Choice vs. Life

The pro-choice vs pro-life debate is peppered with extreme clashes of fundamental values, emotionally charged circumstances, and socioeconomic inequity. Stir into that a little political power and demographic overpopulation, and you’re reaching into a really sticky issue.

 Often thrown amidst the mix of why we believe in life over choice come thoughts of our own birth, or the birth of people we cherish. If I had not been born? If they had not been born?

Certainly, I think it’s unfair to regret and grieve for something that did not happen. And, even in giving women the choice to give birth, it will continue to be that those who are, are and those who aren’t, aren’t. No one can know what would’ve been. I think by questioning this, we lose sight of our reality. Our own birth was never a question, because we are here.

I feel for the women who undergo an abortion and must defend themselves till the end, sometimes in their own heads as it is constantly rubbed in their faces in visually gruesome pro-life campaigns. Can they not grieve for a child they never wanted? Perhaps the child that they could not afford or the one they were not allowed, they need not rationalise it. The aborted foetus never was and never will be.

And furthermore, to force a woman, as in the past, to carry her child to term and give it up for adoption seems to be an even crueller sentence. Knowing that she cannot keep it and will not keep it, to go through the process of pregnancy and the intensity of birth, she will grieve doubly but will not be permitted to show it because she wanted to get rid of the child.

To be born unwanted from your mother does not mean unloved, nor does being the product of a violent encounter. But women, being the only half of the population to be capable of doing it, need to be able to make an empowered choice, un-coerced. Once that choice is made, they need immense support. Regardless of the outcome, I believe that both lanes are dark ones, to keep the pregnancy or to lose it, I feel the women lose a piece of themselves. She is the only one who will live with her choice, no one else may feel it the way she does.

And when she is put through the intricacies of visualizing unborn foetus’ eyes or limbs, you throw salt in the wound and impose her body as a reproductive machine. It is not her alone that is upholding the survival of the human race, and if a man can’t give birth than why should she?

Fruit-From-Your-Foodbox Crumble

My friend baked this today, roughly by following this recipe. Delicious! Looking forward to the cooler weather for some baking and roasting! It's also Halloween (and the same friend also carved the pumpkin!)!

Topping:
1/2 cup (65 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh or ground nutmeg (optional)
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (84 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup (30 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup (40 grams) chopped walnuts or pecans

Filling:
2-3 tablespoons (30 - 45 grams) light brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (corn flour)
1 1/2 pounds (680 grams) Granny Smith Apples or other firm, tart-tasting apple - peeled, cored, and sliced into 1 inch (2.5 cm) chunks
1 1/2 pounds (680 grams) ripe Bartlett or Anjou Pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) chunks
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries and/or strawberries

Apple Crisp: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter or spray with a cooking spray, a 9 inch (23 cm) deep dish pie plate or an 8 x 8 x 2 inch (20 x 20 x 5 cm) baking dish. (Can also make 8 individual ramekins.) Set aside.

For Topping: Place all the topping ingredients (flour, sugars, spices, butter, oats and nuts) in a food processor and process until the mixture is crumbly (looks like coarse meal) and there are no large pieces of butter visible. (This can also be done with two knives or your fingertips.) Set aside while you prepare the filling.

For Filling: In a large bowl combine the sugar and cornstarch (corn flour). Peel, core, and slice the apples and pears and toss them, along with the berries, in the sugar mixture. Once thoroughly combined transfer to the prepared baking dish. Spread the topping evenly over the fruit.

Bake for approximately 35-45 minutes or until bubbly and the topping is golden brown and crisp. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve with softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Refrigerate leftovers and reheat before serving.

Makes about 6 servings.

Fertility Awareness: Temperature

Of the three fertility signs (the others being cervical fluid and cervical position), this one amazed me the most and I think as a starting point it's pretty simple to initiate. Basically, the second you wake up, you take your temperature. I don't even have to look at the result, I can just sleep merrily on, because it shows me the next time I turn it on.

The magic is that waking temperature rises higher by about a tenth of a degree after ovulation occurs. Note this is after ovulation, so for the sake of not getting pregnant this is a bit of a late sign. The temperature stays high, as I described in the last FAM post, because of the progesterone released by the yellow body (corpus luteum). As the yellow body disintegrates, if the egg is not fertilized, progesterone diminishes and menstruation starts, beginning the cycle again and temperatures come back down.

Like I've also mentioned before, this luteal phase spans a finite amount of time, between 12 and 16 days. So, by knowing when ovulation probably occurred by looking at ones charts, one can predict just about when menstruation will start. This can be very convenient!

