thrift store gift

each christmas, the girl and i exchange one gift that's been gently used or repurposed. this year, i gave her a spice rack from our community services store, the local place where we have always donated used clothes, books, and household items. i got it at a half price sale, so it was only a dollar. i was thrilled to find it and knew it would look good in the kitchen she had been renovating. 

fulfilling my christmas wish for colorful scarves with metallic elements, the girl bought me this long teal scarf, not a color i'd normally wear, but one that now looks fantastic with my recently-turned white hair. it has metallic threads - and even sequins! as i wrapped it around my shoulders, the girl told me it was my thrift gift, that she had bought it at goodwill. even better!! 

to get used to the color, i wore the scarf first to work, a few hours only - and yes, i loved it! so i wore it two days later to an important meeting filled with people i did not know. midway through the meeting, my fingers found a stiff strip across one end of the scarf, just above the beautifully tied fringe. what was this thing? i lowered the section to my lap and surreptitiously tried to peel off the sticker. it would not budge. i turned the section into my lap and tried to hide it for the rest of the meeting.

that night at home, i inspected the sticker and realized its purpose; i had seen tabs like this on my own father's clothes. on it was a first initial and a last name. this scarf belonged to a woman who lived in a communal situation, someone who shared storage and laundry facilities with others. she wore this to dinner at her independent living community. she put it on for movie nights in the common room of an assisted living facility. she wore it when she wanted to look pretty for visitors to the nursing home. and the tag was prominently placed to make it easier to return the scarf to her should it get misplaced or taken away for cleaning. 

i have tried to remove this tag, and cannot. it must be glued - pulling will only rip the delicate threads of the weave. so i wear the scarf with the tag strategically placed inside, against my shirt and hope that it stays that way. and each time i wear it, i take with me the memory of a w. schoolcraft, another white-haired woman, one who had impeccable taste in scarves. 

onlooker

yesterday i watched as this butterfly flitted around my garden, landing on the echinacea, resting for a while, then floating off to somewhere else. she returned many times - at least i think it was the same creature. finally she landed and stayed, and was still there as dusk fell. now this morning, she is there still, unmoving. i did not disturb her to take this photo but now i wonder: do butterflies sleep? or did she die yesterday as i looked on in fascination?

what started as a normal saturday

today was the day for a long-awaited shopping trip with out-of-state relatives. we shopped all morning at the mall, buying shoes and scarves and kitchen gadgets, then drove to a nearby restaurant for lunch, to sit leisurely and visit and get caught up on each others lives. while we were there, many dark suits began appearing and, before we knew it, they were announcing the president of the united states was coming to the restaurant. the president. the president! and arrive he did. he came over to our table. he shook my hand. he smiled and asked my name. he looked me in the eye and told me we need more teachers doing what i do.

this must be what bieber-fever feels like to a teenager. today, i met the president of the united states.

what are the chances?

barely awake this morning, sitting in my dentist's office waiting for my 7:30 a.m. appointment, i turned to part III of my current book and began to read. and was astounded to find myself reading about, of all things, snail's teeth!

...My snail possessed 2,640 teeth...the teeth point inward so as to give the snail a firm grasp on its food; with about 33 teeth per row and maybe eighty or so rows, they form a multi-toothed ribbon called a radula, which works much like a rasp.
what are the chances of reading about teeth while in a dentist's office?? so entertained was i by this bit of happenstance, i had to share the humor with the hygienist. i also left a photocopy of the pages in question with the assistant who checked me out before i left. you must give it to the dentist, i said, because he told me before he was a dentist, he was a biologist! and i left hoping she would share the pages with him. i also left really glad i was not a snail with 2,640 teeth for him to examine and the hygienist to clean!

my new "boat"

on the right, my old gravy boat from my favorite set of dishes. look closely and you'll see that the "boat" itself is riddled with surface crackling in the glaze and the accompanying plate is poorly held together in several spots with super glue. it's been in that condition for decades. often have i thought to replace it but it's a a bit pricey for the two times a year i serve gravy.

on the left, the identical gravy boat, brand new and purchased for a song at a local antiques shop. now i don't want to wait until thanksgiving to use it. so maybe i'll make strawberry sauce for ice cream!

between the storms

i happened to glance out the window just in time to dash outside under an umbrella to chase this shot. and then the rains came again.

forget-me-nots

really, how could i forget forget-me-nots when they are all around the house and all over the yard? this clump was found blooming by the house's granite foundation, yards and yards from the nearest garden, which must be where they came from. and look - see the fly?

