I guess that the end of and the beginning of a year allow for a review and a preview. If you wish, skip this, but if you want a tiny peek into my thoughts, read on.  It has been a rather extraordinary year for me, for my work, for so many things.  For 2014 I have plans, thoughts, desires, wants, hopes, wishes, curiosities.  Plunge in with me for my review.

 

First and foremost - I pledge to eat more vanilla ice cream.  It IS my favorite and why the heck not, I say?

 

I am thrilled that my book came out in September and that I to to share it with so many people in 2013.  You know, I'm sure I told you, that the Washington Post chose it as one of the best cookbooks of 2013.  Zounds!

 

I have many thoughts and wishes and plans for 2014 with it.  I'm going to do a little video piece for a proposed cildren's show (!), I have visits to Michigan and South Carolina and assorted places near Asheville and possibilities in California and Washington and Oregon and beyond.  Just last night, for example, out to dinner, I was sitting, temporarily, at a bench at the end of a large community table,waiting for ours to be vacated.  The waiter came by, asked if I needed anything and I said I was waiting for our table and he said, "oh so you're not with the beekeepers?"  WHAT!!!!  I WAS with the beekeepers - for a moment - and introduced myself and exchanged names and emails and so yes, I might come back and speak to their group. Random?  Who's to say?

 

My friends at LiveSTRONG were all given my book for Christmas presents this year as were friends of a number of my friends.  This makes me very happy.  

 

The other day, here, I was in a Seed store and introduced myself to a person there, telling her about my book and asking who to get in touch with to have them have it.  After we exchanged information she suggested a local independent store down the street as a good, independent store to visit.  And voila!  They had my book!  This is so fun.  My book is in lots of places and it is all due to the publisher and my agent and who knows which guardian angels.

 

In 2013 I gave myself the gift of a walk on the pilgrimage route The Camino de Santiago de Compostela.  And, as you know, it was a very difficult time for me, since I was in actve treatment.  But the Camino for me was something I wanted to do to just do something hard that was MY choice, not merely someting that happened to me.  As it turned out, that became true and it was a moving and important experience for me.

 

I have led many trips in my time: the first visit to Asheville's sister city in North Ossetia, multiple "Delicious Expeditions" to France and Italy, and a few exploratory excursions to Spain and England and such.  BUT I have decided that I do not need to guide any more trips.  It is a huge responsibility and, well, I've done that and am happy to let someone else absorb the planning and logistics of travel.  

 

SO, as an alumna of the National Outdoor Leadership School, I am able to take advantage of their Alumni Trips - all of which are delicious-sounding. I inquired and managed to get the last spot for a fat week of hiking in the Italian Dolomites.  In September! Sound fun!??  We will meet and hike modest amounts every day after being served a hearty breakfast in the 'refugio.' We'll walk, stop in little spots for a highly scenic lunch, and then will continue to our huts where we will tuck into fluffy sleeping bags (inside our sleeping bag liners) after they serve dinner.  There will be people from all over the world and it will be very fun.

 

Last year was full of so many things, many difficult.  But art was a part too and that is so soothing and so full of fun and promise and possibility.  During the here vacation I have made a few lists of things to do: movies to see, places to visit, people to meet, things to eat, museums to visit - things like that.

 

I have some pledges that I want to make and that will become some of the inner details of our vision at Laurey's.  I got a list of the top ten trends in food and sort of chuckled because they are things we already do. I am sorry that I don't have the list in front of me right now but I can say that "hyper-local" is one of the things.  Like: know the face of the person who provides the ingredients.  We do in many cases.  And one of my pledges is to do more of that.

 

And hyper-local in terms of milk and dairy products is important.  I can say, with pride, that our milk is organic and local and is delivered ot us by Sysco, which agreed to package local, organic milk - for us - a while ago.  But there are other things, like locally made yogurt that we once had but, up until recently, no longer did.  Well now we do.  This company drives around in retro-looking white delivery vans with a fun blue logo.  The milk is Amish and gets turned into plain yogurt which  we now carry.  It is my breakfast, topped with fresh fruit and our own granola.  It is trustworthy and delicious.  Clean food.

 

My guiding totem.   She hangs in the cafe, a gift from the lovely Shannon Whitworth, dark, throaty singer and friend and artist and orchid grower and lovely woman.  The Bue Heron calms me and I surround myself with iages of her (but please - I have plenty...)

 

In their first foray my girls' honey was selected as the very best local honey in a local tasting contest that had entries from all over the world.  In a stunning e-mail I was recently invited to go abroad to share stories of my bees and their honey.  We'll see if it happens.  If it does, my mentor will help me with introductions and I will spread my honey wings and travel and share and learn.  There is a big honey conference in Montalcino in Italy every year and it just might be that I will go there this year too.  Its not that far from the Dolomites and I've always wanted to go.

 

Okay dokey.  Time slips by.  I sit in the California sun, pondering the end of 2013 and the start of 2014.  14 has always been my favorite number (I turn 60 on May 14th this year).  I've just finished with 14 radiation treatments to my brain and am doing well.  14. Favorite number.  Important to remember.

 

As I go into 2014 I know that I am still in treatment.  Things need to be figured out.  I have to learn about and choose which treatment to accept as I continue to heal and remind my body of its resilience.  Resilience is a good word.  I'll hold onto that one.

 

No GMOs. Okay? I found out that the plu (product lookup number) on produce tells you almost everything you need to know.  A four digit number just tells you that the product was conventionally grown.  If it is a five digit numer that starts with a 9, it is organic.  And if that preceding number is an 8, it has been genetically modified.  

 

At Laurey's we have no trans-fats. At all.  We work with local farmers and vendors.  And I want to make sure we have no GMOs.  I pledge to put this at the top of my list. I may need help but thanks for caring, along with me.

 

On New Year's Eve we wrote things we no longer needed.  Or things we did need.  We wrote them on little pieces of paper and then we burned them in the kitchen.  When the smoke seemed to threaten the smoke detectors, we took the container outside, dumped the smoldering pieces onto the grill, and burned them with sage and dried leaves, making a heady aromatic cloud that rose and dissipated into the dark California air.  Cleansed, we retreated to football and poached pears, after a most-delicious feast of Dungeness Crabs with lemon butter.  Oh yeah.

 

I have trips, plans, tours, wishes, wants.  A full calendar of intense and good and important things to do and to pursue and to explore. In March I will be taking to the stage for an evening of stories of mine. "An evening with Laurey Masterton: Following the Golden Thread."  Call Asheville Community Theatre to find out about tickets.  It will start at 7:30 and last for an hour and a half or so.  You might know some of what I am going to say, but probably not all.  It will be fun, sad (a bit) interesting, different, um - captivating? You'll just have to see for yourself.

 

And now it is time to go finish my art-of-the-day and go see some friends and then maybe go to a Taize service and then watch some football and maybe go for a walk.  It is a good day.  2014 excites me.  I got a lot to do!!

 

See you soon.

Wear fun socks.  Having mentioned socks in a recent newsletter I was delighted to find multiple pairs in stockings and in gift bags and under assorted trees.  A veritable plethora.  Others around me were similarly gifted and here is the evidence - a trio of colored feet together on Christmas Eve.  Oh frabjous day!!