In Bloom

Spring is just around the corner. Here on The Kitty Pants Ranch the Earth is bursting with the anticipation of the season. The daffodils are up and in bloom and the fruit trees are in blossom. It's kind of exciting. When we bought the property the only trees that were producing regularly were the citrus. The plum was producing next to nothing and the other stone fruit tree we still aren't sure what if anything is is going to produce.

I Love daffodils. They are a sweet and hopeful flower heralding the opening of the season. The plum tree is quite magnificent and I must admit that I am feeling quite pleased with myself for nursing it back to fruitfulness. There are at least ten times the number of blossoms this year than there were last year and with our newly installed deer-proof fenceI predict plum jam in the future. The crows can only eat so many plums after all.

I still have some work to do thinning the dead fronds from the ferns. Really, there's a ton of work that needs done in the garden, but one thing at a time. It will all happen, and now that we are finding folks who are interested in working at TKPR these tasks will take shape all the quicker, which also pleases me. Given the success I have had in nurturing and repropagating the plum tree I have some hope of bringing back this tree as well.

We're not sure what type of fruit it produces yet. Until this past fall the tree had been over taken by ivy and vines and over grown rambling roses. Once the leaves bud I will know how much of these branches actually need trimmed back this coming fall. There are only a few flowers on the tree, but there ARE flowers. So, we will see how things go. I will give the tree three years to come back before we condiser taking it down. It's pretty exciting. Who knows what kind of fruit to expect? Maybe another plum, or peaches, or apricots? Who knows? Leave a guess in a comment and if someone guesses right I'll send you a jar of plum jam later this season when it comes time to process the plum tree.

My Painting practice is coming along quite nicely this season as well. This morning I completed the last test piece and prepped the first piece in this year's series: DIATOMS & MICROBES - a metaphysical exploration. You can see the test pieces on the Gallery Page. I will post images of the series pieces once they are all completed on Easter Sunday. The most exciting part of the materials process this year is making my very own egg tempera using fresh eggs from The Cluckers and high quality traditional artist pigments. Who knows, maybe I'll try my hand at making my very own pigments as well. We will see. I am enjoying exploring the levels of transparency in this mixed/media paint format. Moving from water color to guach to tempera in composition and layering is adding a new and intriguing dimentiality to the finished work. It will be interesting to see how this process interacts/pairs with the metaphysical layer of the finished series. I won't be able to comment on that until at least the first two pieces are complete.

I've been using water color and watercolor techniques for some time. Last year guache was the new medial exploration. I hadn't used the medium since my days in foundation courses at CCS. This year the new media exploration is tempera.

Mixing and using the tempera in the last test piece has taught me that I have never actually used tempera. In primary and secondary school I remember using paints that were called tempera, but now having made and used the real thing, those smelly chalky paints they called tempera way back then are something else all together. Real tempera has a very satsifying texture and the application is much more similar to oil paint, only it's water and egg based and dries much faster. Maybe I'll even try mixing and applying egg wash to one or more of the finished works. Hmmm. Maybe...but I'll have to do a test for that first. The paper I am using is way to expensive and the works themselves take far too much time to test out the finishing egg wash on one of the series pieces.

Yesterday I also did some culinary tests. A couple weeks ago I made a trip down to the big Mexican market South of us for some chiles and other spices. I wanted to give mole a try. Yesterday was the day. It was Omar's birthday and I felt like trying something new for him on his special day. He had requested grilled fresh fish, sauteed veggies, and baked potatoes on the grill. After processing all my mole ingredients into a sauce, it didn't come out tasting like moles I have had in the past. I think I need to add way more chocolate to the recipe for that. However, I did end up with one heck of a pepper sauce. We brushed it on the fish and it was delicious.

 I won't give away my secret. The secret is in the balance of ingredients and preparation. BUT...h

Dehydrated Carrot Chips

Toasted Corn

Gilroy Garlic

Toasted Chick Peas

Dehydrated Onion Chips

Toasted Chili d'Arbol

Chili Ancho

Chili California

Chili Negro

Chili Guajillo

Toasted Nilla Waffers

Chocolate Pralines

Toasted Star Anise

Toasted Cinnamon Sicks

Toasted Juniper Berry

Toasted All Spice

Toasted Elderberry

Toasted Cardimon

Toasted Ginger Root

Toasted Coconut

Toasted Raisins

Toasted Dried Apricots

Toasted Pepitas

Applewood Smoked Salt

All the items were ground in the food processor then mixed with two times the volume of water and brought to a boil for a while until all was well hydrated and the color began to deepen. Then I strained all the seeds and skin and solid fiberous material using a special sieve to make a fine and creamy sauce. It is wonderful as it is, but I think I may try using it as a base for a more traditional style BBQ sauce or as a chilli/soup base. As a mole I don't think it is successful, but damn, it is good anyway. A tasty accident.

Yes, I've been reading some news and I have thoughts on things...but for now I'm going to focus on reading my Lenten text: The Nag Hammadi Scriptures and continuing to work on this year's novella. I took the weekend off from writing and I think I'm ready to start Chapter 4. Until then you can still read the first drafts of chapters 1-3 here. I know there are typos and editing to be done. That's why they are marked as Draft 1. I'm just trying to avoid Intellectual Property theft by posting the work in real time. When all the chapters are complete I will edit for grammer, consistency, and typos.

Until next time...I hope your garden is in bloom as well.