Monday, Monday, bees and mantids

This morning turned out to be fine after all. Everything normal despite looking weird before. What a relief. So I've spent time emailing and messaging people who needed to know, including  you, dear blogistas, who gave me such moral support. I did make a change in yesterday's post, to let you know promptly.

And once again the lousy radiation group website sent me a diagnostic letter which would not open on any of three devices I tried, from the link they sent, or from a couple of links I found on line. All their support function could say was consult my own doctor. About their letter they'd sent. 

I did, messaged them on their portal and literally within minutes, they sent me a link which worked, confirming it's all normal, I can resume breathing. I have a great doctor and nurse team.

So the rest of the day has been lovely, walking in the sunshine, real and metaphorical, observing butterflies -- a silver spot showed up where I've seen him before, many little brown skippers. And this friend, Boy Mantis

There was a comic scene with a squirrel who spotted the cantaloupe rind I'd put out for him, he's mad for it. He picked it up, then spotted me, a few feet away, hesitated then decided to go for it. 

Leapt up the fence, the end of the rind caught the top, both fell down again. Clearly this was now personal, and he watched me watching him, then seized the rind again,  and cleverly bit off the pointed end, took another leap and made it, rind and all, onto the fence, then vanished, holding the rind about half his body size. He deserved it after that labor.

About the bee I mentioned on the sedum, I checked this Bee Chart, and the nearest to him seems to be the Tree Bumblebee. That seems likely.

My postcards to voters arrived, complete with instructions, and an electoral list of the voters I'm writing to. 

As you see, graphic on one side, the other blank. I get to fill it out.

They suggest message wording, and I'll adapt to my own style, as I did last time I did postcarding. I get going writing now, then mail them all out on the suggested date in early October. 

This has been figured out to allow for mail delays and  timeliness. No use reminding people too early, they forget. I know from previous experience this is an effective way to get out the vote. For someone like me, not a door knocker, but literate enough to be happy doing kitchen table activism, it's a good fit.

Happy day, everyone, I hope you get any good news you're hoping for. 

I'm continuing with the Great Jane Caper, now bingeing on an eighties BBC series of Mansfield Park. Great actors -- Lady Bertram played by Angela Pleasence, what a talented family, remember brilliant Donald Pleasence in Barchester Towers?-- and Anna Massey, from another talented family, another wonder of an actor.

Neither is in this publicity still (!) but you may recognize these actors? I don't.

Enjoy your day!

Sunday morning, thankful.

The Austen film festival is still in progress. Last night Mansfield Park, appropriate for the first Juneteenth national holiday. For people who haven't read it, it touches on the issue of slavery and how Mansfield Park itself is financed by the proceeds from a slave plantation in Antigua, and the moral dilemma arising from it.

This version gets graphic on the subject, far beyond the subtleties of Austen, but it's worth seeing. One of those movies where you keep recognizing actors and wondering where you saw them before.

The potatoes are flourishing

And the Japanese maple, sunlight shining through. It's doubled its height this year. I guess it's happy.

And a recent HOA meeting revealed that the fence project is nowhere, Board still receiving material from the contractor which they haven't read, more contractor demands. 

I suspect the contractor wants out and is making it so difficult that the HOA will dump them, no liability on them. 

Anyway we're now all continuing as if the project were not happening.  I've moved the ficus again, onto earth, hitched to the fence. She may as well have the chance to put down roots if the new fence isn't happening right now. No reason she shouldn't have a good season.

And here's the latest cause for joy. Next to the latest butternut walnut bread is -- a strong cup of Vietnamese coffee. Made by boiling milk with the coffee briefly, then straining it, and it's really strong but not bitter.

It's the first time in years I've been able to enjoy coffee, the real thing, snarling with caffeine and flavor, without hideous pain in a few minutes. Not just a bit of heartburn. More the kind of pain where you have to hold onto something till it passes. Every mouthful of anything but yogurt, instant reaction.

The reason was severe side effects from a medication designed to protect my aging bones. Severe enough for scary emergency testing procedures to determine  if something really serious was going on. Nope. Just this medication attacking my entire digestive tract. I dumped the medication instantly on my doctor's finding. Iatrogenic illness, I was a living example.

Took years to recover from, and I had to quit all sorts of things. Including my little evening glass of wine, coffee, cocoa, sigh.

I was always a coffee drinker in preference to tea, and heaved a  moan or two when I had to switch to tea in the morning. I learned to like it eventually, but there's nothing as good as a coffee jolt. 

Excuse the medical info, but it explains why this simple afternoon snack is such an excitement. Wheeee, I'm back! Maybe I can even have a little glass of prosecco..

Doesn't take much to thrill some of us!

Happy Sunday!

Power house spring soup

 I still like soup, even when the weather warms up. Here's the current one. Powerhouse Green Soup. Dandelion greens carrot greens, and pinto beans, cream of. With fresh thyme garnish.

I noticed while I was thinking about this that garnish has two really different meanings. One's like this one, some extra thing added to food, and the other's about having some of your wages taken to satisfy a debt. 

So I checked it out and it turns out there's a weird parallel. Evidently the idea of an extra part applies to garnishment. It's one of the few laws going way back in time where the subject had to be formally informed, with a document, ahead of time, before the swiping could happen. 

So the garnish was in fact the piece of paper, not the taking of wages, though over time it's been applied to the taking. But the fancy extra, the sprig of thyme, was the paper. So now we know.

Wonderful day, warm enough to sit outside and knit while listening to Mansfield park with an earbud. And for looking up and finding the neighbor has been talking to me a while, unaware that I was unaware.

Views from the lawn chair  Just lovely. And as long as I remember my mask, a minimum of sneezing.

I'm told several more days of this are expected.