Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Bliss

March 18, 2014March 18, 201436 Comments

Bite me

There comes a time when one has to start regulating diets, actually climbing on that exercise bike instead of using it as a clothes hanger and get down to some serious lifestyle adjustment to ensure a healthy segue into the next stage of existence. Across the Bored has been a very, very good girl for a few seasons and is starting to enjoy the rewards of the aforesaid but every once in a while…

It was exactly one of those days where just a bite of heaven was needed to tide things over when the idea sprang to mind that it had been a very long time indeed since we had had any kind of indulgence. Little prodding was needed to get Miss Z to explore a newish patisserie and with the only proviso that she come home with something nice, the mission was set. A long half-hour later, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge opened a red ribbon-tied, nondescript white box and discovered – Bliss – pure, unadulterated, non-processed just like the old days, ready to be devoured puff pastry delight. Truly a gastronomic manifestation of the divine, we both feel much better now.

“Describe your own form of bliss” – In a box or under the sun, in a soft smile or sweet song, in a bath full of bubbles or a night on the town…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: T-shirts – Week 2

March 11, 2014March 10, 201410 Comments

misery loves company

Chances are that if someone has said it and someone else laughed, it’s probably been printed on a t-shirt. With over 2 billion of the little suckers being churned out a year, everything from the sacred to the profane has became graphic fodder. From Buddha and Obama to Cookie Monster and Death’s Heads, alma maters, slogans and superheroes, corny catchphrases to the downright rude, anything in fact, can and probably has been screen-printed onto that otherwise innocuous garment.

Across the Bored will admit to breaking up at some of the funnier ones but certainly wouldn’t be caught dead wearing clothing with a message having a big enough problem already with those who do not understand when we “use our words”. Putting our ideas on our chests would seem to be inviting trouble, after all, one has to actually be willing to hold forth if a topic is brought up in the first place. Some say that the most popular print ever, one that has achieved an iconic pop-culture status, probably started the trend towards text abbreviation and is produced to this day, was derived from the longest running and successful marketing campaigns of 1977:
“I♥︎NY” – well yes we do, but we’d look idiotic wearing that to the grocery store considering how much trouble our own politicians are stirring up on a daily basis… Is there a happy medium? Probably. Is it age specific to the wearer? Maybe it should be but as with most things, it is a matter of choice most of us being old enough not to be told what to wear. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme this fortnight – T-shirts – clearly illustrates how the message can sometimes become easier to digest depending on where we see it.

“Do you have any favourite t-shirts?” – White or bright, graphic or plain, with a strong statement or silly message, baby Ts or oversized gangsta…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: T-shirts

March 4, 2014March 1, 201418 Comments

wearing history

Long before the term fashionista was coined, Across the Bored reserved some articles of clothing for very specific occasions. That crew-neck number with the short, short sleeves and neon palm trees splashed across the front? Definitely non-public work-out wear. The grease-stained grey baby with the ragged hem? Saturday washing the car outfit number one. The one-size fits all Betty Boop blowing kisses sent by Mom? Bedtime for baby… Nowadays, with a decidedly different emphasis on comfort in the career department and a shifted view on what’s stylishly acceptable, that white supersoft, silk-thin pima v-neck is just the ticket. Add really good jewellery and a fab pair of shoes and this kind of simple top becomes an elegant option that no one will question.

The earliest record of this cotton coverup dates back to just after the Spanish-American War; what originally started out as part of the regulation uniform for the US Navy in 1913 has now become a billion dollar business. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge guesses that (apart from undergarments and perhaps jeans) – T-Shirts – are probably the most popular piece of clothing now worn by man.

“Do you have any favourite t-shirts?” – White or bright, graphic or plain, with a strong statement or silly message, baby Ts or oversized gangsta…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Shoes – Week 2

February 25, 201418 Comments

Roger dodg’em

If you have an afternoon to spend in leisurely pursuits of the completely unproductive kind, go on google and search as many different modifiers as you can to the word “shoe”: Shoes in history, bizarre shoes, shoe houses, shoe cartoons, new shoes, old shoes, even a timeline of shoes. A “shoes in politics” search will indubitably result in some of our favourites, with the famous George Bush shoe attack and Nikita Khrushchev’s shoe-banging incident topping the list. Can’t say we have never felt the same – many are the time that throwing a good-sized boot would have given some relief and smacking a 4-inch stiletto on the dinner table would surely calm surly guests bringing out-of-control festivities to a quick end. Type in those four little letters on the keyboard often enough and by the time you are finished you may wonder why it is spelled like it is and google that leading to another slightly more educational pop-up.

They are everywhere: when they aren’t keeping our feet from the elements, they are populating our hallways and cupboards, overtaking the streets, multiplying in stores and luring us from magazines, posing in books and being immortalized on the web. Footwear has staked its claim in history. This fortnight, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Shoes – shows us that a pair of shoes cross all cultural borders and can even help us learn more about each other.

“What do your shoes say about you?” – Are they practical and sturdy, coquette with a heel,the pair that won’t be thrown out or a baby’s first, memories of your own or being put into someone else’s, wellies, waders, golfers with spikes, mountaineers, runners, ugly ones no one likes… We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Shoes

February 18, 2014February 17, 201418 Comments

blame the grandmothers

When we were very young one grandmother was known for squeezing her tootsies into too tight pumps – size 6 was just not dainty enough in her estimation. In her cupboard among black patent stilettos and dyed to match satin was a pair of clear plastic peep-toe sandals encrusted with rhinestones on the vamp and running up the lucite heel – an exotic object of desire that, to our 4 year old eyes, were fit for a princess. We would slip our tiny toes into the fronts and balance carefully, yearning for the day that they would fit like a glove and carry us across the dance floor in a dream. They taught us the importance of weight distribution (a skill that would come in handy many years later while running for the bus) and in some ways sowed the seeds of a life-long predilection for the embellished.

Our other grandmother had not been blessed with small feet. Her size 11s were the source for many a sailboat joke and fit much better on our forearms or as transportation for our Barbies – deep in our hearts we knew that we would never fit in any of them. There was an upside however in that she had a whole galaxy of choice on the sale racks; all the best brands were marked down to bargain-basement prices for lack of clientele and she would smile ever so slightly as she tried on pair after pair with great success. Lesson number 2: Never pay retail – expensive footwear is much more comfortable at 70% off.

