To Woo or Not to Woo

"I need to be wooed."

My honey is a stickler for details. "But you're already caught."

Not the average evening starts with the dictionary and discussion of wooing. The traditional meaning as my honey pointed out is to seek someone's affection with a goal toward marriage.

"Hmm I see the point, but I'll make a second. Relationships need to be nurtured and wooing is one means."

Can I give tried and true a twist?

Every good tradition can benefit from new experiences and knowledge. We've made some environmentally-friendly suggestions, however you know your sweetie better than anyone so go ahead and personalize.

Flowers - how about an organic bouquet, picking a posy in the garden, edible bouquets made with fruit, plant a tree together

Chocolates or candy - consider fair trade, organic and minimally processed chocolate, regional favorites (whoopie pies, moon pies, fried dough, funnel cakes etc.), kettle corn is a tasty sweet too (to make your own add a little sugar to buttered popcorn and maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon or another favorite flavoring. I add vanilla to melted butter)

Love notes - written on garden path stones, printed in chalk-substitute on the sidewalk, set to music and sung to your sweetie

Steal a kiss - sneak up behind your sweetie during chores, in a private arbor or after climbing to the top of a mountain.

Dinner - skip the restaurant and go on a picnic or if you aren't normally the one who cooks and cleans surprise your sweetie with a meal on the table even if it's takeout.

Laughter - my honey used the word 'woo' as the basis for the sound a train makes, the sound a rider on a bucking horse makes, as a howl at the moon and finally as in 'woo baby, I'm exhausted'.

THE END

Bedtime Story for Two

We’re caught in the in-between season, a tease of warmth during the day, temperatures sliding below freezing at night and the occasional unexpected but not unusual snowstorm. My honey and I have become a touch more judicious about our dating activities. Ok, so it’s me; I want to stay warm and nothing feels quite as cozy as smooth sheets, soft pillow and handmade quilts.

Add an energy conserving bedside lamp and a good thriller and we’re good for over an hour. Reading is yet another reason we are compatible, I love to read aloud and my honey loves to listen to my voice. I get practice modulating for public speaking and my honey loves the variations.

“When there’s dialogue and your accent changes from Irish to French to Russian I feel like I’m right there.”

Here I give kudos to the writer we both agree writes a great novel. My honey said, “I wonder if Jack Higgins writes in accent.”

I have to say with respect of a fellow writer, “I’m awed by how real the dialogue is written; it just begs to be read correctly.”

My honey and I are also in the habit of reading snippets to each other when we each are reading to ourselves. Try sharing a good book, a magazine or even the news.

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Wriggler Wranglers

Our outdoor vermicomposting system utilizes worms to break down our vegetarian scraps. Over the summer they doubled in population with extra food from family and neighbors. With winter approaching we made a date to build an indoor worm farm. We had two large Styrofoam shipping coolers someone discarded in our yard and we kept because we figured we could use them for something.

My honey drilled holes in the bottom and sides, cut leftover screening and prepped the boxes with wood shavings, newspaper and sandy soil (we’ve heard crushed eggshells work too for helping the worms’ digestion). I went to the backyard composter to round up worms. Seriously it takes about one pound of worms to process two pounds of table scraps in a week and one pound of worms is about 1000 of the little red wrigglers. We measured our weekly waste and planned accordingly.

One evening after we had the worms settled my honey actually said, “I’m saving these pieces of pizza crust for the worms.”

Neither one of us can tell of Fred/Frieda (worms are hermaphrodites) or Keshia/Ken is the one who is on top waiting for the freshest serving, but the soil for our gardening is beautifully aerated, moist and loaded with nutrients. Doesn’t organic soil sound almost mouthwatering? Weird.

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Four Wheeling the Logging Roads

As a sport perhaps Four Wheeling (also called off-roading) is less likely to be rated an eco-friendly activity. Depends on perspective and those participants attempting to improve the sport. My honey and I chose an eight-mile jaunt on logging roads to look at the forestry and check out the flora and fauna.

