Readying the patio for summer

By Elizabeth Prata

My goal for the spring was to obtain some new succulents. I like how they look, and I like how it takes a lot to kill them. I need both in my life, hardy, and pretty, lol.

Kroger had a $1 sale on small succulents so I bought ten. My goal for the Memorial Day Holiday was to re-pot them. I also wanted to refresh my little patio area, clean it, and ready it for summer outdoors enjoyment.

So I did!

These are the small rosettes atop leggy hens & chicks I snipped off to dry.

Yesterday a hawk (maybe an eagle, probably a hawk) was circling above the yard and pasture, likely looking for mice. He was hard to catch with the camera but this one snap came out OK

There's a blooming magnolia flower atop the tippy top of the tree. Yup, it's there.

Let me use the Nikon zoom. There it is! Pretty good zoom for a point N shoot camera.

Here's the Hosta 'eye' springing up. I had wanted to split the hosta but I learned that it's better to do it in the early spring, or at least before the eye springs up.

The Nikon zoom tends to get grainy but the camera does a good job on macro.

Today is a cool day but in Georgia after about mid-May cool means cloudy and max humidity. You just feel drenched all the time. My air conditioner has a setting called "Dry." I'd read in the reviews before I'd bought it that owners really loved the dry setting. I turned it on today and set to dry and you know what, it IS great. I'm not drenched I'm dry. It's the simple things.

Enjoy your summer, whether oven dry, or humid dry or rainy or wet or cool or hot! It's all good, really. This season is for taking it slower, enjoying outdoors with family, reading, grilling (not barbecuing, I learned the difference when I moved to the South), pools, lakes, seashore, and just plain enjoying life.

Summer is still in full force but...

By Elizabeth Prata

...it's winding down. I've got about 10 days left. Have I used it well? Yes and no, I think.

It took me a while to recover from pneumonia I'd had at the start of the summer, and to mourn the death of my 12 year old cat.

Meanwhile, I set myself the task of reading a bunch of books on my Annual Summer Reading Schedule. I've done OK reading them, though there's a few I haven't finished yet with one week to go. I think I could have done better. I did stall out for a week or so in July for an unknown reason. I just did. Notably, I finished the smaller books but I'm still going through the thicker ones. I'm only halfway through Paton's Letters, Story of Autism, and Selina Countess of Huntingdon. I'd begun reading Nathanial Philbrick's book to the mix (Mayflower), which was also a very long book, so that slowed me down a bit.

I bought the above books in hard copy as well as this one: a Kindle version of Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary White Rowlandson. It's just 55 pages. Review here.

The two Rome books were an answer to a frustrating trend I've experienced. I like reading about then writing on my blog about daily life of first century believers. It's hard to learn the context of what their lives were like with the books I have on hand here. My JI Packer Public Life In Bible Times is good but entries are short and scant. So I found these two and they were reviewed highly.

The Spurgeon Ploughman books were a gem to find. They are like a Christian Poor Richard's Almanack by Ben Franklin. They are full of Christian truths, especially wisdom about daily life, written for the man on the street in his language.

The 12 Rules book was a mistake. I accidentally bought the summary and not the actual book. I'm sending it back to Amazon (which in order to do for free I'll have to drive half an hour in the heat, deal with the UPS Store, and drive half an hour back. Not so free...) I don't believe I'll buy the hard copy after all, because...

I reorganized my book shelves to refresh to my memory what I have and also to fold into the mix my new books. Things are getting tight here at Casa Prata in the bookshelf department. I'm running out of room. Time to give away some or lend some. Hence the decision not to buy the 12 Rules after all.

All that said, I thought, hmmm, why not read some books I already have on hand? I plucked Lightman's Einstein's Dreams from the shelf where it's been languishing for 15 years or more, a little book about time I always meant to read. The time is now, lol, see what I did there. I am halfway through.

I had also bought these recently too:

I enjoy re-organizing the book shelves. I put the Puritan Paperback with my others, now I have 3 from the PP series. I put Moses with my other Moses book. Bunyan with Bunyan, etc. If I only have one author I shelve it by subject, Theology, Commentary, Christian Life, or Puritans.

