Happy Thanksgiving !

If I had a pumpkin and if I had some real sweet potatoes, I would do this today. Perhaps I will see what my local supermarket has to offer, as it is not at all easy here to make anything close to the traditional American Thanksgiving treats, but I'd love to bake a pumpkin pie for this evening after work, since we sure will not be having turkey anywhere during the day that my American friends and relatives observe with family and friends and full bellies at home on holiday today.

PUMPKIN PIE RECIPE
Ingredients
• 1 (2 1/2-pound / good 1 kilo) pumpkin (or half of a 5 pound / 2.5 kilo pumpkin)
• 1 pound (ca. 500 grams) sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 cup (480 ml) light brown sugar, packed and leveled
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) Steen's cane syrup
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon (approximately 1/4 of a pod) freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 9-inch flaky pie crusts
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) cinnamon sugar, to top
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) raw sugar, to top
• Sweetened whipped cream (optional), for garnish
________________________________________
Directions
1. Quarter pumpkin and scoop out seeds. Roast pumpkin and sweet potatoes in a 350-degree F oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until sweet potatoes are soft in the center. After cooling, peel off and discard the pumpkin skin and puree meat in a blender or food processor. Peel the sweet potatoes and puree as well. Combine pumpkin and sweet potato purees with the heavy cream and milk.
2. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, egg yolks, brown sugar, cane syrup, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg, and white pepper.
3. Blend pumpkin and spice mixtures and divide between two 9-inch pie crusts. Sprinkle tops of pies liberally with cinnamon sugar and raw sugar.
4. Bake at 325° F (ca. 165° C) for 45 to 55 minutes, or until pumpkin filling is set. Allow to cool for 1 to 2 hours and serve at room temperature or slightly chilled, with sweetened whipped cream if desired.
[Source: http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/fresh-pumpkin-pie-top1110 "delish"]

Enjoy your holiday or working day everybody!

Goodbye To My Mama - A.Prairie.Home.Companion.

She wouldn't have needed the strange subtitles, but the sound quality is good, so, one day later, this is for mama's birthday, Rose Tyson Gardner, August 30, 1926 - April 21, 2007.

Still Shining Into Our Lives!

ROSE

August 30, 1926 - April 21, 2007

Thanks

Looking back to smile into the future, pulling the past into now to ignite the flame of awareness, I am so privileged to have known you and carry you along with me in my loving wonder of existence and in the wonder of the great love I share with a partner who also received the warmth of your gaze.

Another Tyson Gone...

The Countess' brother Henry, my dear uncle has chuckled with us the last time and left us one day after his birthday. We won't be able to go to the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet together anymore!

Henry C. Tyson Jr.
Mr. Henry C. Tyson, Jr., 81, died Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, at Pitt County Memorial Hospital. The funeral service will be conducted at 11 a.m. Monday in the Wilkerson Funeral Chapel by the Rev. Clint White. Burial will follow in Pinewood Memorial Park. Henry was a native of Pitt County and a member of Wesley United Methodist Church. He was employed with the Sunbeam Bread Company, retiring in 1993. Henry was preceded in death by his parents, Henry and Mary Ida Tyson; two sisters, Lou Streetman and Rose T. Gardner; and a brother, the Rev. Aaron G. Tyson. His is survived by his wife of 53 years, Wilma Owens Tyson; two sons, Todd Tyson and Mike Tyson and wife, Sheri, all of Greenville; a granddaughter who was the light of his life, Katie Lynn Tyson; brother, Amos Tyson of Farmville; and four sisters, Carrie T. Davis of Hickory, Sally T. Mozingo and Mary T. Smith, both of Farmville, and Addie Parker Williams of Rocky Mount. The family will receive friends from 4:30-6:30 p.m. today at Wilkerson Funeral Home. Memorial contributions may be to made to Wesley United Methodist Church, c/o Brenda Albritton, 6361 Stantonsburg Road, Farmville, NC 27828. On-line condolences at http://www.wilkersonfuneralhome.com/.

Published in The Daily Reflector on 3/1/2009

Life / Leben / La Vie

Thinking of The Countess, of mama, of Rose,

who so often aggravated, tickled, dismayed, surprised, depressed, thrilled, angered, amused, bored, scolded, admired, encouraged, criticized, praised, guided, and even heeded me,

I feel nothing but

gratitude,

not in the least diminished one year after her death,

and see her smile and hear her voice in mine.