The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge has more than a passing interest in what we protect our appendages with. From cavemen to astronauts, we put them on last and (usually) take them off first – Shoes – love them or leave them, most people (and even some pets) wear them.

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Loyalty – Week 2

February 11, 2014February 9, 201413 Comments

tell me it’s not just me…

February in the icier regions of the northern hemisphere is a sore test of just how much many of us are willing to put with: the rosy glow of the holidays is long gone, Punxatawney Phil didn’t even bother coming up for air in our neighbourhood, Valentine’s is either boom or bust and the hours don’t seem to be getting any longer no matter how close daylight savings time gets. Tempers, like sunlight, are short and our capacity to tolerate much of what are typical daily annoyances is sadly reduced.

It is not that we expect the extraordinary but it would be nice, just once in a while, to be surprised by a quick response, a straight answer, no BS, a good word, a helpful hand, a brief acknowledgement that someone, somewhere out there that actually should be is paying attention. And that’s just people, never mind products or services… It makes one wonder why we should even bother and like Archie (in Still Game) we become quite content to seclude ourselves, the desire to be Oot having been greatly diminished.

One surmises that with an overwhelming amount of information flooding our consciousnesses every day that we have no choice but to be more selective but this can be problematic in itself. Having limited ourselves to less we desire better. It doesn’t seem much to ask but apparently it is and like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme, our – Loyalty – can become strained by what society construes as good enough.

“What does loyalty mean to you?” – A pledge of allegiance, personal devotion, a philosophical concept or biblical notion, a dog to his master, the bond between friends … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Loyalty

February 4, 2014February 3, 201418 Comments

at least something is still reliable

Our notion of what is truly important is being challenged these days – whether it is the dynamics of a constantly changing interaction with relatives, co-workers and acquaintances, picking out the true from the trite in the onslaught from the media and rampant materialism, right down to the manner in which we deal with the world and the way that the world treats us. No one said it would be easy and the tenets that we have chosen to live by expand and contract as we learn more about ourselves and our place in this time.

Everyday we favour one thing over another, sometimes bad decision-making in retrospect, but nonetheless an often intuitive, instinctual or habitual choice that reflects on who we have become. From breakfast cereal to detergent, religion to life partners, country to cause, when we are not actively seeking out what we hope is the best option then we usually reach for that which has always been there. The rewards can be great or sadly disappointing, the trick is to get the lag-time down to a minimum so that we don’t flail around wasting what little time we can sanely allot to the many things that fill up our days.

The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge suspects that it all boils down to a perhaps selfish sense of – Loyalty – to what extent we are willing to go and how much we feel we need in return. It becomes problematic when one outweighs the other.

“What does loyalty mean to you?” – A pledge of allegiance, personal devotion, a philosophical concept or biblical notion, a dog to his master, the bond between friends…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Painting – Week 2

January 28, 201413 Comments

way smaller – better or worse or just the same?

When pondering on just what we will post about for these bi-weekly challenges, we usually start with an image. The one above had a very different bit of content slated to accompany it until we opened the reader this morning: many of you will already have had a peek at our reblog of Aperture 64’s eye-opening reveal of just where our images wind up and it finally gave us the impetus to take a final sad step with our precious pictures.

Being a high-resolution junkie doesn’t seem to be a good thing when it comes to getting your own work out there – bigger, in this case, is not better and has become one of those pleasures to be indulged in on the privacy of your own screen or to be shared with a select few. We had already started to diminish the size of our images in an effort to speed up the loading time of the site for our far-away friends but such a reduction also carries with it the bonus of making them less appealing to those who would like to borrow or appropriate them without going through the proper channels – guess some out there have not read the “DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT” in the sidebar. Either that or they just don’t care and think we won’t find out.

Out of curiosity, do these smaller images make any difference for your viewing pleasure? Please drop us a line in the comment box to let us know, complain about copyright infringement or rant about your own stolen pix.

In other times it might have been simpler just to paint a picture, but then we wouldn’t have as many friends that we want to share it with… This fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Painting – has led us in all sorts of directions, “What does painting represent for you?” – Graffiti on a wall, framed flowers in the hall, a masterpiece old or abstract bold, the sides of a house, finish on a car, commercial or couture … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Painting

January 21, 2014January 20, 201416 Comments

no drying time

Art – you either love it or hate it, want to hang it on your wall or throw it in the dustbin, mortgage your house because you absolutely have to have it or wonder why someone would pay a nickel for it. It’s all a matter of taste… Our first round of post secondary studies at art school were spent with the idea that the milieu itself would drive us to create works of such beauty and resonance that the critics would fall swooning at our feet. The reality was somewhat colder – yes, we did produce a few good pieces but truth was, at that time, most of the really good artists we saw were young and starving, or old and starving, and the thought of spending the next 20 years following in their footsteps paled to the opportunities presenting themselves in the wonderful world of advertising. So off we went and putting our visions on canvas became a hobby rather than a career.

The years passed and so did our focus. Today those projects which would have taken days, if not weeks, of toiling away can be accomplished in far less than an afternoon, sometimes instantaneously. We have the luxury of technology at our fingertips and switch with ease from one editing application to another, a few swipes and saves here, erase there, rework, restore, recombine and voila, we are very pleased indeed. Our masterpieces may never hang in the Met but we should at least get bonus points for creating them in less time than it takes to properly wash a good set of brushes…

From fingers to spatulas, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge knows that everyone everywhere has, at one point or another, tried – Painting.