As for streaming entertainment, this summer I got involved watching The Royal, a UK medical drama set in the 1960s. (Amazon Prime). It's a good show. Also Blown Away, a competitive show about glass blowing. (Netflix). Also good. The Waltons, Harrow: A Very British School, (Amazon Prime) Educating Yorkshire, (Youtube), and Monk (Amazon Prime).

Live entertainment or trips? None. No restaurant outings with friends, no concerts, lunches, road trips, or parties. Just church, Kroger, and home. Heaven!!

My friend Kelly managed to snap this real quick of a dragonfly that had briefly landed on a stalk, which she and the tow kids were at the Botanical Garden. Nice job Kelly, snapping a lightning quick insect while managing two lightning quick toddlers! Note the wing pattern, so delicate. God made all the insects in one day, so amazing. Creation beauty!

Photo by Kelly M

The Golden Hour photos and update on week 3 of summer break

By Elizabeth Prata

I don't have a garden but I live in a beautiful yard with wildflowers and some morning glories and flowering trees. I have a wonderful library, well-stocked for such a small apartment. It is everything I need.

I put "Happy Summer" because I am still happy about summer break. It never, ever, ever gets old. As a matter of fact, the older I get the sweeter summer break becomes.

I'm in week three and this is my update:

Bert my 12 year old cat died and I seemed to have taken that on board in my usual non-expressive, non-emotional way. It's just a fact. He's gone. But the other night I had a dream that I woke up in the morning and got up. As I entered the living room I saw Bert there in his little bed by the coffee table, looking at me with his pretty green eyes. I said aloud to him, "But aren't you dead? I thought you died? Have you come back to life?" And then I woke up all upset.

So I guess I have not taken it on board as yet.

I'm still reading and on track here in week 3 of my Summer Reading Plan. I added a few extra books as needed...I am enjoying Pat Conroy's My Reading Life, and I enjoyed the first third of Grisham's The Reckoning. I skipped part 2 and most of part 3 and just read the last 10 pages. But part 2 was 175 pages i.e long enough, and it felt like old Grisham again and was good enough for me. Especially since I've learned with being disappointed in the last three Grishams not to buy any more books but to get them from the library.

A friend recommended an author I'd forgotten about, Nathaniel Philbrick. I'd read In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the whaleship Essex when it was published in 2001. (Wow, eighteen years ago!!) It's the true story of the true ship and event Melville based Moby Dick upon. Philbrick has written many subsequent historical books, rapidly becoming my new fave genre. I will reserve Mayflower from the library and grab that one up next.

Since I got pneumonia three weeks ago I've eaten very little through it all. My appetite is just coming back now. It was sort of a relief not to have an appetite, Anyway, during the sickness, I ate mainly crackers, scrambled eggs, and chicken & rice soup. I didn't eat any sweets at all. Now that I'm better, I am trying to keep  up the no sweets and I think it won't be too hard. I ate a small cube of a brownie the other day at Sunday School and it tasted very sweet to me. Blech. I also ate two bites of a pecan roll and I couldn't eat any more of it and threw the rest out.

If I can maintain this habit of no sweets/sugar till school opens again, perhaps it will be ingrained in me enough not to succumb to stress eating at the snack bar in the copy room. And by snack bar I mean bypassing the crackers, granola bars, and chips and aiming straight for the Reese's and the Three Musketeers bars. I'm convinced only stressed educators know the comfort and delight of chocolate during the school day.

When school ended just before Memorial Day weekend I'd had visions of sitting at my patio table outside, re-potting my succulents, reading magazines in the sun, and watching the birds. But that weekend a strong heat wave came in and we suffered through highs in the upper 90s near to 100 these last 2 weeks. This was unusually hot very early. I stayed inside. This last week has been rain-rain-rain. Some places nearby received 6 inches in a day. I don't mind the rain since I don't have to go anywhere or drive in it, and it's kind of cozy to curl up inside with tea and a book.

But now the weather has broken and is closer to the usual for this time of year. I was hoping it would get to be so, before the hot weather of July and August steams in. Temps are supposed to be upper 70s to low 80s with overnight temps in the upper 50s to low 60s. This is perfect. Maybe I'll get to do my patio plan after all.

