Veg Therapy and How to Try to Keep Semi-Sane

In these unsettling and most peculiar times I look for diversions

IMG_8160.jpglike contemplating a lovely dessert with blackberries and figs

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or maybe quinces – but am not certain what I would do with the quinces. I like the look and the name but not the taste really.

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Apples are easy but the Winesaps won’t be here until next week.

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Teeny, tiny pears all sheeny with wetness.

IMG_8161.jpgThen I’m delighted by pinkness and buy dahlias which will only last three days – but lots of nice things last even less time than that.

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Oh my! what a dazzle for the eye!

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The mescalun looks as if it has been arranged – but it hasn’t.

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Romanesco is worth mediating on  – all Fibonacci and architectural – look at the little group of singers at the top in their soft green dresses under the coral overhang – or make up another story entirely. Or, according to Mee (the friend who did the cookbook) bake it inside a Godzilla cake and astound the kiddies.

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An orange nose has poked itself into the ghost gourds.

IMG_8180.jpgThis decorative gourd is all warty and weird – maybe it’s enchanted. In the end I brought the dahlias home and took their photo on the dining table.

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And that was my morning avoiding watching the news or doing any writing or anything remotely useful. And so we go on!

October

October is one of my favorite months – the beginning of the turning of the year and a little bit decaying and mystical…

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Nothing like an old baking sheet background for gloomy…

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This is a sunflower squash

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posing as a space alien.

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These are some pears

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and more pears

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and a pomegranate from a street cart and flowers from Bobby’s garden.

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Some meadow flowers hanging on to summer at the green market

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so joyful.

5135D877-5FF6-473E-A165-D58EC057EBBAbut pumpkin season is upon us

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and an eggplant with some sort of message –

when we get to the beach

IMG_8117.jpgI find a poor fishy who is unlikely to send any more messages…

 

 

Almost Autumn

I managed to get separated from my blog – or the log in to the same…

Anyway, my friend Gracie moved to Long Beach where people were training as life guards.

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The summer went well…

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Vinny the caterpillar and his chums ate a great deal of dill…

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which then formed seeds and I got a second crop.

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The wonderful butterfly flower self seeded itself on the roof

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add basil and mint to the old Moroccan jug.

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Hydrangeas continued to enchant

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and I dried some delphinium flowers.

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We managed to get to Robert Moses three times

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and the grandchildren continued to flourish.

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Robert suggested I do a needlepoint loosely based on an old Italian plate. Lesson learned: do not attempt anything with lots and lots of circles in it.

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A peach photographed on a baking tray

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Some extra lovely dahlias Margaret gave me.

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A photo from yesterday – photographed on a cookie sheet. The chewed leaf makes it look as if it ought to be an allegory of some sort – oddly medieval.

Fall Thoughts – assorted

A rather sepia-tinged time of year – my favorite really.

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Last week it was 85F but time for raking leaves thought there weren’t enough to make a jump-able leaf pile.

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A season of very round things

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and more round things

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and a giant sunflower seed head.

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Time to get out the water colors and work on images for my Jane Stories.

img_3904-3And look at the light on Robert’s notebook!

img_3913Halloween approaches and Berch has been busy on the local diner window. The light was so clear and bright yesterday afternoon that the paint thew splendid shadows.

img_3915This makes the window paintings extra good.

img_3922In the later afternoon a walk by the Hudson. So breezy and clear.

February

Some various musing on a rather under appreciated month.

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This discarded looking glass just by PS 11 captured such a sharp image of the rather ugly buildings opposite. Blue plastic trash bags manage to look pretty in bright sunlight,

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This building in the east 60’s has maybe been on fire – or grown mold or been abandoned – or maybe all three. Deniz says it looks like buildings in Istanbul. The blackness is just like the abandoned Portuguese Consulate building in Essouira. Like almost everyone on the planet, I like mysterious buildings.

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The reason for this picture is the wonderful writing on the check. I did not set anything up as a still life. This is just what remained after I had eaten my pancakes and bacon and drunk my tea.

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Yesterday I walked home down the High Line and there was almost no one about – well of course there was someone taking photos who had color coordinated his jacket to look brownish like the buildings.

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See! No one at all!

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But some witch hazel with waving fronds. When I was a child some mothers put witch hazel on bruises. Not sure if it has any effect – maybe magic like Bandaids on invisible scratches.

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Well, one person in the distance…

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A full moon to dream on

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and a plastic castle to play with.

 

 

Florence

I first went to Florence in 1971 –  a very long time ago. It’s where Robert and I met in 1973. We lived there for a while and have been back countless times since.

Here is a collection of photos taken in late October and early November this year.

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A stormy day in Fiesole

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and a persimmon tree whose fruits had been left unharvested.

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Also in Fiesole, pumpkins and chestnuts.

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Fish in the green water of the large fountain in the Boboli Gardens

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and more fish on a porcelain plate in the museum at the top of the garden.

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Such elegant plates…

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and as for the view!

When I win a million billion pounds in some lottery I will live in this valley.

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or walk down to the Ponte Vecchio

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and look at the river.

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I could live in a very simple cell

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as long as they sometimes let me out to eat doughnuts.