Musings

A fine, fine day

New perspective

We close out July with an exuberant “excellent” from the Doc’s surgical assistant. Yay!

I’ll be elevating my foot a bit more, as swelling persists…I think as it was bound to. The incision looks great (her opinion), and I’m re-bandaged (as you can see), and working at refining an overwhelming zen mental state.

My partner in all this took me on a wee circuitous route to celebrate, as we returned to the house. I could see that everything is green green green, so that I wonder if we will see the typical August browning.

In short, I’m buoyed and pretty darned happy.

And I’ve binge-watched an entire season of the British Baking Show in two days…yeah, we already saw it, but it was some time ago. Why? Because entremets. And custard. And meat pies. And…chocolate, sugar, butter…ah, flavorful world.

Swamp soccer

Seney waterlily

I just read a NYTimes article by Andrew Keh on the Finnish fun-time game of swamp soccer, played in a calf-deep mud-field…so it might better be named mud-soccer. Kew discusses activities in the town of Hyrynsalmi, so if you get there, prepare to have your shoes and socks sucked off your feet by the deep swamp-muck.

If you look up the article, be sure to scroll down to the end (ehem, bare butts).

Second life

Garden enamelware

I’m having a hard time concentrating, so today’s “product” is purely visual.

Enamelware…becomes damaged easily enough that it is removed from the kitchen to another use. As an animal feed dish, perhaps. Or for miscellaneous garden activities, as here.

Giant tank

Waiting room fauna

Meant to show the denizens of a waiting room I visited the other day. Clouds of turtles and fish….

I guess these critters are waiting for…excitement? food?

Splint-bandage history

Splint bandages

Old reality, left.

Right: today’s brand-new, post-surgery, put-no-weight-on-foot-at-all-when-moving-around model.

Judging by the info from the surgeon, on the continuum from good to not-good, my foot situation is substantially toward the good end. I’m cheered! Yay!

BTW, the newer photo was taken in The Venerable en route from the outpatient surgery center.

Adobe-colored shell-holder

Dublin by Parnell statue

This building faces the Parnell Monument that’s at the north end of O’Connell Street in Dublin. This location is at some remove from where sea-shells might be found (unless in a restaurant?), so who and why. The many cobwebs indicate it’s been there a while, undisturbed, even though it’s approximately at eye-level along a busy street.

Not smoke signals

Donegal scene

I forgot to mention two months ago that we found this incised into the gorse (?) on a hillside in County Donegal.

Mystery

Transfer print platter

A bit creepy to hear that Salvador Dalí’s mustache survives on his embalmed face. Bit gross, too.

No idea why that occurred to me as I began to compose this….

#bugonflowerstem

Pink lupine

I think there’s a stealth insect on the stem just below the second set of flower branchings, with its back to us.

Activity area analysis

Shelf fungi

Here’s another reason not to go the McMansion route, and stick to more compact housing: the distance from activity area to activity area is by definition less, and so it takes less effort to get around.

At present, my activity area is relatively circumscribed, and within reach are power cords and assorted electronica, scissors, wastebasket, remotes, that kind of thing….

Normally, I circulate among many activity areas in the house…kitchen work stations, chore loci, online work stations…. In both old and new modes, I still navigate to the bathroom. That is a victory in today’s wee world.

Archaeologists use the term “activity area” to discuss the way people used a domestic zone, that kind of thing. They are identified by clusters of remains that would have been used in concert. Some are subtle, for example, tools and greasy soil chemistry related to butchery and hide processing. Others are more obvious…the stone flakes from reducing larger pieces of stone into smaller, shaped tools.

We all have our activity areas!

We have the kindest, most generous neighbors…thanks one and all.