Author Archives: deemallon

Take THAT diarrhea lettuce

Can you say chef’s kiss?

One of the happy consequences of diarrhea lettuce is that I’m shopping my town’s Farmers’ Markets. Salad above features radish sprouts, a spicy addition to already tasty salad. I tossed in some pumpkin seeds for extra crunch.

We also had melt-in-your-mouth corn on the cob. Local. It was so tender Ken said that I could’ve risked it, referring to the fact that ever since my front crown fell out of my mouth twice, I shave my cobs.

Sounds like a guilty admission: I shave my cobs.

TODAY? I plan to finish piecing this with a simple edict: when solving a dimension issue, GO SMALLER NOT BIGGER.

Jeez.

Legs knit w/yarn I dyed with indigo. This was in hospital waiting for Dan’s arm surgery to be done. He was 14. It was the second break.

I ordered some indigo powder from Dharma Trading Company yesterday. I don’t have the bandwidth for leaf processing and who knows, I may not have what it takes to make up a batch with powder either. I’d like to though. It’s been a minute. In cleaning out the basement, I found piles of white t-shirts, rubber bands, resist plates of glass, a thermometer. All kinds of dye supplies, in other words.

In October I will be spending a day with an African dye master, Gasali Adeyemo. More about this another time. A writing friend is hosting him in New Mexico.

Mish mash

Here are some double exposure collages made while thinking about the Stephen King quote that Danny wrote in his goodbye note:

“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us and, sometimes, they win.”

I know I’ve shared it before, but it sticks with me.

On a different note:

And this, on the way to the Swap Shop this week:

Cause what?

We walk Finn after dinner these days — just around the block. It’s a nice new habit.

And lastly, adding a back layer of felt stabilized this otherwise floppy wall hanging. It also allowed me to stitch the bamboo skewer and string for hanging right into the layers at top. Remind me to try again in future.

Purple garb

Vine writing on blue sky. What does it say?

Some happiness comes in purple garb.

Or pink. And the sparrows! My god, they are insistent.

The air is cool today and does not reek of smoke.

Meanwhile, the To Do list includes: contacting caterers, reaching out to a minister I met once to see if he would officiate, getting quotes for window cleaning, hiring tree guy, and auditioning dog carer (we can’t have Finn home the day we host a Celebration of Life service).

Last night

Four months today

What do you do when time behaves like a rascal, defiant and disobedient? What day is it? What month? How long has Danny been dead? 

Time always slips around some, but in acute grief it stretches and compresses like an unruly adversary — another aspect of loss.

Today is the four-month anniversary of Danny’s death. Ken and I find ourselves flummoxed. We seesaw from wondering how it can be only four months to wondering how it’s already been a quarter of a year.

I didn’t think this was a significant anniversary, but the amount of weeping I’ve done today tells a different story. 

Last night, I tossed and turned and dreamt about Mick Jagger. Nonsense, really. I was in the kitchen and something frustrated me and I pushed some objects violently aside. Mick Jagger said, “You’ll never be president.”

Why would I want to be president and why is Mick Jagger in my kitchen, judging me?

We saw him in the stands of the England/Argentina game, of course. 

I don’t know enough about soccer to have an opinion, but boy are people mad on Threads. Many think that Argentina was afforded every advantage in ways both obvious and unfair. I don’t know. I just know that when the games end, there will be a space that needs filling.

Hand-wringing returned. Yesterday I kept imagining calling 911 that final night. I hear myself whispering that they shouldn’t use their siren and that they should approach the apartment quietly. And then I imagine announcing to a furious Danny that I couldn’t let him throw his life away.

You don’t have to chime in about culpability or whether such an intervention would’ve worked, even for the short term.

I know. I know. I think I know?

Last week, I met with a friend whose child has made more than five attempts on their life. This mother, my friend, shared that both times they institutionalized her daughter, it made things worse.

There’s so much suffering in the world.

The rabbits eat at a furious clip this summer. It’s hard to watch my ferns drying up in the heat and the hosta being devoured by those cute little fuckers. More death.

Our corrupt dipshit of a president plans to address the nation tonight. I’ll admit to being on edge, even though sane commentators say, Calm down. The federal government doesn’t control elections. He can say whatever he wants and it doesn’t mean he has the power to do what he says.

There are many things that I wish I believed.

Meanwhile, the upside of this diarrhea lettuce outbreak is that we have twice recently shopped for local produce.

I got some gorgeous onions that the bagger said you could bite right into they’re so sweet. And look at these beauties below!

For dinner, we’re gonna have an onion, goat cheese, burrata, ham, and asparagus tart.

Yum. Can’t wait.