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The title of this post is a Stevie Ray Vaughan song title. I was doing some reorganizing in the home office/craft room, and Delta decided to take a long nap with her head resting on a magazine photo of the late musician. She went back to sleep after I disturbed her with my camera.
I finished a mystery I was reading on Friday; I have unlimited respect for Louise Penny and her work. Her characters are like friends I rely on for humor, sanity, intelligence, integrity, and compassion. The most recent novel’s written with her usual deft ability to lure readers back to a world they’ve visited for twenty books. The plots can be heart-stopping, sometimes heartbreaking, but there’s comfort that somehow, all will be well in the end. This time was no exception except that The Grey Wolf ventured a little too close to a reality that frequently costs me sleep and peace of mind. Maybe because a lot of the current real world exhibits very little humor, sanity, intelligence, integrity, and compassion.
The next novel in the series is due by year’s end, and I hope to be a little better prepared in heart and mind. Maybe reality will cooperate and improve, as well.
After finishing Penny’s book, I looked forward to a very different novel for my next selection, the fifth in a historical fantasy/supernatural series, Deborah Harkness’s The Black Bird Oracle. I was racing through it before it came to a natural stopping place at my bedtime. I fell asleep easily, but the last section I’d read made its vivid way into my dreams with its concept of “bottled memories.” Literally, a human (or ghost, or witch, or vampire, etc.) can choose to pour their memories into a bottle and seal them inside before…well, whatever comes next.
What came next for me was a 4:30 a.m. wide-awakeness and seal-breaking on some of my own bottled memories. ETA: Over the following days, I published a series of posts that I later made private. If you read and commented on those, I can still see your comments and I thank you. I was grateful to have the opportunity to express thoughts and feelings about some of my memories.
This photo included items connected to memories in my bottle that became part of those now-private posts.
Yesterday, I spent between six and eight hours repairing all the worn spots, tears, and loose stitching on the dogs’ quilt that covers the daybed. This is one of their favorite places to hang out, especially if Tom and I are in the office at the same time.
I’m not sure what compels me to hold on to this quilt and keep “fixing” it. It wasn’t an expensive or high-quality quilt to start with, but it’s been with us through several homes and our entire dog family: Pete and Stevie; Margot and Guinness; and Anime, Delta, Jack, and Eva. They love the dog stairs that save wear and tear on their backs and legs. There are dog stairs in three rooms of our house for that reason, and they can be moved as needed. It’s not called PEOPLE Hall; it’s Houndstooth Hall because the dogs are so much of our home’s heart and energy.
I’ve decided, however, that on future occasions when I feel crafty or ambitious, I’ll cut squares from my fabric collection and hem their edges on the sewing machine to make patches of various sizes. Next time I undertake this mending task, I’ll sew those patches over the badly worn or torn spots. I’m not interested in symmetry or patterns here. I just want to extend the life of their favorite sleeping quilt.
Today’s agenda for me: more yard, carport, and patio cleanup. We have entered The Pollening time of year in Houston, so I might try wearing a mask to head off some of the sneezing. This was actually something a doctor and pharmacist first recommended when I was a freshman in college, and back then, the masks were of fabric filters and plastic. They really helped, and maybe those years are the reason I didn’t think it was a big deal to wear simpler, softer masks during the pandemic. I still use a mask in public spaces. [shrug]
Bonus photos: Delta says hello, and she misses Jim, her friend who named her.
Current Photo Friday theme: Contours.
Bubbles and birdbath: A backyard view from 2022.
Looking forward to more visitors near the end of this month, and there are still things we need to do around here. But a big project that was way overdue was getting help with our yard and flowerbeds (we don’t actually grow many flowers except in pots, unless Tim plants any around our large tree in the front yard), but we do have shrubbery and we have the Mexican petunias (aka ruellias or wild petunias) that grow outside the kitchen window, as shown in this photo from last September:
Looking back, here are a few shots of the back of the property, including this one from 2023.
And later in 2023, when we had a large, dead tree removed.
Even with January’s snow, you can see it became a kind of jungle back there. The dogs thoroughly love it that way, but it was a problem for me. It was so overgrown that I couldn’t easily follow them and clean up behind them. Also, Anime loved the stump of that removed dead tree and was eating the bark and the mushrooms that grew under the bark.
Last week, we called back the yard crew to have the stump ground down, and then, as well as cleaning out that part of the yard, they worked on all the beds, front, back, and sides, and everything looks so much better. We still need to finish mulching that back bed, and we have plans for filling in spaces back there with pots/potted plants currently scattered elsewhere on the property to get color and texture. We’ll see how it looks compared to today’s photo when I take another at summer’s end.