“What does painting represent for you?” – Graffiti on a wall, framed flowers in the hall, a masterpiece old or abstract bold, the sides of a house, finish on a car, commercial or couture …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Cook – Week 2

January 14, 2014January 14, 2014Leave a comment

not so easy as it looks

In another century (yes, literally) snack foods weren’t quite as common as they are today. It was a big deal if a small bowl of cheesies or plain salted potato chips were put out and one must have been a veritable angel of a grandchild to get a tall glass of ginger ale on the side to sip politely. These nibbles were usually the accompaniment to an occasion, not a filler because we were still hungry or craved something sweet or salty, and as such they were treated differently. Both our stylish grandmothers played bridge or canasta or whatever card game was in vogue at the time on a round table set up with dainty linens in the living room. The delicacies that accompanied their soirées seemed much more soigné than the peanuts thrown back by their cigar-smoking husbands playing poker or shooting pool in the basement…

A trip to the movies, then and now, is often a good excuse to eat popcorn. Salted or not, slathered in butter or caramel, everyone has their preference and according to statistics, the average American eats about 51 quarts annually. That’s 16 billion quarts of popped popcorn each and every year – probably enough to fill up a decent-sized football stadium! When we were young, this treat was occasionally made on top of the stove in a sizzling hot, covered pot and required considerable upper arm strength to shake without it all burning. It made Ed Sullivan that much better… In the 70s Harry Blackstone, the magician, touted Jiffy Pop popcorn in television commercials – “the magic treat–as much fun to make as it is to eat.” We all clamoured for this taste sensation and it was, for many consumers, the beginning of the instant food revolution. Orville Redenbacher struck gold with this trend; the odd-looking but seemingly trustworthy and likeable character whose obsession was creating the ultimate popcorn also appeared around this time and in the 80s he perfected microwaveable bags, bringing the treat into homes for good. Fast forward to the 21st century and there are more brands of popcorn available than toothpaste – junky, weird flavours popped or not, gourmet, organic, non GMO, packaged or bulk – there’s something for everyone’s taste and price range.

It brings us full circle to this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Cook – where we find our our own Miss Z refining the art of piping hot, golden perfection popped on the stovetop. Last week we asked “How do you cook?” – On a griddle, on a grill, on a Bbq in winter still, like a short-order guy, fritters, fish or fry, vegan or carnivore, a little less or a little more… We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Cook

January 7, 2014January 6, 201423 Comments

a kitchen nymph

✑

As odd as it may seem, awhile back we had a conversation about the joys fruitcake with a fellow blogger. As a kid, we didn’t see its merits: only the candied cherries were worth picking out of the slices on the sideboard, the rest of it seemed uninspiring. Today, people fall into one of two camps with this traditional holiday fare – most hate it, probably due to the regifting of those tasteless convenience store cardboard bricks fobbed off as “delectable” once-a-year treats or memories of dry slices served up at Granny’s knee – and those of us who truly enjoy a thin slice of vintage, brandy-soaked nostalgia made with our own hands.

Across the Bored became a convert a few years back when a friend bestowed upon us about 5 pounds of very exotic dried fruit. Our first thought was that there was no way we would every be able to eat our way through it and the next idea was why not try to make a real Victorian fruitcake, one that would sit for a few months in a dark place soaking up some really good brandy, just to take the edge off. Consultation of The American Heritage Cookbook provided exactly the recipe we were hoping for and resulted in the absolutely best, sinfully tastiest potential doorstop ever. The recipe follows with our additions in italics….

BLACK FRUITCAKE

This recipe is of English origin and is known variously as Dark Fruitcake, English Fruitcake, Black Fruitcake and Merry Christmas Cake.

1/4 pound candied citron
1/8 pound candied lemon peel
1/8 pound candied orange peel
1/2 pound candied cherries
1 pound candied pineapple
1 pound golden raisins
1/2 pound seeded raisins (we used sultanas)
1/4 pound currants
1/4 pound blanched shelled almonds
1/4 pound shelled walnuts or pecans
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon mace
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
5 eggs
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup dark rum, cognac, sherry or Madeira (we used 1 1/4 cups Chemineaud brandy)

We also fudged on the 1 pound ingredients and added in dried prunes, papaya, pear, apple, blueberries, cherries, figs, dates, and cranberries…

The fruit and nuts should be prepared a day ahead as follows: sliver the citron, lemon and orange peel into very thin strips; cut the cherries in half and the pineapple in thin wedges. Set aside. Pick over the raisins and currants to eliminate stray stems or seeds and add to fruit. Coarsely chop the other dried fruit and add to mixture covering. Add rum, cognac, sherry or Madeira and soak overnight (we had so much fruit that 1/2 cup just wasn’t enough and soaked the whole in Brandy for 3 days just to be sure!) Chop the almonds and the walnuts or pecans coarsely. Set them aside, too. The day (of cooking) prepare the pan. Grease a 10-inch tube pan, four 1 pound coffee cans, or 2 bread pans, measuring 9 x5x3 inches (we used 3 vintage round spring-form pans with a side lock). Line with brown paper (there is a very good reason for this…)
To make the cake: Mix 1/2 cup of the sifted flour with all of the fruit and nuts in a large bowl. Sift remaining flour with spices and baking soda (you can add more of the spices to taste). Cream butter until soft, then work in granulated sugar and brown sugar, a little at a time, until the mixture is smooth. Stir in the eggs, milk, almond extract, and, finally, the flour mixture. Mix thoroughly. Pour over the fruit and nuts and work together, with your hands, until the batter is well mixed. Lift the batter into the pan or pans and press it down firmly to make a compact cake when cooked. Bake in a preheated 275 degree oven. A tube pan that uses all of the batter will take 3 1/4 hours; the bread pans, which will hold half the batter, 2 1/4 hours; the coffee cans, which each hold one-fourth of the batter, 2 hours; (the round pans which we used were probably around 2 1/2 hours with lots of checking – being an intuitive cook is why we don’t write a food blog…) Remove cakes from the oven, let stand half an hour, then turn out onto cake racks. Peel off the brown paper very carefully. the four small, round cakes make attractive Christmas presents.

