Tag Archives: book club

The garden in August.

my garden, summer, , , , , ,

Today workers came, to repair and paint various places on the exterior of the house, including replacing part of a pillar near the front door, that is rotting because of all the dirt and plants around it — uh-oh. The plants needed to be removed, and I wanted to do that myself, and save them to put elsewhere. While digging I accidentally cut into an irrigation hose, but the handyman took it in stride and said he would fix it, so I didn’t need to have Alejandro over here just for that.

amaranth

Once I was out there digging and pruning, I didn’t want to stop. But I had to leave after a while and drive halfway across the county to the dentist. That was a pleasure, too, because I listened to the beginning chapters of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, which our women’s book group at church chose just yesterday as our selection. I am loving it so far; the writing is a feast for the ears; I ordered a print edition so I can read it with my eyes as well. The only other thing I’ve read by Hardy is The Mayor of Casterbridge, which I also liked a lot, but it has been a while.

And at the dentist, I had to wait, so I read on Kindle on my phone, poking around into various books I have there. There was no drilling today or anything uncomfortable. Mostly I got to talk with my dear dentist, whose family and mine have been slightly connected and acquainted since she was a child. She’s also an excellent dentist, and a mom who likes to talk with me about our families. I’m so thankful for her and other members of her family who are also dentists ! and that they have stuck around, so we can still be in the same community after all these years, and I can have dentists I trust.

When I returned from that outing the workers had gone for the day. But I got to work again, and filled my neighbor’s green bin with all that had been left over after we filled mine a few days ago. Even though that area by the front door is in upheaval, and there is a lot of work to be done all over the property, I felt, rightly, that the garden is thriving overall. The figs are coming on, and the zinnias, and what do you know, I discovered an amaranth plant!! I did throw out all the old amaranth seeds into the planter boxes in the spring, along with others in the bottoms of packets, so evidently one of those managed to sprout and survive.

Fig tree behind the giant milkweed leaves.

The tarragon is extravagant:

Willowherb

The two weeds that are thriving right now are spurge and willowherb. Spurge is ugly and covers the ground like a mat, but willowherb is tolerable, as it looks like it could be something one meant to grow, and it hides among the ones you did plant — until it goes to seed, when it still doesn’t look bad. And it’s always easy to pull out.

Two plants I had to trim severely.

In the remainder of the week I need to repot a few plants, and to plant kale and chard in the front where zucchini did not make it. The basil is abundant and wants to be made into pesto. So far I have about six butternut squashes on the plants that are overflowing on to the driveway; it seems that I should have more fruits, because there are eight plants there, in full sun, but oh well, I will be happy to have a few. In the back, the kabocha and delicata squashes haven’t done well. I have a solitary delicata, which is very small…

After our little heat wave a couple of weeks ago, it has cooled down to about 80 on the warmest days, and the smoke has not returned. I’m loving August, and so glad that I am not one of the people who has to go back to school, when there is still a lot of summer left. September is my favorite month, but August may be my second-favorite. But I know many of the U.S. bloggers I read do not appreciate this month. Whether you are trying to stay cool, or cozying up in the Southern Hemisphere, I hope you find a way to enjoy the season.

The pages turn you.

books, poetry, , , ,

YOU TURN THE PAGE

André Derain

“Whenever I see someone reading a book . . . I feel civilization has become a little safer.” Matt Haig, How to Stop Time

You turn the page because you have to know—
because the youthful wizard is in trouble,
because the wife’s about to pack and go,
because you just like living in this bubble
of graceful prose and other people’s ills
and joys, because turning the pages makes
you see things from a new perspective, fills
your mind with more than you, and maybe breaks
your heart or your routine, or breaks apart
what’s rusted shut, or else draws a connection
where you thought there was none. And once you start,
the pages lead you to the intersection
of art and life and your own empathy;
the pages turn you toward humanity.

