Cream of Asparagus Soup

I LOVE soup! Even in summer I can be tempted with a luscious bowl of tasty broth. Recently the Temple cafeteria served cream of asparagus soup- always right at the top of my list! My friend, Kaye, commented that she had a wonderful recipe for cream of asparagus soup which she brought to me the next week.

Yeah, that was the week before Spencer and family arrived and I put it in a nice safe place! HA! ) and now I couldn't find it! (My Mom used to say that!

Fortunately Kaye worked this extra President's Day Temple day (the Temple was open until 2pm for the holiday) so she gave me her phone number so I could get the recipe again.

I made it tonight for Stuart and I and it did NOT disappoint! (Gordon and green soup? Ermmm, not so much!) It was wonderfully yummy and it was lots better than the soup served at the Temple... Kaye was right.

Cream of Asparagus Soup

4 T butter
1 onion, chopped
1 lb asparagus, cut into 1” pieces
2 T flour
2 c chicken broth
2 c half and half
1/2 t salt
Pepper to taste

Cook onion in butter until tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in flour. Cook 2 minutes. Gradually stir in chicken broth and asparagus. Bring to a boil then simmer until asparagus is very tender, about 25 minutes. Puree mixture in the blender. Return to pan, add half and half, salt and pepper.  Heat to serving temperature.  Makes 6 servings.

Worthy Music- Inspiring Thoughts

I remember this wonderful life changing advice from Boyd K Packer delivered at General Conference October 1973.

(Let's put that into perspective- I'd just turned 21. I had 18 month old Tony and 1 month old Rebekah. we lived in the little house we rented from Norbergs across the street and up the hill from Cheney's Sawmill. Life was pretty good at that point!)

It wasn't long before some pretty heavy-duty trials appeared on the scene and I needed something, ANYTHING!, to help me try to stay afloat! I remembered Elder Packer's advice... it was such good commonsense advise; especially for me, who'd grown up singing around the piano with my sisters!

I have a vivid recollection of propping the hymnal up on the kitchen windowsill at our house in Baker Oregon singing "I Need the Every Hour" and washing dishes.

This wonderful inspired counsel has served me well for 40 years. I have a whole repertoire of hymns that "buoy me up and strengthen me". I am a hummer. And just as President Packer says, I find myself humming a hymn and then go into a rewind-mode and realize that a discouraging thought had tried to invade my peace and I cast it out with a song in my heart.

All of this has become relevant again to me: I have family members who struggle with difficult situations, and this week I am teaching my Sunday school class  How can I use Church music to learn about the plan of salvation?  



I have such a wonderful, abiding testimony that, indeed, Worthy Music can lift the suffering, sorrowing soul and replace it with the beautiful Light of Christ.

Text from Elder Packer's talk:

I had been told a hundred times or more as I grew up that thoughts must be controlled. But no one told me how.

I want to tell you young people about one way you can learn to control your thoughts, and it has to do with music.

The mind is like a stage. Except when we are asleep the curtain is always up. There is always some act being performed on that stage. It may be a comedy, a tragedy, interesting or dull, good or bad; but always there is some act playing on the stage of the mind.

Have you noticed that without any real intent on your part, in the middle of almost any performance, a shady little thought may creep in from the wings and attract your attention? These delinquent thoughts will try to upstage everybody.

If you permit them to go on, all thoughts of any virtue will leave the stage. You will be left, because you consented to it, to the influence of unrighteous thoughts.

If you yield to them, they will enact for you on the stage of your mind anything to the limits of your toleration. They may enact a theme of bitterness, jealousy, or hatred. It may be vulgar, immoral, even depraved.

When they have the stage, if you let them, they will devise the most clever persuasions to hold your attention. They can make it interesting all right, even convince you that it is innocent—for they are but thoughts.

What do you do at a time like that, when the stage of your mind is commandeered by the imps of unclean thinking?—whether they be the gray ones that seem almost clean or the filthy ones which leave no room for doubt.

If you can control your thoughts, you can overcome habits, even degrading personal habits. If you can learn to master them you will have a happy life.

This is what I would teach you. Choose from among the sacred music of the Church a favorite hymn, one with words that are uplifting and music that is reverent, one that makes you feel something akin to inspiration. Remember President Lee’s counsel; perhaps “I Am A Child of God” would do. Go over it in your mind carefully. Memorize it. Even though you have had no musical training, you can think through a hymn.

Now, use this hymn as the place for your thoughts to go. Make it your emergency channel. Whenever you find these shady actors have slipped from the sidelines of your thinking onto the stage of your mind, put on this record, as it were.

As the music begins and as the words form in your thoughts, the unworthy ones will slip shamefully away. It will change the whole mood on the stage of your mind. Because it is uplifting and clean, the baser thoughts will disappear. For while virtue, by choice, will not associate with filth, evil cannot tolerate the presence of light.

