Ink

Back when we were newlyweds, we lived in a second floor apartment on Mulberry Street, a few houses from San Pedro. We had no TV, no radio (except in the car) and no telephone.  We were, you might say, poor as all get-out.

One day a red-faced encyclopedia salesman knocked on our door, huffing and puffing from the one flight of stairs.  It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, Mark was painting, I studying for a test in Texas History. 

After he caught his breath and drank some iced tea, he proceeded to set up his display of books for us to peruse.  I was particularly fascinated by the volume on the human body: plastic pages overlaying each other, each with a system of the body--muscles, bones, circulatory system, etc. 

He could tell we were interested, but he probably knew what we knew: that we wouldn't be a sale.  

But he kept up his spiel.  $19 a month for all these books?  How could we not buy?  

He had this mantra: "All you're paying for is ink, string, paper, and glue."

On the 17th time or say, it was all we could do not to laugh.  He was our entertainment for the day!

There's so much more to books than ink, string, paper and glue, of course.  Behind every subject are historians and scientists and all kinds of experts who'd devoted years to scholarly research.  Reductionist as it was, his phrase will remain in my mind as long as memory lasts. 

I thought of it this morning when I popped into an antiques store and spied a set of two ink bottles with racks for fountain pens.  HAD to have it! 

At the checkout counter, four of us of a certain age talked about memories of writing with ink back in the day-- Schaeffer's fountain pens with cartridges taking us through math, penmanship, spelling tests, even math. .

I recently gave Will a handmade journal with a leather cover that I'd made--along with a fountain pen.  He talks about how it slows him down when he writes early every morning. 

Writing with ink slows me down too.  It makes writing feel more intentional, almost meditative. 

"Remember how the middle finger was always stained by the leaky cartridges?" asked a woman about my age.

"Remember writing lines with those pens?" another asked.  We discovered that in spite of growing up rates apart, we were all subject to "lines" as punishment!  

A strange and sweet man who works there (I've rarely been there when he wasn't there, seated on the same stool, talking amiably in his high-pitched voice)  said he was before our time.  "We always used these ink wells!" he said.  "That was before cartridges were even invented!" 

Funny what things evoke nostalgia.  Lessons in penmanship and leaky cartridges and dipping pens in wells of ink! 

Today was another remarkable gift of high energy and lower-than-usual pain in my feet and legs!  Hooray!

Luci and I went to Trader Joe's AND Central Market and got ingredients for a corn and black bean salad that is my all-time favorite! I've had this recipe for years but it makes enough for an army, so I hadn't made it in a long time.   I'm currently recovering from all that chopping and standing, but I'm also wolfing down a bowlful of it. 

Here's the recipe if you want a delicious and refreshing salad for these summer days.

Southwest Salad

2 cups dried black beans

2 cups corn

2-3 medium sized cloves of garlic, freshly minced

A heaping 1.2 cup of finely minced red  pepper

1 medium sized red onion minced

1 t. Salt

1/2 cup olive oil (plus 1-2 T for the tortillas)

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

2-3  t. whole cumin seeds roasted in cast iron pan

1/2 cup minced cilantro

1/2 cup minced parsley

1 t. Crushed red pepper 

Finely ground black pepper

3-4 corn tortillas. 

1. Soak the beans overnight. Or at least 4 hours. Drain. Place in a kettle of fresh water. Bring JUST to a boil, then cover and turn heat way down.
2. Cook at a very slow simmer with no agitation in the water until the beans are tender, about 1 1/4 or 1 and a half hours. When cooked drain and rinse thoroughly in cold water. Then drain again.
3. IN a large bowl combine beans, cooked corn, minced garlic, red onion, bell pepper, salt, and olive oil and lime juice.
4. Roast the cumin seeds and stir, then put them in the salad—along with cilantro, parsley, crushed red pepper and black pepper.  Mix gently.
5. Lightly brush both sides of each tortilla and cut into strips about 1.4 inch wide and 1 1/2 inches long. Toast them lightly in a pan or a 350 oven. Scatter over the salad when you serve it.  

