Saturday:
I got my butt up and moving and I went downtown to check out our town’s farmers-market. While there, I saw vendors with GREAT looking local produce, some cool wooden baskets made by a local artist, home-canned goods and fresh baked loaves of breads. Of course I purchased a loaf of sourdough and a jar of a canned “stuff” called chow-chow.
See below for more information.
Chow-chow is regionally associated with the Southern United States, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, the Appalachian Mountains, and soul food. The recipes vary greatly; some varieties are sweeter than others. Chow-chow found its way to the Southern United States during the expulsion of the Acadian people from Nova Scotia and their settlement in Louisiana. It is eaten by itself or as a condiment on fish cakes, mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy, pinto beans, hot dogs, hamburgers and other foods. The term “chow-chow” is reportedly based on the French word chou for cabbage. Food historian Luis W. Fernandez claims a connection with Chinese cuisine as an origin. A further possible source of the name is the ingredient chayote, which is itself known as chow chow in India. The name is sometimes used interchangeably with piccalilli.
I personally do not care for it, but my mom does, so I picked it up as a surprise gift.
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Art Updates:
Below and on the left: an update of the progress I made on a piece I shared a couple of weeks ago. You can see that it has significantly changed. The background colors and lines have been painted in and I am ready for detail work.
On the right: Is a sneak preview of the next work.
I tend not to like having more than one or two paintings in progress at the same time or I drive myself crazy making decisions of where, how and what I want to do.
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Photography:
Every morning that I drive to work on US Route 23, I ascend what is called Powell Valley Mountain. At the peak is an overlook. With some recent weather changes, the clouds have been hanging low each morning and the fog lays heavy across the roads. Within only 0.8 miles that I travel upward the vertical elevation changes by 2,000 feet.
The drive going home or to work always offers a breathtaking, visually lavish scene no matter the season.I decided to leave early to stop and snap a few pictures from the overlook.
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| photography by valerie dowdy 2014 |
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| photography by valerie dowdy 2014 |
Pretty damn impressive climb and view, right?
If any of you are fans of facebook (or not fans) you have seen the silly quizzes that make their way through your news feed each day. I catch myself getting sucked into taking these quizzes from time to time…I know I know…
Anyway, this particular quiz is supposed to “describe” me in quote. I will not claim to have life quite so in hand, but I do like message.
Peace, Valerie
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Every morning that I drive to work on US Route 23, I ascend what is called Powell Valley Mountain. At the peak is an overlook. With some recent weather changes, the clouds have been hanging low each morning and the fog lays heavy across the roads. Within only 0.8 miles that I travel upward the vertical elevation changes by 2,000 feet. 