In due time you will find yourself, on occasion, humming the music inwardly. As you retrace your thoughts, you discover some influence from the world about you encouraged an unworthy thought to move on stage in your mind, and the music almost automatically began.

“Music,” said Gladstone, “is one of the most forceful instruments for governing the mind and spirit of man.”

I am so grateful for music that is worthy and uplifting and inspiring.

Snow Overcometh Fernando...

(This is a post that should have been written last month, but alas... you get it now instead!)

Fernando, our new/old truck, lives at the curb and in the snowy nether-reaches of Utah that can be perilous! When Gordon's Contour had to live at the curb we got a parking ticket because we left it, snowed in, for a couple of weeks. I didn't want to repeat that with Fernando so every time it snows I go clean off the snow and then drive him around a little, knocking down the snow so our local law enforcement can see that he hasn't just been abandoned at the curb.

That worked fairly well until this time about a month ago. I did my normal clean-off-the-windows with the snow brush, but since Fernando's wipers were old they didn't wipe too well. My normal routine is to drive back and forth through the parking spot, from both directions, to knock the snow down. On my third or fourth pass I decided to include the mailbox as well so the mail-lady could get to the mail box.

Ahhhh! It wasn't until too late, looking through a badly wiped windshield, that I saw I was headed for a HUGE berm of snow in front of Kidd's house. Well, no matter! I will just dig a little and back out...Famous last words!

I dug and rocked and salted, all in vain! This was on Friday afternoon. When Pam got home she said to Brad, "I see you missed the truck so much you bought it back!" I called and had to admit my silliness and told them we'd get Fernando moved on Monday. It took a tow-truck to pull Fernando out of this mess.

No wonder he wouldn't budge! He was totally high centered on ice and snow!

It was so bitterly cold that day; just standing on the sidewalk, all bundled up, I got chilled to the bone. It made me reflect on those pioneers from the Martin and Willie handcart companies who were stuck in similar circumstances! I don't know how any of them survived that harsh, bone-chilling cold!

On Thursday of that week (1/17) the sun came out bright and clear. Even though the temperature was still in the low teens the sun was a welcome relief. I went out and shoveled not one but two parking spots at the curb for Fernando and an extra space for company. It felt so good to be outside working!

Lone Robin

This morning as I was eating my oatmeal up here in my office with a *bird's eye view* I got to view the little birds eating their breakfast. This whole flock of black birds (I don't know if they ARE blackbirds just that they are birds and they are black!)  and one little fat robin were flitting back and forth between this flowering pear and the smaller flowering pear that took the place of my dearly departed beautiful willow.  I like how this one fat robin is the only bright spot on this foggy winter day.

I grabbed my camera and tried to carefully shoot through the blinds. They would always catch me and swoop away as soon as they saw me move... but I'm trickier than a bird (thank goodness) and went into my sewing room- the light off of that window camouflaged me and I could sneak some photos.

Then movement on the ground caught my eye...  more of those fat little flappers picking up what the ones up top dropped in their haste. (One word of caution fat-flappers... there have been swine-deer in my front yard!)

Maybe next time I will get on my super zoom lens and get some close ups. But I'm pleased that I can see these little birdies with berries in their beaks!

January Bumblebee

So are you wondering where I found a bumblebee in January? In my photos... where else!

January always finds me working on photos and/or person history. This January I'm editing my blog book.** When I ran across this photo from last June I thought, "I need to try that new watercolor technique I just learned."

Bumblebee watercolor 2013

When I wrote that blog I'd been playing with watercolor filters, but as I've said recently, I wasn't happy with my previous attempts.

Bumblebee filters 2012

I'm still learning and hope that next year I will be further along the digital-photo watercolor painting trail.

** So what are these about?

I got my iPhone in mid-November 2011 so I didn't have many i-photos for that year's blog book. But 2012 is totally different story! Holy cow! I've got Facebook mobile uploads, Instagram uploads, and then UN-loaded photo represented by a plethora of iPhone and Rebel photos that got taken, saved, indexed and that was the end of it!

What's up with that?

Addendum... this is post 1111!

Pixie Dust

When I opened the blinds this morning I saw that the world was covered in hoar frost! It is always so magical when this happens; everything sparkles. It is so cold that there is pixie dust floating in the air glinting, just like glitter, in the weak January sun and I am sad that my camera cannot capture that beautiful sight.

I quickly pull on my shearling boots and coat, grab my camera and go on an 8° explore. I stay close to the house so as not to leave any footprints in the pristine snow.

All the trees, bushes, and even flat surfaces like the fence and deck are covered in pixie dust.

As it warms during the day this pixie dust will float to the ground, shimmering as it goes.

Perhaps it's because I was so obsessed with snowflakes this winter that the designs jumped off the computer screen at me.

There they are: perfect six-sided wonderful creations of our Loving Heavenly Father that I can only poorly imitate with my scissors and paper.