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Also signed up for another session of Lyn Belisle's class on making reliquaries.  Another fabulous multi-hour class for under $30--I'm watching it tonight and collecting relics and pictures to incorporate.  Lyn is an extraordinarily skilled and generous teacher. 

Lyn's classes

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Day wants a James Avery charm bracelet for her birthday.  While I was choosing charms for her, I decided I want one too--and my mama is giving me some birthday money to choose charm!  I'm going with mostly hearts and flowers, but I also want a red pick up truck to remind me of my daddy's.  

It occurred to me that charm bracelets, too, are reliquaries, a collection of charms that reflect our interests!

******

Finally capped off a good day with my refrigerator filled with healthy fruits and vegetables arranged in tidy glass containers.  This may be normal for most of you; for me, it's a very happy novelty.  While eating my salad, Nellie and I had a wonderful conversation about art and Lyn's classes, which we are both taking. We decided that if we keep making things we can avoid being fearful about the state of the country. 

It is so deliciously satisfying to have Nellie as a friend.  We share so many similarities it's kind of eerie!  1. We both went to Michael's and Trader Joes today and 2. We both stay up way past midnight every night.!We were just a smidge older than Elena when we met--and we're way better friends today than we were back then!  When we were teenagers we were fifty-piece jigsaw puzzles, now we're thousand pieces each. 

I'm walking around singing Mares-Eat-Oats and Does-Eat Dotes--and Luci thinks I might have misplaced my brain! 

The Gospel According To Nellie and Linda; Make things every day and stay away from fear! 

Love is in the Air

 

This is what I woke up to--Marcus and Lucia flying to Spain to Meet The Parents!  

Marcus interviewed outstanding VCU athletes for his podcast and one of his interviewees was this adorable girl from Spain, a star basketball player.  The rest is--as we say--history!

As you can tell, they are both smitten.  Day sent Luci a picture of flowers and she wrote back, "Beautiful, but not as beautiful as your son." 

My family has been all over the map this summer.  Day and Tom went to Copenhagen (Tom travels a lot internationally for work, but this was the first time Day accompanied him), then they took Marcus and Jackson and Deanna to Ireland (Lucia was in Spain and couldn't go) for two weeks.  In Donegal, Tom found so many of his ancestors on the McDonald side and they were warmly greeted by everyone.  They loved Ireland (and Irish storytellers and musicians) so much they want to go back and spend the summer next year. 

Will's family of four went to Costa Rica for a week, then came back and rented a house in Durango for a month--a week of which I got to join them.  They are totally in love with Colorado and Durango in particular. As of a week ago, Will and Bonnie and Elena live there!  Yesterday I got a virtual tour of the house they are renting for the year--they like it so much that they'll consider buying it after their San Antonio house sells.  

I drove to Colorado, had an amazing week, then flew back.  Next up is a trip to Georgia later this month to celebrate Carlene's 101st birthday!  

Soon thereafter, a trip to Virginia is due--There's a girl there I want to meet! 

 After a lengthy absence, "my" birds are back!  They are not mine, of course--they belong to themselves and the air--but they give such color and joy to my back yard.  Finches, cardinals and doves mostly.  

Today I will fill two hummingbird feeders.  Joy gave me her recipe, said she keeps her filled year-round.  Their feeders need to be carefully cleaned every two or three days. "Hummers are delicate and fierce," she wrote.  

I've spent this week helping Elena pack up her room.  They will be moving tomorrow!  

I'm pausing here because I can't yet quite give words to my range of feelings on that subject--except to say I am thrilled for them and I will miss their closeness so much, geographical and otherwise.  

What do YOU brake for?

A friend sent me this poem this morning, from a Bella Grace magazine.  It inspired me and thought it might inspire you to think of things you brake for!

