Beto!

Today, Jan and Pam and I braved the heat and went to what was my first Town Hall meeting--in support of Beto, candidate for Senate.  We were very impressed--he's an articulate, charismatic and smart man, not taking big money, but doing what Bernie did in that regard, relying totally on contributions to the campaign.

There was no vitriol, no name calling, not a thread of mean-spiritedness as we're getting too accustomed to hearing in this administration.

Had a lovely swim with Nathan and Elena today.  While Freda swam 16 laps, we three paddled around, Nathan diving under water to retrieve whatever we tossed out for him.

I came through with a bag of little gifts for them both, but the best gifts in the bag were, as usual, the balloons--oh, and Elena's swimming tube that looked like an iced donut.

After the swim, they played with Makken and Sebastien.  Elena used to be so shy when she walked over and knocked on their door, but now Miss Independence loves going alone, waving good-bye, saying, "I'm going to see my friends now."

She did come home to water color for a bit.  Intent on painting, she said, "I think parents should stay together with their first husbands so that one of the siblings doesn't have to go spend time with his other dad."

Ugh oh, I thought--we're getting into some weeds here!

"But if your mother had stayed with Nathan's dad, we wouldn't have you," I said.

"Oh yeah!" she said.  "That's why me and my daddy have the same DNA."

"Well do you know why my mother broke up with Nathan's dad?"

I tried to sound like Mr. Rogers and said something like, "Sometimes people get married too young and they outgrow each other.  Or maybe they aren't happy together like your parents are."

"What about you and Abuelo?  You got broken up too, didn't you?"

"Yes, we did, a long time ago."

"Well, is he still my grandpa?"

"Yes, grandparents are always your grandparents.  He's just not my husband."

(Thank you, Jesus!  I said, just to myself.)

I decided to celebrate tonight by making a cup of vanilla ice cream in the Vitamix.  First time.  Quite scrumptious!

Thursday

When I told Carlene the story about Elena saying, "Don't encourage me!" she laughed so hard.

That impish comment sounded exactly like something she, Carlene, would say.

Turns out, Will affirmed the similarity: "That's where she got her mischievous sense of humor--from Nana!"

Indeed!

Nathan and Elena are coming back today for a swim and a play with their friends next door, Makken and Sebastien.

I expect more stories and photos of joy today.

Magical Makken

Jan and Makken awakened me from a nap with dinner--beet soup and blue cornbread--which is yummy even though I usually don't like beets.  Jan's kitchen magic turns every food she touches into delicious.

Another magic is that we have the same taste in books, and I'm now on the waiting list to read her copy of Anna Quindlen's Still Life With.Bread Crumbs.  (Jan said it reminded her of me--about a photographer who's our age.)

She's also loving, and I'm ordering, The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin.

But the best magic of the day, I have to say, is Makken!  This adorable child is a wonder to behold on any day! He entertained Jan and me with this totally-new-to-me trick:

He spotted two small balloons on the table (Elena and Nathan had drawn faces on them last night) and he proceeded to rub them on his hair and make them stick! Did you know that with a bit of static electricity and cheap balloons you can make Mickey Mouse ears?

Magical Makken had an appreciative audience of two grandmother as he he showed us how to stick balloons onto hair, nose, lamp, walls, and mirror.

I'm calling this my Magical Makken series:

Ticking things off the list before nap time:

A dinosaur T-shirt and art pens for Nathan--whose drawings are wonderful.

A "Together We Shine" T-shirt and a watercolor book for Elena.  Last week we said "Shine shine shine!" exactly in unison, never having said it before!

Getting my $180 at the Apple Store--a refund for recycling my old broken computer

An hour in Michaels looking at art supplies.

This is what Julia Cameron calls "an artist date"--and she recommends doing one every week.  I try to do it six days a week, however.

Anyway, here's the story I came here to share, thanks to Will just now.

At lunch, he was telling the kids to please be quiet for the blessing.  They kept giggling.  So he said it again, and with a look on his face that got Elena's attention.

She got up out of her chair and folded her hands in the prayer position and said "Amen!"

Will said her expression and the gesture were so hilarious that he and Veronica couldn't stifle their laughter.

"Y'all don't encourage me!" she said.  I can just see the twinkle in her eye, even though I wasn't there.

Nathan is more serious, but Elena would do anything for a laugh--and she keeps us all in a jovial mood.

I love being a grandmother!

Making Sunday Lunch

Since I am fully occupied with movies, books, camera buttons and outings, cooking is a rarity in my house.

One day I stumbled upon a video class promising to teach me twenty ways to cook an egg.  I didn't buy the class--heavens no, it would have put a dent in my photography and travel budget!  But I did watch one sample video which I'll share with you below.

