went to the landfill yesterday...

went to the landfill yesterday morning. at 10 o'clock it was already very hot outside. the landfill makes me sad. one isn't allowed to take things away but only deposit them. people throw away perfectly useable items rather than donating them to thrift stores etc. as we were unloading household waste i noticed someone had dumped bolts of fabric. perfectly useable fabric! i waited until the attendant wasn't looking and stole the bolt on the top of the pile. it hadn't touched any trash and was clean. i think the attendant became suspicious after he turned and saw me shutting the truck door. he watched me like a hawk afterward. it's such a shame that for reasons of liability people can't remove things from the dump. it's rather depressing. we're a litigious nation. a pretty wasteful one too. but i guess i should be thankful that i'm free to complain of these things (patriotism!).



later in the day my brother and i delivered a new refrigerator to my father. it was a task because the unit had to remain upright so as not to disturb the cooling system inside. holding a refrigerator upright while lowering it from the bed of a truck onto the ground is harder than it looks. around father's cabin the poison oak has turned shades of bright red. it's beautiful. wild turkeys passed through the tall yellow grass. datura was blooming on the roadside. i took a few polaroids. but not of the turkeys. they're quite camera shy.

wellidy. i'm going to go watch a twilight zone marathon and eat bbq with sister and m----. hooray! fireworks are not allowed in this drought-stricken valley. sigh.

adieu.



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went for a drive into...

went for a drive into the mountains with sister's holgaroid in tow. haven't been on that road in ages. when i emerged on the other side of the mountain range i tried to take a hereford bull's photo. he stood patiently for the first exposure and then lost interest. the exposure didn't come out. naturally.


i hook my earrings together before going to sleep. it just occurred to me they look like a venn diagram sitting on my bedside table.

wellidy. time for music.

13 Milk And Honey
13 Milk And Honey
Nick Drake

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i've returned. i've lifted the...

i've returned. i've lifted the sign from the window's ledge. where are my macarons? well. i never.


had a crazy few days. took my very thin social skin from the peg in the wardrobe. wore it to a party and around the city. it's beginning to pill and it's altogether awkward. still. met some nice people. compared hands in flesh as opposed to paper. found the evidence of leafcutter bees. (nocciola and caramel salato) gelato! consumed waffles in excellent company. walked past old cemeteries and through bay laurel woods with a wonderful guide. was given a moth wing. (horse)chestnuts in blossom. bachelor's buttons. quaking grass. walked off the end of visible bridge. didn't fall. but broke my heart somehow. maybe it's the source of buoyancy. listened to the wind whistle down the chimney. the cat's weight made the floorboards creak as he circled my bed in the dark. on the train home my phone died. out the window i watched the grass move in waves. nestled down under reboso and headphones. slept with my head against the glass.

wellidy. i am sleepy to a very unpleasant degree. requires quick action in the form of walking. 

g'night.



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today was a crazy day...

today was a crazy day. it's too much to write here. but i'll mention the lovely walk i just took. i picked unripe walnuts for the purposes of making nocino and pickled walnuts. later this evening i'll make brine for the latter and a maceration of rinds and spices for the former. weeeee!


on saturday v--- and i drove to santa cruz. the drive up highway 1 is simultaneously scary and breathtakingly beautiful. on the way we stopped and ate delicious food. there were amazing views but no safe place to pull over in order to take photos. drat. i did take a couple of snaps at lunch. i will post those. made it to santa cruz. met a kind person. was shouted at by squatters. bought a few janet frame novels and one barbara comyns at the bookshop downtown. yay! 


wellidy. i must go and prepare myself for northerly excursion #2. 

adieu.


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was talking to sister. it...

was talking to sister. it went like this.


me: ...and so i read the word as "elationship" rather than "relationship." i have had a few elationships.
sister: no. what you've had are frustrationships. 
me: touche.

anyway. it is a lovely night. very warm. i am wearing some ambrette sister bought one day when we were at church street apothecary. i keep putting my nose to my wrist. there's a mosquito buzzing around me because i've left the window open. i'm going to search the interwebs for a suitable cloche to house my nepenthes. 

i am going to northern climes for a day and then a week later going again to visit friends. i will be in and out of here. consider yourself notified. i now direct your attention to the sign in the window. feel free to leave macarons on my stoop in my absence. they will be eaten upon my return. 

adieu.

ps-
sister informed me that a man who normally sits quietly and covertly listening to our conversations at black horse coffee told her that we sound like the gilmore girls. to which i said "what is a gilmore girls?" i don't know if it was a compliment or an insult. i suppose i shall never know. oh wonderful mystery of life.