The area was clear-cut and then reforested. Clear cutting doesn’t have to be viewed as a bad activity. Especially when the goal is sustainability. All the usable lumber can be used and the slash allowed to decompose for soil enrichment. The diseased trees and dense undergrowth with broken branches and litter was taken care of.

The area was then reforested, the trees are fast growing, placed in neat rows and kept thinned to make forest management easier. Nature’s chance to begin anew and it didn’t take long for the native grasses and shrubs to reseed and take advantage of the rejuvenated soil and extra sunlight.

Preservation is fine to a point. Technology is fine to a point. Instead of seeking to win an argument or compromise, we as humans need to think about our impact on the environment and those around us and then be free to make the most workable decisions instead of relying on emotions.

To get you own information in your area:
1. go to the source instead of accepting regurgitated information
2. consider short-tem and long-term goals
3. forgo philosophical trends in favor of strategic action

For additional resources and information check out the Forest Stewardship Council.
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Need Warmth, Make Soup

Everyone has a go-to food or food pairing for comfort during tough moments. My food is the sandwich, hot or cold, sweet or savory, delicate for tea or hearty for tailgating. And sandwiches are wonderful during a storm, just in case we loose all means of cooking. The great things about the sandwich are versatility and portability. I can take it anywhere, use it for sustenance for any activity and leftovers make tasty filling. Mmm Hmm, mashed potatoes and sweet potato slices are good on pumpernickel bread with a touch of brown mustard.

I use sandwiches for dates too, on our last Friday evening stay-in date though when the temperature were expected to drop below freezing and the weather forecaster threatened snow for that evening all week, I made a slow-cooker stew. I started with 1 stalk celery, two carrots, 1 potato, ½ cup turnip, 1 cup cabbage, ½ cup cracked or bulgur wheat and enough water to make my 2.5-quart Crock Pot two-thirds full. I let the soup cook on high for four hours and added all the leftovers from the fridge (ok, so I need to be judicious not to let the slow-cooker overflow). I let the soup cook on high for another hour or two and then served it up with crusty bread.

The soup gave us a pre-romance glow. I’m experimenting on truing some leftovers into a sandwich filling. If that doesn’t work out, what better accompaniment for soup than sandwiches? May you always have warm toes, full bellies and wonderful evenings of romance.

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Shuffle, Forfeit and Dare

Popularity of televised high stakes card games allows for vicarious enjoyment of betting and winning. Perhaps not the greenest activity with a new deck used for each hand, but some casinos donate used decks to nursing home and there is recycling.

On a more personal level, my honey and I are using a 20-year-old deck of cards to enjoy card games combining skill, competition and winning. Numerous books written on the subject of card games provide standard rules of play. When playing as a couple, we negotiate and agree on rules before a game.

This last time we chose draw poker with the wild card determined by the non-dealer cutting the deck. Winner of each hand could claim a forfeit (truth answer, a kiss or touch and articles of clothing were fair game). Winner’s choice of pleasures or titillations. My honey insisted on a handicap to keep eyeglasses; seeing seems so important to a visual game.

If you are like us, winning is about more than who gets there first. Grab a deck of cards, (an old kid’s game works), a book of rules and imagination. Staying in for a chilly evening could be the most environmentally and romantically friendly activity of all.

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Small Town Rainy Night

A warm rain pelted shimmering silver drops visible under the streetlights. The grass on the back down to the brook turned into one big speed slide. We weren’t the first or the only ones whoopin’ and hollerin’ as we ran barefoot on the grass, flopped down and slid into the creek.

Being up to mischief is more fun in a group. Nobody had time for the musty stuff. Adrenalin brought out the rush of exhilaration; we were having too much fun for either fight or flight.

When the rain stopped, we headed home. Hair plastered to our heads, shirts and extra skin layer, arms wrapped around each other. Spontaneity just felt good. Next time you have an opportunity, act on a whim. Nothing is more important that living and loving.

THE END