Who was it got the dippy notion
of plumbing briny depths of ocean
to raise this seaweed from its bed,
and in his ancient wisdom said,
“Seaweed is a dainty dish,
more delectable than fish,”
and, having taken this posish,
left us with these lanky strands
dripping from our hapless hands?
Before it passes through our lips,
are we to cut it into strips,
or do we simply boil and boil
and also fry? If so, what oil
will do the trick to make it tasty?
By no means let us now be hasty.
Such culinary challenges
do not really need unhinge us.
This one leave us quite undaunted.
“Just what I have always wanted!”
are the words we hope to hear
round our board, resounding clear,
as the connoisseurs proclaim:
“Seaweed! Yet another name
to conjure with in cooking books
and rouse your neighbour’s envious looks!”
As, with lightly racing pulse,
you graciously serve up your dulse.
While I was writing these verses, my husband got down to business in the kitchen. He seized the seaweed and cut it into strips, stared at it meditatively, then sliced the strips into diamond-shaped pieces. These he fried lightly in olive oil, adding soup flavouring, fennel, thyme, garlic and tomato sauce, but deliberately omitting salt. He topped up the mixture with water, covered it and simmered it gently until tender. Then we tasted it.
It tasted like seaweed soaked, fried, smothered in tomato sauce and herbs and gently simmered until tender.
©Helen Heubi, 1977
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Versatile Blogger Award
Back in December just before the Christmas rush (excuses, excuses), I received a magical message from Mary Chase, Ph.D. I had been graced with the Versatile Blogger Award.
I am now notifying you that I have accepted this award, which qualifies me to pass it on to each of you. You are in random order with at least one of your blogs:
Leticia Austria
http://spectrumofperspectives.blogspot.com
Jennifer Jilks
http://mymuskoka.blogspot.com/
Karen Harbaugh
http://pollyannaofkaren.blogspot.com/
Nancy O’Carroll
http://www.femininepowerplay.blogspot.com/
Monika Aebischer
http://theolivesparrow.typepad.com/
Justice Bartlett
http://justice-bartlett.blogspot.com/
There are a few rules, below, if you like. You will find them by scrolling down in Mary's email. I am adding my perspective to them here:
Thank you, Mary, for this delightful honor. In your honor I have even used American spelling, at least in this paragraph. I may backslide later. For the information of the other recipients your blog is: http://nulla-mary.blogspot.com/
You dedicated your blog with tongue in cheek to one of your (and my) anti-heroes. I dedicate mine and my websites to all who are prepared to read at least one page of them and who actually do so. I love to be read, don't you all? Some of mine are: http://itllcometome.blogspot.com/, http://cometothegravenhurstoperahouse.blogspot.com/, http://greenwoodsongs.blogspot.com/, http://alongwoodlandpaths.blogspot.com/. My websites: http://intoverse.com/, http://eccolibrium.com/,
http://pro-coaching.ca/
My request: if you are not in touch with each other yet, please do write each other welcoming emails, and let us know all your blogs and websites.
Seven things about me:
I. I look forward to Isaac Tigrett's unveiling of his new project on the Mystic Inn of the Seventh Ray on 1 February 2012. We are into sevens here. His website is: http://www.mysticinnofthe7thray.org/
2. I have just finished re-reading Jeoffrey Kendal's autobiography, The Shakespeare Wallah, and feel like starting it all over from page one.
3. I'm thrilled that I've been able to create three websites with an obsolete version of RapidWeaver on my 2005 Mac mini with the now obsolete Tiger OS. Obsolete or not, the effect can be immediate. If I want to change a comma, I can go right in there and do it myself. Sometimes with the very obliging customer service help of FatCow.
4. About great singers, I went backstage to say hello and goodbye to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf after her farewell concert in Toronto. We established that we were both going to live in Switzerland and would yodel to each other from one mountaintop to another. What a great lady with a swift sense of humour. From her sotto voce discussion with her husband as I drifted up to be first in line I gathered she did not appreciate the "bravo man" in the gallery, who effectively destroyed every pin drop silence that she should have had at the end of a particularly moving piece. So, I wish to all singers and other musicians many perfect pin drops to come.
5. My funniest backstage encounter was after a concert by Lois Marshall in Barrie, Ontario. Her accompanist, Weldon Kilbourne, introduced me as one of his pupils, and we all broke out in raucous laughter at the sight of both me and Lois wearing a leg cast each. I had fallen down some stairs and she in her bathtub. That looked as if I were carrying hero worship a little too far. A great lady, fine musician and superb singer she was.
