Jarn’s Journal Year 10 Day 116

Year 10, Day 116

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It’s strange. As the time of the gather approaches each year, I am afire with eagerness. Who has been born? Who has died, or been injured? What new pairings will be acknowledged? Will they enjoy the thank-gifts I have brought them? What can I do for them without interfering? Above all, I look forward to the relief they bring from aloneness.

When they leave, as the last did yesterday, I am just as relieved to see them gone for another year.

I think ice and snow, like the salt pebbles, will be expected from now on. I had intended only a little amusement for the children, but the People quickly found other uses for what was supposed to be only a toy.

So what shall I do while the People are following the game? Rest, I think, to start with, but I know I’ll get bored with that soon enough. Continue west from the volcanic island, to see if I really glimpsed a continent of ice? Turn east from the northern peninsula, to find if it’s a peninsula or an island? Map the interior of the northern continent, which so far I have seen only rarely in fall and winter? I’d have to be careful about that, as I do not wish to influence the northern hunters as I have the People.

Perhaps I should spend some time with Patches, who at the moment is very heavy on my feet.

Basils

Basil does not grow as well in Alaska as do many other herbs, but I still manage to get a number of varieties each year. Why? Basil likes relatively dry, hot conditions, and Interior Alaska just doesn’t supply that, though the Fairbanks area is probably the best in Alaska.

In general the Thai basils are not my favorites—I just don’t care for the licorice taste. But most basils go very well with tomatoes and Italian dishes. Now that the first local tomatoes are showing up at the Farmers’ Market, my usual lunch of cottage cheese and fruit will change to cottage cheese and tomatoes, with basil, chives, dill, and parsley mixed into the cheese. Another use for basil will be when the zucchini is ready to pick. And, of course, basil is widely used in pesto.

Here are some of the basils I’m trying this year, along with a few I photographed at Basically Basil, which has a regular stall at the Farmers’ Market where they sell plants, herbal vinegars, and seasoning mixes.

 

Large Italian Basil. This is the most reliable large-leaf basil for me.

Spicy Globe Basil. This was the only bush basil I could find this year, though I prefer Minette. These little bush basils work best for me as suppliers of fresh basil.

Red Rubin Basil. About the toughest of the reds, but I find it doesn’t last as well as the greens.

Ararat Basil. This one’s an experiment to see if the purple and green mottling stans up to my climate better than the purples.

Purple Ruffles Basil. I keep trying this.

Lemon Basil.

Lime Basil

Mammoth Basil. Don’t know if this one will even survive.

Sweet Thai Basil. Used in Oriental cooking.

Siam Queen Thai Basil. Another good Thai basil.

Thai Magic Basil

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

These are the contexts of the quotations tweeted from @sueannbowling between June 12 and June 18, 2014. The first six are from Beauty and the Werewolf by Mercedes Lackey.

“Most of us are only human, and far too often our only choices are between bad and worse.” Godmother Elena is speaking to Bella.

“No matter what we do, someone is going to suffer.” Still Godmother Elena.

“I am never going to be a proper lady. I will never choose style over comfort.” Bella, after she has insisted that the most impractical of her new gowns be removed.

“Men want a wife who will fit into society.” Bella, thinking over what she will – and can – do once she returns home after being bitten by a werewolf.

“The nurturing hand also held the knife.” Bella, forced to admit that even a good king must at times be ruthless.

“It was amazing what young men would say when they thought there were no parents or young women about.” Bella has done some wandering about and eavesdropping at the parties her stepmother insisted she attend.

“You want a demonstration of how we were doing without your help?” Sue Ann Bowling, Homecoming. Derik mind-talking to Roi after the first practice teleport of the day with Roi’s help. It’s also the first one that has left the teleported boxes intact.

Thymes

Thyme is another herb that comes in many varieties. Most of us associate it with poultry, particularly with poultry stuffing. It’s also one of the herbs used in bouquet garni for soups and broths. Fresh sprigs are good as garnish, but if the whole leaves are used, it’s best to strip them off the stems or use only the growing tips. The mature stems get woody in texture, and while they may be steeped for flavor, remove them before eating. I add the leaves to salads.

