THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY 2008
My two favorite months of the year are October, with flaming foliage, and May, with its brilliant flowers. What is especially lovely about May is that it is an awakening of the earth. Perhaps Spring is Mother Nature’s greeting card, as I noted in my poem below. As I walk around my neighborhood admiring the early blossoms of magnolia trees, forsythia bushes, azaleas, tulips, and daffodils, I am reminded of Walt Whitman’s quote that “beauty has its own excuse for being.”
When I was younger, I foolishly thought that flowers were quite unnecessary in the garden and I grew only vegetables and herbs. But then, when I first moved back to Central PA in the early nineties and stayed with my friend Hope, I weeded her garden and saw that she planted flowers in between the veggies. I liked that! There is something about “flower power” that makes us smile, especially in Spring, when the flowers return to grace the earth. The pictures today are mostly flowers to honor this springtime event of blossoms in the merry month of May. Some were taken in my neighborhood, while others were snapped from our recent visit to the Biltmore Estate in Chattanooga, TN. (pictured above and below)
This month I use the word flour, the homonym of flower, and feature recipes using gluten-free flours. Many people are allergic to wheat, rye, barley and triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye) as well as oats. (Over the past decade research has shown that most people who are gluten intolerant can consume oats if other grains have not contaminated them. Finally, a source is available through Gluten Free Oats®. Their website is www.glutenfree oats.com, but you may also want to look at www.csa.celiacs.org for the research information.) In the meantime, check out the recipes in Kitchen Nutrition for a sampling of recipes without these grain “culprits” or without dairy, which is often coupled with gluten intolerance.
I also feature store bought gluten-free products in P.I.C., which is part of Products and Services. There are many more gluten-free edible items on the market now than there were when I co-owned a health food store in the late 70s. So read about Peggy Wagener, editor of Living Without, a wonderful magazine filled with articles for those with gluten/dairy intolerance as well as information about new products.
In the merry month of May we also celebrate Mother’s Day. To honor that day in Reviews I write about The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler, a moving account of young girls/unwed mothers who were forced to relinquish their babies with traumatic consequences. (I also mention another Mother’s Day book in This ‘n That for fun reading.) In Feedback you will find some information on Amnesty International and violence against women, which I wrote about in a previous posting, only this one relates specifically to Mother’s Day. Since Mother’s Day was originally designated as a day of peace, maybe we should take it back from Hallmark and use this day to campaign for the end of violence against anyone.
I hope you enjoy the variety in this month’s posting. I would love to hear from you about what else you would like to see (or not see!) in Menupause. It is my joy to reach as many people as possible who want or need more information about midlife women and beyond. Also, if you see typos, don’t be afraid to email me. My friend and assistant, Dorothy, now lives in New York and I miss her sharing the recipe creating with me, as well as proofreading my articles as I finish them. I am usually so close to my deadline that I don’t have time to send the whole blog to her for proofing. My loss!
Finally, I penned a short rhyme to celebrate my new yellow jacket and Spring!
I purchased a jacket the other day
Buttercup yellow, bright and gay.
The exact same color of spring’s yellow flowers.
Can’t wait to wear it—–in sunshine or showers.
Like wearing forsythia or tulips yellow;
The jacket’s bold, no hint of mellow.
Wearing it, I’m in step with Spring
And sunny days that May will bring.
Spring flowers—Mother Nature’s greeting card—
With bright yellow sunshine her lovely bard.
