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Blossoms are everywhere. It is spring in Victoria and it is Friday. What can possibly be better than this?
PART 3 and the conclusion of “Talking Bread Loaves” If you missed part one you can read part it here and part two here.
After about an hour I help mom punch the bread dough down and she makes the loaves and sets them to rise for a second time. This is when the magic really begins. Mom starts adding “just the right sticks” of wood to the stove and every so often she places her arm in the oven. Each time she checks, I ask “Does it feel right yet?” I’m amazed that she can tell when the temperature is “right” to put the loaves in to bake. Soon she is carefully placing four loaves into the oven. I find something to do at the kitchen table so I don’t miss what I count on happening next.
I have enough time to draw two horse pictures, one barn picture and part of a chicken coop before mom opens the oven door. She lifts a loaf carefully up to her ear. I stand breathlessly beside her.
Looking intently at the frown on her face I ask “what did it say mom? What did it say?”
In a deep gravelly voice she answers “put me back in.” and just a little louder over my giggles, she continues “I’m not ready yet.”
Each loaf is lifted up in turn. In sing-song notes the next loaf responds “well, I think I’m cooked” followed by its close companion who complains “don’t be in such a hurry. I’m raw in the middle.” Then the fourth one replies with a shiver “burrrrr, close the oven door, it’s getting cold in here.”
As the first loaves finish cooking, more wood is added to the stove and the next four loaves are again carefully placed in the oven. All eight loaves have something to say when mom lifted them to her ear. There wasn’t a silent loaf in the bunch.
Sprout Question: What makes you giggle that child-belly-laugh when you imagine it?
The very best of Friday to you and I hope you have a wonderful weekend… and take some time out for a good giggle. It does wonders for releasing creative energy.
© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.
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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.
From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada
Creative Potager 
Oh what a wonderful story Terrill! I hope you will share more like this. 🙂
Yes…I do believe that giggles help us to release our creativity! I LOVE to laugh and even though I grew up in a family riddled with challenges, we did at least laugh. I’m very glad that I learned to laugh in this lifetime. I have a feeling it helped to release my artistic flow! 🙂
Happy Friday to you dear Lady!
Itaya thank you so much for your sprout and feedback on the wee story. For the month of March my primary focus is story writing for my new book Mona’s Work. It will take me more than a month to finish it but I this will get me leaps ahead from where I am now.
Happy giggling:) Terrill
PS…BEAUTIFUL cherry blossoms! At least that is what they look like. Wonderful photo. 🙂
I think they are plum blossoms but you could be right and they are cherry. I love them either way.
terrill i knew there was something magical going on inside while bread was being made. Baking is something which has eluded me over the years but i find fascinating none the less.
I am delighted by you tracking time by the number of drawings done.
What makes me giggle: that is an easy one.
Just the thought of combining the animals Hippo and porcupine – porcupottimus I am giggling as i type
Glad you like my time keeping Jerry … hasn’t really changed much over the years:)
I’m not much of a break maker either but I sure love to eat it.
Great sprout – porcupottimus hey? hummmm
What a well-told, enJoyable story, Terrill! I adore freshly baked bread, though haven’t made any in awhile. Your time-keeping through drawings is deLightful! Gorgeous pic, too!
What makes me giggle? Life in general? hehehe
I’ve been nick-named ‘Giggles’ a few times over, so I suspect I do a whole lot of it! 😉 hehe
Happy Friday, and weekend to you, Lovely Lady!
Same to you Antonia and nice to here you are an natural giggler. Those who laugh are healthier. suppose to helps with all sorts of things. But even if it didn’t – when you are laughing you don’t care much because it simply feels good. Right?
oh terrill, i miss ur previous posts, i was sick so i cant move from my bed 😦
thanx for ur reply on ur sandstones post, u explain me where u live clearly. haha it’s impossible for me to go abroad, i’m not that rich, lol..
and ur story about talking bread loaves is great, but i dont get it well. u know that my vocab is limited(so shame!). and what’s make giggle when i remember their laugh..
btw the blossom photo is awesome, what type of ur dslr terrill?
Hi Wulan, I like to think that Creative Potager is a Global community. Your stopping in helps to make that a reality. So please keep coming back and taking away whatever you can. At the moment I wish I knew a whole handful of language. So as to be able to make our space truly welcoming. But we will all bumble along and find our way as we go.
I have a Canon EOS 40 D with an EFS 17-85mm lens with image stablizer. Since I do most of my work without using a tripod the stablizer is a huge asset. In reality, I need another lens for wildlife because I’m way inside their comfort zone still not as close as I would like to be. But for most things this set up is working for me. Note: I have replaced the shutter motor already and it had only taken 6,500 images. I’m not sure I would recommend this camera. Other photographers may be much better help than me as to what to choose for the kind of photos you are taking.
you know, this sprout question gets me thinking that I just do not laugh that often. Wound too tight these days? Perhaps…but I wish I was laughing more.
