May Flowers

 

School is OUT for Josie

Wednesday was my LAST day of school! We had an ice cream Sunday party and I got a Math Master award. 

So on Thursday I spent the day with Meema and Grumpy. First there were pancakes (of course.)

Then I set up my nail salon with the nail kit I got for my birthday. There are stickers and glitter too.

Otter was happy to have her nails done.

Jenny wasn't sure about it.

I gave Bob a magazine to read while he waited for his appointment.

When they were all done, I got the dress up box and put stuff on Bailey. She looked pretty but she wiggled out of her clothes before Meema could get her picture.

We went to the library on Wednesday so I had new books to read.

                           Then I practiced falling on the sofa.

And helped Meema water her porch plants.

Jenny's nail polish came off when she went running in the wet grass but she still has her glitter on.

While Meema was painting, I worked on some puppets.

I used up all my googly eyes.

Then I got my doctor kit and played vet.

The dogs were good patients.

 

Odds and Ends

Japanese iris

                                                    Hop vines

A Red-Spotted Purple? Maybe.

 I'm not very knowledgeable re butterflies.

 

For a Chilly Night

                         

 The weather has been rainy and chilly--and pleasant to sleep under blankets at night. A good time for a warming dish of Thai curried chickpeas, spinach, and tomatoes in coconut milk.

It's a quick and easy recipe using canned chickpeas and canned diced tomatoes. Fresh spinach is a nice addition for color.

                             

Here's the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 tsp. garam masala

1 TB olive oil

Garlic, onion, and ginger

Thai red curry paste

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can full fat coconut milk

fresh spinach

Limes, cilantro, basil, and/or parsley for garnish          

                         

Toss chickpeas and garam masala together in a saucepan, then remove with slotted spoon to a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Roast at 350 for 20 minutes. (If you're in a hurry, you could probably skip the roasting and just add the drained chickpeas.)

Meanwhile, chop your onion and garlic and add to the pan you used to coat the chickpeas (olive oil being such a price that I like to make it do double duty.) Add the ginger, either minced or squeezed through a garlic press. Saute briefly then stir in a tsp or more, depending on your tolerance for heat, of the curry paste. Cook a minute then stir in the tomatoes, cook a few minutes, now add a few handfuls of spinach. When the spinach had wilted, add the coconut milk.

Serve in a soup bowl over jasmine or basmati rice. We had a spinach and mango salad with vinaigrette on the side--a nice complement.

                                              

Rainy Day Doodling

 

Miss Birdie Studies on Memorial Day--A Re-post

 

Why, Lizzie Beth, you like to give me a fright. I was just setting here thinking and didn't hear you pecking at the door. Come right on in and get you a chair.

No, I weren't here yesterday. Bernice sent her boy to bring me to Decoration Day at their cemetery over on Ridge Top. 
You know I love Decoration Day and visiting with all the Quiet Ones -- and I know a good many of them up there on Ridge Top. 

We set out flowers and they had little American flags for all the veterans, even the ones that fought in the War Between the States, which seemed kindly strange to me. And that's some of what I been setting here studying on.

There was a feller there gave a speech about how Memorial Day was started to honor the folks who died fighting for their country and how at first it was just the Union soldiers what was honored and the Confederates had a different day but then they said Memorial Day could be for both sides. Which makes sense, you know, for they all believed they was fighting for their homeland. Though some, I reckon, was fighting because they was conscripted and didn't have no choice. 

And that got me thinking. Now that they don't have the draft anymore, I guess men, and women too, sign up of their own free will -- though I've known of several troublesome young uns right here in Marshall County that the judge told them they could choose between jail and enlisting and so they joined up. 

I wonder, if those same young uns got blowed up by a land mine, would you still say they sacrificed their lives for their country? And if they got sick and died or if they got killed in an accident and not in battle, are they still heroes? 

And what about them that came back home from war but had been so ruint by what they'd done and seen that they went to drugs and ended up dead? Seems to me they ought to count as much as the others.

Oh, how I do run on. . . don't pay me no mind, Lizzie Beth. I been setting here studying on all this too long . . . thinking on how many wars there have been in my life and how many Memorial Days I've gone and stuck flags on graves. And wondering if ever there will be an end to war and these young uns going off to die.

Of course we had ought to remember them -- for their folks's sake as much as anything. When you've lost a young un, maybe it eases the hurt to hear them called heroes.

But you know what I wish? I wish that instead of planting poppies and waving flags and having picnics, some smart folks would set to and work as hard at making peace as they do at making war.

