Creative Sisterhood

Tonight was Creative Sisterhood. Only four of us came, but it was a really good evening. There has been a lot going on in the lives of a couple of us, especially Teresa.

So much has happened in my life since we last met that I neglected to mention a couple of really major things. It's just been a busy time.

I really value this group so very much. It has been a way to connect with my spirit in a different way than I do in going through daily life.

Tonight I made chocolate pie. It's the first time I've made pie for the Creative Sisterhood group. I was just in a pie baking mood. I'm happy to say the crust turned out really well - very flakey. I used the last of my European Cocoa in this pie.

I had to call Mary Ann for instructions. I hadn't made chocolate pie in ages. My mom has a recipe that you can make either coconut or chocolate. Coconut pie was the first thing I cooked - all that stirring. I remembered there was a particular way you were supposed to mix in the ingredients but I couldn't recall.

I have my mom's recipe box and pulled out her recipe card. But she didn't have any instructions listed - just the ingredients. She made them often enough she didn't need instructions. But, I had to get some input. I'm lucky I could call Mary Ann for help - she has always been a second mom to me. Today was the first time I've ever called her for cooking advice. I knew it was a bridge I was crossing, but it felt perfectly natural - for both of us.

Martha really enjoyed the pie, and even gave it a good Vanna White just for the blog.

The meringe was really good, too. I only like "southern style" meringe, which is another way of saying it has more sugar than the norm in it. Three egg whites, and two tablespoons of sugar per egg white - yes, six of them total. Of course, the usual cream of tartar rounds out the recipe. I'm not a big meringe person, but this was tasty. If I'm going to make it, I like it to be big and fluffy - you can use just two egg whites if you want a smaller pile. But, don't put more than 2 T of sugar per egg white - they won't fluff up if you do.

I'm including the crust recipe here - it's basic, but always good. The trick is keeping everything cold while you're making it, and putting it in the fridge if you're not going to bake it right away.

Pie Crust

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons ice water

You can leave the salt out if you wish.

Lump

I have been a lump today. I decided to take today off to get my life in a bit of order. I didn't accomplish much. I was just a lump. I haven't been out of my house and it's after 10 p.m.

Yesterday I went out to Quivira but I realized last night that I had not spoken to anyone all day. The same for today other than brief phone calls.

I'm not depressed or annoyed or anything like that. I think I've just not had enough quiet, alone time lately and I'm "catching up" on it.

I am, however, here at 10:19 p.m., going to go grocery shopping. I can't face another bowl of soup.

Quivira National Wildlife Refuge

Today I decided to get out and enjoy the nice day. It was a little chilly, but sunny and nice.

I took off to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, which is about 30 minutes away from Hutchinson, and is an amazing place. It is a place I can go to here that I really connect with.

One of Patsy's Rules for Living is that when you've lost your way you have to go to some place where you can reset your compass. That place for me is the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in Cairo, Illinois. But, Quivira has become a place I can do that here.

It has taken me a long time to grow to appreciate the prairie. It's a subtle kind of beauty. But once you take time to see it, you find it has many layers of color. And the sound of wind on the prairie is unlike anything else.







I took time today to walk a nature trail called "Migrant's Mile." It is pretty short - about 3/4 of a mile - but at the furtherest part of it there's a bridge that spans a marsh.

There are cat tails on each side. I've never seen so many in one place. You can also witness the effect of "Plant Succession."

Underwater plants die and as they decay form a matted covering called humus. The humus provides a place for larger plants - like cat tails - to anchor so their roots can get nourishment. Grasses and other plants along the shoreline will gradually grow into the fertile drying humus left behind when the aquatic plants decay. Over time the shorelines will meet in the middle of the marsh and the marsh will disappear.




Marshes provide habitat for a host of plants and animals, and are disappearing because of being drained for development.

The ones here are not in danger of that, of course, because it's a federally protected area.

I'm often surprised at how well such things can be organized. There is a plan in place here so the neighboring farmers work in partnership with the government. They grow crops on a share basis and the farmers harvest their share and leave the rest for food or habitat for animals. It's a great system and benefits everyone.