6. Mary believes in reincarnation. Even before I was sure I did I used to take people back into possible past lives. Now I do, and still do after further research and training, I have learned that with Past Life Regression (PLR) - you never know what's going to happen. The tour guide into the past has to be totally on the alert and ready for anything. I love it.
7. It's OK for the Facilitator in a PLR to go partly into trance as the time traveller does completely. What a relief to learn this from a top level PLR guide. And, yes, it is not only possible but quite desireable to be both in trance and highly alert.
Thank you all for delighting with your writing. Be reading you soon.
Cheers,
Helen
This is what Mary Chase wrote to me:
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Versatile Blogger Award
How nice is this? Fellow blogger and writer extraordinaire, J.D. Mader, has made me a recipient of the very distinguished Versatile Blogger Award. For a very good read, check his blog, Avoiding the Stairs. I can only say that I am humbled and would like to dedicate my award to Newt Gingerich, in hopes that he will pass along his lead in the Republican race to another more worthy than he (but still beatable) -- as I am doing in accordance with the rules of this reward.
Yes, there are rules.
1. Thank the blogger who honored you and be sure to link to his or her blog, as I have above. Thank you, J.D. You are a gem.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass the award on to five deserving bloggers.
So seven things... I am advised these ought to be witty, but will hope readers will settle for succinct.
1. I am currently reading Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie. Next on the bedside table is Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James.
2. My favorite line from a movie: "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"
3. It took me nine years to get a B.A. because I kept changing my major (classical studies, French, drama, folklore, English).
4. I love opera. When I was twelve I sneaked backstage and got Joan Sutherland's autograph.
5. I also love Willie Nelson. He hugged me once in Augusta, Maine.
6. I believe in reincarnation.
7. Last time, I didn't.
And now, the next recipients of the Versatile Blogger Award are:
Helen Heubi
Bill Woolum
Tish Jett
Tom Kepler
Peter Pappas
So, newly honored writers, enjoy your moment in the sun. Speak only the truth. Go forth and enlighten.
I am now notifying you that I have accepted this award, which qualifies me to pass it on to each of you. You are in random order with at least one of your blogs:
Leticia Austria
http://spectrumofperspectives.blogspot.com
Jennifer Jilks
http://mymuskoka.blogspot.com/
Karen Harbaugh
http://pollyannaofkaren.blogspot.com/
Nancy O’Carroll
http://www.femininepowerplay.blogspot.com/
Monika Aebischer
http://theolivesparrow.typepad.com/
Justice Bartlett
http://justice-bartlett.blogspot.com/
There are a few rules, below, if you like. You will find them by scrolling down in Mary's email. I am adding my perspective to them here:
Thank you, Mary, for this delightful honor. In your honor I have even used American spelling, at least in this paragraph. I may backslide later. For the information of the other recipients your blog is: http://nulla-mary.blogspot.com/
You dedicated your blog with tongue in cheek to one of your (and my) anti-heroes. I dedicate mine and my websites to all who are prepared to read at least one page of them and who actually do so. I love to be read, don't you all? Some of mine are: http://itllcometome.blogspot.com/, http://cometothegravenhurstoperahouse.blogspot.com/, http://greenwoodsongs.blogspot.com/, http://alongwoodlandpaths.blogspot.com/. My websites: http://intoverse.com/, http://eccolibrium.com/,
http://pro-coaching.ca/
My request: if you are not in touch with each other yet, please do write each other welcoming emails, and let us know all your blogs and websites.
Seven things about me:
I. I look forward to Isaac Tigrett's unveiling of his new project on the Mystic Inn of the Seventh Ray on 1 February 2012. We are into sevens here. His website is: http://www.mysticinnofthe7thray.org/
2. I have just finished re-reading Jeoffrey Kendal's autobiography, The Shakespeare Wallah, and feel like starting it all over from page one.
3. I'm thrilled that I've been able to create three websites with an obsolete version of RapidWeaver on my 2005 Mac mini with the now obsolete Tiger OS. Obsolete or not, the effect can be immediate. If I want to change a comma, I can go right in there and do it myself. Sometimes with the very obliging customer service help of FatCow.
4. About great singers, I went backstage to say hello and goodbye to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf after her farewell concert in Toronto. We established that we were both going to live in Switzerland and would yodel to each other from one mountaintop to another. What a great lady with a swift sense of humour. From her sotto voce discussion with her husband as I drifted up to be first in line I gathered she did not appreciate the "bravo man" in the gallery, who effectively destroyed every pin drop silence that she should have had at the end of a particularly moving piece. So, I wish to all singers and other musicians many perfect pin drops to come.
