How bubbles, the color red, and blindness made my week

Here we go. Friday has shown up and in its honor I’m ready to join the Scattered Life Collective and throw open the doors so you can peek into my week.

out the window: I’ve just spent quite a few minutes looking out the window and thinking about what a perfect reflection the outside is of my inside. When you get right down to it, that’s actually always the case isn’t it? We’re always co-creating and our outside world reflects our inside one. But what I was actually thinking in this moment is that it looks like summer out there – the leaves on the trees are still green and fully present, I hear a cicada singing its come-find-me song. And yet the quality of light is autumnal and the equinox is just a matter of days away. We’ve had a mix of unseasonable cold this week and now we’re warming back. It all feels in flux. And that’s exactly how I feel inside. In flux. Unsure. Undecided. Moving on and then rushing back to the old. I am indeed feeling like my life in on the cusp and it’s not an altogether pleasant feeling.

on the menu: Farmer’s Lunch Sandwich. I have a little jar of onion jam and this recipe sounds like the perfect place to give it a try.   Today I also heard mention of something totally new to me – pickle soup! Doesn’t that sound strange and intriguing? I’ve scoped out some recipes but I’m looking for opinions – anyone ever had pickle soup? What do you think?

good things:

• The mail brought me a wonderful Pay-It-Forward package this week from Vicki – thank you!   And I’m glad for the reminder as well – although the commitment has a time frame until the end of the year, it sort of slipped out of my awareness for a bit. Hopefully I’ll be putting in some studio time shortly and getting some things into the mail soon.
• A new burgundy red slipcover for my couch. It makes such a huge difference and is making me inordinately happy. I like red in my living room, but for some inexplicable reason the last slip cover I got was a bland oatmeal-looking affair. What was I thinking?! I pretty much disliked it with a passion from day one. Now I’m much happier, and I’m reminded of how much little things make a difference to me.
• I made significant progress this week in reorganizing. Piles have been purged and clutter banished and my heart is much happier. I needed a little success and now I’m motivated to tackle the next project/room.
•  This may be my new mantra.  I certainly want to be part of a world where this is true.

reading:

The Blind Contessa’s New Machine by Carey Wallace. This is a small little read which for the most part I found charming, although I was disappointed by the ending. But I love when the exact right book comes into my hands, and this week this one felt like exactly what I needed. I also remembered that at one point I was rating things using floriography – the Victorian language of flowers. I found that practice amusing and so am returning to it, and am giving this a bouquet of Acaia which stands for Secret Love.

The second book I enjoyed this week is another short one, more of an artist’s graphic novel. Map of Days by Robert Hunter. It’s a mix of creation story and a dreamy narrative about the secret workings of a clock. My fascination with time is never far from my consideration and this too was the perfect book for me this week. More mystery than solution which is exactly how I perceive time. I’m awarding this one a bouquet of Persimmon which stands for Bury Me Amid Nature’s Beauty.

watching: I’m not much of a television watcher, so I’m almost always out of the loop as to what’s playing primetime. So it took the release on Netflix to bring this series to my attention: The Blacklist with James Spader. I’ve caught up on the first handful of episodes and I’m really liking it, although it’s true there’s a fair amount of violence I have to close my eyes to. But I’m totally captivated by the Spader character. When characters are really complex and so outside my realm of understanding I find myself caught up wondering how the series writers do it. I try to imagine their creative meetings, try to climb into their brains, wonder how they imagine these things. All very entertaining little asides free for the price of admission.

listening: Brett Dennen’s Darlin’ Do Not Fear has been a bit of a mantra during the wobbles of this week.

favorite word of the week:  mayhap (adv): by chance; perhaps; possibly.   While this is a word I’ve known, I actually stumbled upon it when I was looking up the definition of peradventure which I discovered is a synonym. But mayhap just suits me and I’m looking for excuses to pop it into my conversations.

on the wish list:

There’s so much to like about Easy, Tiger card company including the fact that they sell their cards out of refurbished cigarette vending machines.  How fabulous is that?  But given my penchant for vintage kid book illustrations and my love of bubbles, this pseudo-Dick-and-Jane-bubble-blowing card gets my fabulousity-plus dipped in amusing snark thumbs up rating.  Hmm, I wonder what flower the Victorians would assign to that?

out and about:

• Finding this charming little story about Hallie the blind dachshund seemed like a perfect followup to reading about a blind contessa.

• Wisdom in the Age of Information

• Seven white butterflies: Mary Oliver on punctuation

• There’s so much to love about Anne Truitt, and her Daybook: The Journal of an Artist is well worth the read just to get a sense of her. But here’s a wonderful excerpt from her on letting others define us.

•  Hasan Baglar bug photos.  Oh my!

And there you have it – how bubbles, the color red, and blindness, among other things made my week.  Now tell me about yours.  What’s brought you joy?  Been rubbing you?  Ever had pickle soup?  Connected butterflies with punctuation?   Do tell – you know I love to hear.