Once you’ve gotten enough snow, add vanilla and either sweetened condensed milk or a little milk with sugar.  Stir and adjust to taste.  Eat right away!
Results of My Snow Ice Cream Experiment:

In the photo at the top, you can see two types I made.  The one on the left was made with Maple Agave Syrup, milk, vanilla and a little sugar mixed in with the snow.  At first it tasted great like maple gelato, but it got icy very quickly.

The one on the right was made with Trader Joe’s Organic Sweetened Condensed Milk, vanilla, a little sugar and milk.  That one tasted a lot like vanilla ice cream and stayed creamy longer.  That one won hands down! 

Enjoy!  -Mama Lisa

Variation: Add chocolate syrup to your recipe.

This is the best cranberry bread I’ve ever had!  My family loves it too.  It just happens to be gluten-free. If you’re on a gluten-free diet, please read the labels of your ingredients to make sure they’re all gluten-free.

Recipe for Gluten-free Cranberry Bread

Ingredients

1 cup White Rice Flour
1 cup Oat Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 t. Xanthan Gum
1 1/2 t. Baking Powder
1 t. Salt
1/2 t. Baking Soda
1 Egg
1 cup Orange Juice
2 T. Vegetable Oil
1  T . Grated Orange Peel
1 1/2 cups chopped Cranberries
3/4 cup chopped Walnuts

Note: I chop the Cranberries and Walnuts together in the food processor until they’re medium chopped.

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 9 x 5" bread loaf pan with butter.

2.  Sift both types of flour into a bowl. 

3.  Add the sugar, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and baking soda.  Mix it all together with a spoon.

4.  Beat the egg and add it to the dry mixture with the orange juice, oil and orange peel.  Mix together well.

5.  Stir in the cranberries and walnuts.

6.  Pour mixture into the pan and spread it out evenly.

7.  Cook for about an hour until a toothpick comes out clean.

8.  Let cool a bit before eating… it’s good warm!

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

Fatima wrote yesterday from Iran, "It’s Yalda night ceremony (the longest night of the year).  Iranian people eat nuts, walnuts, pomegranate, and watermelon for Yalda."

Yaldā is an ancient Persian Winter Solstice celebration. People used to stay up for most of the night to ward off misfortune.  Nowadays, families mainly gather together for a nice meal.  Fruits and nuts are usually part of the meal.

Thanks for sharing Fatima!

Mama Lisa

Photo: Wikipedia

The text is from a book called “The Illustrated London Magazine” from 1855…

“The month of May is quite an old-maid’s garden; filled with all varieties of superstitions, some of which may be classed as weeds and the others as flowers, but most of which have but little root in the well-known cheerful character of the month… for May is not considered a favourable month for happy marriages. Thus, also, to bathe the face in dew that lies upon the morning grass was considered on the First of May to be as beneficial as the bath of beauty in the fairy tales… 

Various divinations are in several counties practiced during this month. In Northumberland, for instance, they fish with a ladle for a wedding-ring that has been dropt into a bowl of syllabub [a thick English dessert, see photo]… and whoever is the fortunate angler will, as sure as there are gudgeons in the sea, be married first.

A slower kind of divination is, also, practiced with snails – a curious team to harness to the fortuneteller’s chariot. The process is best described in the’ following pastoral revelation, that smacks very strong, we must say, of the gooseberry…”

Last May-day fair I search’d to find a snail
That might my secret lover’s name reveal:
Upon a gooseberry bush a snail I found,
For always snails near sweetest fruit abound.
I seiz’d the vermin; home I quickly sped,
And on the hearth the milk-white embers spread.
Slow crawl’d the snail, and it I right can spell,
In the soft ashes ink’d a curious L:
Oh! may this wondrous omen lucky prove!
For L is found in Luberkin and Love.
With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,
And turn me thrice around, around, around.

Sweet!  Have a Merry Month of May!

Mama Lisa

Today, April 25th, is Saint Mark’s Day.  The end of April and the beginning of May is thought to be colder than the time around it.  Due to 4 Saints Days that take place at this time, including St. Mark’s, this period is called The Four Horsemen of the Cold in France… the four horsemen being the 4 saints bringing in the cold.

Monique wrote to me from France today:

St Mark’s day today follows the Horsemen of the Cold rule: it’s cloudy and cold.

It’s unseasonably cold here in New York too!

Read more about The Four Horsemen of the cold here.

Drawing of the horseman by Durer.

Hi Lisa,

We eat chestnuts in November for autumn.  Grandfathers and their friends come to cook the chestnuts. (1st they need to have an x cut into the top.) The mothers peel them. We eat chestnuts and drink tea, coca cola or water. Adults drink red wine.

