hidden and waiting to be found
—
“it is a joy to be hidden but disaster not to be found.”
― donald winnicott
Litla Dimun, an isolated island often capped by its own fluffy cloud.
Lítla Dímun is the smallest of the Faroe Islands’ 18 main islands. But though it may be tiny, the islet still has the power to influence the atmosphere.
A lenticular cloud often drapes over it like a wet, vapory blanket. These stationary clouds typically form over mountain peaks or other protruding landmasses. Lítla Dímun’s lenticular hovers above its top, occasionally spilling down over the land as it reaches toward the cold sea. Of the Faroe Islands’ main islands, the little landmass is the only one that remains uninhabited by humans. But people do visit the island. For centuries, Faroese farmers have made the precarious journey to Lítla Dímun to tend to the creatures who rule the islet: its sheep.
Up until the middle of the 19th century, Lítla Dímun sheep ruled the little green haven. It’s believed these black, short-tailed feral sheep were the descendants of the animals brought to the area during the Neolithic era. But after the last of these rare creatures was shot in the 1800s, rendering the bloodline extinct, the island became home to domesticated Faroes sheep. Every fall, farmers head to Lítla Dímun, scale its slick cliffs, and round up the sheep to bring them back to the main islands.
You’ll most likely have to stick to admiring this island from the villages of Hvalba and Sandvík on the island of Suðuroy. It is possible to visit Lítla Dímun, though it’s rare to have weather that’s good enough to make a visit feasible, as you must use the ropes left by the farmers to help climb the cliffs.
olive the cat not the oil
startled for no reason
(as often happens with both of us)
jumped off the ledge
right onto my favorite lamp
startling both of us
(now for a reason)
I see it as her way
of not so subtly suggesting
a redecorating idea.
—
“my personal decorating style is cozy,
romantic and a little rustic, with a sense of whimsy.”
– k. schlapman
—
on thursday I went home with a cold
looking for comfort food
not wanting to go to the store
I made soup out of what I found in my kitchen
I put it all in a crockpot, turned it on, and waited it out
problem was
after 4 hours
it did NOT taste good
I added more herbs and some fresh salsa
I waited it out
tried again
nope, not good
added more things
now on day 4 of the soup saga
added in even more things
continued cooking
next move
add in tomatoes
but that can wait
until the morning
it’s now taking on
a creamy porridge texture
still slow cooking it
some beans still hard
still does not taste good
now a lot of soup
I could easily survive
the rest of the winter
if snowed in with this soup
it would still not taste good
but I would never go hungry
this might go on forever
like a sourdough starter
perhaps I can pass it on
to my children one day
tomorrow will be the best day ever
when the soup will all come together
I just know it.
—
“cooking is the art of adjustment.”
– jacques pepin
when my laptop charger suddenly stopped working
and I couldn’t get it to fit snuggly into
the magnetic biggish hole thing with the connector dots on the one side of my computer
(technical jargon)
I reluctantly made a trip to the apple store and bought a new charger
I took it home, tried to plug it in, and got the same results.
I then took it to my local guys who work on apple stuff
asked how much it would be to replace that part
and instead of giving me a price
one grabbed a pair of tweezers
and pulled something out of it
saying
“it should work just fine now.
it looks like a tiny piece of.metal, glitter? somehow got in the hole.”
well, come to think of it, I have had a few glitter ‘incidents’
where it was stuck to me or other people around me or on things…
so –
price for the tweezer instant repair method. free.
—
“fortune is like glass – the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken.”
-publilius syrus
a
going through my piles of stuff
i found this page
from exactly 13 years ago
when I solved my first
nyt sunday crossword puzzle
all on my own
all spaces filled
I was so happy
this was a personal goal
I had worked on many puzzles
and finally began to learn
the styles of the editors/writers
what spaces, clues, word play, patterns, punctuation, puns, word roots,
capital letters, italics, other languages, irony, humor, sarcasm all meant
I like to work in ink
not crossing out clues
not in any order
do as much as I can
walk away once or twice
then it somehow all falls into place
sometimes I master it
sometimes it masters me
now every sunday
I eagerly grab my newspaper from outside the door
and the challenge begins once again.
I attribute it all to sheer will and bit of magic.
—
‘our whole life is solving puzzles.’
-erno rubik
back in the day
when my girls were little
if there was a power outage
I would tell them
we were just like the family
in ‘the little house on the prairie’
we could pretend we were them
have lots of fun
it was okay for a while
until it got old
the novelty wore off
when there was
no pa playin’ the fiddle
no butter to churn
no humming and singing
no stitchin’ to be done
no cows to milk
then we just had to wait it out
and it was not fun.
—
“where a light can’t live, i know i can’t.”
-Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie
—
image credit: nbc tv