It’s been balmy and sunny in the 70s here, and I’d forgotten how good beautiful weather could make me feel. It’s like the world’s waking up again–a cliche, I know–and stretching and smiling. Or maybe that was me.
What good thing did you notice this week?
Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.
Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com
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We had nice weather until a storm hit yesterday – torrential rain and high winds. Edinburgh got of lightly compared to other places in Britain though.
I went to an exhibition about Biba yesterday at the Dovecot Gallery. The Dovecot Gallery is housed in a former Victorian swimming pool where my school sent us to learn to swim. In the old pool basin usually has tapestry making artists (with a viewing platform above), and the rest has been transformed into an exhibition space and café.
Biba was an iconic shop in the 70’s and it was really good to read the story (they had included historical events that shaped the times too). It was even better to see the clothes again and pictures of the stores. The only thing I ever bought was a pinky/purple nail polish called Foxglove – it was all I could afford from my pocket money and I had to save up for it. But oh how I loved going into the shop – it was so different, stylish and fun.
I loved the style and colours of Biba too, though I didn’t fit into (and couldn’t afford) their clothes. Remember exploring when they took over the old Derry & Thom’s department store on Kensington High Street – complete with roof garden. Met Barbara Hulanicki in the eighties, when she wrote a book my firm published – though all I remember is she was small and slight.
At least in the olden days, the only swimming pool in my suburban home town was an outdoor one open only in summer, when school was not in session. I did learn to swim at a young age, but it was from summer lessons that my parents had to pay for. I did have to take a swimming test at university, and if I’d failed the school would have taught me at their indoor pool. Since I had a one-year phys ed requirement, that only put me into something less enjoyable on land. Twelve or so weeks of soccer, two or three classes a week, I think. I had a fairly enjoyable similar stretch of tennis, and one more of some sport that I seem to have repressed entirely.
I had no idea Biba was a store – or anything at all, really. We’ve called my little sister Biba for 13 years, ever since my nephew was little and couldn’t pronounce her name correctly. Now I’ll have to ask her to check their things online and see if she would’ve worn that if it still was a thing 🙂
I never saw any Biba in real life, and it just wasn’t my style, but they looked so unique and well made. So memorable that even I, unfashionable as I am, remember them vividly. (My style, even as a teenager, was about the same as it is now–things I can wear for thirty years or more without adapting them.)
The extra light – sunshine and longer days – is my best thing this week too. Plus the extra colour in my garden as the tulips start to open alongside clematis, polyanthus, cowslips and Japanese quince (the one in the shade – those in the sunny front garden have flowered all through winter).
Looking forward to pictures of your garden! 💐
Me too, Jane!
My azaleas have been enjoying the balmy weather. I’ve got a full bloom of my white bushes. That makes me happy.
Work was calmer last week for some reason. That’s rare & much appreciated when it happens.
The weather has been perfect & I have visited the beautiful bottle brush trees a few times.
I’ve been trying to get the most out of Bright Line Eating bootcamp.
Happy Holiday to all who participate.
The weather is wet and grey. Same forecast for the next few days with possibility of light snow. Rain will
accelerate melting of the big snow pole at the end of my driveway. Hoping yo be able to set up my raised bed and plant lettuce seeds.
I drove across Vancouver Island to Tofino in the rain. It’s a very curvy 2 lane highway through the mountains. It was challenging and stressful but I did it. It was much easier driving in the sunshine on our way back to Victoria. We saw lots of grey whales on our whale watching tour – breathtaking scenery off the coast of Ucluelet (30 mins from Tofino).
Weather in Michigan is much like where it is at by Susan M. It’s been raining and gray four days. We have flooding. Today is high will feel like 23°F so I’m jealous of everyone who actually has flowers, although, I have seen mini irises and hyacinths coming up.
I’m glad I made it up in time to get to church. I’m volunteering for our Easter services. Happy Easter to all who celebrate it
Sigh, I need to learn to proofread before I hit post, especially when I use voice to text.
The weather here has been okay, but thunderstorms are due tonight. I’ll be watching the basement sump level. Not flooding the basement will make me happy.
Me, too, and I don’t even live down there. (My furnace does….)
