Sunday, Fuzzy Sunday

A quick walk with L and R while we talked about the first section of The Overstory, and this bit of green with the trees and farmhouse in the distance was pure serendipity. Talking about the book with R who's reading it for her bookclub tomorrow,  reminded me so much of feeling the tug of that book pulling me out into the unknown, and the running list of unfamiliar words I started keeping as I waded deeper into it. This would be the perfect time to reread it, actually.

KB, yesterday's birthday girl, and SS, last week's birthday girl, wanted to do a smaller Zoom chat this afternoon, and lots of gaffes and laughs ensued. When K said "quarantine poetry," I thought she'd said "horny poetry" and nodded a bit too enthusiastically. Speaking of... no walk with Big A today, but I pulled together a really nice lemony, chicken-meatball soup using up all the garnish-y stuff from our Indian takeout earlier this week and the eggplant that might have ended up in the compost heap soon. And it went great with the rosemary fougasse we'd baked yesterday. Home Ec success.

The Low Road

Big A is cheating the puppies at play in this picture; I want the record to show that 😊. Also, despite a full day, it felt quite low. But also, I've been remembering Marge Piercy's poem, and plan to share it with the family tomorrow at dinner.

(In other news, birthday parties for KB and SS and a fougasse bake-along with PM and posse.)

The Other World

I had to make a quick trip to college to pick up some books and papers... and felt like a phantom. I didn't expect to see teaching colleagues, and I didn't. But I'd thought admin were still around given the volume of daily emails, but they weren't. My desk calendar was stuck at March 14th... has it really been that long?! My office plants mostly weathered my spectacular negligence--the geraniums were even in full bloom! A couple of the pothos had developed tired, yellowing leaves though and the ivy had browned. I did a quick water, prune, and replant in 20 or so minutes, picked up the stuff I'd come for, and dashed.

The nice part of the the trip back was dropping off birthday presents for KB and SS, baklava for JG, and a gift for KM (from Nu).  It was nice and it took longer than I'd planned because everyone (incl. KM's dad) wanted to chat. When JG and I set of for a quick stroll we had 45 mins and the timer to turn back went off at the corner of her street because we'd run into colleagues and had chatted for 22 mins.

It was a good thing dinner was (by kids' decree) takeout from Pizza 1. I picked up their order at 4 and made it home by 5, just in time for TV and cuddles.

Wishy-Washy

I'm just over here washing all my produce like an idiot and air drying them like a chump. I don't know if it helps, I don't know if it hurts,  and I don't know if I'm doing it right.

Yet, here we are where everything related to food seems to take thrice as long. (FTR, I wash produce in warm water + vinegar and clean packaging with Lysol.)

Sarah at Harry Times calls it "grocery washing" and although I'd never heard it termed like that before, I knew exactly what she meant. I wish I didn't.

Presto-Change-O

Made it out quite early today with L and T.  The riverwalk was beautiful despite some intermittent graupel, and was satisfyingly empty. We only passed one runner the entire hour we were out.

It reminded me of how L and I would leave at 6:30 am last year and it would feel as though we had a Downton Abbey-sized gardening staff just to fill our hearts with spring beauty. We used to be delighted to see and chat with anyone we saw up that early. Now we're relieved when the trails are empty.

And it's not just us... I've noticed that many people won't make eye-contact, much less speak, these days.

Moods

Huckie side-eying the whole world is my current mood.

(Except this picture is hilarious, and I keep bursting into giggles every time I catch sight of it.)

Monday Magic

It's a good day when it begins with Nu doing a magic trick for the puppy sibs and Huck responds with a standing trick of her own.

Today marked the start of official lesson plans from Nu's school district, At finished up his final project for the term, I turned in my grades, Big A is on back-to-back shifts... kind of a momentous Monday for these times.