Quivira is known for birds. It's a major area for that. However, what I saw lots of today were deer. At one time there were eight in one place.




There's always plenty to see in nature and I think it's good to be outside in the sunshine and seeing nature work. There is a cycle to things that we can easily lose sight of because of the way we live our lives, in very artificial circumstances.

I believe this is the plant that monarch butterflies feed on that makes them toxic to predators.




At one point on the trail there were lots of trees with mushrooms growing on them. The different colors and shapes were extraordinary.




October skies are the bluest of the whole year, and I always make it a point to appreciate them.




Like I mentioned, Quivira is known for birds.

Kris and John's House

Tonight I went to Wichita for a gathering at the home of Kris and John, who I met at Kansas Dialogue. They are friends of Andrea's and were a great addition to dialogue.

They decided to create a "mini-dialogue," to introduce some folks in Wichita to the concept. They generously invited me to join Martha and Andrea as the "veterans."

It was a nice evening. They really put some energy into the gathering and it showed.

I always love getting to meet new people and there were a couple dozen of us there tonight, and I knew none of them other than the four of them. Interestingly enough, at leadership last week they asked how people felt about coming in the first day. My answer was that I was excited at meeting new people. Everyone else who answered had some trepidation about it. Maybe it comes from being a journalist for so long - you're used to doing what I called "dropping into people's lives" for awhile.

I asked John and Kris if I could take their photo for the blog. That's John standing, and Chris in the middle. Andrea is on the right and that's Bill in front. It was a lovely evening.

Four Hours

I have four hours before I go to an event tonight and I am working to motivate myself to be in constant motion between now and then. Admittedly, some of that time will be spent preparing for tonight and getting ready, but I need to work on my house - seriously need to work on it.

I've been gone so much that I've just been bringing my suitcases home, dumping them out, washing the clothes and repacking. Once again, I'm reminded that I should just toss out everything that's in my closet because I don't wear it. However, I did just this week get some winter clothes out of it so I guess I am wearing some of those things. Yeah, that's right. Those are the out of season clothes. OK, even I can't believe that.

The problem has been that everytime I've repacked I've left some things behind - in the living room - not where they belong. So, I need to deal with that. I'm a big "piler" of things and that just leads to a great big old mess.

To top it off, I have to clean everything in my kitchen because I've had a mouse. The mouse is now dead and dispatched out of the house, but of course I think he's been all over everything in the kitchen so I've got to wash it all. Again. I just did this a couple of months ago. Lucky me, I get to do it all again because of that nasty little thing. I despise them in a way that cannot really be explained with words - not in a "I'm scared of them" way, but in a "I'm disgusted by them" way. Don't write and tell me how wonderful mice are and how awful it is that I killed them. I'm not living with them. You can if you wish, but I'm not going to. I don't go hunt them down, but if they get in my house, they're not getting out alive if I can help it. There's a whole huge planet outside of my house, but these 2600 square feet are off limits.

I've got the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer going. I must get me going again...

Francs, Limps and Cordobas

A friend is leaving for London tomorrow and as a result I've been going through some of my travel things, in case he could use them. At this very moment, my luggage backpack is on its way to London, a place it has not been before. I bought it for a trip to Central America, years after my last visit to London.

In digging things out for him, I have had reason to run across bits and pieces from various times in my life. I found a 100 Franc note from France. Not sure how I missed it because on my first trip to Paris after the Euro conversion I went to the Bank of France near the Bastille and turned all my francs into euros - well, I thought I had anyway. I guess I'll just keep that note as a souvenir - not that I needed a $20 piece of paper souvenir, which is about what it would have been worth when I bought it, but I have it anyway. It's now worth about $15 but I'm not sure it's worth another trip to the bank during a trip to convert it and I'm not sure you can convert them any more unless it's a certain amount. Oh well... guess that's something to figure out.

I also ran across some Cordobas from Nicaragua - they're worth less now than when I bought them. I think that's when you know your economy sucks - when the dollar has lost ground against the Cordoba. I also have some Honduran limps and it's the same story for them - they're worth less now.