Here are a few kinds I grow:

French Thyme, the standard culinary variety.

Caraway Thyme is traditional with roast baron of beef.

Lavender Thyme. From its appearance, it is related to Caraway Thyme.

Spicy Orange Thyme tastes like its name

Variegated Lemon Thyme has lemon overtones

Lime Thyme

North Pole Weather 6/16/14

Summer Solstice is almost here—at 2:51 am next Saturday, to be exact. Our days are almost as long as they get: 21 hours and 45 minutes, with sunrise at 3 this morning and sunset at 12:45 tomorrow morning. Needless to say, it doesn’t really get dark; the sun at its lowest is only a couple of degrees below the northern horizon.

The weather has not been oppressively hot, and next week’s forecast looks like it will stay nice: high sixties to low 70’s in the daytime, with nighttime lows generally in the 40’s. We could use more rain; the fire danger is still high. We do have chances of showers, but the rain is unlikely to make up for the chance of lightning.

The wild roses edging the lawn are in full bloom, and the delphiniums, still unbudded, are shoulder high. The zucchini are well budded, though not yet in bloom. Many of the annuals planted at the edges of the raised beds are in bloom. I expect more of the perennials will be in bloom next week; the daylilies and the rest of the white iris are showing a little color.

And I’m actually keeping up with the chickweed in the raised beds.

Weekend Writing Warriors: Rescue Operation

It’s Sunday, time for Weekend Writing Warriors (click the logo above for links to participants) and Snippet Sunday (click the logo below.)

I’ll continue with the opening of Rescue Operation in its current state. This one is a WIP but I hope very near publication. Zhaim is thinking to himself.

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Derik, Kaia and Roi would be horrified by his solution, and would probably be able to sway those not solidly behind him. And since he couldn’t influence them directly….

Or could he?

Whatever Marna had done two and a half centuries ago to prevent him from doing so much as thinking of harming another, it was getting weaker with time—especially since her death, almost fifty years ago. His half-brother, Roi, had always been a weakling, and without Marna Roi simply did not have the strength to manage the regular renewal of the bindings, though he did not seem to realize how badly he was failing.

Zhaim still couldn’t manage to block conditional precognition by himself, at least not without going into convulsions. But he’d located the portion of his abilities that produced that effect, and had taught that part of the skill to another Inner Council member, one who was as appalled by Roi’s treating Humans as people as he was. The bit he’d taught that person was useless in itself, but if applied while Zhaim did the things he alone could do, the result was almost as good as the ability he remembered from the past.

Not a very sympathetic character!

Cancer Survivor

I’m getting tired of being a cancer survivor.

Oh, not the survivor part; that’s definitely preferable to the alternative. And in many ways I’ve been very lucky. I have excellent health insurance, awesome doctors who have managed to diagnose me early every time (and that’s not easy with ovarian cancer) and surgeons who were deft enough that all three times I’ve had clean margins on the pathology.

But three times?

This is not a matter of recurrence or metastases. I had breast cancer in 2008, spent most of the summer on chemotherapy and the winter on radiation therapy. No recurrence.

Then last summer I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Stage 1c, and I know I was very lucky that my doctor caught it. I had assumed that my difficulty in urination was due to diabetic neuropathy, but my doctor suggested one quick ultrasound test in her office. Two days later I had an appointment at the Women’s Cancer Center in Anchorage. (Keep in mind that problems with urination can be an early symptom of ovarian cancer, which is often symptomless until it is too late.) This tine the chemotherapy (precautionary) was much more severe, and I wound up spending about 18 hours a day sleeping for the third through fifth days after each infusion. Since both cancers were “women’s cancers” I was checked for the BRCA gene, but I have neither of the known dangerous variants.

Except a routine diagnostic mammogram (because of the previous breast cancer) showed up a very small suspicious spot in the other breast, which a biopsy showed was cancerous. I was just getting my hair back from the last time around! Surgery again (partial mastectomy because I wanted minimal impact on my type 1 diabetes) and I just “graduated” from radiation therapy on that one. I’ll be on Herceptin® infusion for most of another year, though my doctor didn’t want to give me any stronger chemotherapy right after the one for the ovarian cancer. I had a port installed (outpatient surgery and they didn’t even knock me out all the way) since I would be getting weekly infusions for a year, and my veins are getting hard to find.

