Guten Abend loves and lovees. Well it's a lovely three something in the morning over here, and I sit enjoying a piece of home-made sweet bread still warm from the oven, listening to the harmony of click-a-clack as Artemus and I productively type away at our various online endeavors. I enjoyed a trip out to Kingwood today complete with a bit of foraging (more on that fun later!), lunch with friends, and the treat of sitting and listening to Arte on the piano. I always have so much fun with him, despite making a complete idiot of myself on a sadly regular basis, but what else would one expect from a fool like me. Even on the rare occasion when we actually manage to have a serious discussion I go and screw it up some how, but I believe I've already into enough depth on this topic in my second post.
Anyways, as I was saying I managed to do a bit of foraging while Nat was giving a recital. I had noticed some interesting nuts on the ground around the path on our way inside and made a note to check them out later as we walked around the campus killing time. Arte and Nathan laughed at me but I went ahead and gathered up all the unbroken ones I could lay my hands on. Doing a bit of research later revealed them to be hickory nuts, a relative of pecans - and a damn delicious relative at that. (I also learned that hickory trees can be tapped for sap to make into syrup like maple, and might be looking into that later, though I'm not sure if the college would be entirely pleased with me doing so...) Now getting at the meat inside these little fiends is a rather painstaking process involving a hammer, pick, and a hell of a lot of patience, though it's definitely worth the effort. Once I had enough shelled (I also used the shells on the fire for our grilled burgers tonight - they gave off a really rich, sweet smoke like nothing I've ever used) I set about baking, grinding, and baking again until i had a fine meal, which I used as the base for what I believe to be the tastiest bread I've ever made. The recipe I based it on was my favorite pulla recipe plus a few elements stolen from a potica recipe or two, filled with a buttery center and raisins, and sprinkled over with more hickory nuts, caraway, and a few choice spices. I can tell you no one's laughing now!
All of this because I'm too shy to look up as I walk around. It's something people've fussed at me for since I was a very small child, to no avail. People say you'll miss so much life if you don't look up from your feet, but I think they don't realize how much they miss from looking up all the time. We tend to ignore the things at our feet, choosing instead to gaze into the unreachable stars, never knowing the precious things so close, without our grasp. It's the same with friends and love I fear. We idolize legends we'll never meet, fall in love with people who don't even know we exist, while there're friends around us who love us more than we realize, friends whose very familiarity and constant presence make us overlook them, just like the ground we walk on, taking them for granted, never looking down. I guess that's all I really have to say for tonight - I'm actually feeling rather tired even though it's just turned four in the morning. I guess I'll leave you with this friends - look down, you'll be surprised just who and what have been at your feet all along. Tschüs loves!
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