This has made me think about travel - as if I'm not always thinking about it anyway. Since I changed careers a few years ago I've done a lot more traveling within the states as part of the job. It's pleasant to be able to do that, but you start to get the feeling that you've been traveling when you've really just been away from home. They're not the same thing. And I'm guessing this is part of the reason I've felt so out of sorts at times in the last few years. I need a lot of newness in my life and travel gives you a big dose of it at one time.

Of course, the fact that the dollar continues to decline against other currencies means that travel is more expensive. The dollar was roughly equal to the Euro for quite some time. Now you spend about $1.26 for each Euro. So, you're paying 26% more for everything you buy.

So, you have to scope out somewhere that you can afford to go... always a challenge when the economy tanks.

Beautiful Day

When I first looked at weather bug this morning it said it was 29, so I guess it finally really froze, no question about it. However, as the day wore on it got to be a beautiful day. By late afternoon it was wonderful - still cool, but nice enough with just a light jacket.

I had a lunchtime meeting, but went to eat with Julie after that. We went to the Airport Steakhouse. It has been redone and is much nicer than I remember it. Our food was good and it was cool to watch the small planes landing and taking off. I had no idea the Hutchinson airport was this busy, but there were lots of people coming through - most carrying either briefcases or golf clubs or both.

After lunch Julie and I went to Dillon Nature Center for a walk. It was just gorgeous out. Things are starting to look like fall around here.

Leadership to Collins

Today was Leadership Class and it was city and county day. So, we had visitors from the governing bodies.

Afterwards, we went on tours to three different businesses. My tour was to Collins Industries, where they build school busses. Bryce, the gentleman giving us the tour, gave me permission to take some photos. I've never been to a manufacturing plant, so it was interesting.

One of the most interesting things he said was that the side panels on busses are actually glued on. The rivets don't really hold them in place. It's a glue made my Loctite, and they use about six tubes for each small bus. The tubes are about the size of caulk.




There were nine people in our tour group, including Wanda on her crutches. She was quite the trooper and there was a lot of walking inside a large plant.




They make different kinds of busses - from small ones to large ones. The white ones are generally used by child care facilities. They customize them to order - nothing is built in advance. They make 23 different kinds of busses, but there are 1300 different kinds of customization they can do.




They have a sophisticated system to keep track of how much effort goes into each part of the process. Just an aside, the yellow paint is more expensive to do than the white, but they don't charge extra. You just can't charge extra for yellow paint on a school bus. It wouldn't be right.

Home

I have returned home after a brief visit to Kentucky to see the new baby in the family. It was great to see everyone, but I'm a bit weary tonight. In the past five days I've driven more than 1300 miles getting there and back. I like to drive, but that's a lot of driving.

As always, I had a lot of time to think while driving. It's a great activity for me to put my brain in neutral and let my creative thought go.

I'm planning to be home now for awhile. I have a lot of year end MHA things to do, and things to finish before the holidays, so I need to focus attention here for a bit.

Of course... should the opportunity arise...

Mia's Entourage

This is my great, great niece Mia Isabella. She arrived on June 12 in Chicago, but this is the first time I've gotten to see her. She is quite the little show stopper and travels with an extensive entourage of adults ready to do her bidding at any moment.

Her assortment of adults includes her devoted parents, Nicolette and Andy. Some people are just natural mothers, and Nic is one of them. Mia is a lucky little girl in that regard.

Also attending to Mia this weekend were great grandma and grandpa, Mary Ann and Jackie, who are celebrating their 49th wedding anniversary today.




Their daughters in law, Cathy and Kim, suprised them last night with a cake to celebrate the occasion. We were all gathered to see Mia, of course. Hard to believe one tiny baby can be this much amusement for this many adults, but it's true.




Today, Kim was back to her appropriate duties being one of Mia's entourage.




Frankly, none of us can leave the poor child alone for more than the briefest of moments. We are all trying not only to do whatever she wants, but anticipate what that might be. And how could you not? Is she not adorable!?!?!?

