Photo Heavy

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Friday Photo Array

I’m plum out of ideas for blog posts lately. So let’s look through the photos on my phone and see if we can find anything remotely interesting.

(Why yes, I do realize it’s Saturday now. Shhhh. I’m in a very Late To Everything phase right now and it has apparently seeped over into blogging as well. As Carla kindly but firmly told me yesterday, as I was apologizing for dropping her off to an event more than 15 minutes late, I really need to “get it together.”)

This was Proof that I went for a walk on October 1. It has been so warm lately, and I’m so glad I loaded up on athletic shorts this summer. These are my favorite: they are so comfortable, and I like how they have the tight shorts with a pocket for my phone, but the floaty top layer so I don’t feel like I’m wearing a bathing suit. Strangely, though, I also really love these biker shorts. They are long enough that my thighs don’t chafe and they also have a pocket for my phone and they are very comfy. Anyway, I have been taking a page from Engie’s book and walking without listening to anything. I do still take my phone, though, and end up taking lots of pictures of the things I pass. I love these grasses; they are so fancy. Probably there’s some evolutionary/reproductive reason for their fanciness, but I enjoy them purely for the aesthetics.

I cannot resist photographing a pile of pumpkins. They are so pleasing! This particular pile was at the farmer’s market my family and I visited when my out-of-town friend was staying with us. Why don’t we ever go to the farmer’s market on our own? It was super charming and there were so many dogs. The only thing I bought was a bunch of icicle lettuce. It was so beautiful I couldn’t resist it.

Ah yes. I tried to take an artsy photo of the chicken soup I made as a post-surgery comfort offering. I do not like chicken noodle soup, and I did not enjoy making it as it involved dealing with bone-in, skin-on chicken. Ew. But the recipient seemed pleased, which is the important thing.

Cat in a box.

Carla loves to take random photographs with my phone. Someday I should do an entire post of the photos Carla takes. I’m guessing it will be an array of Leo shots, snaps of toys she wanted me to buy that I said “put that on your Christmas / birthday list,” and pictures of things she wants my mother to paint. This sky photo is one of the latter; she doesn’t 100% understand what makes a photograph paintable yet. But the cloud pattern was quite delicate and lovely, I’ll give her that.

This is one of the planters in my backyard. I quite like how it turned out and I took a picture of it so I can remember which plants to buy next year. I packed the planters so full of flowers and plants, and so many of them got swallowed up by the more showy plants. So next year I am sticking with Coleus, whatever this vine-y plant is, and the white and pink flowers. (Are they impatiens? I should probably figure out what they are.) The petunias just don’t do well. Those little blue flowers on the left weren’t a good fix next to the more voluminous foliage. I got some wonderful balloon flowers for some of the other planters, and they were too small to show up. Maybe I need to try to propagate some to keep inside my house; I think they are shade-loving flowers. I like this combo, and it seemed to thrive in both shade and sun.

Allison and I had a few exchanges about pork chops and how small the ones we can buy are compared to the ones the recipe wants us to cook. Like, no way is this pork chop an inch thick. (Confidential to Allison: I will never eat another pork chop without giggling like a twelve-year-old boy. Thank you for this gift.)

This cartoon showed up in my Instagram feed the day after I’d been awakened something like three times by the cat, and then a fourth time by my child who had similarly been awakened by the cat and was bringing him to me to complain that she couldn’t go back to sleep.

Leo’s main personality trait is that he is curious about everything. Obviously, he had to examine all the groceries as I unloaded them. (He is NOT ALLOWED on the counter.) (He does not recognize any of my arbitrary and stupid rules. He is The Cat and this is his house and there is no place he will not go.)

Another in-car Carla photograph. It took me a minute to understand why she took this picture. Ah yes. The temperature. She is very, very deep into Gen Alpha slang these days. At an appointment recently, her doctor said something about “16 or 17” and Carla looked at me and whispered “six seven” and of course her doctor overheard so I had to explain what “six seven” means and, since it doesn’t mean anything, and since neither the doctor nor I listen to Skrilla or do Tik Tok, the doctor only got more and more confused and I felt like an idiot.

I made sandwiches for Carla’s sports team and this was the photo I took when I ran out of bread and needed to text my friend to bring me another loaf. Am not so good with the maths.

Carla and my husband and I went for a walk and Carla wanted to pose on this bench near the pond.

Leo is working on his strength training.

