Monthly Archives: February 2020

wait.

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 hidden and waiting to be found 

 

 

“it is a joy to be hidden but disaster not to be found.” 

― donald winnicott

cloudy, with a chance of sheep.

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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.

“listen to the silence, be still, and let your soul catch up.”
-scottish proverb

speed decorating.

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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

adjustment.

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the origin soup 

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

glittery wheel of misfortune.

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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

clearly.

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may you see love clearly on Valentine’s Day, and every day.

believe.

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first tooth out

 

“i still believe in santa, the easter bunny, the tooth fairy, and true love.

don’t even try to tell me different.”

-dolly parton

 

the real deal.

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“i am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.”

-g. h. hardy

 

 

chela’s restaurant and taqueria, ann arbor, mi, usa – winter 2020

solving.

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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

 

little dark house.

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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