Monthly Archives: March 2022

Spring Eggs on Edge

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I have a sweet little story for you this week.

The other day, I walked by the side of our home, and I heard a noise and saw a flurry of activity out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to the area the activity came from and realized a bird had flown out of a window on our second floor. Naturally, I was curious.

In the photo below, can you see how the screen on the small window is slightly open away from the house?

Here’s a closer look. Can you see what I saw in the right corner? The makings of a birds’ nest! What?!! That surprised me.

Naturally, I headed right inside and up the stairs to investigate. Were birds moving in with us?

We have two bedrooms on the chimney side of the house that share a closet, a “Jack and Jill” closet, connecting both rooms. This little window is in the closet. Our home is over 100 years old, so that explains the charm of a window in a closet. Anyway, back to the nest investigation.

The window was closed, so no birds were moving around the rooms. That’s actually a relief.

So what is happening?

The little window is perched up higher than I could peer through. I held up my phone and grabbed a photo from above looking out to what was outside on the window sill.

How delightful! I was thrilled to find four tiny blue eggs resting in the nest on the windowsill. Aren’t the tiny eggs pretty?

At the same time, I was impressed once again with the skills of birds. Building a nest with a beak and no hands is amazing engineering, to begin with, but balancing it in a tiny space on a small, second-story ledge almost made me dizzy!

So I just had to share with you. Such sweetness! We’re expecting! Expecting the eggs to hatch and baby birds to make noise, eat, and thrive, safely above cats and squirrel attacks. And then fly away. I’ll keep you posted.

The bird’s eye view out the closet window toward the hills and houses to the north.

Does anyone know the gestation period for these eggs? Any guesses? My job will be to make sure I do not disturb the mom as she cares for them in the next days to weeks. I’ll have to be very cautious and quiet when I sneak peeks. Maybe I’ll just wait patiently until I hear little chirps. Maybe.

Stay hopeful, my friends!

Breakfast at Farm, Palm Springs

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We recently stopped overnight in Palm Springs for a quick visit with good friends who were in town briefly. I looked for breakfast recommendations online both on Yelp and at TripAdvisor. That’s how I discovered this charming place called Farm. It got such high praise and great reviews.

I want to share it with you, in case you are ever in Palm Springs, California. Perhaps you’ve already been there. If so, let us know what your impressions were.

I loved the architecture, furnishings, and garden of color. The menu had good selections. Getting coffee served at our table in a French press was interactive and added some interest. Our food was so good. The atmosphere was inviting and relaxed.

To check out the menu, click here.

The entrance is set in between storefronts.
I love all the color and details in the decorative and practical elements.
French press coffee at the table and a tiny pitcher of half and half in my mug
I ordered the Bacon & Cheese Brioche French Toast, something I normally wouldn’t make at home. It included gooey Swiss cheese, crispy bacon, and a side of strawberry coulis. Yes. It was. Delicious.
Thanks for checking.
A close-up of my French toast so you can see the layers.

Getting out of town, seeing fun friends, and finding a breakfast spot that was a treat was such a privilege, especially after two years of limited life due to pandemic guidelines in our area and my choice to follow those. I am grateful.

Where have you gone for a special breakfast? Would you recommend that place? I would recommend Farm, even though I have to work so hard to not put the word “the” in front of its name!

As the world opens up and we can experience new things again, don’t we all look forward to discovering new places to enjoy?

Stay curious, my friends!

Acknowledgments:

Even though I was able to enjoy a pleasant breakfast, I want to express my heartache for so many suffering. I live in that tension with each of you. Continue to pray for the people impacted by the senseless war in Ukraine and give to trustworthy organizations that are helping when you can.

With gas prices ridiculously high, and food prices soaring, I also want to acknowledge travel and eating out will be more the exception than the rule. We will get through this. Challenging circumstances create a greater sense of appreciation.

My Stewed Prunes Story

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I recently found this little beauty of a recipe card, historically a popular low-tech way of communicating how to make something to eat. In this case, it is my prized Stewed Prunes recipe. Even writing this makes me smile.