I also want, while the weather is cooler, to haunt some places in the city and take some photos. I love cityscapes and since I don't travel, Athens GA will have to suffice as my stand-in mini-city. There are some nice cityscapes there, if not the skyscrapers I'd love to snap in NYC or Seattle or Miami.

I know about the Golden Hour but I often don't DO anything about it. This is the hour that as the sun rises or prepares to set, the light turns golden and glowing. The noonday sun is high and harsh, but the sunrise hour and the time just before it sets the sun light turns a mellow yellow and adds a beautiful dimension to photos. I would love to go out and snap photos at 7 am but that would mean, like, going out. Same for the 7 pm sunlight. I never quite make it.

Here are a few pics of the yard this morning at the very end of Golden Hour. It was the best I could do, givne my innate sluggishness during the summer.

The last dew drop before becoming sun zapped evaporated

I liked the colors in the pasture hay and grass

Sun dappled pergola

Enormous pine cone thingies

I love light shining through leaves

Golden morning light on lawn

Old yellow Ford across the street

Rainy Summer Doings Update

By Elizabeth Prata

I love playing with my teacups. I mean by playing, looking at them, using them, and re-arranging them. I like the teacups because of their sweet designs. I love admiring each one uniquely and researching their origin.

The main trouble with starting a collection of anything, is that I live in a tiny place. My kitchen is small and there isn't a lot of space to display things, never mind using up counter space that has to be saved for the daily utilitarian things like the kettle, coffee pot, and utensil holders. And there's not a lot of wall space, either.

Last week I went to my favorite vintage shop because they were having a 'fill-a-bag' sale for $5. I needed office supplies, and also a few terra cotta pots to re-do my succulents. Along the way I saw a sweet Homer Laughlin teacup I could not resist.

However, that "one more cup" put me over the top in terms of adequate storage & display. Cups were stacked on top of each other, something that destroys the whole point of collecting pretty things so as to look at them and admire.

I searched and searched on Etsy and Amazon for a suitable teacup display shelf but I found nothing even after taking over an hour searching. I went to my garage to find something I already own, and thought a wrought iron old CD stand would be good. Its size was adequate to hold some teacups but it was too tall to fit anywhere in my kitchen. Back to square one.

Think outside the box. At the Dollar Store the next day I passed a hanging shower caddy. Hmmm. Only $5. HMMM! I bought it and discovered that it could hold 4 teacups in the unit itself and with two added S-hooks, two more for a total of 6 cups. I rearranged the teacups and voila, I now have a display.

It's not ideal, since I can't really see the patterns on each, and the saucers aren't with each cup, but it is vastly improved over the former stacking up, crowded situation I'd had.

I made a Teacups and Teapots board over on Pinterest if you are interested to see all of them. It's here.

I started (and finished) John Grisham's new book "The Reckoning". The story is given in 3 parts. The first part was the murder, arrest, and trial. Typical Grisham, so, it was good. The second part was a flashback to many years prior to the main event in part 1, and I read elsewhere that of the protagonist (a soldier who was in the Death March in Bataan) the part was detailed and gross about the tortures he endured. By then I didn't have the interest to make the leap to the distant past in the character's life, nor to read gory details of the Death March to Bataan, so I skipped to the third part to read the answer to the Big Question the 1st part hinged on.

I've been disappointed in the last 3 Grishams and I'm glad I got this one from the library and didn't buy it. Part 1 was 175 pages, so, it's long enough to be a book in itself. I moved on. Soon I will reserve "Mayflower" by Nathanial Philbrick, and Gerry Brooks' "Go See the Principal."

I also got Pat Conroy's "My Reading Life" from the Library which I am looking forward to starting today, and pairing with Tony Reinke's "Lit!" which is another book about books and reading.

For binging, I've been watching an old tv show called The Commish, as per Wikipedia- "The Commish is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC in the United States from 1991 to 1996. The series focuses on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in upstate New York." In my opinion the main character is a nice man, a great cop, in love with his wife, and a good dad. It's written by Stephen Cannell, who was all over TV in the 80s and 90s writing for so many shows. Amazon Prime has the first season. I also enjoy The Waltons, another family show that in my opinion is heartwarming and clean.

