This was taken in Weird Cousin Bonnie's backyard about a month ago. She has the best trees! It was a lovely afternoon and a lovely meal (fresh fish on the grill, berry shortcake, salady things) to accompany a nice gossipy visit with out of town relatives, plus PUPPIES.
FIONAAAAA! I'm going to see her Thursday and I'm excited!
Other news, which on a certain level is less exciting, but on a toast level is equally or more exciting: I made jam today - Marionberry and a Marionberry/raspberry hybrid. DELICIOUS is what you need to know.
(things you may not need to know, but I want to tell you: messy - so messy. It looked like a sticky yet delicious crime scene.)
Since I can't give you toast and jam through the internet, I will give you what I can - Fiona videos!
I love this first one because a) I love the song b) it has an alligator c) an octopus d) it's like a bunch of spliced dream images e) dark but playful f) I could seriously run through the whole alphabet (I typed 'outfit' - wtf, jen?) so I will stop here with f for Fiona.
Second one: oh, this is so good! I love everything about it: the slow build; The Roots; that it was for Paul McCartney's birthday; Fiona giving it her all; everyone having a good time! It makes me have a good time weeks later and miles away.
Don't you think clematis friday could be a thing? It sounds a little too much like clamato friday, probably.
These are from May - I'm still working my way towards the BEE PICTURES. Sigh. chipping away. I love how these look like they could be underwater creatures.
So pretty I can't stand it.
I am having a laptop problem. Something's gone hinky with the trackpad, and now if my wrist hits the case in just the wrong way, my cursor jumps up to another row and I end up typing in the middle of something else. THE WORST, especially if it takes a while to figure out where the cursor went. Blerg. I know it's not actually the worst, but it's a pain in the butt. I think I can do a thing that will make it better (it involves a folded up piece of paper and taking out the battery), so we'll see. I used an index card around the trackpad yesterday and that made it a lot better, but not 100%. It's not new laptop time, but of course my brain really wants one. (My wallet says "tough it out, princess," but then my wallet is kind of an asshole sometimes.)
Hello. Here is where I ask the periodic question have you read anything good lately? Or what are you reading now? I'm about 90 pages into The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones. I'm not sure where I heard about it - maybe a NPR list? It seems like it was somewhere on the internet... (does that narrow it down?)
I don't quite know what to make of it, yet. It's very strange in that it seems like a clever Edwardian-themed house novel (impending poverty! great house! one swanky dress! overworked household staff and oblivious family!), but then something very weird is at work at the same time - there's a train derailment and currently (page 89) the house has a morning room full of train passengers. They're just sort of there, like a closet full of complications waiting to be set free. There's also something going on with the youngest sibling, Smudge. I'm not sure where it's all going which is sort of exciting! I've been slow to get into it, but I think that's because I keep trying to read it when I'm too tired.
Here's a quote from page 20 - it doesn't really have much to do with the weirdness, but it does have to do with birthdays. Since mine was Sunday, it struck me with a little thrill all its own. (ha ha! As I write this, Andrew Bird's The Happy Birthday Song played on my iTunes Genius "Chamber Pop Mix." Well played for once, itunes!)
Emerald ran off to change for riding much cheered: a surprise cake she had not made herself; a childhood friend on a train to visit, and no Step until Sunday . . . she felt the childhood thrill of her (whisper the word) birthday.
Today was not a day for getting much done - but I did get my hair cut! It had been a YEAR. what can I say? My hair cutter gives really good, long-term haircuts. But in the last 6 weeks or so my hair shifted from the "enh, ponytail" length to the cut it cut it CUT IT stage - a hard stage to live with. PLUS, I wanted it cut before my birthday, which is this weekend. It's ridiculous - I always drag my feet getting my ass in the hair cutting chair, but always feel 100% better after it's done. I don't get it. Anyway, I love my new hair.
I'm going to be sorry tomorrow morning when there's 300 things to do and only an hour to do them. I'm going to the beach (can't wait!) but keep thinking of things I should do before leaving - like take out the compost, which cascades into more stuff to do (like turn the compost). Sigh. I should just go to bed. It will all work itself out! Fun will be had! (at the beach.) Dirt will be made! (in the compost bin.)
I keep falling into the obvious trap of the internet - maybe you've seen it or even fallen into it yourself: "I'll post later." until suddenly the month is over and, well, you know.
So more pictures, since that's what I've got ready to go! These are from the beach in May - I have to post them now, because I'm getting ready to go again (pre-birthday)! These daisies are from right beside the bathrooms at the Devil's Churn. I think they're sweet.
I have no idea what this flower is - I even looked in a book but NO DICE. I will look more closely. [side note: trivia night has trained me out of saying "harder", as in "I'll look harder" because it just becomes an unintended (by me) joke and then I have to activate my personal dignity powers and pretend like I don't realize what I've just said or it becomes a 'that's what she said' non-hilarious hilarity party. The phrase I'm always reaching for = "more difficult."]
More daisies! Love them.
Further unrelated news: Fresno Aunt left exactly a week ago, and exactly yesterday her son (I can't call him Fresno Cousin because he hates Fresno, but that's the relation) called up and said "I'm in town for work" or something like that - basically, he's on the couch for a few days. Which is fine! He's the easiest guest, for real. But it was still a no-warning kind of thing and I always get thrown off, somehow.
Like right now, I need to go see if the cat wants to come in. But the door is right by the couch! and I don't want to be loud. and the cat will want back out again in half an hour. Sigh.
Thimbleberry, in flower form! It's sort of blackberry like, sort of rose like. I think it's very pretty in a wild way.
Are you watching Bunheads? I like it! If you didn't like Gilmore Girls, it's probably not the show for you, but I enjoy Amy Sherman-Palladino's made up towns and fast-talking heroines very much.
Salal - so pretty! They look like little candies, waiting to be eaten. I think maybe you can eat these? but my policy on eating wildflowers is pretty much no, because what if I'm wrong? (writhing in agony and certain death, is what!)
Sunday the 1st: All day shopping frenzy with my sister and visiting Fresno Aunt. F.A. had very specific things she was looking for and we had to go to TWO MALLS, which is too many malls. Maybe the other mall was later. I almost passed out in the Lego store, so it's all a blur to me now. At the beginning, before things went mall-shaped, we bought some delicious goat cheese at the Irvington Farmer's Market.
Monday the 2nd: More shopping, but this time it was yarn shops - hooray! Then one more mall (the second mall! I remember now we only went to one on Sunday, it just seemed like 500 malls and when I left the Lego store to get some air I had to stand right in front of the "we buy your gold" guy for what seemed like an eternity. It was interesting watching the gold guy size up potential customers. I was rightly dismissed immediately!)
Tuesday the 3rd: Fresno Aunt and her nice but cat-intimidating German Shepherd, Daisy, leave at the CRACK OF DAWN. (on the road by 7 AM) Rest of day spent in a "don't have to do anything" daze. Wasn't sure how long she'd be staying - thought she'd be here at least another couple of days, so this was a bonus. Don't get me wrong - I love my Aunt, but there were a lot of cat/dog shenanigans that required constant vigilance! Plus she gets up REALLY EARLY. Anyway. She left and now we can miss her and count our blessings about not having to go to the mall.
THE MOON SENT ME A TEXT: Tuesday was the full moon - I know this not only from looking in the night sky with my eyeballs, but because I must have hit some setting on one of my moon apps (I have two), and it sent me a little calendar reminder at 1PM saying "hello, I am full right now even though it's the middle of the day and you're not even thinking about the moon, which is why I had to send you this message. I, The Moon, have achieved fullness in the sky right over your head even though you're too self-absorbed to even LOOK UP because it's daytime or something. It's moontime where I'm sitting, baby. Get with the program."
PM ADVENTURES: I often go to a pub trivia game on Wednesdays with my trivia pals, but since this Wed. was a holiday, we went to a different one across town, hosted by the same guy. It was so bizarre! But fun because we like trivia and hanging out, plus we were having a little adventure. (we placed 2nd, which I deem respectable.)
Wednesday the 4th: Goofing off! My sister made jam and then we made cake to take to a BBQ @ Martina's house. Everything was delicious. Got home in time to make sure the cats were safely locked in due to mad bomber-style holiday explosives. Turned out to be a good call because someone a couple of streets over had a full on BOOM BOOM fireworks show. This was supposed to be the year that pdx cracked down on those kind of (legal in Washington, illegal in Oregon) fireworks, but I guess not!
Thursday the 5th: such a gorgeous day. The sun shone and I worked in the garden while listening to book podcasts. Lovely. I forgot to put on sunscreen for the first hour outside, so I'm a little pink. Due to schedule changes and (complicated, budgety) things, I know this month is going to be slooow for work, so I'm trying to make some visible garden progress. We'll see how it goes... OOh, I also made some serious progress in the nonfiction book I have to finish by Sunday (The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit). I'm enjoying it - loving the descriptions of cosmopolitan old Cairo. It gives me a better sense of the region in that era - I found myself thinking of Justine, which was fiction but set in roughly the same period from the POV of a British ex-pat. Anyway, I'm enjoying it but wish I was done so I could dig into one of the 40 billion things waiting on my TBR stack.
ENJOY this Feist video with fireworks in it. I was going to post this on the 4th, but I'm posting it now instead.
Law of Sympathy, i.e. the assumption that things act on one another at a distance through a secret link, due either to the fact that there is some similarity between them or to the fact that they have at one time been in contact, or that one has formed part of the other.
SUMMER TREE
