Today I was laid off. And it is a good thing. I have been unhappy at work and I had an opportunity to get a package. I took it!
I am now in transition and my last day will be in May. I really don’t have any definite plans other than to enjoy the summer. Come fall, I’ll look at school or potentially part time work.
Yipeeeeee!
Mom in her 20’s
It has been seven years since my mother died. April 2001. It seems like yesterday but also seems like forever. She was born at home before WWI in Northern California and lived into her 80’s. I never knew her as a young woman. She divorced her first husband after my half sisters and brothers were teenagers. Shortly after, she married my dad. I was born a couple of years later when she was nearing 40. (Thanks girasoli for the idea)
Mom – I miss you.
Just married – She smoked until into her 70’s
Family picture from 1960 – I loved the rickrack she sewed on my dress.
Family picture from 1963 – She lived in this house until her death
And it’s simply irrational weather
Can’t even hear myself think
Constantly bailing out water
But still feel like I’m gonna sink
Under the Weather – KT Tunstall
It had definitely been irrational weather. It is almost April and it has snowed on and off this weekend. But in between the storms, there has been patches of sun and crisp temperatures. I took a moment during one of the breaks to go for a walk down at the ferry dock. The tide was out and I headed north along the beach at Bracketts Landing. It was just what I needed. There was a large flock of black brant geese. They were feasting on the eel grass. I think they winter over here and will soon be heading for Alaska to breed.
Come along with me on my walk.
Interesting log
Fishing net float – Look at those clouds on the horizon!
Waves lapping
Nothing interesting in this tidal area other than barnacles
Flock of Black Brant Geese
Weathered Shell
Crab shells
It was not too cold for this man – he waded out in shorts and barefeet
Lights out, Candles lit, I-pod on batteries, Sequence for entertainment – Earth Hour 2008.
Tonight is Earth Hour. I’ve known about it for a while but I wasn’t certain if we would participate. This is the second year that World Wildlife Foundation has sponsored the global event to bring awareness to global warming. I read about it first on NW Hikers. Several Slow Travelers living in cities which are participating mentioned it on the board.
We decided to participate. We’ve pulled out the cards, the candles and we are getting ready to turn off the TV and lights. I’m looking out the windows and it has started snowing again. I just heard that the Seattle Space Needle will go dark.
I’ll report back in an hour.
G strained his back at work last week. Yesterday it snowed. So much for the plans to go and view the bulb fields in the Skagit Valley.
It did give me time to catch up on reading my favorite blogs. It started with Sandra blogging “It was the day my grandmother exploded” . What a great opening line. She was looking for the opening line of Pride and Prejudice – “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” This single line says so much. She went on to blog about several of her favorite opening lines.
Next to get caught in the web of opening lines was Andasamo. She brought in more great lines such as excellent opening lines from Gabriel Garcia Marquez. And also some killer pictures of bookcases. My bookcases are boring. One is fulled of travel books and the other is filled with plant books. Novels get put away in boxes.
Annie continue the meme and gave us more great opening lines. She has included several of my favorite authors such as Tom Robbins and Jim Harrison.
I was intrigued and googled some of my favorite books. Here are a the first lines of few of my favorite books.
“Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.”
George Eliot
Middlemarch
“My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.”
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
“She stands up in the garden where she has been working and looks into the distance.”
Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient
“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”
Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar
“Dr. Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse.”
Louis de Bernières
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”
Isak Dinesen
Out of Africa
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
George Orwell
1984
A squat grey building of only thirty-four storeys. Over the main entrance the words “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” and, in a shield, the World State’s Motto: “Community, Identity, Stability”.
Aldous Huxley
Brave New World
“In the last quarter of the twentieth century, at a time when Western civilization was declining too rapidly for comfort and yet too slowly to be very exciting, much of the world sat on the edge of an increasingly expensive theater seat, waiting – with various combinations of dread, hope, and ennui – for something momentous to occur.”
Tom Robbins
Still Life with Woodpecker
“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”
Jeffrey Eugenides
Middlesex
It was very interesting to see an in depth discussion of the opening line of “The Stranger” by Albert Camus. I loved this book when I was in college. In French the opening line is:
“Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.”
