We All Scream

Only took a year, but I made it to Brenham, Texas~home of the Blue Bell Creamery.  V. fun tour and of course, delicious ice cream.  For inquiring souls, I got July's celebratory national ice cream month's flavor of Brownie Rockslide.  No photos were allowed inside the building~not sure why, it's not as though I'm going to go home and rebuild the top-secret machinery I saw on the tour.

Then we poked around the~shall I say, charming/quaint~downtown area, complete with town square gazebo and antique stores.  We had the streets to ourselves as it is mid-week and was about 139 degrees today.

It was a fabulous field trip for my accompanist and myself.

my new mantra

Monday: morning, as it should be

A gorgeous day with absolutely nothing on the to-do list.

literal lost mar-

ble (no, not mine), rollin' down

the summer-sunned street

sing, just sing

It's a little bit nice when science backs up the arts.

ta-da

One of the great things from this past week was daily observing, participating and hopefully inspiring all the 3-5 graders throughout six hours of rehearsals.  This last batch of students was just fun and reminded me of many summers/holidays of goofing off with my cousins.

What is bringing you burbles of joy today?

there will be news

Been awhile since I've shared poetry~liked the reminder from this poem that a sense of perspective is good.   

 

The Day I Die

will be a Saturday or a Tuesday, maybe.
A day with a weather forecast,
a high and a low.  There will be news:
a scandal, a disaster, some good
deed.  The mail will come.  People
will walk their dogs.

The day I die will be a certain
day, a square on a calendar page
to be flipped up and pinned
at the end of the month.  It may be August
or November; school will be out or in;
somebody will have to catch a plane.

There will be messages, bills to pay,
things left undone.  It will be a day
like today, or tomorrow~a date
I might note with a reminder, an appointment,
or nothing at all.

"The Day I Die" by Krista Lukas, from Fans of My Unconscious. © Black Rock Press, 2013. Reprinted

I might be Southern now

 

I had friiiied pickles for the first time in my life after enjoying the Blues on the Green concert.

back to the books

One of the luxuries of a summer s'hedule is the ability to read a book in it's entirety.

Almost always.

I thought that I couldn't get more excited about literary food than my delight over last summer's Scrabble Cheez-its.  Wrong.  BookPeople just placed this info on their web page.  Happy July, indeed.

joy

Despite the dreck of a musical that's assigned, it's been a lovely day.  Have 28 awesome little singers~the best batch of the summer.  Went for a sunny hike after work and....arrived home to find that my bookcase had finally arrived.

And despite the instructions in Swahili and it saying it was a two-person job,

 I am pleased to show my handy work!

It took about 5 minutes to fill.  And now I need at least one more!  Yay books.

some days, some people

nibbles and noshing

Yesterday, as I was leaving my neighborhood, I spotted this deer taking delight in the newly planted buffet line.  I wish that I had gotten to my phone faster because she had just had a nice big mouthful of foliage.

This is the aftermath; have no idea if her buddies joined her or if she mowed this whole patch down by herself, but it's fairly impressive job.  Doubly glad that my plants are on high ground.

 

Leek and 'shroom frittata created for snackage during my last week of children's theatre.  There were of couple of s'heduling snafus~while one them has me rehearsing a truly vile bit of musical (it shall remain nameless, that's how little regard I have for it), the other has me doing two shifts instead of one.  So, it's turning out to be a blessing.

it's been fun

Think it the summer I was 8 when I stated, rather heatedly, that I couldn't WAIT to be a grown up and stay up as late as I wanted.  I am positive this was in relation to wanting to finish reading a book.

And now?  I can stay up all night, reading, should I choose.

Just a bit of a ramble saying that my brain is tired; it's been a week of weighing job choices and crunching budget numbers and trying to figure out what to do with my adult life.

For now?  I'm going to have a cupcake and then go swimming.  And I may not even wait an entire 20 minutes between snack and swimming. 

practicality

it's raining, it's POURING

There was a little gap between storms, so I raced out the door to get a hike in; this rushing stream was simply dry gravel on Sunday.

 Seriously~this was dry ground a couple of days ago.

Also got a short swim in (no, not in the stream) and lounged about, admiring the clouds.

And bam!  My phone started shrieking (this new one has a build-in weather alarm which I cannot seem to turn off) about flash flooding.

There is only a 10 minute time lapse in the three photos-stunning to see water pouring through the wheel wells.

If I had rain boots, I would go stand in the water to show that it is now knee high.  Think it's safe to say that our drought is over.

patty cake, patty cake, baker's man

Not sure why I'm having such a craving for baking.  In July.  But here it is.  These pinwheels did not turn out very prettily, but stuffed with 'shrooms and leeks and parm, they were still tasty.

In an attempt to save my herbs from the foraging feline, I got some special kitty grass (no, not the Austin kind) for Monsieur's palate.

He chowed down and as soon as I left the screen door open, he trotted right back out to the thyme patch.

 

And in honor of the torrents of the week, it seems appropriate to quote some Ogden Nash:

'The rain it raineth on the just

and also on the unjust fella,

but mostly on the just 

because the unjust steal the just's umbrella.'

Rudolph?

These jaunty deer were running alongside my car this morning.

rainy days & Mondays

Even the kitty is bummed that we've no sunshine today.  Ah well, it was a good day to hang out at the mechanic's and get the brake pads replaced.

And my garden (and most of the county) needed some moisture.

Have learned to take the flash flood warnings very seriously 'round here.

 And now, with all the windows open, it's time to take nap~soothed by the sound of water.

First affordable cherries of the summer!

eggsellent

Something about having cheese & eggs & a crisper full of veg~all on the edge of expiring, coalesced with Bastille Day.

Asparagus & shrooms and garlic on top of ricotta and feta.

 Made pie crust with fresh thyme rolled into it, topped with sauteed leeks and more mushrooms.

Topped with curls of Parmesan for that tinge of crunchy brown.

Yes, it's 104 outside.  But after awhile, hot is simply hot and you go about your day.

Viva la dairy products.

read-y

I cannot remember life prior to reading; feel fortunate to have been born into a family of readers.  Something about this summer is triggering all kinds of childhood memories and many of them revolve around books--trips to the library, story time every single night, hours of discussing authors and plot lines.  Think I've mentioned how I enjoy traveling with my entire clan as everyone unpacks their suitcases.  Of books.   I love how my cousin and I can be having an intense conversation which is suspended in silence as we walk past gigantic bookstore windows.

It is bizarre to me to enter someone's home which is bereft of books.  What do they DO with their brains and free time?

It's been a marvelous summer of reading; what a luxury to own a library card and have access to almost any book in print.  Have been trying to keep track of the books I read this year~an attempt to remember author/titles for recommendations.  Am able to recount entire plot lines and describe the cover art, but don't always remember the title/author.  

Nothing better!  May you have many excellent pages of reading this weekend.