WALKING CLEAR CREEK

New Year's Day on Clear Creek

After breakfast, consisting of an Omlette topped with mild Hatch green chiles and swiss cheese, dusted with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, onion and garlic powder -and- homemade hash browns made from grated Yukon Gold taters and fine chopped onions dusted with kosher salt, fresh ground paper and Chimayo chile powder, we took a walk along Clear Creek.

Although the high temp was to be in the mid-fifties, a nasty north-west wind raked down along the creek bed....making the hike a brisk one.

Two months ago, we hiked the same path in the midst of full Autumn color. While crossing the pre-stressed open-span steel bridge, I took a nice pic looking Northeast, downstream.

I stopped and took a similar picture today.....not at all the same scene. It is very cold and forlorn.

Canadian geese and winter ducks were nestled in pools and feeding quietly. Leftover snow and ice shelves dotted the shadows where the sun never touched the North facing slopes.

With all or most of the Prairie pothole ponds, lakes and reservoirs locked in ice, the waterfowl find ways to settle into the riparian habitat along the South Platte drainage. It provides a great opportunity for bird watching.....And, shooting a few birds, once we are outside the city limits!!!!

This pair of Mallards were settled in a shallow pool under a man-made rip-rap retaining wall.

NEW YEAR'S MORNING RAMBLES

Sunrise, 1, January 2009

~~~~~*~~~~~

Turning the Year

The Roman God, Janus, with his double visage facing both the past and the future

greets the new year and recalls the passing of the old year.

"In Roman mythology, Janus (or Ianus) was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. His most prominent remnants in modern culture are his namesakes: the month of January, which begins the new year, and the janitor, who is a caretaker of doors and halls." - Wikipedia

~ William Sprocket Cat is growing stronger. He has developed a bothersome sneeze and cough. My concern is that he might have aspirated something when he was sick and vomiting. Tomorrow he goes into the Vet clinic for a check-up, so we shall see.

~ Yesterday was a full day at work attempting to make up time lost on a large production run for Hi-Mountain Seasonings (http://www.himtnjerky.com/) of Riverton, Wyoming. They are good clients, hunters and fisherfolk.

I came home very tired, washed off the dust and went to church for New Year's Eve Mass. I came home to a huge glass of Cabernet and fine North Denver Spaghetti.

The recipe can be found in the Elegant Dust archives here:

http://theprairiemelts.blogspot.com/2007_02_11_archive.html

After the hearty repast, I promptly crashed....like the proverbial Boeing 737 in a microburst! None of this midnight madness for this cowpoke....not like years past.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Here's wishing you all a blessed and prosperous, joyfilled and bountiful New Year!

IN GOD'S SERVICE

Servitas in Cultu

et

Cultus per Servitatem

What is a "Verger"?

One of the esoteric, and frankly powerful remnants of medieval times in the liturgical worship of the Anglican Communion is the office of verger. Posted above is a photo of one of the best. It is a picture of the legendary Charles Agneau, Head Verger of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco taken not long before his death at age 76.

What is a verger?

David Jette, the retired President of the Verger's Guild of the Episcopal Church spoke to a group of vergers in training: "Basically, a verger is God's butler." The office of verger can be as simple as a ceremonial office to lead processions within the church. Or, it can be as complicated as being the overseeing officer, Sargent-at Arms, instructor and head of all of the subordinate guilds within a cathedral church.

Just as a Head Butler was in charge of all the servants within a Georgian/Victorian household, so a verger is in charge of all the servants who keep the liturgical dance in pace and cadence and alive with reverential vigor within the Anglican Church.

He or she serves the priest or cathedral dean or the bishop, making certain that their needs are met, that the altar guild and acolytes and ushers and choir are all trained and prepared to serve. This allows the ordained ministers to concentrate on their priestly and pastoral duties while the great dance of the liturgy flows around them, supporting them and lifting up their position as God's chosen priests.

Originally, the verger carried a mace to keep unruly and/or drunken congregants, choir members in line and to help remove errant livestock from the sanctuary. He would keep watch over the expensive books and bibles, gold and silver altar adornments. Usually, he was a retired military man, well versed in the art of combat and maintaining order. His mace was not ornamental....it was a weapon.

The contemporary office of Sargent-at-Arms within the US Congress or the British Parliment is the outgrowth of the office of Verger within the Church.

Yours truly, 1st Sunday after Christmas,

Martyrdom of Holy Innocents

I serve as verger in our small congregation at St. James, Wheat Ridge. My post is second in ceremonial and liturgical importance. Only our Rector or priest-in-charge holds more authority. He is ordained and can perform all of the sacraments outlined in the Canon Law of the Anglican Communion. Although I am highly skilled and trained in all of the liturgal nuances and canon law, I am not ordained. Therefore, I cannot perform baptisms, marriages, bless and sanctify Eucharistic elements, sacred oils or holy water.

OH yes!....and what does the latin above mean?

"Service in Worship and Worship through Service."

~~*~~ For the Love of a Cat ~~*~~

William "Sprocket" Cat

Ten years ago this coming March 26th, a litter of six black kitteh's were born to our dear neighbor's dam. Some nine weeks later, Ms. D was visiting and playing with the all litter mates. As she arose to leave, one little black fluffball followed her and began mewing.

That lil' furball was Sprocket.

He has graced our house, our lives and the neighborhood ever since. He latched on to me early on.

I taught him how to hunt, the joys of feasting on fresh fish and wild birds. He ranges far and wide in the neighborhood, following the "cat highways" know only to the felines who all roam here in the North-West Highlands of Denver.

William “Sprocket” Cat, the self-proclaimed:

- Emperor of the North Highlands,

- Knight of the Raleigh Street Irregulars,

- Master of Mice and Sparrow, and,

- Time Lord appellation: Felis Grandicus Concolor

The ornery gato has some scars and we've had some scares when he has come up sick. He has bounced back from each one...until last Thursday. He has not eaten since, nor has he ingested fluids....The Vet has given him fluids by subcutaneous injection.

I've shared much of what has happened to him through the beneficence of that sweet and ornery Headmistress: Sondra @ http://www.sondrak.com/. She is the founder of the Fund which so many of you have made contributions.

I am dumbfounded by this outpouring of support and joyful help!

THANK YOU!

BLESS YOU ALL!

Nathaniel and Sprocket sharing "their" couch.

