L'aura del Campo

Chocolate, coffee and snow.

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by panthera

L'aura del campo

WINTER: 3 Sultan (21 January) 35º and a blanket of white.

'é a lua, é a lua, na quintana dos mortos'
♣ Federico García Lorca ♣

Today's blog is brought to you by coffee and chocolate ... and the warmth of the color orange

I like chocolate, chocolate cake and ice-cream, hot cocoa. It's a comfort food at anytime of year but especially in winter.

As a child my parents would cook it from scratch with the cocoa, sugar and milk. In my mind I can still see the stove by the door to the utility room. (My sister has since switched the stove and refrigerator.) It was a treat that we had every once in awhile.

Today, I'd love to have some with a bit of hazelnut and marshmallow but I don't have any so I'm drinking vanilla chai. We didn't have chai when I was a child. I do like it.

My favorite flavor of chocolate must be orange. Yep. orange chocolate from Platter's (sp?) in North Tonawanda. Here you can buy those round balls of orange chocolate that you smash to break apart into slices.

Besides orange and hazelnut I also like chocolate mint or raspberry or ... well ... as long as it is chocolate! I like sweet, milk, dark, bittersweet. Love it all.

Even like mole as in chicken mole that is a Mexican recipe based on a mix of cocoa and chilies.

Coffee: make mine Kenyan AA or Ethiopian (Harrar). But I'll drink Folgers if there is nothing else and I've even been sipping Postum recently (I like it but I swear it gives me gas).

I lived in Costa Rica, but prefer a more fruity, flowery or earthy, fuller taste than the acidy light coffee of Central America. I also drink Sumatran and New Guinea coffees whenever I can get them. There is a strange and different coffee from the coasts of India (Malabar) that I haven't been able to get in awhile.

As for roast ... I like a light roast or French roast, but frankly, will drink most anything.

View from the porch

         for Sean and Desertstar

the ducks were gone
glistening water barely rippling
on the other side
of the dusted railing
snow covering the colors
of hibernation leaving
a silhouette the table
set for the empty
chairs and skies awaiting
the flight of ducks
the hush of snow.

[163.556]

To see the photo this was based on, and read alfred booth, wanbli ska 's poem, go to "Invalid Entry"  in the blog of Startiara . I guess this would qualify as an ekphrastic poem.

Speaking of alfred booth, wanbli ska ... ... Check out these two little oddities he inspired me to write:

Deathflower

What frees the bees
of duty to
the hive? What chive
blooms white at night?

[163.555b]

Poisoned

Compare two pears.
This still-life spills
sweet lies, your eyes
impart cold darts.

[163.555c]

The weather ... is a blanket of slippery and slide. A cool color that shimmers with the refraction of the rainbow, blinding eyes. What sleeps beneath the comfort of the down-like fluff? What strange tracks are these that mark its surface?

It was fun to watch Finn Strong make snowballs yesterday. He's 4, but has got the technique down pat. Pat. Pat. Throw! I was watching him while talking with his grandmother Eileen Strong.

We've had two storms that were mostly ice and sleet and nothing to write about. This is snow. About 4 inches of it that is trying to melt today. It came down in nice sized flakes and didn't create too much havoc. This is the snow I remember as a child.



Health? Every day a bit better, but still no energy. Hard to accomplish anything when I'm exhausted all the time. Now the right leg has needle pain! Tain't fair ... complain, complain.

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... drift

READING

Eleven Days Before Spring by JoEllen Kwiatek. She writes quite a few ekphrastic (based on art) poems. Since I'd like to do a series based on Modigliani this is helpful. I saw an exhibit years ago at the Albright-Knox with my friend Carol Merckel and enjoyed it immensely.

I bookmarked 'Letting Go' and 'On the Way to Tell My Sister'. One of her poems mentions the small brown ginger flowers that I remember from Akron Falls and other places back east. At one time she lived in Syracuse.

A link:

http://www.tcsn.net/jackie/Archive/joellen_kwiatek.htm

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