A Charmed Life

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

I can’t remember if I’ve told this story before, but for my birthday in 1970, I got a sterling silver charm bracelet.  My first charm, a silhouette of a girl’s head, had my name and the date of my 6th birthday engraved on it.  I loved my charm bracelet and I wore it to first grade that fall at the Marion T. Morse Elementary School.

During recess one fall day, between swinging and playing on the merry-go-round, I lost the charm.  I’m sure I cried.  I was only six, but even at that tender age, I had a sentimental streak, saving embossed napkins from restaurants, bookmarks from the library, and birthday cards.  That we might find the little silver charm, no bigger than a nickel, seemed impossible given the sand and gravel under the swing set.

I don’t remember who found it, but someone did.  Everyone was relieved, especially me because I hated losing things and it’s quite possible that I had a little “I lost something” anxiety attack right there on the playground.

After the incident, I never lost a charm or my charm bracelet again.  I still have it and a few links were added over the years; I wear it sometimes.  I only acquired 12 additional charms, but they jingle and I like the sentimental feeling I have when I wear it.

That swing set is still at the Marion T. Morse School, or the “MTM Center.”  I stopped there on my walk around town last night and thought about the charm bracelet incident.  I sat on the swing, enjoying the childish activity in the receding daylight.  It’s funny how some childhood memories can be so vivid.

The other day, someone asked me what it’s like to be living here in the place I grew up after being away for 30 years.  I said it was good; there had been a period of adjustment, but that this was where I wanted to be.  I would have been lying if I had said it was always perfect.  It’s more like living in a kaleidoscope of memories tumbling around with diamond-cut shapes of the present reality.

The Marion T. Morse School, or the “MTM Center” is “where it all began” for me.  That’s where I learned to read and to square dance, and it’s where I first felt that gritty reality of “lost and found.”

In the GardenThis year, I’m hosting The Moxie Recipe Contest there.  We’ll taste some delicious dishes whipped up with a bit of Moxie and we’ll drink the distinctively different elixir.  Find me (and maybe yourself) there on July 11!

Well of course I’ll be wearing my charm bracelet!

The Moxie Recipe Contest will be held on Saturday afternoon, July 11, 2015, at the MTM Center Gymnasium, 18 School Street, Lisbon Falls, Maine.  The judging begins at 2:00 p.m.

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The Gift of Work

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

When I survey my yard and the many gardens planted here before I arrived, I am sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of work required to maintain such beauty.  For instance, the large garden that runs down the banking along the road.

Banking GardenThe i-phone can’t capture the whole lush panorama.

Then I remember that it’s not work, but a gift.

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Biblical Proportions

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

We had a weekend of weather here in my corner of New England.  Saturday was warm and breezy, a great day for being outside.  With rain on the horizon, though, it was an evening race to mow the lawn before dark.  I’ll spare you THAT comedy of errors.  Finally finished, with the darkness settling over the yard, I plunked myself in a lawn chair.  There were no mosquitoes and as the waxing gibbous moon rose over the big oak tree at the edge of the yard, fireflies flitted about, twinkling off and on.

The rain started Sunday morning.  It rained all day and the weather minions forecast more of it for the next few days.  It’s good, really good.  We need the rain.  After just a day of it, all the flowers and plants are sighing in relief.  Seeds that I planted in the dusty soil over at Uncle Bob’s garden sprouted and the struggling tomato seedlings are now holding their own.

Relegated to inside activities for much of the afternoon, I looked at my Moxie Recipe Contest calendar.  40 days and 40 nights remain until the event.  The rain and the number of days struck an ominous chord.

Will I be able to pull off the event again this year?  And will this year’s Moxie Recipe Contest be as fantastic in reality as it is in my mind right now?  Will it be a Moxie Recipe Contest for the ages, an event of “biblical proportions?”

I sure hope so.

Meanwhile, over at my “Surprise Garden” the irises will soon be opening.

Getting Ready to BloomIt’s Monday morning and the rain beats steadily on my bedroom roof.  I could listen to it all day, curled up with a book and a cup of coffee.  I still haven’t figured out the best way to combine Moxie and coffee, although one of last year’s recipes did have coffee in it.  It was a “Moxie Bacon Jam.”

Rain, Moxie, and sands through the hourglass…those are the days of my life.

The Moxie Recipe Contest will be held on Saturday afternoon, July 10, 2015, at the MTM Center Gymnasium, 18 School Street, Lisbon Falls, Maine.  The judging begins at 2:00 p.m.

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It’s a Cook Off!

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

Last night, I dreamed some of my teeth fell out.  Before I turned out the light, I was thinking about how to make Moxie butter brickle cookies and that must be why not only my rear molar fell out during the evening dreamscape, but also the three teeth in front of it.  All I remember about the dream was that I was holding these four teeth in my hand and saying “darn, this is going to be a bigger dental job than just putting the crown back.  I’m going to need a partial.”

