slowly she turned

Living the Slow life in North Carolina

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  • Terri-Lynn

    Okay, I just saw what really happened to Terri-Lynn.

    She curls her toes in the sand, as Dr. Reynaldo Bellissimo, the hot young physician who cured her completely of cancer and whisked her and Liam away to this island paradise, rubs lotion on her back. She sighs with pleasure as Sven, the cabana boy, refreshes her margarita and hands her the latest Janet Evanovich novel that just came in on the boat. He’ll be back in about an hour for her pedicure and foot massage.

    Liam runs up to her and hands her a shell that he found while windsurfing in the lagoon with his new Polynesian friends. They look up to him as the leader of their group because he is so very cool. Jiana, the prettiest of the girls, adores him.

    The only thing that Terri-Lynn regrets is that she can’t contact us and that they don’t grow those speckled butterbeans in the South Seas that she liked in North Carolina.

    I wish you well, my friend.

  • Thanks for your well wishes – they seem to have helped because I am much, much better today. In fact, I feel better than I have been in months, so I must be careful not to go crazy and overdo it in the garden!

    During my down time, I created a new Etsy shop. There won’t be anything for sale in it until after I get back from vacation (so, late July, early August) but I’m excited about it. I’ve looked seriously at three different shop sites and I ended up coming back to Etsy because it seems to be the most attractive and user-friendly. I’ll post a link here when I’ve tested it and loaded some items for sale.

    I guess I’ll need to renew my North Carolina sales tax license since I think that the state gov is about to crack down on Internet sales tax.

    Bought a new carry-on bag at Target. I decided that it was time for me to get one with wheels instead of dealing with a worn-out duffel bag for a change. It’s purple with polka dots. It cried out for me to take it home, I swear.

    Dug up some tiny new Yukon Gold potatoes in the Back Forty, to go with the few green beans I’ve picked. The Green Zebra tomatoes are leading the way with the first tomato. The dill is going to seed now. It is so good to have fresh dill with egg salad, or green beans, or fish, or anything, really.

    The Violetto artichokes are blooming. I just can’t bring myself to pick them because they are so beautiful. I’ll have to plant some more ordinary ones for eating next year.

    We put down pine needles on the paths where the wood chip mulch washed away in the flood earlier this month. I’m not sure that this will be helpful for the Ph of the soil, but it is certainly much easier and will be less likely to wash away. There is the added bonus that this seems to make my husband much happier, and he seldom takes any interest in the yard or garden.

  • Holy cow, I kinda hate to complain because I know a lot of people who deal with a lot worse read this blog, but that steroid shot in the hip was a real muhthah. I had myself convinced that it might be a little worse than a normal shot in the hip because of a pep talk that my department head gave me about his shots in his knee. Boy, was I wrong. The doctor said it hurt so bad because it was so inflamed, and that I did good because sometimes they have to hold people down!

    I had to stay in the office a while because I have a history of passing out after shots, and with this one I was nauseated and every time I tried to sit up I went right back down. At least I didn’t have a panic attack, because I sure felt like one was imminent. That would’ve been frosting on the cake for sure. I hate a panic attack worse than any pain.

    So, I tried to go back to work, but kept feeling worse, and finally Dawn drove me home where I’ve been laying on the bed bored out of my skull. I wish I had a great book to read but I’m grateful for the laptop.

    I hope that I don’t have to have another shot. He said that the next one wouldn’t be as bad, but I’m not sure I believe him! Maybe this one will take care of it. I have to take a course of oral prednisone starting next week.

    The good news is that the hip joint itself is structurally fine. It’s those damned useless little bursa sacs that have been causing all the trouble since last September.

    Anyway, once I get healed up, I’m gonna show all y’all how to get down. I’ll practice up on my moonwalk.

    By this time less than two weeks from now, I’ll be on a cruise ship off the British Columbian coast, hopefully in a hot tub with a Captain Morgan drink of some kind in my hand, watching the sun go down.