Ciao,

Emanuela

Here are photos of how they cook the chestnuts with Emanuela’s descriptions:

1.  Here’s the stove that we use to cook the chestnuts in the garden…. The grandparents cooked the chestnuts.

2.  For the chestnuts to cook it takes a cheerful fire.

3.  The chestnuts are cooked in a "fassora", a large pan with holes. This pan has a long handle to avoid burning.  A grandfather mixed the chestnuts  with a wooden stick. 

4.  The good grandfather turns the chestnuts "throwing them into the air."

That’s sounds like lovely day.  Thanks so much for sharing Emanuela!

Ciao,

Mama Lisa

March said to April. 
I see 3 sheep upon a hill;
And if you’ll lend me three days
I’ll find a way to make them die.
The first of them was wind and wet,
The second of them was snow and sleet,
The third of them was such a freeze
It froze the birds’ nests to the trees.
When the 3 days were past and gone
The 3 silly sheep came limping home.

I modernized the English above.  Below is the original version that can be found in the "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, published in 1905…

March said to April,
I see 3 hoggs (hoggets, sheep) upon a hill;
And if you’ll lend me dayes 3
I’ll find a way to make them dee (die).
The first o’ them wus wind and weet,
The second o’ them wus snaw and sleet,
The third o’ them wus sic a freeze
It froze the birds’ nebs (noses) to the trees.
When the 3 days were past and gane
The 3 silly hoggs came hirpling (limping) hame.

I wish March would give those three days back to April so we’d have some warm weather right about now!

Mama Lisa

MP3 Recording of Spring by Rossetti

Spring

Soft-littered is the new-year’s lambing fold,
And in the hollowed haystack at its side
The shepherd lies o’ night now, wakeful-eyed
At the ewes’ travailing call through the dark cold.
The young rooks cheep ‘mid the thick caw o’ the old:
And near unpeopled stream-sides, on the ground,
By her Spring cry the moorhen’s nest is found,
Where the drained flood-lands flaunt their marigold.

Chill are the gusts to which the pastures cower,
And chill the current where the young reeds stand
As green and close as the young wheat on land
Yet here the cuckoo and cuckoo-flower
Plight to the heart Spring’s perfect imminent hour
Whose breath shall soothe you like your dear one’s hand.

Notes:

Fold = Enclosure or pen

Rook = Crow

Moorhen = Medium sized water birds (they look a bit like ducks)

Recited by Verity Kendall
Photo of Sheep: Wikipedia
Photo of Cuckoo: Wikipedia

MP3 Recording of Early Spring

Early Spring

Quick through the gates of Fairyland

The South Wind forced his way.
‘Twas his to make the Earth forget
Her grief of yesterday.
"’Tis mine," cried he, "to bring her joy!"
And on his lightsome feet
In haste he slung the snowdrop bells,



Pushed past the Fairy sentinels,
And out with laughter sweet.

Clear flames of Crocus glimmered on



The shining way he went.
He whispered to the trees strange tales



Of wondrous sweet intent,
When, suddenly, his witching voice
With timbre rich and rare,
Rang through the woodlands till it cleft
Earth’s silent solitudes, and left
A Dream of Roses there!

Read by Stefan Schmelz
Illustrated by Lisa Yannucci
Original Snowdrop Photo from Wikipedia

Jeremy Shatan wrote from New York: "It’s the vernal equinox, the first day of spring. Around this time of the year, my mom would always say: ‘Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, the boid is on the wing.’ Yes, just like that."

This saying is all in "New Yorkese", a New York accent.  It seems of course to come from the New York area. Some quote it from Ogden Nash, but from what I can tell looking through some books, this is incorrect.

The saying is sometimes called "The Brooklyn National Anthem" and it dates back to at least 1940.  There are many versions of it. Here’s one:

Spring has sprung, the grass is ris,
I wonder where the boidies is
The boid is on the wing,
But that’s absoid
From what I hoid 
The wing is on the boid!

Here are other versions I found:

The spring is sprung, The grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is.
(1951 – The New Mexico folklore record: Volume 6)

Spring has sprung The grass has riz Come out yourself And see how ‘tiz.
(1956 – Canadian bee journal: Volumes 64-65)

And a sadly rye one:

"Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, where last year’s reckless driver is."

Some others:

"Spring has sprung and the grass has riz, I wonder where the flowers is."
"Spring has sprung and the grass has riz, I wonder where the daisies is."‎

However you want to say it, the important part here is that Spring has sprung.

Happy Spring everyone!

