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Written mainly on Saturday
"Summit" went well at the office and other meetings went well. Drove home through the lovely June blooms. Mostly there were mounds of some soft rose pink flower, not the purple pink of "red" clover, but a soft rose. Maybe some cases were some blushing rose, but i think most were a clover unfamiliar to me. Blue spikes of lupin and orange punctuation of day lilies and perhaps native lilies delighted me. It didn't look planted, and i suspect i was driving at just the right June week to have the delight.
I listened to audiobooks and the hours flew by. North bound was a "Disney Canon" book Last Shot, with adventure plus
* Han Solo wrestling with feeling like he didn't know how to be a father
* Lando Calrissian struggling with wanting an adult relationship instead of being a player
* a nonbinary pilot
* a female Ewok intern brilliant hacker being mistaken as a receptionist
* a Gungan stopping Han from "me'sa-ing" him and giving a lesson in cultural awareness
Also, droid L3 and all sorts of droid lore that leaves me more curious about canon understanding of droids in the Star Wars universe.
Southbound i listened to the 11th Maisie Dobbs novel by Jacqueline Winspear, A Dangerous Place. Descriptions of the Spanish Civil war seemed transplanted from Ukraine's war.
I worry about Spain as a vision of the United State's future. Spain's multicultural citizenry and its status as an intellectual and military superpower, followed by decline, makes me wonder. In the few English language histories of Spain i could find in the early aughts i sensed a bias against the Spanish. I wonder about whether lessons are missed.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_11578/?sp=2&r=0,1.286,1.112,0.556,0
https://warontherocks.com/2015/03/arming-ukraine-insights-from-the-spanish-civil-war/ - Note the 2015 date re Ukraine.
Thursday i was utterly wiped out. Tried to work, called it off, took comp & sick time, had a meltdown, boiled cubed potato in acidified water for salads, rallied before our power went out (prepping some water storage), walked with Christine and Carrie between waves of rain, and did the grocery shopping putting my faith in Duke Power's promise to have the power on when we got home. It was.
Friday was busy with me poking at some other team's gap in understanding: ah, the joy of overloaded terms and provincial frames. For lunch, I tried smashing cucumbers. I'm not sure i perceive a huge difference but Christine definitely approved when offered some mixed in with potatoes to make a salad. As the day progressed i developed a horrid sore throat and felt a certain malaise. I stopped at 5 pm and flopped on the couch. At just before 6 a noticed the wind outside, stepped out just in time to rescue the porch umbrella, and then marveled at the near gale winds twisting the over 50' trees around and driving the 90' pines to bend. I turned to go in just as the lights blinked twice and then went out. Our wifi UPS lasted to around 11 pm, and Christine's CPAP lost power about the same time, drained by our "Sleep Number" bed. We have solar lights that kept us out of the dark, and generally it was OK. Christine did not do well without her CPAP and with the uncertainty of how much we would swelter.
This (Saturday) morning i've smashed more cucumbers and gone out and collected herbs - spearmint, lemon balm, parsley/lovage, dill, salad burnet, walking onion. From those have created a chimichurri inspired dressing for the cucumber and potatoes (as well as putting some parsley and mint in the dehydrator).
I forget if i've mentioned the blackberries are producing well and the blueberries are beginning. Last weekend i folded some stewed berries in a Pillsbury crescent roll sheet. I have played with the crescent rolls to make little tarts in the past: the sheets are FUN. So today i cut a square off the sheet to make a baked shell, poured more stewed berries in the shell and put a lattice-ish layer on top with the remainder of the sheet. It's turned out well. The bread is not the same as pie crust or pastry crust, but it's still yum.
Mulberries are just beginning to ripen. The first one was insipid, but the next few have been delicious. Not many yet, and very small. I hope the size increases next year. And maybe quantity? I'm sure birds are taking some now - and i hope these are fertile fruit. My dream is to have native fruits replace the bird sown Elaeagnus umbellata, and ideally it's not just all blackberry.
"Summit" went well at the office and other meetings went well. Drove home through the lovely June blooms. Mostly there were mounds of some soft rose pink flower, not the purple pink of "red" clover, but a soft rose. Maybe some cases were some blushing rose, but i think most were a clover unfamiliar to me. Blue spikes of lupin and orange punctuation of day lilies and perhaps native lilies delighted me. It didn't look planted, and i suspect i was driving at just the right June week to have the delight.
