I’m on vacation, and last night as I was trying to get this off to you in time, I ran out of steam. So now you’re getting a post on a Saturday, and who can say if that will work for you! Maybe this is exactly the day you need a bunch of suggestions. Maybe you will never read it. Anyway, I apologize for the delay here. It’s because I’m having a nice time. :)
Here are ten things I liked a lot this week!
1. This poem Kat sent me.
Starting things off strong and easy with this incredibly pure and wonderful poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
2. The Muppets doing “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
So, Luke found this while on a YouTube search for stuff T would like, and she doesn’t like it. SHE IS IN LOVE WITH IT. It makes her giggle for the full 5 minutes. And for the adults in the room, the ending has a funny Kermit joke that sort of makes you groan, but you’ll respect the commitment to the bit.
Here’s a GIF of T watching the part in this video where Animal just sings the word “Mama” a bunch of times in a row.
3. “Flowepaedia”
I keep this book behind my desk for any time I’m writing something and need plant symbolism. Which SHOULD be EVERY DAY. This is basically a compendium of all the flowers and all the things they could possibly mean, organized in every way imaginable. It’s been a valuable $8 for me; I use it multiple times per week. (I think you could also use it if you, like, picked some astilbe to give to your friend, and wanted to know what it symbolized so you could say, “I picked this for you because you’ve been so patient with me lately, and it represents patience.” Then your gift could be more meaningful.)
4. Flower scavenger hunt.
This year I started to notice yucca, which looks like a huge asparagus and then flowers in beautiful bells that tower above a human head. This was when I conceptualized of flower scavenger hunts, where you choose one flower that’s in bloom near where you live and walk around searching for it. I like basketball scoring for this: 2 points every time you see one, and 1 point every time someone fouls you and you make a free throw. (Or 1 point for when you see a different flower that you also happen to feel excited about!) You do nothing with the points except come home from the walk and say, “It was a 32 point walk.”
The first New Yorker cartoon Of Liana’s I ever saw was this one:
And I loved it so much I didn’t know how to deal with it. I felt it was peak art. And then Liana was asked to blurb my book, and she did, and that was a dream come true. But then, she was pregnant at the same time I was pregnant and her content started to feel eerie. Then we started chatting a little bit and I grew obsessed with how she wrote and thought. More than anyone else on this earth, Liana makes me feel better. Whatever I’m going through, she knows exactly what to say. She is calming and kind and so incredibly smart and I just feel really grateful to live at the same time as she is alive. She launched a Substack newsletter this week, and it’s really really good, so if you’re not subscribed, get on that.
6. Using cookie cutters for the top of your pie.
I just went berry-picking and we got a LOT of berries. Boysenberries! Marionberries! Blubes! OTHERS! And that means one thing: PIE. One of the best pie tips I ever got was to use cut little cookie cutters on your pie dough to make the top crust. I pass that on to you now.
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