What next?

This is a difficult post for me. It concerns a case recently argued before the United States Supreme Court. In the case, the plaintiff argues that a cross erected at Sunrise Rock, on government land 75 years ago by a group of WWI veterans to commemorate the many dead who lie buried in foreign graves. The cross has been replaced several times to maintain it. A former park employee challenged the right of the cross to be on government land. A lower court found for the employee but the cross was not taken down. Instead, it was covered by a large box.

While the Supreme Court overruled the decision of the lower court, I am disturbed by the implications of the entire matter. This lonely memorial is seen by few people. It was erected in good faith by a group who had seen the horrors of war and wanted to memorialize their dead comrades. The fact that a man did not want that cross, which he saw as strictly a Christian symbol on government land is disturbing. That a court in California agreed with him is more so.

I believe that this case reaching the Supreme Court is the result of interpretation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. That states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free expression thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,or the press, or the right of people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

I do not see where the erection of a memorial conflicts with that amendment. There have been other cases, notably the plaque of the ten commandments in a state house, which have been decided differently. While the constitution insists on the separation of church and state, I can not find anywhere that it forbids the use of a religious symbol on government land, or even in government buildings.

While I am not a Christian, crosses to me, symbolize sacrifice and honor, not the religion. It disturbs me that such a case can make it to the Supreme Court. What will the "politically correct" demand next? Covering the crosses and stars in National Cemeteries perhaps? It just seems wrong.

If you want to look at this, the case is Salazar v. Buono, 08-472.

Weather changes things

left to right
salvia and iris
hardy orchid blossom

goldfish in a row

azaleas blooming above the pond

For the past few months, I've had the "blahs". I really didn't want to get out of bed and put off doing everything until the last minute, or later. But a few days of sunshine and nice temperatures, backed by a good evening rain storm seems to have turned the corner for me.

As you can see, I've been the garden a bit. After the rain, the weeds were easier to pull and we still had two years of weeding to do. When we went to Ireland last year, we missed all the decent gardening weather for the summer. We got a little done in fall, but there were too many other things on my plate and Fran's knees were bothering her. That meant a summer's worth of weeds were allowed full play everywhere.

It took me two days just to clear the paths of leaves. Yesterday and today, I hit the weeds in both the gardens and on the paths. I just about have the paths done. The gardens take a little longer. It helps that I am in weeding mode now. That means I walk around admiring, taking pictures and picking off weeds that come to hand. That can be a little embarrassing when I do it in friend's gardens.

I also weeded my in box. Now there is a manageable amount of "to do's" and I am working through them.

A very good friend asked me to write. I am literally years behind on my correspondence. Writing has been very dry for me, but I hope that this mood swing will get me back on track. I have a short story to finish and another to rewrite. (A terrific editor gave me her time and went through three of my stories. They are filled with suggestions to make them better and more marketable.)

I may even find the energy to post here more often.

another recipe

I promised Bobbie Smith that I'd look up my Oma's recipe for this one. I found two, both featuring almond paste. The first is what Oma called apricot kugel.

Ingredients

½ Lb. (225g) margarine

1 cup sugar

4 egg yolks (reserve one white)

3 cups general purpose flour

1 lemon

apricot preserves

Directions

Juice lemon and grate rind. Using a dough or low speed mixer, blend other ingredients.

Grease a cookie tin, then sprinkle with flour. Use half the dough. "Spread the dough over the bottom like you were making brownies."¹

Cover with a layer of apricot preserves.

1Oma's exact words.

The next is for almond dough "cigars".

Ingredients

1 can (8 oz. 227g) almond paste

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg white

½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Blend at low speed until uniform.

Roll the almond dough into long, thin "cigars", about 1 cm (½ inch) wide. Keep your hands wet while rolling to prevent the dough from sticking to you. (It's not a bad idea to take off any rings while working dough. If you do not, you may end up with a surprize gift in your pastry or bread.)

Place cigars on apricot preserve layer. Flatten with a moistened fork.

Bake at 325°F (163°C) on lowest rack for 15 minutes. Add second layer of cake, preserves and "cigars". Bake again.

Allow to cool. Cut into square cookies

(Keks).

These are both quite good. The combination of apricot and almond is sweet, but not overly so. Enjoy.

another belly ache

It's been a lovely Spring day. The flowers are blooming. The birds are singing. I spent most of it sleeping and waiting for a doctor to see me. Blah!

This has not been the best month of my life. I haven't gotten any work done and have missed writing to and responding to friends. I discovered that I had no stamina (not even as much as in February). I've had trouble sleeping and been tired all the time as a result. Today, I located the possible cause. My stomach. Last night, I was unable to lie down for more than half an hour before the belly began to complain. Walking made it a little better, so I spent about four hours pacing in the dark, hoping the pain would go away.