One of my favorite things in Portland was the Chinese Garden. It was a bit of a fluke that we ended up there, but I was so glad we did. It was on my "maybe" list of places to go. But, we ate lunch at an oyster bar downtown (I did NOT have oysters - eeewwwyuck), and I realized the Chinese garden was only a few blocks walk away.

Well, it was so beautiful we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon there. If I lived in Portland I would need a membership to the garden because I would spend a lot of time there.




It was a beautiful place to be. Very peaceful and the most wonderful vistas. It's on a city block, but seems much larger. I guess that's a standard with gardens of this type.

One of my favorite parts were the various walkways, which featured rocks in different designs. It was gorgeous. I will be writing more about it, but wanted to share just a little bit.

I promised photos of the Seattle trip. I'm only now starting to really look at them, but thought I'd pop up something fun from the trip.

This was taken when we were on the ferry ride over to Victoria, Canada. It's a beautiful part of the world. It was impossible to select just one thing that was representative of the whole experience, so I just picked something at random.




If we had had more time, I would have liked to spend more time there, but we just didn't have long enough in the area. Isn't that always the way vacation goes? Never enough time.

Another Full Day

I had leadership class today and it was good, but I couldn't do the tour that was scheduled for the afternoon. I had a little project I had to get out the door before 5, and the tour was out of town and I just didn't have the time to do that. But, it worked out OK.

I had planned to be on the road tonight, but I was so exhausted I just decided I couldn't do it. I have been literally going from one event to the next with no break for days.

But, tonight I called Julie to see if she wanted to go to dinner. She was free so we went out and had a nice chat. It had been awhile since we'd had time to talk and it was good.

I'm blessed to have wonderful friends I really value.

Art of Gracious Living #41 - Being a Host

When one is a host, some things are required - namely that you are responsible for your party.

Please do not dispense assignments to your family and friends as if they are your hired staff. Instead, throw the party you can manage in time, money and energy.

Your guests are coming to be with you and enjoy the evening, not just to eat and drink. A gracious host offers themselves through their gathering.

Hear more about it by listening to the Art of Gracious Living Podcast. You can either click this link and it will automatically download for you, or listen with the flash player below.



Click here for the Art of Gracious Living page at the Podcaster News Network and you can see a list of all the Art of Gracious Living shows, and also check out other shows on the network.

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Click here for the Art of Gracious Living webpage

Books I Made This Weekend

I promised I'd post pix of the books I made at Susan's farm this weekend. Here they are. The one with the Monticello material on it is not full yet, but the others are bulging. I like the look of them when they're like that.

Art of Gracious Living #40 - Saying I Love You

We humans are blessed with the ability to express our affection for each other with words.

Use the power of language to tell someone important to you how you feel about them. We should never waste the opportunity to say, "I Love You." Most of us do not hear it enough, nor do we say it enough.

Hear more about it by listening to the Art of Gracious Living Podcast #40.



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Slim Goodbody at Dillon Lecture Series

Slim Goodbody at Dillon Lecture Series

This morning Slim Goodbody was at the Dillon Lecture Series. I didn't know who he was, but the hundreds of school kids in attendance certainly did. I guess he's been doing this for 30 plus years and was a fixture on Captain Kangaroo.

I always go to the lectures if possible, even if I don't know anything about the person, because I figure it will be interesting. And this was, although it was certainly not my favorite by a long shot. It was all geared toward kids, but it was neat to see them so interested.

They bussed in kids from all over and invited them to come sit on the floor so it was kind of cool - I was surrounded by kids and they were really enthusiastic about him.

At one point he had kids come up on stage who could do something unusual with their muscles and have them demonstrate. We saw kids walk on their hands and a chest roll and other fun stuff.

He did share some neat facts that I made note of:
Only two creatures live longer than humans - tortise (200 years) and a tree that is 4,900 years old. That means it was growing when the pyramids were built.
Two creatures have bigger brains than humans - elephant is 13 pounds and whale is 17 pounds while humans are 3 pounds. But compared to body weight ours is largest.
Heart is the hardest working muscle in the body - the diaphragm is the second hardest working muscle.
Every mammal has 7 bones in their necks - humans, mice and giraffes all have 7.

