Misfits and frogs

Thursday morning I walked to the pond and visited with a little frog who studied me, see him there?  while the turtles swam away and the other excitable frogs screamed and leapt into the water.

Home to find that the last few sunny days have woken up the zinnias again and given me a few more

And since Jeff was scheduled to deliver my Misfits late morning I put out the returns 

Catch up this week, oils because I was out of both, chocolate because, a lovely cauliflower with a cheese sauce in its future, potatoes for parboiling then roasting, cans for the food pantry, spaghetti because I forgot I had plenty, panko which is becoming a staple, apples and blueberries likewise also yogurt, bread until I get back to baking now the weather's cooler, beautiful lemons free of charge, redeemed some points, which will be slices and zest.

After this came the bit I don't like,  washing the produce. Then slicing and chopping and wrapping and zesting and draining and fridging and freezing up a storm. But I'm always glad I did the prep when I come to cook. The cooking is the fun part. The poor old sous-chef does the dull bits.

On the step is the fall pumpkin from the box. Its a sugar pumpkin so it will come in as soon as the squirrels take a bite, to be cooked into something I haven't decided yet 

Meanwhile look at the beauty of this food 

The smell of organic produce delivered quickly after picking, and the textures, all different, all lovely. These yellow potatoes make the best roast dice.

I did a meditation online Thursday evening as a good way to mark the day, and I think I'll resume my practice. I hope it will help me cope with anxiety. 

I got the news about the new heat pump, and it will be well into five figures, pretty much as expected. So I'll have to get that $$ ($$$) organized. 

I have choices of what level of quality I can go for. Partly it's a choice of what I can afford, partly it's about what level is warranted in that old and mediocre building. No point sewing diamond buttons on ragged pants.

But my main concern is that Handsome Son have a reliable heat source in winter now that the fireplace is sealed.

Aside from that, Mrs Lincoln..

Happy day everyone. Meditate. Let's remember we're not helpless. Fight back. Don't give in ahead of time, sez Ted and Big Ursy.

Great addition to May Day and White Rabbits

I noticed a reference on Twitter this morning to Basho, Japanese haiku poet, and the comment that if you read a few a day, it will carry you through quite a while.

You can't really assimilate and think about more than a few haiku of this quality a day, if that. They're so compressed with meaning and suggestion, that they stop you in your tracks.

So I looked for a book of his poems, found this on Hoopla

Read a bit and didn't like it much, full of academic argument and debate pushing the work out of the way. More of a comparative study guide than I wanted.

 I found a better version, he's written a lot, plenty to choose from. And actually bought it for my Kindle, where it's nestling in my file of Austen, Trollope, Anthony not Joanna, and ready for a few minutes quiet study daily.

I was at an online meeting last evening, despite technical obstacles, arghghg, and it opened with a reading from Richard Rohr. I can not read him in print, just find him incoherent.

 But read aloud, suddenly he made sense. Nice discovery. Probably my rapid reading interfered before. And it fits in with the haiku in concept so well. When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

Anyway one great bit from Rohr stays with me: life is not about me, but I am about life. I stayed on that for the whole meditation period that followed, until my tablet cut me off (!) I'll be back next week.

The group is sponsored by the convent where I learned goldwork embroidery and met my first Anglican nuns, still in traditional habit, and had a good time with them. It's through their newsletter that I got the invitation.

 So I was glad of the chance to remeet some of the community without driving. I'm neither religious not Anglican, but this seems like a time not to be concerned with divisions, and they were welcoming.  The leader is a laywoman, as are a lot of participants.

And now I'm off for a natter with me mates at our Ravelry knitting group.

I'll leave you with a couple of sky views from under my porch between rainstorms. I had planned to go pick violets for my first of the month flowers, but the weather's telling me to wait.

Meanwhile, Happy May Day, and White Rabbits.

Cats, Hobbyhorses, Meditating and the Monkeymind 6WS

Recently I've reintroduced meditation into the morning routine, and notice that the cats notice instantly when I start, then sit with or on me, and the second I stop, jump down and stroll away,even if I'm still just sitting.  No idea how they know, but they are tuned in.

They are naturals at not doing anything but let things pass before them, exactly as meditation aims to do and mine so rarely does.  

My monkeymind, never stopping its headlong rush in all directions, gathers up all the hobbyhorses from the fields and leaps on now this one, now that one, and creates dialogs some funny, some indignant, all irrelevant. 

What's that galloping by?  horse? monkey?

 I have to remember to let the ideas go on their way, not to follow up new art ideas, if they're good they'll come back,  not to continue dialogs from decades ago, and resume the breathing and counting, and most of all not to judge whether a session has been "good" or not.  It just is.  That's the hardest thing of all for me to grasp. 

It was a monkey riding on a horse..

All these animals milling around get in the way!