Mama Lisa

First you’ll find the simplified Chinese text, followed by an English translation.  Then you can listen to a recording of the poem in Mandarin and follow along with the Pinyin (pronunciation).   After that you’ll find the traditional Chinese text with another translation.

早寒有懷

木落雁南渡,
北風江上寒.
我家襄水曲,
遙隔楚雲端.

鄉淚客中盡,
孤帆天際看.
迷津欲有問,
平海夕漫漫.

Early Winter Cold

The leaves fall, the geese fly south,
There’s a cold north wind on the Han River.
My house is on a bend on the river,
Far across the vast clouds in Chu.

A stranger in every village, shedding tears for home,
Looking at a lonely sail on the horizon,
I’m lost and want to ask how to find my way,
The still wide sea is endless in the evening.

Below is a recording of the poem.  You can follow along with the Pinyin below that…

MP3 of Zao Han Jiang Shang You Huai

Pinyin

Zao Han Jiang Shang You Huai (Meng Haoran)

Mu4 luo4 yan4 nan2 du4,
Bei3 feng jiang shang4 han2.
Wo3 jia Xiang shui3 qu,
Yao2 ge2 Chu yun2 duan.

Xiang lei4 ke4 zhong jin4,
Gu fan tian ji4 kan.
Mi2 jin4 yu4 you3 wen4,
Ping2 hai3 xi man4 man4.

Below is the traditional Chinese text with a more complex translation of that version:

早寒江上有懷

草木枯黃凋零了，陣陣鴻雁飛嚮南，
北風呼嘯颳不停，一江秋水一江寒。
家乡是那鹿行山，茅廬就在襄水灣，
遙望遠方的楚地，楚地茫茫在雲端。
思鄉眼淚已流盡，客旅生活多辛酸，
孤帆遠方在天際，此情此景不堪看。
我想找人問一問，迷路渡口在哪邊？
暮色蒼茫無所見，衹見江海水漫漫。

The River in Early Winter

Leaves have withered and faded, the Swan geese fly South,
The howling North wind is blowing and the Han River is cold.
My home is on the hill, a thatched cottage on a bend of the river,
Looking at the distance of my homeland of Chu, it looks vast up high in the clouds.

Homesick tears have been shed, as a stranger life’s miserable,
A lone sail on the distant horizon is unbearable under these circumstances.
I am looking for someone to ask, "Where is the ferry crossing?"
Can’t see in the deepening shades of dusk, only the long wide water of the river.

Translations by Lisa Yannucci

MP3 Recording of January’s Garden

January’s Garden

All silver-white and silver-clear

Are January’s bowers,

And there bloom sparkling sprays of ice,

And snowflake flowers.

The French poem Matin d’Octobre by François Coppée (1842-1908) is about an early October morning.  You’ll find the original French version with an mp3 here and an English translation below it.

MP3 Recording of Matin d’Octobre

Matin d’Octobre

C’est l’heure exquise et matinale
Que rougit un soleil soudain.
À travers la brume automnale
Tombent les feuilles du jardin.

Leur chute est lente. On peut les suivre
Du regard en reconnaissant
Le chêne à sa feuille de cuivre,
L’érable à sa feuille de sang.

Les dernières, les plus rouillées,
Tombent des branches dépouillées :
Mais ce n’est pas l’hiver encor.

Une blonde lumière arrose
La nature, et, dans l’air tout rose,
On croirait qu’il neige de l’or.

English Translation:

October Morning

It is the exquisite and early hour,
The sudden sunrise reddens the sky.
Through the autumn mist
The garden leaves fall.

Their fall is slow. We can follow them
With our eyes and recognize
The oak by its leaf of copper,
The maple by its leaf of blood.

The last ones, the most rusty
Fall from the bare branches,
But it’s not winter yet.

A fair light sprinkles down on
Nature and in the whole rosy sky
You’d think it was snowing gold.

Translated by Monique Palomares and Lisa Yannucci.  Thanks to Monique for the recording!

Monique Palomares works with me and the French and Spanish versions of Mama Lisa’s World.

First a note about the illustration, in English we say “It’s raining cats and dogs” when it’s raining very hard. Hence the drawing of cats and dogs falling from a rain cloud. In Italian they say, “Water (will fall) from wash-basins.”

Listen to an MP3 Recording of Pioggia

Pioggia
(Italian)

Cantava al buio d’aia in aia il gallo.
E gracidò nel bosco la cornacchia:
il sole si mostrava a finestrelle.
Il sol dorò la nebbia della macchia,
poi si nascose; e piovve a catinelle.
Poi tra il cantare delle raganelle
guizzò sui campi un raggio lungo e giallo.

