Any Given Sundry

Blue Apron Experience – Thumbs Up!

Yakiniku-Glazed Eggplant with leftovers! After two consecutive weeks of Blue Apron deliveries I have to say that this was fun, challenging, and I learned a few things.  This was actually the last of the three meals in my first delivery, but I’m posting the photo first because it was my favorite meal.  Really delicious. I ordered the two-person vegetarian box, which means I received three meals…

Yeah, I admit it. I’m jealous of my many friends who are exiting north in search of the total solar eclipse that will sweep across the U.S. on Monday, August 21. Indiana people, check out the map!  You’ll get about 86% at 2:24:37 in in Whitley County. But it will be 100% in Paducah, KY.  4 hours from Bloomington! Okay, still quite a…

Blue Apron Whole Grain Pasta & Summer Vegetables, plus makings for a Caprese Salad Anyone else curious about this? Thanks to my niece, Arispa, I received a free Blue Apron shipment. These are the ingredients for the first meal I tried. Note the adorable little packet of butter! After much anticipation, the Blue Apron box arrived around 3pm on Friday.  I unpacked and took pictures, of course!…

Must have picked 4 or 5 pounds of grapes from our vine today. Quite a nice surprise! There are about this many more waiting to ripen. Just beautiful on the vine. Dodger gets a kick out of picking them off the stem. Perfect size for him he ate 8-10 in one sitting!

25 Bookish Things About Me

My most recent acquisitions. All about the art. Thanks to LKD over at Gin & Lemonade – With a Twist for inadvertently giving me a really fun writing exercise for this lovely Saturday morning. You can read her elegant and funny list by clicking HERE. I don’t finish books that I’m not enjoying. This sometimes creates an embarrassing gap in my book list. I’ve kept a list of the books I read for…

It’s 105 in the shade in the back yard, so goodness knows how hot it is on the west side of the house this afternoon. My smart mother suggested this easy fix!  I cut slits in an old busted up umbrella so the wind won’t catch it so easily and put it over the rose.

Temperatures are supposed to rise over 100 degrees every day for the next week.  Laying low on the edge of the desert.

Where There’s Smoke

Samantha Fields talks about her process at the Museum of Art & History in Lancaster, CA on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Dana and I went to see the new MOAH exhibit “Made in the Mojave” with our friends Teresa and Mary last Saturday afternoon.  (Great new tradition, I hope!) I fell in love with Samantha Field’s work, especially these wildfire paintings, so I went back on Tuesday for her artist’s walk…

Pink about 3/4 of the way to the finish.

Scene of the yellow.

Some images from the couple of days after the Run for the Color, when we returned to the park for our regularly scheduled morning walk/jog.

Does anyone else see a heart in that tire track in the middle of the color leftover from the starting line of the 5K?

I downloaded three apps and spent an hour of my creative time this morning trying to blur out the writing on the page next to my journal drawing of my new uke. Finally,  in frustration, I cut up a nearby junk mail envelope and used it to mask the writing.  Score one for analog? I doubt it.  Here is a photo of the actual ukulele. Also, an “I Give Up” to the temptation of a nice instrument. (I am…

After the dance Louise and I saw a wonderful performance of Bollywood and regional Indian dance given by Karmagraphy at the L.A. Central Library last Sunday.  https://videopress.com/embed/1AuJV4kl?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0 This is a snippet of one of the dances. So energetic and fun! Made me wasnt tho go back  to Zumba. The whole audience was up and dancing at the end when they showed us…

Before and After Hat This morning in my writing,  I remembered the old hat I found in Mom’s closet. It was one of her mother’s old church hats.   She let me play with it,  but it didn’t take long for me to see that it wasn’t really my style. I think I was nine or ten. With permission,  I deconstructed the hat and wore it for years,  till I lost it somewhere in the field between the woods and or…

I also purchased a little black notebook during our visit to the Keats-Shelley House in Rome. The lettering is actually white. I carry a little notebook with me most of the time. It’s great for shopping lists, measurements, addresses of places I need to go (though these are migrating to my smart phone), and flashes of brilliance. (ha!) Right now I’m using a little notebook with Apocalyst embossed…

I don’t really need another mug, but we had a nice chat with the owner of Recordis Barcelona and I liked this image a lot. Recordis Barcelona is a fine gift shop with locally sourced wares.  The owner would rather sell books and antiques. He said he turns on the music in his shop when he comes in, and when it stops 8 hours later he closes up. I went back another evening, because the shop was just…

Yeah,  when I visited the Keats-Shelley Memorial House in Rome I bought a tee shirt imprinted with this quote from “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats. What would he think, I wonder, of us traipsing around in our underwear? Big John Keats fan as a teen. I transcribed the opening lines of one of his poems onto butcher paper and hung them on my bedroom wall.  “… I have fears that I may cease to…