Fortunately, it was just a dream.

I do spend a lot of time thinking about the recipe contest, though, and trying to imagine different ways the distinctively different soda could be added to foods.  Here are just 11 ideas I’ve had in the last 3 days:

  1. Chocolate Moxie dipped pretzels
  2. Moxie granola
  3. Chocolate Moxie dipped potato chips
  4. Fresh crepes with Moxie-macerated strawberries and Moxie whipped cream
  5. Chocolate Moxie dipped strawberries
  6. Moxie butter brickle
  7. Moxie-marinated beef tips
  8. Fresh pineapple with a Moxie yogurt dipping sauce
  9. Moxie coconut shortbread cookies
  10. Moxie fondue
  11. Moxie and coffee

None of these ideas are fully developed (especially number 11).  None of these ideas are particularly “Portland foodie hip.” I’ll admit, my ideas are probably stuck in the 90’s.  But if a person like me, who isn’t a very good cook, can come up with 10 ways to make fun and delicious food with Moxie soda while drifting off to sleep, imagine what a truly creative and inventive devotee of The Food Network could do.

And there are cash prizes for the best of the best.

2015_Moxie_Recipe_ContestSo don’t lose your teeth dreaming about what to enter.  Get busy experimenting right now!  Forty two more days until the Moxie Recipe Contest, more or less.

The Moxie Recipe Contest will be held on Saturday afternoon, July 10, 2015, at the MTM Center Gymnasium, 18 School Street, Lisbon Falls, Maine.  The judging begins at 2:00 p.m.  FMI, click here.

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The Last Days of May

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

Du joli mois du mai…

Du joli mois de maiWould that life could always be so simple and lovely.

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The Moxie Moon

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

I took a walk around town on Sunday evening with the waxing crescent moon as my guide.  That and the scent of lilacs drew me up and down the familiar hills and neighborhoods through which I walked.  I’d been daily cutting lilacs from the bush in my backyard, trying to understand when the purple flowers were most fragrant.  I hadn’t been able to figure it out and the interwebs had not helped.  When I searched the term “when are lilacs most fragrant” I was told which plant types are most fragrant and where I could buy them.  Old folk wisdom or general botanical information about capturing the scent of lilac eluded me.

But on Sunday night, the whole town was misted with the delicate old-fashioned perfume.  Even the ugly things were quite lovely, the lilacs acting like smelling salts.  It’s too bad more people weren’t out walking about, enjoying the simple things in life.

As I walked, I thought about the Moxie Recipe Contest.  Since last Friday, I’ve been counting the days to the event.  This year, it’s going to be different in many ways.

First, it’s going to be on Saturday afternoon instead of Friday night.

Second, it’s going to be at the MTM Center gymnasium.  Over the last two years, the event has outgrown Chummy’s Mid-town Diner.  Although I’m going to miss Ben and his cool retro horseshoe-shaped dining bar, this year I want to give entrants a chance to showcase their cooking prowess in all dimensions, including presentation.  So the MTM Center will give them the space to do that.  The way I saw it in my lilac-addled mind was a “food bazaar” with each entrant having a small table space set up where they could present their Moxie-infused foods.  Even though I won’t be eligible to win a prize, I’m contemplating an entry myself just to have an opportunity to experience the contest excitement and anxiety.  I’ll admit, The Old Goat’s Chili Cook-Off did inspire me to change the dimensions of the Moxie Recipe Contest.

There will also be changes in the judging and the prizes; you can read about it all here.

Best of all, there’s a new logo for the contest, created by artist and graphic designer Robin Swennes.

bottlecap for web v2 pathsThese are the kinds of things I think about when I’m walking around town under the influence of lilacs.  That and Moxie crepes, Moxie and chocolate dipped pretzels, Moxie fruit dips, Moxie-marinated meat on a stick, and Moxie granola.  Just today, I saw a recipe for Tarte Au Sucre (Canadian sugar pie) and I said to myself “I wonder if someone could make that pie with Moxie for The Recipe Contest?”

Even though the lilacs may be fading, the flower of the Moxie Recipe Contest is just forming.  It will be in full, fragrant bloom in 45 days, more or less.

Story developing…

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Fifty Days (More or Less)

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

Memorial Day is early this year, more or less.  It’s always on the last Monday of May and that would be May 25.  Here in Maine, Memorial Day is a beginning of many things, like tourism and gardening.  The governor’s economic development team probably has an algorithm that appropriates state funds based on the inbound and outbound volume of traffic on the Maine Turnpike.

I have my geraniums and tomato plants ready to go.  But the holiday weekend is off to a rocky start.  I made a grave mistake last night when I stopped by “Handyland” for dessert.  Handy was watching an episode of Hoarders on his giant Tee Vee and I sat down to watch it with some apple pie à la mode.