My dad taught me how to change the oil in my car this week! It’s something he’s been trying to teach me for decades, but I’ve only recently understood how useful a skill it would be to have… and how nice of a bonding experience with my dad it would be. It was much simpler a process than I anticipated. I also made a HUGE mess the first time I released the drain plug, and dropped the drain plug in that tub of oil. Fortunately, my dad had a cool magnetic tool that I could use to fish the plug out. I feel very Let Me Change All the Oil now, while the information is fresh in my mind. Of course, since it’s not a weekly project, I will probably have forgotten everything by the time I need to do it again. (Need me to change your oil?)

One of the hiking trails I frequent with a friend is in full fall bloom. The profusion of flowers is spectacular and we stopped frequently to take pictures and look up the names of the blossoms.

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Abundance

Is a Five for Friday by any other name just as sweet?

  1. Sara/hs: I was adding a new Sarah to my contact list and realized that I have an abundance of Sara/hs in my life these days. Growing up, I knew a Sara when I was in daycare and then a Sarah in high school, then I worked with a Sarah for a few years. That was it for a long, long time. Now, I am suddenly swimming in Sara/hs! I love how names sometimes come in clumps like that. Possibly there’s a regional element to it. For instance, I never knew a single Leah, Colleen, or Corrine until I moved to my current city… and now I know multiples of each. When I was in middle and high school, the cute boys were all named Josh; I can remember four in my grade alone and at least one in the grade above me. Yet I don’t think I’ve encountered a Josh since college. Was there a preponderance of Someones in your class growing up? What about now? Have you ever wandered into a cluster of Sara/hs? Which name has the most entries in your contact list?
  • Flowers: My flowers are FINALLY blooming. The best thing about the persistent cool/grey has been that my irises stuck around for a much longer time than they did last year, and really put on a show. Now, finally, my peonies and roses are getting in on the action. I am loving my walks lately, because there are begonias and clematis and dogwood and allium and salvia and it’s wonderful wonderful wonderful. 
  • Supplements: I mentioned this already, but I am suddenly taking so many supplements. Mainly in an attempt to address the sleepiness/sleep issues, although I’ve lost track of what’s supposed to do what. A doctor tells me to take something, I add it to the pile. With my allergy pill and my anxiety medication, I am now up to seven pills a day. I hate swallowing pills. I am terrible at it. Some people can throw a handful of pills into their mouth and swallow them all at once. Some people can – hork – dry swallow a pill. I have to have a whole glass of water at hand, because I require lots of water to get a single pill down. Still, often they get stuck, in my mouth or my throat, and I have to deluge them with water to get them to where they need to go. I abhor it, thanks. The very worst pill I take is not, surprisingly, the magnesium – which is a giant tampon-sized monstrosity. The magnesium is a capsule, so it goes down far more smoothly than the B6 tablet which I can almost never swallow on the first try. Yuck yuck yuck. My B12 vitamin is a chewable, so I use that as a chaser. It definitely helps eliminate the sour B6 taste. I feel like, at 44, I should be able to reliably swallow a pill. Alas.
  • Couches: Until we moved into this house, my husband and I had never bought a couch before. What a lucky, carefree time. My in-laws passed down a total of three couch sets to us over the years and since they were perfectly reasonable couches and also free, that’s what we used for the first 20 years of our life together. But they are old and also not really our personal style. So when we moved to this house, we promised each other we would get new couches. We got a new couch for our basement in 2024, and we finally finally got a new couch for our living room last week. The thing is, we still have the old couches. It is surprisingly difficult to divest oneself of couches, I’m finding. The old basement couch is ripped, so not appropriate to donate. We will end up trashing it. Our trash collection website says we can make an appointment for the collectors to pick up and dispose of a couch, but it also bafflingly says that all trash needs to be divided into four-foot sections. Does that apply to couches, too? How am I to apportion our couch in that matter? Using what implement? A question for the trash collectors, clearly, except they never answer their phone. The old living room couch is getting picked up by a thrift store. But while we are waiting for the question about the former to be magically resolved without a phone call and for the latter to be picked up, they are both living in my piano room. They’re not even usable, they’re so jammed together. It’s… a lot. 
  • Kitty Photos: My phone is jam packed with photos of the kitten. He is so very cute.
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Seven for Saturday 

It has been a fine week, with lots of good things, and nonetheless I have been alternately crabby and weepy all week. Thank goodness for Elisabeth, who, through her F.I.G. Collective, is encouraging us to find joy in gratitude, every single day, all month long. 

