Musings

What a mess in Japan—and some places along the west coast of North America. We have fond memories of overnighting in Crescent City, staying on the opposite side of the road from the harbor now reported as devastated.

Had a root canal today, which I wouldn’t mention except that this fella used a variety of new technologies which, knock on wood, have made it less traumatic than the previous ones I’ve had (moderately crappy teeth; thank you, Mom). I’m attributing my okay-ness to him, because the tooth was holding a goodly amount of infection—so that he called it “hot” and “angry.” Not what you want to hear about your teeth. Loving this getting old stuff…ha!

Posted at 6:10 PM | Comments Off on Contrasting shape and scale

That’s me playing the (iPad GarageBand) bass. Believe it or not!

We bought a new app today! And it’s super-fun!

Yes, the new GarageBand for the iPad. Wow! It is sensitive to the amount of pressure from your fingers, recognizes when you drag the “strings” of the guitar or bass sideways, and myriad other seemingly impossible, powerful features.

Actually, as I understand it, since the surface of the iPad only can tell if you’re touching it or not, ya gotta wonder how it can be pressure-sensitive. I have it on God Good Authority (yes, from The Guru) that it senses minute changes in the position of the iPad that result from your pushing, and translate that into touch-pressure. So the total iPad movement is a proxy for screen touch-sensitivity. Cool!

Y’all know me, that I don’t tout apps and that I have little in the way of musical talent, but this, THIS, I recommend!

Posted at 7:12 PM | 2 Comments »

One of my all-time favorite books is The Desert Smells Like Rain,* by nature-writer Gary Paul Nabhan. Originally from the Lake Michigan shore in Indiana, Midwesterner Nabhan has lived for years in the arid Southwest.

He’s an ethnobiologist, which means he’s interested in how people use plants. Nabhan has worked with the Native American peoples near his Phoenix area home for years. He tells the story from which he got the name of his 1982 book:

Once I asked a Papago youngster what the desert smelled like to him. He answered with little hesitation:

“The desert smells like rain.”

I’m with the kid; dry dry lands don’t smell much when they’re desiccated. The rain changes the plants and soil, releasing lovely smells.

I suppose that’s a tenuous peg for this photo of the camellia today. The rain came down hard for quite a while. I presume the water accumulated to break some of the blooms away from the plant, as several dotted the ground around the plant. This flower, however, weathered…the weather.

* There’re two editions of Nabhan’s book. The subtitle of the 1982 original (the one I have) was A Naturalist in Papago Indian Country. The 2002 edition is mostly the same, but the “tribe’s” name has been updated, so the subtitle is A Naturalist in O’odham Country. The Tohono O’odham, formerly called the Papago, are desert peoples whose territory used to be the Sonoran desert, where today they have a reservation in Arizona. Read more about the Tohono O’odham Nation here. I mentioned another Nabhan book, Cultures in Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story (1998) back in fall 2007 when we visited the Indiana dunes where he roamed as a youth—on another rainy day. What’s that mean? Two rainy days; two days with GPN thoughts….

Posted at 5:23 PM | Comments Off on Imagine the smell

I see Lugano (Swiss-Italian* border)—that sounds like travel; but, Florence, Alabama? That makes me laugh.

Love the Moon Pie touch….

* Hint hint. Okay, sortof hint. Think Delta.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

We took an afternoon ramble to TJs under uneven skies. They were brighter when we set out than when we returned. Many of the Malus, Pyrus, and Prunus trees (apples, pears, plums) that used to festoon the neighborhood have been sent through the chipper, but a few pockets remain, and they’re in their glory right now. Love the delicate pink of these petals!

Posted at 5:47 PM | Comments Off on Love the red car!

This is what I call a documentary photo—it’s so I can remember something—with the help of many pixels.

And this one shows the amaryllis bulb in its current state. That blob to the left is the desiccating bloom cluster. Meanwhile, the bulb is sending up leaves. I guess the leaves are to gather “food” for the bulb to store for the next time around.

Cold snap tonight, so I’m glad I walked by the tomato plants I saw yesterday, and left them on the shelves. I’ll plant a few later if I can figure out a way to discourage the ’mater thieves aka rodents.

Posted at 11:11 PM | Comments Off on What’s that bulb doin’?

These daffies are in the front yard, a legacy of the border from our old walkway. I need to transplant them…. Photo from before the rain.

Winter rains arrived today, and I’m glad. I don’t feel quite so cooped up and trapped by winter’s short days and inclement weather, so having a bit of the life-giving precip seemed rejuvenating. (That’s an unfortunate circular argument; maybe it seemed timely? Something.)

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Bicolor beauties

An old variety of daffodil that came with our house. It’s in the lawn, not a flowerbed.

My new favorite breakfast is what I call oatmeal deluxe (with dried fruit and cinnamon/ginger)—and I didn’t eat oatmeal willingly for decades after a childhood encounter when I was in the hospital after having my tonsils removed. I remember I had a coloring book before I went in to introduce me to what would be happening, called Tommy’s Tonsillectomy. I liked that it had a big word in the title.

Anyway, I felt weird when I came out from under sedation. I don’t remember if Tommy discussed that much, but I was unprepared for the sense of altered reality.

I entered the hospital as an unenthusiastic oatmeal-eater, but when they brought me a bowl of light blue oatmeal* the morning after the surgery when my throat felt terrible, I felt skewered by reality and became a quiet non-fan of oatmeal. Besides, it was a gluey lump and not particularly warm.

I stayed a non-fan until sometime last fall, when I developed this recipe, with powdered cinnamon and ginger, and added dried fruit. Yum.

* Mom told me much later that someone at the hospital thought if they added food coloring kids would eat more readily. Not.

Posted at 3:46 PM | 4 Comments »

It’s apple and pear blossom time, although with most of the pears in the immediate area gone (chopped, eliminated, split and removed, various sad tales), I was glad to find this ancient and huge apple tree in the corner of the middle school parking lot, managing to hang on—and even thrive. Perhaps it gets a boost from the huge heating-and-AC unit that’s nearby?

Posted at 7:07 PM | 1 Comment »

The blooms keep coming.

As do the spell-binding products of Apple.

This new iPad (finally, have gotten used to that name, as forecast), called number two, wow!

So, opinions—black or white? I go back and forth….

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »