# of divers

Friday, November 22, 2013

November Rain

Early morning, coastal fog, and grey skies above, the onset of an early San Diego winter. This uncharacteristic weather tends to sneak upon us like a feline cat in the gloss of night despite our typically warmer climate.

 photo credit: tiana-marie-arnoco.tumblr.com

It's enough to swing the pendulum into cheerlessness.

I am quite fond of gloomy days however, and all that accompanies them. The steaming cups of delightful tea, the afternoons filled with sad piano songs that writhe with passion, the drizzle of rain dancing atop the lapping waves before they break onto the shore.

photo credit: cinderellaws.tumblr.com

I welcome the rain as it gives me good excuse to tuck away into a bookstore and nose through the aisles to catch up on my bookjunkie-based freeloading. This of course, always concludes with me slapping down the plastic and depleting a significant amount of funds from my bank account.

For the record, I am not to be trusted in a bookstore with a credit card.

I've a fine umbrella which permits me to spend much time outside to enjoy the little nuances of the rare Southern Californian rainy day, the splish-splash of cars slowly proceeding through puddles (this is California after all, and we haven't the slightest as to how to behave while driving in the rain), and the clickety-clack of high-heeled women taking to the sidewalks that seethe with aromas of wet asphalt.


I do enjoy the warm feeling that musters deep within me on these brooding sort of grey days. I also happen to keep a lovely poem up my sleeve for such occasions. There's really nothing like the encouragement one receives from reading a nice poem, and November is a perfect time of year for reading poetry. This one happens to be wonderfully dreary.

The Rainy Day
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall
And the day is dark and dreary

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining,
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining,
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall
Some days must be dark and dreary.

 photo credit: jurasepromessas.tumblr.com

Perhaps somewhere there is a creature robed in a black, sashy sort of gown taking command of the skies. I do hope he or she has a moment or two for a whisk into a pile of blankets to rest and catch up on some poetry.

Happy gray day

x
        

Friday, October 25, 2013

Curdled Clabber and Trick or Treatment

The spooky season is well underway, and the Queso Diegans gathered for a delicious and frightful bash for the 'darker' part of the year.


Scaring up my own contributions to the seasonal affair, I dressed up a board of cheese offerings, piled high with a double-aged Gouda, a stiltonesque Bay Blue, and Delice de Bourgogne, a triple creme cheese topped with pumpkin butter and roasted almond sliverbits, (which served well as 'fingernails' for my mozzarella fingersticks). 

Wrapped it up with carrot-ginger crisps and an old bottle of Vampire Merlot, a very scary wine, for those who dare to scoff at the face of danger.

cheesy finger foods?

We slated and plated the harvest milk offerings of Cranberry Brillat Savarin, Pave du Nord, apple walnut smoked cheddar, and Penacorada blues


for a fantastical feast fit for the curd-adoring masses.


Cheese, brews, and pumpkin flavored everything were abound.
 The holy trinity of fall food.



'gruesome' foods



spiced pumpkin apple dippers


a apple-cinammon rolled chevre



Bottled pumpkin pie ales and our fair share of candied, sweetoothy fixes.


Fresh, dazzling dragonfruit 


...and some homemade varieties to include this here German whey cheese bathed in red wine.


Now a proper cheeseup is never complete without a fine motley of accompanying beverages.


We made certain to supply a whole lot of sudsy and winetastic holiday treats and treasures perfectly fitting of a 'cheesy' club. 



No tricks here!

Happy Halloween, cheesers.

x
        

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Season of the Witch

Halloween is the holiday closest to my heart. A season without the hustle and bustle of other far more celebrated holidays. The ones highly associated with commercialism, a gaggle of stressors, the swift loss of patience, and skyrocketing bank account balances.


With Halloween comes little stress, and heaps of spooky musings


the tricks and treats
the unsuspecting scares 
the tender lumplings everywhere


the witching hours
the warm jack-o'-lanterns glow
an eerie tale of Poe just short of the evening's rest


those flickering lights
the sounds of ghosts, ghouls
and bumps in the night


a black and orange frosted cake
the haunty houses
sprinkled with golden leaves to rake


the spooks, hobgoblins, 
and long-legged beasts
saddle up to the banquet and indulge in the feast


a late night stroll
beneath a full Hunters moon
a season to go mad for, as it shall cease fairly soon


the fun and abandon
a rich, dark cabernet
leave the world behind you
to be an 'otherbeing' this day



Enjoy the remainder of the month long celebration, my Fall-weathered treasures.

Don't let the spooks get to you, and don't forget to pick up every stitch.

x
        

Friday, October 4, 2013

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

Well, we're well into October, and the golden spell has been cast upon us. With it comes the exit of bees, the season of the witch, the goodness of pumpkin flavored everything, the turning and falling of chestnuts, oaks, and maples as they spread a carpet of scattered leaves for us to happily crunch beneath our feet.


