Dog Heaven

Watching dogs playing is like meditation for me . . .

Dogs are so intensely in the moment . . .

And they  can dart up and down the slopes like nobody's business -- last time I tried something like that was sixty-some years ago at Camp Junaluska and I twisted my ankle rather badly.

Bob can't help but look graceful . . .

Layla is a little envious . . .

And she wonders just what it is he's found . . .

Okay, that does it. She's going to have to see about this.

And off she goes.

 "What's all this then?"

Bob's not talking.

Just another day in Dog Heaven.

Along the Road

An Edible Blast from the Past --

Part of my ongoing attempt at de-clutterization has been sifting through stacks of recipes -- some printouts, some torn from magazines, and some hand-written by friends or family. 

Here's one I copied about forty-five years ago. 

 It was on our great motorcycle camping trip and we were in a small camp in a beautiful apple orchard somewhere in Devonshire. In the farmhouse kitchen, where we paid our camping fee and purchased some supplies, a fragrant dark loaf was cooling on the table. 

"Is that for sale?" I asked the farmwife.

"No, dear, it's for our tea."

She told me she called it caravan cake as she'd gotten the recipe from a camper in a caravan and she was kind enough to give me the recipe. 

I know I made it several times after we returned home but at some point the recipe went astray. So I was delighted to see it again -- and put mixed dried fruit and self-rising flour on my grocery list.

Yesterday was bleak and rainy -- the perfect day to do a little baking.

CARAVAN CAKE

1 lb. mixed dried fruit (cut up now or later)

1/2 lb. butter

1/2 lb. brown sugar

1 cup cold water

Put into a pan. Bring to a boil and cook for twenty minutes. Cool. (The fruit was still in rather large pieces so I took the kitchen scissors to it.)

Now add  12 0z. (which I estimated to be a cup and a half, not having kitchen scales) self rising flour and three beaten eggs. 

Put into large greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for an hour and fifteen minutes.

Enjoy.

Kwik Kwiz, Kids!

Which of the following demonized entire groups of people by race and/or religion?

1. King Herod the Great:

     "Then Herod ...was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under.."

2. Horace Greeley, editor of The New York Tribune, opposing Chinese immigration:

"The Chinese are uncivilized, unclean, and filthy beyond all conception without any of the higher domestic or social relations; lustful and sensual in their dispositions; every female is a prostitute of the basest order."

                            

3. Adolf Hitler:

"Hence today I believe that I am fighting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: 'by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.'"

4. Col. John Milton Chivington (Sand Creek Massacre):

"Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! I have come to kill Indians and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians...Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice."

5. Most Republican governors and presidential candidates:

"NO SYRIAN REFUGEES HERE!"

• 

And the answer is . . . you're RIGHT! ALL OF THE ABOVE!

EXTRA CREDIT! How will history judge number five?

Orchid Update

A new orchid on the table!

After blooming bravely all summer and into the fall, the old orchids' last flower dropped, leaving a stark arrangement of stems ...

There are buds, to be sure, some swelling and getting close...

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But most are very small. So it's nice to have this lovely thing catching the morning light and smiling at us while we eat.

All Photos Considered

A Dark Day. . .

The horrific terror attacks in Paris brought forth the predictable calls for prayers and solidarity -- and, from a certain segment of the American public -- the predictable saber-rattling and cries to defend France by invading ... someone, anyone.

Ironically, this is much the same segment that, when France declined to participate in Bush II's invasion of Iraq after 9/11, called for a ban on French wines and a renaming of French  Fries as "Freedom Fries." (I wonder if there was a spate of Freedom Kissing? But I digress.)

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There were also the predictable calls to ban all Muslims from entry into the USA -- including the Syrian refugees who are fleeing the same terrorists who claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris.

And the gun lobby was quick to claim that if only France didn't have such strict gun control, the victims could have fought back.

Many on the right blame Islam in general and Obama (of course) in specific, while many on the left blame years of imperialism, colonialism, and a state of things so desperate in the Mid East that becoming a suicide bomber is a desirable career move.

And, as was pointed out, there was a terror attack in Beirut just a few days ago and another in Baghdad -- and more in Kenya . . . but these haven't received similar outpourings of rage and sympathy. 

No answers here . . . just profound sadness at the mess our world is in. And a hope that this doesn't send our nation back to war against someone, anyone -- at the loss of American lives and innocent civilian lives.

And to the profit of the war machine -- the successors to Mr. Cheney's Halliburton and its subsidiaries.

Follow the money. And follow THIS LINK for a historical look at the basis of the turmoil in the Middle East

The Rosy Fingers of the Dawn . . .. . .