Just a Little Note

This is my dresser, now used as a credenza in the living room.
I have things on it that make me think of people and places I love.
On the left, is a framed set of stationery that Michelle created as a young girl.
Sweet drawings!
Next to it is Michelle's bird book.
Then there's the awesome signed print I bought some time ago called
"Sir Milton Crawford and his wife Lady Olivia Crawford
return to London after a weekend in the country."
And then there's the bright leaf "color wheel" Melissa created for an art class.
And my colored glass dishes for holding things like keys.

Every time one of your comment-notes shows up in my inbox, it makes me smile. It’s sweet of you to pop in and say hi. I was going to reply to each one of you in the comment box, but I don't even know if you'll see my responses, so I decided to write a little note here. Thank you for bothering to say hello. I should mention that, in spite of this post, I am definitely not planning to start blogging again, but I might put up an update occasionally.

I’m taking my second year of Spanish this summer, and I have just reached the first weekend of a three week term (we’re doing the work of 11 weeks of normal-semester work in three weeks, so the pace is intense). After this final summer term, I will have a two week break before fall term begins.

Today my brain is tired, so I thought I’d putter around the apartment for awhile and perk it up a bit. I moved in during the first summer term, and I haven’t yet really settled things into place. Everything is put away, but it’s not yet put away well. I’ll give attention to that later. I literally cut my possessions at least in half (again) when I moved here. I'm getting free-er and free-er! :-) We are a little bit cosier when the grandkids (and their parents) come for a visit, but we don't care.

My grandkids are growing, and I have a blast with them. Last time they visited, they helped me make Chicken Tikka Masala, and we made a huge mess, and it took a long time, but  the end result was delicious. Every time I'd move across the kitchen to work on another task, little hands and legs would push chairs across the floor so that they could climb on up to help me. What they really liked was helping to make the strawberry shortcake, especially whipping the cream with the old manual stand-up beater. The other favorite kitchen task for every single one of those grandkids was grinding salt in the mortar and pestle. Wow. You have never seen such finely ground (unusable) salt in your life! It was like fairy dust, ready to float away.

A really great book about food and cooking that I'm reading is An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler. I highly recommend it if you are interested in becoming a more intuitive, creative cook who eliminates all waste in the kitchen. It's about simplicity and grace in cooking. The book is very well written, and I think it's inspiring.

I’ll put up a few pictures of things as they are (sort of) right now (my camera batteries need recharging or I’d take fresh pictures today). This tiny apartment is not a nice apartment, but it has some pleasant things about it, like wood floors and sufficient windows. I’ve taken only a few pictures, and they actually aren't great photos, but since some of you have written to ask for photos, here they are (sorry for the rerun to those of you who have already seen these):

 Evening in the living room.

This looks and feels like autumn light, and I suppose this is apt

because the air today feels very much like autumn air.

Warm, crisp, breezy, invigorating.

Makes me want to make soup!

But it's actually too warm for that. I can wait.

The front (and only!) door. Evening again.

This is to give perspective on the size (very small) and shape of the room. 

There are my two--only two now!--bookshelves on the left. 

I bought this chair at Goodwill when I lived in the High Desert.

Then it sat in Aaron's apartment. Now it's in mine.

I love this chair. It's decades old but is in brand-new condition.

Okay, that's all.

I hope you are very well.

"Today's first lesson was in these little mountain paths.
I followed mine only a few yards further this morning
and such an outburst of beauty came.
You can never tell to what untold glories
a little humble path may lead, if you follow far enough."

(So true!) ~from the journals of Lilias Trotter