Out and About

 

Progress Report from Me, Josie

Now that I am five years old and will start kindergarten in 11 more days, here are the things I can already do: 

I can fix my own breakfast. First I pour cheerios into a bowl.

Then I pour in the milk Very Carefully. That's it! Except for eating. Jenny got the leftover milk.

I can put the stinky dirty clothes into the washing machine. And when they are clean, Meema will hand them to me, and I will put them in the dryer. Teamwork!

Meema used to have to dress and undress my babies but now I can do it all by myself.

I pick out what I want to wear and dress myself every morning. Also, I am good at accessorizing.

I make sure the babies stay out of trouble--they want to run around all the time--so I put them to bed with Octalia to wrap them in her tentacles so they can't get away.

I am careful when I paint.

I take pictures with Meema's phone and do not drop it. These are two of my pictures. The first one is the goldfish pool.                                                

There are eleven orange goldfish and two or three black ones that are very hard to see. I have named some of the orange ones. Shiny is the captain. Then there is Goldy and Orangy and Black Back and Rocky. Rocky likes to hide under the rock at the edge. When it started to rain, Meema and Grumpy said maybe he was under the rock so he wouldn't get rained on and get wet. I said That is silly--he is in the water and he is already wet. Sometimes grownups are silly.

Also I took a picture of the clouds. 

                                            
 

Out of the Woods

 

Penland's in Marshall in now carrying some of John's work. After the shock of the fire and the long slow cleanup and rebuild, it's so gratifying to see his work out in the world.

Penland's is a special place to us. We bought overalls there for ourselves and our two-year old almost fifty years ago. Penland's has always carried my books--along with many others of regional interest. Country apparel, local crafts, jams and jellies, fried pies, produce . . .you never know what you'll find in this delightful old-time store.

This below is the shelf-talker displayed with the pieces.

No, the pot with the turquoise inlay isn't for sale. But he's working on making more.

OUT OF THE WOODS . . .  

 John Skemp has been a woodworker here in Madison County for almost half a century. After a calamitous fire destroyed the old barn that was home to his Wool Branch Woodworks as well as a lifetime collection of tools, with the help of friends and family, he slowly rebuilt. Now he has returned to his avocation, working with wood, most of it from the forested cove where he lives.

The woods used include Cherry, White Oak, Ash, Tulip Poplar, Hickory, Locust, Linden, Eastern Red Cedar, and Black Walnut, usually from trees harvested for firewood or naturally fallen.

The pieces are finished with food-safe (but NOT dishwasher-safe) polyurethane to protect and highlight the natural grain.  The weed pots are NOT meant to hold water, but are the perfect place to display a twisty twig or dried seedpod or . . .

Intimations of Change

A maple on the bank above our house always jumps the gun and begins dropping beautifully colored leaves in early August.  And while I know in my heart that autumn and cooler weather are a good ways off, I can't help enjoying this sneak preview--especially on the days that the temperature and humidity weigh on us, making it hard to breathe.

I try to enjoy each season for its offerings and summer's field flowers and butterflies (alas, not many) are among the pleasures--along with the amazing heirloom tomatoes and peaches now available. I'm loving the different salads and cold soups that we have for supper, the fragrance of just mown grass, an adult beverage under the fan on the porch of an evening, and the fireflies that dot the night. 

But life and the planet roll on and these early messengers remind me to carpe each diem.

 

Gallimaufry

 

Still Playing God

Or HERE

It Did It Again!

 

Perfect Imperfection Again

This is from a smallish cherry log, not completely seasoned. John turned it anyway, hoping it wouldn't crack as it dried.

But it did. So he filled the cracks with this pretty stuff.

I love the contrast with the wood.

Perfect.

 

Looking Back. Looking Forward

                                                                                 

 Continuing with my de-accessioning of books. So far, about ten good-sized boxes of books have gone to the library to be offered in their fall book sale. Assorted popular and classic fiction for the most part but now I've moved upstairs. That's where there's a whole wall of children's fiction which I'll clean but hang on to for Josie. 

And then the gardening books. Beautiful, aspirational books but at this point in my life, I'm not making gardens. So goodby to books like The Englishwoman's Garden, The Italian Rennaissance Garden (now that was a real flight of fancy,) and all the copies of Fine Gardening. I'm keeping some, and especially the more practical, but passing on quite a few--surely there are some garden dreamers who'll give them a home.