One of the most interesting bits he did was have five kids come up and he gave them each a word - I Will Never Smoke Ever. He then tapped them on the head at various times and used those words in a variety of ways to get across that message. I thought that was really effective.

I had to leave the luncheon early to get to the marketing training that was being put on by the Hutchinson Community Foundation. It was really, really, really good. I was glad I went.

Tonight was Altrusa, so I've had a really full day. Leadership starts at 8 a.m. tomorrow so I need to try and get some rest. I haven't had a break all day.

________________
Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.

Errands, Exhibits and Experiments

It was a busy day again. I will be tied up most of the day tomorrow and all day Wednesday so I'm trying to get a lot done before then. I spent the day running around, but I did get to see Trish for lunch. It was just a spur of the moment thing to call and it worked out. We ran into Teresa at the restaurant but she was busy thinking through a project and didn't join us, although we did chat briefly.

Tonight was the Arts and Humanities board meeting. It was also the opening of an art exhibit we're doing at Stringer Fine Arts. It's a neat exhibit called, "How the Ink Feels."

It's a travelling exhibit of letterpress broadsides by distinguished artists and writers. The exhibit features sixty-four matted and framed letterpress broadsides, which illuminate prose and poetry selections by well-known writers. Most pieces were printed using manually operated letterpresses a technique which has changed very little since the Middle Ages. The pieces are collaborations among the printer, the writer, and the artists, printmaker, woodcut illustrator, calligrapher or paper maker.




Some of the artists and writers whose work is included in the exhibit include Max Heim, James Agee, Maurice Lapp, Wendell Berry, Hui-Ming Wang, Rita Dove, Patrica Waters, Naomi Shihab Nye, and William Stafford.

I didn't get to stay for the official opening reception because I needed to spend time working on some MHA and personal projects tonight.

Tomorrow I'll be tied up all day with a Dillon Lecture Series and then an HCF marketing meeting. And Wednesday will be leadership all day, so my time to devote to projects is minimal this week.

Tonight on the way home I stopped by a restaurant Mike at Roy's recommended to me. It's on east fourth and is an unassuming place. However, he told me the food was really good, and he was right. My favorite part was the homemade pineapple turnover I had. Man, that was good.

I like to try the local places and this one had escaped my attention.

A Creative Weekend

I spent the weekend at Susan's farm in Valley Falls. She invited a number of us up for a creative get together. Jocelyn, Debbie, Diana and I went from Hutchinson. We were greeted by a gorgeous moon on the way.

We stopped in Brookville for some chicken. It's great stuff - we ate the coleslaw until we thought we would pop. It's made with cream - real cream - and it's delicious.




It was the first time Jocelyn had had Brookville. I was telling her the creamed corn was really good. A more accurate description would be that it is corn, in cream.

We got the weekend off to a good start with lots of laughter while we were having dinner.










We arrived at Susan's about 10 p.m. Being the gracious host she is, she had little baskets of goodies for each of us, the house spotless, and snacks ready. I had something I've never heard of - candy corn mixed with peanuts. Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound that appetizing. Let me tell you, we couldn't stop eating it. Even those of us who don't especially like either of those ingredients.




Saturday was a gorgeous day - a perfect day. I worked on the books I mentioned in my last post while the others went to Lawrence for a little while. When they returned Jocelyn worked on cards a bit and Debbie painted for awhile.







Susan and her friend, Elaine, took Debbie and Diana on a little jaunt over to the pond for a walk. Lets just sum it up by saying that everyone arrived back safely.




Saturday night we were favored with a beautiful sunset.




Susan fixed a wonderful dinner and then we had smores by the fire.




We were also greeted with a completely full moon and it was stunning. It was a struggle to decide whether to look at the moon or the fire.




Jocelyn, Kathleen, Diana and I were sitting near the fire long after we were done with smores.

