Thoughts?

" When a woman starts to disentangle herself from patriarchy, ultimately she is abandoned to her own self. She comes to an unknown place where she must let the old way of being die and the new way come forth. During the initiation the new feminine potential - that rambunctious girl-child who was conceived and birthed inside during her awakening and had been there all along- starts to grow and develop into the woman she will be."

Kidd, Sue Monk, Dance of the Dissident Daughter, 1992

webiste to check out FYI

http://www.suppressedhistories.net/index.html

Is anyone besides Fiona and Siobhan out there?

Ladies, we suddenly have this great forum to talk about our lives! Where are you?

I am reading and thinking about so many issues right now that I can't seem to focus on one topic. That has always been my challenge, unfortunately. No appreciation for the "Renaissance Woman." Why is it that women like me (and Fiona), interested in a whole world of topics, don't feel "successful?" Is it true that because I am not working one full time job, one rewarded by health insurance, that I am not succeeding? Women are not rewarded for living a life of variety, complexity and discovery.
We are rewarded for being part of a couple, making a family complete by caring for others: cooking, childcare, etc. After those jobs are "done" we become crones. If our mates haven't sniffed the pheromones of other women and departed it is a rare occurrence. (Not that they are greatly missed, mind you.) Serial monogamy is as natural for humans as eating different food. As Margaret Mead said, "Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents. "

My quandry is where do we crones go next in the greater scheme of things? What lies ahead for us besides accepting the inevitable? I feel very excited and charged up by our future possiblities! We still have time to change the world, don't we?

It is unfortunate that a woman chose to run for President the same time a charismatic black man chose to. I want a woman in power so much I can taste it, but in our patriarchal society, a smart woman still doesn't have a chance against a man no matter what his color is. She comes off as difficult and pushy and strident. (And she may be.) He appears visionary, open-minded and POSSIBLE. And I will probably end up voting for his dreams along with most of the democratic youth of this country. BUT PATRARCHY REMAINS IN PLACE.

Trifles and Fools

Not that the women and the preparation of food are synonymous but the digression continues. The first trifle recipe was written in Elizabethan England in the cook book
The Good Hyswife's Jewell, 1596
There’s more creamy dishes of the Tudor and Stuart period called trifles, fools and white pots along with the suggestion that Tiramisu is the contemporary version of making a dessert from scraps. The tradition continues.
Check out this website for history and details on a wide range of comestibles. I though it interesting that bread, beer and soup are pre-historic.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/

Going even further, look into how people use this site!

The real reason I like English mysteries

Because they can get away with a sentence like, "What would you like, mum's trifle or Spotted Dick?" Where is Groucho when we need him?

But what I really want to know is the reason that "mum's trifle" is in not capitalized but "Spotted Dick" is.

Now if you go to Wikipedia you find a definition for:
Spotted dick is a traditional English steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit (usually currants), which is usually served either with custard or with butter and brown sugar. Spotted refers to the raisins (which resemble spots) and Dick may be a contraction/corruption of the word pudding (from the last syllable) or possibly a corruption of the word dough.^[1] It is possibly conjugated originally from sticky pudding to dicky pudding to dicky to dick and finally spotted dick as in pudding with raisins. It is also known as spotted dog, plum duff, steamed dicky, figgy dowdy, dotted lloyd, packphour's lament, dicky widmark as well as plum bolster, Spotted Richard. and it is sometimes even called a Dickie Burton after the famous actor. Recipes for spotted Richard include the following: (I especially like "steamed dicky")
And here is the healthy recipe:

• White bread crumbs
• Self-raising flour
• Shredded suet
• Raisins or currants
• Salt
• Nutmeg
• Ginger
• Mace
• Citrus fruit peel
• Eggs
• Brandy
• Sugar
• Butter
• Custard
• Brown Sugar

But nothing in Wikipedia for mum's trifle.

Here is a recipe for mum's trifle if anybody cares: Also really healthy!

Sponge:

125 g sugar
4 eggs
100g flour
25g butter, melted

Jelly:
1 punnet raspberries
1 punnet blueberries
1/2 punnet strawberries
3 sheets gelatine
400ml sugar syrup

Creme patissiere:
500ml (2 cups) milk
1 vanilla bean, halved vertically and seeds scraped out
6 egg yolks
125g sugar
40g cornflour
icing sugar
100ml strawberry liquor
200ml cream, whipped
grated dark chocolate

Method:
For sponge- preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Whisk sugar and eggs together in beater until doubled in size and light and fluffy. Then slowly sieve in flour, folding gradually through the mix. When the flour has been incorporated, gently stir through melted butter. Grease 1-2 rectangular baking trays and pour mix out on to the trays. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes: when cooked sponge should be golden brown.
To make creme patissiere-put milk in pan and add vanilla bean and seeds; bring close to boil and then set aside, for milk to infuse. Whisk eggs and sugar together until pale and ribbon-like, sift cornflour in and mix thoroughly. Remove vanilla bean from milk and slowly whisk milk into the egg mix, then return all to the pan. On low heat stir until the mix bubbles; once bubbling cook for 4 minutes, stirring, or until flour taste has gone. Transfer to a bowl, sprinkle with icing sugar and refrigerate.
To make the jelly- halve strawberries and scatter on the bottom of a large casserole dish with the other berries. Dissolve the gelatine in a small amount of water then heat sugar syrup and pour over gelatine. Cool jelly mixture slightly before pouring over berries.
To assemble the trifle- put a sheet of sponge over the jelly and cut to size. Brush with strawberry liquor until sponge is soaked through. Put on top of jelly and refrigerate until set. When ready to serve mix creme patissiere with whipped cream and spread on top. Sprinkle with grated chocolate.

