Pine Trees, Fir trees, Old Happy New Year and more ...

Last December I only wrote two posts and, because of several events happening here, such as health issues, therapy, surgery, chemotherapy sessions to be scheduled and other matters, I almost decided to stop writing my blog or place it on a very long pause.  But, I enjoy the blog and most of all, reading all my blogging friends' blogs and comments.  Instead I'll try to write one post per month until I can return to a more regular schedule.  I had already written the post for January but then the tragedy in Paris happened.  I decided to shorten this post so that I could write about France and more, but once finished I realized it was way too long, so I am cutting this post into two parts.  For Christmas we drove to Tennessee.  There was heavy fog in the North Georgia Mountains, but it dissipated in the valleys.

I usually avoid driving on the freeways around Chattanooga, Tennessee, as there are so many large trucks.  Instead we drive through John's Mountain Wildlife Area which is part of the Chattahoochee National Forest, and also along Cloud Canyon State Park.  There is hardly any traffic, just a few houses along the way ... and churches.

I gave our little granddaughter a hand-knitted hat I had bought in Tallinn, Estonia, last May.  She liked it very much.  It was hard trying to take her picture with the hat as she moved so much (she is below near the au-pair lady from China.)  Our second grandson was waiting to eat a slice of the Buche de Noel I had bought at the French bakery here.  I received some nice boxes of chocolate and several books.  (Please click on collage to read the titles of the books.)

We purchased our house in Cobb County, Georgia, in the mid 1970s and for our first Christmas we bought a live Christmas tree (we thought it was a cedar tree) then planted it in the front yard by the mail box.  We used to decorate the tree every year but it became too tall.  It is a lovely tree, not a cedar but a hemlock, a coniferous evergreen - it keeps its foliage year-round.  We also have a cedar tree along the road and the foliage is different.  The hemlock has smooth, shiny and small needles, and the cedar has flat, dull scale-like foliage.  The hemlock has dainty cones as well.  The cedar foliage is on the left, below.

We love our hemlock tree and our daughters do too.  It has been standing by the driveway for decades now and it is like a friend greeting us as we enter toward the house.  I like to take pictures of it whenever we have snow.  Here are some snowy pictures I took last January.

Well, around the holidays we received a letter from the Cobb County Water Commission telling us that they were going to lay down a large water main and needed to obtain a permanent easement along our land.  To do this work, they announced that all the trees on the property along the road, a piece of land 30 feet wide (9,14 meters) by about 250 feet long (76 meters) would have to be cut down - including our lovely hemlock and cedar trees.  I just went out to take more pictures of our hemlock tree as it is such a sunny and warm day for January - 65 degrees (18 C.)  I took pictures also of the sky above the trees.  Since working for decades in the aircraft industry, I always look up as soon as I walk outdoors.  An aircraft had just passed over the cedar tree but I missed taking its picture.  Below, the photos of the hemlock and sky above are on the top, and the cedar and sky above on the bottom.

"There is a certain feeling of courage and hope when you work in the field of the air.  You instinctively look up, not down.  You look ahead, not back.  You look ahead where the horizons are absolutely unlimited."  - Robert E. "Bob" Gross, Lockheed's Chairman/CEO 1932-1961

We cannot fight against the county to stop the cutting down of our trees as they tell us it is for the "common good."  Although I have found out that it won't be for our own good, since this water main is only to transport raw water from the Chattahoochee River for processing at a water cleaning facility west of us.  The direct route for the water main was along the big highway, but there are several businesses there.  It would have been expensive for the County to get clearance from them and they said it would have disturb their business.  The County decided it was more cost effective to take a "loop" into the residential area and cut all the trees down that are in the way.  When I look up I won't see the sun filtering through the pines any longer ...

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money." - Cree Indian Proverb

We are desolate really because we have so many tall trees along the road.  They provide a barrier from the house - we barely see the road and vice-versa, the house cannot be seen.  My husband walked the land and figured out that they will cut about 80 pine and assorted trees, most of the trees you see in the pictures below.

