Monday, June 30, 2008

Mifflettes at POD

These mifflettes are waiting for new homes, situated happily at POD in Brookline Village, MA.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Owl Identification

A terrific website gave me the bird calls I was seeking, through which I was able to identify the aforementioned owl. A LONG EARED OWL, most definitely! Check out the sound on this spectacular website for all kinds of bird identification, I believe, through Cornell University.

Reflection

A lot of women my age can't sleep like they used to. I've gotten used to not sleeping predictably well over the last eighteen years, and often am up in the night, thinking about what to do while awake. It helps to have a great novel going. Then I am thrilled when I wake at midnight and can continue on with a story. I don't have one going now, but the last three are worth noting: The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz (two generations of Japanese princesses tell their fictional stories, based on fact), The Gathering by Anne Enright, 2007 Man Booker Prize winner, very dark, lyrical, biting and Irish, and lastly my favorite, not a novel, but a collection of compelling short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, Uncommon Ground.

Last night I got back in touch with birding and Jonathan Rosen, in Life in the Skies, a brilliant book from our library that I just can't finish before the due date. I'll have to borrow it at a later time and let others have a chance or wait for the paperback edition to come out (Dec. 2008)

I heard an owl too, always and always a thrill. I hear the barred owl frequently, always around midnight, but last night it was different call, a different species of owl. It was one long raspy WHO, so perhaps the saw-whet owl. I'll listen again tonight.

Always behind on New Yorkers, I picked up June 23 issue and read George Saunders on Antiheroes. I laughed aloud, a rarity while reading. So, DO click on the New Yorker link to the story yourself for a good chuckle. I guess I'll have to read his latest collection of essays, The Braindead Megaphone.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Secretive Twins


These fraternal twins did not get out much today due to rain. Their antics were shared in secret twin language that I just don't understand.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Amends to Comments


Readers, These peonies are beside the point of today's post. However, I am overstimulated by their bountiful beauty and have darted out to take their portraits many times a day. The five bushes (here) I planted five years ago, have finally taken root and flourished. Have you heard, "the first year plants sleep, the second they creep and the third they leap?" Peonies seem to take longer than three years here on Leadbetter Rd in the shadows of the forest and house. But Oh! After five years, they have indeed leaped!

Now, my real message of the day:
My patient and silent readers, I discovered that commenting at this blog had been set for "only those with yahoo or google accts." I have reset to "ANYONE may comment," so feel free to make future comments.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

A Sunny Day at Last!

It has been a day for sweeping the pollen off the porch, pulling out the weeds between the stones on the patio and the garden walk, and noticing ALL the garden weeds that need to be thwarted because I never got around to mulching this spring.

As I weed, I think of the Japanese and their gardens which we saw last fall, and how they keep up with their gardens constantly, every little weed, every little leaf, every Japanese garden that we saw as we hiked through village after village. Of course they wisely keep SMALL gardens.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Country Hardware Stores

Puddin' is an old cat who lives in his own special box on the checkout counter of our local hardware store. The cashier told me today that he gets tired of being petted and slips down to his undercounter box when it all gets to be too much. I believe he is close to 20 years old!
I was completely taken aback when I saw that Puddin' has a new friend in the store! S/he seems to stay put here just like his feline counterpart.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Street Collage #2

Can you see the blue metal rake head here, under the peonies? Barely, because it's supporting the bush. It's gorgeous and a great street find. This is a sort of garden collage. Moving on...

Here we have the more traditional street collage #2. It turns out that I live in a pretty tidy town and there are slim pickings. I have my standards too, and refuse to use cigarette butts or packages and no wet slimy paper, no beverage cans. The G clef was fully formed when I found it. Do you recognize Julie Andrews?

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Wonder of a Forty Year Friendship

No street collage today because there were no streets under my feet.

I drove to my friend J's house where we spent the day as giddy as we were forty years ago when we first met. Since that time in Ogunquit when our lives converged, we have been through many life experiences, many miles apart, yet we seem to manage to reunite about once a year. It is always with intimacy and sheer delight.

After a day with J, I need quiet (thank goodness for the 1 1/2 hour drive home) to absorb all that she has radiated, all the wisdom she has imparted, all the focus she has given me, all the stories she has shared.

This time I heard the story of her being on a radio quiz show when she was the smartest girl in the fourth grade in Newton, MA. She missed a question relating to music and ran behind the curtain to cry. I saw the photo of her on that day, with her shy smile and braids. Sorry I can't share it here. Instead, here is her landscape.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Street Collage #1

Does anyone know what this is? It's a perennial of some sort (0rdered by me some years ago from Fedco) and seemingly a member of the lily family? It is soooooo delicate.

