Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
June 10, 2013
The morning has been a busy one already. I woke so early I was able to read both papers, do another load of laundry, make my bed and go out for breakfast. When I got home, I found, to my dismay, my tranquility had disappeared and been replaced by the sounds of workmen next door who are taking down the old shingles. Hammering on the new will be next. The house certainly did need a face life. Nothing has been done to it since it was built. The house is a summer rental, and upkeep is not a priority. I would love to see the inside as I’m thinking retro 70’s.
A summer ritual will be performed today. I’m replacing the storm door in the back with the screen door. The day is already hot and hazy and a little cross air would cool the house. That door faces the south, and, in the summer, that’s the direction from which all my breezes come.
I already feel accomplished today and don’t think I’ll do much else. I have a new book to read, and it’s been a while since I just sat and read all day. I’m thinking lounging on the couch might work perfectly.
A long while back I bought Converse high top sneakers in a variety of colors. I know I have pink and purple pairs. It might just be time to start wearing them again. I have reached that age when wearing whatever I want will cause no stir. People will look, see that I am older and just accept what I’m wearing as the vagaries of older age. I think it’s a perk. Most times I don’t go anywhere which requires a certain dress. Putting on a blouse or a shirt is dressing up for me. I spent too many years in dresses, panty hose and fancy but sensible shoes. Now I want comfort, just comfort.
I have so many t-shirts. Some are souvenirs my friends brought back or I bought on one of my adventures. Some are TV shows like M.A.S.H. and Hill Street Blues. A few are music groups, and I even have a Pete Seeger. Some others are ads and were free t-shirts. I have two favorites. One says, “Let’s eat grandma! Let’s eat, grandma. Punctuation saves lives.” The other has to do with the spawns. It says, “I have reason to believe the squirrels are mocking me.” Truer words were never written!
Categories: Musings
Tags: busy morning, cpmfort, Dresses, hammering, hazy day, high tops, lounging, reading, sneakers, summer ritual, t-shirts
Comments: 24 Comments
June 9, 2013
If I were asked to create a morning, it would be today’s. The sun is bright and sharp. The green of the leaves and the colors of the flowers pop in the light. The breeze is just right.
For some strange reason, I feel energetic today so I’m going to finish the flower planting and actually do laundry. Yup, it’s still sitting in the hall, and I swear I saw a cobweb or two when I walked by the bundle this morning.
In the front garden of my house are wild rose bushes. They are so very Cape Cod that you can see them everywhere especially along the roadside. They only bloom once, and they are now in bloom. Mine needs badly to be trimmed, but we’re waiting until after the blooming. When I walked by the bush this morning, I could hear the buzz of bees so I took a wide berth. The buzzing was loud enough to hear from the driveway. I walked over to get a closer, but not too close, a look and I think there was a bee at every flower.
The summer world is so alive. I sit and watch all the different birds at the feeders. Two of the feeders, however, are empty as I still have to put out the oranges and the jelly for the Baltimore orioles. I haven’t seen any of them yet but that might be because I have nothing to tempt them. I also have hummingbird feeders needing cleaning and filling.
When I sit outside, I love having the birds zoom over my head on their way to the sunflower feeders. My being there doesn’t bother them at all. The rabbits are lively now and still taunting Gracie. They sit on the other side of the fence and stare. Gracie goes crazy barking and trying to find a way over or through the fence. The spawns in the yard are also Gracie targets, but they have scurrying up the trees for protection. Gracie stands below and stares as the spawn jumps from bush to bush. I’m betting it’s smiling, scoffing at poor Miss Gracie. Spawns are like that.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bird feeders, birds, flowers, perfect day, spawns of Satan, summer world, sunny and bright, wild rose bushes
Comments: 14 Comments
June 8, 2013
When the rain came yesterday, it arrived with a vengeance and poured all afternoon and evening. I left my window open here in the den so I could hear the heavy drops hitting the deck and trees. The wind was so strong it blew one of my huge umbrellas over, but I was lucky, though, as it missed 4 lanterns attached to the deck rail and three clay pots. My deck is again filled with debris, small branches and leaves, but I’m leaving the cleaning until the deck is dry.