It will be sad not to see all these tall pine trees from my window, behind the computer as I type - watching the sunset, or the golden leaves, the fog or the snow.

People have loved bringing trees into their homes for centuries.  During the winter solstice Pagan cultures brought cut boughs of evergreen trees into their homes to decorate them. The tradition went down to the present Christmas trees.  Did you know that in Russia, New Year is celebrated with a fir tree?  It is called a "yolka" tree.  The Bolsheviks banned Christmas celebrations after the Communist Revolution in 1917.  But on 28 December 1935, a Soviet Politician, Pavel Postyshev, published a letter in the newspaper Pravda, asking schools, children's homes, orphanages, clubs, cinemas, etc. not to deprive children of the wonderful joy of having a decorated fir tree for New Year.  The tree lost his religious association and the night of December 31st became an important holiday in Russia.  This is when "Ded Moroz" or Grandfather Frost (with a red or blue cape) delivers gifts.  During my first visit to St. Petersburg, Russia, I bought a small hand carved Ded Moroz.

Ded Moroz, Grandfather Frost is often accompanied by his beautiful granddaughter "Snegurochka" the Snow Maiden, well known from Russian popular winter tales.  Her picture is often painted on the matryoshka doll (Russian nesting doll.)  Here they are below painted by Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926) considered to be the co-founder of Russian folklorist and romantic modernist painting.

For the last 79 years New Year's Eve "Novy God" has been the biggest party of the year for everyone in Russia.  For most contemporary Russians whether non-believers, Christians, Jews or Muslims this is the traditional national holiday they look forward to for celebrating and exchanging presents.

Actually, this has created some problem for the one million Russian Jewish emigrants to Israel and even those settling in the US.  They wish to celebrate their secular New Year's "Novy God" with the yolka tree and Ded Moroz, but Israeli rabbis do not accept this New Year celebration.  Since 1998, they have forbidden Israel hotels and banquet halls to disply the trees and other reminders of this Russian celebration.  The views of these decorated trees in windows of private Russian homes have enraged many Israelis - some reacting with aggression and even with violence (they say it insults the religion.)  But it was the shocked Russian emigrants who felt insulted and deprived of their rights.  I even read a story last year on the web written by Natasha Gross, a Russian Jewish emigrant to New York, saying that she would have a yolka tree in her house that year, but I understand it was hidden because her in-laws find it offensive, even though this is a secular Russian tradition.  It is a poignant story in a way, you can read it here: : https://parenttoparent.kontribune.com/articles/4100 , it is not very long .  Below is a cartoon by Makhmud Eshonkulov from Tashkent, Uzbekistan (born in 1958.)

I looked at several of Makhmud's cartoons and am surprised that he is able to draw them in Uzbekistan, many countries do not approve of this freedom of speech.  New Year is over now - completely.  As I have written before, in the majority of Orthodox Christian populations there are two Christmas, one on December 25 and one on January 6/7 and two New Year celebrations, one on January 1st and the second, calculated according to the Julian calendar, on January 13/14.  Millions of people celebrated New Year 2015 as "Old New Year" on the 13 or 14h January, such as my father's people the Armenians as well as people from the Balkans, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Orthodox Christians in many other countries.  Below is an Armenian poster for the Old New Year.

As I showed in my top collage, Paris celebrated New Year with lovely fireworks and general happiness.  In France we can wish a Happy New Year till the end of January, so I am wishing you all a very happy 2015.

In the second part of this post I'll talk about what happened in Paris about a week after the New Year.

Christmas time at Brumby Hall

Last October 2014 we visited the Archibald Smith Plantation in Roswell, Georgia, built in 1843.  I wrote a post about it - click here to see it again.  In one of the rooms was exposed an old trunk which had been found in the attic in 1987.  Inside the trunk were the personal possessions of William Smith (1834-1865,)  called Willie, and his letters.  These letters and other family letters were gathered and published in a book entitled "The Death of a Confederate" edited by Arthur and James Skinner.