To make this Faro Italian Torta, one needs a spring form pan.  I believed myself to be in possession of such a pan, so I climbed on a chair and searched every cranny of my upper cabinets.  Nothing!  I tried to recall the last time I'd made a cheese cake, and it turns out it was back when I lived in Helotes, married with children.

About the time I was starting to search the storage room, Day called, and I shared with her my dilemma.  I didn't want to go out and buy a new one, given the fact that somewhere in my closets or storage room I was sure there was a spring form pan.

"Oh," Day said.  "You gave me yours."

"I did?" I replied.  "When?"

"Oh, maybe twenty years ago," she said.

I found my 40% off coupon from Michaels and ran right over and purchased a shiny new one, then went to the nursery to buy parsley and basil plants, then to Trader Joe's to get ricotta, faro, and parmesan, and I was all set to go.  At this moment, the made and cooling on a wire rack and lunch will be, based on the smells coming from the kitchen, late and good.  And since it is said to serve 8 and I am traveling solo through Rake, the series, I should have enough leftovers this week to move on to season 3.

farro italian torta

Alphabet of Pleasure, Alphabet of Anything

A really fun way to explore facets of anything is writing a vertical alphabet and listing things that start with that letter.

For example,  I made an alphabet of pleasure and so far I have three to six things beside each letter--with new things added every day.

Setting up the alphabet is like a magnet for noticing--so that some letters wind up having five or six items beside them and Z may only have zebras and zoos.

If you take a trip, to Castroville or London or a local book shop, you could make an alphabetical list of whatever catches your eye or taste buds, people you meet, places you photograph....

I'm devoting one of my journals to an alphabet of photographic skills I want to master and potential places to spend a morning making pictures--from aperture controls to zydeco musicians.

If you're writing fiction, you could make a list of character traits, quirks, tastes, and aspirations of your character,

If you choose to do this and share your list, I'd be most grateful!

Saturday in WImberley

Today, Pam and I went for a road trip--starting about noon, with a baggie of cherries and cheese--for Pam to show me a place she thought I'd like for picture-taking. We drove out 281, then east on 290, and wound up in Dripping Springs, but we never found the place we set out to find.  Isn't that the way these things go?

We had a really fun day.  We wound up at the In Style Shoe Store in Wimberley and each bought ourselves a pair of sandals.   Neither of us can abide shoe-shopping at the mall, but we both needed a new pair of sandals, and that's the best place to find all the "health food shoes"--(as Barbel calls them)--all the good European shoes that are SO comfy.

Then we discovered--thanks to the women at the shoe store--another favorite place.  Linda's Fine Foods was even better than Leaning Pear, we thought.  The food was delicious , the service excellent, and it was quiet and cozy.  We  highly recommend a drive to Wimberley for Linda's, but it's not open on Sundays.  They have live music on the deck on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

Rake

Betty suggested I watch this Australian series, Rake--and here it is almost two in the morning and I am coming to an end of Season 1.  I watched the first episode a couple of weeks ago and thought, no way, but today, since Betty liked it, I watched episode two.

It's on Netflix--four seasons I think.

So when Season 1 ends, I'm back to picture-taking and yoga.  Never mind that Rake is irreverently funny and oddball and endearing and handsome, that the cast is great, and the court cases quirky and weird.  Never mind that it makes me laugh every single episode. I will not watch season 2....

Yeah right.  That reminds me of the promises I wrote in school:

I will not talk.
I will not talk.
I will not talk.
I will not talk.

What's in your frame?

The lesson I'm working on today--mostly black and white photography--poses the question, "What's in your frame?"

The teacher makes the point that every detail in a photograph should matter.  Of course, when we take quick snapshots of children playing, we just get what we get.  But when we're taking a photograph of the beach with people on it, or  an old barn against the sunset, or a child sitting in a room not moving about too fast, we should, my teacher says, take the time to frame the shots better.  Or we can crop out or edit out some of the extraneous elements later in Lightroom.

He says that the photograph's subject should be clear and simple or the viewer's eye will be distracted by things that really don't matter in the story your photo is telling.

The frame (the edges of the photo)  should be clear and sharp.  If you're taking a picture of a couple, say at a wedding, you want the edges not to contain half-people who happen to be standing right on the edge or a garbage can or the fender of a parked truck, for example.

Since I always have a tendency to extrapolate photographic principles to real life, here's what I'm taking from this lesson for life:

Too many activities and commitments can be wearying.  Let each day be simple and elegant in the story that day is telling.

We get to create our days just as we create  photographs--let them say what we want them to say.  I want my days and weeks to be simple and uncluttered so that I can enjoy the beautiful surprises that show up, which every single day they do.