To age the Fruitcakes: Allow at least four weeks (we left ours for at least that many months, poking with a toothpick and watering liberally with brandy once a month, and they are still tasty over a year later). Wrap each cake in several layers of cheesecloth well soaked in rum, cognac, sherry or Madeira. Place in an airtight container, such as a large crock or kettle, and cover tightly (we wrapped ours further in 2 layers of tin foil and placed in metal cake tins). If the cheesecloth dries out, moisten it with a little of the wine or spirits. Do not overdo it. The cakes should be firm, not soft, at the end of the aging period. This will make them easy to slice in neat, compact slices. If you wish to frost fruitcakes after they have been properly aged, cover the top first with Almond Paste, then with Milk Frosting (this can be tricky as my mother and grandmother found out 2 days before our wedding and had to resort to blow-drying the almond paste onto the cake… but that is for another post). To decorate, make a garland of candied cherries, slivered angelica, and blanched whole almonds around the edge of the cake.

And that’s it.

Would We do it again? Probably. It is intensely time-consuming, expensive and requires a good knowledge beforehand of baking and some nursing throughout the aging period but it is also deliciously worth it, once in a very special while. Perhaps when this one is finished or for a wedding… So the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge for this fortnight is – Cook – because we all have to eat, one way or another.

“How do you cook?” – On a griddle, on a grill, on a Bbq in winter still, like a short-order guy, fritters, fish or fry, vegan or carnivore, a little less or a little more…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Wishes – Week 2

December 24, 2013December 23, 20139 Comments

for friends everywhere

And so another Christmas Eve is upon us. Did we get all that we had hoped to accomplish done, make everything as perfect as we had envisioned or perhaps cut back, refine, rediscover those simpler things that we had lost sight of? As we celebrate over the next few days our hope is, as always, for a most excellent coming year for everyone – Best Wishes for Health and Happiness – the rest is just icing on the cake!

This fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Wishes – is simple, it is whatever you want it to be. “What are your wishes for the coming year?” – Peace on earth, good will to men, more fun, more sun, more hours in the day like way back when, less noise, no batteries in toys, clear sailing or a new adventure … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Wishes

December 17, 2013December 16, 201333 Comments

Sometimes something silly is the only cure

✸

Across the Bored doesn’t subscribe to cable – this is a statement that often elicits reactions of shock and awe to those who couldn’t live without their daily dose of reality TV, sports network or gardening channel. It’s not that we have any ideological issues (well, maybe…) with commercial broadcasting but it was a conscious decision to boycott the usurious rates of the providers and hopefully foster some independent thought in our then-toddlers. Fast-forward 20 years and we realize that time does go really fast when one is otherwise occupied and we actually haven’t missed all that much that we didn’t find out by other means. Anything we could possibly be interested in now seems to be available digitally. Some of it, like the classic Christmas fare that just gets better every year is even, gasp, on VHS tapes made painstakingly before the advent of the internet…

It just wouldn’t be the holiday season without a dose of Chip ‘n’ Dale annoying Donald and Pluto, Burl Ives’ voice from the past placating a sad Rudolph or everyone’s favourite alter-ego, the Grinch. This harmless nostalgic yearning comes at a time of year when we are the most likely to get stressed and should be indulged – so we don’t get that one last thingamabob for Auntie or bake an extra batch of cookies just in case: will anyone notice but ourselves? And wouldn’t we be better served in the long run by telling those around us to do the same, come and cuddle on the couch, just laugh and forget about everything else for a few hours?

These are the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge – Wishes – for the next few weeks, to slow down, reconnect, re-evaluate and relax.

This holiday season maybe we should all take a step to the side and let the hustle and bustle rush past us – “What are your wishes for the coming year?” – Peace on earth, good will to men, more fun, more sun, more hours in the day like way back when, less noise, no batteries in toys, clear sailing or a new adventure …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Paths – Week 2

December 10, 2013December 23, 20132 Comments

Ronald searle – never a path untrodden

Some of our earliest memories involve art – the back studio where a big work was always in progress, inky-smelling magazines with weird abstract sculptures highlighted on the thick pages, compilations of odd cartoonists work, the seemingly constant to and fro of scraggly painters, artists models, ad execs, copy-writers and their hangers on coming into the house always, it seemed, around supper time and staying late into the night. Long past our bed-time we would steal into the living room, ducking dangling cigarette ash and navigate between the elbows and cocktail glasses to the coffee table piled high with Horizons and New Yorkers. A small, pyjama-clad child with an armload of magazines wasn’t of much interest and didn’t warrant much more than a raised eyebrow.

It is no wonder that we have wound up here with such childhood influences. Perhaps if the pages turned by the glow of a flashlight had been filled with the wonders of Arctic exploration, the miracles of science or how to rebuild the engine on a ’55 Chevy, life would have been considerably different. Not to say that those things don’t fascinate us but they don’t inform our daily work nor have they become as integral, in the long run, to the way we see the world. The choices we made along the way made us veer off on tangents, brought us back to the main or sent us off on wild goose chases but this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Paths – reminds us that we were set on the road to who we have become far further back than we might like to think.

Across the Bored noticed last week that everyone today seems to be going somewhere in a hurry – “Where do the paths lead in your world?” – Round in circles, up steep hills, through the countryside or urban jungle, away from family, back into a lover’s arms, down the road to perdition or happily forward into the future … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Paths

December 3, 2013December 16, 201316 Comments

far from the cradle of our ancestors

❄︎

The Ghost has rediscovered his Irish roots, much to both our pleasure, through a series of university courses, lectures and seminars. It is all shaping up nicely to provide him with some sort of tangible evidence for why we sometimes act the way we do, choose to take a particular tack or get misty-eyed over certain strains of celtic viola. Not that our boat landed recently – that side of the family has been in this country since before Confederation, making their way from the shores of Lake Ontario, through the dense forests and up into the wilds to carve a home from the rocky terrain. The lineage we trace, both paternal and maternal, meanders across the map: the reasons for self-imposed exodus lost like the details of their lives.

Ours was never a family to cast their lot enthusiastically with any one nationality, it was as if they willingly became anonymous in their homogeneity, their affiliations resting with the language they spoke rather than the places they came from. But some things are just in the blood – and they resurface, making themselves present in ways we never thought possible. As we follow this backwards journey into a historicity rarely touched upon by those who would have done well to tell us more, the pieces slowly start to fall into place.

Sometimes, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge surmises, strange – Paths – lead us where we least expect to go.

