Make Yourself At Home

click on the link below to see a short video of our family visit.

our aussie family.

How fragile we are, yet, like Sagan loved to say-

“we are all star stuff, literally.  Every atom in our bodies with the exception of hydrogen can be traced to a red star billions of years old.”

THE BIG BANG

by Alexander Green. excerpt from his, Spiritual Wealth; ‘coming of age in the milky way’

Imagine that the 13.7 billion-year history of the universe is compressed into one calendar year. The Big Bang occurred in the very first second of January 1 and the current moment is the last second of the last minute of December 31. Using this compressed timescale, each month equals a little over one and quarter billion years. Each day represents 40 million years. Each second covers 500 years of history.

The Milky Way coalesces in March. The sun and planets form in August. The first life – single celled – show up in September, the first multi-cellular organisms in November. The first vertebrates appear on December 17. Dinosaurs show up on Christmas Eve. (And become extinct on December 29.) Modern humans finally appear at 11:54 p.m. on December 31. And all of recorded history occupies the last ten seconds of the last minute of the last day of the year. The pyramids were built nine seconds ago. The Roman Empire fell three seconds ago. Columbus discovered America one second ago.

Yet we should feel some pride and astonishment, too. It took less than an hour to make the atoms, a few hundred million years to make the stars and planets, but more than ten billion years to make human beings

click on any of the links below to visit these wonderful blogs

**  great recipes.  couldn’t decide if i should also put this link in the bedroom, or the bathroom, check it out to see what i mean.

**  recipes by us, the people.  this blog has way more than cooking, keeps me coming back, it’s a winner (actually)

**  the go-to place for uncooking – preparing gourmet living/raw foods

all my paintings are numbered/signed and for sale on heavy water color paper using archival quality inks.  please contact me at LBR@visualvoices.info

and/or see more of my paintings and my photographs at my website by clicking on the link below:

my fine art and photography website

soothing sleepy time magic

the soothing scents of essential oils elicit my ethereal senses and help me softly relax, let go and drift off to sleep.  sometimes  i use my essential oil blend in a little spray bottle that i spray on my pillow.  other times i use one of two little pillows; one filled with rice, the other filled with buckwheat husks that i put an essential oil soaked cotton pad into.  sometimes i dab some essential oil on the top of each shoulder and a dab on each temple.  each of these different smellorifics ease my mind and my body and tenderly transport me into dream time.

while soothing scents may be a totally personal thing there are some that are well know for their sleepy time and relaxing powers. some blends:  ** ylang ylang, lavender and tangerine   info about more blends and brain olfactory facts click here

our sweet angel

a conversation between our daughter, kaia, and our granddaughter, kira, in australia

kira: mom do you love me so much?

kaia: yes

kira: can you show me how much?

kaia: look at the sky, see how big it is? i love you that much

kira: (looking out the window) wow the sky is so big it goes all the way

to grandpa and nana’s house

come explore, play, get creative

coming soon;

creative photo courses for self-discovery

ideas to ponder

Designer Fruits:  Us and nature growing together, i like it, food for thought.

How to:  A mold is made of what you want to reproduce and placed around the growing fruit when it is very young. When the fruit has expanded enough to fill the inside contours of the mold, the mold is removed.  The print of the features remain as the fruit continues to grow. Pumpkin heads, square watermelons, possibilities go on.  Hao Xianzhang is the originator of this process.

playing with nature

We are all molded by our ancestral heritage, our parent’s beliefs, expectations and our interactions with them as well as our cultural mores. How does our own nature survive, flourish and express itself?   More →

my computers down, i’m famished and craving my little home made pizza. i have 1 hour to do a little tidying up, get ready for work and make something to eat. i chop up all my favorite vegetables and am ready to top with the cheese and pop it in the oven …. i’m tasting it. into the frig for that last ingredient, OH NO !!! NO CHEESE. bummer.  i was so looking forward to this. inspecting every little space in the frig a million times, ( sometimes on the millionth look the frig genii materializes my wish, not this time).  But … my culinary muse was obviously in the neighborhood and felt me and said –  ” a cream sauce would be perfect” and so it was, ( another OH NO !!! NO MILK  in there either, no worries i did have some plain yogurt to stand in) , yum.

Makes 2 pizzettes

come and get it

ingredients

CUT, CHOP & SHRED   * shred a broccoli stalk (i buy them pre shredded),  *slice off corn from 2 cobs, (or use frozen) *1/2 cup chopped olives,  *3 cloves of garlic chopped,  *1/2 cup onion chopped,  *1 avocado,   * 3 cloves garlic minced *1/2 cup of salsa,  *cream sauce recipe below.    PUT  2 tortillas or pita rounds on a cookie sheet;  divide avocado between the 2  and evenly schmear almost to edges.    spread 1/4 cup of salsa over the avocado, then spoon the cream sauce evenly over each. divide the rest of the veggies evenly between the 2 tortillas/pitas.  i have a tendency to overload and then it’s difficult to pick up, up to you on quantities of veggies.  into the oven, broil,  (not to close to the coils)  untill slightly browned on the top and tortilla/pitas slightly brown on bottom- 2-5 minutes

bubbling no cheese sauce

put 1 1/2 cup milk (unsweetened, non flavored, any kind:  soy, almond,  cow, or plain yogurt in a pinch),   in small pan, mix some of milk into  2 T cornstarch and 1/2 t baking soda till all dissolved, put all back in pan,  mix in 1 T oil, 1/4 cup brewers yeast,  2t soy sauce,  season with paprika, garlic powder, pizza seasoning and cook over medium heat stirring till thickened and bubbly, about 5 or 10 minutes,  pour over 2 pizzette rounds.  under broiler for 2-5 min. till lightly brown.

if you want to pick the slices up don’t overload like i always do.