Saturday is usually a busy day on my street, but it is still and quiet outside: no lawnmowers, no kids playing and no dogs barking, a rarity on any day. I went out yesterday to Hyannis and early last evening to dinner with my friend so I have not been housebound, but I feel it anyway. I think the clouds and the rain close in after a while.
Today I have no plans, nothing on my dance card. I might just do laundry; it’s been sitting in the hall for a few days. A while back that would have driven me crazy, and I would have had it finished the same day I brought it downstairs. That was when I still worked. My days had structure back then; they had to so I could get everything done. Now I do my chores whenever the spirit moves me. The laundry doesn’t bother me anymore. I’ll get to it sometime.
I have this cabinet, the one with all the pots and pans, assorted dishes for special occasions, small appliances, bowls and some Tupperware, and I think way in the back of it, in the corner, is a mouse nest. I know the mice are all gone, but I know the nest is still there. Before I started the Great Mouse War, I found gnawed paper towels, a perfect nesting material, soft and comfy. I keep saying I’m going to clean that cabinet, but I have this vision of starting the project, getting too tired to finish and leaving the kitchen floored covered with whatnots from that cabinet. A while back I did clean it, and the cabinet looked great, but right now it’s filled. I don’t even remember what is in the way back. I’m thinking Skip, my factotum, might be just the guy for this project.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cabinet cleaning, cleaning cabinets, cloudy day, mouse nest, quiet, quiet day, rain, torrential rain
Comments: 9 Comments
June 7, 2013
The morning is chilly, drab and damp. I’m wearing a sweatshirt and thinking about socks as my feet are cold. I should have known the weather would turn as soon as I took the comforter off my bed. This weather will be hanging around through the weekend so I might as well pull out the comforter and put it back on the bed. I had such high hopes when I stored it. Yesterday I got outside as far as the deck. I made my bed, my sole accomplishment of the day, and went through cooking magazines and cut out recipes. I also browsed catalogues and dog-eared a few pages which had items I’d like to buy. It was a good day.
When I was a kid, around this time in June, we’d have final exams then we’d spend the next few days cleaning out our desks and packing away the classroom. It was always the best time of the year. We could chat all we wanted, and we did no schoolwork. Learning had ended. Our last day of school was always a half day. It was the day we got our report cards. The nun would call us to her desk one by one. None of us looked at the cards until we got back to our desks where we always looked on the back first. The bottom of the back was where it said Promoted To. We didn’t care about grades or deportment. We just wanted the next number in succession. I remember running home that last day with a few papers and my report card in hand. I’d yell to my mother I got promoted. That always seemed the most important part.
My sister who is five years younger than I wasn’t all that keen on being in school. She’d ask to go to the bathroom or the cloak room then go straight out the door and walk home. My other sister, too young for school, would tell my mother, “Sheila’s coming up the hill.” My mother couldn’t drive in those days so she walked Sheila back to school with my youngest sister in tow. The next time it happened I got sent to get her. I never minded. It meant I could leave school, take a casual walk home then walk back to school with Sheila. The nuns figured out the answer to Sheila’s escapes: they sent a guard with her whenever she left the room. That put an end to her walks home and my freedom even if was a little while.
Categories: Musings
Tags: chilly morning, cold, comforter, final exams, final school days, going awol, leaving school, promotions, report cards, walking home
Comments: 22 Comments
June 6, 2013
On Tuesday, of all my errands and chores, I only managed to buy the flowers. The rest of the list was put on hold for no reason except I didn’t want to do them, my favorite reason of all. Yesterday, though, was my most industrious day to date. I was the ant, not the grasshopper. I planted in all the deck boxes, pots and baskets, all 16 of them, and was quite creative in putting together the displays. There was one which was red, white and blue and another with beach grass and pink flowers with a sea creature on a stick added to each pot for decoration. I put the herbs in their window boxes: the thyme, rosemary and basil. When I’d finished planting, I was filthy and sweaty but yesterday was the perfect day to be working outside. It was cool and sunny so when I had finished with the pots and all, I sat outside for a bit just to enjoy the day. When I came back inside, I went upstairs. The cat boxes got changed as did the bed. My last upstairs chore was the badly needed shower after all that dirt. I sat and read for a bit downstairs then went out. Poor Gracie didn’t come as this is too warm a season for her to be left in the car. I sneaked to the dump, the pharmacy, the drop-in clinic, Staples and finally the plant store for a small tomato plant for the hanging thingee which hangs the tomato upside down. When I got home, I collapsed. I figure I don’t have to do anything else for at least a week!
