Dry Monsoon

Temperatures have been hovering around 110 degrees in the afternoons.  We are trying to have a monsoon but it has been a dry year.  The clouds rolled in this afternoon.  The sky got darker.  The wind kicked up and was gusting vigorously.  A few drops fell but the wind dried them quickly.  Then the rainbow formed.  For a while, there was a double rainbow, but the outer second rainbow was faint.  I stood out in the gusting wind, and the few sprinkles of rain the wind blew in, to watch the rainbow.  The sky turned red.  It was almost biblical.  The red sky was within the rainbow.  That passed.  The show went on for the better part of an hour. 

The dog was a bit nervous about the wind.  He couldn't understand why I was standing in the rain, what little there was of it.  Rain is so rare here we sometimes stand in the rain just to experience and enjoy it.  The box turtle came out for the rain, as she does.  The gusty wind blew away the monsoon insects.  It was a perfect time, although we could use some more rain.

Hope you see a rainbow.
Sincerely,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. c(2011)

Back in the Saddle Again

I was a holy rollin' raw vegan for 10 days.  Then I tried some cooked food.  It tasted OK.  Each day for the next 4 days I had some cooked food.  Just some.  I was still eating mostly raw food and drinks.  By the fourth day I had a cooked dinner with salad.  It was too much.  It tasted good.  I enjoyed it.  But I missed the feeling of the lighter raw food, so I have returned to the high-raw (i.e., mostly raw and most days all raw) life.

I went to the store I will lovingly call Holy Foods.  It is a very expensive health food supermarket.  I wanted some interesting fresh greens, organic lemons, and ginger from Hawaii.  I strolled around the produce section where there is both organic and conventional produce.  I found the most perfectly ripe, large avocado.  It cost $3, but the little organic avo's I had been purchasing at the grocery store cost $2, and they were small.  I purchased the large $3 avo.  It was the tastiest avocado I have had in a long time.  Just divine.

I also found some large leaf rainbow chard.  I juice the chard, stem and all, with carrot, celery, cucumber, a little beet root, and a small piece of ginger root.  Basically, I juice what I have in the fridge.  Usually I add one or two stems of chard per pint of vegetable juice, so as not to have the green overpower the other vegetables.  In lieu of chard, I may use lettuce (romaine works well) or spinach.

The avocado, chard, one lemon, and a generous amount of ginger root cost me over $10.  It was a small amount of food, but I am enjoying the quality.  This organic food could become one expensive habit.  Maybe I will be so fortified by the organic produce that I will be able to eat less. 

I read a small book about raw food by Joe Alexander.  Joe is an artist and claims that his art changed after he became raw.  The colors became brighter and the style of the figures was more elegant and beautiful.  The name of the book is Blatant Raw Foodist Propaganda!  How could I resist that title?  It was hiding in a used book store.  Although the book is copyrighted 1990, Joe encourages quoting the book so that others may learn of these ideas.  I hope to do that in future blogs, but now I want to go to Holy Foods and see whether there are any more of the wonderful super avocados.

Back in the Saddle Again,
Southwest Desert Blogger  P.S. check out this excellent link for raw vegan info, FREE juice and smoothie recipes e-Book, videos, and a super 7 Day Raw Food Challenge and 10 Day Juice Feast.  I have learned so much from this info.    http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344
C. (c)2011