Madness in america, a happy tale of good fortune and flowers on the deck

 

This is as red-white&blue as it gets in this house. Fourth of July is not a thing without a rodeo , a barefoot summer night and a tequila sunrise - still cool temperatures here and nary a rodeo for  a couple hundred miles! 

Just another day.

While out and about I dropped in to the thrift store. I bought little Pyrex bowls and a T-towel from the Cotswolds . I nearly bought a red  tin chest to keep the orphan supplies in one location but it was ten dollars and the orphans are really just fine living in their basket. 

 I bumped into my friend Michelle whom I have not seen for too long! She used to work in the thrift store but quit due to changing of the guard. The new owners are assholes. Anyway, she said that one of the worker women there went to the  casino for lunch one day. Not a gambler really,  played with the slots for about ten minutes. Just messing around, eating a chicken sandwich while pulling the one armed bandit to burn calories... She bloody well WON half a mill. Promptly drove back to work to say, "Adios Y'all, eff this effing  job". 

Then I popped into the old lady shop and bought this pretty little piece of cloth, so finely woven, plus this hospital puppet. Remember them? 

Back in the polio days women's organizations made them for  children in hospital. 

When fireworks start their stupidity I will be so glad to not have a dog or cat in the house. NOT a favorite holiday. Even more loathsome in this year of trump, who has taken everything we love, trashed it, and walked away with billions of dollars in his fat pocket. Geez, where did this seriously piece of  crap come from???  

America, you do disappoint!

My one poppy is opening- the deck is flowery...and two more babies showed up!  That makes four babies for  one -eyed -mother girl. That's more like it!

Have a day- find a tequila sunrise maybe, take the edge off. 

 

 

 

Babies have arrived, winter summer days, a pain in the ass pill

First of July , coming home from the eye guy. 54 degrees. Welcome summer.

After only two red light treatments for the eye that must be saved, there is a  noticeable difference. It is not a placebo effect or wishful thinking - I do not employ "wishful". Cautiously optimistic, maybe?

The two mothers brought their babies to the deck for the fist time in their little raccoon lives. Look at your foot- that is the size of the newborns. ( providing you wear a  girl size eight) They toddle, unsure of their grounding . Sort of flippy floppy.

   Two Moms and three babies. Fewer than any other year.  

 

Mother thinking "these the pebbles taste like...dog food." I gave her an egg and strawberries. Much better.

Flora Jane graduated from preschool along with her mates. She is the  smiling one, front row , of course. 

Finished her dance recital, going back to the car with roses in hand. Big kid all of a sudden, though tiny in stature. 

Off she goes to summer camp-

Dennis has Piriformis Syndrome- painful,like sciatica.  Fritz left  quarter tablet oxy's in bubble packets after his hip surgery. He only took about four quarter tabs. That seemed to be enough to lessen pain. I offered a quarter to Dennis but he said NO, like i was offering fentanyl or a life of crime! He would  much rather gimp around in pain , I guess. Maybe he believes that oxy, with its bad press, will lead him to being homeless , forlorn, chasing an addiction  in a downtown alley...whatever, dude. As a consequence I asked that I not constantly  hear about his horrendous pain  every bloody step.  I am concerned , mind you...but  also frustrated. 

Geez, take  1/4  of a pill, Man. He is  thinking that walking to the bay will benefit the nerve /muscle pain. His body, his choice, as they say. He likes to be the boss of his own body  ( who doesn't) and tends to ride things out. A conqueror!

I am opposite.   Pain is not my friend, nor my favorite teacher. When I spent days scraping the asbestos goo from the ceiling, up and down ladder, hauling heavy goo crap  to waste reciprocal. I did feel like I had been run over repeatedly. I took 1/4 of a pill and Voila! Born again! On with the job! Pain meds do come in handy when needed! 

Our favorite flower- Opium....struggling to become a blossom. I stuck a few seeds in with the other flowers but only one seed is taking the chance! 

Succulents are flowering as well. Welcome spring winter, summer winter, spring...winter?

 

 

 

 

 

 

fertile door for seeds, possilbe science miracle and a mystery coin.

 

I could have thrown seeds at the glass door and they would have sprouted. Rain soaked forest and yard bring muddy feet to the door. Yesterday I washed it with ammonia, windex and vinegar. The door can breathe but the raccoons don't like it . They especially do not like Windex.  