5. My funniest backstage encounter was after a concert by Lois Marshall in Barrie, Ontario. Her accompanist, Weldon Kilbourne, introduced me as one of his pupils, and we all broke out in raucous laughter at the sight of both me and Lois wearing a leg cast each. I had fallen down some stairs and she in her bathtub. That looked as if I were carrying hero worship a little too far. A great lady, fine musician and superb singer she was.
6. Mary believes in reincarnation. Even before I was sure I did I used to take people back into possible past lives. Now I do, and still do after further research and training, I have learned that with Past Life Regression (PLR) - you never know what's going to happen. The tour guide into the past has to be totally on the alert and ready for anything. I love it.
7. It's OK for the Facilitator in a PLR to go partly into trance as the time traveller does completely. What a relief to learn this from a top level PLR guide. And, yes, it is not only possible but quite desireable to be both in trance and highly alert.
Thank you all for delighting with your writing. Be reading you soon.
Cheers,
Helen
This is what Mary Chase wrote to me:
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Versatile Blogger Award
How nice is this? Fellow blogger and writer extraordinaire, J.D. Mader, has made me a recipient of the very distinguished Versatile Blogger Award. For a very good read, check his blog, Avoiding the Stairs. I can only say that I am humbled and would like to dedicate my award to Newt Gingerich, in hopes that he will pass along his lead in the Republican race to another more worthy than he (but still beatable) -- as I am doing in accordance with the rules of this reward.
Yes, there are rules.
1. Thank the blogger who honored you and be sure to link to his or her blog, as I have above. Thank you, J.D. You are a gem.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass the award on to five deserving bloggers.
So seven things... I am advised these ought to be witty, but will hope readers will settle for succinct.
1. I am currently reading Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie. Next on the bedside table is Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James.
2. My favorite line from a movie: "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"
3. It took me nine years to get a B.A. because I kept changing my major (classical studies, French, drama, folklore, English).
4. I love opera. When I was twelve I sneaked backstage and got Joan Sutherland's autograph.
5. I also love Willie Nelson. He hugged me once in Augusta, Maine.
6. I believe in reincarnation.
7. Last time, I didn't.
And now, the next recipients of the Versatile Blogger Award are:
Helen Heubi
Bill Woolum
Tish Jett
Tom Kepler
Peter Pappas
So, newly honored writers, enjoy your moment in the sun. Speak only the truth. Go forth and enlighten.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Caregivers
Having just turned 81 two days ago, I still have much to learn. Today, I listened to a free session on colds, flu and the like, and tapped along with the EFT expert invited by Jessica Ortner, who first learned about EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques's Tapping Solution) when she was deep in bed with a nasty flu. I got some insights that I want to note, although I am already free of some of the beliefs addressed on Nick and Jessica Ortner's site.
For example, I no longer believe I have to get the Christmas Cold. I haven’t had a headache worth mentioning in years, or even much of a cold - with a couple of exceptions, as when I was briefly at Friends’ House in Toronto a few years ago to take some course or other and Judith Amundsen looked after me so beautifully. Rita Woods came to my rescue on another Toronto visit. Both loving, smart homeopaths.
Now I have to remember next time I go to the Big Smoke to cloak myself with Light when diving into a large bowl of a few million beings radiating all kinds of vibes. I wish I had known about that when teaching in large high schools, but I had no idea then.
Up here in Muskoka, a place with a heritage of healing, I do not pay attention to all those tv ads that assume we are going to get sick. And there are a lot of them for me to close my eyes to. I don’t take the flu shot because after the confusion a couple of years ago it wasn’t clear how beneficial or how harmful it might be.
Patterns of Illness
The EFT expert on the Ortner recording did bring out the question of patterns of illness from childhood. When I was seriously ill, very young, I picked up on my mother’s anxiety a lot. There was something positive in the air too - probably my angels and guides and God, that brought me, and her, through.
When of school age I had chronic colds. This could have been through allergies to coal dust, milk, who knows. It got so I felt punished more than cherished because of Mom’s repressed resentment of having to look after me, as her mother had looked after her younger sister Amy, who was “always ill”. As a young widow, Grandma had a lot of anxiety because of the death of little Henry at two, of diphtheria. She didn’t want to lose any more children. Mom resented Amy, who she thought was a sissy and a spoiled brat hypochondriac.
Sadly, after her marriage Mom developed asthma, and had severe attacks. The steroids prescribed for that may have affected her heart. She died in her early sixties. Amy died younger than that of cancer, probably contracted when painting airplane dials with radioactive chemicals during WWII. Several of the women on that job gave their lives, years later, for the war effort, although it was never proved, that I know of. Mom’s and Amy’s father died young of cancer, so it was also in their background. Two of their brothers also died of cancer, perhaps the third one too.
