“Have you heard the latest goodies from the grapevine?” Jane teased with a twinkle in her eye.
Young Woman with Hat and Grapes by Pierre van Hanselaere, 1820, via Wikimedia Commons
Sally shrugged.
Yolanda yawned.
But Nosy Nellie just had to know. She sidled up to Jane with her ears practically pleading. She couldn’t wait to gather the gossip and nosh on the natter …
Quiz:
Knowing what you now know about natter-noshing Nosy Nellie, you might refer to her as which of the following?
Sufficiently stumped?
Well, while Nosy Nellie may, indeed, study fermentation in the processes of brewing and distillation (zymurgist) or perform matchmaking in the old Hebrew style (shadcan), the most apropos label for the lady in this situation would be “quidnunc,” someone who is eager to know the latest news and gossip; a busybody.
We’ve all seen rainbows, right?
Photo by Donald Macauley from Carshalton, Surrey, UK via Wikimedia Commons
I count myself lucky each time I spy a ribbon of colors stretching to touch a rain-freshened sky. If I happen to be with my bedazzled grandgirls, I feel extra blessed, because their young eyes still shine with surprise.
My question to you is …
Have you ever seen a moonbow?
Photo of a moonbow at the lower Yosemite Falls by Brocken Inaglory via Wikimedia Commons
Look closely at the photo—those are stars in the sky. And yet, somehow, a rainbow (no, MOONbow) arches across the scene below.
This marvelous and seemingly mystical phenomenon is not a figment of fairy tales.
“A moonbow (also known as a lunar rainbow or white rainbow) is a rainbow produced by light reflected off the surface of the moon (as opposed to direct sunlight) refracting off of moisture-laden clouds in the atmosphere. Moonbows are relatively faint, due to the smaller amount of light reflected from the surface of the moon. They are always in the opposite part of the sky from the moon,” explain the worldly wizards of Wikipedia. “Because the light is usually too faint to excite the cone color receptors in human eyes, it is difficult for the human eye to discern colors in a moonbow. As a result, they often appear to be white. However, the colors in a moonbow do appear in long exposure photographs.”
As we can see in the photo above and this stunning scene from Victoria Falls in Zambia:
Photo courtesy Calvin Bradshaw (calvinbradshaw.com) via Wikimedia Commons
Oooohhhh …
Personally, I’d be giddy as a grandgirl to get a glimpse of a white moonbow, wouldn’t you?
Our best chance to catch a moonbow would be when the moon is at or very near a bright full moon. Ideally, the moon must be low in a very dark night sky, which is only likely to occur a couple of hours before sunrise or after sunset.
“Of course,” Wiki reminds us, “There must be rain falling opposite the moon.”
And a unicorn in your pocket.
Who knows?
It could happen.
Yestern,
that is to say,
yestreen,
the hills of ye-olde pastoral Palouse
were looking mighty lush and green …
Photo by Bala via Wikimedia Commons
Hear ye:
“Yestern” is an old English word that refers to yesterday.
“Yestreen,” on the other hand, is much more specific, meaning yesterday evening.
Yessiree.
Or, should I say, yessireen?
We asked the girls to showcase the new swing we recently finished at the farm. They were happy to accommodate. (Look for instructions for making a barrel-stave swing like ours in the next issue of MaryJanesFarm, out mid-July.)
Uncle Brian gave them some pretty big pushes.
And if only he could have pushed them for hours.
I would say the new swing is going to be the highlight of the summer, since all four cousins can fit on it together.
But there’s always a new pile of gravel being delivered that looks pretty enticing, too.
And somehow, they didn’t even get their white dresses dirty!
The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,450 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,160 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
For this week’s Stitching and Crafting/Ink Slinger Expert Level Merit Badge, I had to pick a genre of writing.
This was tough.
Genres are like chocolate to me: they’re all good. Well, maybe not year-old Easter bunnies with the ears gnawed off that you find in the back of your pantry, but still.
Photo by domenico bandiera via Wikimedia Commons
I find myself going through genres in phases. There was the year I read every Romantic Suspense novel I could get my hands on, the year where I only wanted Non-Fiction Self-Help How-Tos, and the year I haunted the Poetry aisle at Barnes and Noble. I’m eclectic, okay? There was also the year I shamelessly collected any and all paperbacks with Fabio on the cover, but let’s not talk about that.
Anyway, I settled on the perfect genre for my Expert Level Merit Badge earning goals:
That’s right, peeps. I eat up cookbooks (pardon the pun) like crazy. I drool over their full color photographs of soufflés,
Photo by Pierre-alain dorange via Wikimedia Commons
I swoon at their luscious descriptions of exotic cheeses,
their flour-dusted pages make me melt, their mouthwatering text about sauces and side dishes scrambles my senses, and their delectable wording gives me goosebumps. Words and phrases like
Gently fold in
Ambrosia filling
Buttercream
Coq a vin
En glace
Gastrique
Bouquet garni
Chiffonade
Crème fraiche
Roux
…
They’re like balm for my soul. I collect cookbooks like some people collect stamps or spoons. They’re piled by my bed for midnight reading, they’re stacked by the pantry for easy accessibility, and they’re lovingly arranged on my coffee table for guests to appreciate. In short, I have a problem. But instead of repenting of it, I’m embracing it. And not just embracing it, but adding my own title in, to boot.
And speaking of titles, how to choose? There are so many sub-genres in my genre! Should I stick to desserts, or breads, or backyard fare, or perhaps vegetarian? Simple and easy, or complicated and snazzy? Savory or sweet?
My brain full of too many good ideas, I took a cookie break. And then a deviled egg break.
(What? You don’t take deviled egg breaks?).
My Expert Level Badge needed 20 pages of writing. 20 pages equaled 20 recipes, more or less. I wasn’t sure I could come up with 20 recipes for green beans, so I scratched Haricot Vert Haven as my title. Same problem with 1001 Exciting Ways to Use Paprika.
Titles still in the running as I feverishly scribbled out my outline and first draft:
Heavenly Hominy
Jumbo Gumbo: Large Pot Meals for Large Men
Broccoli for Eating and Foliage for Sprites
Lick the Spoon! Frostings for Beginners
How-To Barbeque with Hand-drawn Illustrations Because My Camera Fell in the Simmering Sauce
While my thoughts meandered through my head, I took a Sweet and Sour Short Rib break (What? You don’t take Sweet and Sour Short Rib Breaks?) and read through my two favorite cookbooks for inspiration and delight: My Life in France, by Julia Child tickled (and pickled) my fancy, and A Treasury of Great Recipes, by Vincent and Mary Price, sent delicious shivers down my spine …
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
