The eggshells seem to have helped?Earlier this month, I’d begun sprinkling eggshells around my coleus plants and hydrangeas, in the hopes of deterring the slugs that seem to have been ripping them to shreds. The coleus is definitely thriving. This could, of course, be due to a break in our ungodly heat, but I’m going to credit the eggshells.
My zucchini plants have begun bearing fruit! Well, one of them has, at least. I have already eaten one zucchini and there are two more in varying stages of readiness. It’s not a Nicole-level haul, by any means, but it’s something.
I finally set up thegrow lightsfor my indoor plants. I don’t know that the plants are doing any better than before, but perhaps these things take time. Also, I am terrible at watering them, just, really dreadful.
Last year, we redid a bunch of our landscaping. I kind of hate it. I am trying to be patient, because things take time. We did plant young plants and shrubs, so they will probably require a few years before they look as envisioned. But I’m not sure I’ll like it even then. There are just too many discrete little bundles of growth all over. It looks fussy and overly ornate and I do not care for it. Of course, I can do NOTHING about this, except spend $$$$ to redo what I’ve already spent $$$$ to do.
Looks like my mystery plant is a weed. So disappointing! I was hoping for a big gorgeous phlox, but – Suz, you called it! – it seems to be some kind of willowherb. If its flowers were more impressive, I might consider keeping it, but I don’t love the way it looks. Plus, it sounds like it can take over pretty quickly/easily, so I’m getting rid of it.
2. Five Pleasing Purchases
Battery Operated Clip-On Fan: We got this little guy for Carla to take to camp and I am quite impressed with it. Unlike pretty much every other option available, this fan is truly battery operated. It does not require being plugged in to anything, which was important during camp when Carla had no access to an outlet. Plus, it produces quite a decent breeze for such a small fan.
Three Piece (Swim)Suit: Carla got a new bathing suit earlier this summer and I loved it so much, I bought one for myself. It has shorts, which I prefer to bikini bottoms. It has a bikini top, which feels daring and fun. And it has a tank top that goes over everything. ALL of it is swimwear, so I can wear all three pieces at once, or I can jettison the tank top if I feel brave or overhot. It strikes me as more sporty than sexy, which I like both for myself and my teen. And it comes in a wide array of colors, which kind of makes me want to get another one.
Great Gift for Puzzle Lovers: My husband got some pretty unsurprising gifts for Father’s Day, but they were things he’d expressly asked for (car wash coupons, new perfume), so I dutifully got him the unsurprising gifts. Then I came across this book of puzzles and thought he would enjoy them, so I added it in as a little bonus. He’s a fan of logic puzzles and a fan of number puzzles (Sudoku, Kakuro, KenKen), and this is a mix of both. Turns out that he loves it. Definitely the sleeper hit from Father’s Day.
Shower Hair Catcher: I mentioned that I was thinking about getting this for one of the members of my household. I did, and it’s amazing.
Cat Brushing Tool: My beautiful medium-haired kitty sheds constantly, despite regular brushing. I ordered this grooming glove to see if it would make a difference, and, while it doesn’t seem to reduce the amount of fur on our floors by one tiny tumbleweed, Lenny loves it. And it really does collect a disturbing amount of fur, each time I use it. I’m about as good at brushing the kitty as I am about watering the plants, though, so let’s keep that in mind.
3. Five Recent Reads
The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin: (bookshop.org link/amazon link) This book was fast-paced and well written. It reminded me, in some ways, of Heartwood and Gray After Dark with a soupcon of The Return of Ellie Black. (I loved all but the latter, although I think I was in the minority on disliking that one.)
Helpless by Jessica Knoll: (bookshop.org link/amazon link) I don’t even know how to describe this book. Maybe The Three Lives of Cate Kay meets Fifty Shades of Grey? It was predictable, outlandish, steamy, disturbing, and I loved every minute of it.
Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead: (bookshop.org link/amazon link) I love Ashley Winstead, but this was not my favorite of her books. The concept is fun – a group of prominent Hollywood women start avenging other women’s poor treatment – but it was a little silly and overly convoluted for me. I still gobbled it down, though.
The Neighbors Are Watching by Aggie Blum Thompson: (bookshop.org link/amazon link) I love a juicy story about neighbors behaving badly, and this did not disappoint.
The Keeper by Tana French: (bookshop.org link/amazon link) I have been savoring this, the latest (and last) in Tana French’s Cal Hooper trilogy. Savoring mainly because I am reading it in hardcover and I tend to fall asleep when I’m reading a physical book. She is such a master at atmosphere, at threading a mystery into the landscape, at revealing deep-seated truths that I’ve never heard voiced. This reminds me, in some ways, of my favorite of her Dublin Murder Squad books, Broken Harbor; it identifies an insidious aspect of society that is growing, unstoppably, beneath the foundations people build their lives on. It’s so good and I’m going to miss Cal and Lena and Trey.
4. Five Meals I’d Make Again:
Beef Stroganoff: I’m kinda sorta off chicken right now, which makes me feel like my meal preferences are wildly unbalanced. As though there’s a spectrum and Veggies Only are on one end and Beef is on the other end, and I keep careening from one end to the other. I realize it doesn’t work like that, and yet it still feels weird. Anyway: this recipe is excellent and I always double the mushrooms.
Cold Peanut Ginger Noodles: I made this a few weeks ago, in the heart of the heat wave, and it was delicious and lasted for days. The weird ingredient here is candied ginger, which I dutifully chopped and added. Despite my skepticism, it really did meld into the dish in a way that was delicious and unexpected.
Salmon Crunch Bowls: This recipe is from What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking; I have yet to try anything from this cookbook that isn’t delicious, and this is no exception. My husband doesn’t like salmon, but he quite liked this dish. I like how customizable it is, too.
Chickpeas al Limone with Burrata: This is exactly my kind of dish: lemony, cheesy, easy. The last time I made it, I stir fried some zucchini at the very beginning of the cooking and added that to the chickpea mixture. Like a bunch of the comments suggested, I didn’t bother with a separate bowl for the lemon juice and parmesan; I just added that straight to the chickpeas in the pot. Also, my husband and I are divided about the inclusion of burrata. I felt it was superfluous. He loved the burrata and felt that the parmesan could have been excluded.
Crunchwrap: I owe Birchie big time for introducing me to the crunchwrap as a concept I could make at home. They are easy, delicious, and very customizable. My husband uses ground beef taco meat in his; I use black beans as my protein; Carla sticks with cheese. I cannot abide the thought of warm lettuce, and you know how I feel about tomatoes, so this is a recipe perfect for our current ongoing state of lettuce aversion.
5. Five Occasions of Quintessential Cute Catness
Hunting a Moth: The expert predator stalks his prey.
Enduring Enrichment: Carla and I built this enrichment activity for Lenny – he has to navigate a series of strings to retrieve his treats – and he was mostly unimpressed.
Investigating an Unknown Space: Carla and I were cleaning her bathroom and Lenny climbed into one cabinet and into a drawer so he could help us organize the other cabinet.
Testing Out New Spots: Carla found a couple of carpet squares and put them down in the basement. Lenny obligingly sat on each of them.
Hugging a Toy: Lenny wore himself out by hiding in this tiny perfectly sized box and leaping onto a tennis ball. But sleepy as he was, he refused to relinquish the tennis ball.
My darling cat is OBSESSED with going outside. At least, I think that is the reason he now meows at me all the time. Even though taking him outside makes some people extremely nervous (Hi Mom! I love you!), I persist for two reasons: 1. I want him to be familiar enough with “outside” to know where his house is, if he ever gets outside by accident, and to feel like he is not in a completely alien environment, and 2. I am in constant search of “enrichment” opportunities for him, and being outside is a great way to tire him out.
