From One Moment to Another

Canyon Door       collage           J. Warren

It takes next to nothing, a split second, for things to go wildly wrong. Suddenly one finds oneself scrambling impossibly backwards, to get back the moment before and make it different. But there is no going backward, only forward: one moment to the next, through a doorway that was invisible just a minute before.

We had one of those moments here Saturday evening, while it was still light. Donna and I were loving the rain, rain we needed in the gardens, hard enough rain to force a break. I made a late supper as the sky was clearing some but the wind felt odd. Ominous. Donna checked the tomato plants a dozen times, sure they would be damaged. I wanted them hardened off well and refused to let her take them in. As we sat down to eat there was a noise we know well, the sickening sound of a car out of control. Impossibly loud then, just as impossibly, silent.

The silence didn't stick. It hung there, suspended for a millisecond and then we were dialing the phone, as were our neighbors, doors opening, four of us running toward the trees.

I am grateful our neighbors are first responders by profession. At first when I looked at Keith he was exactly how I knew him...the guy next door. I forgot to step back~ get out of the way and let the pros handle it. But it was only for a second.

That split-second of silence between the crash and everything since seems like the last quiet ever. Shouting and crying led to sirens and crisp verbal orders and boots on the wet street. Sirens gave way to beating helicopter rotors and after the helicopter it was our own hushed murmurings from out of the way.

We are hyper vigilant now. The sounds haven't stopped yet. Every car door slam, every voice and sob, the moving cars and stopping cars all have sounds we can't seem to ignore. We have things to do but find ourselves stopped, paused for no reason, wondering how the girls who lived are faring, praying for the families of those who died. We are trying to stay out of the way now that I have said my piece for the TV news....about impossibly young lives altered in an instant, gone in an instant...and it seems like folly now for me to have imagined it could make a difference to speak up.

It is in my nature to try to change things, to speak out and hope some one will slow down. Still hoping.

Falling in love with Farming

My ode to farming: "Warming the Soil" by Janice Warren (sold)

2012 closed  a little crazy. I serve here locally on the Conservation Commission and the Agricultural Commission and we spent time organizing and setting goals and then, with the help of some local businesses, Planning and Zoning and town leaders threw ourselves fully into an autumn experiment in having a farmers' market here in East Windsor. That led my mother, who serves on multiple land use commissions in South Windsor including the South Windsor Food Alliance, to recruit Broad Brook Art to sell creative stuff at the South Windsor Winter Farmers and Artisans Market for six weeks from November to December 22. We bought the insurance needed and she paid for our space, since it wasn't exactly in our business plan. I already had some stuff scheduled so we spent some weekends being in two or three places at once, with help from Donna and Mom, of course. We introduced some new products and learned quite a bit about what people are buying in this still so cautious economy.

Ornaments for the Winter Market

Well. The people we met and the things we learned...mind boggling. I think I speak for both Donna and I when I say that we came back from events completely energized AND exhausted. We tasted some of the best fresh food of our lives and experienced new foods on top of that. We like flavor and I have always cooked, but Donna has joined me in the kitchen the last few weeks as we have ventured into this new realm.

To prepare for being a Market Master for the East Windsor Farmers Market I dragged Donna to every market we could get to starting last Spring. I pestered organizers and growers alike...what was their experience? Again~ major learning curve. We saw what worked and didn't..which varied from place to place, week to week and even with the weather.

What has impressed me and IMPRESSED UPON ME is people's passion for making life better through buying fresh and local. The other part of the education was with farming, or simply gardening, was the passion all these people have for how they grow or make their wares, how they care for their livestock or experiment with making small bits of land into the most nurturing places you can imagine...all with a laugh or a smile and sarcastic nod to the fact that few of us earns back completely what we put in. We looked at cell phone pictures of well-loved free range chickens, talked coyotes and foxes and ate edible flowers as we worked together. We shared recipes and sampled each others' products...fellow marketers make very good customers, always spending a some of the earnings on each other.