Along with finishing the short series I watched on Netflix, I’ve finished one little project today related to future hospitality. I’ve also handled paperwork for a license I hold. Other than cleaning out refrigerator leftovers and organizing others for lunches and dinners until the leftovers are gone (a couple of days), I’m planning on reading a recently published book by a favorite author and thinking a lot about something I found on social media in the last couple of weeks.
In relation to that, this is the writing I do: occasional commentary on (mostly) strangers’ social media; rare emails, usually short though sometimes longer; this website, which often includes poetry, occasionally flash fiction, but is mostly exposition of one type or another; and fiction. What I guess I must evaluate is what of the above points are true, because some are; some are with qualifications; and some are not at all.
Jim left for the airport before dawn this morning for the second leg of his vacation. I missed him instantly. After he left, I ate breakfast, napped, and spent time outside with the dogs. Then I continued this week’s house and home theme by removing everything from the breakfast room cabinets pictured above, cleaning all the contents and dusting the shelves, then Windexing the glass doors. And POLISHING THE SILVER, as That Old Woman™ (Tim’s trademarked name for my mother) would have wanted. I also cleaned bathrooms, did a load of dishes (the dishwasher is probably in shock over all this attention), and a load of laundry.
It’s a LOT more fun to hang out with Jim and the Houndstoothers than do housework. I need the staff of Downton Abbey.
Me and two of my writing partners on the night Jim cooked stroganoff for us.
From The Tiny Book of Tiny Pleasures:
It was the last night of Jim’s visit, so we did Thanksgiving in March for fun!
On the menu: turkey breast, cornbread dressing, fresh green beans, fresh squash casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and rolls.
I also prepared a dessert table for the pies we’ve been eating since Saturday that included apple, peach, and Key Lime, but we forgot all about dessert because of the lively conversation. Family and friends: what it’s all about.
One of my house and home projects is to clean the display cabinets in the breakfast room, including the glass shelves and doors, but especially because I’m way overdue to polish the silver. I got a tiny head start today by polishing the butter dish given to my parents on their 25th wedding anniversary by Aunt Lola and Uncle Gerald.
From “Studied Benefits Of Mindfulness Training” by Jon Kabat-Zinn, comes this perspective for nine attitudinal factors that constitute major pillars of mindfulness practice: non-judging, gratitude, patience, a beginner’s mind, trust, non-striving, acceptance, letting go, and generosity. According to him, these aren’t independent of one another: each relies on and influences the degree to which you are able to cultivate the others.
A lot to think about there.
On the house and home front, once we knew things were okay with the dishwasher, I finished cleaning and organizing under the sink. Some bottles and cans related more to tile, grouting, etc., went outside into our lean-to room. This is what’s left.
Since I was on the floor and had cloths and stainless steel polish at hand, I polished the dishwasher door, the front of the stove, and the trash can. Still need to do some counter appliances and the refrigerator door. Spring cleaning has commenced, though. My mother loved this stuff. I…do not. =)
Jim is visiting, and Saturday night, after a game of cards, he retired to his guest room, Tim went home to bed, and Tom and I were almost finished washing dishes (he washed; I dried and put away) when I noticed some water leaking out under the dishwasher door. We almost never use the dishwasher, because when I cook, I wash as I go; other times, we take shifts washing up afterward depending on who cooks. It’s recommended that you DO use your dishwasher, at least once a week, but with only the two of us, it seems like a waste of water. Plus I’m one of those people who finds dishwashing relaxing.
Apparently, for some reason, water was pooling in the bottom of the dishwasher. We hadn’t had any backup into our sink and no problem with the garbage disposal, so we weren’t sure where the water came from or how long it had been there. Tom and I together used two of the small cups I save from our laundry detergent (to use as water cups when I paint) to bail water from the dishwasher into a tub, which we emptied outside twice. Then he used towels to soak up the rest and dry out the dishwasher, then threw the towels into the washing machine. And we crossed our fingers, hoped for the best, and went to bed.
This morning, I woke up to find he’d moved about half of the contents under our sink onto the kitchen counter. The rest of that stuff was in a movable rack we keep under the sink. We’d cleaned out a couple of filters inside the dishwasher Saturday night, and he cleaned out a hose that had some gunk in it this morning. Then I cleaned and partly reorganized under the sink.
Tonight after dinner, we had the real test: doing a load in the dishwasher. All went as it should normally, so we’re hoping that’s the end of the drama. I’ll finish organizing the cabinet under the sink Monday.
I suppose my theme for the week will be house and home projects: cleaning, maybe some organizing, and a few other things that have been on my to-do list for a while.