The Totem Returns

Today the dragonflies made their first appearance in the park. I would have missed them if I hadn't listened to the little voice that whispered 'go back the way you came'. So instead of taking the easy path back to the car, Puppy and I wandered the twisting, rocky path that follows the south shore of West Lake. And there they were; the red dragonflies. Over the past few years, I've come to think of the red and bronze dragonflies as the stalkers of the insect world. One will accompany me for a while as I walk the trail. Then it disappears, and is shortly replaced by another. I read today that dragonflies are very territorial. Sound like anyone you know ;)?

Prospect Park

Dragonfly is definitely my totem. My favorite of my three tattoos is a dragonfly.

Denver Botanic Gardens

Dragonflies can fly at speeds up to thirty miles per hour, yet they are very obliging about having their pictures taken. These were all taken with a small digital camera set to 'child', aka 'motion'.

My backyard

Dragonflies have been around for millions of years. There are legends that they were once real dragons; some people call them mosquito hawks because of their ability to catch flying insects.
So beautiful, such a fearsome predator. Delicate wings, crushing jaws. Welcome back.

Pond at Will's old house

Random something resembling thought process

My sister/friend Laura gave me the best key chain ever : Pocket Vlad, (PV for short). His tag says that he will protect me from harm when I am outside past my bedtime. That doesn't happen often, so PV will have an easy life.

Note his classic formal attire; PV has old-school standards. He wouldn't be caught undead in polyester, leather or denim, or Dracula forbid....sparkling. He's going to be my version of the gnomes and barbies and suchlike that people take on trips and photograph in front of tourist attractions.



He's posing in front of cairn-of-the-day. Building cairns in the creek at Prospect Park is a hobby. It's oddly soothing, and very satisfying in a get-your-zen-on kind of way. It's a practice in non-attachment, both in the falling rocks as I build one, and in knowing that it won't stay up after I leave. Wind, water, critters, people, gravity.....something will knock it down. It's sort of like making beautiful pastries and confections knowing that they will be devoured and gone. Impermanence in action.



I am slowly figuring out how to work training an intern into the work schedule. I tend to focus on the production list, and getting everything done, and things like teaching the intern how to do something properly sort of gets pushed off to the side. So, today I delegated something I love to do (making tart dough) and spent some time one on one with the intern, showing her how to shell and fill truffles. She didn't tell me she'd had almost no experience with that when I asked her to fill the molds yesterday. So, there was a lot of overfilling, which makes backfilling (putting the bottoms on) really, really difficult. So, now I know to watch her more closely, and walk her through every new thing, and she knows to speak up and tell me when she doesn't know something. Tomorrow I'll show her how to backfill, and she'll find out why filling the shells with ganache is such an important thing to do correctly. Because some of her filling was a little over-full. It's a great learning tool though, trying to deal with overfilled molds. Mwah hahahaha.



Cold weather is coming in tonight, and I want to make soup and whole-grain bread. I like chilly days, like bundling up in fleece or flannel sheets. I like that the cooler weather and darkening days has prompted Chef to change our start time from 6 back to 7. That hour makes a real difference. Today was the first day, and Puppy was confused and disappointed that sleeping in did not mean this was a day off, and that there would be no morning visit to the park.

I'll be making a new sourdough starter tomorrow. I will try not to kill this one. I think whole grains would be more appealing in sourdough bread.

I finally tried my pumpkin marmelade (aside from the initial tasting when I made it). It makes an absolutely lovely sandwich with smoked turkey & harvarti. My friend Marla said she has been putting it on everything, including French toast. That does sound good.

random thought process thursday

Today we filled a massive, last minute order for Cirque du Soleil's Denver opening night party. I have never been to Cirque du Soleil. I've seen some of their shows on Bravo, and the clowns freak me out. I don't like clowns. Not Bozo, not Ronald McDonald, not Red Buttons, not the creepy clowns of Cirque. No clowns. Something about them makes my skin crawl.

The acrobats and aerialists are amazing though. The costumes are very sparkly.

Got through an entire day without touching the snack bin at work. The snack bin is where the reject truffles & confections go. I kept telling myself: I am not the snack bin's bitch. I am not the snack bin's bitch....

Took Puppy to the park this evening. Some of the downed trees still have green, vibrant looking leaves. My favorite trails are still mostly closed. Puppy doesn't care as long as she's at the park.

The water level of the creek has dropped to its low summertime levels. Someone has been building piles of stones in the shallow water. They look both organic and unexpected. I made one myself this evening.

Ready for the canicular days of summer to be over. Love the chill in the air when I let Puppy out at 5am. I like that darkness comes a bit earlier. It's easier to slow down and go to sleep when it's actually dark out.

Broken & Melted Thought Process Day

It's so hot....Puppy jumped over the bank to get into the creek this afternoon. She's usually better behaved than that.


I broke down and put the little window air conditioner in tonight. I smashed my pinky finger in the process. It's not severely damaged, just throbbing.


