thoughts, pensées

 I had planted ordinary plain basil in my garden for what the fifth time, from seed - recently?  It was a few of those dollar store packets, 4 for a dollar, not much seed in them etc etc.. It was one of those experiments in futility I've been laughed at again and again for... but I thought, yea, why not, this time I'm standing in front of this, pondering buying and planting again as an exercise in futility perhaps, but also in hope - and 'this time for sure' as Mark says.  So instead of waiting months and putting it away for some day - I went out that very day with the little packets and put them in a pot that had been sitting in my garden getting watered - and I made sure to keep watering it, with the rest of the strawberries and such, just in case those seeds succeeded.  And so far, if I can keep water to it - they have - the basil is up and has second leaves all over that little pot.  

So, why did my other attempts at basil fail?  I don't know - I waited too long with the seed, I put them 'someplace special' in the garden that wasn't already a part of everything, and thus, they somehow didn't get enough attention?  The one lime basil I thought failed actually didn't - there are four plants, but they're tiny and I had overlooked them up until now considering the amount of seed I had planted the 'germination' rate vs the cheap packets is dismal.  But - I don't really think that anything was truly wrong with all the regular basil before - it's just perhaps luck as well as utilizing what was in front of me at the right time.  I'm hoping I'll get some good basil leaves to use in cooking later.  

 

a pink tomato variety I'm waiting on ripening

 

I thought about all this while I was pulling a strawberry plant out of a nearby brick out there, it having wandered -- and looking at that pot, and the one next to it with the last strawberry plant I pulled out of somewhere, that is also thriving there.  As I walked down to the garage with the pulled plant, asking it if it had a chance, telling it I was going to give it one, and we'll see what happened, this was the best I could do - I thought about the other situation right next to it, and what philosophically I could get out of this, besides 'keep at it', 'keep looking in front of you' and 'do what you can where you can'... basically, just keep trying.

 

The other thing I did was bring my new garden hose and fittings up from the kitchen into the studio, to be closer to the front door -- I keep passing it by where we dumped it that day putting away the groceries, and knowing I need to do the work to put it on the hydrant and check if all the fittings work together - but I keep passing it by all the same. Bringing it up here will be one less step for when I pick it up and take it outside.  I don't feel I was ready to do the project the day we bought it - it was my birthday gift - and I've been dragging my heels since.  I wonder if there is a fitting I'm missing, and yet, I haven't pushed myself to check because I don't want to break anything taking the old one off the hydrant when we need it so badly in the heat.  It's not going to do itself.  *kick tail* 

 There.  I did it.  Bringing it upstairs first, and then going out after another hour or so for the rest was the key factor.  Besides carrying it upstairs there was the cutting of all the zipties and untwisting the twist ties and unwrapping it from the coil and doing all the rest.  I didn't need any other fittings - but now I'm wondering about the old hose if it would do best as a secondary switchout (would buy another quick connect end for it) or move it elsewhere.

 

 

little butterfly asked me why I was chasing it - well, look at those colors!

It's the Fourth of July, and we're not sure if we'll do anything tonight.  I have to work for four solid days after this - so I always look at that horizon and say 'I'm already tired for next week'...  It is also going to be stupendously hot.  We bought a watermelon yesterday and cut it up, shared some of it out.  That's celebrating, right?  

Speaking of starting and keeping at it, I finished one knit dishcloth yesterday and am part way through a second one.  I know those don't take very long, but they still take some time, preferably while I'm doing something else, like listening to the French podcast or watching a movie.  If we don't go anywhere later I'll take the green and navy weaving off the little loom at the very least and tie off the warp strings, but maybe not weave all the other ends in.

my left hand picked up a pen today and I saw this little dragon nesting with rabbits in the scribbles 

The Catalan is kicking my tail today working with some of the idioms and phrases

I read an article about how many words you know in any language, and of course, it was an ad for a kind of learning software that uses that as a term 'known words' and you mark if you know it or not in all the lessons they have.  I used that software for Japanese for a little bit - but I haven't been back to it since it now wants me to join with a payment plan.  

 

But I was thinking, after reading just a bit of that - how many words do I know in Latvian.... I know it actually is a lot, since I do the vocab program (which is free, BaltoSlav) and regularly score 60-80 in a session, with maybe an average of three sessions being what I mark as an occurrence on this chart. When I do the other program (Babadum) I choose to goto 50 or 100 or 200 points, which means I got at least that many (but maybe some duplicates) correct.  DuoLingo only thinks I know about 4000 French words - but is it true, or do I know more?  It feels like a lot more there - and many more than 3000 Welsh words.  But in actuality, we usually use a small portion of the words we 'know' to actually speak the things we need to every day - unless you are a voracious writer of many topics.  *eyebrow*  

 

I decided to do a little 'reverse' Czech - that is, as if I was an English learner and using the interface in Czech - which really battened down some words for me when I am learning Catalan from Spanish (the only way it is available).  I found the same thing with the Czech - words I only previously knew one 'facet' of suddenly made much more sense and seemed more 'whole' when using them in the interface and having to select the English word for them and reverse-translate sentences.

