Anglophile Friday - Eyes - Past, Present, Future

The Machinery

London Eye 

Now there is talk of New York City building their own 'Eye.' 

From Bloomberg.com:

"The north shore of New York City’s Staten Island near its ferry connection with Lower Manhattan may become the home of a Ferris wheel bigger than the London Eye, according to a person familiar with the potential deal...

"The New York City Economic Development Corp. last year asked developers for ideas on developing two parcels on Staten Island’s St. George waterfront, which has missed out on the “huge opportunity” of New York City’s 8 million residents, according to the agency. The ferry connecting the island to Manhattan, 25 minutes across the bay, is the city’s third-most- popular tourist attraction and 70,000 daily commuters pass through the terminal. 

“It’s the greatest thing that has been proposed for Staten Island, especially on the waterfront,” James Molinaro, the borough president, said in a telephone interview. “This could landmark us. We have 2 million tourists a year on the ferry, so we have a built-in audience to use it, and it’s a different audience every day. Once you can attract them off that boat, you got them here.”

The Pod, London Eye

 Each pod seems huge, and can hold 25 people. There are 32 pods.

Contrast that with the first Ferris Wheel, assembled in Chicago for the Columbian Exposition of 1893:

From HydeParkHistory.org:

"The Columbian Exposition opened on May 1,1893, while the steelworkers barely paused to watch, high on the growing Wheel. By June 9, the Wheel, as yet without cars, was ready for a trial run. At six o'clock in the evening with trusted men stationed at various points, Rice ordered the steam turned on. Slowly, without a creak or groan and only the soft clink of the chain, the great wheel began to turn... in twenty minutes, it had completed one revolution. When he got the word, Ferris, who was in Pittsburgh at the time, immediately ordered the 36 cars hung.

Visitors and participants at the Exposition had viewed the Wheel as an enigma, but the sight of it moving slowly on that summer evening galvanized them into action... from all sides crowds formed, shouting , gesturing... On June 10, one car was hung; by June 13, twenty more had been added and the offices and loading platforms practically completed.

The cars were 24 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 10 feet high, and weighed 26,000 pounds. Each car carried fancy twisted wire chairs for 38 of the 60 passengers. The five large plate glass windows on each side were fitted with heavy screens and the doors at each end were provided with secure locks.. firefighting equipment was carried as a safeguard.. Six platforms were arranged to speed loading and unloading, with a guard at each t9 signal the operator when his car was filled and locked. Conductors rode in each car to answer patrons' questions or, if necessary, to calm their fears.

On June 11, with six cars hung, Daniel Burnham arrived to take a trial trip and Margaret Ferris, who had often given words of encouragement to workers on the Wheel, also went along~the Wheel's first woman passenger. At six o'clock on June 13, Rice held a trial trip for the local press who were very enthusiastic in their praise... correspondents, particularly those from foreign countries, began making repeated requests for drawings and data, but Ferris appears to have been very reticent about releasing details. As a consequence, no copies of the original plans or calculations have survived."

London Eye, overlooking Westminster Bridge (over the Thames) and Palace of Westminster

London Eye - at Night

County Hall Building

***

Raspberry Swirl

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This post is linked to 'G'Day Saturday' 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

Thankful Thursday

Purple Clover on Fifth Avenue

'Christ didn't die for his people because they were special, but because they were sinful.'

Now there's something to think about. We might be able to fool a lot of people, and maybe even ourselves, but the truth is, we are sinners. Our only hope is the grace of God.

I'm posting the following passage from the Bible because it is one of my favorites. It reminds me that God is not impressed by our pretense. He knows us inside and out. He knows we are but dust, and that we are totally helpless to save ourselves. He loved us anyway, in our hopeless condition, enough to shower mercy and grace upon us, through His Son, Jesus!


Ephesians 2:1-10  NIV

'As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,  in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.   

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved.   

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.   

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.'

***

Today I am thankful for a merciful Savior who buries my past and loves me with an everlasting love. His forgiveness is the only thing that can truly give us a fresh start. When we put our trust in Christ, our report card gets thrown away...

...and we get His instead!

***

Taste Memory - Bolivian Saltenas

Bolivian Saltenas* - my elusive taste memory

* Sorry, I have tried to make the enye, the letter 'n' with a tilde over it, but it keeps disappearing.

