We were up at Eunice's cabin on Batchawana Bay. She had quite suddenly developed rigors and a temperature and was sick enough so we called EMS. While waiting for them to come, standing out by the road, I heard and then saw a pileated woodpecker on the telephone pole on the north end of her property. It then flew right past me, very close, and a second pileated came out of the bush and both were wild and crazy for a few minutes. The strong eastern sun came across the bay and highlighted their brilliant red crests. They were in a some kind of bird frenzy, flying madly about, up and down and all about, in the nearby birch tree, on the ground, vocalizing all the while.
The evening before, I had sat on the porch and saw a chestnut sided warbler, waxwings, and a vireo all in this same area, and all within a couple of minutes of watching. One of these visits, I will go up there and devote a day to birding. Eunice and Bill saw a great grey owl last year; it flew across the road right in front of them!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Pear Pie with Walnut Crust
This was OK...it was like an apple pie, only with pears. I thought I would be able to taste more of the walnut crust since I used 2 cups, but that flavor got a bit lost. If I made it again, I would sweeten it a little more and put some crumble on the top to make it more appealing visually. This photo is before baking and it looked better then than after it came out of the oven. I ate a piece and stuck it in the freezer. I doubt a fresh fruit pie would keep very long in the hot and humid weather we've been having, and it wasn't successful enough to give to the neighbors.
Plum Island by Nelson DeMille
Plum Island is off the tip of the north fork of Long Island and is a federal Animal Disease Center...think all kinds of malevolent micro-organisms and scientists and biocontainment and possible terrorism. I read Up Country by this author several months ago and that book was much better. Still, the author is good at descriptions and observations of place and characters and of the security and secrecy of Plum Island. The main character is a NYC homicide detective who is recuperating from an attempt on his life. Of course he gets involved in a local murder. He is brash and clever, roguish and not lacking in testosterone. Lots of adventure..lots of dialogue. As a reviewer for the Boston Globe says: "DeMille's narrative energy is unflagging."
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz
Subtitled: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.
Jacqueline was educated and then worked in the world of high finance but soon began to realize how empty that world was for her. She worked for Chase Bank and would fly "around the world and review the quality of the bank's loans, especially in troubled economies." It was while she was working in Brazil that she knew she wanted to do something with her life that had more meaning after she was admonished by a hotel manager while helping (in a small way) a 6-year-old street kid in Rio. She began seriously thinking about the disparity between rich and very poor and how she might help.
She found another job and was sent to West Africa, something of an idealist, and she learned that helping the poor and making changes was much harder than she would have thought. Some of the local women resented her. She was now a minority in a foreign culture, no longer a privileged American, and she was in a country where her Western ideas and ways of thinking did not serve her. She then moved to Rwanda, made friends and began to understand how to stand back, observe, slowly assimilate and be accepted. She left that country before the mayhem and murder of a million people, but made several trips back to Rwanda over the years, trying to understand how her friends coped after the unspeakable horrors they lived through..the friends who survived. She slowly learned many lessons, not always quickly. But over the years, she became what she calls a "patient capitalist" and eventually founded The Acumen Fund which helps poor people finance businesses that benefit the larger communities in which they live. The Fund HELPS with financing; does not just give money. It researches, seeks out and then enables people who will be able to sustain businesses that help the very poor in their respective countries. The return on an investment in the Acumen Fund is sometimes just change in the quality of peoples' lives, especially in the early stages of the projects. Her philosophy is similar to the concepts of microfinance or microenterprise in which small amounts of money are lent to the very poor. This empowers women especially as they begin to understand how even a minuscule amount of money can help them out of poverty, can help them make a better life for their children and their communities. The Acumen Fund has worked mostly in Pakistan, Africa and India. This is not pure philanthropy; there is accountability attached to the monies that are dispersed.
Many western donors give and have given generously but have no idea about other cultures. They see desperate needs and think money is the way to fix that lack. And often it does. But, the issues are usually so much more complicated, because different cultures live in ways we Americans cannot imagine. For millions on this planet, luxury is to be able to live in a 500 square foot home, have a quality bed net for malaria prevention and have access to safe water. But bed nets wear out or tear and need replacement, or need to be dipped in insect-repellant solutions periodically; they have to be used consistently; the processes of providing safe water means understanding and maintaining the technology of water systems and the dispensing of the water, and this is also true for the implementation and delivery of water for crops and the maintenance of those delivery systems; health issues need to be explained in ways other cultures can comprehend, not in the ways we have learned them. Giving money is a short-term solution; providing access to money but with accountability and the expectation of payback with interest is a long-term solution. It has worked. There are 6 billion of us living on earth. People like Jacqueline, Bill and Melinda Gates, Muhammad Yunus and many, many others are changing the way the way those who have can most benefit those who have not.
This work and this book is inspiring and certainly can inform one's way of thinking about the global community and each individual who is a member, be he rich or poor.
The title has little to do with the content of this book but the author does explain the significance of it almost immediately, and it is a nice little vignette.
Jacqueline was educated and then worked in the world of high finance but soon began to realize how empty that world was for her. She worked for Chase Bank and would fly "around the world and review the quality of the bank's loans, especially in troubled economies." It was while she was working in Brazil that she knew she wanted to do something with her life that had more meaning after she was admonished by a hotel manager while helping (in a small way) a 6-year-old street kid in Rio. She began seriously thinking about the disparity between rich and very poor and how she might help.