I spent the morning with Jett, a computer science major at UT, who lives on my block  He fixed my computer so that I can now post pictures, so I'm going to give it a try.  The error had something to do with cookies.

I spent yesterday at the Pritchett house and will go again later today for dinner.  Then probably again tomorrow--as they are actually moving to Colorado on Thursday.

A reminder: Joy's show is still up at Mockingbird Handprints--just in case you missed the opening and would like to see her work on display.  It's a beautiful show!

Day and her family are enjoying their trip to Ireland, and Will and his family are selling and giving away things (and returning to me some furniture I gave them) so that they can travel light to their new home in Durango.  

Yesterday Elena was feeling a little sad.  "I need to play the guitar, then I'll feel better," she said.  So she and her dad sat down and played and sang for a while and she was right--it perked her right up.

She loves music and plans to take classes at a music school she's found in Durango.  

Here are a couple of photos from the week I spent there with them;

One of her rodeo events in Durango this summer

Jan and I have another thing in common: Kate and her boys are moving on the same day the Pritchetts are moving.  Her husband Lee has already begun his new job in Albuquerque and Kate and the boys will finally get to join him--they were waiting for Sebastien to graduate high school.  

SO Jan and I are lucky to have each other as we see the last of our families move away from San Antonio.  So far, I've only gotten teary once--watching my girl play my daddy's guitar and remembering so many happy memories of these almost fifteen years of her life!  I'm going to miss them like crazy--but I'm also thrilled that they are following their dream to relocate to Colorado, their happy place. 

This week,  the Universe gave me a bounty of good things.  

1. With the help of the Scooter Lady Cayce in Tennessee, I finally got my pretty blue Voyager to start up. I was riding back and forth in my small kitchen and called Carlene.  "I wanted you to be the first person I'd call on my scooter,"  I said.  She is guaranteed to, invariably, share in whatever I'm excited about, commending me for making such a wise decision.   When we tell each other something we're happy about or proud of, we sometimes say, "I just wanted someone to saw A-WOOO!"  

2. After way too long, I finally go to visit with Chris, my delightful friend who lives in Kerrville.  We each took a few things for "show and tell"--she some beautiful collages built around dream fragments, me with five blank handmade books. I drove home inspired and hoping for some longer visits after we both do our August trips. 

3. Last night I took my first scoot, Luci leashed beside me, Carma and Jan behind us.   Jan was so excited about my wheels you'd have thought it was a Porsche. "It's Luci who. needs training, not you," she said.  Luci's accustomed to stopping to pee and sniff and negotiate different turns than I had in mind.  I need to train her to walk beside me and announce when she's about to stop. 

4. I went to Williams Sonoma and met my (I hope) forever pet sitter, Jules. When she saw Luci, she squatted with the ease young women have, all the way to the floor in high heels, to pet and converse with Luci.  When she asked if I ever needed someone to keep Luci, I took her number, and canceled the Rover sitter for August.  Her other job, besides WS, is in the Frost Bank Building a stone's throw from my house, and it's pet friendly. She'll stay in my house and take Luci to work with her where she'll get to commune with other small dogs. 

5. Lorraine recommended a novel and I stayed up very late reading it.  Excellent writing, engaging story.  Midway, I almost quit because I found the main male character wimpy and I dislike wimpy men.  We talked about it as I shopped for fruits in Whole Foods, then I went home and read it all the way to the end and was glad I'd stayed with it.   Leaving is by Roxanne Robinson. 

6. When my favorite Mexican restaurant, Adalantes, closed a couple of years ago--after 40 plus years, I missed it, especially their Santa Fe tacos which are really quesadillas. I ordered that dish almost every time.  I was lucky--the menu was online!  I'd struck gold. It's a mix of zucchini, green onions, corn, poblano peppers, and Monterray Jack cheese grilled between two large whole wheat tortillas.