In central valley California, we had two days of rain after two weeks of 85-90f degree sun (it’s not supposed to be that hot this early!) and the weather settled into the 75-80 in the day and 50s at night (I had to get my fleece blanket out again) like it’s supposed to be. Lots of things bloomed way too early, but it looks like my orange trees are setting fruit, so it’s all fine.
I was back to being bored at my job instead of pissed off at it, so I guess that’s better?
I’ve been content the last few days, which is nice.
My friend Anne had asked for my mother’s patterns from me, since they were clutched to my chest in their fat folder, because I genuinely didn’t know what to do with them. I don’t knit, but my mother had saved her favourite patterns for years, going back to the ’60’s, and they meant a lot to her. Anne said she would take care of them, which I assumed meant dispose of them when I wasn’t around to see; I was grateful for that. Instead, she presented me this week with a keepsake: a scrapbook of my mom’s oddest patterns and notes in her handwriting, some outlined in gold pen by my friend, with her own funny comments, interspersed with pictures of my mom and me, in her wildly coloured knitted hats and sweaters. It was a gift of enormous thoughtfulness and kindness and I cried all the way through it but with happiness so I think it deserves a mention here.
oh, what a lovely gift <3
Wow. What an amazing gift — I cried reading about it. Good tears though!
How lovely!
Wow, that’s a great friend. What a lovely thing to do.
That is such a lovely and thoughtful gift directly from the heart. Wow. What a friend you’ve got there. <3 Keep Anne close, she's a gem!
What a wonderful, thoughtful gift!!!!
How wonderful Tammy, what a kind a thoughtful friend. Thank you for telling us – it is good to know kindness is still out there, we need to hear more of it.
I actually teared up, too. That friend is a keeper.
All of the above comments. Now, I am thinking of doing something like that with my mom’s patterns and notes for the sibs.
Thank your wonderful friend for the idea which needs to be shared with others to pick up the baton.
What a lovely, thoughtful gift.
Saturday evening I enjoyed a long conversation with a group of writer-friends –interesting, supportive, informative–it was great!
We had rain, but without any hail or tornadoes! Yay.
Yesterday, the insurance adjuster said my roof has hail damage, and the company agreed to pay the minimum for a new roof. That will make the buyers happy and will complete the sale of my home. My realtor has already decided who will replace the roof, for me. I am getting a bid on Monday from a different company. The company she has decided on employs a friend of hers. I have not seen bid. Geesh! So pushy! I received a document to sign with this information this morning, after no actual discussion about it and no bid. I will end up paying for this roof from funds the insurance company has already sent to my mortgage company, which they are supposed to forward to me. That is very weird to me.
The townhome I am bidding on has a lot of pumping and electrical problems, which the inspector says are serious. I agree. I hope the seller will get those fixed. She has been living in that house with no plugs in one bathtub and one sink, no working lights in several crucial areas, and wires running to the ceilings of both bedrooms for the fans there. The old electric stove is not working properly and the disposal sounds like it’s grinding metal. How can someone live like that? No wonder that place hasn’t sold.
It looks like things are getting resolved and I will have a place to live in three weeks!!!!
That does sound really dodgy, about the roof…
Your realtor was definitely out of line. Good for you for getting your own bid. And the house you’re thinking of buying sounds a bit scary (and believe me, mine had some major issues when I moved in). I hope those things are getting fixed before you move in. Assuming you go through with it.
Deborah, the Phoenix realtor and I submitted a list of things we expect to be remedied, and have not received a reply, yet.
This realtor was bullied by the buyer’s agent into going along with their choice of roofer, although she doesn’t seem like the type to let that happen. I sent an email that I decided to work with her, and that I am not willing to let others make decisions for me.
I’m happy to hear insurrance will cover the roof-thing, but wow nope that realtor is not doing the right thing. Well done you for taking things into your own hands! And congrats, too, it must be a relief not to have to pay all of the roof-repairs yourself.
I hope the things at your new place can be resolved swiftly and without too many bundles of bills flying out the window. If you’re expecting this to be your last home, it should be a place you feel happy and safe in. Fingers crossed for everything! And thanks for keeping us updated.
Thanks, Shass. Good point about this being my last home. I was very relieved that the adjuster made that decision about the roof.
I once had a realtor who “managed” me, and I fired her. These people are really in sales, and they do whatever they can to make the sale. They want you to think they are working in your best interest but they really are just making a sale. Do I sound cynical?