Everyone today seems to be going somewhere in a hurry – “Where do the paths lead in your world?” – Round in circles, up steep hills, through the countryside or urban jungle, away from family, back into a lover’s arms, down the road to perdition or happily forward into the future …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Writing – Week 2

November 26, 2013November 25, 201315 Comments

just pondering… not forgotten!

There aren’t enough hours in the day for Across the Bored to get even half the things we desire accomplished – and don’t even think of asking to cut back on the necessary luxury of a seven-hour beauty rest – for there are always those little ideas that need more thought, the bits and pieces that need fixing or filing, scrubbing or tossing, editing or revising. This stuff of life gets in the way of reading all those unopened novels, penning that prize-winning book and getting in shape – activities that ensure we don’t wind up as curmudgeonly as our DNA would like to have it. Would we had those extra minutes to scribe a few eloquent lines on the marvellous things we see on others’ pages and answer all their comments with more than just a “thanks!” – so interacting with and especially thanking all those who follow and visit our little space in virtual reality comes in measured, but precious, doses.

We don’t know how some of you do it – we can barely keep our head above the bloggy waters let alone swim back to all the visitor’s corners of the world, as much as we long to. This fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Writing – gives us that chance to reach out and today’s post is dedicated to Fill the Empty Spaces. Ideafill has a lovely clean blog filled with little gems of music and art, bits and pieces of pretty things and neat stuff we would gladly trade our clutter for. She has nominated Across the Bored for a Versatile Blogger Award for which we are most delighted!

Here are the basic rules for this award:
1. Display the badge on your blog
2. Write a post and link back to the blogger who nominated you
3. Nominate 15 bloggers (not going to happen, sorry – I’ll spring for 6) and inform them of the nomination via comment in their site
4. State 7 interesting things about yourself

The nominees that inspire us, make us smile and think are:

Abandoned Kansai
Diplomatic Dog
Hello Fig
Life: A Scot in Norway
Nylon Daze
Paris: People, Places and Bling!

7 interesting things about Across the Bored, not necessarily in any sort of order…

I would like to learn how to ride a motorcycle;
Have lost those 40 extra baby pounds gained 18 years ago in the last 9 months;
Can now fit into Miss Z’s cast-off jeans – whoopee!
Dyed my hair red just like in 1976, probably to my mother’s chagrin;
Need to learn how to travel lighter, both metaphorically and actually;
Enjoy speed-editing iphoneography;
With that said, and as much as I hate to admit it, cannot live without my iPhone…

Why not send us something interesting in return? To come full circle, last week Across the Bored put forward – “What form does writing take for you?” – Feather and quill, a typewriter still, texts and tweets, parking tickets in the street, a child’s first scrawl or graffiti on the wall … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Writing

November 19, 201317 Comments

the long slow death of penmanship

✍

Those who have been following will know of Across the Bored’s continuing saga of the great thirty year triage project. Last weekend found us sifting through a banker’s box filled with birthday and christmas cards, letters from childhood pen pals long lost and the occasional unsent missive. It was heartbreaking – not as the poignant reminder of those who had sent us these paper mementoes gone on to a better place, faces disappeared in the stretch of time between childhood and adolescence to their own worlds or friends just dropped off the face of the map but because of the sad realization that no one really writes anymore.

Our post box is filled with bills and flyers urging us to consume. The only time something comes in a lovely envelope is for an occasion and even then older family members have to be reminded to send something along so their grandchildren won’t be peeved. Our circle of acquaintances that are able to put pen to paper, don’t. They text, tweet or Facebook. We can’t remember the last time we got a letter on crisp vellum recounting the events of the year, the weddings, births, deaths, milestones of a life lived. We are not blameless either – we get on the phone to bring those closest to us up to date or pop off a funny card when the mood strikes, but it isn’t really the same. We miss getting mail….

Perhaps our blogs have replaced this gentle art – they have become our virtual diaries, daily journals, the place where we expose our secret thoughts and that which we sometimes wouldn’t dare to expose to the light of day otherwise. The code that brings our words to life and sends them off to those who love, appreciate and yes, even wait for, them is both a blessing and a curse. This week, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge puts it in – Writing.

“What form does writing take for you?” – Feather and quill, a typewriter still, texts and tweets, parking tickets in the street, a child’s first scrawl or graffiti on the wall …

We would love to see your vision…. write something today!

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Birthday – Week 2

November 12, 2013November 11, 20137 Comments

our dog’s gifts are not quite as sophisticated…

In Across the Bored’s house most celebrations are fraught with some sort of melodrama. Whether it be a particularly challenging guest list for a dinner party, the extra-special nutritional requirements of very young or very old or just the general long and hard organization of an event we had hoped to keep secret but are being wheedled into revealing, things never seem to work out quite as planned. The store where we had hoped to pick up last minute items debit machine is out of order as we stand at the counter cashless with an armful of purchases that took half and hour to pick out, the incredibly sugary, stroke-inducing icing being slathered on the cake melts unforgivingly under the halogens, invitees bail at the eleventh hour even though they had insisted their schedules were free when asked to attend one month in advance – So it goes.

We should know by now just to wing it but our OCD would sometimes have it otherwise. We stand in the middle of the mall or at the kitchen counter covered in dishes, close our eyes and remember – breathe deeply. It will be all right, there is a solution, no one will know the difference, we are our own worst critic. And if it does turn into a right fiasco? Blame it on the dog… This fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Birthday – reminds us that no matter what, there should always be something to celebrate.

Seven days ago Across the Bored asked – “How do you envision birthday?” – With cake and candles, far from home, by the light of a fire with an ancient tome, kiddie balloons or grown-up winks, doggie treats or a nice cold drink … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Birthday

November 5, 2013November 4, 20139 Comments

happy birthday baby
❄︎

When Across the Bored began this challenge it was on a bit of a whim and as much for our own pleasure, the thought of forcing ourselves to come up with a response to a random subject in both words and images at an appointed time, as it was to inspire our faithful readers. Imagine our surprise when we realized it has been a little over a year since we first started to give our two cents on pretty much everything and anything that crossed our mind – some weeks were easier and some less so, depending on which way the wind was blowing…

The passage of time itself has been a bit like that as well – rough, placid, rock ‘n roll, some hours and days so filled with change that we thought things would never be the same and indeed, they haven’t. But on the whole, we can’t complain – like our mantra, “it could be worse” and without divine inspiration and the support and encouragement of our virtual brethren, it might very well have been. Who would have thought that we could last this long? This week, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge, like our own Miss Z, is celebrating a milestone – Birthday.

