A New Decade

And I promised to post every day for this first month of it. Not much meandering here; just a few murmurs.

I've set up my 2010 calendar next to the screen, juxtaposing one-of-a-kind individually designed and needle felted wonders (from this blogger). Last year's calendar never ceased to cheer me, and so it will be with this one.

This weekend the tree will come down and life will return to the daily treadmill. Less talk and more action for me to move myself onto a track leading to something, well, a bit less tedious.

Music Monday! reappearance . . .

Jethro Tull! (definitely not chosen by L . . .)

cuddling

Frank, and frankly Bear and Soul, love Peewee so much, they think he is real.

satisying . . .

a simple baby hat (or otherwise, depending on gauge, etc.) that involves no thought to produce.



You can find it in a nice beginner's book, whose author also edits Bust magazine.

Just a little more than a week . . .

Recent photos and video (vid and top photo, courtesy of L)





Frank explores something new, a few weeks ago . . .

ACK!

It's Theme Thursday, and once again I have let the week slip by. Watch this space—really!

Thanks

This year, we are just us for Thursday. And I admit, I forgot over the weekend that it was Thanksgiving. I'm tending to gloss over and forget these holidays, and I don't think it's exactly right or fair, especially to L, but with my mother no longer around, I find it difficult to jump, with both feet and eyes wide open, into emotionally heightened days. But, soldier on I will, and have several books/magazines (old copies of the now-defunct Gourmet, a demise I can't quite get my head around; but anyway) open on the floor (where else?) for ideas for Brussels sprouts, parsnips, potatoes, et al. Plus a pumpkin cheesecake pie in a gingersnap crust from Gourmet 2006 that I was going to try, but never did (until this year, that is).

I'm missing more and more our house up above the Trail (Helen, I think it is still for sale; are they getting that much nowadays? I can't believe it), even the mice and the snow in the attic. Maybe I'll waft northward, depending on where L ends up (or not; do I want to be the kind of parent who is always THERE? I think not. We had one in college who moved into her daughter's dorm room and typed her papers and did her laundry: Mumsy.)

Anyway, I've promised L to make homemade gifts this year with her: lip balm, and bath salts, and spiced nuts, and three kinds of chocolate/nut/dried fruit combinations, among other things. We'll see how far we get involved in this, but there is a local source for jars and so forth, so I can't back out for lack of packaging.

Plus, I've gotten some DVDs from the library: Outsourced, Frozen River, and Revolutionary Road (Leonardo and Kate, together again), so there's that.

And school is out until Dec. 1!

Bear Loves Pee-wee

Theme Thursday: Traffic

This is about all the traffic I care to see:

I honestly couldn't come up with much on traffic. Working at home, I experience none of it. In fact, I hate traffic and the interstate so much, that I usually plan an alternate route the parallels the highway when I have to go somewhere. There is so much to see out there besides the exhaust of the cars and trucks in front of you

L had a cello lesson a few summers ago, and instead of taking 75, I hugged it and was able to see the lake, and an absolute gem of a vegetable garden, whose progress I could see every week.

But I DID remember this group. Maybe you do, too . . .

Music Monday

movie pick

I suggest this one; the trailer wouldn't let me embed it here:

Music Monday!

WTF?

Bumper sticker seen taped into the inside back windshield of a BMW SUV:

Obama logo with these words:

Socialism
The Trickling up of Poverty


I ask you, I really ask you: WTFWJD?

music Monday!

insane!

Music Monday!

going to see this

tomorrow

Music Monday

Paolo Nutini! L is absent today, so I'm bringing in this one. I really like this. And I neglected to credit who put me onto him: Menopausal Musing.

Music Monday!!

I start school this week!!

Happy 40th, Woodstock; and other festive thoughts

The mother of a college friend of mine recalls going to the market that weekend in Goshen, New York, and being surprised to find a young man within, without a stitch of clothing on.

Some things DO change.

I did not attend the concert; I was not old enough, but I do remember teenagers asking my father for time off to go. He did not think it was a good idea. So they did not go. I wonder if they now wish they had slunk off, under cover of darkness, to drive from Vermont to Bethel for that weekend.

I do know of two people who attended. One has a story about hitch-hiking back that begins "and then a lady in a bathrobe picked us up . . . "

And that lady turned out to be the mother-in-law of L's preschool teacher. You just never know, do you, who will cross your path, in what order, and why . . .

