6/30: a June tradition

Making our Moon & June cake.

6/29: ten things with thanks to barbara

I've been out of sorts today, but was heartened by remembering the advice of Barbara (a fellow blogger), who said that on tough days you just need to keep going until you do ten things.  So:  reading Artforum, paying bills, balancing my bank accounts, proofreading for Project Gutenberg, making flight arrangements with Chris for an August trip, going into town for some errands and dinner with Chris, grocery shopping (again with Chris!), writing to a fellow presenter from the conference to let her know how much I enjoyed her paper, ordering new swimwear for the August trip as well as some replacement clothes (I let some things get threadbare or worse), texting back-and-forth with my childhood neighbor/best friend.  I'm still out of sorts, but I'm so grateful to remember Barbara (she passed away a few years ago) and have her advice to keep me company.

6/28: phone call

...with my brother.

6/27: cool morning

Perfect weather to return to porch mornings.

6/26: robert louis stevenson

Chris and I listened to Treasure Island on the drive to Tampa and The Master of Ballantrae on the way back.  We finished just as we turned off the highway and onto the road to our house.

6/25: cemetery stop

We did half of the drive home today and stopped in Cuthbert, Georgia, to walk through an old cemetery.  I took this picture of the tombstone for Aaron Lane Ford and Gertrude Castellow Ford:

6/24: ending on a good note

The keynote speech at the conference was very disappointing and frustrating, but the panel I went to after that had some nice surprises, which was additionally welcome since it was the last session I attended at the conference--good to end with food for thought and not annoyed!  In the afternoon I went to the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts with Chris.

6/23: a last minute choice

...to get a coconut iced coffee with my bagel at lunch.  It was a good split-second decision.

6/22: a better day

...at my conference than I had thought it would be.

6/21: a rainbow

...seen from the road.

6/20: alabama

...a new-to-me state.

6/19: emails

I get cathected about writing emails, and over the past week I've let them pile up.  But this morning I sat on the porch in the cool of the new day and got them done.

6/18: sharing

...a chocolate frozen custard with blueberries with Chris.

6/17: forgetting

...my worry about the conclusion to my paper while meeting up with a friend for iced tea, a chat, and a game of Quiddler.

6/16: experimenting

...with using pizza crust yeast to make cinnamon rolls.  And it worked!  Which means we made cinnamon rolls--start to finish, from measuring the ingredients to taking the baked rolls out of the oven--in 30 minutes.  This is a happy discovery.

6/15: memory game

I met a friend at a coffee shop and we played a memory game that uses images from Louise Bourgeois' Ode to Forgetting on the tiles.

6/14: using mind & body

A good beginning to my writing today, and then a good outing on the lake.

6/13: finishing with a phase

I finished typing up notes on the books and articles I read for my paper.  At times I was impatient with the process, but it ended up being really good, both helpful and enjoyable.

6/12: some good thinking

I'm behind on my work for my paper, but I am working, and today I did some good thinking (though of course I wish it were more).  And, happily, that thinking validated some of the reason for my falling behind:  my decision to re-read a novel that I thought would be a nice "extra touch" but ends up being pretty crucial.

6/11: baking

...the marinated tofu and loving it.  And then making a mini Baked Alaska because Chris often jokes that he'd like some and I thought it was time that the jokey wish became a reality.

6/10: marinating

...tofu.

6/9: more lake

In my kayak with the moonlight.

6/8: reading then lake and pier

A day of reading, and one of the articles I read--on the grotesque and Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast--was really good.

Then, to try to give my mind a break, I went kayaking at sunset and noticed that the moon was rising.  So Chris and I drove to the pier to watch the moonlight on the water for a bit.

6/7: a summer morning

...on the porch with coffee, Chris, the cats, and Artforum.

6/6: returning

...to my work on Beauty and the Beast.

6/5: making

I've been working on a new booklet of Odyssey erasures today, and Chris has been learning how to crochet lace.

6/4: getting back on track

The past week has been not-normal, and I needed to take time to process that.  I'm still processing, but I'm also feeling like I need to move back into the stream of things, and so today I managed to take a walk with Chris in the morning before the rain started, make pizza with Chris for lunch, cook some curry for dinner, write an important letter to a friend, and do a bunch of Heron Tree stuff.

Here are two photos from the walk.  A pale wild rose:

And a bug with its head in a Venus' looking glass:

6/3: cloud eggs

...for dinner with Chris.  (And he bought a great bread to go with them.)

6/2: out a bit

I still have low spirits and a cold, but I ran some errands and that was good.  One errand included picking up packages from our in-town mail place, and a Quiddler set was waiting for me there, so I got to introduce it to Chris at tea-time today.

6/1: made easier

I knew I needed to make a certain decision and I even knew what it needed to be.  But getting some more information today made it all the easier--a clearer call that I don't need to feel regretful about at all.