Sorry in advance if this post seems like a bit of a downer. I’m not sad or upset or in a bad mood, this is just a slight departure from the norm. I was recently reminded of an old short story which hit a chord with me that I would like to share, as well as a song that in a way made me think of the story.

The Yellow Wallpaper.

-this piece deals with feminism, mental illness, and PND. The ending left me with a haunting image that I have never been able to remove from my memory.

A song I have been loving.

Last night we had Joe’s oldest niece spend the night so she could go to “Take Your Kids to Work Day” with him today. Joe, as you may know, works as a computer programmer at Intel. I have no idea what activities they are doing right now, but I assume it’s similar to when I went to “TYKWD” at her age. I was about 11 when I got to go to my stepmom’s work at Raytheon. It was a blast. I got to see lasers in action, get dressed up in a clean suit and use microscopes. And the best part of all was that I got to go do all that while most of my classmates were in school. I guess they finally changed the date to June so that missing school wouldn’t be a problem. Boo!

I got up early this morning and made bacon and pancakes for them. Not something I regularly do for others, but it’s so much more rewarding having someone else eat and enjoy the breakfast I’ve made for a change. I think I’ll have to invite her over more often!

So since Joe wasn’t going to come home for lunch like he normally does, I ate a quick and light lunch (since we barely have a thing to eat here, it’s basically a foraged lunch. I really need to go to the grocery store today). It was varied and simple, but filled me up just fine. Crackers and pepper jack cheese, strawberries, herb salad, home brewed iced tea and a homemade chocolate chip/walnut/oatmeal cookie. Perfect! Who says you have to always whip up something fancy? I think I’m with Poco-Cocoa on this one!

^Erin & Justin enjoyed the river view!

Today has been a good day and it’s only 2 in the afternoon. We walked down to old Folsom with Erin and Justin to eat breakfast at Sutter Street Grill and took a long walk down by the American river. We found so many fruits and plants to nibble on our river walk- fennel, dill, figs, pomegranates, plums, and blackberries.

A little ways down a whole good chunk of the trail had been caught in a fire. I don’t think it was from all the smoke Joe and I saw a few days back, this one looked like it had been a controlled burn (but really we don’t know). We felt like archeologists excavating bits of history (okay, mainly old cans). The burnt areas revealed many old flat top beer cans with church key openings. We did a bit of research and figure they must be from around the 50’s because that type of can stopped production by the 60’s.

We even came across an area that was still smoking and eventually heard the sirens of a fire truck that came to take care of the flare up. And among the ashes I spotted a blue-tailed skink wriggling away. I fumbled for the camera, but the little guy was just too fast, but boy was his tail bright! I don’t understand how that helps them survive, if anything, I would think it would be a problem being so easy to spot.

After the river walk, we headed back to old Folsom to the Brewmeister for extra brewing supplies. Did I mention that Joe and Justin are brewing a Belgian Whit? The wort is gurgling in our bathtub right now. The carboy is covered in brown cloth and looks a bit Yoda-ish. It’s kind of creepy.

After some much needed supplies, Erin and I convinced the gang to head over to the corner market for an icee and then down to Comstock street where I had spotted an amazing front yard garden the week prior that I had to show them. When we got a closer look it was actually spanned throughout three homes. Flowers were everywhere and there were several beds packed with every kind of vegetable imaginable! We spotted an old woman amongst the greenery working away. I complimented her on her work and she came right over and talked our ears off. Her name was Gladys Trejo and she was 91 years old (she didn’t look close to that age!). She had lived in Folsom for the last 60 years and was the president of the Folsom Garden Club about *edited* 40 years ago. She’s still a member and apparently the lush oasis she was working in was the club’s community garden! She told us we should join when they start up again in the fall and you better believe that I’m going to. I’m so happy that there is a community garden a stone’s throw from our house. I’ve lived here for 2 years now and never knew!

Dinner and brewing will commence again later today so I’ve got to get a few chores out of the way, but I just had to write about how elated I am feeling right now. What a day!

I know, I know, weird huh? But I just had to say that it is barely past noon and already today has been so exciting! Alicia over at Pozy Gets Cozy announced she has been making a sewing book that will be released next year.

Not only was there that bit of loveliness, but I received my “Bend the Rules Sewing” book by Amy of Angry Chicken! I actually got a bit carried away trying to open the box the book arrived in and tore a nail. Oops!

Her book is exactly what I had hoped it would be. It’s not just another on of those craft books that consists of giant full page pictures with little to no information. She actually has tons of useful info and tips. While the pictures don’t overwhelm the book, they certainly still are eye candy. The projects? beautiful! Everything about it is perfect.

I can’t wait to put this book to work!

The last few mornings I have been enjoying my breakfast outdoors while the weather is still tolerable. The garden gets my extra attention since I’m not dying to come inside and get away from the heat. It’s nice because I can listen to everyone go about their lives- someone is sawing wood, the new neighbor arrives home on her bike and greets her pet, the other neighbor’s little girl is crying again, insects are buzzing and chirping, and a multitude of birds are singing. The past few days that I have been outside, I’ve seen two robins inspecting our tiny back lawn, looking for worms no doubt. I wonder if they are a couple. One always stays a little bit longer than the other, usually to stare at me quizzically. As soon as I put down my knitting to stare back, he flutters off. So I have taken to pretending to not notice him inspecting me so he’ll stay longer. That’s when he starts to hop a little closer.