I have to say the whole experience was made better by my cousin Cherie. She and her husband Bob came to Connecticut this summer and rented a place in Coventry. Their summer was full enough of family events that it made sense to venture away from home in Phoenix. I started out the spring with surgery to remove a tumor from my neck/face (happily turned out to be benign) and followed that recovery up with Lyme disease. All these years outside and it was just finally my turn for the wrong tick bite. Not knowing these things were going to happen I started several hundred plants indoors for the summer garden and my father and I made an uneasy bargain to use his long established 100 X 150 foot garden plot. Cher came along at just the right time to keep me going, helping weed and mulch before there was much to harvest. I called it the year of pestilence and vermin...the unnaturally warm winter left us with vast insect populations, well above and beyond just the dynamic ticks. We had crop rotation debates and fungus troubles. New growth of nearby butternut and black walnut tress poisoned part of the asparagus bed and some of the tomatoes.  We took on more than we could handle and in the excessive heat lost the corn to the vigorous weeds. Mice ate my potatoes before I could plant. Seeds failed. Cherie listened to my garden woes and labored away without complaint. We laughed and talked but both slightly deaf laughed as we missed a lot too. The company was heartening and we two couples got together for dinner a couple of times. Cher's presence kept me from completely withdrawing in frustration and set us up to be open to the whole social experience of the farmers markets. I love trading recipes with Bob and I always leave with my skills slightly better informed by his experience. They are lovely people, truly, and it was healing for me to have them about.

It is easier to blog about healing and passion now, and not so much as it is happening. Writing the blog has always been a very personal venture for me, but there is valid viewpoint that it should be more pure marketing...extending exposure and reach. It is clear we have found a new direction and are happily feeding and feasting upon what we have learned from new and old friends. It is impacting my art, but I have a storytelling direction with the Arctic and the Sedna series and two scheduled shows...how to make it all work?

2013 will mean we are living as closely to our values as we have ever been able to. I am so fortunate to have both the experience of being able to live making art and to grow things and be around people who are truly passionate about growing and making a life within their passions, and learning from each other as we all balance the time and money spent and earned. 

I am not just falling in love with farming, and my wife all over and always, but with life overall. 

Open Studio Hartford 2012

Janice Warren with her art work

It was a great weekend to be an artist in the Hartford area and there was plenty to see and buy and taste along the way. Donna and I saw many friends~ both art appreciators and fellow artists. To make the weekend special Connecticut Women Artists sent their acceptance letters out to a new batch of juried-in members and I was proud to be named among them. Time to focus on smaller items for the duration of my time at the South Windsor Winter Farmers and Artisans Market, Saturdays from 10-1 now until December 22nd, except November 24. November 24 is American Express Small Business Saturday and I am going to set up some special packages and shipping rates for that event.

Day to Night

Night Fall, Elizabeth Park   Hartford, CT   October 13, 2012

My friend Nancy called last week and wanted to know if we were up to anything special this weekend. She needed to come in from CA for her brother-in-law's funeral. Last week was a tough one for people my age that we know...two friends, one age 50 and one 55, died of sudden cardiac arrest. Both men were well loved and generous of spirit. Then there was Rosie the puppy clown. She nicked her leg and we had a terrible time stopping the bleeding. We were devastated to learn she had thrombocytopenia, possible brought on by her annual vaccines. Her platelet count was terribly low, well into serious danger of  internal or external spontaneous bleeding that would most likely require transfusion at the minimum. We started her on high doses of steroids and tried to figure out how to navigate our best laid plans...joining friends in the park  Saturday and the East Windsor Farmers' Market Sunday.

Anne Cubberly http://www.annecubberly.com/ is a fellow artist whose work I admire and have watched develop over the years. I had gone to one of her lantern workshops where we recycled water bottles into lanterns by changing their shape and cutting and combining them into something that could carry an LED candle light. All the lantern workshops culminated in a performance in Elizabeth Park...Night Fall...celebrating the change in seasons. I had been planning on attending from the moment I heard about it, but how to juggle this set of circumstances?