A link to a review last Sunday of two books about the festival.

• • • •

The Burning Man festival intrigues me, but I'm not sure about the Nevada desert in August.



Frankly, I would love to attend the festival at Glastonbury. What will next year bring?

Fleabane

They look innocent enough, don't they? However, they seem to be following their own version of Robert Herrick: Scatter ye flea eggs while ye may!




A week following application of Frontline on all three cats, all are scratching like nobody's business, and leaving behind flea eggs and dirt. And I know a flea egg when I see one—or rather, when I see one, I see hundreds. A call to the vet's office, who once a month knows that $50+ is coming her way for three vials, brought this response.

"We've had lots of complaints that Frontline doesn't seem to be working this summer."

[!#**@]

Well, should I switch over to something else??? hmm??

"Well, lots of people are switching to Advantage."

Could the fleas have built up a tolerance/become resistant to these medications??? That didn't seem to have occurred to anyone there at the vet's office.

How is Advantage? How about something else, called Revolution, that a friend's vet seems to swear by?

From PetMed's Web site:

Frontline Plus contains fipronil, a broad-spectrum insecticide and slow-acting poison that disrupts the central nervous system of fleas and ticks and S-Methoprene, an insect growth regulator that kills flea eggs and larvae.

The active ingredients are stored in the sebaceous glands and are wicked out of the hair follicles and continuously re-applied to the coat for long-lasting, waterproof protection.

The active ingredient [in Advantage] is imidacloprid, which acts on the nervous system of the flea to cause paralysis and subsequent death. Within 12 hours of application, 98-100 percent of fleas are dead. Advantage kills fleas before they lay eggs, so their life cycle is broken at multiple stages. It also kills flea larvae within 20 minutes of contact.

Revolution works by penetrating the skin and entering your pet's bloodstream. Concentrations of selamectin, the active ingredient, in the tissue and bloodstream prevent heartworm disease. Selamectin also redistributes into the skin from the bloodstream and kills adult fleas, American dog ticks, and ear mites, and prevents flea eggs from hatching. Its also an antihelminthic, which means it fights to expel parasitic worms. Parasites ingest the drug when they feed on the animal's blood.

pickles

Just reading a bit on FB about making refrigerator pickles. We've made several batches, and this summer is the first I haven't made conventional pickles. My mother gave me a recipe and they were never crisp. Tasty, yes.

So it's great to have a method from MS's Everyday Food, which I'll give here because there is really no reason NOT to make these with cucumbers in such abundance (at least around here):

Slice cucumbers about 1/8 in thick (about 2 large cookie sheets' worth). place on paper towels on said sheets, sprinkle with salt, and cover with paper towels. Leave for about 15 min while you prepare the brine:

In med. saucepan, combine 3 c. white vinegar, 1-1/2 c. sugar. 2 tsp. coarse salt, 1/2 tsp. mustard seed, 1/2 tsp celery seed, 2-4 small red chiles (optional, but I included), and 1/8 tsp. ground turmeric.

Bring to boil.

Put your cucumbers and some fresh dill fronds in jars and pour the brine over. You can really pack those slices in there tight, btw.
Stick a knife in to release the air bubbles and screw the lid on. *Put jars in the refrigerator!!

Tomorrow you will have pickles.

• • •

I'm champing at the bit to buy yet another cookbook, but restraint is in order, especially with business being so slow for D, college for L approaching faster than a speeding bullet, and insurance costs seeming to rise like mercury in a thermometer, but never dropping.

The library solves some book lust issues, but its budget is hacked yearly, and county commissioners here are anti-intellectual cretins who actually wondered why someone who wanted to read a book didn't just go to the bookstore and get one. Mother of god. Really.

Music Monday!

Music Monday!

Veg plot in high summer

Various views of the community garden


JGH, fishing lines keep the deer out


LOTS of cherry tomatoes. Sweet as candy.


This pumpkin is a volunteer on the garden's compost heap.



A version of Vivaldi:

Music Monday!

A Variety for July

I almost got all of it; three rolls total, I believe.

Pee Wee has been belted in for weeks; sometimes I forget he's there.
The police were quite taken aback when they came to check out the flashlight wielder in the middle of the night and saw him sitting there in the dark.

Actual produce from our vegetable patch and containers. I was very impressed by the peppers, especially. We are getting a bumper crop of tomatoes and green beans. Any suggestions?