Dear Sir (Once More, With Feeling)

  

                                             

Dear Rep. Edwards and Senators Tillis and Budd,

Where even to begin?
So many outrages being perpetrated daily by the Golden Grifter and his minions (that would include you all.)

I'll begin with the withdrawal of FEMA funding from North Carolina. Do you not realize the amount of debris yet to be removed, especially from our creeks and rivers? Tourism plays a big part in our local economy and 'disaster' tourism quickly becomes a turn off. 

And then there's the Big Bill for Billionaires--which cuts Medicaid, and SNAP, among other services for the poor (many of whom are your constituents) while giving the ultra wealthy another tax break. Mr.Edwards has already shown that he stands with the wealthy--I'm hoping my senators will recall who they represent--and it's not the 1%.

I am appalled by this regime's disregard for any laws they don't like--even to re-defining habeas corpus (see Sec. Noem's definition.) The callous disregard of the human rights of immigrants is shameful.

Back to the Golden Grifter --that acceptance of the luxury jet from Qatar, the sale of crypto-currency, the special dinners at Mar-a-Lago for big donors investors--how is this not corruption on a massive scale? And the manipulation of markets by threatening and withdrawing tariffs can't be overlooked. How much has the Grifter's personal fortune grown during his second term?

This petty little man with his quest for revenge (take that, Harvard, for rejecting Barron!) has lowered our nation's reputation almost beyond repair. Meanwhile Gaza is undergoing ethnic cleansing, the world economy is on a roller coaster, and the planet and the natural world are under siege. 

History will not treat the enablers of this regime well.

In disgust.

One of your angry constituents

 

What?

                                                                                  

As you may or may not know, I received a notification for FB back in, I think, February that my account was suspended for 180 days because of what they said was my Instagram account. But it wasn't my account (I have one that I never use) and I was already so annoyed with Zuckerberg and the other techies truckling to the Golden Grifter, that I decided not to pursue getting unsuspended.  And it was fine. Then yesterday I received the following email:

Page Published

Hello,

After reviewing your appeal, your Page Vicki Lane Mysteries has been published. That means it can now be viewed publicly.

The Facebook Team

But . .. .I never did an appeal. Nada.  I can only assume this is AI at work--and be happy I wasn't marked for deportation through an administrative error.

I found I did fine without FB but realized that there were folks I wondered about  and missed chatting with. Plus as a source of local news, FB is quite useful.

So I'm back. Until something I post triggers a suspicious logarithm.

I've continued daily posts on my blog vickilanemysteries.blogspot.com --you can check out Josie's 8th birthday party there, and there's a visit from Miss Birdie. Plus the usual flowers, books, critters, etc., etc., etc.

                                                 

                                       

       

Inbox

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Happy To Be Here

 

Dog Politics

Otter likes to sit in Justin's lap. Jenny does not approve.

Jenny thinks she'll give it a try.

Otter bites Jenny's leg to show that she does not approve.

 

May at Random

 

Reading MISS JANE

                                                                

What a beautiful, tender story! A captivating protagonist, a strongly drawn set of supporting characters, and nature writing so lush that I'm reminded of Henri Rousseau's THE DREAM.

The Dream, 1910 by Henri Rousseau

The Kindle edition is a 'deal' on Amazon and after I read the sample offered, I was completely hooked. And pretty much didn't put the book down till I finished.

Set in rural Mississippi in the Twenties and beyond, it's the story of a girl with a complicated difference--a genital birth defect that precludes a 'normal' life of marriage and children. But it's mainly the story of how gracefully and forthrightly she approaches her seemingly circumscribed life.  

Watson's depiction  of country life of the time rings pure and true. As do each of his characters and their sometimes tormented personalities.

A beautiful, beautiful book! Highly recommended.

                                                 

 

Fun on the Faem

Sunday morning shenanigans. A neighbor let us know that three calves were headed down the road.

By the time we got down there, Justin and Claui and crew had turned them back. Now to get them into their pasture. 

In the distance, the mamas were bawling and the calfies scooted back to where they belonged.

The crew: a mama and daughter who spent the night after the party were treated to a mini-roundup. 

The whole episode reminded us of far too many Sunday mornings when our beloved late neighbor Mearl would call. "Git ye out of the bed?" she'd cackle. "Cows is out and going down the road."

We used to tell ourselves that she was letting them out, just for the fun of it. And the same thought passed through my mind today.

Was that a ghostly cackle in the wind?