“Let’s think deep…”

News blues

Omicron spreading at lightning speed and restrictions tighten as countries battle a new wave of infections >> 

If you test positive for COVID-19, how long should you quarantine, who should you tell, and when should you call your doctor? >> 

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Jimmy Kimmel: This week in Covid history (1:45 mins)
The Lincoln Project reminds us:
Donny, Jr (0:30 mins)
Donny, Sr, and the MAGA Church  (1:45 mins)
The Collapse  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Thames River.
The ebbing and flowing of the tide evokes our troubling future.

"Bankers"

If you don’t’ know him yet, meet sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor , former graffiti artist that Canterbury art college refused. Taylor creates boundary obliterating art and urges, “Let’s think big and let’s think deep.”
See his underwater sculptures and hear his goals >>  (11:09 mins)
More on his work >>  (8:13 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A friend advises that my recent baking obsession is not, as I thought, ahead of the wave. It’s not even cresting the wave. Indeed, I’m doggie paddling way behind the my fellow baking obsessives. Americans who sought solace from pandemic induced isolation turned to baking last March and April. 

Back then, I was locked down in South Africa, visiting my mother each day in the Care Center after her fall and subsequent surgery, auctioning piles of no-longer-required workshop and household items, caring for her dogs, her gardens, her swimming pool, and shooing troops of monkeys from her fruit trees. Had anyone suggested I bake, I’d have chuckled my disbelief.

Ah well, being au courant is not my ambition. (Perhaps the late baker earns the tested recipes?) 

Melktert - smooth, custardy, easy to make....

Yesterday, before my friend carried away a growing inventory of baked goods, I added melktert (aka milk tart) to my culinary effort.

Surpassed only by dark fruit cake as a personal favorite South African treat, melktert is not too sweet and enticingly jiggly and smooth.
Explore how easy it is to bake by Google searching “melktert” or “milk tart.” (If pastry making scares you, pick up a ready-made pastry crusts at Safeway; brush over an egg wash and bake for just 5 minutes. The wash stabilizes the crust for the delicious custard-like filling, served room temperature.)

My next challenge?
Turns out the odd baking pan, above, forms donuts. 

Not a donut fan, I puzzle about other baking options. The challenge is how to outwit the open “top”.
What about:

• baking an upside-down fruit pie held together by either pastry or sponge cake? Or a layer of graham cracker crust?
• forming a pastry pocket over the “top” then, when cooked, flip it over to serve? The “hole” would form a receptacle sauce or other filling.
• a savory “not-donut donut” with no-knead bread and sprinkled cheese?

Watch this space for baking experiments….

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Until the pandemic forced Otaez, a family style, Mexican family-owned and managed neighborhood restaurant out of business, service included tasty and affordable margaritas on a sunny outdoor patio.
Alas. Gone are the days of margaritas, fresh ceviche, tamales….
On the bright side, a chef locally born and bred bought the very large, standalone building. His chef cred includes cooking at high-end San Francisco Bay Area restaurants. 

The menu posted near the door might be a tad ambitious for this neighborhood (no margaritas, or fresh ceviche, or tamales… ).
I hope he can make a go of this new business, particularly as we endure another pandemic wave.
This mural painted on the north wall catches the eye; perhaps it’ll stimulate taste buds, too.

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Winter solstice - San Francisco Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:20am
Sunset: 4:52pm
Summer solstice - Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:55am
Sunset: 6:58pm

Running out of time

News blues

Another formal recognition that those of us living on planet earth are running out of time to turn things around and avoid cataclysm.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC - a group of the world’s climate experts, formed in 1988 and charged with preparing comprehensive reports on the state of our knowledge of the climate, has stated – yet again – that only drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions starting yesterday, might prevent us from raising global temperatures to a disastrous extent.
Their sixth and latest assessment report, 

addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, and global and regional climate simulations.

The dwindling number of people still lucky enough to live in environments that have not yet experienced extreme weather – and unlucky enough not to have to pay attention – might miss the what’s happening around the planet. The rest of us understand what’s going on but have no idea how to address it. Looking to neighbors is comforting (hopefully your neighbors will have your back when you need help). Looking to leaders and politicians is useless.
Coronavirus is simply one more, albeit devastating, symptom of the disrespect with which too many of the world’s people treat our planet.
Yet, few elected and unelected officials and politicians have a handle on the coronavirus pandemic. Some are worse than others – through choice. Florida Governor DeSantis is among the worst. As he rakes in money for being a stubborn idiot  Florida’s death toll increases by the day and DeSantis continues to scorn science and scientists in general and Dr Fauci in particular. 
Then there’s US Senator Manchin, supporter and supportee of fossil fuels industries, saying, against all evidence, “Eliminating fossil fuels won’t help fight global heating… If anything, it would be worse.” 
What to say?
What to do>?

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The Lincoln Project co-founder – and former Republican operative - Rick Wilson accuses GOP leaders of destroying America to entertain Fox News viewers, “This is how the world ends….”
Last Week in the Republican Party (latest),  (1:40 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A look at the work of a favorite artist, Jason deCaires Taylor. recent in Cyprus.
Other sculptures around the world by this artist…. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Suffocatingly hot again.
I finished up painting the exterior and roof of the houseboat and erected the 10 x 10-foot pop up canopy. Alas, after pushing up a foam mattress and cushion, binoculars, water, and reading matter, I spent only an hour under the canopy shade before heat drove me back inside. But the canopy is up. When the heat dies down – after 8pm or so – I’ll head back up under the canopy and enjoy the expanded view.
I worked hard on these projects, carried them out alone, and now can enjoy the fruits of my labor. If only the extreme heat and weather would play ball…