He wears a harness and I hold tightly to it at all times. His top favorite outdoor activities are rolling luxuriously on the pavers, watching birds, sniffing the air, and trying to eat various grasses and leaves that I’m SURE are poisonous. (I do not allow him to do this last thing, in case you were worried.)
Guess what? The GRILL IS GONE!!!!! I paid a junk removal company to remove it, along with some other junk we had lying around, and they removed all the junk and I feel so light and free! Worth every penny.
In other outdoor updates, my mystery plant is beginning to flower. Lauren says it is probably a phlox, and I would trust Lauren with my life in a plant-related situation (quite possibly in several other situations as well, which feels like a weird thing to say about a person I know solely through the internet, but here we are), and I am super eager for the flowers to bloom so we can know for sure.
Meandering along with more plant talk, I have serious flower envy. I feel like my flowers bloom later and with less abundance than my neighbors’ flowers, and I want to know their secrets. One of my neighbors has several hydrangeas in front of her house and they are in full, glorious bloom, while mine are barely eking out a blossom here and there. Surely there is something I could do, involving fertilizer or plant food or gentle lullabies, but I am reluctant to mess with plants that are at least growing. My lavender is looking lush and gorgeous, and my astilbe is flourishing this year like never before, and my magnolia tree is putting out gorgeous and fragrant flowers, so I should probably stop complaining.
You know what else is flowering? Yes, I am still talking about plants. The three zucchini plants I grew from seed. And yet, they are only producing male flowers! WTF?!
Okay, one more plant topic, which is that I immediately bought the grow lights that Kate recommended for my indoor plants and I am excited to set them up and see if they have any effect on my light-starved little friends. (The lights are on sale for Prime Day, and I will note that the sale is for $55.97, down from $79.95, and I paid $63.96 for them last week.)
Oh, I lied. I have ANOTHER plant update, which is that I went searching for replacement palms and ended up coming home with two giant ferns.
Let’s stay outside for a second and talk about summer essentials. Even though I know all the reasons to avoid Amazon, I do find it convenient and cost-effective enough to continue using it. Especially when the other options are so much less convenient and/or more expensive and/or don’t have the things I need. I feel guilty about this; I continue to search for ways to reduce my reliance on Amazon; and I still use it. Anyway. Prime Day is this week and so I’m taking the opportunity to load up on some summer essentials. Refills for my Thermacell mosquito repellent are at the top of the list. (By the way, if you don’t have one yet, it is on sale for $19.79; I got it for my parents last summer for $32.99. I love this thing so much because it works. It’s an excellent housewarming or hostess gift for people who spend a lot of time outdoors.) Another summer essential is my favorite moisturizing face serum with SPF. It is SO GOOD. I wear it daily. My favorite summer drink these days is a half-and-half mixture of grapefruit sparkling water and Trader Joe’s jalapeno limeade. SO GOOD.
Of course, as I’m adding bug repellent and sun repellent to my online cart, I am also perusing some of the things I’ve been dithering over for a long time. Namely, solar fence lights and some floating pool lights.
As you can tell, I am an excellent consumer. My husband said the other day that sometimes it feels like all we do is spend money. Does it feel that way to anyone else? Because it DOES feel that way. In part, there was some frenzy of last minute purchases to prepare Carla for camp. And then there was some Father’s Day gift buying. And then some gifts for Carla’s upcoming birthday. Plant stuff. Food and litter for the cat. Groceries. Birthday gifts for a friend, baby gifts for my housecleaner, new home gifts for my friend who just bought her first house. Prescriptions. Gas. And that’s just STUFF stuff, not bigger picture things like utilities and travel plans and, like, insurance. I am grateful to be able to buy the things we need. I am mindful that it feels like A Lot, and my husband and I are looking for ways to cut back.
