An Accident

It was a beautiful Sunday morning to visit San Xavier del Bac, a mission established in 1692 on the Tohono O’odham reservation. A magnificent white building, it can be seen from miles away, and is called Dove of the Desert. Nancy and Cleo had arrived the day before and we were eager to show them some of Tucson’s wonders. Cleo and I took photos from this angle.

After a fry bread lunch at the little café in the mission plaza, we moved on to the Desert Museum. That’s when the day turned sour.  My foot tangled with a chair leg and I fell to my knees. Although one knee was skinned a bit, the real damage was to my foot, which was badly sprained.

From then on, I was confined to this shiny mechanism.

That was the down side. The up side is that Dennis, Nancy, and Cleo attended to my every need. I quickly became terribly spoiled from being waited on and furnished with a steady supply of pastries from the Mexican bakery in the Mercado.

Five days later and Nancy and Cleo have returned to Colorado, Dennis is still babying me, and my swollen foot is slowly returning to normal. The wheelchair is stowed away and I’m walking almost normally.

This accident has taught me two important lessons. One is that I am fortunate to have a loving, caring family. The other is that accidents can be avoided if I’m always conscious of what my body is doing. It’s essential to be in the moment and not wool-gathering while in motion.

Copyright 2017 by Shirley Domer

Making Do

We came here to spend the cold winter months, so I was unprepared for temperatures soaring into the nineties. Desperate for something cool to wear, I remembered a mock turtleneck tee I had put into the charity box. My handy sewing scissors soon removed the neck just below the seam that attached it to the shirt. The first cut having been so successful, I went after the sleeves, making them three-quarter instead of long.

The results were so pleasing that I’ve kept wearing it, even though my summer wardrobe has been replenished. The shirt has been washed several times and still looks fine.

Emboldened by success, I finished altering an old tie-dye shirt that was cut too low for an old woman to be seen in. I had salvaged a lace panel from a worn out undershirt and Mimi had basted it in place for me. All I had to do was fire up the sewing machine. That project turned out nicely, too.

These alterations call to mind the old expression “making do.” It means, of course, that we do the best we can with what we have. Sometimes making do turns out something pleasing and comfortable. Making do is always worth a try.

Copyright 2017 by Shirley Domer

Beet Ravioli by Blair

One of intergenerational living’s benefits is sharing the cooking with other good cooks. Last evening we dined on Blair’s home made beet ravioli.

Blair has lived in Italy off and on for many years and learned to make pasta from an Italian grandmother. In 2015 I wrote about her pasta in a post called, “Lasagne alla Bolognese,” which was completely different and far better than any lasagna I’d ever tasted.

Last night’s ravioli was equally delicious. Blair recently acquired a ravioli-forming gadget and decided to make beet pasta. (She used only half of a small beet for making the pasta.) Here she is starting to form the first batch. She used a ricotta filling.

The next step is to cover the first layer with another pasta sheet. In this photo you can see the underlying ravioli form's squares.

The gadget neatly presses the layers together, and out pop the ravioli.

Once all the ravioli had been formed, the pasta cooked in boiling water for only two minutes.

The proof is in the pudding, and the ravioli topped with Parmesan cheese tasted every bit as good as they looked.

Hurrah for intergenerational living! Pooling our talents and resources makes life more enjoyable for everyone. Now the weekend is over, Blair and Grant will go back to their jobs, and Dennis and I will be busy in the kitchen, whipping up evening meals. I only hope our efforts measure up to Blair’s.

Photo credits: Blair and Grant

Copyright 2017 by Shirley Domer

Winding Down

I don’t know the name of this bush and its several sisters in our yard, but when their yellow blossoms open and we start sneezing, I know our time in Tucson is drawing to a close for this season.

Between sneezes, we got busy this week using the last of the sour oranges a neighbor gave us to make one more batch of orange marmalade. Making marmalade is laborious. We spent four hours peeling 14 oranges, extracting some of their juice, cooking the seeds and pulp, slicing the peels into tiny strips, cooking the juice and strips of peel with the extracted pectin from the pulp and seeds, and, finally, cooking the marmalade and pouring it into sterilized jars.

We think the product is worth all the labor. We ended up with six pints and part of another.

Last year was our first marmalade-making experience. I started with a recipe I found on line, but soon devised my own method, which yields more marmalade of perfect consistency. As soon as I finish writing the recipe, I’ll post it on this blog.

Very soon the native palo verde and mesquite trees, which grow in abundance in Tucson, will be covered with tiny yellow blooms, we will be sneezing even more, and it will be time to skedaddle for our home in Kansas. This year we aren’t looking forward to returning because Kansas hasn’t had measurable precipitation for months. The soil there is desert-dry and fire danger is high. But we must return, at least for one more year, carrying enough orange marmalade to last seven months.

Copyright 2017 by Shirley Domer

Smell the Roses

If it isn’t one thing, it’s another keeping me from writing in this journal about life in Tucson, especially intergenerational life. First it was the remodeling of the Bee House that kept me occupied and then it was almost three weeks of visitors. Dinners for eight kept us hopping in the kitchen. Dennis became an accomplished tour guide. Everyone had a good time.

and...

But now we’re back to a less intense time, and I’m ready for some solitude so I can spend time sitting in the shade, watching the garden slowly grow.

Also, I can spend some time with Josephine, our resident lizard. Jo lives in the kitchen light fixture, her features obscured by a frosted panel. All we see is her silhouette.

Having a lizard in your home is said to be good luck. One practical benefit is that the lizard eats insects and spiders. Yum! Maybe more important is the sheer whimsy of having a small, harmless, reclusive reptile sharing our abode.

It’s important to have and nurture social connections, but it’s also important to observe and appreciate the beauty and charm all around us. Just to be in the world, to smell the roses.

Copyright 2017 by Shirley Domer