I usually wait until December to watch this movie, but I was having a little fun with the AI photo editing features on my new phone, and I found myself playing with Joey's recent photos. As you see, I managed to turn him into William Powell. Well, The Thin Man, just happens to be one of my favorite films, so this week's movie of the week kinda chose itself. It also fits that we are pretty much at the half way point of the year, so if you are already longing for cold weather, delicious holiday foods, and sparkling Christmas trees, this movie fills those needs as well, and on top of delivering all that, it's an awesome murder mystery. But goodness, was there ever better banter in film, then that of Nice and Nora Charles? Even Asta, their dog, seemed to know it was true! This is also a love story. I am not giving you anything beyond that regarding the storyline, because it's great to just let it unfold.
PS... Read the book.
Honestly, Myrna Loy might just have been who I looked to for style,
Dionysus: Have you e'er be struck by a sudden urge for soup?
Heracles: Yes! Zeus-a-mercy, yes, ten thousand times."
~Aristophanes
The Frogs
Ahh... summer, and summer soups! Above you see the ingredients for my homemade Gazpacho soup. I got so good at making it, that I could do it in my sleep! But that was many moons ago. In fact, I believe it was 2019 give or take. The counter you see was in my old house. It was a galley kitchen, but not like the one I have now. Ugh, I can't deal with how small it is, so hubby does most of the cooking now, which is why I have no idea how I made it! That's a bad thing. Gazpacho is such an easy soup to make, and it can be made to the particular desire of whose making it! Avocado Gazpacho, Watermelon Gazpacho, Traditional Gazpacho, you name it, and there is a version that lift your spirits! But alas, cooking is not always like riding a bicycle. Sometimes you need to refer to the recipes, to remember that culinary magic you once made. So, here are a few recipes for chilled soups I found here and there, and all of them sound terrific! I also found a couple recipes for a cold dessert type soup. They would both be good with some crusty sourdough bread!
"I come from a real tough neighborhood. Once a guy pulled a knife on me.
I knew he wasn't a professional, the knife had butter on it.
~Rodney Dangerfield
Yep. It happened again! What does this make? 3 or 4 since last November? I don't want to count. I am done counting, but I am not done documenting it when it does. The lights always happen in the same place, down on the street, below my bedroom window, where the two corners meet. I kinda wish it was lighting from a passing UFO. I always wanted to see one, and hopefully one day I will. With a little luck I will. And hopefully I will be able to move out of this neighborhood one day, with a little luck I will.
Amelia: Do you know what Napoleon gave Josephine as a wedding present? It was a gold locket. And on the inside he made an inscription, 'Destiny'.
Amelia ( Catherine Zeta-Jones)
The Terminal
2004
The Terminal, was another film I had never seen before, but the other night I did, and it was just what I needed, a story with heart, humor and love that made me believe that the world can still be a good place to live in. Tom Hanks makes those kinds of movies! I mean, have you ever walked out of one of his films hating his guts? So what the HELL with folks on the right throwing shade, or out right accusing him of deeply awful conspiracy theories? He was even bashed for, he and his wife, donating antibodies during the Covid-19 crisis. The republicans determination to hate anyone on the left who is willing to help in times of trouble, are exactly what leads to the kind of discouragement that causes me to run to movies, like this one, for the relief and clarity it gives me.
The movie is directed by Steven Spielberg, and features, Stanly Tucci, and Catherine-Zeta Jones. I have always loved Steven Spielberg films, but it's the movies he's made that featured reality that I always appreciated the most. The Color Purple, Catch Me If You Can, The Post, there are so many great ones, I can't name them all! I remember completely pissing off a friend of mine, years ago, when she mentioned that Spielberg was her favorite director. I shared (I shouldn't have shared ) that I wasn't that impressed with him anymore because I felt his movies had become mostly cookie cutter sci-fi! Well, BOOM! A causal observation, had just given birth to my having NO taste in movies or directors! In fact I didn't understand art of any kind! LOL. Eventually her odd anger wore off, and we didn't discuss films ever again. Shrug. Life.
