Betwixt Between
I'm in my Lying Fallow Era
I love this time of year. Often here in Northern California, it is rainy, and sure enough the clouds are going to spill over most of the day tomorrow. Rainy weather, cold, fog, it all feels like some magical fairy land - like the fairy land of Brigadoon that only happens for a short time and then disappears.
It’s time out of time. Even though the longest night of the year just happened, it still feels like the light hasn’t made any in-roads with the darkness and the stillness of the in-between has settled into our bones. Lay fallow. We all need rest in order to be productive and this is the best time for it. Pretty much everything now is a 2024 problem and if you are pretending to work at your job this week then just acknowledge the facade and get a hot cocoa and curl up on the couch. No one wants anything from you right now and if they do, it can wait.
We had a wonderful Christmas and I want to share some of it with you.
I love to cook and bake. I started a tradition in high school where I make a Christmas pudding. This is a steamed pudding with a mold and everything and I make a different one every year. There are some favorites I circle back to every 4-5 years or so - the actual Christmas plum pudding takes a whole day to prepare (and no, it’s not the kind where you pour some booze on it every day for 365 days). This year I made one I haven’t made in probably a decade. It was a Carrot and Sweet Potato pudding with pineapples and raisins. It was moist and utterly delicious. I made some homemade egg nog ice cream to go along with it.
For the main course I made Beef Wellington, gluten-free, and it was very delicious. Third time is a charm. I finally figured out the easiest and best way to do this dish. The side dish is a Hungarian scalloped potato. It has boar bacon and Hungarian peasant-style sausage along with eggs and a sour cream sauce. To die for. Off to the side, there is a Hungarian “bór leves” or wine soup. Stay with me here. You boil white wine and water, spices and a bit of sugar then add egg yolks to make it creamy. It’s sweet and savory and really yummy. It’s been on my list to make for years and so glad I did.
I’ve been spending mornings with Hawk and Michael with our tree sipping coffee and just letting the day unfold before really diving in. It’s my favorite way to spend mornings and for some reason this is the time of year where I actually get to really do it this way. It’s one of the things I look forward to the most with winter. Slow mornings that move with the fog.
Today I worked a bit on this painting and Hawk was sitting in my lap. I began this odd little piece several years ago at this time of year. Last winter I spent a short while on it right around the Solstice as well and not a moment since. It seems to only want to be worked on this time of year.
I had the white pastel pencil in my hand and I was drawing out that tree line. Hawk asked to have the pencil and I gave it to him. He scribbled all around the piece as I knew he would, being only 16 months old. He drew a moon - now it’s not the relatively perfect circle at the top of the painting. I drew that of course. He drew that crescent “C” on the right half of the painting that starts under the snake and goes over and then back under the lion’s belly. When he drew it he said, “Mmmuh,” which is how he says “Moon.” Huh, I thought. Good idea. So I drew in the circle at the top of the piece which you see in the drawing.
This is still very much a work in progress but I definitely do consider it our first true collaboration. Adding a moon was actually a very good idea.
This piece is about the Winter Solstice and the riddle of the Sphinx here is that if we don’t take this time to go inwards and rest, we will get the answer wrong and be eaten by our own overproductiveness. The little bird sitting on her tail is a Flicker. They are a woodpecker species and only show up at our home here this time of year. I love them. They are magical to me and have been since I was a little girl and my mom made me this incredible Flicker drawing cardboard cut out that I played with for years and still have. They are a sign to me that things are in their right timing.
I may poke away at this little piece a bit more this week. If I finish it, I’ll share the end results.
I want to wish you all a Happy New Year but before that comes around, I wish that each of you take a bit of time the next few days (or hell, all of the rest of the year) to lie fallow and let the mists and stillness run through your nervous system. You deserve it.