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LarchBurl of Shadow
Nov. 2nd, 2019 09:43 pmI didn't sleep very well last night, because my joints were hurting. Maybe it's the weather. It was raining/snowing again. My house is still full of mud bits that crunch under foot at unexpected moments. I knew I would be spending the day preparing for a funeral, and strangely enough, this did not make me feel happy! In fact, I was downright grumpy. I started behaving better when I saw a public service announcement on TV about some guy who got out of prison and now runs a class on how to stay out for men who have been in prison. I was impressed by him, and I also considered the fact that I was married to one of the best people ever, and one who has never been arrested, nor does he have terrible face tattoos like quite a few of the people in this class. I felt it behooved me to try to be a little easier to live with.
I made two cakes. One was from two gluten free cake mixes put together in a sheet pan. I just don't think gluten free baked goods are much good, but there are people who will want them, and I don't want them to feel left out. I dressed it up by adding the juice and grated rind of an orange and a lemon, and a cup of chopped dried mango and dried cherries. It looks pretty good and I hope will taste good too. The other cake was a large carrot cake recipe that I also baked in a sheet pan to make it easier to cut up. I'm not pleased, because it doesn't seem to fill the pan up robustly enough. I'm sure the flavor will be good, but I wanted it to be tall and impressive, and it's rather flat. The carrot cake is frosted white, and the other one with yellow and pale pink, marbled. I wanted to make decorations, but then I realized that I was out of sugar and all my decorating implements are buried in the basement. I improvised with a plastic bag with a corner snipped off. I used some pale yellow frosting and put In Memoriam and some pretty leaves and things on the white frosting.
Then I tried to practice the violin a bit. I can play "Fire and Rain" by ear, but I know that won't help, because there will be an arrangement, and I'll have a different part to play. I could only find the first page of "Wonderful World." Ah well. Just cross my fingers and hope the audience is occupied with their own thoughts. The deceased was a long-time church member who died rather suddenly, and was also loved in the community, so other people may come too. I didn't really know him, so I'm not personally sad, but I just don't like funerals. The Sparrowhawk made a run to the farmers market. I would have loved to go with him, but thought I'd better tend to business at home. He visited our farmer ladies and bought a pork loin and some sausages, and also got three kinds of apples: Honeycrisp, Cameo, and my favorite Northern Spy. I regard the first two as modern interlopers, but I can't deny they're tasty. Looking forward to a nice crunchy apple of life post-funeral.
I made two cakes. One was from two gluten free cake mixes put together in a sheet pan. I just don't think gluten free baked goods are much good, but there are people who will want them, and I don't want them to feel left out. I dressed it up by adding the juice and grated rind of an orange and a lemon, and a cup of chopped dried mango and dried cherries. It looks pretty good and I hope will taste good too. The other cake was a large carrot cake recipe that I also baked in a sheet pan to make it easier to cut up. I'm not pleased, because it doesn't seem to fill the pan up robustly enough. I'm sure the flavor will be good, but I wanted it to be tall and impressive, and it's rather flat. The carrot cake is frosted white, and the other one with yellow and pale pink, marbled. I wanted to make decorations, but then I realized that I was out of sugar and all my decorating implements are buried in the basement. I improvised with a plastic bag with a corner snipped off. I used some pale yellow frosting and put In Memoriam and some pretty leaves and things on the white frosting.
Then I tried to practice the violin a bit. I can play "Fire and Rain" by ear, but I know that won't help, because there will be an arrangement, and I'll have a different part to play. I could only find the first page of "Wonderful World." Ah well. Just cross my fingers and hope the audience is occupied with their own thoughts. The deceased was a long-time church member who died rather suddenly, and was also loved in the community, so other people may come too. I didn't really know him, so I'm not personally sad, but I just don't like funerals. The Sparrowhawk made a run to the farmers market. I would have loved to go with him, but thought I'd better tend to business at home. He visited our farmer ladies and bought a pork loin and some sausages, and also got three kinds of apples: Honeycrisp, Cameo, and my favorite Northern Spy. I regard the first two as modern interlopers, but I can't deny they're tasty. Looking forward to a nice crunchy apple of life post-funeral.
