Dirty Happy Cutie

Reading, Recharging

My late grandfather was a track star in his youth and he used to say to me, “If you don’t throw up after a race, you weren’t running as fast as you could have.”

Well, to use this as a metaphor, I hit the puking stage now that this summer is finally over (a story for another time). I’m not actively vomiting, no, but for the last four days I felt like vomit. Wholly, totally, and completely spent. In fact, I didn’t move from my lying-down position for three solid days and yesterday I did so only to milk Daisy and water my tomatoes.

I couldn’t bear to stay inside because the weather was too gorgeous, so I commandeered Mike’s bedroll (so comfortable) and spent the daylight hours sprawled out with Charlie, Chloe, and Eli, getting up only to drag the bedroll into the ever-rotating patches of shade.

And I read. I read tons – I think I averaged about 300-400 pages a day. So here’s my book report:

The Girl Who Played With Fire: This is the sequel to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I liked Dragon Tattoo (I read it a while ago) and LOVED the Swedish film. This is the first instance ever where I prefer the film to the book; I even liked The Princess Bride (the book) more than the movie, and who doesn’t love that movie? So, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: very good book, exquisite movie.

The Girl Who Played With Fire: an incredible book. I loooooved this book, thought it was so much better than the first – the plot was so much more dynamic, the author expertly juggled a number of characters, and Lisbeth…. god I love her. There’s a lot of Lisbeth in this book.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest: The third book of the series. If you like courtroom dramas, you’ll love this book. I liked it but didn’t love it, mainly because there was not enough Lisbeth action. I am, however, devastated that the author is dead. I want ten more books from him :( heartbreak…….

Fair Game: This is a story worth knowing. Even if you don’t read the book (it’s also a movie), find a copy and flip through it. Chills!! Simon & Schuster and the author, Valerie Plame Wilson, actually went to court against the CIA in order to get this book published.

Autobiography of Red: In my opinion, this is one of the most spectacular books on the planet. You’ll either love it or hate it. Even the title gets me, still ~ Autobiography of Red ~ so brilliant.

What’s on your list?

bootstraps….

Have you ever seen more fabulous boots?
Ever?!?

Tomato Tomato!

So, when you read the title of this post, did you say, in your head, “to-may-to, to-may-to,” or “to-mah-to, to-mah-to,” or “to-may-to, to-mah-to”? Inquiring minds want to know.

I grew a tomato jungle. My tomatoes, plus one sunflower, are all that survived the grasshoppers. The grasshoppers even devoured Daisy’s pasture, leaving skeleton stalks of alfalfa and grass stems, and I had to start feeding her hay by the end of July. Very sad.

But I did manage to save my tomatoes and one sunflower! Honestly, I was tempted to use pesticides, but I didn’t. Instead, I smashed cloves of garlic, steeped the garlic in oil, strained the garlic-infused oil into a pump-action weed sprayer, added a touch of biodegradable dish soap, diluted it with water, and sprayed this concoction onto my plants.

This had to be done often and my place reeked of garlic and it was hard to keep up, which is why I lost all my carrots and onions and melons and raspberries and peppers and corn and herbs and broccoli and flowers and greens.

I did dig up one handful of tiny potatoes in July after the grasshoppers stripped the stalks bare. Whew. This is why organic produce is so much more expensive.

But look at these tomatoes! This basket is huge – it measures 21″ x 16″ x 7″. And this is just four day’s harvest! Tons more on the vine. Hooray! And YUM.

An Anniversary

What are your thoughts on death?

I’d love to know.

Here is a passage from my book:

“We romanticize that wild animals enjoy an idyllic life of freedom, when really, they are fighting to survive, for food and shelter and safety and against the infringements of man. Death serves in nature. The soil is fortified by the bones; animals and birds and bugs live off the carcass. In nature, there is honor in being eaten. To me, the [dead] deer was beautiful in providing its body to the living animals that were trying to survive. And I believe this works on a human level as well, although it is somewhat taboo in our society. I believe we can learn to use death, and let the gifts of the dead help us to become stronger. Our society responds to death by mourning, and usually, mourning is the stopping place. It is not the stopping place. I believe there is nourishment and strength to be found, if only we were not so afraid of it.”

What about you?