A Quiet Oysters and Football Weekend

Woody and I went for a longish drive last Saturday – still beautiful fall color in some places, although the wind took most of the leaves down on our own trees.  Some protected spots kept color.

Gigi came over Tuesday and we shared a fruit salad Woody made.  He makes a fruit salad usually every other week in winter.  It’s always delicious.  Oranges. Pineapple. Kiwi. Mango. Seeing Gigi makes me very happy.  I feel close to her and we always have a lot to talk about.

Woody got fresh oysters and we have been eating them – about a hundred.  We had them raw for two nights.  Tonight: briefly saute green onions, parsley, lemon juice and garlic; a little oyster nectar and a lot of parmesan cheese; then stir in whole wheat angel hair pasta. 

We went to Bayberry and got a balsam tree this morning.  I’ve written before how after my mother died, I began to have a tree in spite of my Judaism as a memorial to my mother, who loved having one. She liked bright colors, bright lights.  Our tree will be as funky as ever.  Woody will bring it in and stand it up in the livingroom tomorrow, after we move the furniture around; mostly he does.  I do small things.  Then we’ll leave it alone, well attached, so the cats [read Shaman] adjusts to it and doesn’t want to climb it.  It’s a bigger tree than last year and very bushy. I  hope it’s not too big!  It’s always hard to tell in the the lot.

I am working hard on the end of my book.  I don’t know if I’ll finish this weekend. I’d like to, but the ending is important and I don’t want to hurry it.

I wrote two poems this week. We’re still getting lettuce, Swiss chard, herbs and parsnips from the garden.  I froze a good amount of broccoli, some spinach and a lot of beans, some pureed yellow squash.  We’ve started eating our frozen veggies. It’s good to keep eating organic as much as we can.

I am proceeding a bit slowly through Kurlansky’s onion book. It’s not quite as interesting as his previous books on salt, cod, oysters, and X that I’ve read.  He filled it out with recipes, some of which I will surely try.  I guess onions just aren’t as fetching a subject.

Woody dislikes house plants, but I like having some in the winter.  I lost all but one of my rosemary plants when I was out of it the days after my molar was pulled and I bled heavily.  I didn’t water them.  The ornamental plants I brought in are fine. Two of them are blooming, one with red blossoms, one with pink.  They please me.  I’m much more moved by color than Woody.

Tomorrow night is the Big 10 championship game, Michigan v Iowa.  So, we’re not having guests or going out.  Woody has adopted Michigan as his college team too. It has been fun to watch them this year.  Next will not be like this.  After being suspended for a year for no good reason, Jim Harbaugh is going back to the NFL.  Some pundits say Chicago. They sure could use him.  And all the super players will be going into the draft, I’m sure.  I still follow the careers of a couple of good Michigan players from past years. I’m not referring to Brady but some good players from the last three or four years.