For a few reasons, it amuses me. Of course, I will share those reasons with you. We all need something light-hearted and of little consequence in today’s heavy times. Clearly, I’m either looking for pleasant distractions or I have too much time on my hands.

Side 1
  • This recipe card originated in my junior high home economics class, a required class at the time. Vintage 1967-68. I have saved it for sentimental reasons and it keeps me connected emotionally to a simpler time.
  • Admire with me, if you will, the level of highbrow culinary skills reflected there.
  • The seventh or eighth grade hand printing is rooted to my current printing, and is evidence of my quiet rebellion against cursive writing, the expected form of handwriting of those days, prior to keyboarding and digital recipes. Handwritten recipes are personally connected to the person who wrote it, and that is something sweet when we see the writing of loved ones.
  • The power of the recipe card is in the endurance, lasting decades. We know technology and digital recipes are easy to store, move, and find. Until they aren’t. A handheld card, however, lasts and maintains its accessiblity no matter what problems you have with WiFi or technology.
  • “Add sugar.” It is interesting to me to note how nutritional preferences have changed. I omit the sugar. My tastes have also changed. Culinary trends have changed.
  • I’ve made these prunes often. My dad loved them and I must carry on the family tradition. Plus, I’m at that age where prunes serve a helpful purpose. Enough said.

I’m curious as to why the stewed prunes recipe was the recipe that day for a co-ed class of junior high students. When we made it, I’m sure it smelled up the classroom and possibly the halls while simmering away. But why stewed prunes? Did we really eat them after making them? And was it a two-day project or did the teacher soak them in advance? So much of this sweetly mystifies me. Perhaps someone creatively selected this recipe for its cost-effectiveness as well as a short supply list. Just curious.

Home Economics class and learning to cook in junior high. Did you have a cooking class in school? We took it for granted, but we were given life skills. Cooking together with a table of four kids, boys and girls, also required some skills to develop. Once our recipes were complete, we’d sit back down at the table, which each group had to set first, and we’d eat together. Conversation, evaluating the food and how we did, gave us social interaction that built friendships. When did we decide these courses would no longer be part of basic education in our public schools? Priorities shift. Prunes stay the same.

On the back of the recipe card, for those of you prune fans in my reading audience, the directions continue:

  1. Add sugar and lemon juice to the fruit before removing it from the heat. 
  2. Stir until dissolved.

Prunes are beneficial to our health, too. For more on that topic:

7 Health Benefits of Plums and Prunes

I see how much value is represented in my simple yellowed Stewed Prunes recipe card, and that is why I’ve kept it all these years.

Stay charming, my friends.

“Woman’s Rights Are Human Rights”

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It’s Women’s History Month, the month to celebrate women and their accomplishments and contributions. According to the link below from the U.S. Census webpage, this celebration began all the way back in 1857. For that article, click on the link that follows. It will provide some interesting statistics for those who enjoy data.

Women’s History Month, U.S. Census

“As we celebrate Women’s History Month 2022, we reflect upon advances women have made over the last decade. Women have increased their earnings, education and fields of occupation, and continue to have longer average life spans than men.”

United States census bureau

Many of us can recall January 21, 2017. Women around the world, including over 600 cities in the United States came together for the first Women’s March. Sources estimate that over 500 million people participated worldwide. The biggest group gathered in Washington, D.C. The organizers wanted to communicate “that women’s rights are human rights.”

I rose early and went to a pre-march rally in Pasadena on that day. It was important to me to check it out and support the positive and aspiring aspects I recognized in this historic moment. It was inspiring to be there. Of course, it was not without controversy. I did not continue on to downtown Los Angeles for the official march.

The photograph below is by Leah L. Jones and was a Human Rights Campaign poster from the march in Washington, D.C. It is part of my 2022 calendar from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“Marchers at the Women’s March 2017”

As we learn the stories of those around us, we grow in appreciation of our gifting, resilience, intelligence, and love we women can share with our world. I’m happy when women are empowered to become all their creator designed them to be. Let’s celebrate! There is more work to do, but I am grateful for progress.

Celebrate the women in your life well, my friends!