Weather still holding, Cool temperatures. Perfect. 

Pink sunsets, lavender on top. I am thinking that in spite of everything, climate change and Orange Turd, we live quite a nice little life up here in the corner, between live volcanoes and earth threat, but the politics are sane for the most part.  Day at a time, they say. 

I went in for my eye jab and all of the testing they do before hand. As an after thought the 12 year old Doctor mentioned that they offer a new treatment for dry MD, wet MD is a lost cause and will never improve, will just hold for as long as possible with the jab.  My left eye could be saved if the "new" option works. I qualify because  vision in that eye is still , visible... Insurance will not cover a single dime nor will medicare so- out of pocket and not cheap. The schedule is inconvenient- three times a week , drive across town, four minute treatment, for three weeks , then a four month break, start  again, rinse- repeat for a year or two. Each time I go in for the four minute treatment it is nearly $200.00  a pop. I can pay for that but , as I told the doctor, I would rather buy a new pair of boots- he laughed , but I was dead serious. Anyway, there is a possibility , a risk, a gamble, that my left eye could be restored. So, Yes, I will be doing that beginning on Monday.

As I was leaving the exam room, the assistant looked around to make sure I had not forgotten anything. "Wait a minute, you dropped something" ,he handed me a coin from the floor under where my feet were. 

It was too shiny to be mine and had a bright gold rim. "Nice coin, I said, Not mine, though". He looked at it more closely and said "There's an angel on it, are you sure it's not yours?" "Nope", I said, "Not mine-  angels don't tend to follow me around", pretty sure.

Did I just blow off a good luck coin ? Hope not. I will grow tired of keeping my fingers crossed for two years of  iffy treatment .

Flora is doing her dance recital today. I failed to get a ticket. Dammit.

Lady zucchini blossoms have arrived- no boys in the yard at the moment.  

(PS Dennis said NO these are BOYS!) I say must be pansexual....
 

Another beautiful day...
 

cold summer, art exhibit and a dead house

 55 Degrees, power outage, what's that about? Can't be because of AC s running full blast. 

Power obviously has returned- this house is useless without electricity-like a dark cold tomb with occasional beeps throughout  from "power supplies", that have not bailed us out .  

Anyway, it is good to have that happen sometimes just to remind us that when we are cut off , we are indeed cut off!  Wearing two layers. It is supposed to warm up this afternoon. 

The art exhibit that Sally and I visited in La Conner was a collection of  "quilts" made from found objects , mostly metal stitched together with wire. The artist , Ross Palmer Beecher, from Seattle now , originally  from  New England, having gone to the Rhode Island School of Design in  the seventies. She is a clever one! My photos are lame, I apologize to the artist and  to blog pals.  Anyway, here are a few...

Bullet casings, army camo, military medals that sort of thing-

eye in spoon in the center of this piece.

A metal palette in the center.

Probably the most delicate looking piece . Ross's exhibition  took up the entire museum space of four large rooms. There was too much to take in in a short amount of time- I could have stayed and looked for days! The artist cut tops  from  hundreds of spray cans, made metal cookie cutters and some found cookie cutters, incorporated muffin tins, jello molds , kitchen gadgets, pennies, bottles, porcelain babies, fabric, tin, dimes, teeth, glass, bottle caps etc. Just about everything you might find in a tip. I must go. again and spend more time with her art.

Purse of pennies , the center is a revere ware kettle bottom cut from the kettle ,stitched with wire  to the pennies. 

 

dolls in bottles, I turned them around to see better, they were all horizontal and blended in with background of textured metal.

45s incorporated into metal that represented the title of the songs. 

This one is "wild thing"  ( you make everything groovy)

Knights in white satin....

Cut off spray paint tin in the center- a wall of them in one "quilt".

Quilt remembering the invasion of  Murder wasps during the summer of Covid.

 The photos are just tiny sections of much larger works, too big for my  phone camera. A half-assed idea of Ross's  truly exceptional exhibit.

 

 

 

Perfect day for an andventure!

Before leaving for the day the fragrance of the newly bloomed lily caught my attention. The sun comes out, the blossoms come out. A cool morning about 69 degrees. Lily should be bottled.