                                                       

On Wednesday, with Josie's help to reach the lowest shelves, I addressed my sci-fi collection. In my teens, I was an avid reader of this genre and I have the paperbacks to prove it. Some I'll keep--The Martian Chronicles and Dune, but others--like all the spawn of Dune, all of which I found disappointing, are out of here. As are many paperbacks of vintage sci-fi. I hope they'll find a nostalgic reader or two.

                                                         

And then there's all the Heinlein. His YA books were early favorites--I just re-read and enjoyed Citizen of the Galaxy and Double Star. I won't get rid of Starship Troopers or Stranger in a Strange Land. Much of his later stuff will probably go in the box. And I found I had a copy of For Us, the Living, his first attempt at a novel, written in 1938-39, and published posthumously.

                                                               

 

 I don't remember reading it, so I gave it a shot. Yikes! As a novel, it's mind- numbingly bad-- a man is inexplicably thrown from 1939 to 2086 and people there are eager to help him understand what he's missed and the structure of the current society. It's nothing more than a device to allow Heinlein to theorize about the future--the state of the USA and the world in 2086. And to lecture on his idea of an ideal society. As Spider Robinson states in a foreword, the seeds for many of Heinlein's future novels are here.

Heinlein's vision of the future is always fun--and sometimes funny (he has folks on spaceships using slide rules.) But there was a bit in FUTL that caught my attention. In the world of this novel, in 1944, (remember, Heinlein is writing in '39) the Republican candidate for president is a Senator Malone, "a typical demagogue. . .red-faced and raucous" who ran on a "platform of blaming everything on Europe of the radicals."

"He called for the outlawing of the Communist Party, protection of the American home, and a return to rationalism in education which he defined as readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmatic and a particularly jingoistic patriotism. He advocated deportation of all aliens, laws to prevent women from holding men's jobs, and protection of the moral of the young."

Malone was elected and quickly moved to gag the press and to turn Federal agents into his own private army. Before midterm elections, he declared a state of emergency and martial law. . .

Sounds kinda familiar, though we dodged a bullet (so far.) 

Heinlein got a lot wrong, but he could sure write a playbook for a would-be dictator.

                                                                            

Looking East

 

The Puppeteer's Daughters

Heather Newton (whose McMullin Circle and Under the Mercy Trees I have praised on this blog) has a new novel out and it's a delight! An aging father, slipping into dementia, his three daughters by three very different mothers, his will with its difficult demands, and the hint that there is a fourth daughter somewhere--the plot is set in motion, as tangled as the marionette strings that were the old man's passion.

Puppeteer or puppet master, the father's attempts to direct his daughter's lives will have unexpected results.

Likeable/relatable characters, a wealth of insight into the world of puppetry, and fairy tale parallels combine to make a many-faceted, highly enjoyable story.

 

Salmon Citrus Slaw

                                                                                        

SALMON CITRUS SLAW Serves 2-4

Yum! Good with focaccia on the side. Do the prep well ahead of time.

2-4 small salmon filets

2 limes (3 TB juice plus wedges for serving

2 TB fresh orange juice

2 TB tahini (Or white miso which is what the original recipe called for)

2-3 large scallions- white and light green part chopped, dark green thinly sliced and reserved for garnish

1 TB honey

¼ cup mayo

¼ tsp fine salt

Ground pepper to taste

4 cups thin sliced Napa cabbage (about half a small head—I may use more)

About a cup of grated carrot (or more)

Red onion, thin sliced

Optional additions: sliced mango, red bell pepper

To prepare the salmon: The original recipe called for rather tedious poaching. I just put some olive oil in an iron frying pan, bring it to high heat and put the filets in, skin side down. I saly them light ly with a season salt and let cook till the skin side is crispy. Flip the fillets, let sear briefly, then off heat. After about a minute or less, flip them again and pull off the skin. (The dogs love it). Let the filets cool a bit then refrigerate till well chilled (4 hrs.) Flake the salmon before adding to the slaw.

The dressing: In a blender, whir up te lime and orange juice, the chopped scallions, honey, tahini or miso, salt and pepper. Then blend in the mayo. Refrigerate till time to assemble the salad.

The slaw: Combine the thin sliced cabbage and carrots and onions with as much of the dressing as suits you. Maybe add some mango and and/or red bell pepper. Toss in the flaked salmon. Garnish with the reserved green onion and a wedge of lime.

                                                                       

 

Rabbit, Rabbit

Lughnasadh is a Gaelic/Celtic early harvest festival, celebrated on August 1-- more or less halfway between Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox. The Catholic Church renamed the holiday Lammastide.

More HERE.