~~~~~ UPDATE~~~~~

Christmas Day, 2008

Sprocket slept almost all night without vomiting. However, when we tried to hydrate him by administering lukewarm water with an eyedropper.....He immediately threw up again. He has not eaten at all. Nothing stays long in his upper GI.

Ms. D is off work until New Years. She will take him back into the Vet's Clinic tomorrow. I simply do not know how much longer the lil' black bugger can keep this up. He is so weak, lethargic.....moving like a Sloth, slow, almost imperceptably slow.

Sigh..............

We would not be able to keep this up if it were not for your corporate support, both physical, emotional and fiscal!

THAT, as far as I am concerned, is the true miracle here.

THE PIZZELLE REVISITED

Hard at work in the shop office

Christmas Cookie Madness

Dammit Womman, Mrs. Peperium, Headmistress SondraK, MiTX and others have all expressed interest in Pizzelles.

I promised recipes....and recipes you shall have!

I ran a Dogpile search and found the following page, which is replete with basic goody recipes:

http://www.post-gazette.com/food/20010524mailbo.asp

The recipe by Paul Sciullo of Bloomfield is the closest to what my Mom used to make...without the whiskey.

Now I am well constrained to resurrect one of her prized Pizzelle Irons, much like the crenelated snowflake, #2 in the pic below.

Out of my culinary memories, one in particular was brought back with eidetic clarity by "MCPO Airdale" in a thread over at http://www.sondrak.com/ He spoke of rolling the warm pizzelle, fresh from the iron into a tube....thereby creating a foundation for canoli.

~ A San Francisco Tangent

On the southern-most end of the Marin County headlands, near the base of Mt. Tamalipas, there is an old roadhouse which has been in continuous operation since the 1930's. The Buckeye Roadhouse is nothing like what most folk picture a roadhouse. It is a fine, understated, high quality restaurant featuring fantastic Northern California Wine Country cuisine.

My brother and I were taken their by one of our clients while we worked on building and installing custom mill work.

Long story short ~ DINNER:

24 yr. old Glenmorangie and a splash of water followed by a full dozen fresh bay oysters on the half-shell, washed down with an Anchor Steam Porter...T

Then a dinner of pan seared steelhead fillet on a bed of wild rice and fresh serrano chile and corn with angel hair onion rings and a crisp "Stag's Leap" Chardonnay that was spectacular.

Desert was a chocolate pizzelle canoli filled with dark chocolate whipped cream and ricotta cheese drizzled over with hot dark chocolate/pine nut sauce, a glass of 50 year old Spanish Port.....almost as good as making love.....almost! And a cup of the cleanest tasting coffee I have ever had the pleasure to drink, strong but no bitterness at all.

Which in turn reminded me of the pizzelle canoli we had in Mexico:

They were stuffed with fresh whipped cream and mexican vanilla (VERY pungent!) and their version of ricotta and drizzled over with a hot hard sauce with crushed pistachios....a good snifter of Pedro Domeque VSOP and dark, rich michoacan coffee. *SIGH!*

~~~~~~

If any of y'all wish to try your hand at making pizzelles, you can purchase irons like this one here:

at: http://www.kasbahouse.com/villawareonline/pizelle.asp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Advent Season is nigh over and preparations well in hand to celebrate a Christmas eve Mass at St. James.

There will be Pizzelles!