at the park

On Sunday, my brother and I and two friends grabbed a picnic lunch at the supermarket, put it on ice, and headed for a very large and beautiful park near the coast. Many other people had the same idea, but their grounds are so extensive that it didn't matter.

Little flowers in the grass along the road

traveling along the river.

The park had interesting trees

flower gardens

views

and you could walk right out to the water.

and there was a mansion!

red sky at night

from a few days ago

a perfect day

A day at the shore with friends.    Hot, but with a strong sea breeze.    No clouds in sight.       

Beauty everywhere.

It couldn't have been better.

more later.

desperation

In case you can't tell, this is Henry with his head in the bag of cat food.  He really thinks about food too much.    He can't possibly be that hungry all. the. time.

I roll up the bag, but he works it and gets his furry head inside. Or he drags it out off the shelf onto the floor.

He's cute, but rather trying.

the whole chair, and then some

This is for Debbie.  She wanted to see this chair in its entirety.

My mother got it very many years ago at a tag sale or thrift shop. It had a worn, needlepoint seat and back in a  whitish and rose color  but it was too worn. She eventually had it redone with some extra bit of fabric from the loveseat.

It's a folding chair

you can see the hinges here.

The panelling in the living room used to be a dark color, and when we painted it this yellowy cream - which I have a heck of a time getting right with the camera -  the first thing that struck me was how nice this dark walnut colored wood looked against the wall.

As I said, the loveseat is upholstered in the same fabric, but it's quite faded. I keep sheets on the chairs here.

But it's not because of faded fabric.

I keep sheets on because somebody, who shall remain nameless, cannot differentiate between a scratching post and a couch.  Hence, the covers.

The Dirty Deed

The Guilty Party

What are ya gonna do?  We love her anyway.

the sower

(The Parable of the Sower, by Abel Grimmer)

"On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying, 'A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirty fold. Whoever has ears ought to hear.'"

                                                  -  Matthew 13: 1-8

Pope Benedict gave an interesting talk on this here. I especially liked the part about the leavening.



inspiration

I took this photo at Anthropologie the other day.

Imagination. Whoever started this company has plenty of it.  You can take a something that's dull - I don't know, an apron, a dish towel - if you've been there, you know what I mean - and just gussy it up by adding appliques on it, a little embroidery, whatever.  And it's transformed! 

I've been thinking about inspiration lately, and it's acquiring a deeper meaning for me.  Recently, Anna posted a couple of ice creams she'd made - lavender and honey and apricot. She mentioned a book with ice cream recipes, and I've seen several of those - most of them require eggs. No, thank you. Don't want the cholesterol, or the bother.  But she didn't bother with eggs either, I don't think.  She just made her own version of it without the eggs; using the recipe as an inspiration.

 I'm starting to get it.

I know a wise old man who talks about being a "good thief", as he puts it. He's referring to spiritual matters, but it can be applied to anything. Taking out of a thing what you can use, and leaving the rest. But still making something good from it.  I've been reading Anna's blog for a few years, and I'm finally realizing this is what she's doing!  Ahhhhhhh.  It's "freeing", as she put it to me once. 

Yes - yes, it is.

baby quilt, finished

It's done! My inspiration was torn from an eight or ten year old magazine - a forty inch square baby quilt with twenty five squares, each from a different vintage fabric and a wider-than-usual binding. So charming!

We avoided pinks and blues pretty much, not knowing anything about the baby ahead of time, and I found I had plenty of greens and yellows, with some nice red added to spice it up. Not 25 different prints, but we did what we could with our eight-inch squares, got some white for the back, used bright yellow for machine-tying, and put the green around the edges.

It's hard to get a just-right picture of it, but I'm really pleased with it, and there's something about patchwork.

Isn't there? 

You knew it all along. I'm the one who didn't get it.  Till now.

a living room chair

two hundred thirty five years ago

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.


He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.


In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

hot weather food: orange sherbet

Once upon a time, Edy's made a sherbet called "Swiss Orange", and it was a great favourite* with us. We enjoyed it often. Then, one day last summer, we looked high and low, in this supermarket and that one, but it was nowhere to be found. And their website made no mention of it. 

And so began my forays into sherbet-making territory.

Homemade Orange Sherbet with Mini Chocolate Chips

Into your blender, pour (nice & sweet) orange juice up to the 1 1/2 cup mark. Add 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and enough milk to bring it up to about the 3 1/2 cup mark. Or a bit higher. Whiz it up.

Make sure it's entirely chilled before ice-creaming it according to manufacturer's instructions. Scoop into a container, and add as many mini chips as you please.

Enjoy!

p.s. You can make it with 1/4 cup less sugar and leave out the lemon, but this way is better. I first discovered the method when I tasted it and it was too sweet! So I hastily added a splash of lemon juice. That did the trick.

(*In fairy tales, one should use the English spelling of words.)

why didn't I see it coming?

Yesterday I could tell Dolly badly wanted to go outside. I found some time, and thought I could work on the next week's menu and shopping list (we keep her on a leash outdoors, and we stay with her) while outside.

I brought out a little plastic table, along with my cookbooks and magazines, pen, paper and a cool drink

There's a {pretty} hydrangea nearby.

I went and got a lawn chair, and opened it up. We've been having gorgeous days lately - dry air, breezes, lots of sun, puffy clouds; and the wind took away my shopping list.  I caught it, turned to my chair, and

found that somebody was there before me.  {Funny}, I remembered later that she did the same thing to me last year! 

But I ended up getting the chaise

which is always good.  So, I was {happy},

and Dolly was certainly {happy}.

The {real} part of the story is, and I'm sure you've figured it out - Dolly is more than just a pet in this house!
And I don't need a picture for that.

back yard

"relationship...the essence of reality"

I was just surveying new posts from favorite blogs

This one from Ann Voskamp struck me so forcibly - it has to do with balance, which is the thing I'm always seeking after.

"the reason for our joy"

"There is a very beautiful story in the Gospel (Mark 6: 45-52) where Jesus anticipates...closeness [to us after his Ascension] during his earthly life and so makes it easier for us to understand.

After the multiplication of the loaves, the Lord makes the disciples get into the boat and go before him to Bethsaida on the opposite shore, while he himself dismisses the people. He then goes 'up on the mountain' to pray. So the disciples are alone in the boat. There is a headwind, and the lake is turbulent. They are threatened by the power of the waves and the storm. The Lord seems to be far away in prayer on his mountain. But because he is with the Father, he sees them. And because he sees them, he comes to them across the water, he gets into the boat with them and makes it possible for them to continue to their destination.

This is an image for the time of the Church - intended also for us. The Lord is 'on the mountain' of the Father. Therefore he sees us. Therefore he can get into the boat of our life at any moment. Therefore we can always call on him; we can always be certain that he sees and hears us. In our own day, too, the boat of the Church travels against the headwind of history through the turbulent ocean of time. Often it looks as if it is bound to sink. But the Lord is there, and he comes at the right moment. 'I go away, and I will come to you' - that is the essence of Christian trust, the reason for our joy."

                               Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2    -    Pope Benedict XVI

wild raspberries

We've always had black raspberries growing wild on this property, but way back, they were in a thicket in a more remote corner of the yard; now, they're growing in the middle of a forsythia hedge on the side of the house - rather messy, but very agreeable at this time of year!

I've already  made a batch of black raspberry frozen dessert.   It doesn't last long.

Henry, the frog hugger

with Otis, who lives on my bed.

more vicarious Italy

"On New Year's Eve, I am coming home from town with a carload of groceries. We're cooking the traditional lentils (tiny coin shapes are the symbol of prosperity) and zampone, sausage in the shape of a pig's foot. As I climb the road toward home, I pass the dome of Santa Maria Nuova below me. Fog completely surrounds the church and the dome floats above the clouds. Five intersecting rainbows dive and arch around the dome. I almost run off the road. At the curve, I stop and get out, wishing everyone were with me. This is staggering. If it were the Middle Ages, I'd claim a miracle. Another car stops and a man dressed in fancy hunting clothes jumps out. Probably he is one of the murderers of song birds but he, too, looks stunned. We both just stare. As the clouds shift, the rainbows disappear one by one but the dome still drifts, ready for any sign that might be about to happen. I wave to the hunter. 'Auguri', he calls."

                                    Under the Tuscan Sun,  Frances Mayes

{happy} about a couple of things

Emily is finally feeling more like herself, so she came over today to work on the baby quilt. We layered it, then machine quilted it, sort of - with small zigzag areas  here and there.  We chose a golden yellow thread like egg yolk, and like the results, especially the way it looks on the white backing.

Dolly seemed {happy} about the whole thing, too.

I was also happy recently to find this oversized cup at the thrift store,

which I knew would look just right in the secretary, and give the whole arrangement a more summery look.

a treat with my tea

Beth, a favorite library patron, who frequently appears to pick up her array of intriguing interlibrary loans, showed up the other day with something for me!

Golden sugar crystals on a stick, with threads of saffron in them. A whole box of these! And this isn't the first box she's given me.

One stick is more than enough for a cup, but before I can remove it to save for the next time, everything slips into the cup and quickly dissolves. I'm left with a sweet cup of tea, which - I have to say - goes down very easily, and I don't mind it at all!

Thank you, Beth!

Dolly listens to Gregorian chant

and really likes it!

(sorry about the dark photos - it was night)