First, a little introductory explanation about this post:

Last Friday, Mary, in her 'Frugal Floozie Friday post' about Bella Italia, mentioned 'taste memory.' Be sure to read the entire article, if you haven't already. In the meantime, here's an excerpt which Mary kindly gave me permission to quote:

'The owners [of Bella Italia] are a young couple who have perfected and replicated the Dandy Pizza experience precisely.  Dandy's was a pizzeria on Whitney Avenue run by a Sicilian family who spoke no English, but knew what you were ordering.  My sister said she has been searching for 40 years to find the taste and here it was in Ann Arbor.  This was confirmed by another neighborhood resident who now lives here and confirmed our assessment.

Ah, taste memory - that oh, so elusive and indefinable entity that is rarely satisfied!'

Quoting Mary again in a follow-up email, (isn't she a fantastic writer!!)

'Taste memory is so elusive, so tenuous, and yet so very real. We all remember favorite foods, first foods, special foods; and try as we may to recreate them, sometimes we simply can't. Ingredients change, equipment changes, we change ... but we have that absolute certainty of what we remember. The Ebinger's Blackout Cake is a famous example - a deep, dense chocolate cake from Brooklyn that was mourned (like the Dodgers!) when the bakery went out of business. For decades, people have been trying to recreate it, tinkering, testing, tasting. One will think it's right, another argues vehemently that it's missing something. There's really no way to touch that memory, and all that's wrapped up in it - there's so much more to it than just taste. But it's fun to try, and it's definitely a way for people to bond and pass along their history ....'

As I was reading her Frugal Floozie Friday post, the words 'taste memory' penetrated my brain. I momentarily drifted off to the Andes Mountains, to the delicious saltenas I had loved many years ago when I spent a year in Bolivia as a short term assistant with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Saltenas, which I believe originated in Bolivia, could be purchased on street corners in Cochabama, where I was living at the time. They were simply delicious, unlike any other meat pie I'd ever eaten.

But when I tried to recreate saltenas at home some years later, something was missing. I don't know if it was that unique Bolivian recipe or the setting - that dry air of the Andes Mountains, or being in a foreign country, surrounded by all the other sights, smells, and sounds of a city in South America - that made them unique. Whatever it was that had made the taste of that wonderful Bolivian saltena - was not replicated in my kitchen in Wisconsin.

 Guanajuato, Mexico

Tripadvisor.com

And then I thought of another type of 'taste memory,' i.e. being instantly transported back to a place and time you weren't even thinking about before you took that bite. I don't remember now where it was, but I remember eating salsa somewhere several years ago, and all of the sudden, for a fleeting moment, I was in Mexico with friends in a particular restaurante in Guanajuato. And it happened only that once. Maybe it was the salsa, but maybe it was ambient sounds - voices, music, or the air temperature, the relative humidity, etc. etc. Who knows! But there, for a second, I felt Guanajuato.

So, my question to you, Cranberry Morning reader, is: Have you had either experience? 

a) Trying to recreate a taste you remember      

or 

 b) Tasting something that suddenly transports you to a memory of another place and time

Please tell us about it. We'd love to hear!

And just in case anyone is curious about what's in a Bolivian Saltena, here is a recipe I found at Boliviaweb.com.  I may actually give it another try, just in case it works this time...

***

Salteñas, Bolivian, Recipe: From Boliviaweb.com "(50 salteñas) FILLING Ingredients:

1 cup lard or margarine
1 cup ground spicy red pepper (cayenne) mixed with water
½ tablespoon ground cumin
½ tablespoon black ground pepper
½ tablespoon crumbled oregano
1½ tablespoon salt
2 cups white onion, cut into small cubes
1½ cups green onion, finely chopped
3 pounds lean meat, cut into small cubes
1 cup potato, peeled, cooked, and cut into small cubes
½ cup cooked green peas
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ tablespoon vinegar
½ cup parsley, finely chopped
2 spoonfuls unflavored gelatin dissolved in 3 cups water
½ black olive per salteña
3 raisins per salteña
1 slice of boiled egg per salteña

Preparation:

1. In a casserole add the margarine and the spicy red pepper. Set to boil over high heat until the margarine separates from the pepper. Next add cumin, ground black pepper, oregano, and salt. Let cook for ten minutes over low heat so that the mixture does not stick. Stir constantly. Next add the white onion and let it cook for five more minutes. Finally add the green onion.
2. Remove the casserole from the heat, add the sugar, vinegar, parsley, potato and cooked peas.
3. In another casserole add the three gelatin cups. Let it cook over high heat and as soon as it starts to boil, add the meat. Mix quickly and remove from the heat.
4. Mix the first preparation with the gelatin and meat. Let it cool in the refrigerator one night or until it thickens. If wanted, add the olives, raisins and egg before it thickens or add them directly on the dough when preparing the salteñas.

