Flowers were blooming, the sun was shining,
and the garden was alive.
All of nature's senses were engaged.
Energy is required for all activities.
The sun provides energy for the plants,
and the plants provide energy for animals and insects.
It was a good day for reproduction.
A good tripod and a macro lens helps tremendously to get more precise and detailed pictures. I need to get back into this habit…some day.
I was reminded that on this day July 23, 2023 I posted this picture with a poem. I thought I would reblog it since today I found some more good pictures where I used my macro lens. Perhaps I will try to write a poem about them.
I have been thinking about Sangria since I posted the recipe of Cranberry Sangria that I found in an old cookbook. I have to admit that I normally stay away from red wine because I am sensitive to it. I discovered online that some people make sangria with white wine. I found a recipe titled Refreshing Sherry Sangria. This recipe intrigued me because since finding the recipe card for beef stroganoff that used sherry, I remembered that my father liked to drink sherry. The only sherry that I have used in the past was cooking sherry that I used with a lamb recipe. I decided that I should get a better quality of sherry to drink and see what is was like. If I didn’t like it I could use it with cooking certain foods.
In the recipe I found online it called for 1 bottle dry white wine (they recommended Sauvignon Blanc). The second ingredient was 1/2 cup Fino or Manzanilla sherry. The fruits it listed were 2 peaches, 2 lemons, and 1/2 cup green grapes, halved. It listed simple syrup and mint sprigs. Well the day I was buying ingredients the selection of peaches was not to my liking and I ended up buying only one. I could not find fresh mint in the grocery stores. (I used to grow it long ago. Maybe I should consider growing it again.) My daughter ate the peach, and I decided that I could do without this ingredient. I like experimenting. I was not going to make a big batch for myself. I got out one wine glass. I used the recipe simply as a guide. I decided to add cranberry juice for taste and color. The word sangria derives from the Spanish word sangre (or Portuguese sanque) meaning “blood”. The Blood Orange syrup was to honor the name and color of the original sangria, and I already had purchased it months ago for something else. I added the triple sec syrup to add sweetness . At first it was not to my liking, however, after I added 2 orange slices and several halved grapes and let the drink sit for awhile, it tasted good. I ended up finishing the drink with no ill effects to my health. I had a good nights sleep. I will continue to experiment.
I have been talking about cleaning projects around my house this summer. My biggest project was cleaning, organizing and updating a few things in my office and sitting area. This is the room I keep my cookbooks, garden books, other books, writing materials, and tech equipment. It also used to contain the old family recipe box I salvaged from our garage a few years back. The old box literally fell apart the other day. At first I was going to buy a new recipe box, however, it did not seem right for what I was going to put in it. I thought surely I must have an old box to transfer the old recipes into. I found this box in my bedroom. I don’t remember exactly how this came to me, though it is from relatives on either my mother or father’s side of the family.
It was very enjoyable going through all the old recipes. It started with an email from my sister asking me if I had grandmother’s cheesecake recipe that used milnot. This is its own story which I will not go into at this time. I did not find one labeled as my grandmother’s, however, I did find one that must be very similar, if not the exact recipe she used. I did find a recipe for a 4-square fudge cake that I had remembered making for my father’s birthday long ago. I have been looking for it now and then over the years and never could find it. Well, it was cut out from a magazine, and I had written at the top of it, Daddy’s birthday cake 1980. Many of the old recipes were not written neatly on index cards. They were cut out from various sources.
I found one old recipe card that I don’t ever remember, and it was very interesting in many ways. At first I thought it was from a local source since it had the name Fairfax in an address on top. I have a long history in Fairfax County, and Fairfax city in Virginia, so I tried to look it up. It turns out it is from an old historic Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles, CA. There is a Fairfax District which is a historic neighborhood in Central Los Angeles. My sister used to live very near to the Old Farmer’s Market, and I do remember her taking me there. I think this recipe card must have been picked up by either my mother or my father, and then made its way into the family recipe box.
Out of curiosity I looked up Marconda’s Meat Market and it is still there at stall 514, though my recipe card states stall 512. They have been open since 1941, so maybe stall numbers changed at some point.
I am making the beef stroganoff today. The recipe card is 2-sided. The veal birds in sour cream recipe made me ask – what are ‘veal birds’? I had to look it up. I will let you do the same if you are interested. I will have to try this recipe in the future. It does sound good.
It’s a small world!
Update 7/27/2026 — I found a picture of the recipe box before it fell apart. Look below.
Someone the other day asked me how long I have been blogging. I told her I think it was 2015 in the late summer. The blog was started as my way to mentally work through a tough time in my life. The other day when I was cleaning a file cabinet I found a bag with printed out copies of some of my earlier posts. I have to search my posts to remember whether I saved it here or whether I deleted it. I have deleted many of my earlier posts. My earlier posts had no pictures. I found a paper copy of a post from December 22, 2016 which I think is pretty funny. It was a stretch of my imagination that went outside the boundaries of reality. I decided to let my picture generator here create a picture for this post. I think it goes well with the light-hearted theme. Rather than link the post I will post a picture of it. It is easier for me this way.