No you sound realistic Jan. Well done for not lying down and just taking it.
We’re having a couple days of milder temperatures plus RAIN, much needed. Friday I signed off work early and DH & I went for an hourlong walk on the town’s long and winding greenway. Will return to it because there are lots of different access points, we only did one section of it, it’s mostly wooded and full of birds, and was definitely better than my mental health than glaring at a screen would have been. Plus we picked up dinner from a Mexican restaurant in town and it was delicious. All good.
Yesterday I reviewed version 2 of my draft tax returns and sent back more notes to the accountant. I do appreciate having help putting these together (2 state returns to do as well as my federal return) but her team clearly didn’t look at all the documents I provided nor at my notes, so there is a fair slice of my mental pie chart marked “this is not achieving its purpose of making my life easier,” especially since I’ll be paying for it. Not so good.
I then did a read-through edit on the most recently completed novelette and wrote two more chapters of the novelette-in-progress. All good.
Today I’m making chili for family dinner and I hope the day stays gray and cool-ish because otherwise my parents will be at the table in their sweaters and I’ll be sweating in my sleeveless top. LOL we will also get to see my sibling & her wife, which is always good.
A good accountant makes life so much easier, but yours does not sound like a good accountant – particularly if they charge you for the additional work when it was their own fault. Is there somewhere else you can go next year?
Massachusetts here! Foggy, rainy, damp, cold and can hardly see the moorings in the bay. They were dropped in early March. But I saw a rabbit bouncing across the lawn this morning. They like to give the granddog a challenge. She puts the brakes on before getting too close.
This week I saw a demonstration of how to make chicken cutlets and decided to give it a try. Never in my thinking have I made them before. I had been so afraid to slap my hand along a chicken breast and slice horizontally I didn’t want to see the results. So, this time I used chicken tenders and picked chubby ones, half frozen to help with the slicing and cut through the center not all the way then bashing with a rolling pin between two pieces of wax paper. Little butterfly shapes. OMG it was dinner in minutes.
I also bought a rib roast. They only come on sale during a holiday, plus an extra $2 a lb off with a digital coupon. It’s the only time to get a roast and large enough to have my son cut it in half. Affordability!
Anne is a true friend. What a beautiful gift.
That was supposed to be a reply to Tammy S.
Lots of blooms and birds and walks.
With additional light and the warmer weather come the migrating birds! They are early this year and yesterday I saw my first Prothonotary Warbler of the year. That made me very happy!
I’ve never heard of Prothonotary Warbler [not surprising since they don’t make it up to Québec]; I had to look it up. Pretty. Apparently the yellow plumage is the same shade yellow as the robes of the prothonotaries [papal clerks]. Yummy yellow.
Beautiful weather here—including some unexpected rain, which is always a blessing in drought country. Mostly sunny, warm days, though. I’ve taken a few nice walks and seen some baby birds this week—baby ducks and baby barn owls. The downside is the pollen count. I’m having a fair amount of systemic itchiness after many months of peace and quiet in my nervous system. Bummer.
Upstate NY weather is being even more psychotic than usual for spring. We had 70 and sunny, then 20’s and cloudy, and then up some but enough rain that we’ve had flooding in areas (the creek across the street is really high, and creeping into the meadow next to it, which isn’t unusual, but no where near actual flood stage). Yesterday was raining in the morning, nice enough in the afternoon to take a walk, then temps dipped overnight and today it is very gray and raining again. To say my body isn’t enjoying this would be a vast understatement. But the grass is green, the spring birds are back, and the garlic planted last fall is poking up from the ground already. So there’s that.
I celebrated Easter a day early with friends, which was lovely, even though the weather was not.
And speaking of weather, I was just thinking that we’d recovered from last summer’s drought, thanks to the blizzard’s three feet of snow, because I drove past a local lake on the way to a friend’s, and it’s the highest I’ve seen it in years. But then today I read that we’re still in a “significant” drought. It’s hard to believe, when there’s standing water all along the property line between my yard and my neighbor’s (which is intentionally graded lower than the rest of our yards)!
Three feet of snow is only three inches of rain as a rule. Are you far enough north that, underneath the surface, the ground could still be frozen? If so, rhat might explain the standing water.