Yesterday I went to Placerville to shop for used books. They have a sizable used bookstore on the main street that has tons of great books, a much better selection than anything here in Folsom. I intended on buying some sort of bird book so I can more easily identify the more obscure birds seen in our yard. I bought “The Private Lives of Garden Birds” by Calvin Simonds. I first read the chapter on robins and found his narrative to be right on. He writes ” As it is, they [the robins] are merely puzzled to find me outside at an hour when they expect to have the garden to themselves.” I now wonder about all those perplexed looks that the little robin gave me the other mornings. He did look quite surprised to see me.

This morning I made lemon muffins (which, by the way, are excellent!) and sat outside intending to capture a photograph of this robin, but perhaps my eagerness put the little robin off. I heard every sort of bird song known to man, and saw hummingbirds hovering around too, but I did not see my little robin. Mr. Simonds later writes “birds are very sensitive when they are the object of human attention.” he goes on to say ” so it’s to your credit with your robins that you are frequently seen, yet mostly preoccupied with your own affairs”.

So I didn’t capture a picture of my little garden friend today, but maybe I’ll get lucky eventually. I’ll have to remember to be preoccupied this time.

Today I spent the morning puttering around the backyard with my tea and banana nut muffins. I did some late spring cleaning with the potted plants. I tidied up the succulent containers that I made last spring with plans of displaying them in the front yard. I saw that glass fishbowl that was left outside the other day (as I had been planning to do this for a couple days now) so I thought to myself that today was as good as any other to put together a terrarium.

I used a layer of washed pebbles, charcoal, sphagnum moss, and damp soil. I added the plants (asparagus fern and fittonia) and then a sprinkling of more pebbles and moss. Easy peasy!

Look what my sweet boyfriend surprised me with! A new mug from Luckymonkey’s Etsy shop!

Last week I was doing my usual Etsy browsing when I spotted that mug. I wanted it so badly, but I have so many mugs already, I couldn’t justify buying it for myself. I jokingly made a plea to Joe that he should buy me the mug for the upcoming public holiday, “Taryn Appreciation Day”. He just rolled his eyes and continued working at his desk.

Well, yesterday he got a package in the mail which isn’t that unusual, we both get some sort of package every week. I didn’t think too much about it, but then I was surprised to see him pull out the mug and hand it over to me. “Happy Taryn Appreciation Day”, he says.

Awww….I love him!

I made banana bread last night.

I’ll leave you with the beautiful voice of Nina Miranda.

Monday was an event filled day. Although, I didn’t get much cleaning done. Are all the dishes cleaned from Saturday’s get together? Nope, not yet. I’ll get around to finishing up when I’m not doing something more fun. I picked up Erin from her work and took her to Midtown for lunch (it was her birthday! Happy Birthday Erin!) at Thai Basil (mmm…thai iced tea and veggie filled spring rolls!) and then after dropping her back off at work (boo work) I mosied around midtown for another hour or so. Bike shops, art supply shops, used books shops, antique shops, I browsed ‘em all. Then I made my way to Hina’s new tea shop. It’s really swanky and lounge-like. Much bigger than the old Folsom location (which closed down), but bummer it’s no longer five minutes away from me, it’s a good 30 minutes! So now we have to savor our bags of loose leaf tea.

When Joe got home from work I managed to talk him in to taking me to Lowe’s for some hardware supplies to hang up our floating Ikea shelves. Yes folks, I’m slowly but surely turning this house into a home (or I’m surpervising Joe who’s actually the one who’s turning this house into a home). So I got to watch Joe hang the shelves while I handed the screws and level, just like handing forceps to a surgeon. The shelves look so good! I’m still not sure about what exactly will go up there, but the shelves alone help the walls feel less bare. Next up, the picture frames.

***What’s been killing me is the complete lack of stylish (my kind of stylish at least) rugs for a reasonable price….anywhere. I can never commit to a big rug purchase, because my style changes so often. I can just picture it: a few months down the road I’ll hate whichever $400 (cheapest price for the size I’d like) rug I decided to buy. I’ll be better off choosing a solid color, but which color? I haven’t the foggiest.***

Oh! Right, I was telling you all about my day. I’ll just throw in that Joe and I joined Erin and Justin for a mean round of tennis tonight when the sun went down and the weather finally cooled off to the mid 80’s. There was plenty of ‘practice serve’ swinging, ankle popping, and face thwacking fun. I’m going to be feeling it in the morning.

I would have posted last night but I was wiped out. To celebrate International Knitting Day yesterday, I invited a few knitting buddies over for, of course, knitting, and some snacks. I went overboard as usual with the food and made too much. I really need to work on cutting back. I decided to try out some new recipes (although, isn’t there a rule about not doing that?) from a couple of cookbooks recently purchased. I made focaccia bread from The Bread Bible, shortbread cookies from Super Natural Cooking, and a chocolate & zucchini cake from Clotilde’s new C&Z cookbook. I had Joe cook the “nuggets of happiness” (so deemed by his coworkers) which consist of a small chunk of chicken and a slice of jalapeno wrapped in bacon, skewered and cooked on the bbq. Of course there was a much needed assortment of fruits and veggies because uh, meat and sweets can get a bit heavy on the stomach.

I was surprised that everything turned out pretty successfully. I think my favorite was the Ginger- Amaranth Shortbread from Heidi’s new cookbook, Super Natural Cooking. They were deemed after a taste test, a hybrid of shortbread and gingerbread cookies. We didn’t even get to the C&Z cake because it was just too much food. So I’m sending off a slice to Joe’s parents today (along with a few pieces of shortbread!) so it won’t all go to waste.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!