A man I know walks early every morning in Hallowell and collects detritus and makes collages from same. I just wish he would exhibit the results. Meanwhile, I imagine what those art pieces are like (having never seen them) and have decided to experiment with the concept, only in card form. So, each day I will collect what comes my way and make a postcard size collage of said items. Parameters are: must be done in fifteen minutes or less and must not be taken seriously! This is Numero Uno.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Peony Season

Although struck with a bit of malaise, one can 't help but be cheered by the bumper crop of peonies blooming under one's nose.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Weekend Wind-up

S and T were playmates this weekend. T introduced her to cashews, I believe, and they shared the better part of a bag. They also played pillow jumping and rude noise-making. T gave her a bath, read her a story and put her to bed on Saturday night. He was thrilled to be a practicing Zadie.
Everyone in this family seems to have a spatial intelligence. A vast collection of E's childhood Legos from the seventies and eighties has returned and is now enjoyed by the whole family, though admittedly D mostly likes giving them the old taste-and-teething test.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Cheap Thrills

We're visiting the grandchildren in Boston this weekend. Dylan argues with garden ornaments his mom got for free and uses in her zen sandbox, while glow in the dark bracelets, 15 for a dollar, keep Sophia happy!



Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Sensual Delights

iEverything is so sparkly in the morning after a thunderstorm in June. I ran down the road, feeling grateful for another day with the vision to see residue water on hosta leaves.

It's WAY easier, faster and less messy to make cookies without a two year old in the kitchen. It goes lickety-split! It isn't nearly as much fun, though...
Of our two lilac bushes, the biggest, juiciest one blooms biannually. This is its year to bloom. The scent is omnipresent and intoxicating. Day after day we breathe lilacs merely by opening our windows. Ahhhhhh.....
Six fraternal twin mifflettes, with pockets containing parts of a vintage Japanese game hatched out after three days work!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Shades of Silver

I walked with a friend I only see every six months or so lately and was pleased to see she had stopped dying her hair which was now streaked gray/brown/white/blonde. On our last walk, I had blabbed about all the reasons I thought being gray was a good thing.

Why, after all, do we women want to look younger?

I read an essay by Anne Kreamer who found surprising results when she ran an experiment of being alternately gray and brunette. For those women who feel they might look dull and unattractive and fade into the background, if they were to let their hair go undyed, it's worth reading. However, to me, that isn't the point either.

Sorry I can't quote the author of another article I read many many years ago by a psychotherapist who said the main thing he noticed as people got emotionally healthy was that they got plainer looking as they were unafraid of looking themselves.

I look lovingly around me at my friends whose hair is now streaked many shades of beautiful silver and in some cases, wear a whole helmet of of gorgeous gray/white. Bring on the gray!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

From SWEATers to SWEATy

Here in Maine we go from extreme to extreme. Despite the weather the mifflettes are multiplying (or maybe because of it) and this batch is made from vintage wool, French damask and linen circa 1900. Oooh la la! They ARE rather demure, aren't they?


Thursday, June 5, 2008

m+ms, mmmm!

We eat awfully well at our house. We don't eat red meat or fowl and we do eat a lot of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts and some fish. "Organic" has to be on the label to satisfy us too. But I have to tell you, I want something sweet after dinner every night. I've found that seven or eight m+ms have a most positive effect on me, and that is the quantity in a Fun Size package. When they're on sale, I think I must do my part to support the economy and keep this product moving off the shelves. mmmm.


Tuesday, June 3, 2008

What Happens When You Don't Swatch!

This is what happened because I didn't check my gauge before knitting a hat for a grandchild; it fits T instead! Of course he is delighted. He loves the hat and so it is his. It was supposed to be a child's SMALL!

A great thing though, was the learning of a new technique: attaching an i-cord to the hat rim. I had the darnedest time figuring out from the directions how to accomplish this. The directions merely said, "attach cord to lower edge of hat by knitting last st of I-cord tog with 1st st from hat through back loop." I gave up after several attempts and googled, " i cord attachment knitting" and up came a brilliant YouTube demonstration that put me immediately on the right track. I LOVE GOOGLE! I love the teacher who lives in my house and is always available!

Monday, June 2, 2008

Mifflette Angst

I'm struggling with mifflette design. I want them to be lovable for babies and children - soft, colorful, friendly and a bit modern, but I don't want to mimic others. There are so many soft toys being made these days. I don't want to add to the glut, yet I do enjoy the magic of bringing them to life from old sweaters and small bits of fabric, colorful emboidery floss features. Will this poor little mifflette end up in Goodwill in a few years? The little Steiff dog is pondering what next to chase and wondering why we humans fuss so.

Our friends at the cottage had these rocks transported right up to the water's edge of the beach in order to have some special summer gatherings in a circle. The middle rock is to be the table. How delightful to anticipate summer sunsets here upon occasion!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

BUGS!


I wish I could take a photo right now of the bugs in the air. There appear to be more bugs than air. I know they wouldn't show up in a photo, but there are millions of them frantically spinning around, probably procreating.

It is an extraordinarily beautiful day here: perfect temperature, bright sun, lovely little breezes, newly formed leaves in all the most verdant shades of green. It's a perfect day to languish outside (0r even weed and cut back the growth between stones on the patio) except for one thing: BUGS!

Not to be foiled by them entirely, I invested this year in a bug-out headnet from LLBean. I do think it is quite clever, but gdi, it is MADE IN CHINA! It goes on over one's baseball cap, but under one's shirt. My bugs bite right through my yoga pants. OUCH!

I stayed indoors awhile, knitting new items that require certain family members to measure circumferences of certain young heads. ahem. ahem.

End of a Season

My dear friend K-H writes: "Some people come into your life for a season, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something... They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe me, it is real, but only for a season."

May we use the grand variety of gifts we are given each season to nourish our hungry selves.