A Purse for DeLoris

I recently posted about a purse I made from wool given to me by my friend DeLoris. I knew that as soon as I showed it too her that she would love it and want one too.

I didn't want to make an exact copy of my purse; mine was actually too large for DeLoris. So I went digging for inspiration to make a different purse. I found my idea in an old quilting magazine. I reduced the size of the original pattern to 75%.

Once I got all of the felted wool machine stitched on I started doing the handwork. Yeah, I got carried away! I ended up doing an outline stitch over the machine stitching, as well as the rest of the stitching. It's a sickness.

Elsie's Handiwork

My mom, Elsie, did beautiful, meticulous handiwork. She used to say that the back of her embroidery needed to look as good as the front. I never understood that at the time but now as I look back I realize that much of her handwork was on things like dish towels where one can clearly see the front and back on a daily basis.

When my mom passed away 35 years ago I inherited her embroidery thread roll. I love all the memories attached to it. Mom would cut up pieces of cardboard in a bobbin shape to roll the embroidery thread around. I still have many of them. I love the rainbow colored bias tape that mark each pocket for color sorting.

Sady, in 1999, just after Buddi adopted us she decided to chew on this precious heirloom. Stupid little dog! It has remained in that damaged state ever since then (but I'm not sure why!)

I've done quite a bit of embroidery lately on my wool purse and on a wool purse for DeLoris (more to come on that). Lasterday it hit me! Why don't you repair the damage made by stupid-little-dog? (let's not get hasty!)

I think part of the reason I couldn't repair it before is that I didn't want to lose any of my mom's handiwork... not even the tiniest bit. I agonized over how to repair it so that I kept as much of it intact as possible. There was a 1 inch piece of bias tape that I removed (and it killed me! I said right out loud, "Mama I'm sorry to take out your beautiful, tiny little stitches!) Her stitches are so tiny and invisible AND strong- a talent that I didn't inherit from her.

Rather than cut off any thing Mom had done I decided to just patch it. I looked in my Sterilite tub of white and off-white fabric and found a piece that nearly matched this 60-70 year old fabric. I dumped all of the thread in to a smaller box and hand washed the roll (definitely the first time I've ever washed it). And, believe it or not, a quick search in my tub of ribbon and bias tape turned up a near match for the old bias tape!

I decided to add a little tie to close it up. I've been using a straight pin and noticed that it was starting to wear the old fabric.

I'm so pleased with my newly repaired heirloom.

Watercolor Sunset

I've been following the blog Bailey Road for several months and have watched Pat do some wonderful digital watercolor photo conversions. Check her out here... you will be amazed! I'm awed by her talents.

I have previously played around with some watercolor filters (I'll see if I can dig them out of the digital filing cabinet of my blog and tag them with the watercolor tag.) But I've not been as happy with them as I want to be.

What to do? What to do? Ah! Contact my talented-artist-niece! She always knows... and if she doesn't do it herself she will ferret out some online helps for me. She found a great video tutorial which I've been playing with for the last few days (and staying up WAY too late!).

I needed something with a bit more contrast than my currently available landscape of ice and snow. I went looking and found this beautiful sunset photo that I took a couple of years ago and thought it had lots of potential.

This is actually my final attempt... but I'm happiest with this one.

This is the culmination of the first attempt. I added a watercolor filter to this one and lowered the opacity on that layer. The thing that is funny to me is that I followed the same steps with the same photo and ended up with two different looks!

Here is the original photo SOOC.

If you've looked at Bailey Road she has a much more realistic watercolor paper texture which I'd love to find.

Chime in here if you have any helpful hint for me.

Harley- Bane of Swine Deer Everywhere!

Now that we have copious amounts of snow on the ground here in our little corner of heaven it means that the *swine-deer* will be making frequent visits to my neighborhood to forage for easy pickin's!

Harley's favorite perch 365 day a year (366 last year) is right by the front window. Right now the couch is pushed up to his window so he it in full *puppy-hog-heaven*!

Earlier today I heard him barking at something outside so I glanced out of my sewing room window to see what his problem was... the culprits! Swine deer have invaded his domain! Yeah, but Harley-boy... they are across the street.

This is what my ivy bed looks like many winter days- (but not this day... there is a foot and a half of snow covering all but the stragglers on the sidewalk. This photo taken a couple of weeks ago). Apparently the swine-deer and I have an agreement: I grow the ivy. They eat the ivy! This ivy bed is just outside Harley's window.

So a few hours later I hear Harley go nuts lunging at the blinds like the UPS man is here (sorry UPS man!) I hollered, "Harley! No!" (There are already bite marks on one of the slats!) and then went to investigate.

This is what I found this time! I burst out laughing! Some poor mama-swine-deer got the scare of her little-girl-life! In three huge bounds she was across the lawn snow and *outta here*!

Maybe this is why the snow hasn't been methodically moved from the ivy bed to the sidewalk every morning... word's gotten 'round that there is one MEAN dog guarding the ivy!