A couple of things I want to say from the viewpoint of someone who’s dealt with cancer:

(1) Keep exercising as much as possible. With my balance so poor, it’s mostly stationary bicycling for me, but I kept up at least an hour or two a day throughout radiation therapy. I really think it helps.

(2) They tell you radiation therapy can produce sunburn-like effects on the skin. Effects, yes, but they’re more like zombie skin. Rotting rather than peeling, and downright painful (and itchy) near the end. So glad that mine’s over and I can put ointment on the skin!

(3) The Herceptin® is a breeze compared with either of the other chemotherapies.

Jarn’s Journal Year 10 Day 40

Year 10 Day 40

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I think I’ve made another job for myself.

I honestly thought the snow and ice would be a short-lived novelty for the children. The food storage caught me by surprise. The People do not normally store food, for several reasons. First, they can only carry so much when they travel. Second, on this hot continent food doesn’t keep very well, and they certainly cannot use ice for long-term storage. (Note to myself—do the northern hunters use ice to store food in winter?) Here they use drying, smoking and salt, though all are limited. But they are thinking more about the problem. Then came the slings.

I should note that almost all of the People are very good at throwing stones and hitting stationary targets. A few can throw spears and have them go into what they’re aiming at, though most spear work uses a thrusting technique. A very few have mastered throwing stones from a sling. There is, however, a problem in learning to use a sling, which is why most of the shamans discourage it. In the early stages of learning, a slung stone can go anywhere, even behind the slinger, and fast enough to pose a real danger.

A couple of days ago one of the children “borrowed” his father’s sling to throw snowballs. The father saw what he was doing, started towards his son, and (by accident, I suspect) got hit by a fairly sloppy snowball. He blinked in surprise, marched up to his son, and informed the youngster he was going to learn to use a sling properly.

With rocks, there is some danger in teaching the use of the sling. I would not want to be the teacher! But with rather sloppy, soft, snowballs as ammunition and a stuffed hide as a target, he proceeded to teach not only his son, but several other youngsters, how to use a sling properly. Today his class had expanded to include a number of adults, including Giraffe.

“I think,” Songbird said as she watched, “they’ll be expecting snow every year, now.

Rosemary Varieties

Rosemary is another herb I’m fond of, and I make a point of getting several varieties. I also try to pot one plant up and keep it going over the winter. It actually survives better than mint as a potted plant.

I like it in numerous dishes, but it’s especially good with lamb. I also cook delicata squash by cutting it in half, brushing the cavity and cut surfaces with olive oil, and tucking a sprig of rosemary in the cavity before microwaving.

Here are the four varieties I found this year.

Huntington Carpet

Barbeque

Salem

Prostrate Rosemary

And just to prove that herbs aren’t all I grow, the first white iris (a white variant of the local wild iris) opened two days ago.

Quotes from Mansfield Park

These are the contexts of the quotes tweeted from @sueannbowling between June 5 and June 11, 2014. All but the last are from Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen. The book is 200 years old this year.

“There are situations in which very high spirits would denote insensibility.” Henry Crawford, talking to Maria while they are stopped at the gate, and responding to her statement that her spirits are naturally as high as Julia’s.

“When people are waiting, they are bad judges of time.” Fanny is trying to excuse the bad behavior of Henry Crawford and Maria to Maria’s fiancé, Mr. Rushworth.

“It is more than I would affirm myself.” Edmund to Fanny, when she tries to insist that the family living did not bias his choosing the clergy for his profession.

“A clergyman has nothing to do but to be slovenly and selfish.” Mary Crawford’s idea of the clergy.

“When an opinion is general it is usually correct.” Mary Crawford, still on the same subject. (In fact, this is very shallow. General opinions can be very incorrect, especially if money/power is on the side of wanting a particular opinion to be general.)

“Miss Price has been more used to deserve praise than to hear it.” Mary Crawford, speaking of Fanny to Edmund.

“Being free wasn’t as—well—free as he had once thought.” Sue Ann Bowling, Homecoming. Roi is beginning to realize that being free carries responsibility.