Howard's End is on the landing, Brideshead redux and toys for boys

Monday morning the cleaners came so I got out of their way.  I had dropoffs for the food pantry about which more later, then pickups at the library, so I stayed there.

When I found that the newer Brideshead Revisited had Emma Thompson playing Lady M, much better casting than the earlier miniseries with Claire Bloom, I decided to borrow it. Monday night at the movies.

The other pickup was 

This inspired piece of writing, which I found out about on Sue from Suffolk's blog, thank you.

It's very engaging and I've already borrowed a couple of her book recommendations for my Kindle. She'd disapprove of this, preferring to be surrounded by actual books and handling them, even ones she's had for years and will definitely read one day.

And convent schooled ladies (!) will recognize this way to hold a book. Never press a thumb into the spine, gels!

Whenever I pick up a book I hear Mother Monica's Irish landowner sharp, loud,  voice.. I daren't hold it any other way.

I used to be in a postgraduate course long ago with a Susan Hill and have often wondered if it's the same one. Turns out not, so it's not six degrees after all. 

Outside the library, in the  square where the fountain is located, they've been digging and tearing all summer and we're finally being let in on what they're up to. The fountain will move but will be there.

All kinds of fun big toys, some for picking up paving looking like hippos biting it and slinging it on a growing heap. There are also humble  spades and rakes, I was surprised to see.

My walk today was around the square, dodging traffic because the sidewalks are gone for now.

Back home I realized that the food pantry can also use condiments and I thought I had a lot of turmeric accidentally over-ordered, and many malt vinegar packets, same reason. 

I did indeed have extras and checked the expiration date on the turmeric. Oh. 2022. I was pretty sure it was more recent. I can still use it, it's vacuum sealed and good quality, but I can't donate it. 

The many little packets of malt vinegar, serving sizes, are fine, and confectioner's sugar. So Tuesday, when I'm on the way to my needlers group, I'll drop them off.  Time flies when you order too much by accident. 

I also have vital wheat gluten, kept frozen, but I can't donate it, it's also well past the date.  I may add in whole wheat flour, though, which is definitely good.

Happy day everyone, some of us are a little past our expiration date but who's counting.

Not I, sez Flufferina

Late summer reading, resting your eyes and art

Sunday feels like a day off because  one of my (many) pills is to be taken six mornings a week, and I chose Sunday as the day of rest. It means I don't have to time my breakfast, which seems like an amazing piece of freedom. I know, easily amused.

Then I started my day with this YouTube yes2next video.  It's great and you might consider it. 

Mom Aiko used 2lb  weights,  daughter April, aged 60(!) used 8 and 10lbs. I used 3 and 5 at different times.

My library, unlike one of my pills,  does not take a day off, so I went in to return Brideshead and take out the Foyle waiting for me. And I picked up a jigsaw puzzle because I haven't done one in months.

I found I'd skipped over one episode of Brideshead, so I watched the last one, by which time I was glad to be done with them, especially the popeyed Cordelia. On to Foyle!

Sunday lunch was more crisp breaded hake,  roasted potato dice seasoned with long red pepper (relative of black and white pepper but fruitier heat) and basil salt, which I'd ground from kosher salt and dried basil. 

Plus a side of portabella mushrooms sliced and cooked in butter and olive oil, with a peppermint leaf crushed and torn in. It looked like a quiet dish of food, but it was packed with flavor. 

Dessert was yogurt beaten with lime juice and sugar, blueberries added in.

My long awaited Anne Tyler came in Sunday morning and took me less than the afternoon to read, including watching butterflies and hummingbird moths 

and failing to capture them in pictures, listening to the cicadas beedling away, not the deafening ones this time, then resting my eyes, and dreaming, on the deck. Anyway, about the book -- it's very brief but vintage Tyler.

Definitely recommended. 

I returned unfinished the Lily King book Euphoria, set in some exotic part of the world among anthropologists, who, like the climate, are hot, humid and oppressive. 

I disliked it the same way I  dislike Kingsolver,  too green and intense. Which probably means that if you love Kingsolver you'll like this novel. This is a kind of negative recommendation. I'm not designed for the tropics,  even reading about them.

Gary has returned, singing to his dog, talking to his daughter and me  both at once, she on the phone, and looking well but thinner. He finds he's developed a gluten sensitivity. So I need to remember that,  when I bring baked food over. 

I do a nice fruit crumble with an oat flour topping, gluten free. That would work.  His health is less robust than mine these days, so I hope he does better. A nice dish of plum crumble would help.

Happy day everyone

It's worth fighting for. Resist! Read the preamble above aloud.

Library picks and butterflies

Since Saturday was to be hot -- feels like 90s sort of day, high humidity, of course, this is NJ after all, I got out early to the library to pick up my weekend ( who am I kidding? It's all weekend) viewing.

I've seen many clips from The Imitation Game about Alan Turing and the breaking of the German Enigma code, and I've seen and read Brideshead more than once. It used Castle Howard, a familiar stately home near where I grew up, as a location. And one of the main characters has my family name. Odd feeling of connection in a way.

And I'm ready with this on my Kindle 

All in all, enough to go along with while I considered what artwork and what frame. 

I think one of this summer's drawings, because you're supposed to show forward movement, not dusty old items you've had lying around. Particularly at my age, I'd like to show I'm still alive in art. 

I managed to be on the deck a while, despite the heat,  drinking tea, eating plum torte, watering flowers and watching butterflies and moths.

The weather and the lack of noisy humans suits them fine. I saw two species of clearwing hummingbird moths, several monarchs, a viceroy and a tiger swallowtail all zooming around overhead in the butterfly bushes. And the thermals must have been good today, a couple of turkey vultures gliding in lazy circles. 

Most of my photography was unsuccessful, but here's what I ended with, see if you can spot what's there.

This is just a closeup of lovely shapes and negative space

There's one of the turkey vultures over head. 

Happy day everyone, enjoy your day whatever it contains.