Speaking of spending money AND of Carla’s birthday: We are having a skating party at the roller rink followed by a slumber party at our house. I think Carla is into the idea of a 90s theme for her party, which I am extremely delighted to get behind. I am imagining party favor bags full of Koosh balls and slap bracelets and tiny troll dolls and hours of playing Light As a Feather, Stiff As a Board.
Something else that has been on my mind, totally unrelated to anything else, is Class Dynamics. Specifically, when the teacher goes around the class and expects each person to make a comment on whatever it is you’re studying that week. I hate that. First of all, there’s the part where I have to speak, out loud, to other people. Even if I have thoughts on the subject at hand, there’s a good chance those thoughts will get garbled on the way out, and/or I’ll talk too fast, and/or I’ll jump around incoherently, and/or I’ll say something that doesn’t sound out loud the way it does in my head, and/or I’ll try to be funny and it will not make sense. Secondly, I hate speaking first, because there’s so much pressure on that and also it feels like being a goody two shoes… but I also hate speaking after other people have gone, because by then my exact points will for sure have been stated, in a clearer and more interesting way. And I cannot think on my feet; no way, if I know that we’ll be going around the room, I will have prepared my response WELL in advance. Thirdly, I hate it when the instructor either doesn’t respond to your comment, or responds with something like “thank you” or “okay” when it seems like she responds to everyone else with “good point” or “I was thinking the exact same thing.” Fourthly, I hate “going round the room” in general, because there’s no connectivity! The whole point is to say something different from everyone else, and so you’re not having a conversation, you’re giving a presentation, and I hate that.
See, this is why I distract myself with plants and purchases. Because dealing with other humans is TOO FRAUGHT.
Lest we end on such a weird an anxious note, let us turn our gaze once more to my cat. Carla’s new pajamas (birthday gift) arrived the other day and I opened the box on the counter and Lenny was CERTAIN I was doing something Extremely Interesting that he didn’t want to miss. Sure enough, I had revealed a perfect resting spot.
I am incapable of launching into bullets without some sort of preamble.
New Summer Salad
I made a new-to-me summer salad to take to a friend’s dinner party the other day. A+, delicious, automatic new fave. Of course, because I am incapable of following a recipe as stated, I added blueberries as well. The other slight variations I made, based on recipe comments: I used nectarines instead of peaches, walnuts instead of pinenuts (walnuts are $5.99 at my grocery store; pinenuts are $8.99) (I forgot that I could use pinenuts to make pesto, so maybe I should have shelled out the $8.99), and I added a half teaspoon of honey to the dressing.
Oh! Since I was taking this salad on the road, I had to experiment a little with the best way to keep the nectarines and basil from browning. For the basil, I coated the leaves in a tiny bit of olive oil and gave them a quick chiffonade with a pizza cutter. Then I threw them in a salad bowl with the dry arugula.
For the nectarines, I mixed together two tablespoons of honey and two cups of water, then added the cut nectarines to the mixture for five minutes. After the timer went off, I drained them in a colander, rinsed them with cool water, and laid out them out between two dish towels to dry. Then I popped them into a Tupperware container with the blueberries.
(I found both the honey water and oil coat strategies via multiple sources online, and I was very grateful they worked.)
About five minutes before dinner, I added the dressing to the arugula and basil and tossed everything together until the greens were lightly coated. Then I added half the fruit, nuts, and goat cheese, added a bit more dressing, tossed, and topped with the rest of the fruit, nuts, and goat cheese. It was very tasty and summery and light. I will say that the basil flavor didn’t really pop out at me. I wonder if it all fell to the bottom of the salad bowl? Next time I will do a better job of dispersing the basil throughout.
I was super pleased with how well the nectarines lasted. Here is a photo of them the next morning. The honey/water combo did not alter their flavor or texture at all.
Hmm. This isn’t the most persuasive photo. I will have to try a before and after at some point. In the meantime, just trust me that they looked and tasted as fresh as the instant I cut them.
