Yea to : hoses that spit out water, neighbors that laugh on their back patios, dogs that look but don’t bark, goat cheese/feta cheese/mozzarella cheese for summer entrees and salads, Tylenol, catching snippets of K’s calls with coworkers when the client is not on the line, writing, dianaphotoapp, color, and fall-cooled air. Vaccines. Coffee. A new fence and the money to pay for it!
Nay to : clothes in general but chafing bras in particular, yard crews that violate the city’s leaf blower summertime ban, trucks backing up (especially before 8 am), the thought of school being in session again and all those people with Cape houses coming back, lumbar pain, hip pain, shoes that don’t slide on, plastic packages that won’t open, the death cult ruining a flawed but promising country, ours.
Will my Virginia Bluebells come back? Will Dems really let an arcane senate rule take down democracy? Does Obama have to shuffle and wear rags to avoid the scorn of some white people? *
Sitting on the deck right now, I hear crickets or tree frogs, I can’t tell which. A jay calls out. And again. The schoolyard is empty but for one mother and toddler. A “knee baby” is what an enslaved woman in the 1730’s might have called the little one.
The temperature is perfect. My bra chafes anyway. The tall yellow flowers came back this year after two years of no shows!
Today I will make a tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad.
I gargled with hydrogen peroxide this morning after reading yet another description of how much more aggressive the delta variant is.
Hope you have a good day, which I mistakenly typed as “food day” and yes, I hope you have a food day as well!
What are people reading? Watching on TV?
My last input: in a British murder mystery, if a man is out clipping his roses, he is either the next victim or the murderer.
* Notes: https://www.nytimes.com/
My father was often one of the only black men at the law firms he worked at back in the day. He never wore name brand clothes & when he brought a new car, he parked blocks away from the building. He told me to never let white people have an idea of how much money you make.
— And The Tweet Goes On (@lacadri34) August 15, 2021
PS Laurence Tribe was not invited.
Collage elements include: my photo of a building at the McLeod Plantation, SC, the Paris Collage Collective prompt (man in bathing suit), clouds shot from plane during recent trip to LA, grid from an installation at Denver Art Museum two years ago, two of my quilts, another collage (that includes a photo of Italy)
I love reading your thoughts, Dee! I hope you have a “food day” too. <3
Thanks! Looking forward to making a cold cucumber soup later. Hope you stay safe as these storms barrel over the Gulf!
I’ll embrace your food day because early this morning, I made an apple crisp and applesauce. In a fir of irony, last week, some of the tiny apples that grow on the tree in front of our rental home, fell to the ground so I went around and picked a large bowl full. It’s not September yet but I wanted to make applesauce…thought since these were small, I could just put them into the pot, add a bit of sugar and cinnamon, a few lemon slices and go…well no, you have to peel and core apples before dicing them to make apple sauce. Any idea how long it takes to peel, core and dice an apple that is only 1 1/2 to 2″!!! !!! What was I thinking but I did peel and core them, at times ending up with dice about 1/4″…but I simply had to persevere and the end result was a chunky, delicious applesauce. Made enough for breakfast and a small portion to freeze.
The irony comes in a knock on the door, this past Friday that revealed my nephew holding two grocery bags full of his apples. He lives in Albuquerque and his apples, a granny smith like tasting variety as our the mini apples that we have here, were three times the size of my minis…He laughed when I told him of my laborious applesauce making experience… His apples made enough for this morning’s crisp and applesauce that will last until the end of the year plus enough for R to make a pie (I don’t do pies, pie crusts and I are not friends…) and we still have about a dozen apples left for eating and to put in salads.
Recent TV watching also relates to food: On Britbox, May Berry’s Absolute Favorites and Nigellisima, (Nigella Lawson.).
Keeping to the food them re Reading: While I have not read the book I’m about to list in many years, , Aphrodite, A Memoir of the Senses by Isabel Allende, a luscious, delicious “romp of a book, I recently read her latest book, The Soul of a Woman. ( I commented about this on Deb Gorr’s blog and want to share what I wrote there, here.)
“Yesterday I read Isabel Allende’s The Soul of a Woman and for me, this was a map to my inner landscape in terms of how it is to be in my 70’s, as is Isabel. How the landscape of our lives changes to expand in terms of wanting to continue to make a difference, however that may be, in terms of helping ourselves, our family, our friends, our communities and how it also contracts, knowing at this time in our lives, it is simply ok to say No, to say no more bs, to say it is my time…
Isabel ends her book, acknowledging the toll of Covid and asking the most universal question: What kind of world do we want? Her answer:
“We want a world of beauty, not only that which our senses appreciate, but also the beauty perceived by an open heart and a clear mind. We want a pristine planet protected from all forms of aggression. We want a balanced and sustainable civilization based on mutual respect, and respect for other species and for nature. We want an inclusive and egalitarian civilization, free of gender, race, class and age discrimination and any other classification that separates us. We want the kind of world where peace, empathy, decency, truth and compassion prevail. Above all, we want a joyful world. that is what we, the good witches want. It’s not a fantasy, it’s a project. Together we can achieve it”.
Oh gawd the patience to peel such teeny apples! Better you than me. My husband is the crisp maker in this house. We love it so much a 9×13 pan full barely lasts two days. Of course you know that it’s good for breakfast.
Thanks for the Allende quote. Going on my TBR list. Her vision of the kind of world we want lines up with mine but I don’t share her sanguine conclusion.