“How do you envision birthday?” – With cake and candles, far from home, by the light of a fire with an ancient tome, kiddie balloons or grown-up winks, doggie treats or a nice cold drink …

We would love to see your vision…. and have a slice of something sweet to help us celebrate!

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Wonder – Week 2

October 29, 2013October 28, 20139 Comments

there be dragons in tom’s garden – an iphoneography collaboration

Once upon a time, we stated rather emphatically that we didn’t see what the big deal was with fancy cel phones. As long as reception wasn’t tinny and the numbers on the keypad were large enough to see without changing glasses, everything was about as good as it could get. Texting was for kids who didn’t care about the nuances of conversation – we needed the very clear and easily decipherable tone of voice to let us know whether the response to our being late was fine or fine. The no-frills phone did its duty, suffered being dropped, stolen by the dog and left overnight in a -20C car but it eventually outlived its usefulness. Said device was unceremoniously passed to our elderly mother-in-law (who was more than pleased that she could now ring us from the aisles of her favourite grocery store) and replaced, much to Miss Z’s chagrin, with the then-latest iPhone. We were doubtful about the hype but soon smitten by its charms.

We now tell anyone who’ll listen that this phone is the best ever. Not because of the quality of pictures it takes or the fabulous editing apps, instant access to alarm clocks and weather reports, messages and colour-pickers, translators and maps or even the built-in dog whistle. It has let us become connected in ways we would never have thought possible, made us more productive in a spontaneous way, given us the tools to create every single day and most importantly, to share our vision with people all over the globe in a fraction of a second. We even use it to call home once in a while – such is the miracle of modern technology. Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme, every time we swipe onto the homepage we – Wonder – where our little portable universe will take us.

Last week, Across the Bored enquired – ““What shape does wonder come to you in?” – Swirling leaves and sunlit skies, the grasp of a hand or babies’ sighs, lions that play as cats or cats who would be lions, fireworks, roller coasters, neon signs … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Wonder

October 22, 2013October 21, 201318 Comments

The elephant only appeared 4 days later
☁

There are some days when Across the Bored, like many of you, feels about 105 years old and others when our inner toddler takes over and makes everything easy, silly, laid back and wonderful. A friend of ours said “growing old sucks” and our first thought was that it didn’t actually have to be that way – that there were choices we could make as we gained wisdom (to be politically correct) that would make the process a little easier and perhaps fade if not erase the battle scars of our misspent youth.

Young or old, modern life is complicated. Although some may argue otherwise, even if we don’t seem to accomplish much, it does seem as though we are busier than our ancestors. Released from the constraints of nightfall, technology and the miracle of electricity almost dare us to shut down and just go to bed. Our mothers shake their heads, incredulous that we are tuned in to people and places that 50 years ago would only have appeared in National Geographic or Life magazine and that we are turned on (to and by) the vast virtual machine that once was only a mathematician’s puzzling dream. That many drop out is inevitable.

When we get just that little bit too stressed out, start losing it on a regular basis, grinding our teeth in the night or wondering just what is the point of it all anyway, that is the time to stop, take a step to the side and remember what it was like to see as a child. A post-it scrawled in tiny script on the Ghost’s computer sums it up just like this week’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: “Regain the – Wonder“.

“What shape does wonder come to you in?” – Swirling leaves and sunlit skies, the grasp of a hand or babies’ sighs, lions that play as cats or cats who would be lions, fireworks, roller coasters, neon signs …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Harvest – Week 2

October 15, 20138 Comments

here and there

Summer is gone. The air has changed bringing that tinge of frost to darker mornings and earlier nights. In the city, we judge how far into the season we are by the bend of wilted perennials and the gradations of leafy colour quickening along the avenues. Nature seems to keep pace with the rhythm of the urban environment, never stopping to take a breath or ease into the season but leaping headlong in some frenetic rush to finish autumn before the snows come. The romantic in us longs to be out in the country, tromping about in big boots and woolly scarves, kicking around the edge of new-mown fields or just sitting on a fence taking in the glory of it all but we must content ourselves with more virtual views for the moment.

October reminds us it is time to make sure we are set for the duration, to check that all the plans we laid in spring, all the projects dreamed about on sunny afternoons and languid August nights, are in place and ready to be realized. It is as much about reflecting on what has been accomplished as it is to looking forward in hope, setting larger goals and taking the first steps towards the new. Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Harvest – we reap what we have sown.

Last week, Across the Bored asked – “How do you see harvest at this time of year?” – Pumpkins sweet and squash to eat, family near,the holiday blear, pilgrims and the past or things that don’t last, falling leaves or the hopes we retrieve … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Harvest

October 8, 201311 Comments

couldn’t have asked for anything more
♎

This non-season always finds Across the Bored in a transitional frame of mind – we balk at putting on socks and practical shoes (or even hose and stilettoes for that matter) for it would mean summer is truly over and we have given ourselves over to autumn, brief precursor of long winter. Here in the Great White North, Thanksgiving comes unnaturally early leaving those of us who have not yet fully acclimatized scrambling for fall fare to put on the table when we would much rather just throw something on the BBQ and soak up the last of the sun’s feeble rays. Trips to the countryside to see the foliage look doubtful if the leaves piling up in our backyard are any indicator, so we must content ourselves with what the local farmers have brought to market to satisfy those seasonal urges.

Although blessed by the bounty the land brings us when you live in a climate like ours, no, we are not thankful that the freedom of hot August days are long gone. Now we have to hunker down, put up, store away, make sure that there is enough of everything to span those months when the possibility of no electricity or heat surrounded by six feet of snow are much more of a reality than any television show. Everyone around us seems off-balance, suddenly reminded that there is much to do before December’s clarion call of familial duty and forced cheerfulness – so throw in one long weekend, a turkey, too many carbohydrates and a few vices of choice and you have a recipe for interesting times.

