About half-way to Spring?

This afternoon we're playing with a Christmas present given to us by the Daughter Person and family. We received a package of half a dozen different Rancho Gordo heirloom beans and accompanying cookbook. This is the first time we've tried cooking beans that didn't come from a can or in a prepackaged box. The Better Half is supervising, since she does most of the cooking in the family. All told, cooking up a pot of red beans and rice is a pleasant way to spend a COVID-19 restrained afternoon in an area coated with ice from yesterday's storm. Eye-balling the simmering pot, the ratio of veggies (onions, celery, peppers, celery leaves) to beans looks heavy toward the veggie side but we'll see. This may turn into a helpful way to use some of the Summer's community supported agriculture vegetables.

the driveway, mid-January 2019

Photo by J. Harrington

Meanwhile, we're enduring another cloud-covered sky with no sign of the sun. This is not the kind of Winter we experienced half a century ago when we first moved here. Perhaps our memory is faulty, but we recall deeper cold, sunshine, blue skies and no rain, just snow, except when it was "too cold to snow." Remember the mid-January ice storm of 2019? Our drive turned into a skating rink. This year at least it's a mix of crunchy snow and icy patches. Thank heavens for "Yaktrax."

As we were putting the holiday decorations away, we uncovered several books we were reading about this time last year that somehow slid to the bottom of several piles. We're going to see if we can finish some of them before Spring-time arrives and we head for open, flowing water. Cold cloudy days, augmented by a cup of hot coffee, offer a good time for catching up on reading, unless one needs to play with Christmas presents or shovel and blow snow or walk a dog or something like that. We've read that getting too sedentary can be hazardous to one's health.

Red Beans

By Victor Hernández Cruz

Next  to white rice

it looks like coral

sitting next to snow

 

Hills of starch

border

The burnt sienna

of irony

 

Azusenas being chased by

the terra cotta feathers

of a rooster

 

There is a lava flow

through the smoking

white mounds

 

India red

spills on ivory

 

Ochre cannon balls

falling

next to blanc pebbles

 

Red beans and milk

make burgundy wine

 

Violet pouring

from the eggshell

tinge of the plate.

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