Dee~ This reads like a poetic journey through just a moment in time! Beautiful.
I can agree with many on your Yay-Nay list, or some variation of the items. Like this type of list too…MUCH BETTER than the Pros-Cons list that has been keeping me up nights!
Reading: Nothing getting finished at the moment (except weaving!), so still on Braiding Sweetgrass and the nature essays – Chinese poetry…looking forward to Deb’s books and some great escape reading if I can find it! Reading: blogs and emails 🙂
Watching: Still too much news, still too much in general…still my Heartland, total horse & mountains escape, PBS Midsummer Murders, Death in Paradise etc. Love the “Food That Built America” shows, lots on NHK (nature, Cycle Around Japan, The Guardian of Cherry Trees, Blooming Miracles…and the stuff J. chooses lots of history (especially WW2), finding mysterious places-things etc and really dumb videos humor (sometimes a big UGH to all!)
I can’t wait to read Braiding Sweetgrass. I have it on hold at my library. I read too much news as well even tho it’s less than this time last year. My husband is big on WW2 shows as well.
love your yays and nays feel blessed that we can for go for walks & keep working as gardeners within the 5 kilometre lockdown zone for the Covid D restrictions here in Sydney which have been ongoing since late June & getting stricter as the virus is still escalating. Old Man Crow can walk the 10,000 steps to Sydney Park Wetlands and back easy, his knee replacement surgery 10 weeks ago is a success, he’s dancing in the streets!
Neither of us are very good cooks, over the years the only compliment I have ever had for my cooking is, “Well…um… it’s healthy!” helps us keep to the lean side of the scales.
Currently reading a quite humbling anti-elitist book I found in a little street library (our local libraries are closed for the lockdown) by the English literary critic John Carey called ‘What Good are the Arts?’. It’s challenging a lot of my ideas about what art is and my attitudes to making it whilst waiting for the second book to arrive in the post of Louis de Bernières satirical South American trilogy. Found part one ‘The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts’ and part three ‘The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman’ in a little street library & look forward to connecting the dots with ‘Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord’.
Other than that have turned into a whirling dervish like the Tasmanian Devil in the old Bugs Bunny Cartoons, cleaning every single thing in this house & getting rid of a lot of stuff in the hope that one day we will get to move to the Blue Mountains, best get back to it!
Haven’t heard of that trilogy. Is it magical realism? So glad Rod’s new knee is serving him well! I look forward to following your transition to the Blue Hills. I didn’t realize you were in such a lockdown. Southern shitshow will crawl north, here, particularly as temps cool and people return to schools.
The trilogy is in the magic realism genre written with dry humour, political,satirical and the violence is so over the top I could cope, like watching Pulp Fiction. Reminded me of living in Peru in the mid 60’s although it was written written in the early 90’s after de Bernières worked as an English teacher English in Colombia. “According to de Bernières, his experiences in Colombia, and the influence of writer Gabriel García Márquez—he describes himself as a “Márquez parasite”—profoundly influenced his first three novels.” (Wikipedia)
oops please excuse the typos, am knackered just got in from a couple of gardening jobs
I said nay to the bra all together quite a while ago.
Wishing she could say nay, too, envious overly ample woman in the northwest sighs heavily.
Just a thought about the quilter wanna be neighbor…could you barter time? Maybe she has some skill you don’t, or could tackle unwanted chores?
The barter idea is such a good one. I could use a young reader of my manuscript, for instance.
I used to be able to pull off bra-less. Not so much these days.
We are in the Turn of Summer. First hurricane of the season bearing down on us. After a week or ten days of rain and clouds, it will be hard to call Summer back to the pool. The new gutters will prove themselves, or not. If I find a puddle on the floor in the garage, that means the hedges have damaged the foundation and my next major purchase will be a chain saw.
The bras. Bali to the rescue of my back/posture. Praise be the 50% off sale. ALL of the old ones into the trash. Your salad make me want to to shopping
Hope everything proves water tight and/or flowing correctly during Fred. I haven’t owned a Bali bra in years. Maybe I should find a sale of my own. My current bras are super utilitarian (read : ugly) and bug my upper rib cage.
I’ve been trying to find cotton bras that are worth wearing … this comment reminded me that my all-time fav was a silk Bali … dare I hope?
Nice to read so many nays on the subject of bras. Loved reading this last post .. a series we have started watching is called New Tricks it’s an old BBC series on Prime. We are only into the first season but are really getting to know and love the personalities of the characters. We have been having some perfect weather so I spent a couple hours cutting back garden plants. Will be dog sitting again this weekend .. I’ve really come to look forward to these get a ways. Michael always comes by and takes me out to lunch at least one of the days .. it always feels like a real date. Stay will cyber sisters…. this COVID is again gaining strength 😢
You stay well too! Will look for New Tricks. We started watching Southland on HBO. Police procedural set in LA not new but not that old either. It’s not that great but I love Regina King’s character and the rookie, whatever his name is.
our new iphone purchases gave us a free year of AppleTV … so we’ve been watching Ted Lasso and Trying … better than the news, which isn’t saying much
Deb’s amazing Prophets Tango has gotten me back into reading fiction (the biggest problem being that once I pick up a book I can’t put it down … even if that means reading all night) … anyway, I’ve started on (re)reading Agatha Christie, which should keep me occupied for a while … will seek out Allende’s Soul of a Woman thanks to Marti …
I’m tempted to get appletv just so I can watch Ted Lasso!