Enjoy some tea

Here's a way to view my recently completed 100 Teapots.

shikan taza - just sitting

Fall sunset & split pea soup

Matzoh ball Mountain

I was born on matzoh ball mountain
between two ridges
where once a year the rain came down
in golden, icy chicken soup balls
and I opened my mouth to the sky
inhaling bones and all

My translucent wings were gold from the beginning
and from the beginning I knew how to fly
I dipped and looped, soared and sailed, floated and twirled, slowed and stopped
looking, seeing, smelling, tasting, listening, imagining

What do you see, when you see? Do you see?
How do you see and Who do you see?
Do you see me?
Are you really listening? Are you really there?

Me? I stir the soup.
I draw, I write, I speak
telling stories with my hands
like two sea otters floating happily on undulating waves
singing, dancing, playing

My life,
so like the butterfly whose flight does not go straight
--from point A to point B—but flows
as a song, a poem, a river, the life cycle of a plant,
the journey of sun & moon

A star I am: Stern, born of die Sterne
in the valley of the roses, Rosenthal
it’s in my bones, you know,
the ones I inhaled on matzoh ball mountain

‘Tis the bones that make the best soup
in between the ridges
where I gather to plant,
scattering gold as I fly

~Nicole Raisin Stern
14 October, 2006

mi cena de anoche

Hoy escribo mi blog en espanol, uno de mis lenguas "segundas." Desafortunadamente, los tildes no se aparecen cuando uso blogger.com.













Comi verduras cocidas al vapor, el tofu salteado con salsa de soya, ajo, y cebollitas verdes; y arroz jazmín; cacahuates con sabor thai (con chiles, hojas de lima, y hierba de limon); y bebi un vaso fresco de agua con rodajas de lima. Muy rico, saludable, y sencillo preparar con mi mano izquierda.

Left-hand glass painting

Painting and drawing with my left hand is definitely not as much fun now that my right arm is temporarily out of commission. I painted Yuki & Jesse on glass with acrylics with my non dominant left hand on Saturday or Sunday. My first time painting on glass. In the bottom view, I held the glass painting up to a window.

Mooncake

This is a mooncake some friends and I made last Saturday at a moon viewing party. The moon cake filling is made from sweet red bean paste (azuki beans) with coconut flakes, Chinese wolf berries, pumpkin seeds, and cashews. The outside (cake/bun) is made of mesquite bean meal ground from mesquite beans. We pressed the mooncakes into a wooden form carved with the Chinese characters for the harvest moon. We watched the moon peeking in and out of the many clouds while eating our dinner under the ramada at the community gardens.

Not My Radiant Head

The diagnosis for my right arm is: a fractured radial head. The radial head is the end of the radius (the smallest of the three bones of the forearm). So, after being in a plaster cast for three days, I now have a bionic arm brace (below). The dial mechanism is what I use to fly over the desert. Actually, for transportation, I've embarked on a new adventure--riding the public bus. The doctor said no bike riding and that it will take about three months for the arm to heal. In three weeks I go back to the orthopedic doctor for a check up and some physical therapy. In the meantime, I can fly over the desert.
























This meal is a left-handed breakfast. Not much different from one of my right-handed breakfasts except that I used a spoon for the rice--using my chopsticks left-handed is still a little awkward--and no grated raw ginger or daikon on tofu slices, since it's too hard to grate and slice left-handed.
















A recent house guest.











Drying my sandals on the eastside of house after the rain yesterday.

teapots no. 99 & 100

Teapot 100 was made on a piece of "magic" paper on which you draw with a brush dipped into clear water. While the brush strokes are wet, the image appears; when the strokes dry, the image disappears. Anicca--Pali for impermanence. Everything changes.






teapot (group) no. 99: these teapots were the models for most of the set of 100 teapots, the rest came out of my imagination.

teapots no. 95, 96, 97, & 98

teapot no. 98













teapot no. 97
















teapot no. 96
















teapot no. 95