Josie Does a Blog Post

 Hi  this is Josie  speaking.   I am making a doll  house  for  my Chelsea doll . here it is so far .

                                                         
there is a bed, some shelves and a rug. this is my Chelsea doll. 

                                                         

she has a mom and a sister but I did not bring them today.

💖💖💖💖💜💜💜                      🐭🐭🐭🐭🐭🐭🐭🐭🐭🐭🐭

 I am reading this book.

                                                

I love  fancy Nancy. 

This is all Josie. She took the pictures and did the keyboarding. Meema helped her spell: speaking, Chelsea, sisters, and shelves.

Looking East--around 6 AM and 7 PM

I'd hoped to catch the actual sunrise but the mist blocked everything within minutes of this shot.

       

 And then, in the evening . . .

                                                     

Sexual Cannibalism . . .in Spiders

Early morning and I found what appeared to be a paralyzed  or dead spider on the mat by the door out to the deck. And there on the door above me was the biggest Wolf Spider I've ever seen--the size of my hand with fingers outstretched. 

I carried the mat outside and got a closer look. Yep, definitely deceased. And eviscerated.

By the time I got my camera, the giant spider had disappeared and has not come out of hiding. 

I hypothesized that perhaps this was a situation like preying mantises and the male spider had paid for his fun. A little online research confirmed that this is a definite possibility. Read it for yourself HERE.

She did a thorough job.

 

Up Close Daylilies

 

Flag Day

                                                                     

The Stars and Stripes used to evoke in me a feeling of pride, of community, of a Norman Rockwell sort of well-being.

Not any more. Our wannabe dictator surrounds himself with flags and his more rabid supporters fly them from their giant trucks.

"When fascism come to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."

(Attributed to Sinclair Lewis)

Maybe we could add "and enjoying a costly parade of military equipment while cutting aid to veterans (aka 'losers.')

Cons and Criminals

No, I'm not talking about the current administration. (Though they certainly deserve the title.) I'm talking about the delightful, wacky, precisely drawn characters that inhabit Elmore Leonard's novels.

These cons and criminals generally turn out to be pretty good guys--and capable of turning a terrific phrase or two. "Terry's answer to any problem was based on the Serenity Prayer. If you can handle it, do it. If you can't, f**k it." Or "I'm an ordained minister of the Spiritualist Assembly of Waco, Texas, though I started out doing nails." Or "The publishing business isn't about writing, Jack, it's about selling books."

Leonard's plots are as devious as his characters and every bit as much fun. His novels are a great escape from the sordid day to day criminality at work in DC. Highly recommended.

 

Wild Daylilies

 Early June and the wild daylilies are ablaze along roadsides and branches. I planted his particular clomp during our early years here and they always make me smile when they begin to open.

Back when we were living in the barn, I experimented with tempura daylily flowers--delicious and slightly oniony tasting but a lot of trouble--and we also added the buds to stir fry--pretty good but, as I recall, a tad slimy.

Half a Century Ago

                                                                                  

I suddenly remembered that it was fifty years ago in early June that we packed all our belongings into a U-Haul for the move from Florida to the mountains and the mountain farm we'd bought two years before.

We said goodbye to Odessa and the little house (already sold) that John had built on Lake Juanita. 

We were a caravan. John was in the truck; behind him Mark, pulling a trailer; then Mark's mother, our friend Betty (she was recently divorced and looking to move also;) then came Vicki and 3 year-old Ethan; than John's sister Fay and her son Andrew, also 3.

The poster on Mark's trailer says "Damn Everything But The Circus." and somehow it seemed appropriate for our adventure.

Our house had been begun and dried in the previous summer, thanks  to the work of John and Mark with some other occasional help.  Dried in but far from ready to move in.

We set up camp in two barns. It was amazingly pleasant.

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And fifty years later, John and I are still enjoying the rocking chairs and a glass of wine.

 

Layers

 

Some Questions, Dear Sir

Dear Senator Tillis, Senator Budd, and Representative Edwards,

Is this our USA? A place where unidentified, masked, armed, and armored thugs snatch people away from court dates, worksites, family gatherings, churches schools? And then, usually without due process, these detainees are whisked away to points unknown.

Who are the terrorists here? And why are ICE wearing masks and no ID?

And the recent power move by the regime of sending troops into California "to quell a rebellion" is right out of a dictator's handbook. 

The fact this extraordinary act is at the whim of the president--the same one who pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters who attacked law enforcement and damaged government property while trying to disrupt the lawful business of the government--underscores the massive hypocrisy at work in DC.

What are you enabling? When will you take action against the terrible chaos of this regime? Where are your morals? Who has the bravery to stand against this wannabe dictator?

Why are you silent?

 

What's A Slip?

How times have changed! Rummaging through her dress-up box, Josie pulled out this beauty and wanted to know what it was for.

It's a slip, rather, a half slip, I told her. "But what's it for?" she persisted.

I told her that ladies used to wear them under their skirts. And that I had this particular slip when Grumpy and I got married 62 years ago.  (Back in the dark ages of panty girdles and stockings, but I didn't attempt to explain these artifacts to her.)

She is fortunate to grow up wearing comfortable knit shorts, t-shirts, dresses, and leggings. (Though her Barbies have to suffer some itchy and constricting garments,)

She did find a good use for my ancient half slip though.

Good old Bailey.

"Can I take it off now?"

 

Summer Play Day!

Josie's friend from Atlanta is here for almost a week. First on the agenda was the trampoline,

Josie and I were impressed. He can do in the air somersaults!

He also filled a tub of water in the branch and brought it to the trampoline . . .

and bounced. That seems to me a quintessentially boy thing to do.

Back at the house, we did some marbling.

Such fun!

A screaming person?

Watching the patterns develop.

 

Tender Moments

                                                  

An idyllic afternoon. John and I are on the porch sipping adult beverages while in the kitchen, potatoes are sauteing to accompany one of our long time favorites--fish Russian style. The salads are made, the hard-cooked egg, butter, pimento, parsley topping is ready, the English peas are in a saucepan, ready to cook, the catfish fillets are awaiting their triple dredging--seasoned flour, beaten egg, and panko crumbs.

Time for a little break.

We are reminiscing about the old pre-marriage days when we both had summer jobs and would meet for lunch on Fridays at Cuervo's in Ybor City. Trout Russian was our usual order--a bargain for under $2, and that included soup, salad, Cuban bread, sauteed potatoes, and flan.

We rocked and remembered and talked about the weirdness of being old people with various infirmities and the great good fortune we have to live where we do. And how neither of us wants to end up in a nursing home.

"As a matter of fact," I said, "if I drop dead this minute, I've still  had a very good run."

John looked at me and sniffed the air, getting a whiff of the sauteed potatoes.

"Maybe you could wait till after dinner," he suggested.

                                              

At the Nail Salon