Did our ancestors feel the same way? Did our French forebears complain about having to go out and shoot one more grouse because ma tante had decided that she was going to grace them with her presence after all? Did our First Nations brethren grumble that it really wasn’t the best time of year for Still Water and his brood to stay for a few days? Did our English and Irish pioneers rue the day they left green pastures and a good cup of tea as they looked out into the wilderness? Perhaps, and like this week’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge, they also may have been comforted by their new world’s rich – Harvest – one that, in essence, has not changed a whole lot over the course of a few centuries.

“How do you see harvest at this time of year?” – Pumpkins sweet and squash to eat, family near,the holiday blear, pilgrims and the past or things that don’t last, falling leaves or the hopes we retrieve …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Size – Week 2

October 1, 20136 Comments

even perugina told us to share the love big

How many of us remember being little? We all have some moments that stand out, larger than life, be they good or bad, joyous or heartbreaking, the snippets of time and sound, smell and taste that all come together to cast a long shadow on who we have become. We colour them accordingly and they are often seen through a lens that casts a particular light – soft focus, panorama, macro even fish-eye.

No matter what our memories of being a kid are, we seem to remember an awful lot of them as looking up – staring up at adults’ odd faces, up at towering shelves in stores, up at tall trees and huge clouds and endless skies on those days when life couldn’t seem to get any better or even any worse. Everything looked so much larger than it actually was. In those days, big held the promise of better – the biggest bear to cuddle, the big birthday cake we had anticipated, even that big box of chocolates you might be allowed to have two from, but many years down the road this particular adjective has come to be loaded.

We tend to look at the enormity of something in more complicated terms and much gets blown way out of proportion when really it ought not to be – yes, it was a big mistake to not tell the hairdresser to put down the scissors when we realized he was becoming manic, no, the gigantic drama over youthful fashion dilemmas are not worth getting involved in and perhaps, just maybe, the sheer volume of what we carry with us like some great titanic baggage should just be dropped in the ocean of our experience and cast away. It might do us all good to realize that small and less is not such a bad thing after all. Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Size – it all depends on your vantage point.

Last week, Across the Bored surmised that everything is relative – “What does size mean in your world?” – Big cats or little hats, too tight rants or too loose pants, babies in arms with teeny toes, the aristocratic line of a Roman nose, change enough to fill the sky or small wonders that make you sigh … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Size

September 24, 201328 Comments

over 20 ounces of delicious goodness

C

When Across the Bored et alia downsized a few years ago we didn’t think that reducing our physical living quarters was a problem – in fact it wasn’t, for we were lucky enough to be able to warehouse all the stuff of life that had been collected and wasn’t immediately useful or absolutely necessary. That should have been a red flag to just deal with it right away…

Today, when our extended family is swelling and we all seem to take up more than our fair share of square footage, our concerns run to how to juggle (or at worst rearrange) what is gobbling up airspace and ideally get rid of some of it so that we can all breathe a little easier. No easy feat. The thoughts and ideas of large personalities seem to fill the very atmosphere leaving little room for much else.

Every day we are reminded of the proportions and volume of things – from the ways it affects us physically in our health and diets, to how the questionable amount of possessions we encumber ourselves with can sometimes weigh heavily, to the length and breadth of the places we visit, the scope and scale of the projects we work on and the magnitude of the concepts we share.

The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge posits that, contrary to what we have all been told – Size – actually does matter.

Everything is relative – “What does size mean in your world?” – Big cats or little hats, too tight rants or too loose pants, babies in arms with teeny toes, the aristocratic line of a Roman nose, change enough to fill the sky or small wonders that make you sigh …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Words – Week 2

September 17, 201314 Comments

a blast from saturday mornings past

Across the Bored makes a point of getting out on a regular basis with Miss Z to visit those places in town that are currently the rage and in doing so we often rediscover old haunts that have either softened with age much like ourselves or have been gentrified beyond recognition. It is nice to see new blood come in to old neighbourhoods and revitalize them, making an effort to start small businesses that are not only eco-friendly but fun and interesting at the same time. On one Friday lunch outing we caught a glimpse of vintage advertising still claiming a place of prominence on a street where new boutiques rub shoulders with old storefronts, hipsters hang alongside the homeless and the gentry come down off the mountain in search of good food and one-off fashion.

The sign reminded us of a different generation, the ones that made this area its home when they first arrived after the Great Wars, the ones that settled into too small flats with too much family, the ones that brought their food and traditions and zest for life with them from homelands that many would never see again. Their first order of business was to get a job and make money and in order to do that learning English was top of the list. In the factories and sculleries or on the street, making oneself understood was key. Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Words – were the only way up the ladder in the New World.

Last week, Across the Bored had inquired “How do words manifest for you?” – Are they printed on the page, all the rage, do they make a song or string you along, in a magazine, newspaper, novel or monitor, on the wall or as a sign, manuals long or fonts fine … We would love to see your vision.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Words

September 10, 2013September 9, 201326 Comments

just can’t help it

✍

Just when we think that we are Masters of our own Universes, Chaos reminds us that such a thing is not truly possible. This time last week we were feeling militant about how we were going to proceed on a variety of fronts and now, 7 surprisingly fast days later, some campaigns were successful and some, well, not so much.

On a bit of a slow-down as far as blog-related endeavours were concerned, more out of suffering from a creative drought than anything else, our meanderings did lead us to an interesting post over at Flickr Comments – Make your tagxedo – in which he provides a link to a nifty site where one can create custom tag clouds. Certainly a good way to pass a few minutes (or hours depending on how obsessive one is) and design a block of text that truly reflects either a specific blog post, archive or just a group of meaningful words, it makes text fun. Why not pay a visit to Tagxedo and whip something up for this week’s challenge?A few of our own experiments yielded radically different results, much like what happens whenever we sit down at the keyboard…

Playing with the tagxedo was the first step in reminding ourselves why we are actually here in the first place – to share a vision through images and the language they engender and vice versa, to see what and how our friends and acquaintances are writing about, how they are documenting their bit of the world for all to see and in the end, communicate. A visit to our friend Cee to check out her gorgeous photography was the capper to getting Tuesday’s posts back onto some sort of regular schedule. She also participates in and runs many challenges and mentioned that WordPress has a new feature – Blog Event Listings – for those of us who just can’t get enough of a good thing. How could we resist?

