Notes from the Outside

Quick walk to Sparty today, and L and I marveled that this postcard pretty was our reality. (Ours to look at anyway.) Someday (maybe this summer) I'll use this for garden inspiration.

It was very fragrant when Big A and I were outside this afternoon. At Beal, there was a gentle shower of cool, white... something. We wondered if the nubs were flowers, but it was snow.

Here's Floofy

A floppy puppy floofing on the floor? Fun to say! But no.

It's just the pile of doodle fur I trimmed off this afternoon. 

The puppies are lighter and smell better, although it was tiring and took way longer than I expected. Huck looks polished enough for a job interview; Scout looks a bit scarily dino-headed because I trimmed too much off his face.

Also, after months of requests, At shaved his beard off yesterday and took us all by surprise. The last time we saw him beardless was in his high school senior pictures. Without his beard and his hair at mid-length, he looked a bit awkward (cough Lord Farquaard cough). I gave him a trim too.

Yes, please!

In other art news, this uncharacteristically "earnest" superhero nurse painting by Banksy and Indian folk artists using gods as characters to message social distancing and hygiene.

I found my heart in the woods today

There're unmistakable signs of greening everywhere and although in a group (L & T & R), social distancing and Michigan's winter #7 of 2020 allowed me to stay with my thoughts, thinking through things, work-in-progress/work-at-standstill, recipes, and how in ten days Big A would be on a plane for NYC.

This graffito of a heart did bring me a smile, but much as I appreciate street art, I wish people wouldn't paint on trees.

shadow / reflection

Back to afternoon walks with Big A after a few days off... It had been rainy/he worked three in a row/one or both of us didn't sleep well/some other excuse.

I'm burying the lede a bit here, but Big A's scheduled to report to NYC for a couple of
weeks--although their cases are down, their regular docs will need a break. He volunteered about a month ago, and his schedule has just been formalized.

He offered to "just stay the heck alive" because it made him sad to imagine me falling apart. Reader, I plan to take him up on this generous offer.

'C' is for Sibling

Nu took the box part from a boxed set of thank-you cards and created a lovely 3-D photo frame for At's birthday.

The box was originally plain blue, and Nu painted the grass, flowers, stars, and crescent moon, propping up the photo on a toothpick so you can kind of bobble it.

I thought the moon was a 'C'--and when I asked what it was for, Nu looked me straight in the eye and deadpanned: "it stands for sibling" before breaking into giggles.

I love every part of their creativity.

[I remember when we took this picture so clearly--we had just moved to Yellow Springs at the end of the 2007-2008 academic year, and were visiting Grandpa R and Grandma C. It may have been Nu's first time in a hammock. At is 9; Nu < 1. Taken on my Nikon DSLR, which I loved, but haven't felt the need to use in years now...]

Feeling 21

At's bright smile, 21 birthday candles collapsing into the Bananas Foster, and my hurried, clumsy picture... but At's bright smile!

Big A, Nu, and I (and Scout and Huck) had fun decorating the table and making a "boozy" dinner (ravioli in vodka marinara, bourbon-blackened salmon and veggies, Bananas Foster), looking at old At baby pictures, and celebrating the fiercely compassionate, delightfully mellow, and cheekily erudite firstborn. He loved all his presents--the party planning essentials, the new Michael Yates book, cheese aficionado tools, and our big spend--the Dyson hot/cold fan/air purifier thing he can take to his bedroom now and dorm/first apartment etc. later.

At had originally (months ago) wanted to have a family dinner and go out to a bar with friends, but modified his plans to a Zoom "Conspiracy Theory Party" because of the lockdown. I heard him kind of cackling long after midnight, so I think that part went well too.

😍🥰😍😘🥰😍