She found another job and was sent to West Africa, something of an idealist, and she learned that helping the poor and making changes was much harder than she would have thought. Some of the local women resented her. She was now a minority in a foreign culture, no longer a privileged American, and she was in a country where her Western ideas and ways of thinking did not serve her. She then moved to Rwanda, made friends and began to understand how to stand back, observe, slowly assimilate and be accepted. She left that country before the mayhem and murder of a million people, but made several trips back to Rwanda over the years, trying to understand how her friends coped after the unspeakable horrors they lived through..the friends who survived. She slowly learned many lessons, not always quickly. But over the years, she became what she calls a "patient capitalist" and eventually founded The Acumen Fund which helps poor people finance businesses that benefit the larger communities in which they live. The Fund HELPS with financing; does not just give money. It researches, seeks out and then enables people who will be able to sustain businesses that help the very poor in their respective countries. The return on an investment in the Acumen Fund is sometimes just change in the quality of peoples' lives, especially in the early stages of the projects. Her philosophy is similar to the concepts of microfinance or microenterprise in which small amounts of money are lent to the very poor. This empowers women especially as they begin to understand how even a minuscule amount of money can help them out of poverty, can help them make a better life for their children and their communities. The Acumen Fund has worked mostly in Pakistan, Africa and India. This is not pure philanthropy; there is accountability attached to the monies that are dispersed.
Many western donors give and have given generously but have no idea about other cultures. They see desperate needs and think money is the way to fix that lack. And often it does. But, the issues are usually so much more complicated, because different cultures live in ways we Americans cannot imagine. For millions on this planet, luxury is to be able to live in a 500 square foot home, have a quality bed net for malaria prevention and have access to safe water. But bed nets wear out or tear and need replacement, or need to be dipped in insect-repellant solutions periodically; they have to be used consistently; the processes of providing safe water means understanding and maintaining the technology of water systems and the dispensing of the water, and this is also true for the implementation and delivery of water for crops and the maintenance of those delivery systems; health issues need to be explained in ways other cultures can comprehend, not in the ways we have learned them. Giving money is a short-term solution; providing access to money but with accountability and the expectation of payback with interest is a long-term solution. It has worked. There are 6 billion of us living on earth. People like Jacqueline, Bill and Melinda Gates, Muhammad Yunus and many, many others are changing the way the way those who have can most benefit those who have not.
This work and this book is inspiring and certainly can inform one's way of thinking about the global community and each individual who is a member, be he rich or poor.
The title has little to do with the content of this book but the author does explain the significance of it almost immediately, and it is a nice little vignette.
The Women by T. C. Boyle
An amazingly entertaining and imaginative book. It is the fictionalized story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the four significant women in his life. Fictionalized, but based on facts. I am now intrigued by this man and his work and his loves and can't wait to read Loving Frank by Nancy Horan and also more about FLW. While I never was particularly taken with his architecture, admittedly knowing nearly nothing about it except for the house in Grand Rapids on Madison (I think it's Madison), this book most definitely changed that opinion. Taliesin in Wisconsin is now on my list of places to see.
I could go on and on about his travels, his money problems, these women and Taliesin, but just read this book. You won't be disappointed.
I was in Ottawa Beach Inn a few weeks ago, eating spaghetti at the bar because it was so crowded and I didn't want to wait for a table, and started chatting with a couple sitting next to me. There were from Virginia and were headed north (Traverse City, Mackinaw, Pictured Rocks, etc.), and then they planned to see Taliesin. That nudge along with Eunice's a week or so ago about FLW, prompted me to get this book from the library. I had just started it before we moved back to Michigan in 2009 and had to bring it back to the library after reading only a dozen pages or so.)
Boyle is an engaging writer. I now want to reread The Tortilla Curtain. I have read Drop City and found that book a lot of fun. It is a story of hippies in the 60s. I didn't particularly like World's End and can't remember what else I've read by this author but will keep him on the short list.
I could go on and on about his travels, his money problems, these women and Taliesin, but just read this book. You won't be disappointed.
I was in Ottawa Beach Inn a few weeks ago, eating spaghetti at the bar because it was so crowded and I didn't want to wait for a table, and started chatting with a couple sitting next to me. There were from Virginia and were headed north (Traverse City, Mackinaw, Pictured Rocks, etc.), and then they planned to see Taliesin. That nudge along with Eunice's a week or so ago about FLW, prompted me to get this book from the library. I had just started it before we moved back to Michigan in 2009 and had to bring it back to the library after reading only a dozen pages or so.)
Boyle is an engaging writer. I now want to reread The Tortilla Curtain. I have read Drop City and found that book a lot of fun. It is a story of hippies in the 60s. I didn't particularly like World's End and can't remember what else I've read by this author but will keep him on the short list.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Marinated Beets with Mint
This looked and tasted like Christmas, at least that immediately came to mind on my first taste. Very fresh with the red beets and green mint. This is the recipe in which I used walnut oil and raspberry vinegar. It keeps well in the refrigerator, and I added more mint and feta cheese just before eating. Another wonderful tasty salad and the most colorful so far.
Two pear dishes coming up...
Monday, July 12, 2010
Cauliflower with Cumin and Cheese
Another fresh tasting salad that I will eat for 3 or 4 days. I bought whole cumin seeds at the kitchen store downtown Holland and these added the only bit of color to this pale salad. It also has sauteed onions, steamed cauliflower, diced Monterey jack cheese, garlic and a bit of sour cream and cider vinegar for the dressing. These salads last several days in the refrigerator, so can be made ahead or just be there for easy eating. I would never think of the combinations that are in the recipes in this book but most seem to work well, like this one.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)