Now that I look back at my own childhood pattern of illness, I felt partly punished, partly cared for when ill. I kept myself busy with Book of Knowledge, building with toy logs or minibricks or Orphan Annie’s student flying kit, or dolls. Tried not to be a nuisance. I eventually lost the ability to know for sure whether I was sick or not, or to tune in accurately to my body. I kind of took over my mother’s questioning attitude: “Are you really sick or are you just imagining or pretending?” It became more and more difficult to know as I grew into adulthood.
During my first year of teaching I was living in Midland and coming back to Toronto on weekends. I still had a room in my parents’ house. One weekend it became evident that I had caught the measles - again. Mom expressed quite frankly how she felt about nursing me and bringing me my meals for a whole week. “Your home is not a place to come to when you’re sick.” Huh? I covered up the deep hurt feeling at hearing this with a hardened, cynical decision to re-wonder how welcome I was in my parents’ house. Not. Less and less over the next few years until after my marriage to Paul, when I became kind of acceptable.
Going through a session of tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique) can bring out all kinds of old stuff that it is high time to address. What was I to think about the remarks Mom used to throw me while I was at university, like, “This is not a hotel”? “Everything was fine until you came home.” I heard that more than once when arriving right after classes at the university - late or early afternoon. This could have been the kind of refrain that kept me away a lot too, and reinforced the other criticism often thrown my way that “Home is not just a place to hang your hat”. In my final year, when I had to get decent marks, I had to study in the library, and came home in the evening after it closed, because otherwise I would have been yanked from my books to do household tasks regardless of essay and exam deadlines.
Now every time that sort of memory floats up to the surface like a dead body, thanks to the power of EFT, I can also use the mantra of Ho’onoponopono for healing and cleansing. I don’t know what I did to arouse all that family anger, and it doesn’t matter. I just say, “I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.” I’m saying that with compassion to me and everyone involved in the memory, no matter where they are now.
Before I married Paul in 1964, I was really ill with pneumonia, with repeated colds and flu and from that typhoid shot that left me feeling I was going to die. I arrived on my first visit to Europe, skin and bones. Paul took over as my care-giver. I got a lot better over the years of my marriage, but still got lots of colds and flu and migraines. I would wake up at night to find him standing over me with a remedy for coughing, which had awoken him (a light sleeper with apnea that was never diagnosed).
After Paul died in 2005 at the age of 87, I was on my own, and it was my turn to look after me. Thanks to his loving memory, I got better and better! Less worry about him, about me. Headaches disappeared. Colds and flu had less power. I could picture him coming and caring about me, and that was an enormous comfort. I no longer feared punishment if I did fall ill. I accepted myself when I did. EFT is a great help there with, “Even though .... , I love and accept myself.”
Right now I have a cold that I had put on the back burner and tried to ignore. Doesn’t make it go away, just disguises it. I realized it was interfering with my treatment for sleep apnea, recently diagnosed. Thanks to a session of EFT to point out that this a good time to face any buried resentments and fears and also to apply tried and true self-healing approaches to enhance the effect of CPAP treatment for sleep apnea.
I have tools for health: my own wise mind or higher consciousness, my guides in spirit - Sai Baba, my spirit guides, angels, archangels. I know something of EFT and can practice Ho’onoponopono, to sweep away dark, clinging junk from the past and from others, and to clear the house or temple that is my body, mind and spirit letting in more and more Light and Love.
http://www.thetappingsolution.com/
http://www.self-i-dentity-through-hooponopono.com
For example, I no longer believe I have to get the Christmas Cold. I haven’t had a headache worth mentioning in years, or even much of a cold - with a couple of exceptions, as when I was briefly at Friends’ House in Toronto a few years ago to take some course or other and Judith Amundsen looked after me so beautifully. Rita Woods came to my rescue on another Toronto visit. Both loving, smart homeopaths.
Now I have to remember next time I go to the Big Smoke to cloak myself with Light when diving into a large bowl of a few million beings radiating all kinds of vibes. I wish I had known about that when teaching in large high schools, but I had no idea then.
Up here in Muskoka, a place with a heritage of healing, I do not pay attention to all those tv ads that assume we are going to get sick. And there are a lot of them for me to close my eyes to. I don’t take the flu shot because after the confusion a couple of years ago it wasn’t clear how beneficial or how harmful it might be.