I found the book, second-hand, and started to read it.  In the preface I read that Willie's brother, Archie (1844-1923) had attended the "Georgia Military Institute" in Marietta, Georgia.

I had vaguely heard about this institute before but was not sure where it had been located.  I found out that classes started there in 1851.  The institute was acquired by the State of Georgia in 1858.  Townspeople were proud of this institute, the first collegiate level of higher learning in northwest Georgia.  They came to watch daily drills and dress parades.  By 1861 there were 150 Cadets there who later left for active duty in the Confederate Army.  During the Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War, the Federal Forces of General Sherman occupied the institute and on November 13, 1864, when they departed, they burnt the buildings down.  The house of the first superintendent of the institute, Colonel Arnoldus V. Brumby, a West Point graduate, was spared.

In 1915 a private country club, with a golf course, was established on the site of the former institute but moved years later.  It became a civic center then was purchased by the Hilton Corporation and turned into the Hilton Conference Center and Resort.  Pictures below courtesy of the Hilton.

But what had happened to the superintendent house which had been saved?  I called the Hilton and was told that the house located on their property, was owned by the city of Marietta and leased to the Hilton.  They use it now for special events and weddings.  I asked if I could take a tour of the house and was told that someone would call me back.  A gentleman called me in the evening and said that if I wished to visit the house, I needed to be there the next morning at 10 am, the only time the house would be available for viewing.  The next morning, Thursday December 11, 2014, my husband and I drove to the Hilton.  The facility cannot be seen from the street.  We drove around the parking lot but could not find the house.  Finally we saw a gate with an historical marker in front of it.  (Please click on photo to enlarge.)

At the end of the footpath was the house.  I realized then that I had been driving in front of this house for decades on my way home from work but had never known it was there as it cannot be seen behind the trees.

We were early, it was only 9:45 am, and the house was partially in the shade.  It was a bright, warm and sunny morning.  We stepped up to the porch and waited in one of the rocking chairs.

At 10 o'clock a gentleman appeared.  He greeted us and opened the front door.  He was Mr. L., a volunteer from the "Friends of Brumby Hall."  He gave us a brief history of the house.  I tried to take pictures with my Nikons while he talked.  I did not use the flash so some pictures are a bit dark and some are not too clear.  He told us that Brumby Hall, as it is now called, is a prime example of a Greek revival cottage.  It has five rooms and a solarium.  Each room is furnished with antiques and period furniture, mostly in the Victorian but also the Eastlake styles.  There are gardens behind the property - a rose garden, boxwood garden, topiary garden, and the Knot garden.  We will come back in the spring when flowers are in bloom.  This lovely house was built adjacent to the military institute for Colonel Arnoldus VanderHorst Brumby and his family.  Colonel Brumby was a West Point graduate and directed the institute, from 1851 to 1859, in the same manner as West Point.  The house was used as a hospital by Sherman's troops during the Civil War.  In the front hall is a portrait of Colonel Brumby.  The portrait of his wife, Ann Eliza Wallis Brumby, is in one of the parlors.  After the Civil War the house fell in disrepair, as you can see form the photographs below, but new owners restored the house to its former splendor.

Mr. L. is a volunteer member of the Friends of Brumby Hall, a group who furnished the house and maintains it as an event facility in conjunction with the Hilton Conference Center.  They also decorate this historic house at Christmas time.  We walked into the main parlor containing a Chickering square grand piano and enjoyed looking at the pretty Christmas decorations.

Then we saw the lovely ladies' parlor with sofas and armchairs covered in pink fabric.  I admired the grand chimney and mirror.

The small dining/tea room in the back had beautiful furniture and another Christmas tree.

There were so many antiques to see but Mr. L. was walking away and it was difficult to keep up and take pictures.  I took as many as I could, quickly.  Over one of the mantels was a period painting of the Georgia Military Institute.  Please click on the collage, twice, to see the photos better.

