You might recall the photo from yesterday
This is how the leucocoprinus birnbaumii age:
Eventually (in a few days), that same shroomed group will dessicate and die, and look like this:
In the meantime, my newest avocado seems to also be enjoying the warm, moist soil.
Leucocoprinus birnbaumii (luke-o-kuh-PRY-niss burn-BAUM-eee-eye) begin like teeny-weeny yellow dicks pushing up out of the soil of your house plants.
They like warm, moist soil (which is why indoor houseplants in the winter seem to get them the most).
Here, the leucocoprinus birnbaumii is happily growing in the bamboo . . . and some other fungus (mildew) is happily growing on it:
We also got these yellow mushrooms, which grew differently than the Leucocoprinus birnbaumii. They’re much more umbrella-like, and not very penile.
They’re attached to the bottom of two containers that came from a friend, so they might be something entirely different, or we might have missed the earlier manifestation, and they are leucocoprinus birnbaumii, just growing on the substrate of the planter cup.
Most everyone I’ve read on the topic has said, “If you have Leucocoprinus birnbaumii in your house plants, you probably live in a winter clime with little colour. They’re virtually impossible to get rid of, so just get over them, and learn to love the extra yellow in your life.” One author suggested putting some fairy dolls in with them.
I looked out my window this morning and saw this:
I love mornings like this, where the golden orb is fighting through.
These pictures were not taken from my window, as the camera (and the better vantage point) were both upstairs. I didn’t think I’d be able to capture the moment . . . but I was so happy to be wrong.
When I turned around to go back inside (it was really cold on the deck in my jammies), the moonset was going on at the other end of the deck:
We were hungry and half done before I got the camera out.
I forget what inspired the Fall Bake recipe. (We sometimes call it Dry Soup, but that’s not really as appetizing . . . and doesn’t help me think of where the idea came from). It starts with roasted potatoes, and all the sizing ends up relative to how many folks you have coming for dinner. In this case, I had five people, and about one small bowl left:
10 largish Yukon potatoes, diced. (You can also use red or white, it’s the Russets that end up a little weird . . . too french-fry like and dry for this recipe).
2 medium onions, diced
5 slices of thick cut bacon, crisped and chopped (I often use “ends and pieces” instead — it’s a condiment in this dish)
1 bag of corn, heated
1 bag of green beans, heated
1-2 cups of grated sharp cheddar (I use Tillamook’s aged white)
parsley for garnish.
Dice the potatoes and onions, shake with a generous splash of olive oil (until coated–I stretch a piece of plastic wrap over my pyrex bowl to perform this move. Spread evenly in one layer on a baking sheet (I do it on parchment; foil or silpat would probably work fine, too), and bake in a 400F oven for about an hour.
Heat corn and beans. (In my first forays into this dish, I blobbed a little pat of butter on the corn, but it’s not necessary, unless you’re really craving the oil).
In a large bowl (I use a pasta bowl), shake the blazing hot potatoes in, sprinkle with the cheese (which will melt almost instantly), layer with the corn, beans, and bacon. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and serve.
You could also add: sautee’d celery and carrots, roasted cauliflower, roasted red peppers.
Large Group Note:
We made this for the youth group on 1/28/09, for approximately 33 teenagers. We used 15 pounds of red potatoes, 4 onions, 1 pound of bacon, 5 (16 oz) bags of corn, 5 (16oz) bags of green beans, and an entire baby loaf of Tillamook Vintage aged white cheddar. We made the mistake of using aluminum foil to line the trays, and had sticking problems (use parchment, and plenty of olive oil).
There were approximately 7 servings left over.
I want to Invite the World to Dinner.
Going to have to start somewhere . . . so here goes. If you’d like to have dinner with us next Sunday night (the 25th), call by Friday and tell me your name.
The number is 509.590.4155
Email, if you prefer, is garrisonstuber at garriber dot org
Oh, the horror!
Three days until the Inauguration.
Eleven days until Farmergirl turns thirteen.
She’s practicing.
These are not bees. They're yellow jackets.
That is snow that they’re on.
I wonder how many bees are here.
(None! They’re not bees).
Seriously, that's a lot of bees.
On the tail end of an article in the Spokesman Review on slumping hotel stays at the end of last year, was a gem about this guy, who can’t get enough of Spokane, or our snow:
January 11, 2009 in Business
Outsider Embraces Spokane’s Winter Wonderland
by Bert CaldwellWalking face-first into the snow, collar pulled high, cold biting at the ears.
Inland Northwest residents may have had their fill, but there’s at least one convention planner who will be disappointed if he doesn’t experience a little harsh winter this week.
Tony Sirvello is the executive director of the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers, which will hold its annual convention in Spokane from July 5 to July 11. He and the association’s board of directors will meet Thursday at The Davenport Hotel to complete arrangements for the event, which he said will bring 500 to 600 members to the city.
Sirvello said the association’s convention has bounced around cities in the South and Southwest in recent years. Spokane will be a departure – one he said members will embrace.“We like to go where we’ve never been before,” he said.
Sirvello is based in Houston, where temperatures last week reached 77 degrees. He said he has traveled to Spokane several times since the city was chosen for the 2009 convention. During a visit last April, he said, a late-season storm blasted snow horizontally through the streets.
“I was flabbergasted,” he said.But undeterred. Sirvello said he turned down a ride from the Convention Center to The Davenport because he wanted to experience winter conditions unlike anything he’s experienced in a lifetime in Houston.
Sirvello said he keeps a miniature of the Riverfront Park red wagon on top of his computer monitor.
“I really fell in love with the city,” he said.
I love this guy. I hope he has a great time in our city.
I was going to say that I wish I could remember how long it took me to make this bonnet.
Handspun yarn, Hand knitted, hand-wound ties
But I don’t.
It was a really cool project, using the pattern from Card, Knit, Wear: Unspun Caps by Carol Huebscher Rhoades in the Winter 2008 issue of Spin-Off Magazine. (I happened to have spun and plied my alpaca, instead of making an unspun cap. That was a good move, because I ended up reknitting most of it several times, trying to get the pattern right.
It's an intricate and beautiful pattern. A little fussy, frankly.
But the lovely Brooke seems to like it.
Wondering why everything from Auntie Jen smells just a bit like patchouli.
(Probably because Auntie Jen is a hippie).
I was once told that the reason it was so important that only men could be ordained in the ICCEC, was because the clergy is “an icon of Christ.”
Worship is so intrinsically bound to the role of our clergy that if it does not flow into or out of the altar, it is not an essential element of ordained ministry . . . The ICCEC does not ordain women to the diaconate or priesthood . . . The Eucharist is intrinsic to our worship services. Indeed, biblical worship must include sacrifice . . . Our clergy are not permitted to concelebrate the Eucharist with an ordained female minister or priest . . .
It smacked of phallocentric idolatry then; it still does.
There’s the rub; an icon can far too easily become an idol. Idols always bring disaster to the idolater. An icon is an open door to the Creator; when it becomes an idol, the door slams in your face.
Madeleine L’Engle