Stupìano i rondinotti dell’estate
di quel sottile scendere di spille:
era un brusìo con languide sorsate
e chiazze larghe e picchi a mille a mille;
poi singhiozzi, e gocciar rado di stille:
di stille d’oro in coppe di cristallo.

English Translation:

Rain

The rooster was singing from barnyard to barnyard in the dark
And the carrion crow croaked in the woods:
The sun was sticking its nose (between the clouds)*
The sun gilded the mist in the brushwood,
Then it hid itself, and it rained cats and dogs.
Then, amid the singing of the frogs,
It flashed on the fields a long and yellow ray.

Young summer swallows were amazed
At that light descent of pins:
It was a buzz of languid downpours
And wide splashes and a lot of pattering drops;
Then in fits and starts, and a sparse trickling of drops:
Drops of gold in crystal goblets.

*Gian Carlos wrote, “An old Italian proverb says: ’sole a finestrelle acqua a catinelle’. ‘Finestrelle’ are the ‘little windows’ between any two clouds. In Italian the whole expression is, as in many proverbs, elliptical. A possible translation would be something like:

(When) the sun (shows) through little windows (between the clouds)
Water (will fall) from wash-basins.”

Translated by Gian Carlo Macchi, Lisa Yannucci and Monique Palomares.

Thanks so much Gian Carlo for your help!

Mama Lisa

Image: Lila and Lisa

Girl and Puppy

Cats

Puppies

Dogs Rule!

Older kids and adults will enjoy The Snow Man more than younger kids.  You might have to read the poem a couple of times to get it and it’s easier to understand when you hear it recited, like in the mp3 recording below.

Recording of The Snow Man

The Snow Man
by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

Note 1:  Read my very quick take on this poem in the comments below.

Note 2: There’s an interesting article with a short podcast about this poem called Wallace Stevens: ‘The Snow Man’ by Jay Keyser on NPR.

Photo:  By Wikimedia Commons user Petritap (edited by Mama Lisa)

Thanks to Kelley for sharing her fantastic photo!

Mama Lisa

Highty-tighty, Paradighty,
Clothed all in green.
The King could not read it
No more could the Queen.
They sent for a Wise Man out of the East,
Who said it had horns but was not a beast.

Note: Highty-tighty is a variation of Hoity-toity.  In the US, at least in our house in New York, we use "hoity-toity" to indicate that someone is being pompous or snobby.  In the riddle above, it’s probably used for the sound.  My guess is that "Highty-tighty, Paradighty" is a nonsense rhyme.

See answer below…

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Need a hint? 

It’s something you think of in the Winter and in December in particular.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Answer:  Holly

Truthfully, I know this is an old-fashioned riddle, but I couldn’t resist posting something that started with "Highty-tighty, Paradighty".  What a great opening line!

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

SNOWFLAKES

Out of the Bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow,
Descends the snow.

I feel the first verse stands beautifully on its own and this is how I found it in an old children’s book.  The poem gets more melancholy as it proceeds.  Here’s the full poem with a recording:

Recording of Snowflakes

2nd Recording of Snowflakes

Snow-flakes

Out of the bosom of the Air,
      Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
      Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
            Silent, and soft, and slow
            Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take
      Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
      In the white countenance confession,
            The troubled sky reveals
            The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,
      Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
      Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
            Now whispered and revealed
            To wood and field.

Photos of Snowflakes by William Bentley, one of the first photographers of snowflakes circa 1885.

Ayako Egawa wrote from Japan:

December 22nd is the Winter Solstice in Japan.  [It's on the 21st in the U.S.*]  We Japanese enjoy “yuzu” around this time.

You can enjoy “yuzu tea” and a “yuzu bath” easily.

Wash the yuzu and cut it thin. Then soak it in a little honey and sugar. 

After several hours, put the dipped yuzu in a cup and pour hot water onto it.  Now you can enjoy yuzu tea.  Drinking yuzu tea makes you hot and relaxed, in addition you can enjoy the fragrance, too.

We float yuzu in the bath, too. We call it “yuzu-yu” and enjoy it around the winter solstice.  "Yuzu-yu” makes you not only warm, but smoothes your skin!

Try and enjoy Yuzu, when you find it!

Thanks for sharing the Yuzu Winter Solstice tradition with us Ayako!  Happy Winter Solstice.  Now we can be happy in the fact that the days will start to get longer.

Mama Lisa

*According to GreenAnswers.com the Winter Solstice is at exactly the same time all around the world.  That’s why it’s on the 22nd in some places and on the 21st elsewhere.