We were gathered near it and there was a huge explosion. We thought a log had exploded. We all ran back, with bits of embers falling all over the place, popping back about 10 feet behind where Jocelyn and I were sitting.

Amazingly enough, none of us got even a tiny burn, including Jocelyn who lost one of her sandals when she was running back. Turns out the concrete had busted beneath the fire. We don't know what caused it but it was scary.

This morning we could see exactly what had happened. It was as if it had scraped off a bit of the top layer of concrete where we had built the fire.

Today there was plenty of time for relaxing and chatting...




... and lounging.




I asked everyone to pose for a group photo. That's Kathleen, Susan and Elaine in front; me, Jocelyn, Diana and Debbie in the back.




It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so thankful to Susan for the invitation. I love being at the farm and she is such a gracious host. I'm honored to call her a friend.

Bits and Pieces of Life

Today I have been creating a couple of books that include what I call the "Bits and Pieces of Life." I take the little things I save from one thing or another and glue or tape them into books so I can contain them, and yet still have them to enjoy.

I've been going through a box of stuff today that used to be part of my bulliten board at the radio station, as well as tons of other things. It has been enlightening.

One thing I've learned is that I did some really good work for them. Really, really, good work. Some of the pieces I designed are really clever and nicely done. Considering the constraints we had of using one color printing, they are some high-impact pieces.

The other thing I've learned is that my life is so different now than it was less than ten years ago that I truly don't even remember some of these things. There's a program from a Dillon Lecture Series featuring Susan Stamberg on October 13, 1997 - 9 years ago next week. I saw Susan Stamberg? Yes, I did. It finally dredged up from my memory, but it took awhile. I guess that's why I need the bits and pieces of life. Yet, while I may not remember the specifics of that event, I know it adds to the tapestry of my life and who I am today. All experiences do.

There's a postcard from Anne Rice. I remember now - getting to interview her when she stopped through Hutchinson on a book tour. That was lost in my memory until the pen and ink drawing of her home showed up in this box.

There are lots of fortunes from various visits to Chinese restaurants. "The star of riches is shining on you." "Your present plans are going to succeed." I think I've had that one more than once - maybe it has come true everytime, I'm not sure. "Your love life will be happy and harmonious." Well, it certainly has been at various times. "Your happiness is intertwined with your outlook on life." That one is absolutely true at anytime. Maybe that's a "gimme" in the fortune business.

Quotes are prolific - gathered from printed pieces that crossed my desk at various times. I now work in a much less creative business, so that sort of thing doesn't appear in my mailbox much. But, I decided to go ahead and commit these to the notebook today, instead of making a new bulliten board, because they are from another time in my life - even though they are still true and things I believe.

"I can never be what I ought to be untilyou are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way the world is made." MLK

"I shall pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do, let me do it now... for I shall not pass this way again." Etienne De Grellet

And there's the assortment of political things - it was in the Clinton-Gore era. And Habitat pieces because I was an ardent supporter of it then.

I occasionally run across, and add in, an old credit card bill. There's a 1998 May bill from First Card where I ordered something from the Barlow, Kentucky florist on May 8. I'm certain it was a corsage for my mom on Mother's Day - white roses if your mother is dead, red roses if she's living.

There is a certificate from the library for my volunteer work and some bits from a Valentine's Day bouquet Greg sent sometime in the early 90s. Old phone bills show where my loyalities were at that time, although I have no idea who I was calling repeatedly in Santa Ana, California in September of 1997. That bit of my life has faded into history.

Ironically there's also a letter from Leadership, where I was nominated in 1997 to be part of the class. I assumed my bosses would not let me go, so I didn't pursue it then. It wasn't the first time I was asked to apply, but now nearly a decade later I'm in the leadership class. And it's the way it was meant to be. The class is much different now and this style is much more suited to my learning abilities. Things work out the way they're supposed to.

Our lives change and we change along with them. Some things fade in our memory, but all are with us in some fashion. It's positive for me to bring those things to consciousness every now and again by jogging my memory with the tangible bits of life.