Father's Day

Son of is still with us, still on crutches, but getting slowly better. We were, thus, able to celebrate Father's Day with half of our children present.

The other half, Daughter of, was with us in spirit. She gave the COG a rather delightful Father's Day present - a whole lot of oysters and a fantastic French loaf. So, on Saturday night, we picked up the oyster order she had called in to a local fish market, and we had a lot of fun with the oysters. The COG shucked, that being a gender-stereotypical role in this family. I made a salad. We just sat and stood around in the kitchen, drinking wine and eating bread and oysters, a few at a time. Most of the oysters we ate raw. I say 'we' meaning mostly The COG. Son of and I are a little tentative with raw oysters. We had a few and they were fresh and sweet and tasted of the sea. Then we found two recipes for broiled oysters and did 3 at a time, using these two recipes. One recipe was simply a teaspoon of cream, a bit of freshly-grated parmesan and a little olive oil, then broil for a couple of minutes. It was very nice. But the other recipe was divine and that was the one we did over and over. It had lime juice, cilantro, siracha, melted butter and shallot. Really really really good. Quite a delicate flavor so as not to over-power the oysters, but delicious. It was a really lovely, impromptu meal and one we'd like to repeat.

Sunday night, Son of grilled fantastic aged beef steaks and I made salad and a Strawberry Sponge Cake and we celebrated again.

Back Again

I've been trying to figure out what to say after this long absence. A lot happened in a short time in April.

1) Son of broke his leg quite badly. It's nearly 8 weeks later and he still can't put any weight on his leg. He's home but he is recovering. It's only a matter of time is my mantra. He doesn't have a cast, but a huge black Darth Vader looking device he puts on when he moves around. The stitches are out and his leg has healed well, but has big scars, of course. He has gotten quite good at moving around on crutches, but it's hard when you can't put any weight at all on your foot and he gets tired. We've taken him out to do a little bird watching, but it's sad that he has mostly missed this years migration. Still.. only a matter of time. Could have been so much worse.

2) Daughter of gave birth to another beautiful little girl. What riches, to have two lovely granddaughters. I spent a couple of weeks helping out after the birth. Miss A. has a very easy-going personality. She eats well; she sleeps well; she looks around contendly in between. No newborn is easy, but she reminds me of her mom, who was a blessedly amiable baby.

3) Dog of Cog died. She had reached a good old age after a pretty eventful life. She was a good dog and I miss her. I keep looking for her around the house before I remember that she is gone. Now Cat of Cog is an Only Pet.

Meanwhile, life has been going on around here. Lots of nests around. We've Baltimore Orioles in the front yard and Orchard Orioles in the back. There's a family of swans across the street who visit our pond sometimes in the morning. There's a family of Canada Geese that visits in the afternoons. They must be nesting nearby. The air is full of birdsong all day.

We Interrupt This Blog....

I'm in Bangor, Maine. The Son of COG fell going down his back steps this morning and broke his leg. It's quite a nasty break - the big bone in his lower leg is broken in two places above the ankle. The smaller bone is really shattered, a bit higher up. He's in a lot of pain and is scheduled for surgery tomorrow, time unknown.

I'm staying at the former Nurses Residence of the Eastern Maine Medical Center, which is now the Riverview Inn. I, however, have a Parking Lot View. Not complaining - it's convenient, cheap and clean.

On the way up today I saw two bald eagles. One of them was over the Penobscot River, just by the hospital. I take this as a good omen.

I'll post more when I know more.

Adieu, Borders

The Borders store I worked in for 8 years, closed for the last time, yesterday at 5 pm. Coincidentally, I had dinner with 3 women who used to work with me there. It was lovely to talk about the good times we had there, in the old days before the business went South.

One of them quipped that we were now 'Booksellers without Borders'. I've been smiling about that all day.

The people I worked with there were such an interesting group of people. I'm glad they are mostly still around and I can see them from time to time.

Mother Nature's April Fool's Day Trick

Snow.

After a lovely Spring day, it snowed a couple of inches overnight.

No pictures because I'm pretending I didn't notice.

Each Minute Sweeter Than Before

It's 51 degrees. Sunshine. Crocuses in the lawn and daffodils half-sprung. Birdsong. Peepers.

After a hideously extended winter, it feels like Spring.

"It is the first mild day of March,/ Each minute sweeter than before." William Wordsworth

No Diet Gingerale.

I went to the grocery store for diet gingerale. This is the row of soda. There was no diet gingerale of any brand whatsoever.

OK, I know this isn't a tragedy like tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear disasters etc. But, in the absence of these tragedies, is a little diet gingerale too much to expect?