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ferineSpring's in full bloom here, and accompanying it has been wild weather. Several days in a row I was kept off-line due to severe lightning, thunder, and driving rain and sleet. One day will be gorgeous, sunny and 70 degrees, followed by a 48 degree storm-tossed day. Welcome to Colorado, where it snows one day and breaks a record high the next. >:-)
The Yellow-headed Blackbirds have returned in greater numbers than ever before. The first appeared Friday, April 2nd, the day before my ritual day with the nesting Great Blue Herons experience. Following that single Yellow-headed Blackbird sighting in our courtyard's platform feeder, there have been eight or nine in the courtyard daily! They aren't as shy as they've been in years past, either. It's always a pleasure to have them visit.
Saturday is Beltane, which I've actually planned for, for once. The boys and I are attending The Birds Of Prey Open House, then that evening mom is making us the following Beltane recipe:
MEDALLIONS OF PORK WITH RIESLING SAUCE
12 ounces Pork tenderloin, cut into 1" rounds
Flour
4 Tablespoons Unsalted butter
1 Onion, thinly sliced
3 Garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup Dry Riesling wine
1/2 cup Raisins
3 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon Green peppercorns, ground
1/2 teaspoon thyme, minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano, minced
1/4 cup butter, chilled & cut into pieces
1/4 cup Pine nuts, toasted
Season pork with salt and pepper. Coat in flour; shake off excess. Melt 2 Tablespoons butter in heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl. Melt remaining 2 Tablespoons butter in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and sauté about 4 minutes per side. Transfer pork to plate; tent with foil to keep warm. Add onion mixture, wine, green peppercorns and herbs to same skillet and boil until sauce thickens, about 4 minutes. Add pork to skillet and heat through. Divide pork among plates. Add 1/4 cup chilled butter to sauce in skillet and whisk just until melted. Mix in pine nuts. Spoon sauce over pork and serve.
And, of course, on Friday I'll perform a major cleaning of and rearranging of my altar.
Speaking of altars, I snuck a peek at the LJ community "pimp my altar" recently, which I do usually once a year. This entry really bothered me. At least "cypherwulf" and "anonymous" had the guts to speak up despite popular opinion. Unfortunately, "cypherwulf" was banned from the community afterward.
I have many LJ friends and/or acquaintances to whom "lupabitch" can do no wrong, who regard her with utmost respect based on her books, magazine articles, and her on-line writing. Her persona, in fact, generates quite the following, and a mostly unquestioning one at that. Nothing wrong with that; people have the inherent freedom to believe in who they will, to protect, follow, or worship who and what they will.
What, then, do I take issue with?
Anyone purchasing pelts from a foreign or local dealer who slaughters the animal for you, just so you can dress in the pelt for your "spiritual enlightenment", isn't a justifiable practice to me. It doesn't matter that you send money to Defenders Of Wildlife -- one can't use this like buying carbon offsets while supporting the fur trade.
If you can make peace with the knowledge of having an animal you feel connected to killed for your own benefit/desire, then more power to you. It's a free country. Be aware of the hypocrisy of proclaiming yourself an ecological/environmental guru while participating in and promoting the fur trade. Whether legal or not, that's beside the point. The point is, you're knowingly having an animal you "respect", "love", and feel a spiritual connection to killed for selfish reasons.
It makes me cringe when someone holds an influential position and encourages others to purchase her/his skin and fur "spiritual art", and where to acquire their own skin (I.E., have their own animal killed). It doesn't seem to honor whatever animal you're connecting with, to have it killed for your desire. Dead fur everywhere doesn't make you more "wolfy", or whatever you identify with. Honestly, to me it's ghoulish. It's the same as, say, a man who identifies spiritually with women, purchasing the skin of a murdered woman and wearing it for ceremonial purposes.
But, hey, that's just my $.02.
The Yellow-headed Blackbirds have returned in greater numbers than ever before. The first appeared Friday, April 2nd, the day before my ritual day with the nesting Great Blue Herons experience. Following that single Yellow-headed Blackbird sighting in our courtyard's platform feeder, there have been eight or nine in the courtyard daily! They aren't as shy as they've been in years past, either. It's always a pleasure to have them visit.
Saturday is Beltane, which I've actually planned for, for once. The boys and I are attending The Birds Of Prey Open House, then that evening mom is making us the following Beltane recipe:
MEDALLIONS OF PORK WITH RIESLING SAUCE
12 ounces Pork tenderloin, cut into 1" rounds
Flour
4 Tablespoons Unsalted butter
1 Onion, thinly sliced
3 Garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup Dry Riesling wine
1/2 cup Raisins
3 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon Green peppercorns, ground
1/2 teaspoon thyme, minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano, minced
1/4 cup butter, chilled & cut into pieces
1/4 cup Pine nuts, toasted
Season pork with salt and pepper. Coat in flour; shake off excess. Melt 2 Tablespoons butter in heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl. Melt remaining 2 Tablespoons butter in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and sauté about 4 minutes per side. Transfer pork to plate; tent with foil to keep warm. Add onion mixture, wine, green peppercorns and herbs to same skillet and boil until sauce thickens, about 4 minutes. Add pork to skillet and heat through. Divide pork among plates. Add 1/4 cup chilled butter to sauce in skillet and whisk just until melted. Mix in pine nuts. Spoon sauce over pork and serve.
And, of course, on Friday I'll perform a major cleaning of and rearranging of my altar.
Speaking of altars, I snuck a peek at the LJ community "pimp my altar" recently, which I do usually once a year. This entry really bothered me. At least "cypherwulf" and "anonymous" had the guts to speak up despite popular opinion. Unfortunately, "cypherwulf" was banned from the community afterward.
I have many LJ friends and/or acquaintances to whom "lupabitch" can do no wrong, who regard her with utmost respect based on her books, magazine articles, and her on-line writing. Her persona, in fact, generates quite the following, and a mostly unquestioning one at that. Nothing wrong with that; people have the inherent freedom to believe in who they will, to protect, follow, or worship who and what they will.
What, then, do I take issue with?
Anyone purchasing pelts from a foreign or local dealer who slaughters the animal for you, just so you can dress in the pelt for your "spiritual enlightenment", isn't a justifiable practice to me. It doesn't matter that you send money to Defenders Of Wildlife -- one can't use this like buying carbon offsets while supporting the fur trade.
If you can make peace with the knowledge of having an animal you feel connected to killed for your own benefit/desire, then more power to you. It's a free country. Be aware of the hypocrisy of proclaiming yourself an ecological/environmental guru while participating in and promoting the fur trade. Whether legal or not, that's beside the point. The point is, you're knowingly having an animal you "respect", "love", and feel a spiritual connection to killed for selfish reasons.
It makes me cringe when someone holds an influential position and encourages others to purchase her/his skin and fur "spiritual art", and where to acquire their own skin (I.E., have their own animal killed). It doesn't seem to honor whatever animal you're connecting with, to have it killed for your desire. Dead fur everywhere doesn't make you more "wolfy", or whatever you identify with. Honestly, to me it's ghoulish. It's the same as, say, a man who identifies spiritually with women, purchasing the skin of a murdered woman and wearing it for ceremonial purposes.
But, hey, that's just my $.02.
