Good Day from Hermit Haven!

Not much to report, but I did finish a bunch of things, creatively speaking.

There was a mandala on hold since last fall due to the fact that the brain dead majority has spoken and the lights started being manufactured with reflectors. Awful for my craft since they are absolute HELL to get through the backs of my pieces. Anyhow, so that mandala took most of the winter, laying in the queue, waiting for an actual set of  fairy lights without reflectors. The best I could do, in the whole wide world, was find some with oval reflectors, which are much easier to deal with, but still not really ideal. This friggin' world, hey?  In any case, I finally got it strung, and it was for an aging 80 year old who sounds like she's failing, so good thing I got it done, as her birthday was earlier this month! Man, this friggin' world, huh? 

Well, I digress. What I wanted to talk about was my Grandmother Rose. I spoke with her a week or so ago, whilst drumming, and our lingering relationship was somewhat resolved. Talking with the Ancestors is quite a trip, lawdy. 

In any case, this mandala fought me every step of the way, so it's in time out, for  the moment. I ended up stringing this one like a drum, it was so badly behaved. But, it's done, now, and waiting for lights to lose their memory. I unstring lights when I get them and restring them around trays, to encourage them to be a bit more user friendly. (Second Photo).

I see it through my window and it brings me such comfort and a great deal of nostalgia that I never got to really know my grandmother Rose. I was the youngest of six, but I was also the luckiest because I went home with her for my first six weeks. OOPH! She had to have been in her 50's, and to take that on? That's sort of remarkable, isn't it? I explained to her how much gratitude I had for her in doing that, and we came to some mutual understandings. 

Here's to you, Rose! They got a good one in Heaven! 

Well, hello from Hermit Haven. 

I realized that since I have so much Amasake (and that, that, now, too, has become a problem for my mostly challenged brain), I decided to do some experimenting. 

Well, for many years now, I have had Korean Pine Nut Trees in Vermont, because you know, I just love the pine nut and it's unaffordable, cause yea, they are mostly imported, now. It's such a shame, because they do grow here, but we don't seem to have the technology to process them anymore, so we have to pay the going price of 30+  bucks a pound.  The ones I have in Vt are in half whiskey barrels, buried in the ground and I have no idea how I am going to get them out of there, but it is what it is, hey?

In any case I digress: What were we speaking of? Oh, right, the Korean Stone Pine. There are at least 4 other cultivars I know of, but this is the only one I actually got to grow in Vermont. They take about 10 years to have fruit, so since the ones in Vermont are almost that, it's time to get them moved. I still need to find a hand nut processor, which is not cheap, but is necessary as the fruit (nut) has a hard brittle shell, that is anything but pleasant to bite into. Who knew? 

So, without further ado: Meet the Stone Pine!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_pine

What an extraordinary little tree, hey?

Here is a recipe for vegan, sugar free, pine nut cookies. 

1 egg.

1 cup pine nuts. 

2 cups chestnut flour

1/2 cup amasake

1/2 cup almond milk

lemon or lime extract

Baking soda (1/2 teas) & Baking Powder (1 tbsp). 

Whir it all up.

Bake at 325 for 45 minutes. 

You can sprinkle lemon flakes, coconut flakes, toasted nuts, everything? on top b4 baking.