Mulberry leaves and all

They emerged while we were in Kansas for the last week of March. I liked seeing early spring there with the green haze on the treetops and some tulips here and there. The KS temps were whipsawing and we saw 90 and then 58 for highs. The river was low and there were a lot of herons hunting below the dam. The birdsong in the back of our rental was restorative. Our first morning we drank coffee and listened to crows conversing. We also got to see a big heavy tree limb whump to the ground about 30 yards away one afternoon. Trees in the midwest, the mixed blessing. 

Herbs

The rosemary bush at home bloomed before the mulberry leaves came out. Something for the bees. All the thyme in the back bed has finally all died. The oregano is going strong and the mint in the pot is hanging in. I'd like to add back some thyme and parsley. I don't think I can keep basil going. I have cut cilantro from the grocery store in a glass of water on the counter right now. It's also too tender for outside. The yarrow is fine of course. I don't know how to use it though I've heard it's good for healing scratches. After some reading, Achillea millefolium, I find that it has a history of being made into tea and bitters. But I think I'll just appreciate that it comes back in the rock garden every year with no fuss.  

Interpersonals

Youngest needs to scrap this semester and come home. She is still recovering from surgery and more significantly has a malaise that makes her cry every day. I want to rescue her but can't. I hope she can weather this and shake her degree out of the tree.    

The exciting friends are well but we had some trouble there. Ran one model into the ground and we won't try that again. Drummer commented that we had gotten to deepen our relationship. True but I can think of more fun things to do. There was one particular Tiger Hotel morning that gets top marks. Nod was successful in seeing a bunch of folks. He didn't have one migraine while we were there. Several headaches since we got back. Elevation? Job stress? (why not both).  

I was glad to get home and see the Danish who is the best listener. I hope her east coast work trip is as no stress as possible. Despite the terrible news, our travel was easy in both directions.  

Music

Room Full of Teeth was wonderful but I also have nits to pick. I wish I could have heard them with no mics in that room. But that's unrealistic as their art is done with the mics and I am curious what the significant dollar value of all that audio equipment was. Maybe I would have enjoyed the loud bits more if I was 2/3 back. The Rough Magic piece was my favorite. I loved hearing the lines I recognized from The Tempest (thank you, Laurie Anderson) and kept grinning throughout at the unexpected musical developments. Oh Caroline Shaw, I love you. Her cello and piano setting of Shenandoah (composed for Yo Yo Ma) was in the last Chatter performance I went to. So beautiful.     

Artsy Movement

Paul Manship is the sculptor of the Prometheus in front of 30 Rock in Manhattan, the beautiful golden man who floats over the ice rink in winter. Here Diana transforms hunter Actaeon who is just sprouting horns and being harried by his own hounds. We saw the (lifesize-ish) green ones at the National Portrait Gallery in November 2025. The mirrored thighs, the yin/yang of movement and the distribution of dogs is beautiful. 

I love how only Actaeon touches the ground - with one toe - Diana and the hounds are free of the earth. 

I'm learning to play "In Spite of Ourselves" by John Prine. I have trouble with the syncopated rhythm but repetition is helping. Nod wants to learn to sing it together.  

I just did pushups for the second time this week. My left hand is twinging and does not appreciate my efforts. I've gotten out for walking or more four evenings in a row. Yesterday I was feeling the sore muscles over my ribs from planks. Glad I can get this movement/work in motion. We may join the Y finally. Tomorrow is the last day of their January fee waiver. 

One of my cardio sessions was roller skating at Skate-O-Mania. I'm so happy to have gotten there finally. I emailed and they confirmed that it's a wooden floor. The rental skates were pretty poor. I'll rent a couple more times and then I will feel justified in buying a pair.  

K felt over her concussion finally in mid-January. It took me most of the month to get over the humdinger of a cold I started while our KS friends were here. K is currently visiting New Orleans, two of her school friends live there. It's not exactly warm but an improvement over single digits in Chicago. 

A Visit to Winter

 

The Chicago Bean as glimpsed through bus window condensation, and through the falling snow. I like the yellow streetlight shining in the corner. We went to the big city to have Thanksgiving with K. Her housemates were on various coasts so we could all three stay in her apartment. It was a rare opportunity and I'm so glad we did it. We had sun the first two days and then a couple days of vigorous snow which was the first significant snowfall of the season in the city. We had good public transport experiences and got to see blackfri shoppers skittering through the wind and snow on Michigan Avenue while on our way to the Art Institute. 

While getting coffee one morning (I loved Fancy Plants' soy flat white, Nod had a life changing mocha at Intelligentsia) we saw someone carrying their xmas tree home on their shoulder. The city was showing us its winter beauty, not just freezing our faces off. Shoutout to the ski coat I received as a hand me down from my sis-in-law in Colorado and my waterproof boots. And our flight out was only a couple hours delayed so we got home in daylight. Abq welcomed us with sun and a temp in the 50s although it has dropped since then. 

At the museum I got to visit a set of beautiful Hiroshige prints: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. The colors were amazing and the selected prints were so wonderful and intriguing. Here's some horse butts for ya.  

Straw horse shoes! I never imagined such a thing. 

The trend continued, we got pretty snow in Abq yesterday morning. My view from the office window:

It melted in a couple of hours and there are only traces left in shady spots - the perfect ABQ snow experience. But it got cold and we feel it via our uninsulated windows. K's apartment is very cosy and we're a little envious. Nod did some real estate shopping just for fun. It's weird to think of him, even hypothetically, living in that much winter.  

Cool and slow

September is doing its thing and I am grateful. I saw a rainbow and purple asters on a walking/jogging trip this week. I love being under the New Mexican skies. 

Purple asters! They are so cheerful by the highways and all over. It may be the same plant (or similar) to Michaelmas daisies in Europe.

 

Grocery store pharmacy gave me $20 credit for getting covid and flu shots together. I will take it! Got recommended the RSV and pneumonia shots as well. Those age ranges now start at 50. Maybe next month. I'm not sure about adding those since I work at home. On the other hand, the Danish had pneumonia a couple years ago and it sent her to the hospital and was scary. 

I can feel a little feverish and off during fall and spring. I just started using my full spectrum light in the morning and maybe that'll help. I'm back on the exercise horse this month and glad to be moving again. I am jogging now and looking forward to when it will feel a bit easier. A couple more weeks ought to help. 

I've been playing my electric keyboard every day now that I've got a stand. It feels fun even though it's slow to make progress on the Joplin rags I'm trying. I have a truly random set of sheet music and am also playing from an Ernest Tubb songbook. I have a pile of classical music books waiting. I have a copy of sheet music for Railroad Blues 1920 that I'm probably going to frame for the image. I looked up the composer, C. Luckeyth Roberts. He taught himself to play piano only on the black keys as a kid. Original. "Got ev'rything I had except my shoes; He left me flat just where I'm at an' blew, that bird has flew." 

Specifics

Last night I woke up near 3am. I also heard a mosquito near my ear. After peeing and putting in an eyedrop, I felt too hot. I turned on the house fan without the pump for the white noise as well as the air movement. I was able to go back to sleep in maybe thirty minutes. In the morning the thermostat said 70F which is the first time I've seen that temp since spring. August wasn't our cool-down this year but September seems to be coming up with the goods.

Mosquitoes in the house is a scourge. We were okay through July but have been seeing them regularly inside since August started. The Instrument is a great help. 

It's a stupid design with heavy D batteries in the handle but it gives me a fighting chance. I can kill one by hand occasionally, but this way I can just swing wildly wherever I've seen a bug. The crackledy-crack! tells me when I've had success. So satisfying. 

I keep coughing and my tonsils are still swollen. I told Nod I would go to the doctor last Friday if the cough was still happening. I lied, because I don't want to go! But I guess I will. And now I have an urgent care appointment for tomorrow morning. There's still time, immune system! You could shut this shit down so I wouldn't have to go. 

I have a tender spot where the gum has receded and need to call the dentist's office. This physical maintenance stuff is work. I'm waiting to feel over my viral whatever it was (Covid) until I try walking/jogging again. My taking the month of July off extended through August. I was reminded that chair squats are helpful for stabilization and all. I managed to do those and planks once already this week. The muscles on the sides of my ribs have noticed! It makes me want to do more even though that is in conflict with a general reluctance to plank.

Ursula's latest Hemlock & Silver is delivering the pleasant distraction. Her characters are just fun to spend time with. Sounds like she has a bunch of new books coming out in the near future. I recently finished The West Passage by Jared Pechaček, which I heard about through bluesky recommendations. A weird and a wonderful combination of down-to-earth characters and wildly alien gods in a vast history. It even reminded me of Wonderland in a couple of corners - that doesn't happen often! I loved Planetfall by Emma Newman with its layered secrets that drive the plot. The sequel After Atlas is set back on earth in a near-dystopia that I found uncomfortably easy to imagine. The third one must be back in space and I will hope to enjoy that one more.  

Muse of Summer

I don't remember reading this short eerie poem The Portent by Herman Melville before. Here's the whole thing:

Hanging from the beam,

      Slowly swaying (such the law),

Gaunt the shadow on your green,

      Shenandoah!

The cut is on the crown

      (Lo, John Brown),

And the stabs shall heal no more.

Hidden in the cap

      Is the anguish none can draw;

So your future veils its face,

      Shenandoah!

But the streaming beard is shown

      (Weird John Brown),

The meteor of the war.

Green coming and going

Green Stuff

My volunteer hollyhock is being eaten by something and doesn't look very well. I'm going to transplant it to a pot and see if that helps it or kills it. But! around the same area, under the pot of prickly pear catus (which has never looked very happy) is:

Lots of baby cacti! I let the fruit stay on the ground last year and this is the result. I'm happy to have the corner get more cactus-y. I wonder what the survival rate will be. 

Paginated

I'm reading many books. Jen Beagin's Pretend I'm Dead was good after the disturbing childhood stuff in the middle. I enjoyed reading it but at the same time it felt like a less polished version of Big Swiss. Our reading group liked it okay, no one seemed elated or angry about it. I'm most of the way through the sequel Vacuum in the Dark. The title reminds me of Lady in the Dark, a musical by Kurt Weill / Ira Gershwin / Moss Hart about a woman's psychoanalysis from which we get the song Jenny's Saga (Jenny Made Her Mind Up). My mom liked to sing it to me when I was small. No idea if that was a purposeful reference.     

JB just gave me a copy of Sixpence House, Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins. I'm looking forward to that. I started a ratty library paperback copy of Dead in Dublin by Murphy. Yet to see if that will hold my interest. I'm probably not going to reread Tokarczuk's Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I read it a couple years ago for the Flashback group. I should try something else of hers. The Books of Jacob were nom'd for the Booker recently. 

Cultured

Mom gave me a birthday gift certificate to my favorite book store. I do love that there are multiple stores I like here, not just the one we had in Lawrence. Nod told me that there is so much going on in ABQ that it stresses him out, trying to figure out what he's going to go participate in. He had remind himself that there is no failure, and one person can't do it all. We are well cultured round here. JB told me that he thinks there may be eight theater companies in town. And even if a few of them should combine for optimal health, that is amazing.