In front of my house the other day was the truck belonging to the irrigation guy. Later that same day Peapod delivered my groceries. Today Roseana and Lee will be here to clean. I have Skip, my factotum, who is always only a phone call away. Here I am with more free time than I’ve ever had, but time I don’t want to squander on the mundane, on cleaning or shopping. I already resent my laundry, one of the few chores left to me. When I worked, I did everything on the weekends. I mowed the lawn, went grocery shopping, changed the bed, did my laundry and went to the dump every Sunday. Now I have people and more sloth days than anything. I figure I earned them.
Categories: Musings
Tags: chores, errands, flowers, herbs, hiring people, inside the house chores, Laundry, showers, sloth days, window boxes
Comments: 17 Comments
June 4, 2013
I should be outside singing, “Oh What a Beautiful Morning. The sun is brilliant, the sky dark blue and the air cool after the rain. This, morning, however, has been hectic. Grace woke me up barking her intruder bark, and I went downstairs to find the irrigation man standing and waiting with my paper in his hand. He needed to finish the job. Meanwhile, I let Gracie out then shortly thereafter went out myself to greet the morning. That was when I noticed the gate was open and Gracie was gone. I immediately called out the troops. Sebastian, my neighbor and landscaper, was checking on the progress of the irrigation and said he’d get her so I gave him the leash. Gracie came running of out of my neighbor’s backyard and ran down the street followed by Sebastian. Both of them disappeared but both surfaced in a few minutes: Gracie caught and leashed. Next, Gracie was a crazy dog running from one inside door to the other. I got up to grab her and noticed her friend Cody had come to play and was outside the front door. I let them both into the backyard, now secured. In a while both dogs were too tired and were whacking the dog door hoping to get my attention. They did, and I let Cody out and he ran home. Gracie is now calm for the first time all morning. The irrigation is set and ready so I’m going to stop for a moment and get more coffee.
I poured the coffee and found a dead moth floating in my cup. I picked it out and tossed it. Bugs on my food stopped bothering me in Ghana. The whole time I lived there bugs were my roommates. Most were fly bys, but my flour was the exception. I had to buy it in big bags because that’s how it was sold, and it took little time for the word to spread. All sorts of insects made the flour their home so it had to be sifted before it was used. Most of the bugs were caught by the sifting, but those that weren’t became part of the dish. We considered them protein.
Today I have a few errands and chores on my docket. I need to change the bed and the cat litter then hit the road to the pharmacy and the garden store. I need to buy the rest of my flowers and herbs, the flowers for the front garden and the herbs for the big herb garden. When I get home, I need to plant the rest of the deck flowers. Nothing’s better than getting down and dirty. That would make my shower the last activity of the day!
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, blue sky, bugs, errands and chores, flowers and herbs, hectic morning, irrigation system, runaway dog, sifting flour, sunny
Comments: 16 Comments
June 3, 2013
Last night it was a mighty storm. I saw the lightning then came the thunder, booming thunder getting closer and closer until it was over my house shaking the rafters. I fell asleep to that rain, but it was gone when I woke up. In its place was a dark, quiet day, the sort you sometimes get after a storm when all the sounds had been used up by the rain. Right now, though, the rain has started again, and I can hear the drops falling steadily on the trees and the deck. It will be around all day into tonight. The sun will be back tomorrow.
The rain makes me want to do little or nothing today, but my mood is neither lethargic nor somber. It is from the quiet and the darkness. Rain muffles all sounds except its own. My room is dark lit only by the computer screen. The window is wide open, and I have heard the progression of the rain. It started with a few small drops but is now the heaviest of rains. I have no gutters on my house so nearest the windows the rain falls in a sheet from the roof. No shopping for plants today, no planting flowers today.