The scene here today, a humid but blessedly rainy day. I plan to stay home today:

Since Bert died, Murray has been sticking to me like glue. He doesn't like me out of his sight, and he's suddenly become more affectionate. I don't blame him. The last scene that he saw of Bert was that poor cat writhing in pain and me hustling him out the door, never to be seen again.

Even though Bert was no trouble, neither is Murray really, it's a lot easier to take care of one cat than two. I would not have thought that, but it's true. I decided when Murray goes, I won't get another pet. This is it. I can't take any more heartache.

I better get to today's reading. On the docket is the Letters of Margaret Paton, wife to missionary John G. Paton in 1800s Vanuatu, and I'll start Conroy's My Reading Life. Probably will slip in a bit of Where the Crawdads Sing, too. I hope you all have a marvelous Friday.

Summer is finally here

By Elizabeth Prata

Summer vacation seems like one long string of days with no weekend.

The last day of school for the kids was Tuesday at noon, and for staff around 1:00 today. Saturday I'd planned on attending a wedding, but I currently have pneumonia, so that's out. So is my church service I attend on Sunday. Monday, Lord willing, if I feel better I will kick off my summer break with a Reading Plan and a Photo A Day series.

Last summer I posted a picture a day from my tiny environs of the small apartment and yard. It was a challenge to myself to be creative and look with a new eye to things I see every day. I don't have exotic locations to go to or interest in selfies or particularly good people skills enough to take street photog. So year before last I took a bunch of pictures of macro subjects. Last year was simply a pic a day to tell the story of the highlight of my day. This year I might go for a theme. Things that Look Like Letters. Or, Metal. Or, Monochrome. Or, Diptych collages. I liked the ideas in this Creative Idea series.

This website states, "Many budding photographers find that their work takes a distinctive leap forward once they start working on a photo series instead of just standalone images. This is because a well-conceived photo series will provide focus and naturally guide the photographer towards uncovering and defining their own distinctive style. This kind of project is excellent for those looking to create a portfolio or Instagram feed with a strong, cohesive look.

Summer is a good time to expand my creativity. I'll be well rested and have no work to go to. Perfect time to widen those photography horizons. If I can stay out of the hospital.

I've had pneumonia several times over the years, as well as an almost annual bronchitis until I left teaching. Then the colds and bronchitis and pneumonia stopped. I've been back to education for ten years now and though the first few years I had successive sinus infections, the last five or so years have been relatively healthy. I've only had to take a day or two off work all year. So I thought I was done with all that. Silly me.

At least the timing is good! School was essentially done and I have 9 weeks to rest and recover.

Now that's enough of that. No one wants to hear of an old lady's medical problems, lol.

Summer is here, the Memorial Day weekend is upon us. I hope you all have fun, good BBQ's in the back yard, pools, beaches, books, fireflies, long-off rumbles of thunder, and peace.

But remember the reason for the holiday. Men and women who fought for America and gave their lives, so that we may have freedom to speak, assemble, vote, and...pursue happiness. As you pursue it this weekend give a prayer to families who are mourning a military loved one.

Happy Summer!

Apples, rainstorm, summer spouse

By Elizabeth Prata

Kroger grocery store does this neat thing with produce. If there is a container of cherry tomatoes, and one tomato inside that has split or gotten moldy, no one will buy that tray. So the store puts the container inside a red net bag and sells it for 99 cents. I take it home and pluck out the one bad cherry tomato and happily use the rest. If there's a peach that is slightly dented they'll put it in a red net bag with good ones and sell the bag for 99 cents. And so on. The produce in the red net bag is usually perfectly OK, except for maybe one item in it, and even then, 9 times out of 10 the one item is fine. I save a bundle buying fresh produce this way. Kroger told me that they like it because they hardly ever have to throw anything away.

For the first time I bought corn on the cob in the net bag. There were 4 good sized ears in it. I peeled them today and they look fine. The kernels aren't wrinkled and they look OK-fresh. I boiled them up today and ate one. I'll scrape the remaining cobs and roast them in a pan with butter, and add them to something later in the week. Maybe I'll make chili.