best laid plans

the little girl was here this afternoon, quite unexpectedly. gone were my plans to wash windows, work in the garden, and dine late in the evening. instead there were sandboxes and shovels, spiral slides and hanging bars, and water in a spray bottle to water the flowers and wash the house. later, chicken for dinner with veggies to dip and milk in a cup. the serendipitous day ended with a splashy bath, a towel-ish snuggle, and a lovely soapy smell to her damp hair.

it was way better than washing windows.

a crystal mystery

when i wear earrings, i always wear the same ones - little pearl studs. well, almost always. but in the darkest days of winter, between the solstice and the new year, i have taken to wearing these crystal earrings. i love the sparkle, the way they glitter like stars in the frosty night sky. they seem in keeping with the seasonal themes of dark and light. besides, they look festive - way more festive than pearls.

this year, when i went to get them from their special box, i could find only one earring. i searched through the box several times, then looked in a few less likely jewelry spots, to no avail. i was missing an earring. so i reluctantly went back to wearing the pearls.

several days later, i awoke in the morning and, from my pillow, saw something on the chair rail that runs along the outside wall next the bed. without my glasses, it was a shapeless shadow - a spider, i thought, as i rose to fetch my glasses and a means of disposal. but clearer sight revealed that this was no creature - it was my missing earring. how it got there, to that remote section of the bedroom, i cannot explain.

i have been turning this event over and over in my mind for weeks now. i thought writing about it might help to see it in a clearer light. but it remains a mystery to me.

so i'm still wearing the earrings, even though the new year has now come and gone. i want to keep them with me, just for a little bit longer.

cranberry perfection

for the first time ever, tonight i made my mother's cranberry orange relish precisely right, with just the right amount of orange and sugar to balance the tartness and the sweetness. it filled exactly the special container i use every year. perfectly - and without the recipe, which i, after following it all these years, have now lost.

in perspective

just when i am at my lowest point of the week, just when i am missing my mother so much it fairly hurts, just when i think this is what grief will be for a long time, i get a lovely message of condolence from an old student. now grown, he graciously tells me he knows how i am feeling since he and his wife have recently lost a daughter. a child, in the midst of her life. amazing how another's tragedy, far, far worse than any i can comprehend, can jar one back into some semblance of what is normal and accepted. incredible how brave some people must be.

kindle envy

tonight i was online investigating audiobooks for children when, at the amazon site, i again read about kindles. i have looked at these and wondered about them - how it would feel in the hand, what a page would look like, how cool it would it be to try one of these, should i consider buying one? i had been rolling these kindle notions around in my head when, wonder of wonders, i got an email from a contact saying she had just purchased one! not unlike the free samples i try at her house, now i'll be able to try out her kindle. see? life is indeed serendipitous.

the power of music

two diverse music events today each memorable in its own right. first, all the songs and dancing with the baby girl paid off when, at her first live concert, she spent the afternoon intently studying the musicians and bouncing and dancing with each song. for two hours, she was enthralled and entertained - and her grammie was blessed. then later in the day at church, as the congregation sang the alleluia, i heard my father's voice, clear and strong. his singing stopped me cold; it was as if he were alive and standing behind me. i fought the impulse to turn and look and just stood, listening, until the psalm ended. i never found the source, and did not hear his voice again with the rest of the hymns. but for just a few moments during mass, my father's daughter was blessed.

beach plum jelly

last night at a party, i met a friend of a friend, an interesting woman who nurses sick infants, weaves on an antique loom, and grows beach plums in the middle of the state. beach plums a hundred miles from the ocean. i told her about my ongoing quest to replicate the beach plum jelly i had on the cape in the early 80s. about the jars and jars of disappointing jelly i had purchased over the years. the more she and i talked about beach plum jelly, the more my eyes glazed at the thought of its unattainable ruby-jeweled goodness. when our conversation ended, she excused herself, only to return to my side soon after bearing a squat jar of beach plum jelly, homemade, from a recipe that wins awards on nantucket. how it materialized so quickly i do not know. how much i plan to savor it - that i know. many thanks to my friend's friend lorraine, who, in addition to all her other talents, must be a bit of a beach plum fairy.

lost & found

lost a week ago: the woolen half belt to the back of my red winter coat. found today, probably right where it came off, at the edge of the parking area at work. after looking everywhere, fishing through several lost & founds, and tearing the car apart, i was very happy to see it lying there, bright red against the drab winter landscape. i didn't even mind that it smelled like a dog slobbered all over it - or worse. the coat needs a good midwinter cleaning anyway.