It seems so simple but the translation varies – “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.” or “My mother died today, or perhaps it was yesterday.” It is discussed on Wikipedia – I’m going to put this on my list of novels to re-read.
So what are the opening lines of your favorite novels?
A week or so ago, G said he thought we were past the last frost. I was not as certain. I’ve remembered several years where there was a cold snap late in March. Officially, the last frost is not until mid April. But this is the first year that I’ve remembered snow this late in March. I don’t think it got above 37 degrees today.
I finished the taxes and then ran some errands. At the store I overheard a woman say “Was it Easter we just celebrated or was it Christmas?”. Out in the garden department, women were standing in the snow buying geraniums.
It was slushy and wet but the traffic was snarled already by 2pm. Fortunately I made it home before it got really bad. I opened a bottle of wine and relaxed. Kitty was intrigued by the snow and spent some time in contemplation observing the flakes.
I won’t like to go out to lunch. I prefer to make something interesting on the weekend and eat at my desk. We have a central lunch room but I usually just microwave something and bring it back to my desk. Since G doesn’t eat meat, I usually can indulge during lunch.
It was rainy, windy and wet on Sunday. I didn’t really want to go to the store so I dug around through the pantry to come up with something that I could make. Ah hah! Lentils. I had some left over vegetable broth from last weekend’s risotto plus the classic mirepoix ingredients (carrots, celery and onion). Perfect. Lentil soup.
Cruising around on Epicurious to see if there was anything different. There really was not but I did find this recipe for French Lentil Soup which used exactly what I had in the house. I decided to make a 1/2 batch and add a bit of spices to the soup – a bit of bay leaf and fresh thyme. It was done in less than an hour and now I have a couple of days of lunch.
French Lentil Soup
3 tablespoons extra–virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery stalks plus chopped celery
leaves for garnish
1 cup chopped carrots
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 cups (or more) vegetable broth
1 1/4 cups lentils, rinsed, drained
1 14 1/2–ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
Balsamic vinegar (optional)
Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium–high heat. Add onions, celery, carrots, and garlic; sauté until vegetables begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Add 4 cups broth, lentils, and tomatoes with juice and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium–low, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 35 minutes.
Transfer 2 cups soup (mostly solids) to blender and puree until smooth. Return puree to soup in pan; thin soup with more broth by 1/4 cupfuls, if too thick. Season with salt, pepper, and a splash of vinegar, if desired. Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with celery leaves.
Note: – I added a 1/2 bay leaf and a sprig of thyme. I also added an additional cup of water since my lentils were rather old and needed to cook more. I definitely recommend to puree 1/2 of the soup to give it a better texture.
Mt Whitney from Alabama Hills near Lone Pine – Eastern California
We do not celebrate the Spring holidays. I do look forward to the seasonal rebirth during spring. But without family near by, it is another holiday that goes by the wayside for us.
I did succumb the influence of food advertising for Easter and made a lamb roast on Wednesday. It was so good. I also made a potato gratin and steamed fresh green beans. G does not eat lamb so I bought a nice piece of fresh Alaska Halibut for him.
Saturday was nice. The sun was shining and the temperatures warmed up. It almost got to 60 degrees. We got out into the garden and did some weeding and mulching. But unpredictable Seattle weather took revenge on us and this morning was dark and rainy. Not a typical drizzle but rain. Sunrise services and easter egg hunts planned for Sunday were rained out.
We drove down in the miserable rain to the Seattle Center to see a very good IMAX film – Grand Canyon Adventure. It was lovely to escape to the desert for a half hour. I’ve been fascinated by the politic of water here in the west. My parents lived and worked in Eastern California before they married. They remembered the old timers telling tales of the lushness of Owens Valley before Los Angeles bought up the water rights and turned the valley into a desert.
The book “Cadillac Desert” written in 1986 is one of my favorite non-fiction books. He detailed the battles and challenges for the Colorado River over 20 years ago before global warming. So much that he wrote about is coming true today.
But the river is powerful and the results of years are beautiful. I’ve visited the canyon twice and I still want to go back. One day we hope to either hike or raft the canyon.