It seems like my guts have been playing an all too important role in my life for the past couple of years. Even so, I have to have this checked out. At least the docs gave me good drugs.

This is not an old man's medical complaint blog. But this time, it's made so much of an impression that I had to share.

Those of you with whom I correspond now have my excuse. This is going to get better, probably very soon. Mean time, please be patient.

Paschal melody

It's Spring!!! Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, my wife and I are out in the garden pulling weeds and fertilizing flowers.

It was a long and somewhat dreary winter. We are rejoicing in the beauty that comes with the season, yet always surprises me.

Just scroll down from this dandelion which was growing between the cracks in one of our walks. As an aside, the dandelion was chosen by my granddaughter's graduating class as their flower of choice. It blooms under the worst of conditions, has several pretty phases and persists.

Vinca minor growing in the tiny wood beside our house.

The two surviving tulips of the dozen we planted last Spring. Tulips in Little Rock are mostly annuals. Our Summer comes on too fast for them to grow their bulbs back before the heat wilts them.

These are hellebore (Lenten rose). For a change, they are actually blooming during Lent.

Usually, these beauties bloom earlier. Our seasons are somewhat ahead of the European ones that gave them their name.

These are the daffodils that a neighbor brought from her home in Italy. Not only do they look different from the native daffodils in Arkansas, but their perfume is quite different.

Muscari or grape hyacinth. After they bloom, the flowers fade and they form a grass-like cover under our Japanese maple.

We had a serious erosion problem due to the slope of this hill. We built terraced beds and filled them with plants we like to slow the drainage. The tall yellow are Forsythia. The smaller yellow are daffodils. The pink that you can barely see between the Forsythia bushes are Texas flowering quince.

This is our camelia. We stuck daffodil bulbs in front of it. The two scents combine into a wonderful perfume while we weed in that spot.

Last picture. These bleeding heart flowers are in a bed of Japanese anemone. The anemone are fall bloomers.

As you can see, I have some leaf removal ahead of me and I'll harvest the dead anemone stems for mulch.

Thank you for touring our little gardens.

Welsh pasties

Despite the name, we found our first sample of this marvelous "pocket sandwich" in Reading, England. It is sold in the railway station there, to be exact. But there is a restaurant in town that serves nothing but pasties of every imaginable flavor and combination of ingredients. Whoever said that the English don't know how to cook was wrong.

I recently received a couple of requests for my recipe. I tried to post it on Facebook (where the requests were made) but I guess it exceeded their size limit so it never appeared. That recipe is below. You can use ground meat or meat that is diced into pieces about a half inch (1 cm) or less in size.

WELSH PASTIES

Ingredients:

crust --

1 1/2 cups flour

4 Tbs shortening or lard (not butter)

1/2 tsp salt

a little cold water

filling--

1 Lb ground beef

1/2 Lb ground pork

1 Lb ground lamb or mutton (even venison can be used)

2 cups diced potatoes

1 cup diced carrots

1 small turnip

1 medium onion

1 Tbs flour

salt and pepper

optional --

1 egg

1 Tbs water

Directions:

Begin with the crust. Cut the shortening into the mixed flour and salt. I usually mix them be sifting them together. Mix in cold water a tablespoon full at a time until the dough is barely workable. Drier is better than wet.

Roll the dough out to about a quarter inch (5 mm) thick on a floured surface. Don't forget to dust the roller with flour to keep the dough from sticking. Cut the dough into circles about six inches (15 mm) in diameter. When you have cut out as many circles as you can, roll the leftover dough again and repeat until there isn't enough dough left to make another circle.

Now the filling; peel and dice the onion and turnip (potato and carrot too if you haven't already). In a large bowl, mix together with meat, flour, salt and pepper. I use the "meatloaf" method for mixing. That is, I dump the ingredients into the bowl and mix them with my hands, squeezing until I'm either tired or convinced that everything is pretty well blended.

To put the pastie together, spoon a couple of tablespoons of filling into the center of each dough circle. Moisten the perimeter of the circle with water and fold the circle in half. Use your fingers to crimp the edge of the now half circle together.

Place the raw pasties on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Here's the optional; mix the egg and water together. Brush the top of each pastie with the mixture. This will make the finished product a little browner and give a shinier appearance to the crust.

Bake pasties at 450 degrees Fahrenheit (230 C) for fifteen minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 350 F (175 C) and continue baking for 45 minutes, until the pasties are a golden brown. Remove from oven and cool before eating.

Seriously! Even though they smell wonderful, oven temperature will burn your mouth if you try to eat them right away. Be strong. Resist temptation. Remember, "Hunger is the best pickle." Benjamin Franklin