I feel like I am going nowhere. It's too hot to figure out where to go.


I'm kicking myself for not acting young when I was young. Now I'm middle-aged. Yes, I said it. Middle-aged. How the fuck did this happen? Obviously, it happened because time passes, unless you die, which really isn't in my 5 or 10 year plan.


That's about the only thing in my 5 or 10 year plan. I'm not much for life planning. I tend to drift along, moving from one thing to another without really plotting a course. Maybe I should try that. Having a direction. What a concept.


We have a client who wants 9 cakes for her wedding. Which is now 2 weeks away. Weddings are usually planned way ahead. We gave her a bid, 3 flavors, 3 of each - 9 cakes at the regular price of $18. She got back to us a week past the deadline, and she wants something much more complicated. For the same price. This demand was sandwiched in between over the top compliments. Compliments so excessive it was clearly an attempt at manipulation. I don't appreciate that.
The kitchen is so damn hot. It's almost impossible to work after 11 or so. Chocolate won't go into temper, buttercream melts....it's vexing.


SPOILER ALERT: For anyone who didn't read Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince, or hear about the plot when the book came out, skip this paragraph.


Going to see the new Harry Potter movie tomorrow. I don't remember much about the Half-Blood Prince. Except that it was dark, a bit tedious in places, and Dumbledore dies. I don't think there was anything as scary as Delores Umbridge, her pink tweed suits, and her office full of kitten plates.


Puppy has decided that 4:30 is a great time to get up in the morning. She has no concept of weekends. So we'll be up with the sun. And probably at the park shortly after. The air will be fresh and cool, the wooded trails by the creek will be inviting, and stillness will be giving way to birdsong and the whirring of the early morning cyclists. And after about 20 minutes or so, my brain will stop spinning, and there will be nothing but the rhythm of my steps, the sound of the water, the touch of the breeze. This is the real reason why I walk in the park. Not for fitness, not because I should, but for those moments when movement and stillness become one and the same.

The last wedding and what happened after

I invited two friends over for dinner Sunday evening. My sister took over the menu and the cooking, except for the dessert. This turned out to be fortuitous, as my day did not go exactly as planned.

I made the pie dough the night before, and made and baked the pie (apples, pears, currants, spices and Grand Marnier) in the morning. Then I put on my chef whites and went off to deliver 14 centerpiece cakes and 1 small wedding cake. The reception was up in Boulder, about 30 miles away. Our last wedding of 2008.

We were supposed to drop off the cakes at 4, set them up, and be on our merry way between 4:30 and 5. Getting me home at about the same time our guests would be arriving. Best laid plans, my friends. Best laid plans.

The caterers, who were supposed to have been completely set up by 4.....arrived at 4. We had to wait for them to unload their truck and haul tables and chairs up to the third floor of the gallery. We ended up finishing just before 6. Luckily Chef drives like a whirlwind, so I was home within 50 minutes of leaving Boulder.

The gallery did look lovely, if somewhat crowded.
This morning, Puppy and I went to Prospect Park, a wilder and larger park than our usual haunt. There's a vast amount of rushing water, winding trails and an amazing sense of vastness for a place that's surrounded on all sides by homes and businesses. We saw a fox on the trail, found little paths we'd never explored before and I discovered semi-hidden places that would be good for meditation and suchlike, if only one's canine companion wasn't incapable of stillness when outdoors. I'll have to go back without her for contemplation.

Beside the rushing water

through the shady glens
we love to go a-hunting

with a camera lens

Spring Sunday

I push my little pink camera to the limit.

Yesterday I learned that if you have a steady hand

'landscape' works well for closeups of things far away

like this squirrel in a tree

that I would have missed

if we walked our usual route.

Ditto for this guy

the no-neck heron

we took a turn onto a tiny footpath
that meanders along the smaller pond

we've never taken that trail

and were rewarded with my first sighting of the season of this oddly shaped bird.

A muskrat popped up out of the water,

saw us, did a flip and dove beneath the surface.

Puppy kept waiting for him to reappear

but he didn't. So there's no photo of him.

Small dinosaurs stalk the neighborhood . See the flying fish in the background.

Early afternoon

is prime turtle-spotting time

they like to sunbathe

and are really good at holding still

She's on her nest, so that suspicious look and the hissing are completely understandable.

Here's a photo of someone taking a photo,taken from across the big pond. We met up with her later on the covered bridge. She was wearing a sweatshirt and pink pajama bottoms. I was wearing baggy sweats, sunglasses, and my sunhat. Snappy dressers, both of us.

"I'm taking a photojournalism class and I'm supposed to be asking people if I can take their picture, so I'm photographing geese and ducks...." She seemed harmless and friendly, so I said ok, and she took candids of me and Puppy. So Melissa's class will be seeing photos of a sleek beautiful dog and her frumpy taking-a-break-from-making-pies human. Melissa's camera is big and powerful. But it's not pink.