August 30, 1926 - April 21, 2007

Rose Tyson Gardner

Easter Greetings to Everyone

Well, we had no White Christmas in Berlin last time, but we're having a White Easter Sunday, albeit only powdery in the city, but we're expecting to see more of a ground cover when we go out to visit and lunch with Edith. Although we actually all wanted to go to Heiko's birthday party (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, brother/brother-in-law!), their son Malte has fever and bronchitis, not something Edith can deal with after her second chemo round only a good week ago and her counts still down. So we're spending the day with her and leaving Heiko with his snotty-nosed family but with our best wishes (also to father-in-law Bernie & wife Rosie, who will risk infection to eat birthday cake).
How can you hide Easter eggs in the snow?
Maybe we can get some photos of this early Easter Berlin landscape and one of the few instances of winter weather we've had this year.
The Chick that laid colored eggs near an NC cotton field last year is on our windowsill looking out at the snow this year.
Chicora Court also has our best wishes and fond memories, and we trust they can sense how endeared they are to us there.
The Dukey traitorous niece (heard we supported the wrong team against UNC in a major game) still has warm greetings headed her way...
To Charleston we're sending a grown-up nephew wishes for fulfillment of his own.
And to Greenville, SC, the lady-in-waiting and her consort are getting big virtual hugs.
To any and all tysonial and gardnerian visitors, you of course know that we miss you all and wish you too a beautiful new season as Easter comes and goes.

One Year Ago / Two Days from Now

Unbelievable, but one year ago today I was arriving to visit the Countess, still at the Ducal station, and then to accompany her and the Lady-in-Waiting to Chicora Court for the following month.
Just as unbelievable is that the Berlin mom will begin chemo two days from now, having completed her six radiation doses in three weeks without noticeable impairment. She's already bought a wig, was out with Steffi to do so today. She'll be in the hospital for three-four days for the chemo, then released, barring infection danger, to return three weeks later to repeat the process, a total of five-six times. So we're talking 15-18 weeks total, close to the Chicora Court duration.
But this story is different, heading in another direction. And the Berlin mom's in top spirits and ready for the ordeal to ensure full cure.

"And behold, another year begins, [...]

[...] It knows what it is. And somehow, as if by magic, everyone in the whole world does, as well. The sweet sound passage of time."
(Bubble, from Absolutely Fabulous, comprehending the beginning of 1995)

Today is the beginning of the election of a a non-bushbaby so that the US can finally have a president again.

"Etwas, das noch so leis ist und kaum entstanden, soll man nicht gleich mit Worten belegen. Es ist genug wenn man es spürt." -W.Bräunig: Rummelplatz, S.584.

But once you can find the word, can speak it, you are contemplating existence.

Tomorrow we accompany the Berlin Mom to the radiation therapy planning session.

My hand stopped bleeding about an hour after I fell on some glass on the way home from an otherwise very enjoyable New Year's Eve celebration in Erich's village. It doesn't even hurt anymore, just looks disgusting, but now only scabbed, also bruised. D was my first-aid man, as he is anyway in my life. And we weren't even inebriated.

Enjoying some time to finish up some books, write a bit, think, before I start teaching again next week.

So, Happy New Year, everyone!

For 2008

The Berlin Mom is home again, will be facing radiation and chemo-therapies in the next months to ensure that, despite the successful removal of all cancerous tissue detectable, no malignant cells are flitting around to give rise to some new tumor elsewhere. So we will be caring for this mom to get through this ordeal, but in the knowledge that this is a battle for maintenance of health rather than for defeat of any specific malignancy.

This encourages us to think of the wonder of being, something that only we as humans are able to do, as we are the only creatures who, mortal, can consider that mortality.

So in 2008, whatever the malignancies affecting the world - and there are many, so many I've alluded to here, far too many to list again -, let us simply strive TO BE, to be thinking humans feeling what it means to know we will one day die, loving the life that we can enjoy by thinking and loving, living in this world so as to let it continue to be a place hospitable to human life, to thought, to love. Perhaps we can make the world even more livable for thinking beings.
Let us not fall into the dark contemplation of death, for that is the true victory of nihilism; let us not await some pie-in-the-sky glory or joy, for that is nihilism's destruction of life : LET US BE WITH ALL THAT WE CAN BE ! That is joy here and now and then and in the future and for all time.

Dangers offer a chance to see the void into which all can be tumbled and out of which all can emerge ! Fear is a nihilistic mode of existence, one that cancels being and prevents us from considering the wonder of what it means TO BE !

And I will continue to think and speak and read and write and live and love with all my might in this coming year.

Time to Take Care of Another Mother !

Well, there's another Countess who needs tending to, a true Berlin treasure of a mom and mom-in-law who's in the hospital for a radical hysterectomy and has lots of strong wishes from us all for success in removal of the tumor completely in surgery without signs of metastasis. Should there be any, well, then we're calling on radiation therapy to handle that.
She's a great lady who deserves many more years: and the chances, we're sure, are good.
Think of Edith, please, and all the people she's so dear to!

A Cousin Lost, An Uncle to Cherish

Pamela Tyson Allen
Pamela Tyson Allen, 48, of 1921B Stokes Road died Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007, at U.N.C. Chapel Hill Hospital. A memorial service will be held Thursday at 8 p.m. from the Church Street Chapel of the Farmville Funeral Home by the Rev. John Bowman and the Rev. Clynt White. Ms. Allen was preceded in death by a son, H.R. Allen IV; her mother, Helen B. Tyson; and brothers, Amos Tyson Jr. and Alan Tyson. She is survived by a daughter, Lacey Lynn Allen of Greenville; and her father, Amos Tyson of Farmville. The family will receive friends from 7 to 8 p.m. prior to the service and other times at the home of Amos Tyson, 6522 Stantonsburg Road, Farmville.