A flavorful drink you could serve tomorrow while watching the FIFA 2026 finals. *The above image and caption was AI generated. I think its pictures are getter better each time I use it.
WordPress gave me a reminder of what I posted on this day in 2018, and I also had a post on this day in 2016. I found this post to be the most interesting.
I am no longer dreaming of numbers.
The picture and caption are both AI generated.
I have been following the FIFA World Cup 2026. As many of you know, France is playing Spain tomorrow in the semi-finals.
I have recently posted about my experiences of eating certain foods in France when I was in my early 20’s. I also traveled to Spain with a student group when I was 16, and still in high school. My most vivid memory of that trip involved a dining experience. I had an alcoholic beverage for the first time in my life there. I drank sangria with dinner at a restaurant in Madrid. I liked the taste of it, but it made me feel unwell. (So much for my first experience with alcohol.) I should mention that it was legal in Spain for me to drink sangria with dinner.
Today, I decided to look up where sangria originated. My browser’s AI stated that it originated in Spain, and particularly in the Andalusia region which is mainly where the student group and I traveled on our trip. We landed in Malaga, then traveled to Granada, and then Seville, and ended up in Madrid. I have no pictures from this trip. I bought postcards. It was 1975 and cell phones did not exist.
Another interesting thing I learned today is that America was introduced to sangria at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Sangria was served at the popular Spanish Pavilion.
I was there at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Sadly, I have no memories of the Spanish Pavilion or of sangria. I was 5 years old!
In any case, I wish both France and Spain good luck with the semi-final game!
Side note–To prove that I was there with my family at the 1964 New York World’s Fair I will post a few pictures and hopefully I can link a past post about it.
https://movingforwardslowly.com/2023/12/10/worlds-fair-1964-65/
This picture you see is from this fair. It was in a post about the Chrysler Pentastar logo you see in this picture. The words I posted have disappeared. Only the picture remains.
I was outside trying to cut back weeds and remove water from a couple of flooded places. The weeds are thriving with all the rain. As I was working in an area where I have an old large Hosta named ‘June’ that is often surrounded by weed overgrowth, my eye caught a spot of lavender color. I reached down and pulled up this flower. I planted this Hosta long ago since the name June is a family name. I don’t like to cut flowers from the garden, however, I knew its beauty would be lost where I found it, so I cut it and brought it inside.
I wondered where I could put it to showcase it. I remembered this rectangular Ikebana vase that I purchased from the National Museum of Asian Art many years ago. I was not using it and it was stored away. I got it out, and then I had to decide where to put it. I wanted a place that receives sunlight, and I thought of one of our bedrooms. This picture not only shows the beautiful Hosta flower and Ikebana vase, it also shows my dad’s ginger jar lamp that he made. This lamp was always in my family home as I was growing up. I think my dad made it in Hawaii, and that is where my brother was born. So, this lamp is older than I am. I think it was rewired at some point long ago. I posted about this lamp here on my blog many years ago. See the link below
https://movingforwardslowly.com/2018/06/17/my-dads-ginger-jar-lamp/
I posted this long ago and I have since moved the lamp to its current location. I could not get a good picture of the lamp when I originally wrote about my dad and this lamp. Today as I was taking a picture of the flower I realized I had a good picture of his lamp, so I thought I should link my original post about it.
I like to spend some vacation time exploring new foods and recipes. This summer is no exception. I have had lentils on my mind since I posted about tasting sea urchin in southern France when I was in my early twenties. The reason lentils have been on my mind is because I have a strong memory about lentils I ate in France when I was on vacation with my sister and her boyfriend. I decided I wanted to try and make them the same way. I have only ever cooked lentils by adding them to soups or stews. The cooked lentils I ate in France were not soft nor were they hard. They were served cold with what I think was olive oil and fresh lemon juice. When I tried to research French recipes for lentils, I was in for a lentil education.
It turns out there is a special lentil called French lentils. They are smaller and rounder and darker than the regular lentils I have cooked with in the past. I think this must be the type of lentils I remembered from long ago in France. I also discovered there are more varieties of lentils than I realized. I added the sushi rice because this was also a new discovery for me. I read an article recently that stated scientists tested different types of rice for arsenic. They mentioned sushi rice (which I had no idea there was such a thing.) They stated it had the lowest levels of arsenic.
I looked up where I could buy French lentils and it turns out that Mom’s Organic Market not far from where I live carries French lentils in bulk. I went there today and was able to find them. I also saw golden lentils and wanted to try them. My eyes surveyed their wide selection of dried bulk items and I found sushi rice! I had to buy some of it. How to make it is another lesson I learned today. I love the internet for looking up foods and recipes even though I have numerous cookbooks.
On another subject— I saw my first hummingbird in our garden late this afternoon. My husband saw it first and called my attention to it. It was in clear view of our kitchen window. I purposely planted two new cardinal flowers to attract the hummingbirds to a location where we could easily see them from inside. The spaceship rose cardinal flower is pictured below. The other cardinal flower is just beginning to bloom in the past couple of days.
movingforwardslowly 