Vicki Lane's Blog, page 20

A Thought

 

Okay, first of all I don't want a tombstone. But as I was paying bills yesterday, this caught my eye and out of nowhere came the thought-- How about a tombstone with the simple engraving: THIS STONE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.

Rioting Bloomers!

 

Josie Marbles

My friend Sandy sent my birthday present early ! There were books and stuff for marbleizing paper. It is AMAZING!
You mix up some powder with water and when it is ready (a day later)  you pour it in this tray and drop paint on it. The paint floats on top!
The paint spreads out and then you can swirl it around or even pull a comb thing through it.


I made six marblings and then we ran out of room to dry them

I love the way they look!

I am going to make more on Friday!
What do you think this one looks like?

Sandy also sent me some books One is an amazing book of pop up dinosaurs. It even had pop ups INSIDE popups. 
There was even a pop up birthday card  with a dragon!  I let tow little castle people play with him.

 

Epiphyllums

AKA orchid cacti. I've had these beauties over thirty years. 

They winter in my little green house and are kinda ugly most of the year. Then they put on a show.

I presume they're related to Christmas cacti and Night Blooming Cereus. I have some of those too but they aren't in bloom.


 

Deep Greens and Blues Are the Colors I Choose . . .

 

A Small Pleasure

My gardening is sadly limited these days, what with a bad back, wonky knees, and perilous balance. And our entryway is already thick with iris, day lilies, and other perennials. But I really wanted a patch of foxgloves. So last summer I made a little bed for them by simply dumping a bag of potting soil in front of the rock wall , surrounding it with rocks, and sprinkling foxglove seeds over it.



rally spires
And now, oh joy!, I have my foxgloves!  They made leaves last year but now they have put up into stately spires of purple, white, and lavender.


With any luck, they'll self-sow and my foxglove patch will persevere.

I am ridiculously pleased with these beauties.

I am tempted to add another small bed--maybe this time of lupines . . . or cosmos . . .or . . .                    
 

Looking East

 

A Very Strange Novel

                                       

 

Like drowning in Poison (the perfume,) one review read. Another compared the reading experience to the intoxication of sniffing nail polish remover. 

It's a heady trip, to be sure, this look at the obsession with beauty that pulls together fairy tales (Snow White, Beauty and the Beast,) mythology (Demeter and Persephone,) mother/daughter relationships, the nature of grief, the corrosive danger of envy, a fair amount of hallucinatory goings-on, and, oh yes, Tom Cruise.
Awad is a skillful writer and I especially enjoyed her use of word play as the protagonist looses her grip on language. Her descriptions are lush, if repetitive. But perhaps this speaks to our times.
I have been struck, during the two iterations of the current political regime, that the insistence on a particular sort of look trumps (as it were) an insistence on actual experience. From the eerie shining faces of Ivanka and Jared to the rugged camera-ready good looks of Hegseth to the interchangeable flowing locks (extension augmented) and plumped lips of the women, in DC these days, appearance is everything.
As it is in Rouge --everything. And in the end, nothing. 
A very strange book, to be sure. Entertaining and unsettling. 

Cows Don't Worry

I'm reminded of the old question: Would you rather be a satisfied pig or a dissatisfied philosopher?
These days, a bovine imperturbabilty seems a bit enviable.
But that would be wrong.

 

RabbitRabbit