  • Travel Journal

    Finished a slim altered book that I think would make a nice travel journal. The map was already part of the book. The first and last pages and the painted paper on the inside covers is from the batch of artichoke paper I made last fall. The inner paper is mulberry paper that I bought for my printmaking class that didn’t get used.

    I made a lot of covers in this style, so now it’s time to get crackin’ on putting these babies together.

  • Slept a good part of the day. Sometimes it’s as if I just have to stop and recharge my battery.

    I’ve almost finished making a book. I’ll try to get a good photo tomorrow. The binding is very simple, but it is wildly and beautifully painted. I’m going to tie some beads to it and it will be done.

    I’m heavily influenced right now by the hydrangea, echinacea, alliums, bees, and fireflies in the Back Forty.

    I think that the bird that sang so loudly in the very back was a ruby-crowned kinglet instead of a Carolina wren. I looked up a photo of a Carolina wren and it did not match at all. I haven’t heard it lately, so they may have moved on or I might not be attuned to it, since my attention is more on avoiding bugs.

    I’m no longer an Amazon affiliate- they cut off all of us in North Carolina because they don’t like a tax law that is expected to pass. It pisses me off a little, since I’ve been one for ten years. But I wasn’t making any money at it; it was just a fun little bookseller fantasy.

    I made an A+ in my class. My first A+ ever, since they didn’t give them when I was last an undergraduate, and quite frankly I probably wouldn’t have tried hard enough to get one back then anyway.

    Feeling pretty impatient for these tomatoes to speed up and give me that mater goodness. I’m spoiled when it comes to tomatoes.

    You may have noticed that I’m posting every day. I’m trying a different idea – posting in Facebook kind of snippets and really trying to write something about my day every day, even if it is just that the weather is hot.

  • Best comment seen all day: “Thank you, Michael Jackson. Love, Mark Sanford.”

    Headachy, probably allergies, I hope. Came home early and took a nap.

    Green paper is dry and is in my super-technological paper press – a stack of boards and books. The one with the ginkgo leaves embedded inside is nice and I’ll have to press some more leaves this fall and winter for use in paper.

    Things to do:
    Clean the bathroom.
    Admire myself in the mirror.
    Finish laundry.
    Watch MJ videos on VH1.

  • A cappella I’ll Be There

    If you only watch one Michael Jackson video, this should be the one.

  • The first cassette tape I ever bought for myself was the Jackson 5, I guess around 1970-71. My mother wasn’t very happy, but it was my allowance money.

    I loved Michael Jackson, and I think that he was a truly great artist. My heart twisted with every new photo of him and every ugly news story that cropped up from the late 80s on.

    But I never thought that I’d feel this sad.

    Every girl wanted hair (and body) like Farrah Fawcett.

    Not a good day for 70s icons.

    Paper drying in the gazebo.

    I don’t think that I’ll work in the studio any more tonight. Will bury myself in a book.

    Baked unlocal organic chicken breasts with Annie’s Baja lime marinade, local organic salad, and cantaloupe. Not local or organic but cool and refreshing.

    Hip hurts. I’ll go to an orthopedic surgeon on Monday morning. Hopeful about a steroid shot to end this misery.

  • green paper made from mostly green scraps of paper, leftover pulp from other batches, tiny bits of aqua cotton flake yarn

    swarmed while cleaning mould and deckle with hose, killed mosquito, not before it drew blood

    book titled “The Wind and the Rain,” covered with sweet smelling brown basil blossom paper, what now – collage? leave alone?

    picked five green beans, other beans I am leaving for shell beans

    birds are stealing figs as they ripen, but I got the first one and it was luscious

    baseball haiku

    Holy Grail on mantelpiece

    final exam went well, back to reading for pleasure

    picking glue off fingers

  • Wendell Berry picks jail over NAIS

    Go, Wendell, go!

    Looks like a great website, too.