I quickly looked up a few addresses where I have lived. The ranch in the desert isn't even on the google map any more, the address is but the ranch is gone, nothing but sage and sand... The house below is where I first went when I lived in London at age 26- in Finchley - still there.  We lived in the ground floor  flat, pleasant enough but I preferred being closer to London central. So, that is where I went.

 Nice to see the house again, still intact and charming as it has ever been.

 

Sally picked me up and off we went for the day.

 Drove the scenic route to La Conner where we met Mary for lunch and a walk about. We ate outside on the deck on top of the ebb and flow of the sea. The dramatic sloshing sounded  like a toilet  continually flushing. We exchanged gifts and caught up a  bit, talked about leaving the country...again...talked about climate change. Talked about the inevitable but feeling a little reassured because we live in a bubble up here. 

Mary had to leave before traffic into Seattle , hug kiss, and there she went. Sally and I walked around more, Sally bought a blouse, I bought a card. We went to an art exhibit that had just opened that very day so was free and truly astonishing and very lucky . I will show you the work another day. So clever it deserves its own post.

Zoltar told our fortunes, mine was right on and very good. Positive and lucky- as personal life seems to be anyway, so no surprise! Zoltar knows! He told Sally , the most hyper person I know, to relax and rest. Zoltar , smart! For a dollar you can hear what you already know...

 From La Conner we ,again, drove the scenic route and decided spontaneously , to turn left to Taylor Shellfish farm on the  shore of Samish bay. 

Did  we eat a bag of Richards? link here. No, we did not , we settled for pear cider and pickled herring with beets and seed crackers. The evening's most perfect Breeze  lightly salted from the sea, a refreshing lilt. 

The rock mountain sides are  chock full of tropical  fossils.  Cross the railroad tracks and there you are. Funky,local, honest, good. shellfish .  been there forever but only recently turned in to a dining place. 

Outside, again over  sea  slosh.

                              

 

An LCM-8 anchored resting from its work for the day. Military design, steel hull repurposed for oyster farm- a happy little worker!

 

The little light house , encased in oyster shells, kids love it as well as the climbable breakwater. A few skinned knees but , you know, childhood skinned knees a given !  Parents allow the kidlettes   free range   while they take a moment to relax with a good brew and a nibble.

 

From there we took a little side jaunt to where I lived in the village on the bay. Sally and I used to pick apples from the tree in the front yard, smoked  home grown weed, and drank cheap bubble wine. Heavenly days in the village! Soon to be "developed" by some asshole for $$$$. The ecosystem will be murdered, traffic will increase to a level of impossible and there goes utopia!

My trail to the bay-

 

Fresh water spring traveling into the bay with no way out. We got our super fresh water from the spring back in the day , delicious. 

See the trestle joining the land-  that  piece of string?  There is a small opening in the causeway that does not allow  water to flow sufficiently therefore causing a thick built up of slimy mud covering the  sea floor. The trestle was built in 1920 without consideration for the ecosystem.  a quick fix that  has not changed since . Houses being built on the hillside contributed . The bay is icky to say the least. I used to get stuck in the deep black goo, lost my boot a few times  but continued to rake for crab . Probably poisoned my brain. That   serves as one of my many excuses...

There is a tunnel on one side of the trestle - no shoulder at all so if the train comes while you are in the tunnel, you are dead, if you are on the trestle there is a chance of leaping into the water to keep from being killed but the temperature of the water will kill you more slowly, about  eight  minutes. 

On summer days we walked the coast line to the tunnel, waited to hear  if there was a distant rumble, if there was we abandoned our plan.  If not we ran on the tracks through the dark tunnel screaming until we were on the trestle, walked the tracks to Woodstock farm on the hillside  through gigantic foxglove, petted the cow and the sheep - then walked back through the forest rather than cheat death again. 

 Came home, Sally stayed for a bit reading some old letters that she had sent me when we were in our twenties. The adventures, the travel, our crazy action packed youth- A fine day.

Today I go in for another GD eye jab and a drive home by braille.  Not my favorite! 

I hope that y'all are not roasting, if you are, come here- today it is 59 degrees. The plants are happy. I am happy, Feeling COOL y'all!