VIEW from the PORCH

"Heaven is a house with porch lights..." -Ray Bradbury

 "So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise.Soon its amber fluid  was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day...." -Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

 "A best friend is someone with whom you can sit on the porch..."
                       -Paulo Coelho (1947-)

 "Nowadays, people are so jeezled up.If they took some chamomile tea and spent more time rocking on the porch in the evening listening to the liquid song of the hermit thrush, they might enjoy life more."

Tasha Tudor (1915-2008)

 "When you keep the porch light on for the prodigal child, you do what God does every single moment."

Max Lucado  (1955-)

 "My ideal summer day was reading on the porch."

Harold E. Varmus (1939-)

 "Yes, I heard my people singing!-in the glow of parlour coal-stove and on summer porches sweet with lilac air, from choir loft and Sunday morning pews-and my soul was filled with their harmonies."

Paul Robeson (1898-1976) 

 GOOD ENOUGH for the PORCH CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD

 2 boxes choc cake mix, 6 eggs, 2/3 cup oil, 6 squished bananas, 2 cup pecans

Combine all together. Plop batter into two greased loaf pans. Bake for about 45 minutes ( maybe a tad more...you'll have to check and see). Cool. Slice and serve on porch. OR freeze. Really nice and no fuss. 

Photographs 2017

Wind in the Pine

 WIND IN the PINE  by Lew Sarett  (1888-1954)
                   (One of my favourite writers....)

 Oh, I can hear you, God, above the cry of tossing trees....

                        Rolling your windy tides across the sky,

                            And splashing your silver seas over the pine

                          To the water line of the Moon...

 Oh, I can hear you, God, above the wail of the lonely loon...

 When the pine tops pitch and nod

                                 Chanting your melodies

 of ghostly waterfalls and avalanches, swashing your wind among the branches

 To make them pure and white....

                        Wash over me, God, with your piney breeze,

                    And your moon's wet silver pool

           Wash over me , God, with your wind and night

            And leave me clean and cool..............

 (A few interesting things about Poet, and lecturer, Lew Sarett:  He lived with the Chippewa  in Lake Superior region, was adopted by them and was renamed "Lone Caribou". He was also a ranger, as well as  horticulturist and discovered six new  award winning dahlias. He wrote  poetry including Many Many Moons (1920); The Box of God (1922); Slow Smoke (1925); Wings Against the Moon (1931); and The Collected Poems of Lew Sarett (1941), which included an introduction by poet Carl Sandburg, Sarett's friend of many years. Lew Sarett was an all round beautiful writer.

 Photographs 2017   ( Poem from "1000 Beautiful Things"  collection, 1948 Peoples Book Club, Chicago)

Miracle Beach Cookies

 "I go to the ocean to calm down,  to reconnect with the Creator, to just be happy..." -Nnedi Okorafor (Nigerian sci-fi writer)

 And to eat OOEY GOOEY CHOCOLATE CHIP WALNUT COOKIES on the sandy shores and find seashells ,  kelp and sand dollars...

 4 ½ cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 cups butter ( not margarine)

1 ½ cups brown sugar

½ cup white sugar           One  3.4 ounce package instant vanilla pudding

                                               4 eggs

                                               2 tps  vanilla  

                                               4 ½ cups real chocolate chips

 "What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams..."
                                    -Werner Herzog (opera conductor/ film maker)

 NOTE:  For Double Chocolate Chip:  add 2/3 cup  cocoa powder   with the butter and margarine. Nice. But original seems to be the best flavor.

 OR: Add as well as the choc chips: 1 ½ cups white chocolate pieces and 1 ½ cups dried cranberries. I don’t really measure…..just guestimate.

Preheat oven to 350. Sift flour and baking soda together

 "For most of history man has had to fight nature to survive. In order to survive, he must protect it...." -Jacques Cousteau

 Cream butter, sugars, pudding powder together

Combine in eggs and vanilla

 Blend in flour mixture Stir in Chocolate Chips (  and white choc pieces and cranberries, if using.
 Plop dough by “tablespoonfuls”….not teaspoonfuls….  onto Silpat lined pans (or use parchment.). Do not skimp.
 
 . I use both hands with the dough to get gobs of batter on the sheets. Spoons just don’t make the grade for me. Get in there and be at ONE with the pliable batter.

             (Dough does not spread too much so cookies can be larger)Bake about 11 minutes till slightly brown. Test with finger to see if it has baked enough…shouldn’t be wet….Makes a TON of cookies. They won’t last long. Freezes great.

 "I wonder if the ocean smells different on the other side of the world..." -J.A. Redmerski, (The Edge of Never)
                           
MIRACLE BEACH, VANCOUVER ISLAND, B.C.