expedition, o/c/h, lady

* We plan our expedition assiduously, checking our watches (phones, really), endeavoring to complete our mission with the least amount of stress pounding into our overheated bodies. I aim the car into a 30 minute space. Not the best location because it is just by the corner and pulling back out of it is problematic. (I like using 'problematic'. The possibilities of the problems possibly presented are plural.) Time! Ready! Go! He carries the basket. Many comments I have received about that basket. Time is evaporating! He returns! Home now with salsa, burrito (we share), queso. No margs this time--too early in the day. 

* The ottoman/cassock/hassock I have had forever spilt its seams last week. The top removes to expose a hiding place which no one knows about unless they pick it up weirdly. I have secreted in that place telling myself I definitely would remember my secretion many times only to forget and done without stuff until I remembered (usually in the middle of the night). Whether or not I remembered in the morning was a challenge. If my mother were here she would not rest until she recovered the o/c/h for me but she is not here, she is resting in the netherworld. Solution...duct tape. A little store I attend has a limited supply of dc. I do not like to go to big stores. The red xed tape does not quite match the red of the o/c/h however it all is just as comfortable.

* "There is a lady in the drawing room."

Stephen, planner, entice

* Apparently, this year is being written by Stephen King. A friend mentions 'The Twilight Zone'.

* I bought a 2021 monthly planner. Earliest purchase of a year's planner. A fat, intricate, glossy, expensive planner. By gosh, 2021 is going to happen for me. Fast. And it will be the year I fill up every planner page with things I did:purty pickchurs, lovely dreams, and joy.

* Books on shelves that entice me away from what I am suppose to be doing.

mudlarker

* A real gem...Knowing, acknowledging,  another person's joy and satisfaction. I follow the page of a London mudlarker. She shares photos of her finds in situ, while held in the palm of her hand, and cleaned up. She wrote, "Friday evening, on a quiet, dark and sultry foreshore, the river finally gave me what I've been waiting 15 years for...a medieval pewter pilgrim badge. I danced a jig, I squealed and I haven't stopped smiling all weekend! St Osmonde, mid 15th century and the only hand that's touched it in almost 600 years is mine." I am deeply appreciative of and am fascinated by people who give their whole heart and energy and being to their non-confrontational, positive  interests and passions. She has found a quiet oasis in a bustling city as she with surgical gloves and knee pads searches in the muck of a tidal river. It is people calmly, quietly, evenly getting on with living that are brilliant. They are life's real gems.

tunes, travel, clock

* Long not thought of tunes bubble up from Girl Scouts, Broadway shows, '50's and '60's. I sing. Someone jokingly talked about jumping off of a bridge='Ode to Billy Joe' popped up in my mind.

* My post isolation travel list grows. St John the Baptist in Inglesham, UK (near the origins of the Thames) + Crovie, Scotland. Dreams are necessary.

* An analogue clock that does not 'tick' loudly.

early, fan, sampler

* Eyes half open, I approach the outdoor chair and manage to fill the seat. The cool dry air brushes my cheeks.  The day is still new and fresh with possibilities. The dogs freely  explore the night's drama of the south forty. Oops! Something may be in the tallest tree. I dissuade their barking and they are distracted by the tall ornamental grasses. A salad before breakfast? In the winter they path the snow close to the fences, patrolling. Summer now and the heat will fall on us soon. Time for dog food.

* The reassuring rumble of the attic fan.

* A framed sampler sewn by my  mother back when my daughter was learning her letters.

hollyhocks, Eyam, photo

* Stiff vertical hollyhocks of pinks against a building whose weathered boards are painted ochre. Silica + aluminum + ferric oxide.

* A book telling the Eyam story. My first instinct is to find the stories of living through disasters.

* A photo of me sitting on a wall in Santa Fe taken...12 years ago.

much to report

* Maybe working on little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.  Haruki Murakami

* Lavender cut to dry on my desk, the book table, in the bathroom. When I walk by I activate the air and I am engulfed in sweet lavender aroma.

* Patient morning dogs who wait while I toddle to the back door to let them out. 
The one who sleeps on my bed corner was watching me wake up this morning so we reclined there communing until his stomach growled.

* A room mate who sets mouse traps and empties them. Why are mice coming into the house in June? They usually wait until the deep fall cold weather invades us. 

* Joan Hickson's interpretation of Miss Marple. I have never viewed the complete series so this is a jolly treat. The props, the set details are delightful. The period clothing. I want to be Joan's Miss Marple. Anyone for a cuppa?

* I paused my writing of Gems because I felt rather like a tree falling in a forest with no evidence of a human hearing the sound. However just today I received a hint that people do read my words.

* When the trees are delivered the guys notice the lilac in bloom. We trade understanding looks when one mentions the delight when the breeze circulates lilac aroma as we sit quietly in our gardens.