I haven't seen my old friend in a long time. I am not sure if it was the great Spielberg debate, or if, as happens in life, we simply drifted apart, like characters from a really good Spielberg movie. But as I watched, The Terminal, I wondered to myself how she would have felt about this amazing, heartfelt story. There's zero sci-fi involved, but it is a Steven Spielberg film that delivers all the observations of life, with none of the negativity, because even the "villains" in the film come from a place the audience can understand and accept without the urge to see them ran over by a bus. I'll take that over all the pearl clutching and hand ringing that seems to permeate life in 2026.
"Bees do have a scent you know, and if they don't they should,
for their feet are dusted with the spice from a million flowers."
~Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine
Memorial Day is the unofficial beginning of summer, but reality says we have about three weeks until the season really begins. Either way, there are signs everywhere that cheer me up in a summer way, and one of them is roadside sunflowers, and little bees enjoying them. It's a pretty happy turn of events, and quite welcome. Especially when it's May 27th, and it's cold.
Mother nature certainly has a strange sense of humor.
I spotted this gorgeous, Eurasian-Collard Dove, last June, but just didn't get around to posting it until now. I am not sure why, but I guess I was hoping to get a closer shot, or one with perhaps a better background, but I just didn't spot another one before the end of last year. So, click the link below, to learn a little more about this gorgeous dove, including the sound of it's cooing! It's so pretty, I almost couldn't take my eyes off of it!
"I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again."
~Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
&
Through The Looking Glass
We are getting late in the year, so this post consists of photos that I took this past year, and for whatever reason I chose to not post. Some of them probably didn't fit with the subject I was addressing, or maybe I just wasn't feeling particularly creative in the moment, who knows? But I learned a long time ago, from my friend Steven, that it's always a good idea to go through your photographs at the end of a year, and take a second look around. You might just find a gem, here and there, that will touch something inside you, long after the original moment of inspiration is over. I learned so much from him, sigh, I miss him very much! By the way, if you look very closely at the snow photo above, you will see a few little flakes of snow that were beginning to fall, just as I took the picture. It made me so happy inside, to have that moment really come together!
One day, during the summer of 2015, I was getting my car washed and the soap was flowing down the window in such a way that it reminded me of an abstract scene of Aspen trees covered in ice and snow. I had seen some trees, covered in snow, years ago, in the Sierra, and one particularly cold January day in the Berkeley hills and again in 2014 on Mount Hamilton road. Aspen trees are so beautiful in autumn, their leaves look like tiny lemon drops, and even in winter, when they are completely bare, there is something beautiful about the way ice and snow hug the branches.
The day I took that photo it was 103 outside. Dry as dust, and I was about as far from winter as I was going to get! I suppose I was feeling lonely for a truly cold day. It was June 2nd, 2015, which is granted, still spring, but summer heat sometimes imposes itself with no attention paid to whether I was ready for it or not. Seasons do that. How about you? Do you see abstracts in silly patterns like soap, or maybe clouds? Everyone sees shapes in clouds. My friend Steven once told me he saw bunnies in clouds no matter what kind of clouds would be floating above him. I guess on that day I saw trees, with a few leaves covered in snow.
Julia Child Rose June 17th, 2014 My Rose Garden. "It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside." ~Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib
Hot Cocoa Rose June 17th, 2014 My Rose Garden I am officially back in the garden! Alan and I spent a good part of Tuesday planning things out, and next week is when most of the prepping and planning, and planting will take place. It's time to get a move on if I am going to have any fresh flowers and vegetables for the autumn and winter! My Japanese Maple, Paul, is looking yummy! His leaves are beginning to transition to a lovely copper color, and I am going to try to start a new maple from him.
Son of Paul. LOL. That's an idea! I would love to plant several more around the yard. It is amazing to have that burst of autumn color as the long hot days drag on. It would be a year before I would see the new leaves, but well worth the wait! Summer... a necessary evil to get to autumn! But oh how delicious the summer fruits and veggies are! Only 3 more months to go until autumn, and then hello delicious meals of heirloom tomatoes and eggplant. Fresh salsa and tea sandwiches. When it's from your own garden, there is nothing like it! Life is good! Mood: Hopeful ~Me :)
“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” ― L.M. Montgomery
Alan found these lovelies at Costco yesterday, along with some Honeydew and Watermelon. YUM. It's nearly summer, just a couple more days to go, and my mind is already filled with culinary ideas. Homemade strawberry ice cream. Chilled melon soup. Heirloom tomato pizza. Fresh salad with edible roses, and lavender honey vinaigrette dressing. The possibilities are endless! Of the three months of summer, I like June the best, not only is it my birthday month, but it's not unbearably hot yet, so my creativity is at it's height, which gives me plenty of ideas for the rest of the summer.