Three inches is still a lot in one twenty-four hour period!
Yes. Perhaps that’s enough to explain the standing water even with unfrozen soil. But as far as I can see, three inches of precipitation would not likely end a “significant” drought.
We had something a few years ago called a green drought – the soil was so dry none of the rain penetrated more than a centimetre below the surface so it all ran off along the top causing flash floods. It was green because the grass seeds in that top centimetre sprouted but underneath was just hard-packed dry dirt.
Happy Easter to all observing it!
The outside temperature here has been jumping all over the place, but with the highs the last few days in the 80s F (about 27 to 30 C). This is the time of year when because of allergies I have to keep the windows closed, so not fun. Today supposedly will be cooler and it has finally clouded up, a welcome relief from a baking sun. Most of the week is forecast to be more seasonal.
I’m allergic to things at all times of the year, so I never get to open the windows. Well, I could probably do it in December, but, um, no.
Deborah, my sympathies!
I’m on OTC allergy medicine year round, but for most of the year it actually keeps things fairly well under control. Just not in spring.
I saw my first hummingbird of the season! I had put out the feeder last month but hadn’t seen any until this week. Seeing those little guys always makes me happy.
Carrie – there is a really good documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough titled The Secret Life Of Hummingbirds. Not sure where it streams.
The weather is bonkers here, but we’ve had a few hours of sun this week so we could snag some D-vitamins and melatonin and other good sun-related stuff in the yard. Our hibiscus/camelia/Chinese Rose (no-one can agree on what it is, I should post a picture here) is bursting with flowers and it’s so pretty. Pity it doesn’t also smell incredible – it smells… nothing. I keep thinking every year that I should get a few more of those bushes, since they manage themselves pretty much and bloom at random times and are just lovely.
Sleep is back at horrifyingly bad levels and I’m getting concerned because I read everywhere how damaging it is to your body and brain and this has been goign on for….just far too long. I’ll call Sleep Centre 3 on Tuesday and ask what’s going on and when I can get an appointment. And GP for more sleep meds.
Good things? I have a couple.
ENT said my voice sounded better now than back in November, and the nodule on my vocal cord is small and is in the middle and on top of the vocal cord, which shouldn’t impare my voice too much/at all. It’s when they are on the sides they cause real issues. She told me to keep at it with the speech therapy so long as the therapist thinks it’s a good thing, and she’ll keep my case file open, so SHOULD problems arise, I can come back anytime without a referral.
Speech therapist was very nice about me not having done any exercising because of no sleep, and came up with a bunch of good suggestions on relaxation and suggested hapto-therapy as something I can try. I… am in two or three minds about it, so I’ll have a little think, but I’m happy she cares. She’s a great person.
Claw-trimming of the kitts went well yesterday, despite a mishap with Trip’s calming meds, so she was not calm at all. She showed me incredible trust and love though, because we had to solve it by wrapping her in a blanket and trimming one paw at a time – me holding the paw, or else she’d swat fiercely. She shrieked bloody murder, but she did not kill anyone, and since I have witnessed how she gets when someone else towels her, I know the difference. Trust is one of the greatest gifts. Unfortunately we had to also blanket Matcha, who had worked herself up into a right state after Trippie’s shouting, but all in all things went well. The trimmer is a para-vet, and I told her I was concerned about Matcha’s mouth again what with her having reverted back to trying to shred her favourite blanket in the mornings just like before the molars were pulled, so she took a look in her mouth and said everything looks healthy and well-cared for and properly healed, and the x-ray was just 2 months ago, so she said everything should be fine. Very relieved! I’ll make her a gift at some point for being the very best pair of extra eyes and hands, and for doing house-calls for claws and such. Lucky to have found her.
Sven had a heart-scan yesterday, which went well and he did not suffer from any panic or anxiety. Big happy! That’s great progress. AND he gave me this when he came home:
https://bsky.app/profile/shass.bsky.social/post/3mioo57vny4s2
He buys flowers maybe once every 2-3 years TOPS, so I didn’t see that coming and was very surprised. He said he was looking for flowers with an actual scent, but that… apparently isn’t really a thing anymore? People really want scentless flowers? At least these had a cute little escapee!