DOUGH
Ingredients:

12 cups flour
1½ cups lard or margarine (boiling)
6 whole eggs
½ cup sugar
3 teaspoons salt
2¼ cups lukewarm water (more or less)

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour in a bowl and add the boiling lard or margarine. Mix quickly with a wood spoon. Let it cool for a few minutes and add the eggs, the sugar and lukewarm water with salt. Knead until getting a dry dough. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel  and let it rest for ten minutes.
2. Divide all the dough into fifty small balls and thin them out one by one with a roller, until getting round-shaped pieces (about ¼ of and inch thick by 5 inches of diameter).
3. On each round-shaped piece put a spoonful of the filling with the olive, raisins and egg, if these ingredients were not mixed before.
4. Dampen the edges of each piece with water, fold each one and join the edges very well so that each salteña is closed perfectly. Leave the closing on top.
5. Put salteñas, on a backing sheet sprinkled with flour. Place each salteña separate from the next one.  Bake them at a high temperature (European oven: 300 C.; American oven  572 F.) between seven to ten minutes. Serve them warm.

NOTE 1: If desired, paint salteñas before baking them. In a frying pan add 6 spoonfuls of lard or margarine, 2 spicy red peppers (ground), 4 spoonfuls of water and a teaspoon of salt. Mix the ingredients and cook them over low heat until the water evaporates. Remove the mixture from the heat and paint each salteña with a kitchen brush.
NOTE 2: If desired, you can substitute meat with chicken, or you can combine both."

***

'Rugged Denim'

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  You'll find me at These Linky Parties:
Mop it Up Monday and French Obsession and  Skip to My Lou and Bedazzle Me Monday and  What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Make it Great Monday and Made By You Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Cozy Home Scenes and  Get Your Craft On and Tip Me Tuesday and Maiden d'Shade and  Inspiration Board and  Your Home Cozy and You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and  Made from Scratch Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Two Maids a Baking and What's Cookin' Wednesday and Exodus 35 and DJs Sugar Shack and  Cast Party Wednesday and The Shady Porch and   We Did it Wednesday  and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Link it Up Thursday and Crafty Friday (Thursday) and Petals to Picots and  Threading Your Way and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Creative Bloggers and  Serenity Saturday and Overflowing With Creativity and  Home and Family Friday 

Various and Sundry Monday

Passing time in the lanai

I love the collage look of this photo I took at Eric's house last summer. I'm hoping to get down to Westby again soon to see him and the town and the countryside and the Amish and... It is a beautiful part of Wisconsin!

 At the Westby Park

In the Driftless Region of Southwest Wisconsin

***

This week is VBS at our church. I don't know why craft ideas seemed like such a struggle this year. Hopefully we've come up with some things the kids and their parents will enjoy.

***

Misty is now blind, and although I try very hard not to step on her (as she's lying right at my feet at almost all times day or night) it's not easy! I have tripped over her a few times, and she has run into me more than once in her frantic effort to stay within 2 square feet of wherever I am.

 You can see how easy it is to cook dinner.

And no kidding, most of the time I try to stand in that little triangle of space, rather than making her move. Drives Kevin crazy!

***

The weeds in the garden have reared their ugly heads. I don't know why I thought it should be any different from any other year. My strawberry plants are gorgeous, although the berries had something seriously wrong with them. Maybe they got too much rain.  At the stem end they're great, but they seem stunted beyond that, with a ton of seeds at the bottom. Very odd berries. To make matters worse, although I put a net over the tops of the rows to protect them from the robins, many of the berries have little bite marks at the bottom. Someone out there likes those seeds. Are all the mice on the farm having a strawberry feast at night?? It must be Murphy's Law of Gardening: There's something out there to kill anything you may want to plant.

Okay, these few berries are the exception, I realize.

I watched 'Babe' last night for the first time. It was Mary's mention of the movie that inspired me. What a sweet movie! What a pig!  I kept expecting Charlotte to appear and start weaving a web above him.  Loved those Border Collies!