I love strawberries, and boy do I have plans for them this year! :)
"Dusk is just an illusion because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are. There cannot be one without the other, yet they cannon exist at the same time. How would it feel, I remember wondering, to be always together yet forever apart.?"
~Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
When I walked outside to check on the roses last night, I actually didn't even make it to the garden. This sunset just grabbed my attention, and my imagination, and all I could do is spend the last few moments of light watching the colorful clouds move past. It was breathtaking!
"It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside."
~Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib
Just a short post today. The vegetable and rose gardens are both taking off. I will have pictures of the Heirloom tomatoes later in the week! I am a happy camper with the garden, but I am having to keep one step ahead of the aphids. It's seems like it will be a big year for those pesky pests.
"If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies."
~Unknown
When Alan and I visited the Conservatory Of Flowers Butterfly Exhibit last month, not only were we treated to a gorgeous variety of beautiful butterflies and the flowers they enjoy, we also got to see them as they are when they have just emerged from their cocoons! What A TREAT! In years past, the butterflies remained behind a protective glass viewing case until they had been emerged for a while, but this time around the conservatory releases them into the room as soon as they are completely free from the chrysalis. Baby butterflies! Okay, I know that it'd not really accurate to call them babies, as they are fully grown, ready to fly, fully mature creatures, but to see them at their most vulnerable makes one think of them as infants, if only for the few hours it usually takes them to spread their wings. This lovely little creature was born May 22nd, 2013! I love butterflies, nothing in nature can compare to their beauty!
According To The Universal Psychic Guild...
Gemini
Element: Air
The Ruling Planet: Mercury
Symbol: The Twins
Stone: Aquamarine
Life Pursuit: To Explore A Little Bit Of Everything
Vibration: Intense Mental Energy
Gemini's Secret Desire: To Be Ahead Of The Crowd
Personally, I am a Cancer. My birthday is at the end of the month, so we will delve into what it's like to be me as the month moves forward! Doesn't that sound like fun?! ;)
Okay, so my mood has been a bit dark this week. Among all the anguish and pain of the happenings in Boston, are the everyday irritations that seem a lot bigger and more powerful than they actually are. I know it's true, and yet... (silence). My problems seem petty compared to what some have gone through this week, and yet as I try to consider they're pain, rather and wallowing in self pity, I only come back to the same answer my dear late friend June would always say in times like this...
On a slightly different note, I love gray San Francisco days. There is something quiet about it that allows me to think about things on a different level. It's a good thing I think. Sometimes one has to stop for a moment and just reflect or face falling down from sheer exhaustion. Gray days are good days for me. The quiet mist in the air. The clouds. The fog moving through the Golden Gate. The joy of wearing my favorite brown sweater one more day before summer encroaches on spring.
"A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night."
-J.M. Barrie
I love photographing the moon! I haven't taken many photographs of it this year however, so I decided a little earlier this this evening, to step out into my garden and see what the moon and the stars were up to. June's full moon is nicknamed the "Strawberry Moon." The larger photo above, is as it appeared over my garden gate a little while ago, with a nice bit of fog adding some color to the photo, as it was making it's way across the sky. Isn't the color magnificent? I couldn't get the details of the moon as clear as I wanted, without losing some of the details of the trees and the edge of the gate, so I switched to B/W mode, and set it to F 3.5 with x 4.0 on the zoom.
Yesterday, I read an interesting article about an optical illusion that occurs with the moon this weekend. I would like to try for that shot, and my best chance might be tomorrow evening. The conditions are supposed to be very clear. I am also going to try to capture the alignment of Venus and Saturn. It's weatherman says it will be extremely warm and clear here in the Bay Area by mid-week next week, so it should be perfect conditions for doing some evening photography. :) Stay tuned!
*Be sure to click on the top photo, to see it in a larger version. You will be able to see some stars in the photo, in the upper right corner.