As the days and temperatures start to wane and cool off, we prepare for the cooler months ahead, the comforting sweater weather. A celebration of the coming of the cold north wind and the change of seasons.


For your fall cup of tea:

acorns
apple orchards
pumpkin patches
butternut squash
hats
scarves
gloves
spice and everything nice
the turning of leaves
maple breads
hot apple ciders

Not for your fall cup of tea:

letting go of summer
noticeably shorter days
seasonal allergies
 snow blowers
southbound geese


Looking forward to dancing beneath the harvest moon as it heralds in the blustery season.
I do hope you'll join me.

Fall-la-la-la-la

 x
          

Friday, September 13, 2013

Burning Man 2013: Freaks, Geeks, and Eats

I do hope you can forgive my untimely manner as there's been much newness, and loads of this and that taking place, and yet I always manage to return to my sanctuary and respite of sorts here in the aethers of the otherweb.

It seems that while deep in the throes of 'undusting' myself, I flurried right past my ongoing ritual of taking script to screen.

Following another 'playa con dios' sojourn into the sun-bleached desert at the annual Burning Man Art Festival, I've returned to a rather humdrummy place of commonplace other'isms. I've quite the game of catch up for the weeks of having neglected my rat-a-tat typeboard.

I've got a golden chance to make my way...

Not having abandoned writing altogether, I did complete round two of authoring the Playa Gourmet column with the Black Rock Beacon.


A task I take very seriously.

www.blackrockbeacon.org

Burning Man was visual and aural wonder. The weeklong white-powdered outing lent to a floodstorm of scintillating spectacles. I did my best to make use of as much of the available resources while out there in the howling wilderness.



The art'ing



The desert sightseeing...


The mayhem and trifled bits of insanity...



Photo by Kenny Kondo

Photo by Kenny Kondo

By day, a dusty metropolis.
By night, an intensely-hued, kaleidoscopic dreamscape in shimmering technicolor.

Photo by Kenny Kondo


 Nothing to see here, move right along.


The sort of sparkled place where you can bumble into mechanisms such as this here fire tornado, a human-made device which would swarm into a blazing whirlwind with just the mere push of a button.

...and the otherwise delicate dance between all the nose-to-the-grindstoning, the boundary-crossing, the ooh'ing, the awe'ing and the joys of requited love.



...while always leaving room for a cheese board or three, and delighting in the dusty-topped, desert offerings required from pounding the playa as a foodie 'Burnalist'.


Hailing from afar, the Kreme Burners camp came to the sugartoothed rescue. These fine humans took to the arduous task of bringing frozen-whipped, egg custard goodness, perfectly nestled into ramikins.


With lacings of almond and amaretto, the sweetstuff stood at attention in their respective chambers. Anyone who was fortunate enough to enjoy a proper tastybite was subject to an episode of sweet tooth vertigo.


Additional eats included a hot soup and sake operation, greasy-spooned, Quebec delicacies, S'moregasms, and NASA scientists serving up intergalactic stacks of melted, grilled cheese sandwiches beneath the waxing moon.


Photo Credit (c) 2013 Gayle Early

It's the sort of place where one is forced to brave a blustery gale trail just to eat with abandon.


Of course, no desert escapade would be complete without a Burning Man Petite Sirah. Only it wasn't petite at all, but rather a bold and dense, meaty blockbuster vying to be paired with a steak dinner (and it was, thanks Cameron!).

The week soon drew to a close and we faced Saturday eve knowing well that we had a man to burn, but not before we took to one hell of a performance before the man himself.

Photo by Kenny Kondo

We dressed our ranks as 'band geeks' at full attention, yielding proper auxiliary uniforms from our shakos down to our Civil War striped boots to take to the earth's largest fire stage and collective of blazing performers.

Photo by Marc Leglise

The 'freaks' did will to dazzle the crowd with stupefying feats of cirque acrobatics.


Our performance was followed by the explosive delight of pyrotechnics of the highest caliber.



What a sandstormy spectacle of rapid oxidation, dust devils and ashes!


...and although I waited patiently for the savage twister to give birth to a wildly, cycling house set to land on an unsuspecting Wicked Witch of the East, it never did come into fruition. 


Instead, we got exactly what we came for, and together, we watched silently as the man burned into cindery embers.

 Photo Credit (c) 2013 Jonathan Altburn

Such a smoldering spectacle to behold, and now back to normalcy, into the ho-hum'ish place of normality where the braless are frowned upon, the hustle and bustle of juggling work, family, and dust-free play.

What a magnificent week of love, eats, furious writing, beautiful humans, and marvelous spectacles. Time now for my head to stop spinning, hot showers, rest, discipline, and to 'undust' back into the default world, if that is even within the realm of possibility.


x
        
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