Gracie is asleep in her crate. Fern is asleep on my bed and Maddie is in here with me sleeping on her chair. Animals know how to be cozy on a rainy day.
When I think of Ghana, I remember the smells and colors. My favorite of all is the aroma of wood charcoal burning. In my mind’s eye, I can still see smoke rising from the compounds behind my house when small charcoal burners were lit in the early mornings. My own burner was small and held only a single pan. First the charcoal was started. Thomas cooked for me and he’d squat in front of the burner fanning with a reed fan. When it was time for breakfast, he’d first boil the water for my coffee, my instant coffee, then the eggs and bread were cooked at the same time. The bread was leaned against the side to make toast. The eggs were cooked in groundnut oil, peanut oil, which gave them the best flavor of any eggs. I think breakfast was my favorite meal.
When I bought my first grill for this house, I never bought briquets; instead, I always bought wood charcoal. I used to sit outside on my little farmer’s deck not only to mind the grill but also to smell that charcoal burning and to remember and relive in a small way those mornings in Ghana.
Categories: Musings
Tags: aromas and smells, cozy day, dark day, Ghana, mornings, quiet, rain storm, thunder and lightning, wood charcoal
Comments: 10 Comments
June 2, 2013
The morning is cloudy and cooler than it’s been. Thunder showers are predicted for this evening and tomorrow, but I won’t complain. I love thunder showers, and the flowers and the grass can use the rain.
Yesterday was to be my sloth day. It wasn’t. I ended up planting flowers and herbs in some of the deck pots, and I did two loads of laundry. My back is screaming from two days of hauling and bending. Today will really be a sloth day. I’m thinking about a nap. The cats and dog are already asleep.
The Cape Times has entered its summer mode. The paper uses just about a whole page to list events, shows, musicians, speakers and farmers’ markets. I check every morning for something interesting and then plan my day. Perhaps this will be another tourist summer, something I haven’t done for a while. I’ll go up Cape this year. My last tourist season I went down Cape. It’s always fun to answer the docents who want to know where we’re all from. Usually I’m the only one who says Cape Cod.
My front garden is so awash with color I wish I were a painter. The irises are in bloom, in purples and golds. A blue flower has also bloomed. I don’t know what it is but there are two, one on each front side of the garden. They stand tall in huge clumps. The wild rose bushes have buds, and the small lilac has bloomed in light purple. A white columbine sits daintily in the back of the garden. Lilies of the valley from my mother’s house have covered the ground on each side of the driveway, and the white, fragrant flowers have bloomed on the side which gets more sun. A few baby forsythia bushes, offspring of my oldest one which was a house-warming present, need to be dup up and passed along to friends for their yard. That will give me some space for a few new flowers, for more perennials. I’m going with red.
In addition to the flowers I planted yesterday I also planted basil and rosemary. I so love the smell of fresh rosemary that I run my hand up the whole plant then breath in the wonderful aroma. When I take scissors to the garden and cut fresh herbs for my recipes, I feel like a professional chef giving a tour of my garden in front of a camera which isn’t really there but then again neither is my audience.
I need a few more herbs for the garden, and I also have to plant the thyme I’ve already bought in its deck box. Oops, a pun jumped into my head here, a really corny pun, but I won’t submit you to it. I’ll leave that to Ben.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Cape Times, Clouds, front garden, herb garden, lilacs, lilies of the valley, planting flowers, playing tourist, rain, sloth day, thyme, white columbine
Comments: 17 Comments
June 1, 2013
The day is bright and sunny and cooler than yesterday. It is 70˚ right now, and the high is expected to be only 79˚. Yesterday it got to 90K˚. I have windows open this morning instead of using the air-conditioner.
Yesterday was a busy day. I washed the deck and cleared it of pollen and dead leaves then I went to Agway, big mistake. My back complained loudly as I pulled the huge wagon filled with all sorts of plants. I bought tomatoes, cucumbers and squash for the vegetable garden, basil and rosemary for the herb garden and deck boxes and all sorts of annuals for the clay pots I put on the deck. When I got home, I unloaded them to the front walk then sat on the front step until my back was better. The plants sit there still waiting to be planted but not today. My back and I need a day of rest.