The large dining room was set up for a dinner that evening.  Mr. L.  told us that at Christmas time, families or groups will reserve this room for a period dinner with many courses, starting with oysters flown in from Savannah, Georgia - the same type of menu that would have been served in Brumby Hall in the mid 1850s.  That evening a family, with members coming from a variety of US states, was going to gather here for their Christmas dinner - an event they shared every year.  Mr. L. told us that the house had many such dinners booked during the month of December.  He told us to notice that the pineapple, symbol of hospitality, was well represented on the table such as on the stems of the crystal goblets, the bottom of the name card holders and the brass centerpieces.

We walked upstairs to look at the bedrooms.  Again there was so much to see.

The front bedroom is large.  A tall Christmas tree was decorated with hand crocheted ornaments and cotton balls.  I took a photo of Mr. L. in front of the tree.  It turned out that he had taught the children of my late best friend, Colonel Daniel.

The children's beds were decorated with dolls and toys.  One of the beds is an original 18th century portable crib.

The back bedroom has been converted into a "bride's room."  It is the room where brides can get ready or can rest when the house is booked for a wedding.  The furniture is covered in a restful blue color.

I tried to take pictures of as many of the Christmas decorations as I could, like the 3 French hens, and the beautiful hall chandelier.

Then it was time to go.  We took a last look at the house.  It was past high noon now and the house was in the sun.  We walked to the back of the house to see the gardens, but of course they would look much nicer in the spring.

Listening to the menu served in the house gave us an appetite.  It was lunch time so we drove to the Marietta Diner and had a gyro.  My husband could not resist having a slice of one of their delicious cakes - he chose a chocolate cake.  I took a bite, but it was too sweet for me.  I would prefer a piece of Belgian dark chocolate!

 I hope to receive, hopefully, some good dark chocolates for Christmas.  In France groceries and supermarkets are full of large and beautiful boxes of chocolate at this time.  Adults do not give too many gifts at Christmas, apart from toys to children, but a box of chocolate is offered usually to family, friends and colleagues for the New Year.  I wish you all a happy holiday season - a Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it,

and a Happy Hanukkah, if you celebrate it, too.

Here is a beautiful Tree of Life from my friend Valerie-Jael who shows stunning photographs and her art work on her blog Bastlemania.

Be happy and enjoy yourself during these celebrations!

Holiday Dishes

Holiday Dishes is the name of this post as I cooked some of these dishes for Thanksgiving, but they can be prepared anytime.  When we were near Nashville visiting our daughter and family last summer I used their new spiral vegetable slicer gadget.  Of course the grandchildren loved to help me and enjoyed cooking the vegetable - a good way for them to eat more vegetable!  Back at home, I ordered my own Spiralizer from Amazon - there are several brands offered and mine was under $20.  It works very well.

Zucchini noodles can be made very quickly.  With the grandchildren, we cooked them in the microwave, with a little bit of water and butter, maybe for 3 or 4 minutes, and this was good.  For Thanksgiving I tried something different.  I made the dish again this week-end so I could take some photos.  First I "spiralized" 3 or 4 zucchinis.  I also sliced a red onion and two green onions and briefly stir-fried them.

I'll try to write the recipe, but it can be changed, according to one's taste.

Zucchini Noodles

3 to 4 zucchinis, 1 red onion, 2 green onions, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon bacon fat, 1 teaspoon French thyme, 2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence (or rosemary, or basil or both) Smokehouse ground black pepper, salt and 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar - some chopped parsley.

Wash then spiralize the zucchinis into noodles.  Slice the red onion and the 2 green onions - separating the white parts and green parts.  Place the olive oil, butter and bacon fat in a large frying pan.  Add the red onion and white parts of the green onions.  Stir and fry for a minute or so.  Add the zucchini noodles, stir, then add the Smokehouse black pepper and salt.  (I like this pepper as it is strong and I usually cover the vegetables with it to get the dish a bit spicy.)  Then add the herbs, stir.  Add the balsamic vinegar - white or red balsamic.  Lower heat and cover.  No need to add any liquid as the zucchinis will render some liquid.  Cook for about 8 to 10 minutes, until tender but still crunchy (taste after 7 min. or so and stir.)  When ready add chopped green part of the green onions and chopped parsley.  That's it.