-Jean L. Kreiling

Jean Kreiling expresses so many of the reasons that we love to read — Did she leave anything out? I do like very much — often, but not constantly! — living in this bubble of graceful prose, even when the bubble doesn’t contain other peoples’ ills and joys. I hope my reading is doing all the positive things the poet sees. I read this poem Sunday afternoon to eleven fellow readers, when our parish women’s book group met on my patio and enjoyed our usual lively discussion of such pleasures. I’m also keeping it tucked in my purse to share with any friend or stranger I might meet, anytime our conversation turns to our latest favorite books.

Peter Kauflin, Once Upon a Time

Winter food and flowers.

books, food and cooking, Psalms, , , , ,

Last night the women’s book group of my parish met at my house to discuss Summer Lightning by Wodehouse, and The Holy Angels by Mother Alexandra. I cooked up two pots of soup, and the other women brought rustic loaves of bread and salad and dessert.

Long ago I had got the idea of Cuban Black Beans from the Laurel’s Kitchen cookbook, and devised a soup with the same name to eat in winter, when the fresh and raw veggies the book’s authors suggested for a topping weren’t available from the garden out back. Now in the era of internet recipes, I discovered several recipes for the soup, and they used a sofrito, added in the last stage of cooking, made up of the peppers, garlic and onion sauteed with olive oil and bacon, topped off with vinegar and spices. This is what my sofrito looked like:

The beans in this case are cooked with ham hocks at the beginning, so it ends up a meaty and flavorful bowl for a winter’s evening. Mine was just the amount of spicy I wanted, but I’m not sure I could replicate that next time, if there is a next time. I had printed out three recipes from online, and concocted a unique stew, using parts of all of them and my old recipe, too. It took two pounds of beans, and I had plenty to send home with a few guests, as well as to put in the freezer. Because we also had Florentine Spinach Soup, which I have posted about before. Overall the women liked the soups very much.

Thanks to our member who enjoys coming up with appropriately themed foods for our meetings, we ate angel food cake last night as well! I hadn’t read the Jeeves book that was discussed, but I did read The Holy Angels, and I plan to share a bit about that soon. We all thought it was a treasure.

This morning I actually took my walk before breakfast — that mostly because I ate breakfast so late. Now that I’m putting a high priority on walking, I need to keep re-setting it at the top of my mental list, so I don’t forget. One of these days I’m sure I will forget, and then (note to self) I’ll need to take a quick spin around the block in the dark, just before bed. I wonder if this is one of those behaviors that becomes a habit if you do it every day for three weeks?

I worked some more on Psalm 89 as I walked, and the beauty of its poetry did not distract me from the startling sights along the way, whose images I have shared here. One line from the Psalm:

So make Thy right hand known to me,
And to them that in their heart
Are instructed in wisdom.

Amen.

Drinking the meadow with Heidi.

book characters, food and cooking, , , ,

Our women’s book group read Heidi recently, and then met on the patio at church one evening to talk about the book. There were ten or twelve of us, and we ate pizza and drank wine together, too. But before any of that, we were served fresh goat cheese made nearby, to connect us via our taste buds to our beloved protagonist; it put us in the right mood. And then — goat milk fresh from that morning! Some of our party didn’t want even a taste, so I drank a couple extra shot glasses myself. It tasted like a Swiss mountain meadow.

This reading of the book was for me by means of an audio recording, and I can’t remember the picture on the cover of the book we gave our daughter long ago, which she keeps. When I searched for a picture, I noticed the lack of depictions of Heidi as she is described in the story, with black hair. I guess illustrators (and movie directors, too) tend to think Swiss = blond.

I read that “thirteen English translations were done between 1882 and 1959” from the German of the original, and “about about 25 film or television productions of the original story have been made.” We talked a little in our gathering about the movies we have seen and how they aren’t faithful to the book, and typically leave out any reference to prayer.

In Switzerland tourists can visit Heidiland, where one of the associated villages was renamed “Heididorf.” I wonder if visitors there can drink fresh goat’s milk, from the morning’s milking? I bet at least one of my readers has that experience at your own kitchen table. Cheers!