between the boxes

A quick and quiet weekend of piano lessons, painting, and helping the parents unpack boxes.

Huh. The 3rd time IS the charm.

My first attempt at Hollandaise had some egg white bits in it. Last week's was tooooo lemony. Today's? Perfection.

the serendipity of the sesame chicken

Helped with the tail end the parents move yesterday. As the kitchen was buried in boxes and it was their anniversary, we popped out to see what food is in their new 'hood. Imagine our delight to find an amazing Chinese restaurant with a full veg menu. We may be a few miles from the culinary yumminess of SF, but we've found a new haunt.

Grateful that they and their belongings are safely back here and they're settling in to a gorgeous new community.

bookended with beauty

Some pretty weeds noticed during the morning commute.

Voila~la peinture est fini.

A pretty bit of twilight as my day winds down.

self-soothing

Painting is my newest tool to deal with the atrocious traffic that now bookends my days.

V. pleased with tonight's progress!

delish

While my students have been generous over my entire career, I feel as though the past few weeks, I begin a lot of my posts with "a student gave me". Today's gift was fresh lychee! Not only was it fun to have it again, we got to teach several people on campus what it was and how to eat it. My kind of education.

in which the baby devours chocolate

As my nephew only eats white or tan foods and my middle niece has many food allergies, it is super fun to watch the youngest eat everything.

We had a family dinner tonight with fresh brownies to celebrate the parents' safe arrival in Virginia.

what are years

Was supposed to volunteer at the National Crossword Convention, but just wasn't in the mood to do any kind of customer service. And, as it's been farrrrrrr too long since I've done a city ramble, and! the humidity was low~to The Mall I went.

I suddenly feel the need for a wall of succulents.

I've been walking by this sculpture for years and never noticed this homage to Marianne Moore's poem.

Happy June~may it be a month of fireflies and long lazy naps.

evocative

is one of my favorite words

Today's student gift was these magical balbas. 

They are half a size too small, so think they will go to my sis or her eldest daughter. But, oh. They brought me joy for a few hours! 

She also gave me a jabaalon (which appears to be gorgeously handmade) and I have the perfect earrings to go with it.

The workday ended with Aamco telling me that my sensor was reporting something about the gas cap. D.E.E.P.L.Y. grateful that it wasn't anything. And? If the sensor goes back on, the garage will check everything for free. And while it's close to work, am thankful that a colleague gave me a ride as a summer thunderstorm poured through just as I needed to pick up my car.

vicissitude

Yes, just one. The 'check engine' light went on this morning, juuuuust as I merged into traffic. But I made it to work and got a great tip from a colleague to go to Aamco because they will do a free assessment of what's wrong. So, my little car goes in tomorrow morning. Finger's crossed that it's something simple/cheap like spark plugs that hate the humidity.

A student gave me these lovely beads today to match my lemon cardigan~I wore them as a necklace all day...not realizing that they're prayer beads. Ooops. Still some cultural learning to absorb.

We are welcoming nine new students next week for summer session. Ought to be fun. Another teacher is going to do my cooking class and we've got a younger crowd, so the field trips ought to be more frequent.

And my frog decided he wanted to live with the jasmine. Once the ladybug has eyes, she'll get to pick her new abode.

screaming goats

A beautiful little moon cake from a student~while I generally love all things pastry, have never really warmed to the concept of sweet black beans. But, the gesture was appreciated.

While I know it's been around for a few hundred years or so, I've discovered pickling is the perfect thing to do with veg that I can't eat before it turns. Currently, I'm just doing a simply vinegar brine, but will soon branch out into peppery and garlic sorts of brines.

Delighted to get a butterfly sticker in the mail.

Started a rock painting project with my Littles this weekend and got to the second layer tonight. My middle niece introduced me to the latest Grinch movie (yes, why not watch a Christmas classic when the humidity is laying the entire region into limpness?) If you haven't seen it, all I can say is "screaming goat". While it's probably only 30 seconds of the entire movie I've been laughing for two days over it. And yes, the movie is actually quite good and worth seeing.

perfect hollandaise

for a perfect holiday dip for artichokes.

a bit of the bucolic

Cute summer score at GW.

Making good use of my resident pass at Meadowlark Gardens.

Looking forward to introducing my niece to the Fairy Garden.

Evidently, pigs can fly.

Love that every time I come here, it's a different sort of garden. We had cherry blossoms and jonquils. Then, azalea overload. Now, it's all dogwoods and the ending of the peonies~they got pretty battered in the Thursday storm.

My prince is still hanging out at the pond and reading a good book.