Another item I got in the marked down section was a red net bag of apples. These apples were all excellent and fine. And big! I am not hugely fond of apples, though, unless they are MacIntosh. You can't find Macs in the south very often. These were Gala and Grannysmith and something else. They are hard! What to do with a bunch of apples? I cubed them small and sauteed them in a bit of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

When they were soft enough I stopped. What can you do with a load of sauteed apples? Why, put some on top of your pancakes. The apples with the TB of brown sugar I'd used was sweet enough for me and I did not need to add maple syrup.

As for the remainder of the apples, (you can see them in the container in the top of the photo) they can go on cottage cheese, or into smoothies for a bit of sweetness. Roll them in a crepe, or into a wrap with some yogurt or even cream cheese. Ideas are endless.

We had some storms this early AM and when my weather alarm went off I got up at 3:00 to put shoes on and ready to go into the tub - the only interior 'room' I have since I only have two rooms in the apartment and there is no spot that doesn't have an outside wall. No worries though, the storms that did come through were mild compared to elsewhere in the area. All is well.

And since it is still summer, the lost hour I had staying up from 3:00-4:00 am could be re-couped this afternoon, which I duly did. Me and Murray caught a nap.

After the rain stopped this morning I took a walk around the yard. The raindrops hadn't dried yet.

The crepe myrtle are blooming gangbusters:

This bright red cardinal was preening and getting his feathers situated again after the torrent had stopped.

Ants were pouring out of this crack, but they were the tiny ants and you can't see them that well. The view is nice, though.

Amid all this flowery and rain soaked prettiness, there was a life and death struggle going on right under my nose. Cue Marlin Perkins and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom:

The caterpillar did not win.

Well, tomorrow is church and I look forward to getting together with my beautiful saints and worshiping my precious God. Then next week is the last week of summer break. I go back to school on Monday, July 30. It has been an exceptionally wonderful summer break, and I know I'll enjoy next week a lot, then of course, I'll enjoy meeting the new crop of kids. (After getting over the physical shock of having to actually get up and do stuff all day).

Here is a hilarious video from Kentucky Principal Gerry Brooks. Every word he says is true.

So many eggplants

I had breakfast yesterday with a dear friend and her charming baby. It was one of those breakfast joints run by short order cook ladies in hairnets who know what they’re doing and call you ‘hon.’ Biscuits, grits, bacon, eggs… it was all there. We had a good chat.

On the way home, as I approached my driveway, I looked over at the pasture. The recent rain has greened up everything to a hue so vivid the pastures shone like emeralds. The wooden fence with the waving weeds intertwined with purple morning glories created its own living fence. Amid the greenery on the fence post was a bright red cardinal. I was glad to see him, a previous local yard cat had killed one and chased the others off. It’s nice to see them returning.

I snapped this from quite a distance and while walk-jogging. Sorry for the poor quality. He flew off before I could get a better one.

The fence is a little way down from my driveway, so I parked, left my bags by the mailbox as I went by and checked it, and hustled to walk close enough to grab a photo before the bird flew off. I snapped on from a great distance but then he spotted me and went his way.

Just then the mailman trundled down the street. I live on a one-way street and it’s a short street, so there is little traffic. I had put my camera bag and purse down on the ground by the mailbox when I came out to snap the photo of the bird, so I hustled to pick it up so he’d have room.

He had an Amazon package for me. Amazon Prime day was a couple of days ago, after all, lol. So we chatted for a while. The weather, the heat. He asked if the neighbors still lived on the other side of the house but I said, no they moved. It wasn’t a long chat. He had a route and a schedule to keep after all. But it was an American sort of morning, the breakfast joint, then admiring the rural beauty around me, the chat by the side of the road...

It’s garden season here in Georgia. That means people have veggies galore and lots of people share. I am in possession of three large eggplants at this moment. What to do?

I chopped up an onion and put it into a large stock pot with some oil. I turned the heat on medium. While the onions were browning, I diced two of the eggplants into cubes. I had two orange peppers rolling around in the fridge so I chopped them up as well.

The thing with eggplants, is they take on the flavor of what you put them with. Their flesh has a sponge-like consistency that soaks up whatever you put with it, including oil. That’s why if you’re frying them in slices, do not use a fork to turn them over because the tines will poke a hole and the oil will soak into the flesh. The flesh is also gray, not an appetizing color on a dish. So that is why I chopped up the orange peppers- to add some color.