Amos is a bulwark of love and is due the respect and support and love of all his extended family, who will surely let him know how dear he is to us all. To his sister he was always simpy "Brother", an endearment he understood and returned to her and her children as he lost his own. You helped us, Amos, when mama was dying, just by being, and I hope you can feel the sustenance our being provides for you.

The Worried Mom Overture

Thanks to my sister for putting me on to this musical tribute to mothering types everywhere (and to those who survived them and thrived because and despite but also only due to them).

And this is also a little tribute to the Countess. If anyone from Chicora Court catches it, it's also a tribute to all of you.

A Singing Grand Cousin

With this link to the contest my cousin's son Robert Leonard is in, you can hear one minute of his song and give him a vote.
WDWG - The Big DAWG
But, I have another reason for putting this here:
He sang this song in a private concert for my mom, and Rose loved it, and today's her birthday, and this is a little memorial present for her.
So thanks to Robert & Cynthia & Lindsay & Robbie for making it possible for me to post a present for Rose, cause she'd love to know Robbie's getting this kind of attention and recognition.
Thanks.

Thanks to Rose ...

Thank you, Rose, for your birthday tomorrow !

Rose Tyson Gardner

August 30, 1926 - April 21, 2007

You filled me with being and your being is here in me.

Slowly pain transforms and eases into thanks to the departed. Those who reach thanks experience the mysterious power of recall which thanks enfolds.

[My English rendition of MH's thoughts in memory of Fridolin Wiplinger in 1974 from vol.13 of the complete works, p. 238, which, in the original, reads as follows:

"Langsam wandelt und mildert der Schmerz sich zum Dank an den Abgeschiedenen. Die ins Danken gelangen, erfahren die geheimnisvolle Kraft der Vergegenwärtigung, die der Dank in sich birgt."]

Just to say thanks...

Many have followed the wishes of the Countess and given memorials after her death. The Lady-in-Waiting has written to them all to express our thanks, and here, I, the Page, would like to add my personal thanks to all of you below who with us remember Rose Tyson Gardner.

Memorials to West Haven Presbyterian:
The F.M. Pridgen Sunday School Class
Ruth McLean
Henry and Wilma Tyson
David and Melanie Gardner

Memorials to Hospice of Nash General:
Jane Gardner Smith
Tommy and Margaret Gardner
George and Ruth Price
Amos Tyson
Mary Smith
Charles Sutton
Sandra Bonner
Mary Ann Sutton
Lichtenfelt Nurseries
Joe and Marti Cash
Park and Thomas Williams
Sally Mozingo
Inez and Julian Gardner
Jeanette Allen
St. Giles Presbyterian Women

Memorials to St. Giles Butterflies & Memories Garden:
The Greenville Chamber Singers
Memorials to the NC Order of Eastern Stars Foundation:
25/Past Matrons Club
Nell Boone
Nashville Chapter #332

Flowers:
Sag Harbor
Battle & Steven Whitley

If anyone has been omitted, it is not intentional. Please let me or Terri know if we have not listed you and thanked you for a memorial. The information is not always very quick getting to us and we are truly grateful to everyone for their accompaniment of us and Rose on her final path.

It's entirely up to us...

«Auf uns kommt es an, [...] ob wir die Sterblichen sein können, die wir sind, nämlich die, die im Zuspruch des Seins stehen. Nur solche Wesen vermögen zu sterben, d.h. den Tod als Tod zu übernehmen.»
[MH: Der Satz vom Grund, S. 209]

It is up to us whether or not we can be the mortals we are, namely, the ones standing in Being's comforting-addressing ascription. Only such human-selves are capable of dying, i.e. of taking on death as death. [my own translation]

One month ago today, the Countess gathered her life together into a collected graceful completion.

With Memories...

The Countess securely in our memories, we have traversed the Atlantic once again and returned to our home, spoken with my dear sister, whose truck made it full of untattered packages back along her land route and whose voice attracted the responsive attention of our parrot. In days to come, correspondence must begin with all those who held us close in their feelings. And here it is blooming spring, sunny, bright, with baby shoes from other decades and other geographic coordinates now on our shelves, things that belonged elsewhere are now with us at home here.
And today is our eleventh anniversary!

Saying Goodbye to Chicora Chicks at Court

This is truly caring and affection!

Long Live The Chicks of Chicora Court!

She Served the Countess Well ...

From Mourning the ...

... and I will be ever grateful to her : art in Rocky Mount.

Memorial for the Countess

Rose Tyson Gardner

August 30, 1926 - April 21, 2007

Memorial services will be held Saturday, April 28, at 4 p.m. at West Haven Presbyterian Church, Rocky Mount, conducted by the Rev. Connie Button. The family will receive friends in the Fellowship Hall at 3 p.m. before the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials are made to Hospice and Palliative Care of Nash General Hospital, West Haven Presbyterian Church or leukemia research.