Today we had lunch out with MIL and it was very tasty and very nice. And I’m almost done with The Honey Pot Plot. AND with the mosaicked egg. AND I’m knitting a bit again. All little happies and good things. I feel fragile, but I’m not dead or insane yet. Good.
Shass, I’m so glad for your good news! With the time change and all the things going on in your life, no wonder you are missing sleep. I chew some non-THC gummies for sleep. Sometimes, they don’t even help. Worrying about not sleeping doesn’t help, either, but it’s hard not to worry.
Those are gorgeous flowers! They have bred carnations to have bigger flowers, I think, and the scent took a hit from that. I don’t know about other flowers. I used to love carnations. I buy some outdoor flowers with the same scent, now. I think they are called “pinks”, maybe.
Jan, Pinks are the origin of carnations, I think, but mostly still have a lovely scent although they are smaller and less showy. Some carnations have a nice smell, depending on the florist or where you get them.
Having had insomnia on and off for years, I know it helps me to give in to it and just say “okay then, I’ll get up” and then sit and read or knit and drink some chamomile or valerian tea for 30 mins and go back to bed. Just the act of getting up and moving sometimes is enough to reset it all. It might be worth a try.
Glad your kitties have a kind have such a kind vet and that Sven’s scan went okay. Love the flowers he bought you, what a grand surprise. I have no idea why they have bred flowers not to smell anymore, they only please one of my senses now instead of two (sight and smell). I used to buy paperwhite bulbs (sort of white daffodil) tin pots that were sold as Christmas gifts. They had such a gorgeous smell but I don’t see them for sale in the shops anymore either.
I miss the paperwhites from my grandmother’s garden. Such glorious scent. The ones in people’s yards now are a faint ghost of those.
I have noticed that the scent of roses appears to be diminished when herbicides or pesticides are used on them.
Thanks for the tips, Christine. I do try getting out of bed and do something else, yeah. I really wish my sleeping problems were that “easy” to solve. (Easy inside quotes, because I know all sleeping troubles are draining as all hell.) For me it’s not insomnia as much anymore as the never-ending nightmares (going on 20+ years now) resulting in fear of sleeping, and constant waking up that breaks up the night into little bits and too early waking up meaning too few hours of sleep. Sleep Centre 1 wrote it all off as PTSD which would be fixed through therapy, they said. That didn’t happen. Therapy did, but not the fixing of sleeping problems. Sleep Centre 2 wrote me off as hopeless case, because the only thing they could find was sleep apnea so light it barely counted, and neither a splint or a cpap helped me there. So they were like: “Too bad, we can’t fix you, bye.” That I’m now at Sleep Centre 3 is because of the cpap-dude that was here for Sven’s cpap a few months ago, who said that if the sleep apnea is position-related, there’s a device that can help you train yourself not to roll over on your back in your sleep. I have a lot of trouble with rolling onto my back in my sleep, which also gives me incredible pain in my lower back since a few years, so we figured it’d be worth a try. Maybe the nights can get a little less choppy at least. We’ll see what sleep-doc 3 says.
But to me, the nightmares are the worst and no therapy or medication has managed to beat them yet.
I didn’t use to worry about my health in relation to the sleeping problems before. Being dead tired all the time has been a challenge, but now that I fell across an article on how much it impacts your brain and might potentionally cause ealy onset dementia and scary things like that, I… am a bit more worried. It’s been going on for more than half of my life by now, time for it to end. Besides, the older I get, the harder it is to be even semi-semi-functioning when sleep is this bad.
And I’m so tired of being terrified of sleeping. Tired of carrying the fear with me, in my body, even after waking up. Even if I can let go of it after a while, it waits for me when I fall asleep again. One’d think that so many years of it would make you used to it, desensitized if you will. Alas. If only. 🙁
I think they bred them to last longer and the loss of scent was a side effect of that. Freesia still smell like heaven for the first day or 2, but they are available for such a short time.
I’ve run into mostly scentless freesias these past few years—it’s really disappointing! The ones I have that have been coming back for years still smell lovely and are such a treat.
Hyacinths have a strong scent which my DH unfortunately has a reaction to. The roses in our garden also do—maybe it’s the shop roses that are bred to last longer but have no scent ? Unfortunately DH also has a reaction to them (which I only realized many years ago when a legal services client gave me some and he was cranky for days. ) I try to bring them inside when he travels. We do have a Jasmine with a lovely scent.