When the onions had turned translucent, I added the cubed eggplant and a little water. Stir well. Add salt. Stir again. I covered it to retain the moisture as the eggplant cooked down.

Meanwhile I chopped cherry tomatoes.

I had bought a huge tub of greens on sale. The tub contained spinach, chard, mizuna, and kale. It was organic. It was a huge tub. I saw that I was not going to be able to finish the greens before they went bad. I added them to the pot of onions, peppers, and eggplant.
Both the eggplant and greens reduce a lot. When I added the pile of cubed eggplant it came to the top of the pot, When I added the greens, same thing. But they reduce. When the greens have wilted, add the tomatoes.

The key is to let the now mixed eggplant-onions-peppers-greens cook slowly. This lets the flavors blend. You can add what spices you like, but Italian spices make the most sense. I covered it, turned the heat to medium low, and let it do its thing.

At the end when I was almost ready, I took the cover off to allow the remaining liquid to evaporate.

The is a dish that’s good with cheese on top, or with pasta added in, or rice, or atop a good toasted Italian bread like focaccia or ciabatta. Make a submarine sandwich out of it by adding cooked pepperoni or cubed Italian ham. It’s versatile, and best of all, it uses a LOT of eggplant!

I have one more week of summer break. We go back on July 30. I am enjoying this summer break 2018 so very much.

Cooking Day and what a great summer sky!

I had an absolutely terrific time at church yesterday, and then it was one of the every-other-Sundays for small group at one of the leaders' houses where I also had a terrific time.

The sky on the drive between church and small group was amazing! Lots of dramatic clouds against slate grey skies or pure azure skies, and sometimes both. Take a look-

It's so wonderful how the Word refreshes. I always feel so good on Monday. We are going through the Book of John and yesterday we happened to be at John 3:16-21. Our elder Scott did a fantastic job preaching it. It was thrilling to hear the old, old story again. The music was piercing in a good way, bringing many to tears ("Amazing Grace" will do that) and the Confessional time our other Elder Allen taught was also a time of refreshing, too.

Then after talking a while in the aisles when the service was done we departed for small groups at various homes. Despite being on the threshold of the holiday vacation week a good many people came for hot dogs and hamburgers. We spoke of His glorious and shared insights from the sermon, eventually departing in the summer gloaming with His love and these precious truths buried in our hearts and minds.

Today I've scheduled a cooking day. When you choose not to eat any processed food, and are a vegetarian, and are trying different foods to reduce gut inflammation, it takes work and effort to ensure there is actually food in the fridge to eat. You can't just open the cupboard or the fridge and yank out something, it has to be made by me first.

A friend with a large garden gave me some eggplants (yay friend! Thank you!) I will cut those into rounds, dredge them in some gluten-free flour and milk, and bake. I'll also bake/roast chick peas. I need to boil up some red lentils. Red lentils cook quickly so that's good. Also will put some potatoes in the crock pot and cut up some radishes and carrots and celery for snack.

I'd bought one ready made food on Friday: roasted crunchy green peas. I gobbled them, they were so good! I roast everything, including chick peas, so I don't know why I hadn't thought of peas. The Kroger label showed only a few ingredients; peas, palm oil, salt and unfortunately, food coloring. I enjoyed them very much. My weakness is salty-crunchy foods. Nuts are very expensive, potato chips and other processed snacks don't agree with me, so I try other things like chick peas and now green peas.

Speaking of chick peas, I found them dry in a 1-pound bag. I'm going to cook them in the crock pot after the potatoes are done. This is the first time I'll have done that. Then I'll roast them. I had been buying them in the can, which is convenient. All you have to do is rinse them and pat them dry, then scatter on a cookie sheet and roast. Occasionally shake the pan to ensure even roasting. Add spices and salt near the end. (Adding spices at the beginning only ensures that it will burn onto the chick pea.)

However, I am not a fan of canned food with all the salt and preservatives. Rinsing them well does take care of all that, but still. It's more expensive to buy cans also. I'm going to try the dry and see how it works.

I'd made a red lentil/quinoa salad last week that was terrific, so I will definitely repeat that. It sure is a challenge when you can't have bread and all you want in the summer is a sandwich. It's fast, filling, and easy to make a sandwich and there are so many healthy sandwiches to make. But no more. I've been eating green salads at lunch filled with lots of goodies instead, so that is OK.