One more trip to Agway for some perennials and more herbs should do it for the garden this year. I’ll do that tomorrow. My landscaper wants to mulch, but he’ll have to wait until I shop one more time.
This morning I watched a fun, really great B science fiction movie, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. It was made in 1953. The Beast, a pre-historic monster, was awakened from hibernation by-here’s where you get to guess the cause of his rude awakening. (I’ll pause a bit to give you time to think.) If you knew to say atomic bomb, you’ve watched far too many B&W 50’s science fiction movies.
This film had everything you’d expect: men wearing fedoras and coats running down the street away from the beast, women on fire escapes screaming and pointing but not thinking about going inside, horribly fake snow and backgrounds and corny dialogue. The general told Bazooka Man to fire. The poor guy had no name. The French scientist, the first to see the Beast, asked our heroine, ” What’s a girl like you doing being a paleontologist?” That girl paleontologist wore the most God-awful looking dress to the ballet. She even added long black gloves to complete her ugly ensemble. The cop shot at this enormous beast with his handgun. You can imagine the gun’s effect: none, and for all his heroics, the cop was eaten by the beast, head first into the mouth with the cop’s legs hanging from the mouth before he was totally devoured. The beast was wonderful because he was the first Ray Harryhausen monster special effect. As the movie was winding down, the poor beast was wounded, but he wasn’t done. His blood fell in droplets on the street and released some horrific prehistoric germ which killed more people. The beast was racking up fatalities. For the ending, the movie went full circle: a radioactive isotope was shot into his wound by a sharpshooter who added drama by shooting from a car at the top of a roller coaster. The Beast writhed in agony before it died: end of rampage, end of Beast and end of movie.
Categories: Musings
Tags: B science fiction, Black and white movie, hot, lovelt day, radioactive isotope, Ray Harryhausen, stereotypical scenes, The Beast from 20
Comments: 20 Comments
May 31, 2013
I never did get to the garden center yesterday because Gracie and I went to the dump. She saw me bringing trash to the car despite my stealthiness and got quite excited at the prospect of going to one of her favorite places. I couldn’t disappoint her so off we went. When I got home, I sat for a bit and that small break drained me of any ambition. It was around two, and I was sitting on the couch reading and sweating because yesterday afternoon was about 84˚. Why in the heck am I sweating thought I so up I got to turn on the air-conditioner. The house was so hot it took until early evening before it was comfortably cool. This morning I went outside to see if I could turn off the air. Nope!
I had no milk or cream so Gracie and I went to Dunkin’ Donuts. She enjoyed her morning ride and I got my coffee. We are both happy with the start of our day.
I don’t remember being hot when I was young. I remember cold, but the memory of heat escapes me. We walked from one end of town to the other to go to the pool, and I remember carrying my towel and bathing suit in both directions. On the way home the wet bathing suit was wrapped in the towel. I remember walking up the huge hill on the way to the square, but I don’t remember the rest of the walk. I remember tired but not hot. At night, the air was sometimes stifling in my bedroom, but I always fell asleep anyway. It was the exhaustion of a kid in summer.
We didn’t have air-conditioning. Nobody did. We didn’t even have a fan that I remember. My mother pulled down all the shades in the house to keep it cooler. We were moles every summer.
When I lived in Ghana, some days I minded the extreme heat. I’d sit in my chair, and when I got up, the imprint of my body was in an outline of sweat on the cushions. Candles melted sideways without being lit. That’s how hot it got in the Upper Region. I didn’t have a fan then either, never even thought of buying one. I just got used to the heat as best I could. In my mind it was just part of the experience of being a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa.
Every night I’d take my cold shower, no hot water, but the first water from the pipes was always hot, warmed by the sun, and I’d wash my hair quickly. The rest of me endured the cold water. I always took my shower just before I went to bed. I had learned not to dry myself off so I could air dry once I got into bed. It was like I was my own air-conditioner. I think the Peace Corps calls that adapting.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 84˚, Air conditioner, air dry, cold shower, dunkin-donuts, Ghana, hot, moles, Peace Corps Ghana, pool, shades, walking in the heat
Comments: 32 Comments
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