7. Central Market has been under renovation for at least a year, with a year to go.  But I went there to get my ingredients this morning, it was so much fun to see what they've done with it.   Just being there can instantly make me happy.

8. Before Central Market and after Walgreens, I popped into The Green Door thrift store.  Just bought one thing--a beautiful art book called Alphonse Mucha, Masterworks.  From cover to cover, it's luscious. 

In the future, I'm going to try to cool my jets few days before writing about a new idea.  

Writing mirrors myself back to myself in ways that are often embarrassing and just as often illuminating. For example;

My last posts on plastic, now deleted, reveal to myself how easily I get seduced into a new idea and run to my secular pulpit with it.  

With so many troubling issues in the world, it's easy to latch on to the latest way to save--myself, the planet, my beloved children and grands--and then run with it.  I am easily seduced. Easily frightened for the next generation.  That's kind of sweet and endearing.  It's also kind of humiliating to realize how little a woman of my age can actually do. 

Not that it's not worthy of  concern--it is.  I did make a few simple changes that will be healthy for me personally.  Like returning to brewing tea instead of buying it in plastic jugs.  And ditching my peeling Teflon frying pan and buying one not coated in petrochemical stuff I can't even pronounce. 

But as for the 101 things I can do, the ones I read about, I'm just not going to live long enough to do all of them, that's a fact.  If I were a young mother with little bitty children, that would be a way different story. 

Once upon a time, I figured my grandchildren would cherish my advice and wisdom.  I would inculcate in them a desire to read many books.  I would steer them away from smart phones and social media and anything else I might find harmful.  

As time wore on, I realized how little power I had, how little younger people coveted a piece of my wisdom.  I'd had my chance as a parent; my turn was over. 

Wild Cards

 Rachel Martin and David Sedaris

If you're an NPR aficionado, you've probably heard this show called Wild Card, a hybrid of game and interview. 

Rachel Martin uses her Wild Card deck of cards, holds up three, and lets the interviewee pick one--which is the question he or she answer.  Or not.  Or asks the host to answer instead.  The cards are just prompts, the answers can go all over the map. 

The link above will take you to her conversation with David Sedaris. a self-deprecating opinionated writer and humorist whose stories are mined from his personal life.  

I found this house at the laundromat.

I stumbled upon a little black and white photograph last night, looking for pictures for a house-shaped book I'd made.

It was taken in 1969 or '70: me leaning over a stone ledge in the yard, my so very young husband below, his mama sitting on the ledge.  We two on the ledge are looking with interest at something he is showing us.  Behind us is the rock cabin, the house I found at the laundromat.

When we first moved to Helotes, we rented a concrete block house behind the Baptist Church.  The Bandera Highway was a two-lane road then.  A stone's throw from the church and our rent house was Flores Country Store where a young Willie Nelson sang on Saturday nights.  Next to that was the General Store where we bought groceries, "put it on my tab."

Since we didn't have a washer in the concrete house, I drove about a mile to the laundromat, always asking people if they knew of anything to rent.  

One day the manager, a woman named Charlotte, said, "My uncle has a little house he's wanting to rent, but it's very remote, a little hard to get to."  

It was a tiny stone house, the one in the picture, atop a hill.  To get there, you had to drive a long and extremely bumpy driveway, Beckmann Hill.  We could even hear Willie singing from our porch on Saturday nights.  

At the base of the hill was an open field we made into a motorcycle track.  My young husband got himself a 250 Bultaco, and for me, a 250 Montessa. 

So many memories are evoked in that photo.  We lived there for 11 years, first with just Tony, then Tony and baby Day.  Friends came out on weekends and we took long walks and cooked, tended babies and listened to loud Janis Joplin and Ray Charles and Otis Redding. By the time Mr. Beckmann sold the whole 65 acres, and we moved a mile down Scenic Loop, we had Baby Will.  

From the first day to the last, we paid $125 a month for that little patch of Texas Hill Country.