And I mean, I like charts.  I was doing a Czech word list (that contained lots of declensions, forms of the same word) for Mark, but I'm not about to go counting them on my own for every language.  Stands back and thinks about that... tempting, but no, at least not right now, I've got other things to do. // but maybe I could do a little book in several languages, if I get any ambition towards quantifying a set of words that would be good to make a set for.  I just can't even keep track of flashcards anymore.

Tourne à droite et textiles

 

 

I was thinking on textiles again last night, and working a bit on the navy item above - and then started another small pouch one and got it almost all the way to done, in comparison, the one above isn't too much wider but the density of the weave is much much tighter.  I have that bigger rug to finish in orange and grey (crochet, acrylic scraps), and I keep saying to myself I need to make new kitchen dishcloths (knit in cotton) again.  And this is another reason I feel I don't have enough time to make a lot of things to sell at the markets right now... or in September even, as I barely make time to make the things I want to use in my home, but I'm trying to make time for that, at least.

It's going to be very very hot today, especially if it does not rain.  So, I watered the garden in the early morning and just went out and got some vegetables and milk and bread etc. this morning - and then retreated back into the cool house.  I've done a little bit of language exercise - and we were trying to get some pictures of the tile set Mark has made for my Czech spelling.

 jam, carrot, seven, hoe, tiger, dishwasher, wing, wave, claws, garage, frog, apple, cheese, straw, barn, wire

Hey, I remember them all, too!

/yawn

I really liked that 'plateau' last night that I felt, for at least that moment, that I was doing about the best I could for the day and I had done a LOT.. four loads of laundry, dishes twice, cooking, languages, gardening... and then I took time with music and that green and navy weaving until I was tired enough to sleep.

I did Greek and even Japanese this morning, but as you can see by the title. the French review is on my mind.  I should listen to some radio or podcast or something...after I do the Russian lesson.  I also still need to cook my eggplant lunch, since I settled for using up leftovers last night - the last bit of our pork barbeque leftover from last week, refried with peppers and tomato on a few pancakes and with peaches on the side- which was a huge dinner but Esme ate it with me.  

 

I had read something about the heat-related thing that my inner knee, just to the left/right of the kneecap on the inside, does swelling when it's hot, and the veins popping out there (but nowhere else, my weird body *sigh* probably harder for people with Ehlers Danlos syndrome and hEDS in general, as I'm reading up on it now) and realized I hadn't been getting or eating bananas lately because of the heat and how they don't keep so well then - and that bananas, and peaches, and making sure you are drinking enough fluids (I never drink enough normally, even when it's NOT hot, I have this thing about the pH of water and choking on it, so I drink mostly coffee and very specific liquids I have come to tolerate, like the kool-aid/tea mixture I bring cold in my thermos) and not sitting putting hard pressure on your legs all day long is the key to all of that -- I have only had trouble the past two years in the hottest part of the year with it - and it was odd I hadn't connected the bananas <--> hottest part of the year bit, but yes, I tend to stave off them for a month or two there, and I need to stop doing that and buy one or two and stick them in the fridge and make sure I eat them...  they turn black on the outside in the fridge, but a day or two they're still good to eat plain, and anything beyond that they can still be baked with

 

with tomorrow a holiday, and then work the next two days after that - I expect the variety to fall off... we'll see what happens.  I'm glad I got what I consider some of the harder languages in today.  I need to keep up with the Japanese it can get so easy sometimes to just let the words 'fall to pieces' in the hiragana and be staring at it trying to guess instead of decode and remember... but for not having done it for several months I still did good - one or two errors, and a good refresher on vocabulary.  In Greek I consistently got 'seventeen' wrong *smack forehead*.. guess there's a gap there and I've got to write it out a couple of times (along with several other words, to reinforce the differences)

 

Sauce Recipe for Eggplant :

light olive oil, water, balsamic vinegar - set in pan to heat

add 1.5 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons brown sugar (not packed)

stir while adding 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and a large squeeze of lime juice

once heated, add about 1/4 tsp of less of garlic powder (Mark says I always put in more garlic than other people can survive next to *ha*) or however much minced garlic you want 

taste, and adjust ingredients if needed - there is a taste right in the middle of everything balanced that is SO good - for stronger sauce, less water at the beginning, but you'll have to watch the soy sauce and oil with the sugar closer as well

This same sauce is really good on kale - wash the kale, make the sauce, and then put the kale in the pan with the sauce and place a cover on it, steaming the kale in the sauce.  Maybe add some red peppers to that and it would be amazing.