I picked up Nancy at the airport and she simply joined our stride. We experimented with leaving Rosie alone for very short periods of time, then forayed out to gather all our farmers' market supplies...cornstalks and pumpkins, gourds and mums. Okay. whew. Rosie was hanging in. Then we gathered a little picnic, a blanket and lawn chairs and headed out to Elizabeth Park. What a beautiful spectacle! Literally, as dusk deepened into night we were entertained by costumed creatures dressed as birds and trees and leaves. Even winter herself danced before us. Then the sun goddess creature entered, lit from within. The music was perfect, making the scenes complete in their magic. We were momentarily transported away from our grief and worry by the spectacle of dancing lights.

Sunday morning dawned rainy and we slept almost too late, but managed to get out and get our farm stand set up. Thank goodness for friends and family or I think we would have ended up totally alone out there. The memory of Saturday night's lights kept me warm as Nancy went off to the calling hours and Donna went to nurse Rosie~ she had taken a turn for the worse. By the end of the day, the end of the weekend, all of us showed some improvement, I think mostly because we chose to walk the path together. Today the sun has returned and it is the epitome of Autumn in New England...brightly colored leaves and bone-warming light. As we say goodbye to friends gone too young I am reminded "to everything there is a season..."

Accidental Enchiladas

Woohoo! Okay. Reality check. My wife and I just came home from vacation. We are not REAL foodies...but we like good, inventive cuisine and insanely, on Cape Cod, for us this meant Thai food this year. Wickedly warm and well seasoned Asian flavors! Of course we squeezed in our Wellfleet oysters, the must-have lobster and tender but surprisingly under-seasoned fried clams. We left craving spice and heat and with a couple of tomatoes still in the garden I decided fresh enchiladas were on the menu. Sunday I roasted chicken mediterranean style (loads of citrus plus home grown garlic and tons of fresh herbs) and used those leftovers to stuff the enchiladas. I scoured the grocery store for acceptable corn tortillas because both Donna and I love that white corn flavor. Turns out we both (different decades) savored tamales from street vendors in Tucson, AZ, and I like to have that flavor and texture. Wheat tortillas will not do! As I was roasting the chicken we were catching up on Pioneer Woman episodes from the DVR and there she was making simple http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-pioneer-woman/index.html enchiladas in a way my mother never did. Mom and I had a favorite Mexican restaurant in, of all places, Manchester, CT. When that closed down I didn't have any other taste test reference for her favorite Mexican meal.

Well. I think I have got it...in the oddest accidental ensemble I could imagine. Ree Drummond fried her corn tortillas VERY briefly in canola oil. I have always done that in the enchilada sauce itself. The oil works SO much better! The dish held together beautifully and the fried corn tortillas were actually lighter in texture than those dipped in sauce before rolling.

How else were these accidental? My cousin Cheryl and her husband rented here in CT this summer and when they headed home to Arizona we reaped the bounty of their refrigerator. Bob likes to cook like I do but I mistook a hunk of mozzarella for chedder. Yep. That became part of the accident in my "Accidental Enchiladas".

Combine what you like...but this is what I did:

Accidental Enchiladas
preheat oven to 350

6 white corn tortillas
2 Tbs canola or other vegetable oil
1 cup cooked chicken
1/4 cup boursin or seasoned goat cheese
1 Tbs chopped roasted or sun dried tomatoes
(With roasted garlic if you choose)
1 tsp hot sauce
1/2 chopped sweet onion
1 cup enchilada sauce
1/2 cup grated cheese (mozzarella was my accident~ I was sure I had cheddar)
1/2 cup grated OTHER cheese (I chose Romano for the compliment)
2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
3 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbs chopped red onion
sour cream for garnish

Heat the oil until it ripples in the pan. Cook each corn tortilla just a few seconds per side in the hot oil. Let drain on paper towel. Combine the cooked chicken with the roasted tomatoes and garlic and boursin cheese. Add in finely diced sweet onion. Mix well and use to fill tortillas. Put a couple of tablespoons of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of a casserole and line the dish with the filled and rolled tortillas.Cover the rolls with the remaining sauce. Top with the grated cheeses. let bake for 20 minutes and rest for 5.

