On New York Streets

Things seen on the streets of New York are frequently not what they seem at first blush. It wasn't hot enough to fry an egg ... it hasn't been hot enough to wear shorts, much less fry an egg. That fact helped me determine that this.....

wasn't a science experiment gone wrong. Sure did look like it for a minute though, didn't it?

Just so no one is worried...

I did NOT superglue the cats to the bathtub...... Romeo would probably have let me do that if I talked to him sweetly but Clem would have known right away that something was up and that would have been the end of THAT!

They just sat there for a long time and seemed to simultaneously discover interesting things to look at in the bathtub. I can assure you there is NOTHING but them and the umbrella in the bathtub.

Have I mentioned

That it is raining in New York?
That it has rained for 16 of the last 20 days?
That I am not talking about little splashes in the puddles here, but that I am talking about
gullywashers (If we had gullies).
OK, I am talking about GUTTERwashers with thunder and lightning and hail...oh yes.
I am talking about dismal, depressing droplets falling from the skies, and no matter how much we pretend tomorrow might be better it rains again.
We are talking about rained out baseball.
And, finally, we are talking about how when I put my dripping umbrella in the bathtub,
two furbuckets take refuge, in case it starts raining INSIDE next.

Farm Food

There is a Community Supported Agriculture distribution point just at the top of my hill. I tried to join last year, but they only take subscriptions at the beginning of the season, so they waitlisted me til this year and I split the share with Miss Ella's Mom. We got our first pickup today and I was quite pleased with how it went.

We got Garlic Scapes, Scallions, Kohlrabi, Kale, Swiss Chard, Bok Choi, French Radishes, a little pot of oregano and thyme plants and Romaine. Because we also split a fruit share we got Strawberries also. Everything was really fresh and in good shape, and it runs for 20 weeks, so I am going to be eating a lot of vegetables for the summer.

We split it up and I came home and went into cooking mode. I sauteed the bok choi and some scallions and a bit of the garlic in Sesame oil and mirin and soy sauce til just barely done, microwaved the Kohlrabi til just tender and also microwaved the Swiss Chard in chicken stock and the Kale in vegetable stock and marinated the Strawberries in Balsamic and sugar. The Romaine just went into the fridge with the radishes.

While I was doing the microwaving, the rice cooker was making mushroom rice, so now everything I need for a couple or more days is ready to go.

For dinner, I made a little bowl of the kale, bok choi mix, the broth and some rice and it was yummy. I sprinkled some slivered scallion on the top and it was perfect. If this doesn't help with Weight Watchers I am going to give up!!!!!

I will still go to the farmer's market on Thursday, as splitting the scallions only netted me about 4 and I could eat those in one day, but my shares ended up being about $10 per week, and if I can just stick with the cooking and not go crazy, I think it is going to be an interesting food summer.

The strawberries with a little vanilla yoghurt were a perfect dessert...... well, it would have been more perfect if they had been dipped in chocolate first.

Hair!

No, not the musical and not mine, either. There is a heaping pile of it under the hallway bench....

And a lighter ...in both color and weight ... dog on top of the bench. This was a bit better than the last time we did this, which was close kin to mud wrestling and took a couple of hours.

I took a cue from REAL groomers and put her up on the bench which gave me more control, and I did it over 2 days. This pile of hair was the main event, which took about an hour overall, but she was left with sort of bell bottom legs and feet, so on day 2, today, we spent a quick 30 minutes getting them off and smoothing some of the roughest spots. It won't ever be mistaken for a job by a real groomer, but the savings were worth it ... for me. You will have to ask her what she thinks, but....

She looks pretty happy considering she was sure I was going to kill her when it all started, judging from her shaking and quivering. It appears that all is forgiven when the events are followed by cookies.

I've been reading different stuff

My 'mystical' side is running amok lately, but these two books have me captivated...

The first is Breakfast at the Victory by James Carse. I started it years ago, sort of drifted off without finishing it, and stuffed it into the bookcase for future reference. I accidentally uncovered it when I was trying to "organize" some portions of the monster bookcase in the studio. I was pulling all the Zen-ish books into one pile and Breakfast just fell into my hands. I am LOVING it so much that I don't want it to end. I want James Carse to move into my house and talk to me for a while. Do you think he would? He lives in New York. Maybe I could move in with him???? Oh well, I suppose someone would object so I will have to make do by saying that if you want interesting ideas written about in a way that makes you think non-stop after you put the book down.... folks, this is it. I can't quite get why the last time it didn't have the same effect, but as a friend used to say ..."Horses for courses."

Then there is Life is a Verb by Patti Digh. This one comes with "exercises" about living life more awake. I KNOW how that sounds, and all I can tell you is that Digh is a good writer who makes the ideas she presents compelling and the exercises are interesting. I have not done many of them yet. However, as anyone who knows me well knows, I have been doing the Artist Way morning pages for years and I am using some of the ideas Digh presents as jumping off spaces for the Morning Pages.

No, I haven't gone all airy-fairy on y'all. I just am really enjoying the new studio and suddenly I have a place to sit and read and think and I am loving doing it.

Anyone else read either of these? Commentary anyone? Just to show I am still running in the real world. Just LOOK at that smile.

Seen in Chinatown this weekend

Wandering in Chinatown this weekend, we came up behind these guys staring intently through a camera. I suppose you want to see what they were looking at, don't you?

I thought you did.. ...... well, two ladies with

some first class swing in their steps. Compare the figures as you go through them, you will get a feel for it...

Cute, huh? probably a student project rather than a big budget film, especially since most of the passersby were just that, not extras and anyone just wandered through, but fun to watch, and they were really working it on down the street.

My view of New Jersey

This is my view across the Hudson not including the Bridge (because I have documented the Bridge a million times already). I live just south of the Cloisters, which is now a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I owe my gorgeous, almost uninhabited view directly to John D. Rockefeller Jr.

In 1927, according to the Cloisters website, "in addition to financing the conversion of 66.5 acres of land just north of Barnard's museum into a public park—inside which the new museum building would be located—and donating seven hundred acres of additional land to the state of New Jersey across the Hudson River to ensure that the view from The Cloisters remain unsullied, Rockefeller contributed medieval works of art from his own collection (including the celebrated set of seven South Netherlandish tapestries depicting "The Hunt of the Unicorn") and established an endowment for operations and future acquisitions."

The river here is really a tidal estuary, so it is indeed a "river that flows both ways" which is what the Indians who lived here called it sometimes when the tide is changing it looks as though nothing is moving at all. Sometimes, when the river is almost still it is like living on a mountain lake. When it looks like this I send a little "thank you" to John D wherever he may be. He made a beautiful park, a gorgeous museum and a serene view all possible over 80 years ago.

Sometimes, but not always

I think that I want my life to look like this... all neat and orderly with things sized appropriately to fill the space available. And occasionally it does

However, much more often it looks like this:

I am finding that I like the second pic better than the first, and not so much desiring neatness and order from the universe.

How about you? Which one appeals to you more... and are you still out there after this looonnnnggg silence?