I will begin to search around for what makes me laugh, notice it again…get back to those moments of not being able to breathe, because I am laughing so hard…I miss that…
Thanks for the question:)
Susan
Susan thanks for replying to the sprout question. I think not all times in our lives are about laughing and having a good time. If we can experience a wide range of feelings in healthy ways (ways that are good for us and those around us) and shift easily from one to another then the belly laughs are even richer. If however we get stuck in our seriousness or in a dark place for too long then it is harder to find the humour and fun in life.
Yet, we are all different. In my twenties I was a server in a restaurant on the morning shift. The head server gave me a regular older construction worker who she said always had the same thing ever day. He didn’t like to talk and he never smiled. I was to ask him “same thing?” He would nod. I was to bring him his lunch. He would eat in silence, put his money by the plate and leave. I asked her “can he talk?” She said “oh, yes. If you don’t do what I just told you to do he will grumble and bark an order to you.” So I took him on as a challenge. Every time I served him I smiled. After a while I said little things that didn’t really require an answer. “Beautiful day today.” “Sure was a lot of fog when I cycled in this morning.” “Hope your not getting to wet out there.” It took me a year and a half but one day he couldn’t help himself. He smiled. He grinned. His whole face shown. Then it was gone. But after that first smile, he started to talk a little and his eyes would engage and slowly he was reasonably cheerful most days. I have no idea why he had been so sad. I suspect it was a trauma or death that he was grieving. But whatever it was, I am sure that my daily engagement, slowly building trust, 30 minutes at a time, made a difference.
Hm.. I see..i’ve just bought nikon d3000 with standart lens 18-55 mm plus VR (such a stabiliser on canon i guess).it’s belong to entry level camera. i’ve ever had lecture of how to operate dslr manually when i was on college&some of it is missing now,haha..so i just guessing around and trying to snap more photos to be great photographer just like u terr.. 🙂
My camera is still I think considered entry level as well. I was really impressed with your latest Lemon Zest post with the photos taken in the railway carriage. Great work Wulan.
This is a lovely story. Love the talking bread! What a wonderful exchange between mama and daughter.
What makes me giggle that belly-laugh? Good question…you know, lots of the time it’s sentences that come out when I’m writing a blog. They will strike me as hysterically funny and I’ll be laughing like crazy. One of my friends came last year and watched me write a blog and stared in amazement as I kept laughing and laughing. Don’t quite know why…
Hope you’re having a good weekend, Terrill.
Kathy I sometimes do that too! My partner looks up from below and says “what are you doing? what is so funny?” and it is never as funny in the retelling as in my first blush of thought. Best of the weekend to you as well. So glad you dropped in to answer the sprout question and to enjoy the talking bread:)
Yes, you get it! It’s funny in the first blush of thought. 🙂
A perfect child-like belly laugh time.
My youngest granddaughter, only seven months old, has the most contagious laugh. She finds anything that’s out -of-the ordinary hilarious, like if I put a paper on my head or her sister suddenly falls down. Her whole little body shakes and wriggles with laughter. For me, anything ridiculous brings up an involuntary laugh, even in a meeting! Watch out!
Amber your granddaughter’s laugh is exactly what I was thinking about. Thanks for the sprout and I will keep a look out for those meetings:)
I remember being very young and walking with my “other grandmother” who was very strict. She had a severe sense of order and what was “proper.” I was fully concentrating on “proper” making sure the ridiculous skirt she insisted I wear was not tucked into my underwear or anything. Then I happen to look up and a smartly dressed woman in front of us got her heal caught in a grate on the side walk. The heel stayed behind poking precariously out of the grate. The women kept walking. Limp, click, limp click until she finally came to a stop like a train in a station. Well, I lost it. I had never seen anything that funny before ever! Then my strict grandmother lost it with me because I was being so rude and disrespectful. Shaking my hand she that was holding and scolding me had little effect. I was holding my side with my other hand double over in glee. The woman slipped the heel in her pocket and limped away. We walked on.
The blossoms remind me of my home, Taiwan…March is the season for them…. Thank you…. By the way, LOVE your art works. Every piece of it!!!
You are wlecome Hsiao-Ling… it is the season for them here in southwestern Canada as well. I’m delighted you came by and enjoyed the art works that is both guest feature artists and my own.
What a pleasing memory and story and I am glad to see flowers in bloom on a blog.
Watching the adventures and misadventures of my kids is usually worth a belly laugh.
Thanks Slamdunk! The blossoms are a real treat for sure. Yes, I agree kids are usually good for some belly laughs. Their transparency is always refreshing to me.
Hi, I found you through creative everyday and just read all three parts of your “Talking Loaves”. Great rhythm and details. I loved it!
Shayla I’m so glad that you came by and enjoyed the posts. Drop in anytime:)
Oh Terrill, U write such a great story, and to the greatest detail, talking about belly laughs, do U remember the “BearPoop” ,picking salal? I do, and get a good laugh every time I think about it. I still had a sore tummy when I got home that day. Love you dear,as ever Momsey.
Well, well what a wonderful surprise! Dear readers allow me to introduce my mom as in my mother-in-law from many moons ago who has remained my “other mom” every since. And I do remember picking salal and smelling this bear only to find uhhmmuummm… it was what was on the bottom of the shoe that was our cause for concern. Such great times. So glad you stopped in Kepa (mom).