The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge was lured back in and had no choice but to put it all into – Words.

The floodgates are now open – “How do words manifest for you?” – Are they printed on the page, all the rage, do they make a song or string you along, in a magazine, newspaper, novel or monitor, on the wall or as a sign, manuals long or fonts fine …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Out

September 3, 201327 Comments

with apologies to charles shulz

±

There is something to be said for taking a sabbatical – this may seem odd seeing that we are only two weeks in to the academic year but the idea of taking time off from those endeavours that are habitual and recurrent, the tasks that we do from some misplaced sense that they actually need to be done and that they make some difference to our daily existence, can be a good thing. This extended recess for adults can apply to anything from housework, making meals and doing laundry, chauffeur service, brushing the dog, getting dressed, answering the phone when we know it is not for us or those million things that we automatically do in the course of our jobs that we have just gotten used to and that are often taken for granted or overlooked. The grown-ups in our direct sphere of influence can pretty much fend for themselves, in fact it might do them a world of good, so Across the Bored is (this week anyways) working to rule, not so much on strike as withholding time and effort that would be better spent on putting our own sh*t in order.

The virtual world is no exception nor are other pursuits no matter what form they take. When we start to ask ourselves why we are doing things, it is time to take a breath, step back and creatively refresh and regroup.

Taking a cue from others who have done the same, for all intents and purposes, the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge is now – Out.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Routine – Week 2

August 27, 2013August 27, 20137 Comments

is it hoarding if it’s organized?

☍

Half of our horde has been back in the academic grind for a week now with great success. The courses are inspiring, the professors better than expected and the schedule, well, not everything can be perfect but it is only until December when the collegial masses get a 6 WEEK break. Nice to be young. Across the Bored took the opportunity of one less body in the house to put all the paperwork lying around from the summer in order, file the bills, catch up on correspondence and get back to the arduous process of going through 20 years of accumulated boxed ephemera that has been sitting in the warehouse. Multitasking was going relatively well until the computer stated in no uncertain terms “Unable to save – Memory scratch disk full”. What? How is that possible? Didn’t we just go through this 2 months ago?

Odd that these files seem to take up an inordinate amount of space and much like all of that stuff in the physical storage facility, must be gotten rid of. Story of our life that we save so much that only we are ultimately interested in and then heart-wrenchingly have to dispose of like stale left-overs or unwanted houseguests. Would that there was an easy, Zen way to deal with this phenomenon and not have to wrestle with the body-numbing paralysis that sets in whenever we turn that piece of paper or fiddly bit over and over in our hands wondering “Are we going to need this 3 months after we throw it out”? Or worse still, the dreaded terrors of not being able to find that one thing you really really needed because in a fit of disposal anxiety you didn’t do one last triage on that box you dropped off at the Goodwill….

Do we ever learn from those things that we seem to do over and over again or does it just transform into something different but similar as time goes by? Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge, we might need to change our – Routine.

Last week we asked “How does routine appear to you?” – The drive to town every morn, that pair of shoes always worn, wake-up calls or favourite malls, superb meals or special deals, meditation, daily prayer, yoga mats or just a love of all that …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info – Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Routine

August 20, 2013August 19, 201313 Comments

back in the saddle

♞

At the end of June, the summer always stretches before us long and languid. The first weeks of July chafe with the heat of expectancy, vacations and moving days, summer camps and road trips all tumbling into each other as fast as can be and by the middle of August we spend the last few mild evenings either happily reflecting on vacation time well spent or wondering whether we might have gotten more on the to-do list accomplished while good weather permitted.

Back from the West coast, our garden is lush but weed-ridden and, if dust is any indication, household items have not moved an inch from where we left them. No matter – the soft light of September beckons, the air smells different, less green while awaiting the harvest and we have a new set of projects, ideas and motivations to carry forward into the winter. We try to ease back into the habitual slowly, soaking up the sun on the patio and lingering along the not-yet frantic city streets but underneath it all, and oddly enough this season, we don’t mind that it is over.

The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge puts forth that, as much as wishes for the golden spontaneity of summer are great, on a year-long time frame things would probably fall apart without our – Routine.

“How does routine appear to you?” – The drive to town every morn, that pair of shoes always worn, wake-up calls or favourite malls, superb meals or special deals, meditation, daily prayer, yoga mats or just a love of all that …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Bite me

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

misery loves company

wearing history

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Roger dodg’em

blame the grandmothers

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

tell me it’s not just me…

at least something is still reliable

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

way smaller – better or worse or just the same?

no drying time

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

not so easy as it looks

a kitchen nymph

✑

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

for friends everywhere

Sometimes something silly is the only cure

✸

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

Ronald searle – never a path untrodden

far from the cradle of our ancestors

❄︎

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

just pondering… not forgotten!

the long slow death of penmanship

✍

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

our dog’s gifts are not quite as sophisticated…

happy birthday baby ❄︎

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

there be dragons in tom’s garden – an iphoneography collaboration

The elephant only appeared 4 days later ☁

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

here and there

couldn’t have asked for anything more ♎

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

even perugina told us to share the love big

over 20 ounces of delicious goodness

C

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

a blast from saturday mornings past

just can’t help it

✍

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

with apologies to charles shulz

±

The virtual world is no exception nor are other pursuits no matter what form they take. When we start to ask ourselves why we are doing things, it is time to take a breath, step back and creatively refresh and regroup.

is it hoarding if it’s organized?

back in the saddle

♞

The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge puts forth that, as much as wishes for the golden spontaneity of summer are great, on a year-long time frame things would probably fall apart without our – Routine.

“How does routine appear to you?” – The drive to town every morn, that pair of shoes always worn, wake-up calls or favourite malls, superb meals or special deals, meditation, daily prayer, yoga mats or just a love of all that …

SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

happy birthday baby
❄︎

The elephant only appeared 4 days later
☁

couldn’t have asked for anything more
♎