I listened to audiobooks and the hours flew by. North bound was a "Disney Canon" book Last Shot, with adventure plus
* Han Solo wrestling with feeling like he didn't know how to be a father
* Lando Calrissian struggling with wanting an adult relationship instead of being a player
* a nonbinary pilot
* a female Ewok intern brilliant hacker being mistaken as a receptionist
* a Gungan stopping Han from "me'sa-ing" him and giving a lesson in cultural awareness
Also, droid L3 and all sorts of droid lore that leaves me more curious about canon understanding of droids in the Star Wars universe.
Southbound i listened to the 11th Maisie Dobbs novel by Jacqueline Winspear, A Dangerous Place. Descriptions of the Spanish Civil war seemed transplanted from Ukraine's war.
I worry about Spain as a vision of the United State's future. Spain's multicultural citizenry and its status as an intellectual and military superpower, followed by decline, makes me wonder. In the few English language histories of Spain i could find in the early aughts i sensed a bias against the Spanish. I wonder about whether lessons are missed.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_11578/?sp=2&r=0,1.286,1.112,0.556,0
https://warontherocks.com/2015/03/arming-ukraine-insights-from-the-spanish-civil-war/ - Note the 2015 date re Ukraine.
If there is one way in which the Ukrainian analogy with Spain applies, it is the tragic way the country is being used as a proxy in a battle between the world’s great powers.
In July 1937, Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens, journalist Martha Gellhorn and novelist Ernest Hemingway visited the White House to screen “The Spanish Earth,” Ivens’ documentary about the war. After seeing the film, Gellhorn recalled in a 1938 letter that President Franklin D. Roosevelt remarked, “Spain is a vicarious sacrifice for us all.”
The same terrible fate seems to be reserved for Ukraine and its people.
-- [here]
Thursday i was utterly wiped out. Tried to work, called it off, took comp & sick time, had a meltdown, boiled cubed potato in acidified water for salads, rallied before our power went out (prepping some water storage), walked with Christine and Carrie between waves of rain, and did the grocery shopping putting my faith in Duke Power's promise to have the power on when we got home. It was.
Friday was busy with me poking at some other team's gap in understanding: ah, the joy of overloaded terms and provincial frames. For lunch, I tried smashing cucumbers. I'm not sure i perceive a huge difference but Christine definitely approved when offered some mixed in with potatoes to make a salad. As the day progressed i developed a horrid sore throat and felt a certain malaise. I stopped at 5 pm and flopped on the couch. At just before 6 a noticed the wind outside, stepped out just in time to rescue the porch umbrella, and then marveled at the near gale winds twisting the over 50' trees around and driving the 90' pines to bend. I turned to go in just as the lights blinked twice and then went out. Our wifi UPS lasted to around 11 pm, and Christine's CPAP lost power about the same time, drained by our "Sleep Number" bed. We have solar lights that kept us out of the dark, and generally it was OK. Christine did not do well without her CPAP and with the uncertainty of how much we would swelter.
This (Saturday) morning i've smashed more cucumbers and gone out and collected herbs - spearmint, lemon balm, parsley/lovage, dill, salad burnet, walking onion. From those have created a chimichurri inspired dressing for the cucumber and potatoes (as well as putting some parsley and mint in the dehydrator).
I forget if i've mentioned the blackberries are producing well and the blueberries are beginning. Last weekend i folded some stewed berries in a Pillsbury crescent roll sheet. I have played with the crescent rolls to make little tarts in the past: the sheets are FUN. So today i cut a square off the sheet to make a baked shell, poured more stewed berries in the shell and put a lattice-ish layer on top with the remainder of the sheet. It's turned out well. The bread is not the same as pie crust or pastry crust, but it's still yum.
Mulberries are just beginning to ripen. The first one was insipid, but the next few have been delicious. Not many yet, and very small. I hope the size increases next year. And maybe quantity? I'm sure birds are taking some now - and i hope these are fertile fruit. My dream is to have native fruits replace the bird sown Elaeagnus umbellata, and ideally it's not just all blackberry.
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