I baked five small thai eggplants in some sauce at 350 degrees while I made other things - but putting them in the recipe below makes their skins less hard

What I made Esme tonight : 

light olive oil

1 large tomato cut up

a good handful of frozen onion

a handful of frozen kielbasa pieces

three kinds of frozen peppers (orange, yellow and green banana peppers)

some sauce from above PLUS some smoked paprika

I served that to her beside some of the chicken rice she likes and peaches from the last of the big can we had opened up a few days ago.  I put several strips of eggplant and some extra sauce on my plate with a bit of aged white cheddar on each piece.  It doesn't look great, and it's a bit slimy, but it tasted pretty good anyway.  I never get even that good of a result from trying to cook the large 'regular' eggplants - the long skinny ones seem to be the best fit for me.  Although, I'd like to get more eggplant after another week or so and make it in the recipe to get it written down better.

bit o bit my brain moves fast, my body doesn't

 

 

We went to the farmer's market last night and spent three hours there, only sold a few plants - but we bought from the other vendors so much we didn't even break even *ha* but good sourdough bread, and a few fresh vegetables, and a big handful of pineapple mint (never seen that before, it smells wonderful) that I washed and put on the dehydrator all night hoping to make some tea with it.  I made a chicken and yellow-tomato and pasta dish for Esme and I and we ate some sourdough with it.  I crashed hard about ten pm, with dogs bouncing me up twice during the night.

So, up at 4:30 am.. why?  I don't know.  I was disturbing myself dreaming about trying to find a vanity cabinet and top for someone with a 14 inch sidesplash (if you know, you know) and it has been a good long time since I dreamt about my old work - so, gah, up and at 'em...  did Italian and Spanish and Latvian, did the dishes, fed the chickens, went out to the garden and had a very nice 'not on a schedule' shower and hair routine that I usually don't have any time for.  Did a bit of German and my Busuu Russian course.  Laundry, more kicking around the garden, water stuff, fertilize, talk to a hummingbird, look at morning glories, pick a few things (lime basil! strawberries!), make an omelette and use up the rest of my rice.  I've made more dishes.  *sigh*  I think about the 'luxury' on my plate compared to my ancestors.  I think about how much I value it compared to others - and how little it feels in comparison to something like an electric bill.  Kick around the garden a third time feeding banana-peel water and egg-shell water to a few things, and found some lemon cucumbers!

 

Did more German and Latvian again to see if anything from earlier (correcting mistakes) stuck to my head, a few did.  Wonder if I'll do French later on my phone, yea maybe.  Give a good think about whether I need to read my library book (Hello Beautiful World Where are You, Susan Rooney) or it's still depressing - still depressing, I'd rather clean - so I guess that book is still motivating somehow.  Clean things up a little, trying to kick myself to do the rest of the laundry and wash some bedding.  It would be nice - I have the time, but I haven't folded the clothes out of the dryer and the towels are in the washer, so I'm in limboland until I push myself to fold the dryer stuff.

 

I am planning on cooking something a bit more elaborate for lunch later - thai eggplants and tomato - and yet, Esme won't really like that, a bit more limboland.. but we have pizza if they want something else.  Nod.  I should bake more as well, finished the last of my homemade pound cake yesterday.  I should pick blackberries if there are any - but I've already kicked around the garden three times now and it's going to be hot later.. if I get into things, I could end up doing a lot, or I could just pick at the edges and water and weed here and there and think about a hundred more things than I do.  <--that's me in a nutshell.  And now I've had all that breakfast and it will probably hold me for quite a while if I get involved in something else, so I'm wondering about pushing lunch to dinner.  I should make some more rice, but the glass container I put up the rice in (to serve for several meals) is now in the sink.  

 Sit down and write this.... it's not even eleven am!

the lemon cucumbers - they were hiding under leaves on very small plants - but they're ripe and ready to be used in sauce.

updated : my ambition fell off after dinner and I just did French review on phone, and then again on computer

noon : folded the laundry. *there were no fireworks*

Planted three potatoes that were in the chit stage, and some old white scallop squash seeds that needed to go out or throw out.  Saw a little skink run across the wellhouse and it was yelling Panic!  Minion thought that was hilarious - and she was following me a bit because it was shady there.  She watched me give water to the chickens, and hung out in the weeds.  She said no I'm fine, you go inside, I'm going to sit here and watch the birds.

I wanted to add that I've been doing something new for the past few weeks with my email.  I took a night to just EMPTY everything I didn't need.  And now I delete almost everything every morning out of all the folders - and basically, whenever I'm in there - if it's not save material it's gone almost immediately -  it's a little weird thing but I know it makes other people feel better and somehow I feel it's nice to see it empty as well, not stacking up in the thousands, who knows what is hiding in the depths sort of thing.  Modernity.  Gah.

nine pm - good, did things, felt like I made some progress on things, made rice, cut forage of lespedeza and ragweed to feed to the chickens, gave the dogs a treat of scrambled eggs, made a good dinner for Esme and I, watered the garden again (and Esme fed chickens, and I fed cats), Mark and I watched a movie, I finished the laundry, did dishes (again), wove a bit on two different projects, listened to some music while I did that, and sort of felt a plateau