Minutes it took to go to the grocery store so I could buy salsa so I can make black bean cakes: 11 (On one hand, not that long. On the other, I am so hungry, they’d better be the best black bean cakes known to man.)
Mosaics that I made that just need to [...]
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Today by the numbers. 4
Your regularly scheduled adoration of Alexander McCall Smith. 6
It is time, once again, for me to talk about how wonderful Alexander McCall Smith is and how beautiful his books are. This is from the latest in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built.
She took a sip of her tea. Nothing was forever, not her, not [...]
Categories: Books
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. 1
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
[...]
The books are whispering. 6
In the Library by Charles Simic
for Octavio
There’s a book called
“A Dictionary of Angels.”
No one has opened it in fifty years,
I know, because when I did,
The covers creaked, the pages
Crumbled. There I discovered
The angels were once as plentiful
As species of flies.
The sky at dusk
Used to be thick with them.
You had to wave both arms
Just to keep [...]
Abundant life. 4
While Mike and I were away on vacation, spring apparently decided it would stop with the teasing and stick around for a while. We have been waiting for it, watching the signs. Each week at the Farmer’s Market, there have been more greens and more flowers, but food grows more slowly than the [...]
Categories: General
A Shropshire Lad, II by A. E. Housman 0
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the [...]
Introducing Mary Russell and her partner, Sherlock Holmes. 4
I have mentioned this before, but when I was in high school, my librarian handed me a copy of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King and told me to read it, that it was one of those rites of passage for girls on the Quiz Bowl team. It was a test of sorts, [...]
Categories: Books
Raise your joys and triumphs high. 4
For Easter dinner at my grandma’s house, I made a strawberry tart using this Smitten Kitchen recipe and this recipe for the crust. (I wish I had a picture of it out of the pan, but, alas, I do not. It looked very nice, though! If I am allowed to say such [...]
Categories: General
Passion sacrificed to keep from going crazy. 2
I hope we sit together when Jesus serves the wine
So I can look into your eyes when I taste it the first time
And I know there’s no secrets when you’re sitting at that table
But I believe we’ll smile real knowingly when we read the label
And it says “passion sacrificed to keep from going crazy.”
We’ll tip [...]
Categories: General
Many things made me laugh today. 2
But this was the one that made me laugh the hardest.
I know there are actual inspirational posters like this. But I am much more familiar with the ones from Despair.com. Which leads me to the obvious joke that this one, of course, comes from Hope.com. (What? You were totally [...]
Categories: Library
The ball turns in the darkening air. 1
My brother has been taking some classes at UNC, so I called him on Tuesday to congratulate him. I knew he would be deeply excited about his team winning the National Championship. Can you sense my sarcasm? Because I’m laying it on pretty thick. It turns out that my instinct was correct: [...]
Cooking, companionship, and Thai chicken. 4
This year for National Poetry Month, I am going to give you a clue about why I picked a certain poem. This is one I heard on NPR’s Splendid Table, and this is what it made me think of.
“Cook” by Jane Hirshfield
Each night you come home with five continents on your hands:
garlic, olive oil, [...]
Good things in March. 3
1. The deacon meeting was canceled because of snow. And so I don’t sound like a total heathen: Sunday service was really good.
2. SNOW DAY!
3. My class got out about 45 minutes early, and I came home and had tea and toast.
4. Two-hour delay! And my students worked hard in spite of it!
5. [...]
Categories: Good Things