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days and days...

things have happened since i last wrote here. but of course you knew that. time doesn't stand still for me in the intervals. 


the other day father visited. i had bought him a bag of dried apricots. we both love those. i handed the bag to him and he immediately flipped it over to see where they had originated. it's a habit of my father's that is so familiar that i rarely think on it. he smiled smugly and tapped at the label. turkey. i was a little nonplussed. california has something like 17,000 acres planted with apricots. it seems odd that we'd import them. i said "if these are turkish where are all of the california apricots?" my father shrugged and gave me another smile. "oh right. in turkey." it was very dorky but we both laughed. and then i said that it must be some form of international gesture of goodwill. the exchanging of apricots. somehow i don't think that that's actually the case. 

yesterday whilst watering the strawberries and mint i came upon some things lola dog had unearthed in her furtive diggings. there was an adorable antique glass bottle. very wee. fox's clam tea. there's even a little fox on a branch embossed in the glass. there was also a bright blue piece of pyrex bowl and the handle of a doll's cream jug. needless to say i did not salvage those. but the fox bottle is now holding a rose (the prince) from my garden. the house that i live in once belonged to my grandparents and before them to an even poorer family who used the back yard as a midden. so. it's like an archeological dig every time i turn over the soil. i've found a lot of interesting things over the years. skeleton keys among them.

spoke to sister. since she is going to have a lot of extra space i am going to let her babysit my dux chairs. i think they'll look nice in her lovely new place. and i won't have to worry about them being knocked about by the comings and goings of a passel of children. 

this morning i had some rather important matters to take care of but i failed in the doing of them. nothing i could do about that. just the way things played out. but it put me in a bit of a mood. i've recovered now though. cheerier. 

the color of the day was yellow. i donned my favorite yellow striped cardigan and went about my business. by midmorning i was walking past a bean field ringed in blooming chamomile. then i stopped to smell some matilija poppies (odor of apricots!) and saint john's wort. inside a little shop i bought a wooden spool of golden yellow thread. a book with a fox with yellow eyes. later as i sat in a sort of grotto formed by firethorn i watched a pair of linnets (house finches) make a nest just above my head. it was only about 7' above the ground so i had a good look. very pretty. i shared my lemon bun with them.





i picked up some very cool things which i will be listing in my etsy shop. i was going to write all about them here but i think i'll just let the items speak for themselves. i might augment this post with some pictures though. dunno. 

wellidy.






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i had a wonderful evening...

i had a wonderful evening visiting with sister. i hope she throws a housewarming party. even if it is a party of smallest proportions (esp if it is so). i have some things which i might gift to her for the purposes of warming house. anyway. tonight we had a cup of cheer (see: irish coffee) and watched a horror movie. quite enjoyable. and she cleaned out her closet! hooray! and she lent me shoes. the most beautiful shoes. oh my. observe.



i am not one for heels because i am far too clumsy to enjoy wearing them. but these don't make me feel as though i'll topple at any moment. and the color is so luverly. bittersweet. 

the garden is full of strawberries. pleased. tomorrow i may try to make shortcake. 

wellidy. i think i shall go and try to work on my short story. 

adieu. 


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parasol...

it's a new peter parasol! hooray! 

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last night i tried to...

last night i tried to convince myself that tapenade and wasa was a suitable dinner. the jury is still out on that one. heard a ruckus from the other room. the sounds of delighted squealing. i thought it was the sound of my nephew being tickle tortured. but no. it was the sound of nephew gleefully observing his father's failure at donkey kong. i adore that kid.


crocheted until dawn. tried to sleep. failed for a long while. managed sleep and was awoken shortly afterward by loud voices. and now i write this. bah.

there's a bran and blueberry muffin with my name on it. i go.


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the last few days have...

the last few days have been gold star. relative though. still. i'm pleased. went book and yarn shopping with sister yesterday. she gifted me with a most luverly pile of books. and i now have yarn to make socks. yay! one of the books is actually a quartet of novels bound in one. sylvia townsend warner. i already have two copies of lolly willowes. but one of them is a very delicate vintage edition with an amazingly cool binding. this new one will be a bit more readable. 


it's been raining. very odd for california in the summer. but i'm enjoying it. we went for a walk this afternoon. i took some very overexposed polaroids with my land sx-70. i have a neutral density filter somewhere but i couldn't find it. so. i just set out with some 600 pack film. i like the haziness of the overexposed film. dreamy. unfortunately when i scanned my polaroids they couldn't be appreciated without some manipulation. they look better in person. whilst on our walk we saw a huge stag. his antlers were great and branching and very velvety. i picked elderberry blossoms and king's clover. the former smells sweet and spicy. like beeswax and cloves. the ground was littered with fragrant oak moss. later along the railroad tracks i picked mock orange and curly dockweed. put everything in the aqueous blue forcing jar above my bed.

i drove sister home and we stopped for tacos al pastor. the guy who owns the taqueria where we regularly go was in the parking lot. he said, "hey! you guys are cheating on me!" we laughed sheepishly. he said, "it's okay. i'm cheating on me too! these are good." and he's right. the tacos al pastor stand is only open three days a week. so. we don't get a chance to be unfaithful often anyway. 



the polyptych is better if you view it here.

wellidy. adieu. 


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mary
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