood and recall wandering the stacks in cool semi-darkness, making my selections, then walking home on a hot summer day with a stack of well-worn cloth-bound books, prepared to curl up and enter other realms. Now I see my children with the same passion, choosing the library as a pleasurable destination: “Can we stop at the LIBRARY?” A world of wonders open to us all, free of charge. Thank you, Andrew Carnegie! Thank you, dear Library and Librarians everywhere!