Saturday, February 1: 

  • I spotted tulips for the first time this year in the grocery store and bought a bunch. Not only do they brighten up my kitchen, they remind me that spring is on its way and soon my yard will be full of blooms.
  • My parents came over so my dad could work on a school project with Carla, and my mom and I got to go for a long early evening walk. This is one of the unexpected joys of having them nearby – they can just pop over for a couple of hours! We can simply go for a walk together! We had a nice talk and moved our bodies and enjoyed the crisp February air. 
  • When we returned, Carla was hanging out with my dad while he told her stories about his childhood. Oh, my heart! 

Sunday, February 2:

  • We got caught in a snowstorm on our way home from an epic back-to-back Costco/Target spending spree, and the whole world was magical again for a few hours. I don’t love driving in inclement weather, but I love it when everything is coated in white.
  • My dad came BACK to our house for the second half of the school project. He and Carla were making chocolates as part of a request to showcase a family tradition. My dad has been making chocolates for decades, and when I was a kid, I would make them with him at Christmastime to hand out to friends. We started with rolled truffles, like the ones he and Carla made, and eventually branched out into dipped and filled truffles. It was a tradition I loved and have managed to execute once or twice with Carla. (I found a photo of the three of us dipping truffles back in 2015! Carla was so small!!!!) I love that she remembers making truffles with her grandfather and that this was the tradition she wanted to share with her classmates. 
  • Carla, her dad, and I snuggled up together to watch Groundhog Day, which was more poignant than I remember. My goodness do I love Andie MacDowell’s hair in that movie. Between Andie and Julia Roberts and Keri Russell, the 1990s were full of such amazing hair.  

Monday, February 3:

  • After the grocery store (yes, if you’re keeping count this is three days of shopping in a row), I got in a good strength training workout, which always makes me feel strong and healthy.
  • I had an online writing session with a friend! This is so inspirational and motivational to me – to set aside time with a friend explicitly for writing, to discuss our concerns and writing triumphs. I also love it because we set aside a few minutes before and after we write to gab about other things and THAT is delightful in a totally different way.
  • I had a hankering for pasta primavera, which I’ve made before with limited success. But I tried this recipe and it turned out great! I also tried a new type of pasta (I am such a sucker for variations on regular old Barilla) (which I love, don’t get me wrong) and it was just as good as “normal” pasta. 

Tuesday, February 4:

  • Even though it was quite slippery outside, I met up with a local friend for a walk. Neither of us fell, for which I am very grateful. 
  • After our writing session, I was still in a creative groove. Then, my husband texted to say he would be done with work early and offered to pick up Carla from school, which was on his way home. Yes please! That saved me a whole hour of driving and allowed me to keep writing and writing.
  • My husband and I started watching a new show, which is extremely well done.

Wednesday, February 5:

  • My husband took Carla to school AND picked her up from school! That is TWO HOURS of extra time, right off the bat. I was able to get a sweaty HIIT workout in before eight…
  • …and then my local writing friend came over for our second writing session of the week. 
  • Since I didn’t have to drive Carla to and from school, I had two extra hours in my day and ended up doing tons of laundry, vacuuming the house, going for a quick walk, AND getting a ton of writing done. Such a productive day! Then, to make up for not getting much time with my kiddo, we spent extra time reading our book before bed. We are getting so close to the end, so pretty much every page is exciting.

Thursday, February 6:

  • This morning, I met up with a friend for tea. Due to kid illnesses, call schedules, and various other obstacles, we hadn’t seen each other for a very long time and had a LOT to catch up on. We talked and talked until she accidentally looked at her watch and we realized we’d been chatting for two hours. Whoops!
  • Today was my scheduled call with another long distance writing friend. I am so lucky to have THREE people with whom I can share ideas, complain, brainstorm, and discuss the ups and downs of trying to put your story into words.
  • My husband and I met with our new accountants, and they are so awesome I kind of want to be an accountant now??? and then we picked up Carla together and spent a pleasant hour at the mall, smelling perfumes.

Friday, February 7:

  • My parents are coming over for the Super Bowl on Sunday, and I stopped in at a local gourmet food shop to pick up some snacky treats. I am VERY excited about trying them. 
  • The sun was shining, so I got in a nice long walk in the bracing cold. 
  • The tulips I bought last Saturday still look gorgeous! 

If I were to summarize what I’m grateful for – at least this week – it would be creative time, time moving my body (especially outdoors), and time with the people I love. When I look at the abundance of those things in my life, it makes a lot of the bad feelings seem very small. 

Thank you, Elisabeth, for helping me find joy and gratitude during a week that felt unaccountably bleak.