Plant Problems
I am feeling some botanical despair. I love plants, and I have accumulated quite a few over the years. But they are not loving their lives, and I feel responsible. I am responsible. They remind me of Heidi, wasting away in Klara Sesemann’s urban mansion, longing for the sun and sky and trees of her grandfather’s alpine cottage. (Why yes, I am reading Heidi to Carla right now.)
Our house is full of windows, and yet it is not particularly sunny. Worse, possibly, is that the areas available for plants are on the north side of the house and get the least light.
I have tried to do my research and buy only plants that supposedly enjoy low light. And yet… they are leggy and/or dead. Even the African violet I bought – which is supposed to thrive in very little light! – is just barely living.
While part of me aches for these poor living things that are trying so valiantly to hang on under my poor care, and wants to nurse them back to health, I have TRIED. I have googled, I have bought special plant food, I have moved them around to different parts of the house, I have repotted several of them. I have babied them, I have left them alone. Nothing is working. Perhaps it is time to replace them? That feels so harsh!!! And also kind of fruitless, because I fear that the replacements will just die anyway.
You know what IS thriving? This mystery plant in my backyard. We had some landscaping work done last fall, moving things around, thinning things out. This space used to hold an enormous hydrangea that was completely overgrown and so old only the very tips were green. We moved some hydrangeas from the front of the house and they seem to be adjusting well to their new home. We also planted a vibirnum in the place where the old hydrangea used to be. Then, this guy showed up.
Wow, two for two on really unhelpful photos today. This plant is approximately four feet tall (so far), has no scent or milky sap, a round stem, multiple stalks coming from the same base,has very gentle fuzz on the leaves and stem, and, from above, has non-serrated leaves with a very pronounced whorled leaf pattern.There are no buds as yet.
I have NO IDEA what it is. It’s acting like a perennial that belongs there, but I have never seen it before. It’s possible that the previous homeowners planted it a long time ago, but then the old hydrangea took over and bullied this guy into submission. Now that the old hydrangea is gone, this little guy can finally shine. This little imaginary scenario, plus some extensive googling, has me thinking it’s a plant and not a weed. My current very non-expert guess is that’s something called an “obedient plant” or some kind of phlox or maybe some kind of aster. I guess we just wait and see if it produces flowers. Unless… do you know what it is?
Physical Therapy Update
I have been seeing a physical therapist twice a week for six weeks for tennis elbow, and just this week I moved to one time a week for the next four weeks. The reduction in pain and the improvement in mobility has been tremendous, and I am so pleased with the experience. Physical therapy is MAGICAL. I mean, it’s also expensive and hard work, but MAGICAL.
It is not, however, a cure. My physical therapist said his goal was for me to see an 80% improvement in pain/mobility. I have zero idea how a person is supposed to quantify such a thing; I still have no idea how to answer the “what is your pain on a scale of 1 to the worst pain you’ve ever experienced” question. But I will say that my arm is greatly improved, to the point that sometimes I don’t even think about it. Sure, I still have some soreness in my elbow. Sometimes I wake up and my arm aches for a while. I definitely still experience pain if I grip something wrong or lift something too heavy or don’t consider the best way to pick something up. But it’s SO MUCH BETTER.
Despite the improvements, it has occurred to me that I may not be able to resume lifting weights for a long time. I miss lifting weights, but I am also not eager to reinjure myself. So I have been dithering a long time about getting some of the same strength training equipment I use at my PT’s office. Two products are currently in my cart: a set of resistance bands with handles and a set of superlong resistance bands. In the office, when I do the exercises the PT prescribes, my arms get pleasantly tired and my muscles feel like they are being challenged. Working with resistance bands really does feel like a workout, even if I’m not sweating buckets or, like, grunting with effort. I am sure I could find some more intense routines online that I could adapt at home.
I’m not really sure why I haven’t just ordered them already. Maybe today.
