ICE ICE BABY :: Best discovery of the month at the office: ICE! Yes, we have a giant ice maker that makes beautiful ice. In fact, there is one in every kitchen on every floor of the building. How this alluded me for the past 7 months I do not know.
What I do know is that I can now make myself Iced Soy Decaf Lattes as often as my little heart desires…And I LOVE Iced Soy Decaf Lattes.
rain feels like your kiss
letting me go under the weeping willow
hold me as I change
under the willow tree scraping my knees
my fistful of hair
I care where your scars are
my fistful of mystery under the weeping willow
hold me in your skin
under the willow tree
my hair is like long leaves raining– Anatomy of a Tree by Laurie Kutchins
Raspberry Jammin ::Usually once a summer I’ll take a berry picking trip. I’ll get lost in the monotony of picking or get competitive about picking more berries than whomever I’m with and come home with more beautiful, delicate little raspberries than one can possibly consume in the 3 days before they go bad.
SO, I’ll freeze a few, make one outrageous dessert, and the rest…Well, they get turned into Raspberry Jam. On the one weekend a year I pick berries and make jam I am “a slave to an age old trade”. You see, my grandmother grew up on a farm in Iowa where she made jam every summer. She in turn taught my mom to make jam. My mom in turn would drag my siblings and I to a berry patch every summer. We weren’t allowed to leave until our 2 gallon buckets were each filled with berries. Once we made it home we would sit and smash berries in bowls preparing them to be jam. We deemed this act “jammin”.
And now in my adulthood, I continue the trade each summer. This year’s jam turned out wonderfully and I sent a jar to my grandma for her 89th birthday. My grandma, who has not been well these past few months, called a few days after she received the jam in the mail to thank me for sending it. Here’s how her thank you went: “Thank you for the jam. It is sooo good. I’m not sharing it with anyone(aka my grandpa). If you know who(my grandpa) knew about it it would be eaten in one sitting and it’s too good to let that happen. So, I’ve had my caregiver hide it from him and only get it out for me.”
Oh, how I love her and am so grateful for her in my life. Someday too soon she will not be with us and I will miss her forever. She has always and only been a wonderful, consistent, supportive influence in my life. I am lucky for that.
In the midst of figuring out how I will say goodbye to this woman the act of “jammin” was somehow comforting this year in a way it hasn’t been before. Knowing that a hard goodbye is coming soon the idea that this “age old trade” will live on made me smile…and shed a few tears.
Every night, as I’m falling asleep, I have grown accustomed to hearing the incessant roaring of my neighbor’s motor cycle. I’m certain the thing will never run as he wants it to, but that doesn’t stop him from spending atleast an hour working on it each night, usually starting about 11.
These days, a new sound has been added to my bed time routine. Ready for this: the honking of geese. Yes, my other neighbors brought home 4 geese the other day. I’m not sure their purpose. They might be pets, as they do spend their days meandering in the front yard the way a dog might. Then again, perhaps they are only intended to be eaten since currently there are only 3 geese left and we spotted the 4th being captured alive in a bag and taken inside.
My first Whimsey Box came in the mail yesterday. I have been waiting for this moment for 2 months and finally the little bundle of joy arrived. And guess what? I am utterly underwhelmed. The contents of the box were embroidery thread and chain to make bracelets – that’s it.
I have 2 more boxes coming in the next couple months so I’m hoping that this is just a bad whimsey month and my next two boxes will bring me pure delight. C’mon whimsey people! Your concept is so cool, wow me next time!
notquitedhaka.com 