/reader

 

Win of the week: 😀 I got drawn in a statewide ebike rebate! Err, guess I need to decide if I actually want to shell out for an ebike now… I test-rode a couple ebikes before the pandemic and didn’t love starting from a stop with the throttle, but I’d probably get used to it

Looking forward to: signed up for an event this weekend where I could meet some other local urbanists!

Stuff I did:

• 13.75 hours consulting
• 3.25 hours writing
• Hung up deer netting to protect the apple blossoms but we’re concerned whether birds might fly into it… we set it up so the top is lower than our fence that they often land on, and I tied some ribbons to the top for hopefully a bit more visibility 🤞
• 45 minutes of garden putzing — trying to spend some time outside most days, whether walking or gardening (though my allergies have something to say about that 😑) — and emailed some questions to Seattle’s free Garden Hotline
• Weekend walk with my friend — skipped our usual weekday walk for a headache (allergy-induced I suspect)
• Programmed my front lights to turn on and off with sunset/rise, theoretically
• Woke up two plus hours early on Tuesday and decided to just start the day, so by the time I normally get up I’d already spent half an hour washing dishes, started the washing machine, read a paper book for twenty minutes, and walked around the block… when I brought my husband second breakfast, I was so droopy he said I looked like a wet rat 🤣 Early mornings are bullshit, I spent the next morning laying in bed instead 😎
• Baked buttermilk spice muffins (meh) and my go-to apple crisp
• Went to drop off my returns from the clothes I ordered a couple weeks ago — of course through all three shipping companies — and found more mouse poop in the car 🙄🙄🙄 getting pretty tired of this…
• Took my cat to a new vet, I think they’re a better fit
• Played games with my sister
• Debated and pondered and punched numbers and finally decided what new shades to order 🙌🪟

Dinners:

• boxed mac and cheese with leeks, peas and smoked salmon
• Morrocan rice pilaf + tomato chickpeas (omitted fennel) + pan-fried salmon (sauce)
• bean burritos with sauteed bell pepper + blackberry soda
• leftover chickpeas + pasta
• Thai takeout: swimming rama with fried tofu + rice
• mushroom ravioli + premade alfredo sauce + sauteed leeks and peas + blackberry soda
• breakfast burritos with air fryer potatoes

Reading:

• Read Cat’s Cradle: Suri’s Dragon by Jo Rioux, Bearadise Lodge by Lindsay Buroker, Her Empath by Mina Carter, Hotel Kitsch by Margaret and Corey Biebart, and Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
• Re-read Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis
• Continued reading The Notebook by Roland Allen, The Pleasure of the Text by Roland Barthes, The Arts and Crafts Movement by Gillian Naylor, and The Ordinal Society by Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy
  
• DNF’d Disenchanted & Co. by Lynn Viehl
• Acquired Junkyard by Lindsay Buroker and Tangled Ambition by Sophie Andrews (both free on Amazon)

Words I looked up / concepts I learned:

• appartenance
• friable
• dehiscence

Pretty stuff I saw:

• Speeding Motorboat by Benedetta Cappa
• Iridescent Interpenetration No. 4 – Study of light by Giacomo Balla
• brightly striped stoppered bottles by Fratelli Toso (image towards bottom of post)
• cool looking swimsuit though I imagine it would be annoying to sunscreen 😂

New music I listened to:

I’m actually an OK Go fan as these things go — like, I own and listen to several of their albums — but this felt hollow to me as a piece of art. A song in service to a video. Frankly I was kind of chilled by the initial sequence of mirrors operated by machines “dancing” in chorus lines like old-school dancers with fans (I’m thinking White Christmas, I haven’t actually seen that many musicals 😉) — even though this production clearly employed a huge crew of people.

Primarily impressive as a feat of project (and stage) management… and we saw at the end of the video that one of the “partners” was the Project Management Institute 🤣 I do admire OK Go’s commitment to practical effects. The kaleidoscope effect especially looks cool… just, why? Though I suppose it’s fine to do things just because they look cool and you can 🤷‍♀️

(If you liked it no harm no foul! I just think we should all practice talking critically about art, and appreciate that not everyone likes everything because art that’s made for everyone usually sucks👍)

Website changes:

So my whole website is kind of a soapbox (see previous section 😂), but I made myself a specific soapbox page 😉

Nature notes:

• baby figs are starting to grow
• the (invasive weed) herb robert is taking off, also the bedstraw is growing really fast
  

So simple. Only three ingredients. But, in discussing this with my Dad today another side thought occurred to me… Because of its simplicity the quality of each ingredient matters that much more. And, I believe this to be a general rule of thumb. The simpler the dish, the more important the quality of the ingredients — the mediocre simply has no where to hide!

You can use canned peas in a casserole and folks will likely never notice. Use them for mushy peas and they’ll likely be terrible.

So, with the jambon beurre I’m careful to use good ham (usually a lightly smoked prosciutto actually), a generous slather of Président butter and a fresh baguette.

I’ve tried the cheap quality alternatives to all three and, well, let’s just say it is not why I keep making them.

You only have one body. It can’t be replaced.

Just like the car or the microwave, how well you maintain them and carefully you use them will have an effect on how long they last.

But your body, once it’s done, it’s done.

So, it’s even more important to use and maintain it as well as you can, for as long as you can. Because it’s irreplaceable.

So, put the best fuel (food) in it you can. Make sure that fuel is clean and high-quality (organic, sustainable, balanced, chemical free, ingredients you can trust, etc.). Keep your regularly scheduled maintenance visits (doctors, dentist, etc.). Run it regularly at both cruising and highway speeds (regular walking and exercise). Give it regular washings and keep it looking good (clean cars run better and last longer, so do bodies). These things may cost you more, but that’s because they are better and better for you.

I like this way of thinking about it and making choices for what I do and consume based on this line of thought.

Pairs well with a conversation I had with a friend many years ago, explaining why the added expense often kept me from shopping at the wonderful natural food co-op that’s just a block and a half away as often as I should. He turned to me and said, “Patrick, it’s an investment in your health”.

All these years later, these words ring in my head whoever I shop there.

But today feels lighter.

I’ve met my last deadline, and now begin a three-month period of leave to focus on personal art and music projects. This rare opportunity is made possible by Arts Council England funding, which covers R&D, field trips and a living wage during this period.

In a few days, I’m off to a village high in the French Pyrénées for a short studio residency and lots of walking. I’m considering posting nightly updates — at least from the various field trips I’ll undertake — and I’ll see how I feel about that once I’ve settled in.

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