A sunflower in western North Carolina.

More admissions tours, this one at Warren Wilson, which has its own organic farm.

Our tour group.

Another college take on a water element.

Music Monday

In celebration of the upcoming anniversary of a certain event!

tired

but still reading Nana, and looking forward to rereading Colette, esp. in regards to new movie based on Cheri, and The Last of Cheri. Can it hold up to first reading as a teenager?

cinema paradisio

random director makes random movie . . .

Music Monday!

Music Monday!!

this is a song from Monsoon Wedding

Gale Storm

I remember you, quite fondly:

Music Monday!!

for kurt!!

Music Monday!

Tour, partial, 2 states, 5 colleges

Thanks to Squirrel and Catskill Snap for much kindness and generosity.

A FUN math problem from L!

I am studying for the SAT right now and in my practice book, there is an INSANELY HARD(at least for me) problem that I CANNOT figure out. My book overs no explanation on it as it is in one of the practice tests, just the answer. I thought I'd post it here to see if anyone knew how to figure it out. It's probably not as hard as I think it is, but it's just been bugging me so much and as it is summer, there is no teacher in sight to ask for help.

Here we go:

On the disk shown above, a player spins the arrow twice. The fraction a/b is formed, where a is the number of the sector where the arrow stops after the first spin and b is the number of the sector where the arrow stops after the second spin. on every spin, each of the numbered sectors has an equal probability of being the sector on which the arrow stops. What is the probability that the fraction a/b is greater than 1?

(A) 15/36

(B) 16/36

(C) 18/36

(D) 20/36

(E) 21/36

(the sections are supposed to all be equal by the way...)

and the book says that the answer is A. If anyone knows how to do this and wishes to enlighten me, I would greatly appreciate it!

--L

Music Monday!!

This feels very summery to me. I am about to start learning some new Telemann pieces for the summer in my cello lessons, which is why I decided to post this piece in particular!

L

Music Monday!!

pretty! I missed last week, sorry.
-L

Wedding

I feel I've finally come up for air. My neighbor got married on Saturday; here are a few images. I think I need to burn a disk for her. Some of the photos weren't half bad, if I do say so myself. I was able to get some from a different perspective from most of the other guests with a camera, who were on the ground, as I viewed the ceremony from a balcony.

Memorial Day is always solemn, I've found, and today is no different.

I'll be back to normal reading and commenting tomorrow.

Does anyone know

what kind of snake this is? The cats had gotten hold of it before I could corral them inside. It glided into the underbrush, unscathed.




Thank you for wondering where I am/was. I wonder myself, sometimes.

Music Monday!!

R A D I O H E A D
I have two exams left. The worst(Chemistry) and the best(English ... if an exam can be called "best").

-L

Up, down, in limbo

I'd love to feel serene, floating above the river. Maybe everything I need will be in my basket, encircling me. I imagine the whoosh of the fire, keeping the balloon aloft, moving. Until earthbound observers squint to catch the last pinprick of color, before I disappear.



However, recently, this is more like it. And the passersby keep their eyes averted.

--ee cummings

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee

Music Monday!

AP EXAMS START TOMORROW WISH ME(L, NOT TUT TUT) GOOD LUCK!!!

Theme Thusday: Water

Water, last fall on a walk with L:



Plus, a link to an earlier water post I did about bottled water (thanks for reminding me, Dine-o-Meter!)

Woeful Wednesday?

My mother used to say, "Why in the world do you listen to that mournful music?" but I listen to Early Music in the car all the time when I'm alon. I love it. What can I say? D and I went to see/hear Anonymous 4 many years ago when he still feigned interest in my enthusiasms, and it was a high point for me. I could rustle up another Early Music duo, Live Oak, which D and I went to see in a church outside Boston so long ago . . . a woman up front kept fussing with her purse. Her companion was impossibly old and immobile throughout her pawing. The purse began to move;

out popped a tiny dog's snout.

Music Monday!!

I love Jazz!!
-L

Goodness!

I reread yesterday's Theme Thursday post. What a downer! Sorry, all. Note to self: stop whining. All comments were appreciated.

In better news, here are my pots of radishes and lettuce, and some tomato, pepper, dill, and thyme plants D got from Sequatchie Cove Farm yesterday.

Thursday theme: fire

Suffice it to say, my feet are to the fire as I transition from being supplemental to primary wage earner.

