Gluten, Spring & Folly

My soon-to-be employer (Better Than Mamma's Catering) asked me to research tasty gluten-free baked goods for the gluten-free meal plan. I got a few books from the library (a strong contender for happiest place on earth) and starting reading. I noticed that I have many of the symptoms of gluten intolerance. So I decided to take a break from gluten and see what happened.
I had cravings more intense than any I've ever had for chocolate. I was cranky and weepy. (Yes, there's the whole job search, financial anxiety and I-suck-as-a-novelist things going on, but it really escalated). It's been 7 days now, I feel lighter. 10 pounds lighter. My joint pain is considerably better. I have more energy. And my mood is much better. Huh.
A pastry chef who can't eat wheat. Alrighty then.

Spring is starting to appear. The robins are back, and the blue heron has returned to the park. The tulips and crocuses (crocii?) are poking up out of the ground. So are the weeds. Tenacious critters.
I want to start planting,but planting is another 6 weeks or so away. It may feel like spring, but there's another snowstorm or two lurking in the wings.

What I liked best about the Oscars this year was the people who spoke about the importance of creativity, how it is never a waste of time. That it doesn't matter what tools you use to tell the story, what matters is how you tell the tale and that you tell the tale. It inspires me to get back to my novel, and to try the Script Frenzy challenge. It starts, appropriately enough, on April 1st.
Anyone else want to step off the cliff into the unknown?

Spring Equinox, aka Ostara

Praise to the Spring
Praise to All Living Things
Praise to the Maiden and the Joy that She brings
Praise to the Earth
Let All the Creatures Now Sing
Hope is Renewed
With the Coming of the Spring!

Ostara, by Lisa Thiel

A tempting tease of spring

February 16th. Denver, Colorado. Sunny skies, temperatures in the low sixties. Oh yes. Low sixties.

And......as a reward for working ten days straight for Valentine's production, I have President's Day off. I don't remember the last job I had where this was an observed holiday.

So after a leisurely morning, Puppy and I went on a two hour ramble through Prospect Park. And then came home and spent a couple of hours basking on a blanket in the backyard. After scooping the poop and putting Kittyman on his harness and string.

He is not especially bright, hence the restraints when he's outside.

Robins and chickadees hopped through the yard for his entertainment, and a squirrel chittered furiously for a good fifteen minutes.

The sun was warm and bright, the breeze was soft, and birdsong never ceased.

On the north side of the yard are the remants of Saturday's snow. In the center, tiny crocus are beginning to pop through the ground.

I planted lots of spring bulbs last fall. I'm curious to see how many of them survived the squirrels.

I have a desperate urge to start planting. An urge that must be squelched, as spring is still months away, no matter what the calendar says. Mid-May is about the time to start planting here. By then, the frosts are over. Unless they're not. One never knows. There could be a blizzard tomorrow. Or another taste of spring.

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.