ML knows everything!

Well, not really, but sometimes it seems like she does. And I'm not being derogatory. The lady is an absolute fount of wisdom and lore, book learning and street smarts, and just plain old good common sense. She surprises me constantly with her astuteness, and I never tire of chatting with her. The stories she tells of life in the bush in Guyana, of her years on the police force there, of her later work with UVI, and of her extended family keep me either in stitches or in concentrated awe.

Take, for example, ML's knowledge of farming. She knows not only how to grow all kinds of food, vegetable and animal alike, she also knows how to cook and preserve it. Just this morning, she picked a big bowl of three kinds of hot peppers and was preparing them for later use. Sometimes she grinds them to make hot sauce, but this batch of peppers was destined for the freezer, to be used during a time when the pepper bushes won't be producing so prolifically.

A while ago, when the cherry tree (not the kind of cherries grown in the states, by the way, but delicious nonetheless) was fruiting abundantly, ML created a wonderful drink by processing the cherries, seeds and all, in the blender, straining them through a sieve, and adding just the right amount of sugar. Drinking that concoction was a welcome jolt of Vitamin C, guaranteed to power a person through the toughest cold and flu season.

Because ML grew up among East Indians in Guyana, she knows how to cook fantastic curry dishes as well as delectable roti, rice, and chutneys. She makes a mean chow mein, too. When we were clearing the yard for our kitchen garden, we found a number of cassava roots perfect for a dish she calls "pone": grated cassava and coconut meat, sugar, cinnamon, and milk baked to a gooey perfection. What a treat! And her pound cake is divine: tender and moist with a very fine texture.

ML's abilities extend beyond the kitchen as well. She's able to solve the daily cryptoquip lickety-split, and she's a whiz at Scrabble, no matter whether she's playing across a board from her opponent or online with the Internet Scrabble Club (http://www.isc.ro). While her husband was alive, ML played an active part in his bridge club, but I don't know if she was as keen a player as he was. When he died, she lost interest in playing, probably because that activity was a constant reminder of her loss. Apparently, they shared a great love, which impacted everyone around them. We should all be so lucky . . .