Time for the annual  bi-weekly vacuuming of the dog hair.

Hope you all have a good week!

 

'Mandarin Orange Spice'

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Anglophile Friday - Favorite Photos of England

Having Sought a Shady Spot

Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire

 When I think of England, this is what first comes to mind.

  Sheep don't come much cuter than the Scottish Blackface.

I would have loved to have taken them home.

or
I would have loved to take them home.

or
I would love to have taken them home.

(Angela, try that sentence on your ESL students!)

Okay, you grammarians, which should it be?

Whichever is correct,
I'm sure that my backyard in Wisconsin needs a few
Scottish Blackface sheep.

And wouldn't Bridger love having a real job,
instead of warming the carpet.

***

'Clover Blossom'

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This Post is linked to G'Day Saturday

Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

Vintage Children's Book - Slovenly Peter

Just in case modern methods of child behavior modification aren't seeming effective, one can always turn to Dr. Henry Hoffmann and his tales of what happened to naughty children - in the book Slovenly Peter.*

From a 2006 NPR Weekend Edition:


'One of the most popular children's books of 1845 is back in bookstores. Like many children's stories of that era, Der Struwwelpeter was written to frighten kids into good behavior. 

Few Americans today know the book, but its influence can be found in other familiar stories....

Loosely translated as Slovenly Peter, this new version of the 19th century collection of cautionary tales looks like a typical children's book.

Der Struwwelpeter  had a huge following in the States, up until World War I, when anti-German sentiment caused a dip in popularity. But the stories have lived on, influencing cartoon bad boys, the Katzenjammer Kids and later Dennis the Menace. 

The book also helped set the stage for children's book classics like Where the Wild Things Are and the beloved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 

Artist Bob Staake says his parents introduced him to Slovenly Peter, and it's still a rite of passage for children and grandchildren of many German immigrants' 

The Story of Augustus Who Would Not Have Any Soup 

 Augustus was a chubby lad;

Fat ruddy cheeks Augustus had;

And everybody saw with joy

The plump and hearty healthy boy,

He ate and drank as he was told,

And never let his soup get cold.

But one day, one cold winter's day,

He threw away the spoon and screamed:

'O take the nasty soup away!

I won't have any soup today:

I will not, will not eat my soup!

I will not eat it, no!

Next day, now look, the picture shows

How lank and lean Augustus grows!

Yet, though he feels so weak and ill,

The naughty fellow cries out still - 

'Not any soup for me, I say!

O take the nasty soup away!

I will not, will not eat my soup!

I will not eat it, no!'

The third day comes. O what a sin!

To make himself so pale and thin.

Yet, when the soup is put on table,

He screams, as loud as he is able - 

'Not any soup for me, I say!

O take the nasty soup away!

I won't have any soup today!'

Look at him, now the fourth day's come!

He scarce outweighs a sugar-plum;

He's like a little bit of thread;

And on the fifth day he was - dead!

Remember, we did read Grimm's Fairy Tales. This is a fun book with silly ink illustrations. Although there is no date in my copy of Slovenly Peter, according to a Google search, I believe that it is a reprint from the late 1930s.


*And no, I wouldn't use this book as a guide for child raising, but it is fun. I wonder if Mr. Rogers read Slovenly Peter to his boys. ;-)

***

'Midnight Jasmine'

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***

 You'll find me at These Linky Parties:
Mop it Up Monday and French Obsession and  Skip to My Lou and Bedazzle Me Monday and  What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Make it Great Monday and Made By You Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Cozy Home Scenes and  Get Your Craft On and Tip Me Tuesday and Maiden d'Shade and KnickofTimeTuesday and Inspiration Board and  Your Home Cozy and You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and  Made from Scratch Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Two Maids a Baking and What's Cookin' Wednesday and Exodus 35 and DJs Sugar Shack and  Cast Party Wednesday and The Shady Porch and   We Did it Wednesday  and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Link it Up Thursday and Crafty Friday (Thursday) and Petals to Picots and  Threading Your Way and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Creative Bloggers and  Serenity Saturday and Overflowing With Creativity and  Home and Family Friday

A Sign of Confusion

Kevin's cell phone photo

Baldwin School

My husband was working at a school last week and took a photo of this sign on the door.
When he sent it to my email address, the text attachment read, 'Confusion.'

