It's been "one of those days" where I simply have too much to do, and I'll be darned if I get any of it done. Wandering into my meditation room where Smudge lives, I plopped myself onto the floor near her and said, "I was going to be camping for the rest of the week, but I canceled those plans because..."
She said, "Rain."
It sounded like she said "mrewan" followed by lots of licking her smooth belly. She licks her belly often when we chat, so I have to decipher what she's saying between mouthfuls of what we affectionately refer to as "Smudge Balls". Then she decided to pose sweetly on my ottoman. I begged her to stay "right there" so The Big Guy could get his camera.
Yes, I was going to camp for a few days with my Faery God Daughter in the Olympic Mountains, near Sol Duc Hotsprings, and... so much for that idea. I'm grateful though. My body hasn't been enjoying the damp and relatively cold Spring (almost Summer!)
I'm still wandering around my house with my sweater on. As you can imagine, sleeping in a tent (because we haven't purchased that RV yet ...but WE WILL!) in the rain didn't sound like fun. Not even with a campfire.
With that thought in mind I decided to go ahead and turn to baking. Thanks to Bread Tales by 
Here's a bit of mirth for you: when I was a child, I wouldn't touch the stuff. The idea of eating any part of a monkey, even if it was rolled in cinnamon sugar was revolting as well as disturbing. Now, I understand that my fears weren't corrected because there was more disgusting monkey guts for everyone else.
This was my first attempt at creating "real and true" monkey bread from "scratch". As in, I used my own bread recipe instead of a can of commercial dough.
Rather than posting several pictures in succession, I created a collage for you!
So, in between the hours of letting the dough rise, and dipping bread balls in sugar and butter, I would sit with Smudge and answer text messages from the kids, who were attempting to put together a different kind of collage for their father in time for Father's Day this weekend here in the United States. My daughter made it sound like we were heading into a defcon level where meltdown was imminent. I said as much to a friend, but I said, "Defcon Level Five may be upon us" and I was corrected when he said, "...uh, I think you mean Defcon One? Otherwise, your urgency makes no sense."
GASP!
How could I have been so mislead by the media?
The sidebar at Bing said:
"In some movies, the phrase "Defcon 5" is used to refer to the highest state of alert. This is incorrect. Defcon 5 (codename "FADE OUT") is the lowest state of alert, aka completely tranquil peace time. Defcon 1 (codename "COCKED PISTOL") is the highest, referring to a confirmed state of war. The use of nuclear weapons is authorized here, but they will still require unlock codes from high authority."
All the research and baking gave me a good excuse to not engage in certain other household things, such as laundry (ugh) or diving into any number of important things such as creating faery dolls (I call them Feyomes, and I make them on a commission basis, a different post for a different day) or joining The Big Guy in the garden. However, I did manage to harvest a bit of broccoli to nosh with dinner. We have some new "purple" broccolini sprouting. Stir fried with a bit of garlic? Amazing.
When The Big Guy came in from his 2K Fun Run in the garden, I stuffed a mouthful of Monkey Bread into his face and his eyes became sparkly and joyful. Can you blame him? The stuff tastes like a dream. A good dream. Definitely a Defcon Five Dream.
He then told me that when he was a kid, he too, refused to eat "monkey bread" because he thought it was something like the hard biscuits that were given to children to feed to the monkeys at the zoo in Copenhagen.
We're making up for lost time by eating all the monkey bread now.
Thank you, so much, for reading and I always welcome your comments!
Take a look at @Labyrinths when you have a moment, and join our labyrinth community on HIVE if you're interested. We just started it, so there's not much going on yet, but if you're ever in the need for a "down to earth" (but not too earthy) psychic, you can find me online at Brigid's Aether.
Any images and graphics (unless noted) are mine.
