The absent-minded professor strikes again.

I have been operating under the impression that I published this post ages ago. Well, apparently not. Anyway, above is a chronological jumble of photographs from my no-longer-recent trip.

To state the obvious: I have been absent. Busyness, school, blah blah and excuses and such. Mainly I have been preparing to move my bloggy little house. I decided to do a partial reboot of sorts (there will be a post here with a link to the new locale) and think more of what I wanted to write about. I enjoy the miscellany of blogging, and yet it felt as if this little spot wasn't quite what I wanted anymore.

So, there it is. I'm very nearly finished, so I hope to have finished my virtual unpacking within a week. My fingers are metaphorically crossed. (If they were in the literal sense I wouldn't be able to type.)

Slán go fóill, 
Giselle

This is going to be a really short post because I'm on pain medication.

Because I had my wisdom teeth removed this weekend. The most irritating thing ever, that was. So I've been surviving for the past few days on yoghurt, chocolate pudding, and pastina. The good news is that the swelling has gone down and my face no longer appears rectangular, although I still have a sort of chipmunk look. (Any previous thoughts I've had complaining about my face being too skinny have been rescinded.)

My uncle sent me flowers, which was very kind and resulted in a bunch of photos of the bouquet because I had nothing better to do all weekend.

It came with this bear. His name is Edmund

Surviving Mother's Day, finally.

Sunday was Mother's Day here. The maple syrup candy was well received, to say the least, and I found a card that says "Mom, you were right about everything" on the front and "there, I said it" on the inside, which sums up our relationship rather well.

That morning at church after the liturgy we had a little party in the hall, which was lovely. (There is a new family who just joined the parish, and the grandmother is absolutely brilliant at planning these things.) There was lunch and cake, and the pastor put on his go-to party music. It's a polka cd, and something of a parish joke by now. They also had a tray of these pretty drinks on the table, each with a strawberry in it. I couldn't tell whether they were iced tea or punch, but I was incredibly thirsty and didn't much care. So I picked one up and took a large sip.

It was wine.

This is where I mention that, while I am old enough to drink alcohol in almost every country in the world, the one I live in is not one of them.

Oops. It was quite a shock actually, to someone expecting iced tea.

But luckily one doesn't usually die of embarrasment, and I survived. I'm very glad I did, because I ended up going out to dinner with my family. Now, my poor dad has tried to take my mom out for Mother's Day nearly every year since I was born. Different places, different cities and states, but no matter what we end up doing it has always been a complete and utter disaster, often of grand proportions. Last year we tried staying in, and even that didn't go well.

So this year we decided to go to one of the local Thai restaurants, because it's close, the people are absolutely lovely and recognise us since we've been there so many times, and we hadn't tried it for Mother's Day yet. (It also happens to be my favourite restaurant in existence.) My dad called ahead to check if they were closed or packed. We got ourselves ready. We drove over. We arrived, were seated, and had dinner.

And nothing terrible occurred.

Miracles are real.

Flowers from Florida

Because life has been slow here lately. Actually, I'm not altogether certain that that's a negative statement. Just plain routine is nice sometimes. Truth be told, I haven't gotten much crocheting done. However, I have branched out into souffle making, which I think is a very enjoyable activity. Of course that is assuming you remember to compensate for time when using ovens that do not get as hot as they claim to do, otherwise unwittingly premature door-opening can cause deflation. But whether you end up with a beautiful and delicious cheese souffle or something resembling a chocolate omelet, the preparation is still fun.

But, to get back to the flowers, Madame Millefeuilles is giving away a delightful rabbit named Mademoiselle Flower Meadow. So if you like handmade items, adorable animals, or vintage lace, I suggest you pay her a visit.

Isn't she charming? Image copyright Stephanie of Millefeuilles.

Note to self: figure out what I've done with list of notes to self.