It's tough out there; but I'm sure I don't need to tell you that . . .

Here's a poem:

Riveted
–Robyn Sarah

It is possible that things will not get better
than they are now, or have been known to be.
It is possible that we are past the middle now.
It is possible that we have crossed the great water
without knowing it, and stand now on the other side.
Yes: I think that we have crossed it. Now
we are being given tickets, and they are not
tickets to the show we had been thinking of,
but to a different show, clearly inferior.

Check again: it is our own name on the envelope.
The tickets are to that other show.

It is possible that we will walk out of the darkened hall
without waiting for the last act: people do.
Some people do. But it is probable
that we will stay seated in our narrow seats
all through the tedious dénouement
to the unsurprising end — riveted, as it were;
spellbound by our own imperfect lives
because they are lives,
and because they are ours.

Music Monday

This video is CRAZY!! What do you think it means?
It is "No One Does It Like You" by Department of Eagles.

L

Theme Thursday: Earth

Well, a lot's forgotten, isn't it, as much as is remembered . . . first Earth Day spent in western New England at the ends of, well, the earth itself. That is what it was, my parents having flung us up there from deepest Long Island. Perched up above, looking out at the smoke coming from the commune across the little mountain range. You could see their little buses and yurts, if you looked hard enough. My mother in her element, though. Dirt road out front. That wind against the neck, waiting for the schoolbus. Making the garden, that's no longer there. No hiding this time.

A Physics
–Heather McHugh

When you get down to it, Earth
has our own great ranges
of feeling—Rocky, Smoky, Blue—
and a heart that can melt stones.

The still pools fill with sky,
as if aloof, and we have eyes
for all of this—and more, for Earth's
reminding moon. We too are ruled

by such attractions—spun and swaddled
rocked and lent a light. We run
our clocks on wheels, our trains
on time. But all the while we want

to love each other endlessly—not only for
a hundred years, not only six feet up and down.
We want the suns and moons of silver
in ourselves, not only counted coins in a cup. The whole

idea of love was not to fall. And neither was
the whole idea of God. We put him well
above ourselves, because we meant,
in time, to measure up.

MUSIC MONDAY!!!!

i don't usually listen to music like this, but i can't stop listening to this song. i'm surprised jesse mccartney didn't set the car on fire with his hotness. jk yall!
-L

Friday

Bear, in repose:

Theme Thursday: Egg

Many years ago, when L was just a tot, a friend and neighbor would open her house for a pysanky egg decorating party. She had many sets of the styluses, beeswax, and various dye baths set all over her house and any and all were engrossed in making something lovely.

We were in New England, and it would still be wet and cold, often snow likely. And it was fun to catch up with others we hadn't seen all winter.



While rummaging around for some of the eggs we made (yes, of course I keep everything) I found this little Easter craft book and, lo and behold, a psyanky kit, never used, mint in box, as they say.

I think I know what we'll be up to on Saturday . . .

Finally, a poem, from a different angle:

Easter
–Jim Harrison

On Easter morning all over America
the peasants are frying potatoes in bacon grease.

We're not supposed to have "peasants"
but there are tens of millions of them
frying potatoes on Easter morning,
cheap and delicious with catsup.

If Jesus were here this morning he might
be eating fried potatoes with my friend
who has a '51 Dodge and a '72 Pontiac.

When his kids ask why they don't have
a new car he says, "these cars were new once
and now they are experienced."

He can fix anything and when rich folks
call to get a toilet repaired he pauses
extra hours so that they can further
learn what we're made of.

I told him that in Mexico the poor say
that when there's lightning the rich
think that God is taking their picture.
He laughed.

Like peasants everywhere in the history
of the world ours can't figure out why
they're getting poorer. Their sons join
the army to get work being shot at.

Your ideals are invisible clouds
so try not to suffocate the poor,
the peasants, with your sympathies.
They know that you're staring at them.

Remember

yesterday's unexpectedly snowy post?

Well, I pulled back the covers this morning, after the temperature rose to 48 degrees Fahrenheit, to see the damage . . .



expecting to see some limp, lettucey green things, lying prostrate on the dirt.



Radishes all present and accounted for!



Lettuce mix still extant.



Onward and upward in the garden.

Dogwood Winter

Hey, this wasn't supposed to happen! My seedlings . . .



A fire and the crossword proved too much for Soul: