Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
August 11, 2014
This morning I have already cleaned off the deck and filled the bird feeders. I also tried again to attach the fronds to my new palm tree, but they are just too heavy for me to hold with one hand and attach with the other. I’ll have to wait until Thursday when Lee and Roseana come to clean. Lee is always happy to help.
If you want to know the weather, check yesterday’s Coffee because it is the same today, the same gorgeous day. I see a deck day, and I also see a dump run as I have already loaded the car. Gracie will be glad. Weekends are no longer dump days as the traffic is lined up along the street to the dump and inside is a mad house. Mondays are quiet.
My front garden is beautiful so I’ll try to take some pictures today. I always wanted a garden filled with flowers, and this garden is exactly what I dreamed. Not being a gardener, it was hit or miss with the flowers I chose, but I did well. I noticed some bare spots and a bush is going to be moved this fall so next year I get to buy more flowers, perennials in the front. I’ll do a bit of research first then make my list. Some I may have to get on-line as rare flowers aren’t at the local garden shops. People tend to buy the familiar.
We never came down the cape when I was a kid. All our vacations were in Maine or Vermont. On weekends we went to local beaches on the North Shore. When I was really young, we went to Revere Beach. I remember aunts and uncles and cousins being there with us as well. I also remember the adults would take turns. Some would watch us while others would run across the street for a drink or two. Revere Beach back then had all sorts of food booths, bars, arcade games and rides. We kids never left the beach. There was always plenty to eat and drink from the various baskets. We’d whine and ask to go on a ride, but I can’t remember ever taking one though maybe we rode the merry-go-round, but that is a hazy memory at best.
When I was in high school, my friends and I would go to Revere Beach on a Friday or Saturday night. We’d buy sausage subs with peppers and onions and eat them as we walked along the boardwalk. We rode the roller coaster. I remember that roller coaster more than any other ride because when I was young I could see the top of the coaster from the highway on the way to visit my grandparents. It was a sign post of sorts as to where we were. I loved that old wooden coaster. I remember the anticipation and maybe a little fear as the roller coaster slowly climbed that first hill. I remember the sounds of the coaster. It made squealing noises around corners, the wheels clicked on the track for the whole ride and people always screamed, especially down that first hill. The brave ones didn’t hold on but raised both arms in the air in a show of bravado. I wasn’t one of them. I always held on.
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Categories: Musings
Tags: arms in the air, beaches, bird feeders, clicking wheels, down hills, dump day, flowers, front garden, gorgeous day, palm tree, perennials, rare flowers, Revere Beach, Roller coaster
Comments: 18 Comments
August 10, 2014
The Sunday of old is gone. Stores are now open, churches have far fewer people and Sunday dinners with the whole family around the table are a thing of the past. I loved that Sunday, except for the church part, but I have noticed the Sunday of today has become, in some ways, like that Sunday of my childhood. Not a single lawn mower breaks the Sunday morning quiet. The birds can be heard singing. My neighbor works every other day of the week, but today he’ll sit on his deck, chat with his family and later he’ll barbecue. He does the same thing every Sunday. That is, I’m thinking, the new definition of a family Sunday dinner: sitting on the deck enjoying each other’s company and barbecuing a chicken.
The day is gorgeous. I couldn’t invent a nicer day. The sun is bright and the morning is still cool. It will get warm today, in the high 70’s, but tonight will be cool again, down in the 60’s, and wonderful for sleeping. This is when I wish I had a tree house so I could sleep outside. I’ve already build one in my imagination. The walkway will be from the deck and will have rope sides and a wooden bottom for easy walking. It will jiggle a bit but still be safe. The treehouse will be big enough for a table, a couple of chairs and a day bed. There will be a tablecloth, a bit retro like the ones from the 50’s, and flowers in a vase on the table. The windows will have curtains; I’m thinking flowers. Below each window on the outside will be flower boxes filled with blossoms of all colors. The door and the windows will have screens which let in the night air but not the night bugs. I will fall asleep among the trees lulled by the songs of night birds.
Categories: Musings
Tags: barbecues, gorgeous day, quiet days, sleeping outside, Sunday dinner, sundays, tree houses, walkways, window boxes
Comments: 20 Comments
August 9, 2014
If I were to look up the word beautiful in the dictionary, I would see a picture of today. It is a cool, bright sunny morning which will be warmer by afternoon, in the mid to high 70’s, and by tonight will be back to the 60’s, perfect for sleeping. The long-range temperature looks the same for the whole week.
Today on syfi is unfriendly alien day. They are fighting for world domination and the total destruction of the human race. Despite early setbacks, we always win. A day watching a few science fiction movies would make aliens beware. Right now lizards are causing global warming to make Earth habitable for them. Nothing is worse than intelligent lizards.
When I was a kid, around this time or a bit later in August, I’d start to get bored. What entertained me in June was tiresome as the summer was ending. School wouldn’t start until after Labor Day so there I was trying to find something to keep me busy. The playground closed in August, there were no matinees on Saturdays all summer, I’d read more books than I could remember and I’d biked all over, including to East Boston, a harrowing trip on Route 1A, or at least that’s what my mother thought. As for me, it was fun. Anyway, I remember wanting to go horseback riding, but my mother said no and wouldn’t give me the money. “There’s nothing to do in this whole town except to go horseback riding,” was my response. I think it rated a Tony. No one is more dramatic than a 12-year-old girl.
Last week I was busy. This week my dance card is empty. I haven’t a single appointment or social event. I’ll do laundry mid-week but that doesn’t rate an entry.
Categories: Musings
Tags: aliens invading, beautiful day, bored with summer, empty dance card, horseback riding
Comments: 12 Comments
August 5, 2014
The paper says humid and 80˚ for today going down to the low 60’s tonight with rain possible. The whole week will have similar weather: warm days and cool nights. Gracie, my weather prognosticator, has been panting all morning so I have already turned on the air-conditioner and unlocked the back door. Knowing me as you do, you probably didn’t even question why those two are connected. Anyway, Gracie is now sleeping in her crate probably with a smile on her face as the house begins to cool.
This morning I was at the sink looking out the window as I worked and could see my prayer flags going up and down with some ferocity. After it happened a couple of times, I went on the deck to look. What did I see? It was the red spawn pulling on the blue flag trying, I suspect, to rip it off. I clapped my hands, and the spawn left only to return in a couple of minutes. I clapped again but it stayed there. The red spawn knew I was blowing smoke so it did an in your face and kept yanking. I got the hose, put the nozzle on jet and let it go. It reached right to that flag and that spawn which went tearing up the branches to where I couldn’t reach with the hose. It tried the flag again, and I sprayed it again. It raced to a higher branch and started yelling at me in squirrel which I am so glad I don’t speak as I think the red spawn wasn’t being kind and might have been using inappropriate language.
Today’s paper was pretty dismal filled at is was with not so great news. I did finish the cryptogram in record time but it was small consolation. I’m thinking I’ll go back to when I was a kid and the only thing I looked at were the comics. Back then there were pages of comics. Dennis the Menace got a big square, not a strip, and though Dennis was always well-meaning, poor Mr. Wilson bore the brunt of Dennis and his shenanigans. I used to skip over a few like Mary Worth, who is still around and looking no older even decades later, Mary Perkins and Brenda Starr. I found them boring especially Mary Worth with her advice on everything. I loved The Phantom on his white horse, Buck Rogers and Steve Canyon. Jiggs and Maggie seemed to fight all the time and Andy Capp could be found at the nearest pub. Dondi was a bit sappy for my tastes. Sad Sack was just that. Prince Valiant showed up on Sundays and was pretty wordy, but I followed it anyway through generations.
I know there are tons more comics which have been gone for a while. Few are episodic now. Most you can read one day, skip a week or two, read the newest one and find you’ve missed nothing. Sunday comics are always in color. During the week some days are black and white days while other are color days. I have no idea why.
The one bit of news I’ll share is that 5,000 new words are being added to the Scrabble Players Dictionary. Some of the new ones include bromance, buzzkill, frenemy and qajaq. That last one is a keeper. Notice the q didn’t need a u, but there is a hitch. You can only use it if you have a blank tile as Scrabble has only one q. It is also a palindrome though that means nothing in Scrabble. I just thought it was interesting. I’ll leave you with another of the new words, quinzhee, just in case you’re playing tonight. Q words are always good to know.
Categories: Musings
Tags: AC, Andy Capp, angry red spawn, cool nights, humid day, Jiggs and maggie, new words, newspaper comics, prayer flags, Prince Valiant, qajaq, quinzhee, red spawn, Scrabble dictionary, spraying with the hose, squirrel speak
Comments: 22 Comments
August 4, 2014
The sun is back after a three-day hiatus. I was on the deck earlier to fill the feeders and noticed how wet all the wood still is. I hope the sun stays warm enough to dry everything. Usually this time of year the fields near the marshes have turned brown, but this year has been so cool even those grasses are still green. August is generally the hottest month but not yet.
Yesterday Peapod came so the larder is full again and that got me to thinking about food, Glorious Food. I eat a lot of different foods that I never even knew existed until I was an adult. My mother fed us what we’d eat and seldom experimented with our taste buds. We were kids and kids didn’t taste. Kids looked. I know what our reactions to hummus and guacamole would have been. They look like baby food, ejected baby food, and we would have made disgusting noises and pushed the dishes aside. They happen to be two of my favorites now. We only ate white bread. I never buy it now. I buy grainy breads, naan or pita breads. We would have rejected naan and pita. They’re round. Bread wasn’t round. It was sliced. Vegetables were unknown territory aside from potatoes, carrots and green beans. We liked meat. Hamburger was common in so many different dishes. We never cared. They all looked and tasted good. If you had told me I’d eat goat, eel and bushmeat when I was older, I would have been horrified. Even as a teenager I never expanded my palate. There was little opportunity for that. Chinese was the exotic food in town. The start of my food journey was Ghana.
It was at my live-in where we each stayed with a Ghanaian family as part of our training that I became an adventurous eater out of necessity and cultural sensitivity. On the porch outside my room was a table and on the first night dinner was put on that table. It was some sort of meat, a soup and something gelatinous. No one was there to explain what I was eating. I figured I had to use my hand as there were no utensils so I broke off a gelatinous piece, dipped it in the soup and cautiously put it in my mouth. No chewing was necessary. It slid right down my throat. The meat tasted okay but it was fatty and bony. The soup was pepper hot but not too pepper hot. I ate most of the meal because I didn’t want to offend my host family.
We got comfortable with each other and family members started to sit and eat with me sharing the common soup bowl. I found out the gelatinous blob was T-Zed, the northern Ghanaian staple food, and the meat was goat. I wasn’t bothered at all by the goat or the blob. By then I had spent three or more weeks in Ghana and I just ate what was put in front of me. I did have favorites and I did have foods I didn’t like, never liked the whole time I was there, but I tried everything. My palate expanded exponentially. I even liked grasscutter aka bushmeat and scientifically known as the greater cane rat (Thryonomys swinderianus). It is considered a delicacy. I ate it with bread.
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Categories: Musings
Tags: bushmeat, expanded palate, filled larder, Ghanaian food, Glorious Food, Goat, grasscutter, Hamburger, hummus and guacamole, naan and pita bread, sunny day, T-Zed, The greater cane rat (Thryonomys swinderianus)
Comments: 21 Comments
August 3, 2014
Yesterday it rained all day, sometimes it was heavy and sometimes it was misty. It was a chilly day, and I had to shut the doors and the window behind me. Today is dark and still chilly with damp. I’m going nowhere. I have no plans. I did a couple of loads of laundry yesterday and felt accomplished. Peapod is coming later. I knew it was time for an order when I used the last of my coffee. Last night my larder was so empty I had a pizza with sausage and onion delivered for dinner. Gracie and I shared the crust. We both enjoyed the pizza.
Life is slow. Even last night’s syfy movie didn’t hold my interest. Sharktopus was back. At the start they showed the ending of the first Sharktopus when he was blown up and small pieces of him floated down the river. I had just seen the first movie so I noticed something different. They had changed the ending so we could have a sequel. An egg type sac, not in the first movie, floated down the river into the sea and was caught in a net. When the sac was cut open, the smallest baby sharktopus was inside. It wasn’t a cute I am hybrid. You can figure out the rest of the movie.
One of my former students called this morning and we chatted a bit. Yesterday another called. I love that we stay in touch.
I am not loquacious today. My life has been quiet of late. I’ve been reading A Spy Among Friends, not my usual light summer novel when I am more often in the middle of a murder or several murders than a cadre of spies, but I find this book and its story of Kim Philby riveting.
Today is harvest day. Many of my cherry tomatoes are ready. I am already thinking of lunch and those tomatoes. A panini sounds perfect.
Categories: Musings
Tags: A Spy Among Friends, cherry tomatoes, damp and chilly, harvest, Kim Philby, Laundry, Pizza, Sharktopus
Comments: 14 Comments
August 2, 2014
It’s raining, and that’s the only sound I can hear now. Earlier it was the sound of the chain saw cutting down dead branches from the giant pine trees in my front yard. Now the lawn is covered in spindly dead branches. Gracie and I watched for a while. I got bored. She didn’t.
The first of my movies has arrived, actually two movies have arrived, both on a single disc. The descriptions on the covers are perfectly wonderful, so bad you have to laugh. The first, The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant, says, “One a Hillbilly Half-Wit, the Other a Psycho-Killer! They were headed for trouble.” The other movie, The Thing with Two Heads, says,”They share the same body but hate each other’s guts!” The premiers, though, will have to wait until next week as this week’s movie night is postponed due to rain.
When I was a kid, I could see the face of the man in the moon. Some nights he looked happy while other nights he looked surprised, his mouth wide open. I weighed in on the controversy and voiced my opinion that the moon was not made of cheese. I guessed maybe rocks and sand though cheese would have been more fun but less durable. I knew there were aliens somewhere on a far off planet who probably didn’t look like us, but I had no idea exactly how they looked or if they’d discreetly visited. For some reason I figured they’d have really bad taste in fashion, and that’s how we’d find them. I’m thinking checkered coats and bowler hats. They’d speak in stilted English and not understand idioms or slang. I haven’t found one yet but bad taste in fashion abounds so I’ll keep looking.
I got to grow up in an age of wonder when trips to the moon were science fiction, and computers were background props in space ships so big people stood upright, ate at a table and slept in state rooms. The porthole windows showed stars and meteoroids which never moved, special effects being what they were back then. I never minded. I had learned early on to suspend disbelief. It made movies so much more fun.
Some of my friends can’t believe the creature features I watch. They talk about the bad special effects, the B actors and the unbelievable creatures. What they don’t know is I can still see the man in the moon and my suspension of disbelief is finely honed after all these years. I know wonder can be found even in a B movie.
Categories: Musings
Tags: aliens, bad taste in fashion, made of cheese, moon and cheese, movie night, rain, space ships, The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant, the moon, The Thing with Two Heads
Comments: 6 Comments
August 1, 2014
Summer mornings are lovely. I sat outside today with my papers and coffee. Gracie was sleeping on the deck, birds were flying back and forth to the feeders, leaves were being gently blown by the breeze and the sun was glinting in and out of the branches of the trees beside me. I didn’t hear a single voice. I could have been the only person left in the world.
When I was around ten, I used to dive off the high board in the pool. I’d stand to the side of the board, aim my hands and dive. I’d go deep. One time I hit the bottom of the pool and slammed my mouth on the concrete, split my lip and broke a piece off my front tooth. I got a ride home that day from one of the life guards. I think I looked worst than I felt. My lip was all swollen and there were tooth marks on my bottom lip. It was a long time before I dared to dive off that board again.
I love the ocean especially at its fiercest during a storm when the waves are white caps crashing against the shore. I can feel the energy of the water and the wind blowing and whipping the sand. The gulls circle and make a raucous noise. I walk on the hard-packed sand close to the water. I walk with the wind.
Fireflies light up my backyard. When I was really little, I thought they were garden fairies, cousins to Tinker Bell. I’d watch them flit and blink between the trees and branches. They were magic. When I got older, I caught some in a jar with a lid that had holes so they could breathe. I never kept them: I just watched them for a while. Even though I know why they blink, I still think they have a bit of magic about them.
My grand-nephew Jack was born this morning. He weighs seven pounds and is 19 and 1/2 inches long. I got a short video and can attest to the power of his lungs. Both mother and baby are fine.
Categories: Musings
Tags: fireflies, grand aunt, lovely summer morning, new baby'Jack, noise seagulls, ocean storms, old aunts, split lip, swimming pool, white caps
Comments: 12 Comments
July 31, 2014
I am outside on the deck writing Coffee. The day is such a delight I didn’t want to miss any breeze, any bird song or any butterfly flitting by. It is a bit noisy here as I can hear mowers and blowers and cars going down the street, but those are short-lived sounds and I can be patient until they disappear. Gracie is with me and she is sleeping in the corner in the shade.
Just as I was ready to go out last night I found a dead mouse on the rug by the door. It wasn’t there earlier as I had been in and out and think I would have noticed. It was a baby grey mouse. As to which of my animals is the mighty hunter I have no idea. What is strange is I never heard the encounter. Usually the hunter makes quite a bit of nose running and slipping across the floor. The mouse looked as if it was sleeping and was dry, no saliva all over it, so I’m thinking it was Fern or Maddie. Gracie is a sloppy hunter. Now I’ll set up the have-a-heart trap as one mouse really means many mice.
I am not an accident ready to happen but rather an accident which has already happened and will happen again and again. It is my lot in life. Lately my feet and toes have fallen victims to my genetic defect. A wooden sign which says No Pets was moved the other night, and I forgot. It fell on my foot, and the swelling didn’t go down until yesterday. I stubbed the same toe twice in the last two days. What is even worse is I stubbed it against the cat gate both times. Some people live and learn. I live and have bumps, cuts and black and blues. It didn’t happen when I was a kid. I guess I grew into the defect passed along by my father. My favorite of all is the exhaust burn from my motorcycle. Don’t get me wrong it hurt like hell, but it was the circumstance which gave me to know I was my father’s daughter. There I was stopped on the road to let a herd of goats cross. I was holding my motorcycle but loosely and only by the handlebars. The goats changed direction and ran into my bike which I dropped. It landed on my leg hence the exhaust burn. I think the goats did it on purpose and I’m sticking with that story.
Categories: Musings
Tags: an accident happening, Bolga\motorcycle\, dead mouse, exhaust burn, goats, mowers, outside on the deck, prey, stubbed toes
Comments: 13 Comments
July 29, 2014
The humidity is gone and has left behind a wonderful summer day. I have no plans for today except to do a few things around the house. The errand or two I have I’ll save for tomorrow. I love these quiet mornings when all I can hear are the sweet songs of birds.
When I was a kid, I noticed bugs more than I noticed birds. Grasshoppers were one of my favorites. I loved watching them leap into the air as I walked through the field. In my mind’s eye I can still see it all. The houses were clustered around a small roundabout in a cul-de-sac. A path led from the street behind the houses to the field which stretched across from one group of trees to another. On one side of the field the trees were beside the road while on the other side the trees were thicker and we thought of them as the woods. The boundary of the field was an old tree trunk with one branch still attached and lying on the ground like an extended arm. We never went around the branch. We always climbed over though there was a path which went right around the old tree. Beyond the tree were a few other paths. One led up a grassy hill with blueberry bushes all along the side. The hill led to the water tower at the top. Another path from the tree went straight ahead to the swamp and continued to a street where the path ended. I always thought of that path as a shortcut to my friend who lived on that street. We played in the woods, hunted grasshoppers in the field, watch polliwogs grow into frogs at the swamp and ate our fill of blueberries. We’d race each other up the hill to the water tower. The winner was king of the hill, at least for that day. We could be gone the whole day and still be close to home.
When the town decided to build elderly housing, they took down all the trees and bulldozed the field. Even the swamp was gone. We were devastated.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, blueberries, fields, grasshoppers, old tree trunk, paths, polliwogs, Swamp, woods
Comments: 4 Comments
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