There was some silken tofu for sale which I scooped up. I am going to try a silken tofu and chia seed 'pudding,' but all the recipes I've seen so far call for cocoa powder. I don't want a chocolate based dessert. I'll try it without cocoa powder. Or I might try a smoothie with the tofu and chia seeds, milk, and strawberries.

I've got a packed day planned, and I'm not even leaving the house, lol. Cooking, listening to music, reading, need to vacuum :(, writing a difficult essay for the other blog on hypocrisy (these kind of essays are sad and tearful), working with yesterday's photos and more!

I'm still reading Moby Dick. I savor it. It is also challenging, hence the slow going. But the language! I love it. Like this:

Like some poor devils ashore that happen to know an irascible great man, they make distant unobtrusive salutations to him in the street, lest if they pursued the acquaintance further, they might receive a summary thump for their presumption.

It's so beautiful! I love language like Melville writes. Now you can see why I like to savor it.

Time to get dressed and going. I hope you all have a marvelous day.

Long Heat Wave Breaking Records

I am so blessed to live in a rural area. I drive up Route 98 to school every day, it's 99.9% of the drive. LOL, "Route 98" looks like this.

For it to be named a 'Route' makes it sounds more traffic-y than it is. The gas station intersection is the most populated part. It's a cross street that brings commuters from Elbert County and the eastern part of my county, to the route that takes them to Athens.

As I approach the intersection it is actually the top of a long, slow hill. There is a canola field on the left. The sunrises over the field are spectacular. Because of the hill,  I think, dramatic clouds always gather in that spot and it's too tempting or pull over and snap a few photos.

It's August and that means haying. We are smashing records all over here in north Georgia. We have topped 90 degrees every day for the last 51 days, and the other record we are smashing is that the low temp has not gone below 70 for the last 51 days. In other words, it's been HOT! My poor air conditioner is getting a work out. Though one expects hot weather in GA in the summer, this one has been long and hot, with no cool night breaks or even lower temps briefly from passing thunderstorms. Phew.

But I can't complain, I'm not out in the fields doing the haying. It has been really hot for those guys. The second photo above is of a nice line-up of many rolls of hay you see as you go down the road. The few you see in the photo are just a few of the stubbly soldiers guarding the field. I pulled off Rt 98 to take this, then paused for a moment on my drive home to enjoy the green field, the pond, the gorgeous old growth trees...ahhh, Such scenes really do lift the spirits.

Well, the weekend is here. I hope you all enjoy, if you get the weekend off. I'm going to read by my air conditioner and thank the good Lord for electricity!

The unreality of vacation

One of the places I enjoyed taking a vacation best was the extreme eastern edge of Maine, bordering Canada, in a town called Lubec. There, the tides rose 25 to 30 feet, all in the space of 6 hours. The rushing waters, the granite edged seacoast, the ever-present fog bank, and the remoteness, all captivated me. For some reason, the blues of the ocean seemed bluer, the green of the pine trees seemed greener, the tang of the salt air seemed tangier. Or was just that my imagination, as holiday fantasy took hold and the real world receded, even for just a week?

On the nearby island of Campobello, which is actually across the channel in New Brunswick Canada, there is a lighthouse one can visit...if only at low tide. As the tide rushes out to play among the whales in the deeper ocean, it leaves behind a temporarily exposed spit of sand attached to the lighthouse island. If you dare climb down the granite cliff on a nearly vertical rusty ladder, you can walk over the spit of sand and inhabit the lighthouse, imagining keepers and storms and swells and another era. However, if you linger there too long, you will be stuck. As the cold Atlantic tide returns, fresh from its swirl among the whales, it will fill in and cover the spit with a speed that will at first astound you and then claim you, if you are unwise. See the sign?

On summer days such as those, with clear blue sky and old cannery brightly adorning the wharf, you never imagine a harsher time. One of unforgiving Maine winters, Atlantic spray, fog, ships blindly creeping in among jagged rocks desperate for harbor. On vacation, I only see the blue skies, calm waters, and town charm. Vacation has done its job, presenting another reality, if only for a week.