It's also important to note that there are ups and downs in the day to day temperatures, but only in looking at the general trend can you see the tendency for lower temperatures in the follicular phase (before ovulation) and the tendency for higher temperature in the luteal phase (after ovulation). To get technical about it, in Celsius, temperatures in the follicular phase are about 36.1 to 36.3; and in the luteal phase about 36.4 to 36.6. Pretty minute changes, but noticeable and certainly chartable.

Tips from TCOYF:
1. take your temp first thing upon awakening, before any other activity (including, drinking water and going to the bathroom)
2. take it about the same time every morning, give or take an hour
3. use a digital thermometer, until it beeps
4. take your temperature orally and be consistent about it.


You can find plenty of charts on the TCOYF website here. And you're set to get started!

Irene Klar

Twilight Patterns

Precious Bundles

My most recent thrift store find is a poster of a watercolour by Irene Klar for Amnesty International. I couldn't find the exact one, but these (all from her website, here) give you a taste for her beautiful patterns in vibrantly coloured paintings.

Woman of Canyon Del Muerto

Soba Noodle Salad

My sister makes very tasty soba noodle salad and trying to copy her, I made one based on the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook. Not as tasty as hers, but it will have to do! I would definitely make it again because it is so simple.

a few big handfuls of baby spinach
2/3 cup of chopped scallions
1/2 block of extra firm tofu, cut into small cubes
1 package of soba noodles

Sauce
- 1 Tbs brown miso paste
- 1/3 cup of hot water
- 2 Tbs of apple juice
- 2 Tbs of sesame oil
- 1/4 cup of tamari or soy sauce
- 1 Tbs of finely grated fresh ginger
- 2 Tbs rice vinegar

Sesame seeds as topping (optional)

Bring a large covered pot of water to a rapid boil. Cook the noodles until just tender, about 3 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain again.

While the pasta cooks, prepare the sauce: In a small bowl, dissolve the miso in the water. Whisk in the apple juice, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and vinegar. Chop the scallions.

In a serving bowl, toss the baby spinach, tofu, scallions, and sauce with the noodles. I put the spinach in first to allow it to wilt a bit with the warm noodles. Sprinkle with sesame seeds right before serving.

Serve warm or cooled.

Knitting in paintings

Paul Cézanne

Albert Anker: Strickendes Mädchen vor Fensternische

Dutch Painting in the 19th Century - Haverman - The Knitting-Lesson

Tricoteuse paintings by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Jean-François Millet - The Knitting Lesson

I was pleased to note the number of paintings that come up with women, particularly girls, knitting, because I'm sometimes told, "well, aren't you a little too young to be knitting?"

All photos are from Wikipedia

Knitting, the Yarn Swift and the Ball Winder

With the quickly changing season, I have become completely engrossed in my knitting. I am making, for the first time, a throw blanket. All in one piece, I'm making it on an 80cm round needle to hold all 137 stitches. You can see how my hands have been quite tied up! If found the pattern on Knitty (website here, pattern here). I think it might turn out to be the biggest thing I've ever made and I'm getting a callous on my pointer finger on my right hand to show it. I'm about 2/3rds done. Of course, mine does not look anything like the picture because I'm using up a few different balls of colour and I haven't blocked it yet. Blocking is when you wet a finished knit, stretch it and pin it down till it dries to the exact shape/size you wanted. But I suspect I will run into trouble there because of my strange left-handed (despite being right-handed) knitting.

In other exciting news, my weekly knitting group has started. We had a pretty fun time last week with a swift (the thing that resembles a miniature clothes drying rack) and a ball winder (that looks like a defunct blow dryer). Both parts are used to turn a newly bought hank (twisted yarn) into a ball. I learned a great deal in the last five minutes in trying to write that last sentence. I also came across some rather nice pictures of swifts, seen below.

Of course, the reason you use the swift with the hanks (and not balls or skeins) is because the hanks untwist in a large circle that fits just right around the swift, and this spins around to feed into either a manually made ball or the ball winder. But it's not a big deal to feed a skein or a ball of yarn directly into the ball winder to make a lovely ball of yarn that is not too tight and allows one to grab yarn either from the center or from the outside (e.g. when doubling the yarn to make it a thicker gauge).

The Ball winder looks a bit like this, where yarn is fed through the little metal extension to the left onto the spindle. Then you manually crank it. It was declared by some that this would be a wondrous lifetime career while others noted the boredom that would quickly ensue...

And voilà!