Pickling

Bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, corn relish, all from The Kitchen Ecosystem by Eugenia Bone. Unlike the past few years, the garden has been prolific, with tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and lots and lots of cucumbers. We're starting to can every day. The pot my aunt and uncle gave us so many years ago seemed to have sprung a leak when first hoisted onto the stove, so D bought another one (handle-less; what's up with that?) at Ace. But now it seems the leak was a false alarm. Sigh. Battling through the heat and the rest of it this summer.

Another song

I'm enjoying listening to The Girl on the Train via the BBC. At first, it was hard to figure out who was speaking. A review called the main narrator one of the most unreliable, and she certainly is.

Summer listening . . .

Book at Bedtime starting July 13 at 10:45 pm GMT: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Yes No Maybe

I don't know what I feel about them, but I couldn't stop listening.

Things that happened/didn't

We did not take our trip to a coastal city. We stayed here and I finished a project and got an invoice submitted. Another candidate (crazy) tossed his hat into the ring. (Crazy).

Lovage update

Summer almost . . .

Received some very good news regarding my editing. From several fronts. Feeling rather good, actually.

L and I may be taking a little break and heading to a Georgia coastal city next week. Just for a few days. Using Airbnb. Best to do so before municipalities regulate the concept out of viability.

Our community garden has come under attack from town officials who would rather bulldoze 15 years of effort to create a baseball diamond for kids (who already have facilities), all without a word to the gardeners. Luckily, someone happened to be in the right place at the right time, and contacted some appropriate people.

It was also discovered (thankfully) that there are some old growth trees on the perimeter of the property. So much for total destruction. This is what happens when a town council member is a VP for a parking lot corporation. Mow it down, pave it over. Move on.

Lovage or Leave it

I watched my lovage plant whither and disappear last winter, giving it the occasional watering in hopes it would reemerge. It didn't. Kind of a difficult plant to come by, too. So strongly celery-ish, good with smoked fish. Cuts the oiliness. Then L wanted a pot for some purloined mint, so I gave that one to her. Lo and behold, as she was digging around, she discovered a weird bunch of roots, still viable. The lovage! As you can see, the nodes are growing. I'll repot soon enough.

Slightly Late for Mother's Day . . .

It's a short; you might like to read The New Yorker article about it after you've seen it.

A Poem for You

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/26/solitaire-4 Thank you, Reya, for posting.

it starts to develop

I was trying to think of what I used to see Ann B. Davis in, and it was Love That Bob, starring Bob Cummings, Dwayne Hickman (from Dobie Gillis!), and the great Rosemary DeCamp. Here's an episode, if you remember watching, as I did, while yet again staying home from school, with a box of Nilla Wafers, perched in an odd upside-down position on an even more oddly placed dining room chair that didn't fit around the table in a certain house on Long Island.

Hello, voters . . .

Pretty right on, as we used to say, especially in my part of the country

Cooking Show alert

Liking Maggie Beers and Simon Bryant quite a bit, actually.

Call Your Girlfriend

Lucy Wainwright Roche

Not a good end for CC

Dream a Little . . .

Something better to contemplate than my eye . . . Pink Martini and the Von Trapps. Who knew? I love this (actually, I love both groups together and separately).

eyeline

I'm tired of having a problem with my right eye. I really don't think it's a cataract. I think it's something else, related to something else. Doctors are so removed from the patient. I don't know what to do, exactly. At least I have affordable (sort of) insurance. Certainly better than the gouging I was experiencing until the ACA kicked in. There. Here's post, sort of. More a keening.

Health. Who Cares?

I'm panicked about this Supreme Court pending decision on Hobby Lobby's ability to decide for employees what can be covered and what cannot. I'm also panicked by this federal judge. I don't think I can live w/out insurance until Medicare kicks in.

The newest Beatle?

He makes me think of the Beatles in their infancy. Very sweet. I have been listening to this more times than I care to admit.

Harissa

Hugh F-W and Pam make a simply harissa: