No photos, the rice pudding didn't last long enough! Rice pudding is one of our favorite winter treats. We enjoy it by the blazing fire while watching Jim Henson's The Storyteller (a Christmas tradition)--our favorite is the one with the little devils (full episode here).
Best Creamy Rice Pudding
1 1/2 cups cooked white rice
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 whipping cream
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon for each serving
(Raisins are optional, I don't like them, but you can add a handful at the same time as the cream and egg.)
Mix rice, milk, salt and sugar together in pot. Cook over medium heat until think and creamy (about 15 minutes after it comes to a simmer). Stir in cream and beaten egg. Stir constantly for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Serve immediately with a pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon.
In the last few weeks, something strange has been occurring during my yoga practice. I think this is partly because my asana practice has slowed down considerably—it is often very gentle and slow moving with lots of breathing space between postures. I may have planned to do a vinyasa sequence, but I never get there because I’ve just spent the last 10 minutes in child’s pose. I have begun to experience vivid, spontaneous visualizations, especially in forward folds or seated positions. I wish I had the skill to paint them! Sometimes the images are triggered by something the teacher said, other times they come out of nowhere. For example, one strong image came during child’s pose. I had an image of the outline of my body in the pose inside a bright, dark yellow yolk and I could feel the fluids—like I was really inside—it was comforting and I didn’t want to come out of the pose.
Two recurring visualizations occur during seated, cross legged positions: sometimes I see a glowing blue hue encircling me—like the blue halo that can be seen around Earth from space (maybe I am surrounded by atmospheric gases, hehe). The other visual is of numerous lines of colourful energy (?) emanating from the crown of my head, arching downward and returning through my pelvic centre. Sometimes there are dots placed throughout the lines, like connect the dots. Sometimes I see a line “detach” from one end and continue out into the space around me! It is very weird, my brain does not usually work this way and I am a little bit embarrassed to admit this.
Last week I turned 30. I am still the “the kid” in the group as one of our older friends pointed out in my birthday card. Another friend who thinks I’m perpetually stuck in my twenties had a moment of panic, “If Grace is in her thirties, what does that mean for the rest of us?!” I don’t want to grow up either, but I’m glad my student loans are finally paid off!
One of my dearest friends, C, visited me on my actual birthday for a hike. We ventured off the “beaten path” so I can’t say how many km we walked, but we were gone for 4 hours.
Our mini adventure started on the Aspotogan trail on the East Chester end (right before the turn off for Blandford).
C remembered Castle Rock, so we decided to try to find it, taking the first logging road on the right, but the trail was overgrown and seemed to end, so we turned back, not wanting to get lost. However, it did give me a chance to take this photo of coyote scat (we also saw bear scat, but I already have lots of pictures of bear scat from around my house so no pictures of that).
[caption id="attachment_541" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="Coyote scat. Can you see the claw?"][/caption]
Then we took another detour to one my favourite spots by the river. It is a emerald green moss-covered sanctuary. No pictures will do it justice. We ate lunch here, listening to the river, and marvelled at a spinning “fairy cake” with tiny spiders for sprinkles. (C is the one talking about it being "the perfect cake-like formation" and I'm the one looking for and talking about blurry spiders. We have not lost our child-like wonder!)
Back on the main trail, as we neared the lake, I watched out for Bufflehead ducks. We saw two, a male and female.
[caption id="attachment_542" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="Look closely, see those two white specks in the back? Those are the two Buffleheads. All zoom in attempts resulted in blurry photographs."][/caption]
Further along we came to another logging road and decided to see if that would take us to the trail leading to Castle Rock. *It did! After a long, enjoyable, uphill climb through the woods (well marked with colourful ribbons), we eventually stood in front of the mammoth granite rock. Of course it ended up taking less than two minutes to scale it, but I did further rip the crotch of my old jeans during the climb (we didn’t choose the hardest part to climb because we’re not stupid—we didn’t tell anyone that we were going to Castle Rock because we didn’t know we’d end up there!).
Once atop, we took in the impressive views.
We got back to car just as the sun began its descent from the sky.
This hike is now on my visitor tour list. So when are you coming?
*Apparently we took the harder trail to the rock, the first road was the easy route.