I’m also highly allergic to hyacinths. I had one in my garden for a few years – expect it was planted by squirrels.
I am not allergic to roses but I dislike the strong scented ones. (I have Cecile Bruner bushes which I think may have been bred (1888) to be less scented because they were meant for boutonnieres, only inches from your face.
I think the scentless flowers are due to the way they grow them – selecting varieties that look showy and last well in a vase (often due to chemical treatments), and then growing them abroad where there’s extra heat and light, especially in the winter, to force them to grow fast. There’s a growing movement in the UK for locally grown flowers, but they’re still relatively rare and expensive. This is why I grow flowers for cutting on my allotment.
Thanks for your thoughts on the question of flowers without smells, everyone! You never fail to make me smile. Sending you all lots of love and pocket hugs!
Easter brunch was pricey but nice. Went to dear sister’s and a couple of us crafted for a couple hours. I am now home with a book, a See’s chocolate cherry egg, and a cup of coffee, so life is pretty darn good.
I made a new blog post about… a Home Moanership problem.
https://www.somethingsmustbeendured.com/post/sort-of-an-april-farm-report
All those cords – Yikes!
Yikes on all the power cords! I just managed to blow a GFCI outlet that I swear didn’t have all that much plugged into it (toaster oven and induction burner at the time it blew), but the outlet won’t reset, so now I’ve got to replace it (who knew that GFCI’s were supposed to be replaced every 7-10 years? although I doubt anyone really does that, but this one is about 35 years old!). Until then, I’m re-routing everything to other circuits, and it’s all very annoying.
But I suppose the good news is that it may inspire me to do some electrical upgrades. As long as I need to bring out an electrician, he might as well do a bunch of things, not just one little thing. I want to upgrade the box to 200 amps from 100, and install a higher-power outlet for induction stove I covet, as well as outlets for a planned (eventual, when the current appliances die) heat pump water heater and heat pump dryer.
Gary, Your diagram shows that the Garden Room is already separate from the Owner’s Suite, which I had not realized, and if it’s to scale, the area outside both is smaller and probably more utilized (with washing machine and whatever else) than I’d thought. Plus the outlet problem. You do look full up.
The northwest corner is full of the washer and dryer and a double deep sink (that doesn’t drain) and that dehumidifier.
The west wall is mostly taken up with storage, and a water heater.
The southwest corner houses the Air Handling Unit/Furnace. The Air Handling Unit contains the main distribution fan/blower, the furnace, the refrigeration coils of the heat pump, and a condensate pump. The condensate pump needed an outlet – it’s powered from an adapter screwed into the overhead light. The light bulb is powered through a remote control screwed into that adapter. The lighting fixture is Always On, lest the condensate NOT be pumped and back up into the unit.
Some things must be endured.
Have you had all that looked at by an electrician, Gary? Because it looks dangerous to me.
An electrician has looked at the wiring. He has never seen what’s plugged in.
My weather was wonderful, definitely the best part of the week. Now there will be frost, and cold, and then rain. Maybe spring can resume next week.
Three days of sunshine; gardening, and today will mow the back grass and try to kill all the moss which is horrendous this year. Had a wonderful brunch with youngest son, he turned 47 today. Where did the time go.! Granddaughters were so sweet too. Best part of the day. DIL stayed home, still recovering from the flight back from China. Lots on their shoulders with competitive diving granddaughter. Older son and DIL are camping in the sunshine at Golden Ears park. Their Aussie shepherd is 15, he is still a good boy. So glad they have sunshine this long weekend. We all need the sun.
Emma Jameson just released a short Lord and Lady Hetheridge story. First Date. Now, rereading some of the series. And, on Friday, I wrote with my writers group. Tweaked the short story. It was well received. Hope to enter it for publication.
Happy Easter and Passover to all who celebrate. Such a glorious sunny weather day today.
The weather’s been good. Some warm, some cool, some dry, some wet. Nothing extreme.
My April is shaping up to be easy-just a couple of meetings and doctors appointments. And that is really good.
It’s been a pleasant weekend. I like Easter.
I got bad health news this week, but I won’t get into it in the happiness thread.
Please do share it when you are ready. I think we all want to know how you are doing.