He knows I love stuff like that. :-)

***

'American Rose'

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Zippered Clutch Purses

 Zippered Clutch Purses

Somehow, I found my way to Anna's blog  'Noodlehead' and found a great tutorial for making a cute zippered clutch. 

The entire tutorial is on her blog, so there is no need to copy it here. Just visit  Anna's tutorial for the zippered clutch purse. gather your own supplies, and make up a bunch of these.

The first one was a little tricky, because I just couldn't understand the instructions about the zipper. I've put in lots of zippers, but...once you have that figured out, everything's smooth sailing. I'm not saying that her instructions were not correct, but that if you're going to make these more than once, I'd suggest writing down your own instructions (your own language, so to speak) to make it easier the second time.

 Ruffled Clutch using batik fabric

I lined it with the orange and black stripe.

Back of same ruffled clutch

I loved this 'African' print, which I gave to one daughter. For the other daughter, I used musical notation fabric and instruments. It was fun choosing fabrics for these. There are some gorgeous batiks out there, and they were not expensive.

***

'Cranberry Tea'

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 You'll find me at These Linky Parties:
Mop it Up Monday and French Obsession and  Skip to My Lou and Bedazzle Me Monday and  What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Make it Great Monday and Made By You Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Cozy Home Scenes and  Get Your Craft On and Tip Me Tuesday and Maiden d'Shade and  Inspiration Board and  Your Home Cozy and You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and  Made from Scratch Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Two Maids a Baking and What's Cookin' Wednesday and Exodus 35 and DJs Sugar Shack and  Cast Party Wednesday and The Shady Porch and   We Did it Wednesday  and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Link it Up Thursday and Crafty Friday (Thursday) and Petals to Picots and  Threading Your Way and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Creative Bloggers and  Serenity Saturday and Overflowing With Creativity and  Home and Family Friday

Anglophile Friday - Favorite Photos of England

 Sunken Road,

Just outside Dorstone

Obviously, this photo wouldn't be here if it weren't one of my very favorites. The sunken road, the wood fence, the take-your-life-in-your-hands road if you're driving a car and meeting someone, combined with the greens, golds, and browns of mid March...

 Cute Dorstone Sheep

...and of course, sheep! After I took the photo of the road, the curious sheep came running to the fence.

...and here they are.

'Smile, girls. It's another tourist!'

St. Faith's Church

Dorstone

Herefordshire

There was something so charming about the Herefordshire countryside. I loved it, and would love to go back there some day. sigh.

 ***

Father's Day Special

on Handcrafted Soaps ends tomorrow.

Don't miss it!

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This post is linked to G'Day Saturday

Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

Dairies, Cows, and Corn

Another Wisconsin Barn

I was digging back through my post files in order to find this barn to post on Barn Charm. It's one of my favorites - but then, I have so many favorites!  Originally posted in June of 2012:

'I would have been able to zoom in on this with the old (now broken) camera so you could more clearly see the '1914' date etched into the foundation of this Wisconsin barn. The little group of structures was nicely aligned, I thought - the barn, the milk house, and the tile silo.

I'm pretty sure there were no longer any cows on this property, as is true of many of the old farms. Only the buildings remain, and who knows if they'll be here in another 20 years.

A couple weeks ago I read a headline, '1250-cow farm hosts dairy breakfast.'  One thousand two hundred fifty cows???  In the 1950s, the average dairy herd in our neighborhood was about 30 cows. Admittedly, 1250 isn't the average size herd these days, but still...

 Some of the luckier cows

Living the good life

There are currently 1,250,000 cows in the state of Wisconsin, but the number of operating dairy farms is a fraction of what it used to be. Now many of those cows live on huge 'super dairies,' where they only dream about being free to roam a pasture. Although they are able to move about the barn, they are never outdoors, never walk through a woods, never drink from a stream,  or never congregate under a lone oak during a rain shower. Many cows in Wisconsin live a very different life from their ancestors.

Some of the old homesteads are being erased from the landscape. As they begin to deteriorate, buildings are torn down, trees cut down and their stumps removed, and the land is plowed to make room for corn. In a few weeks the uninformed passerby would never know there'd been a homestead - a house, a dairy barn, a milk house, a silo, a chicken coop, a horse barn, a corn crib, and a granary - once standing on that land that is now another few acres devoted to the production of ethanol.'

This photo is linked to

Barn Charm

Feeling nostalgic,