I have also made zucchini noodles, added some spaghetti sauce, basil and turkey meat balls - it is a lighter dish than made with regular pasta.

For Thanksgiving, I usually make my basic cranberry sauce - a recipe I found on a bag a long time ago and very easy.  Place 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup apple juice and 1/4 teaspoon allspice in a saucepan on medium heat.  Heat until sugar is dissolved.  Add 2 cups washed cranberries and stir.  Keep stirring until the liquid boils.  Lower hear and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Cool.  I have some left as you can see below - it makes a thick sauce, not too sweet.

Since I had more cranberries I decided to make a cake - I made two - almost the same but with some variations.  Both were made like an upside down pineapple cake.  The first one contained 2 sliced apples, 1+ cup of cranberries and 1/2 cup pecans.  That was placed on the melted brown sugar and butter in a cast iron frying pan, then I poured the cake batter on top.  The batter had 2 eggs, sugar, butter, baking power, spices and 1 1/4 cup flour.  I baked it 40 minutes in 350 F oven.  My husband preferred that cake.

For the second cake I used only 1 sliced apple, 1+ cup cranberries and 1/2 cup pecans.  I used less flour (1 cup) but 3 eggs, separated - the white beaten stiff with white sugar, and 1 tablespoon Bourbon whiskey.  Baked it 45 minutes in 325 F oven, left it in the frying pan 10 minutes then placed it upside down on a plate.  I preferred the taste of that cake.

This cake looked quite different from the first one.  I placed the apple slices first in the number one cake and the cranberries and pecan first in cake number two.  Both cakes were good and not too sweet - if served warm, vanilla ice cream would be good with either cake.  Below is cake number 2.

Since cranberries were plentiful I also made some jam.  One of my daughters gave me a jar of jam last summer that she had bought at the Loretta Lynn's Ranch.  It was called FROG jam - which stands for fig, raspberry, orange and ginger jam.  This gave me the idea of making my own CROG jam - using cranberries, raspberries, orange peel and ginger.  The jam is delicious and not too sweet - good on toast but also can be used as a condiment with meat.

We went to a country restaurant some time ago and I enjoyed eating their steamed cabbage.  I have never made steamed cabbage, or any cabbage apart from placing pieces of them in my corned beef dish in the spring.  So I tried my own version last Saturday.  I quartered the cabbage and cut the stem off, then sliced it.  Shallots sounded right with the cabbage, so I chopped a couple.  I had half a bunch of fresh kale leftover from a turkey soup I made, so I sliced the kale as well.  It may not have been "steamed" cabbage, but it was very tasty and cooking it on low heat, quickly, it did not leave a cabbage smell in the kitchen.

Here is my recipe - 1 cabbage, washed, cored and sliced (add kale if available,) 2 shallots, sliced thin then chopped.  Place 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large frying pan.  Add shallot and fry briefly.  Add cabbage and stir for a couple of minutes.  Season with salt and Hickory smoke black pepper (or regular black pepper and some Tabasco sauce to give it a kick.)  Add 3/4 cup chicken or turkey broth in which 1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke was placed.  Pour on cabbage and stir well.  Lower heat, cover and cook 6 to 8 minutes until done but still crunchy.  Voila!

Saturday was a good day for cooking as it rained in the morning.  It was cloudy and only 67 degree F (19 C.)  The back yard looked very golden with a thick cover of dead leaves.  The leaves had vivid colors as they were still coated with water when I took my photos.

On Sunday it was bright and sunny.  The colors in the backyard looked different.  It was warmer as well.

 With all the pine trees and ivy, the color green is still very present in our backyard.  I like  the way the sun plays with the dead leaves still standing on some of the trees.

Our cats were indoor, not even looking at the birds in the bird feeders.  Cody was asleep, hiding his eyes with his paws (maybe from the scent of the cut shallot...) and Mitsuko was watching TV - an old I love Lucy rerun - such was last week-end.