Serving Suggestion: You can use the creme patissiere in any other recipe that requires custard, such as pastry tarts.
Use the same proportion of gelatine to liquid to make your own individual jellies.

There is no way that I will ever make any of this. (But I'll probably eat it if you do.)

Bibliography

Although I have barely begun my reading to support this blog, I want to suggest a couple of books that I have bought, begun, would like to share and discuss (in no particular order):

Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, Harper Collins, 1996

(If you are unfamiliar with her writing, read The Secret Life of Bees. )

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD, Crones Don't Whine, Conari Press, 2003

She has a number of Crone related books; this is my first, so I really don't have a clue.

Bianca Leonardo and Winifred K. Rugg, Anne Hutchinson, Unsung Heroine of History (1591-1643), Tree of Life Publications, 1995

This one is particularly of interest to me in doing genealogical research. Although I am not related to her, my ancestor, Job Throckmorton, was her neighbor and fellow dissident in Throg's Neck before they were attacked by Indians and had to flee. Unless someone can show an earlier group, these authors claim that she was the first to start "women's groups."
She had twice weekly meetings for the local women to meet to discuss last Sunday's sermon. Needless to say she was punished for it.

Where are we going?

If it weren't snowing (the winter of discontent) I'd have a yardsale.
Surveying the material of my own history I see the task of gleaning a kernel of meaning from the scrape of paper, a poem written nineteen years ago about a turquoise hammock; my mother’s wedding dress flung across the wardrobe mirror; the timid behavior of being good, quiet and respectful – all details that trip me when I take a step.
I've got to move (someday) if not right now.
Move the furniture around. Move some of it right through the front door and out of my life? Maybe this will get me in the mood to launch a purge of everything that no longer belongs under my roof. I seek an exorcism of all knick-knacks, wall hangings, broken dreams, balls and chains, and formerly cute mementoes that have lost their cuteness. My list includes old loves and old ideas. I think the mass of the material, bondage, and association demands surgical necessity. The objects and detritus are becoming tumors on my soul; albatross around my neck. Wow, open the flood gates of movement. The decade of suffocation is resolving.

Where do we live?

Questions about identity and place are a part of the crone's chronicle - especially considering our queenly status. From my perch, I get to see the sunrise over the Sourland Mountains. That's sounds like a chrone's habitat, doesn't it! But to the contrary, the Sourland provide a refuse for wildlife and undeveloped visas rare for a urban state. It is a good place to be right now.
However, when you live in New Jersey, the view of the exotic is aluring. Somehow I think I'm stuck on unbroken visas, uncluttered by the works of man. I have posted a fantasy land which I would be happy to reveal.
I'd like to here from all of you. Are there any city dwellers who vision here?

Take Heart - Valentine's Day

For those of us who are "alone", this day can be a bit awkward. I, for one, won't be getting flowers this year. 

Even though this is a greeting card-contrived event, there is a myth about St. Valentine(after all he was a saint and like all saints stood alone).  He was martyred (was can all sympathize with that plight). It also has to do with wolves. The Christians superimposed the saint's day on a corresponding date in the pagan calendar, the Roman feast of Lupercalia, after Lupa the she wolf who saved Romulus and Remus, the orphaned babies who founded Roman. I am sure y'all can identify with that too.

Meanwhile, I have sent all of our authors who have logged in, a Valentine from Shopfor Museums.com. 

Let's celebrate Valentine's Day with the spirit of Mothers and Martyrs  without whom the world would not have advanced.

welcome

I am so pleased that Carol brainstormed this site. Living now in an empty house, sometimes horrific dreams and an occasionally tumble down the stairs; I am ready to look outside my previous world and move on. Should be fun.

What do we look like?

Finding an image to connect with this site has been a search for identity. So, some of you may know that "Dangerous Crones" began with Ramona and I talking about an all-girl rock and roll group. I was taking guitar lessons, and she said she could play tambourine. We needed some other players!. What should we call ourselves? Considering the demographics - two women "over fifty" - THE DANGEROUS CRONES were born in concept. It has been two years. I quit the guitar and went back to he piano. There were divorces, break ups, gripes with employers about being replaced by less expensive younger women, children grouping up and moving out. We were still smart, fit, active and passed over. TOO old to rock and roll ....too young to.... you guessed the rest.

What started as alternative music became a movement of self awareness, protest and creative response. When I was looking for an image I came across the Empress in the Waite Tarot. She is at least Queen of her Own Domain and she still looks young even though she is over one hundred years old. It is a start. Please contribute own own images and ideas about what it means to be a crone in the 21st century. We are inventing ourselves as we speak.

Welcome to the conversation!

Dear D.C.:

You are old enough, smart enough, and wise in the mercurial ways of the world. You are in the company of the like-minded.

Thanks to our technical wizard, Pam, we now have a voice to share beyond the scope of our uplifting meetings, even when far and away. The first task is to get our charter members on board. So invitations will be sent for you to join, then you can begin to read, write and share in the conversation. I am struck by one outstanding mission - the power of sharing. 

Carol C (Fiiona)