For those who might be new to this blog, I don’t have a Tee Vee.  It’s a choice I made about 15 years ago and I try not to be “holier than thou” when I tell people about my lack.  (But no thank you, I don’t want your old Tee Vee.)  I’m out of touch with a lot of the lingo people use in every day conversation because television is such a large part of the American consciousness.  Once upon a time, biblical and historical metaphors like “he’s older than Methuselah” or “Rome wasn’t built in a day” were part of the common parlance, but today, one might more likely hear references to characters and situations from Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black, or The Walking Dead.

It’s hard to keep up with it, but I do the best I can.

Handy explained the “hoarding” phenomenon to me some time ago when we passed an “auction” sign at a storage facility.  Again, it was hard to understand.

Thinking about the Tee Vee show before I fell asleep resulted in a night of fitful sleep and even folding my hands on my chest and trying to meditate on a French prayer didn’t help.  The characters on the Tee Vee show, if they are real, were suffocating in their stuff all night.  Hoarders remind me of cigarette smokers.  I want to kindly tell them to “please stop.”

It’s probably not that easy.

Please stop hoardingI took this picture at a VFW “yard sale” in the area.  The man selling this shoe had backed a small trailer of stuff into the parking lot, probably fresh from a storage auction.  He asked me why I was taking a picture of it and I said “oh, I’m a free-lance writer, working on a story about yard sales.”

He nodded his head in understanding and asked no more questions.  Thank goodness, because if he’d probed further, I might have been honest and said “this is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”

At one time, recycling an old shoe into a planter with fabric scraps, decoupage glue, and lace might have seemed like something to give a young Martha Stewart a run for her money.  But the craft hadn’t stood the test of time.

On a brighter note, it’s fifty days (more or less) until the Moxie Festival.  I know, I can hardly believe it either.  I’ve been working on some fun changes to the Recipe Contest, including a new judging format and a new location.  Check in here on Tuesday (blog dark on Monday, due to Memorial Day observance) and I’ll tell you all about it.

No hoarding this weekend!

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Thursdays are…

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

Thursdays are chaotic days, on every front.  I thought there might be a pleasant and calming story somewhere on the ‘netz about the flowering plant genus Euphorbia, but that was not the case.

Cushion Spurge Thursdays and Euphorbia…not to be confused with euphoria.

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First Mow

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

Last week I exchanged some e-mails with one of my friends from New Hampshire.  We were talking about news and weather and she said “John mowed for the first time yesterday.”

Is there anything that says you’re a homeowner louder than the steady whine of a lawn mower?  It’s all very suburban.

Struggling for something to say about the summer rituals of lawn mowing, I read the long “lawn” entry Wikipedia.  It is filled with socio-economic opinion about lawns and also touches on environmental impacts.  There wasn’t much in the way of alternatives to gasoline-powered mowers.  I found a somewhat obscure article about a pedal-powered mower in a farming magazine, and we all know how the push mower turned out for me last year.

I like the idea of a robotic lawn mower.  I haven’t seen any like this here in Maine, though.

I’m not opposed to transforming parts of my lawn to gardens or things that require less upkeep than traditional bluegrass.  I’ve added three new garden spots to the lawn area since I moved in.  But even these installations are not without work and thought.

Here are some morning glories I’ve planted in a lawn cut-away garden.

Morning GloriesI pulled the mower out yesterday and mowed two-thirds of the lawn.  Tonight after work, I’ll mow the last of it.  I don’t see any alternative to it this year.  I’m just going to make peace with the process as much as it’s possible.

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Le Mois de Mai

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Julie-Ann Baumer

The Lerner and Loewe musical, Camelot, features a fun and innocently scandalous song called “The Lusty Month of May.”  It’s the type of song that can get stuck in one’s brain for days, especially on a sunny spring one.  The lyrics of the song suggest May is the month in which everyone goes “blissfully astray.”

No one is going astray here at my house.  Handy is finishing my raised beds and my brother has graciously volunteered to paint the lattice-work on my porches.  I’m weeding and planting and clipping and cleaning until dark every night.

And I’m trying to learn a few new French songs because I’ll be singing with Les Troubadours today at the last French Sing-Along of the “season” at the University of Maine’s Lewiston/Auburn College.  We’ll be singing a bunch of “springish” songs, many having a bit of a “Mother’s Day” feel, including the new to me “C’est le mois de Marie.”

I first heard the song at the end of French Mass on Saturday.  Our accompanist, Paul Caron, started playing it after communion.  I didn’t know the song, but everyone else in church did.  As Paul played through the first verse and then repeated the chorus, I could hear the sound of voices humming and signing along, quietly at first.  Then their voices filled the space.  There was a magical quality to hearing these French Canadians singing a song that was deeply embedded in their memories.  It seemed as natural to them as blinking their eyes, but it sounded like it was coming deep from their hearts.

The Bleeding HeartI had to blink my own eyes to wipe away a few tears.

“C’est le mois le plus beau.”

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