Basil the Great
I've been absent, but busy. Here's a rundown:
I finished several books: A Year Down Yonder (which made me laugh, cry and want a grandmother to spend a year with; also contains the sentence "She had eyes in the back of her heart." He likes to deliver up a hilarious story and then give you a little punch of heartaching connection) and Love That Dog (okay, I'm not a dog person, but this is just short and sweet and fairly perfect). So, obviously, you all need to go out and read these. They're both short. You won't regret it.
I accidentally went on a two hour nature hike. It all started innocently enough, with Q & K coming over to go for a little walk to the park (about 3 blocks away). So we walk there, and then we decide to take this little trail down to Oaks Bottom. It's a nice little trail, lots of families on walks with small children, wooded hillsides, a meadow, a pond, unbelievably fuzzy ducklings lined up on a log, the screams of children...but we're still in the city. I love this. That you can be in the city but in what feels like the countryside. Within walking distance of my apartment. Nothing is sadder than doubling back on your trail, so we figured we'd keep walking.
When we came out the other end (2.5 miles later, apparently, and with a nearly-two year old sleeping in a sling) we were excessively diverted by various eccentricities in the neighborhood. Such as hedges trimmed to resemble...is that a wolf? And a pig? Oh goodness. There are three pigs. Yes. The three little pigs. In the form of a shrubbery. And is that...a man standing in the intersection with a fishing pole? Casting? Yes.
Also, I love it when you're walking along and one of you says "that's an odd house." And the other says "yeah, the fake stone siding?" and you say "yeah, with the hideous paint over it." And then? Then you notice the owner of aforementioned "hideous" house standing in his yard. Hi neighbor!
So that was Friday, when the muggy heat descended upon us. And I got to run run run around at work. And then I had the most awful time sleeping last night. The mugginess was sickening. It was raining buckets and still it was muggy. So threw off my duvet, but then I couldn't sleep. Because I didn't have anything on top of me. A sheet, yes, but the sheet provides no comforting weight. So I'd wrestle the duvet on and off in an effort to put myself to sleep. Finally it worked, and I dreamt of lots and lots of cake.
This morning was spent in an activity that involved crossing four of the bridges that span the sweetly polluted Willamette. Four bridges! Two on car, two on foot. I like bridges.
At the library this afternoon, I was shelving picture books and this very outspoken young child, maybe three, kept talking to me. It was moderately cute. And then it was time for him to leave and he said "Bye! Kiss?" and puckered his lips. So I blew him a kiss, and he tried to blow one, too, so he missed catching mine, and I think it's still on the floor in the library somewhere.
Tonight Elizabeth and I went to Pix Patisserie and I ran into Melanie, of fiction and Byron fame, who's working there, so she served us and let me sample the port-fig and the basil ice creams before I made up my mind, and we chatted in between her running around doing her job, and that was lovely - I like finding people that you didn't realize still lived in town. And Elizabeth and I got caught up and enjoyed our toothsome treats.
Basil ice cream, in case anyone is wondering, tastes like a summer morning in a garden. With a little cream and sugar thrown in.
I finished several books: A Year Down Yonder (which made me laugh, cry and want a grandmother to spend a year with; also contains the sentence "She had eyes in the back of her heart." He likes to deliver up a hilarious story and then give you a little punch of heartaching connection) and Love That Dog (okay, I'm not a dog person, but this is just short and sweet and fairly perfect). So, obviously, you all need to go out and read these. They're both short. You won't regret it.
I accidentally went on a two hour nature hike. It all started innocently enough, with Q & K coming over to go for a little walk to the park (about 3 blocks away). So we walk there, and then we decide to take this little trail down to Oaks Bottom. It's a nice little trail, lots of families on walks with small children, wooded hillsides, a meadow, a pond, unbelievably fuzzy ducklings lined up on a log, the screams of children...but we're still in the city. I love this. That you can be in the city but in what feels like the countryside. Within walking distance of my apartment. Nothing is sadder than doubling back on your trail, so we figured we'd keep walking.
When we came out the other end (2.5 miles later, apparently, and with a nearly-two year old sleeping in a sling) we were excessively diverted by various eccentricities in the neighborhood. Such as hedges trimmed to resemble...is that a wolf? And a pig? Oh goodness. There are three pigs. Yes. The three little pigs. In the form of a shrubbery. And is that...a man standing in the intersection with a fishing pole? Casting? Yes.
Also, I love it when you're walking along and one of you says "that's an odd house." And the other says "yeah, the fake stone siding?" and you say "yeah, with the hideous paint over it." And then? Then you notice the owner of aforementioned "hideous" house standing in his yard. Hi neighbor!
So that was Friday, when the muggy heat descended upon us. And I got to run run run around at work. And then I had the most awful time sleeping last night. The mugginess was sickening. It was raining buckets and still it was muggy. So threw off my duvet, but then I couldn't sleep. Because I didn't have anything on top of me. A sheet, yes, but the sheet provides no comforting weight. So I'd wrestle the duvet on and off in an effort to put myself to sleep. Finally it worked, and I dreamt of lots and lots of cake.
This morning was spent in an activity that involved crossing four of the bridges that span the sweetly polluted Willamette. Four bridges! Two on car, two on foot. I like bridges.
At the library this afternoon, I was shelving picture books and this very outspoken young child, maybe three, kept talking to me. It was moderately cute. And then it was time for him to leave and he said "Bye! Kiss?" and puckered his lips. So I blew him a kiss, and he tried to blow one, too, so he missed catching mine, and I think it's still on the floor in the library somewhere.
Tonight Elizabeth and I went to Pix Patisserie and I ran into Melanie, of fiction and Byron fame, who's working there, so she served us and let me sample the port-fig and the basil ice creams before I made up my mind, and we chatted in between her running around doing her job, and that was lovely - I like finding people that you didn't realize still lived in town. And Elizabeth and I got caught up and enjoyed our toothsome treats.
Basil ice cream, in case anyone is wondering, tastes like a summer morning in a garden. With a little cream and sugar thrown in.
posted by Jess at 10:17 PM
2 Comments:
Basil ice cream sounds wonderful! I got some green tea ice cream once, thinking it would be cool and refreshing (liked iced green tea, strangely enough) and it was this weird, too sweet thing that I just threw away. I hated to do it, but I knew I wouldn't eat it.
And LORD does ice cream have to be bad for me to throw it away!
I've had really sweet green tea ice cream, too, but I think there's better stuff out there that has more tea and less sugar. It reminded me a little of green tea, only basily...
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