The weather was in the 80’s here yesterday and I was able to weed a small patch of the garden and put down Johnny jump up seeds. This was much more exciting for me than it sounds because I got down on the ground and then got back up using a bucket for support and now I think I can actually plant my annuals! The warmth got all the Korean cherry trees on our block to bloom. Also the dianthus / pinks are coming back strong, the lilies are coming up and so far the deer have not eaten them, and I have giant snowdrops and about 4 different kinds of daffodils and a single tulip in a vase. (Also indoors DH had a confused Christmas cactus blooming and now four amaryllis are about to.)
The bunny living under our shed is eating the neighbors flowers not ours. We get to admire it on the camera. We will not divulge its home. I am hoping there are babies.
Last night we held a virtual Seder with the three kids and DD made it through most before she konked out (London time). So we have once again despised slavery and recognized our obligation to help everyone be free. We used a mix of a children’s Haggadah with great pictures, an archaeological Haggadah that I think was my grandparents (it was published only a few years before they died but has seen a fair bit of use and I can’t see my dad using it) and two progressive hagaddahs. Imagine me surrounded by books with post its.
Today the weather wasn’t nearly as charming. Our ballgame was delayed for two hours due to rain so we ate lunch with my cousin and finally got to watch it and our team did nicely through five and then the other side came back strong. The day was fun. But it got chillier than we had anticipated. And I was able to tie my left shoe, which let me wear my London embassy sneakers for the first time since surgery!
I think of this weather as marriage testing. DH prefers to be much warmer than I do at any time. At night the room will be so hot I can’t sleep but if I turn the AC on, in the middle of the night DH wakes up cold and turns the heat back on. At least one of us is cranky from lack of sleep. Once the night and day temperatures are either all Ac or all Heat weather we do much better.
Mom has come around after being difficult and rude about the plan we kids proposed for her 89th birthday, which didn’t bother me because after her awful behavior when we threw her a 70th surprise party (among other things said when she saw the lovely photo display DH created for her “you can show it at my funeral”—and said nothing at all about the scrap book of letters from friends my sister and I had spent months creating ) I decided never to spend time on planning for her birthday because she would always be unhappy no matter what. She just can’t deal with getting older. So at least this way I don’t spend time and energy on trying to accomplish the impossible and make her happy. (I send flowers if I haven’t come across a present.) But my sisters (who did the work) were very upset so I am glad she is at least for now behaving.
LOL, I used to have that problem with sleeping. Ended up with him sleeping with 4 blankets and me sleeping with a sheet and a directional fan. No heater at night, just the ambient heat from the day which is still too warm for me.
My happy this week was reorganizing books. I had a ton of books out from the library for the AAR Poll, and the Hugos and I voted in those and the Locus Poll – did I mention I love polls ;0) – so time to change my reading priorities and it is so nice sitting surrounded by books of all shapes and sizes. Makes me smile every time.
Last week, I got the house re-painted as the wood was beginning to suffer, and the last painter was doing touch-ups on Monday. When I offered him a cuppa, he was so excited at someone liking tea, he insisted on sharing his “Iraqi tea” from his thermos, and later invited me to share his lunch (I declined but I did get my own and sit with him). Turns out he is an Iraqi refugee whose was driven out by IS, and we talked about family and birds and his home and it was just really nice to have a friendly conversation with a random person and to know that he at least had found a safer home.
Also read Rebecca Solnit’s pieces on the No Kings protests and Renewables and those made me happy. Plus India is on track to increase its non-fossil capacity to 60% – by, or even before, 2030.
Yuri, Wow! My one month in Oz never gave me the impression that tea-drinking was even slightly unusual there. (I can’t have misremembered where you are, can I?) I currently drink more coffee than tea, but that has varied, and I do drink both. I’ve also got yerba mate on hand, but haven’t indulged in a while.
Tea isn’t that unusual here – but coffee is much more common and increasingly so. I think maybe he was excited that he could share his tea with me.
I think that must be a change since I was there in 1999. It seemed to me then that Oz had the institution of tea drinking down to a science, including giving customers little plastic UHT milk bottles optimized for tea everywhere that US customers would get tubs of liquid creamer optimized for coffee.
The internet confirms that there’s been a shift in Australia in coffee’s favor, although I may have underestimated the coffee drinking popularity even in 1999.