About time, I say! Winter was very long this year, and when I saw my  first crocuses and daffodils, I felt joyful. And since JOY is the theme for 2010, the fit is perfect!  I wrote a poem to celebrate Spring and it is posted below.

I think the most important “event” for April will be Earth Day, and if my memory serves me correctly, which I often doubt, I attended the first Earth Day in 1970, which means this is the 40th anniversary.  There was no talk of Global Warming or Climate Change or even eating lower on the food chain that day to conserve resources, but now many of those ideas are on the tips of our tongues and uppermost in our minds.  My plan is to add an Earth Day “tip” to every posting, either as part of product information, book reviews, or just quotes and pieces of information I have gathered in my files. (Your suggestions are also welcome.) Actually the photo below of birds positioned like a smile, seems perfect, as though God or whoever is up there is smiling down on Earth. (A friend sent me this.)

I plan to post some easy, healthful, tasty “low impact” recipes to celebrate Spring and Earth Day.  Hopefully, these will bring a smile to your face, pocketbook, and tummy! The first one will be Potatoes Primavera. I figured that if I use lots of veggies with the potatoes, they would offset the impact of white potatoes having a high glycemic index. I will post this recipe in a couple of days. This is just the photo.

As for a book review, I am thinking of books that are appropriate for Earth Day and Spring. This one, Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko, has been on my “Books to Read” list all winter and now I think this is the month to do it!

Apropos to book reviews is National Library Week, which will be observed April 11-18. “First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.” Source: www.ala.org.  If you haven’t visited your local library recently, do it soon! I hope to interview a local librarian who has edited several humorous books.

One of the sadder items on the “menu” this month is Holocaust Memorial Day, Sunday, April 11th. As a Jew I am very aware of this day, but in the posting near that day I would like to discuss not only the nearly 6 million Jews who were murdered, but the non-Jews who were also caught in Hitler’s horror. It is something we don’t think about often, but when I receive emails about Darfur, I am reminded that Genocide is still with us. When I Googled this topic, one site that came up had as its theme “Legacy of Hope,” which fits in with my yearly theme, so I will look for something hopeful for this difficult day. Here is one of the logos from the Holocaust Memorial Day site:

On that “hopeful” note, I will post my poem,

Make Way for Spring

Spring has arrived, amidst chill and rain

As rivulets trickle down my windowpane.

Then the sun appears & warms the air.

Earth is alive; the clouds are fair.

The cycle of Life begins once more;

Winter’s over, let Spring in the door!

First come the crocuses and daffodils

Showing their faces and colorful frills.

Then watch the tulips and magnolias bloom—

Make way for Spring. Give it plenty of room!

Mother Nature in all her glory—

The season of Spring—a wonderful story.

The wonderful Winter Olympics may be over, but winter isn’t! We were away for five days at the end of February, hoping that by the time we returned, there would be no more snowstorms. Wrong! So the feature photo below is not one of the flowers I took on my trip (see the last photo), but rather, a snowman made by our night doorman outside the lobby. BUT, he is wearing a Phillies baseball cap, which tells me Spring Training is coming soon!

While weather is the main topic of discussion at the beginning of every phone call I make to family, there are other events in March to look forward to.  First, I plan to go to a celebration of Women’s International Day, which is March 8th. My alumnae organization is having a program at The New York Historical Society on March 6th, and if there is no storm (Ooops! there are the weather words again), I plan to go with my camera and notebook. The picture below is from the website of the NY Historical Society. They are featuring bird walks in the Spring in NYC.

Even if there is snow in the ground, March 17th will still be St. Patrick’s Day, when everyone can be Irish. Last March, I featured a kale recipe with this photo. The vase is wrapped with a scarf I bought several years ago in Florida, along with one in red and white for Valentine’s Day. I use each only one week of the year, but they work for that “Valentine’s Week” in February and “St. Patrick’s” Week in March.

I hope to feature some other leafy, green vegetables this month, such as collards, chard, and spinach.

Speaking of recipes, I attended an Israeli vegetarian cooking class (perfect for me!) at the end of January and took some photos. I hope to post at least one of the recipes from that fun class. The instructor, Devorah, was quick with her hands and created several delicious dishes with our help in chopping veggies. Here is Devorah making one of her recipes.

Since March is generally cold, although maybe not bitter, soups will still receive top billing in my kitchen. I meant to post this new-to-me soup recipe that my sister-in-law Carol made when we visited Carol and my brother in Rhode Island at the end of January, but forgot, so it will be my first recipe in Kitchen Nutrition this month. I call it Carol’s Comfort Soup. This is just the photo, so stay tuned for the recipe later in the week…

March also completes four years of Menupause and the beginning of my 5th of year posting. Not such a big deal compared with International Women’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day, but in my world it is a milestone, since I never thought I would still be loving this.

If you are new to Menupause, you might want to click on  the Welcome link for “historical” background on Menupause. I will probably add something about the 5th anniversary, too. Also, I started a blog last year called www.divorce-dayz.info for those of you who have or are experiencing a midlife divorce. Different information is posted, although sometimes I post a book review or special article on both sites.

Regarding a book review, I haven’t yet decided what health-oriented book to review, but I can pass along a wonderful novel that I read while on vacation. My sister-in-law gave to to me when we visited, so I not only came home with a great soup recipe, but also a marvelous novel. It is called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and takes place on the Island of Guernsey (off the coast of England) at the end of WWII. It’s historical fiction that will have you smiling and crying at the same time. It is a love story, a war story, a literary story all done in letter (epistolary) form.  The novel was written and almost finished by Mary Ann Shaffer. Sadly, she died before the manuscript was completed, so her niece, Annie Barrows completed it. I read it on the beach in one day, because I could not put it down! Thanks & thanks, Carol. (I heard it might be a movie, which I would run to see.)

Finally, I plan to attend the Philadelphia Flower Show this week and take pictures to post during this month and next, but for now I am posting a photo I took while in Cancun for five days at the end of February. We didn’t have summer weather, more like Spring, but walking without boots, gloves, and hats was wonderful. Here’s a whiff of Spring! Or maybe the quote by Percy Blysshe Shelley, English poet (1792 – 1822), fits better: “If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” We can only hope…..