5/31: finishing
...writing a little essay about My Name is Mina that I thought I wouldn't complete until tomorrow.
5/29: walking
...at Cove Creek with Chris. We saw no one else on the trail, the weather was wonderful, and a new round of flowers was blooming. A wonderful way to celebrate Chris' birthday.
5/28: switching gears
I got rattled yesterday and the feeling continued into today, so I didn't think I'd be a very productive writer this afternoon. Instead, I wrote commentary and put together supporting materials for an ancient Latin inscription that's an epitaph for a dog, Margarita (or "Pearl")--and it's even in elegiac couplets. I liked spending time with the words, and I hope my future Latin students will too.
5/27: the whole-heartedness
...of the romance novels I've been reading and researching over the past two years. Their generosity and kindness toward their readers feels like relief.
5/26: a few things
Taking a walk before it got hot.
Watching a little insect flying around and alighting on a day lily.
Photographing clouds on the lake.
Getting quick help with my school computers.
Coming across the phrase "sought poem" as a variation of "found poem."
Talking with the post-office person about the Ruth Asawa stamps.
5/25: being grateful
...that The Horn Book has made its online reviews searchable for free during COVID. I used it a little a few months ago and kept meaning to go back to finish collecting possible titles to read. When I finished my commentary-writing work earlier than expected today, I decided to use the rest of my work time to explore more of the reviews. It felt really good to get that off my to-do list.
5/24: receiving
...an amazingly generous and affirming note from a friend to whom I had sent my most recent pamphlet. And in recent days I've received two wonderful and kind emails from former students.
I'm grateful for the unexpected validation from three different sources, and I'm grateful that I know these three people.
5/23: driving out
...to Woolly Hollow this morning and spending some time walking in the creek and clambering around the cascade.
5/22: choosing
...to do "work" today--even though it's Saturday (which I usually try to take "off")--because I really wanted to.
5/20: listening
...to some spoken Latin as part of the Satura Lanx free course on Seneca's first letter to Lucilius.
5/19: long overdue
I went to my campus office today to get my office computer readied for back-up and replacement. I had been putting this off for too long! I didn't get as much file-tidying done as I might have hoped, but what I did do was good (and a lot).
5/18: talking
...with a colleague and friend about a course we'll be teaching in the fall. It felt good to share thoughts, to realize that we agree on things we need to do, and then to think more on my own about those things throughout the day.
5/17: two things
I had a 7-hour online workshop today, and I was a little nervous about getting back in the mode of interfacing with folks from work again. For some small groupwork I got matched with two professors who were so good to talk shop with; it made all the difference!
When I walked down the hill to get the mail after the workshop was over, I noticed a bug I had never seen before. Once back inside, I Googled "Arkansas insect black with yellow shoulder piece and black dot" and the internet immediately came back with the identification: the American carrion beetle.
5/16: not measuring
...the ingredients for a Russian dressing. I just winged it, and the result was really good, contributing to the best vegetarian Reuben sandwiches we've had yet and making me feel a bit like a pro.
5/15: re-seeing
...a turtle that we saw in our yard a week or so ago. I spotted it the first time, and Chris did this time. (We know it's the same one because of some damage to its shell.) Its neck and face are so colorful with bright orange spots.
5/14: trying out
...a sheet I bought to photograph tree shadows. I had been noticing the shadows' wonderful combinations of light and dark, but when I take pictures of the shadows on the asphalt of the road, the texture of the road, cracks in it, and any stuff that's fallen on it are distracting. Now I have a white sheet that I can spread out to catch the shadows on a smooth surface.
5/12: re-reading
...My Name is Mina by David Almond. I think I like it even more this time around than the first time I read it (7 years ago). I just did a word-search of this blog to see if I wrote about it then--I didn't. So I'm especially glad to give it a shout-out as a good thing now!
5/11: quick in, quick out
I had to get bloodwork done today, and the lab staff was so fast at getting me taken care of. Very little waiting! Very little poking around under my skin to find a "good" vein!
5/10: lots of reading
...of different kinds. A novel. A middle-grade book. A picturebook. Literary theory. Essays on the use of art-historical images in children's literature.
5/9: a weekend
I finished a writing project on Friday and have one lined up to start tomorrow. That gave me a free-and-clear weekend. Today I enjoyed reading on the porch, doing some work on pamphlets, making tofu palak paneer, and generally hanging out with Chris.
5/8: visiting
...two cemeteries with Chris as we tried to find some gravestones for which people on findagrave.com requested photographs.
5/7: an invitation
...to photograph the irises in my neighbor's yard. She's given me a standing invitation to wander in her yard and look at her flowers, but today she stopped her car as I was walking to encourage me to take some pictures of the irises before they're gone.
5/6: smoother sailing
...than I anticipated with writing today. And in the evening I worked out a possible format for a pamphlet with some un-anxious tinkering.
5/5: pulling together some thoughts
...about retellings of the Tereus, Procne, and Philomela myth. After taking notes, I did some informal writing to get my mind into sentence-forming, complete-thought mode, and--a bonus--I was able to be on the porch with the cats while I did so.
5/3: quick help
...from a colleague at work as I tried to tie up some loose ends of the academic year.
5/2: Eton mess
After making honey gingerbread cookies this past week, I had an egg white left over, so I decided to search the internet to see if there was a recipe for meringue using a single egg white. There was! I ended up with 9 meringue cookies. We used 4 of them to make modified Eton messes: 2 meringues each, plus puréed strawberries and whipped cream. (I say "modified" because we didn't crunch up the meringues or construct parfait-like layers.) I had used lemon extract rather than vanilla in the meringues, and that gave a nice extra tang to the treat. And we have enough for another round tomorrow.
5/1: a cranberry drink
When I finished the cranberry sauce I made a few weeks ago, there was a little syrupy liquid left, and I decided to keep it. Today I added it to a lime and gin drink, and it was great.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)