This has been one of those "listen up miss, you have to remember this" sort of talking to oneself weeks. As in, let's hope I remember that I'm out of milk before I need it for my tea, and don't make couscous again please, it tastes like sand. Today is the feast of St John the Baptist, and I did in fact remember not to use plates. Miracles do happen. Speaking of which, it is surprisingly challenging to butter toast in a bowl.

Of course, the whole point of carrying a little notebook around in which to write down reminders, dates, and miscellany of varying level of importance is so one can use it to look up those reminders, dates, and various miscellany. This becomes difficult if one cannot find said little notebook.

One last note to self: cactus flower photographs are a sufficiently random selection to accompany miscellaneous posts.

I know. I ramble.

I have not dropped off the face of the earth.

No I haven't. Promise. I've just been busy doing many uninteresting everyday things. Although I had a birthday, the camera never made it out so the whole day went undocumented. And it's funny, in that not-funny-but-odd sort of way, because as far as I can tell birthdays typically make one feel old, but mine only made me feel young and inexperienced.

So I did the obvious thing: I wrote my first crochet pattern. It was an idea for birthday presents for two little girls, and turned out much better than I had anticipated. The only hitch was writing it down in pattern form, since I just made it up as I went along the first time and had to figure out what I'd done afterward... Anyway, it is pretty much done now, and will be posted here within a few days.

Belated retrospect on a musical weekend

It really began before the weekend, but late in the week, when a package arrived by mail from the lovely Madame Stephanie of millefeuilles. The contents were a giveaway prize of a lovely classical harp cd in equally lovely wrapping. (See the ribbon? It's still in my hair.) Now, the point of this is to be thankful, not to brag, just so you all know. But I can't help being excited, as I've only won a prize once before. It was a very large adult sized bicycle that I won at age six and had to give away.

Thursday evening I played background music on the piano for a home school group end-of-year banquet; Friday I went to a friend's house where she made me play the violin in front of people, which was not as bad as it could have been; Sunday was the orchestra recital. I do not have any photographs because I was in the recital and could not take them myself, and also because I couldn't ask anyone to take some for me since I'd forgotten my camera.

I think it was the most enjoyable recital I have ever done. I loved playing with the orchestra, and as a pianist sometimes I get lonely.

So, since I have no pictures of that, how about a few of the rose bush looking gorgeous? As you can see, it turned out to be red.

Learning, more or less

-When playing the violin, one must keep the bow parallel to the bridge in order to avoid sounding like a dying cat.

-On a similar note, no one will believe that breaking a string really can be painful unless they actually witness your finger turning purple.

-Gender-specific nouns make a language infinitely more difficult to learn, particularly when there is no apparent rhyme or reason to them.

-I should never wear orange.

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Also, I bought a little rose bush. 'Tis a "Louis Philippe" cracker rose to be exact, colour unknown. It is either red or white. Let's hope I can keep this one alive, as my last (and first) rose attempt didn't end well.

UFO: Unidentified Flowering Object

 

Define "weed"...

Sunday

It has been suddenly chilly here for the past few days. It was 63 degrees today, not counting the wind chill. In Florida. In March. You may not realise how odd that is, but usually we are well on our way back to summer by now. And here, the 60s are winter temperatures.

Also, I discovered what carrot flowers look like. They're quite lovely, actually, and very light green. I find them reminiscent of queen anne's lace.

This one refuses to cooperate. It has rotated itself 90 degrees to the right.

The sheet music, if anyone would like to know, is from the third movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata.

I planted some lettuce; romaine seedlings and red lettuce seeds. And green beans. They seem to be happy, and the reds are starting to pop up. They are in pots now, and that is where I shall keep them, on the porch or atop trash bags to protect them from nematodes.

I bought some new yarn. I went looking for a nice grey, and ended up with a lovely rose pink as well. I'm not sure what to do with the pink yet, but the grey is going to become a hat. There is a nice pattern in that Needlework magazine that I'm going to use.

It's the lighting that makes it look blue around the edges.