In the meantime chop lettuce and tomato and spread on plate. Once the enchiladas have rested top plate with them and garnish with remaining ingredients.

That will nicely fuel my painting assignment! How about your fuel?

Welcome Autumn

Blue Moon

The signal of summer's end to me was the cold nights we had leading up to that twice-in-a-month full blue moon. In my parents' yard the cherry trees are the first to shed their leaves and as we sat visiting with family last Sunday a flurry of yellow leaves danced around us.

Art and Autumn go together well. It is perfect for painting outdoors or going to a fair or festival where people show off their creativity. I have been seeing some great work. Currently I have work up in the East Windsor Town Hall and the Butler-McCook House & Garden and Sunday I will be joining a "Pretty Wings" benefit show called "2012 Year of the Goddess at the MAC650 gallery at 650 Main Street in Middletown, CT. I have plenty of goddess stuff for that!

Goddess 

Chatty Cassandra

My promise for today is to at least spend a couple of hours painting. We all have plenty to do...pay bills, walk the pup, talk to the pretty kitty and all sorts of running around or reorganizing. I am fortunate enough to have a job where I can pull in or reach out to paper or canvas and see what comes and I need to be sure I do that every single day.

underpainting for latest work

Wild Summer

unidentified spider from genus Auraneus

This has been the year of the insect...and nearly everything else. In our pond frogs and turtles are prolific with bullfrogs staging impromptu concerts any time of day (while the herons aren't lurking). Over the last couple of days this year's red-tail hatch-ling has been calling for its parents to keep providing meals, competing in loudness with the bullfrogs.

The winter was so warm there was no winter kill...seems every weed seed and insect egg survived. We saw several kinds of aphids in record plant-destroying numbers. Deer flies have been lurking in the shade for weeks and have bitten all of us ~ they are especially cruel to the dog. I know more people who have had Lyme disease this year than any other year previously, including me. Considering I spent a good portion of the summers of my youth where the disease was discovered I figured with smarts and caution I would continue to beat the odds. No chance, not this year.

A record dragonfly hatch brought hundreds of swallows gorging on an easy meal for several evenings. I have seen more kinds of insects I have never seen before. After Donna and I walked the dog last night I wondered about spiders. By now there would generally be several large webs in the garden. Don't get me wrong...they are there...just not the same types in the same places. Donna found the one pictured today.

tomato "cat-facing" 

Truth be told I have somewhat surrendered to the pestilence and vermin that are proving to be the scourge of the garden. Drought followed by 2 2" each rainstorms split most of the tomatoes which were already cat-faced. Patient trimming of tomatoes can yield edible fruit but hot humid weather gave insects a chance to occupy those yummy cracks and spoiled most of what I had. This year I changed types of plants on my father's advice but now this is the second year in a row with a poor yield I am not sure what I will do next year. Heirloom varieties are not always known for disease resistance and the plants were place improperly for irrigation through the drought. I gambled my garden and lost! I found the cutest little bunnies just outside the garden fence...and watched them zip right on in to the garden through tiny holes. They ate down favorite herbs and even nibbled the tomatoes they could reach. A rabbit now and again...yes...but a dozen? Really?!

The most surprising problem we had was with plants inexplicably dying. Turns out the black walnut and butternut trees my father planted years ago have put on just the right amount of root growth to touch the garden, destroying new asparagus plants and tainting a portion of the tomatoes. The trees put out a toxin in the soil designed to reduce competition. I dislike the bitter flavor of the valuable nuts...and now I have a new reason to scowl at these woody giants. I was already criticizing them for cutting down on morning sun in spots.

Time to get new bug books and figure out new gardening strategies.