Patterns of Illness
The EFT expert on the Ortner recording did bring out the question of patterns of illness from childhood. When I was seriously ill, very young, I picked up on my mother’s anxiety a lot. There was something positive in the air too - probably my angels and guides and God, that brought me, and her, through.
When of school age I had chronic colds. This could have been through allergies to coal dust, milk, who knows. It got so I felt punished more than cherished because of Mom’s repressed resentment of having to look after me, as her mother had looked after her younger sister Amy, who was “always ill”. As a young widow, Grandma had a lot of anxiety because of the death of little Henry at two, of diphtheria. She didn’t want to lose any more children. Mom resented Amy, who she thought was a sissy and a spoiled brat hypochondriac.
Sadly, after her marriage Mom developed asthma, and had severe attacks. The steroids prescribed for that may have affected her heart. She died in her early sixties. Amy died younger than that of cancer, probably contracted when painting airplane dials with radioactive chemicals during WWII. Several of the women on that job gave their lives, years later, for the war effort, although it was never proved, that I know of. Mom’s and Amy’s father died young of cancer, so it was also in their background. Two of their brothers also died of cancer, perhaps the third one too.
Now that I look back at my own childhood pattern of illness, I felt partly punished, partly cared for when ill. I kept myself busy with Book of Knowledge, building with toy logs or minibricks or Orphan Annie’s student flying kit, or dolls. Tried not to be a nuisance. I eventually lost the ability to know for sure whether I was sick or not, or to tune in accurately to my body. I kind of took over my mother’s questioning attitude: “Are you really sick or are you just imagining or pretending?” It became more and more difficult to know as I grew into adulthood.
During my first year of teaching I was living in Midland and coming back to Toronto on weekends. I still had a room in my parents’ house. One weekend it became evident that I had caught the measles - again. Mom expressed quite frankly how she felt about nursing me and bringing me my meals for a whole week. “Your home is not a place to come to when you’re sick.” Huh? I covered up the deep hurt feeling at hearing this with a hardened, cynical decision to re-wonder how welcome I was in my parents’ house. Not. Less and less over the next few years until after my marriage to Paul, when I became kind of acceptable.
Going through a session of tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique) can bring out all kinds of old stuff that it is high time to address. What was I to think about the remarks Mom used to throw me while I was at university, like, “This is not a hotel”? “Everything was fine until you came home.” I heard that more than once when arriving right after classes at the university - late or early afternoon. This could have been the kind of refrain that kept me away a lot too, and reinforced the other criticism often thrown my way that “Home is not just a place to hang your hat”. In my final year, when I had to get decent marks, I had to study in the library, and came home in the evening after it closed, because otherwise I would have been yanked from my books to do household tasks regardless of essay and exam deadlines.
Now every time that sort of memory floats up to the surface like a dead body, thanks to the power of EFT, I can also use the mantra of Ho’onoponopono for healing and cleansing. I don’t know what I did to arouse all that family anger, and it doesn’t matter. I just say, “I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.” I’m saying that with compassion to me and everyone involved in the memory, no matter where they are now.
Before I married Paul in 1964, I was really ill with pneumonia, with repeated colds and flu and from that typhoid shot that left me feeling I was going to die. I arrived on my first visit to Europe, skin and bones. Paul took over as my care-giver. I got a lot better over the years of my marriage, but still got lots of colds and flu and migraines. I would wake up at night to find him standing over me with a remedy for coughing, which had awoken him (a light sleeper with apnea that was never diagnosed).
After Paul died in 2005 at the age of 87, I was on my own, and it was my turn to look after me. Thanks to his loving memory, I got better and better! Less worry about him, about me. Headaches disappeared. Colds and flu had less power. I could picture him coming and caring about me, and that was an enormous comfort. I no longer feared punishment if I did fall ill. I accepted myself when I did. EFT is a great help there with, “Even though .... , I love and accept myself.”
Right now I have a cold that I had put on the back burner and tried to ignore. Doesn’t make it go away, just disguises it. I realized it was interfering with my treatment for sleep apnea, recently diagnosed. Thanks to a session of EFT to point out that this a good time to face any buried resentments and fears and also to apply tried and true self-healing approaches to enhance the effect of CPAP treatment for sleep apnea.
I have tools for health: my own wise mind or higher consciousness, my guides in spirit - Sai Baba, my spirit guides, angels, archangels. I know something of EFT and can practice Ho’onoponopono, to sweep away dark, clinging junk from the past and from others, and to clear the house or temple that is my body, mind and spirit letting in more and more Light and Love.
http://www.thetappingsolution.com/
http://www.self-i-dentity-through-hooponopono.com
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