Saturday, January 7, 2017

The rural update - stamp collecting, poultry & a book review

So, what's happened this week besides just surviving?

We had a really warm day, I don't remember which one, where all of the snow melted off and then it rained and rained and rained.  The asparagus bed flooded and the ducks and a field day.  I'm glad they got to enjoy it because it's over with now - it was about 8 degrees today.


There was a lot of laziness.  There was a day when I totally shirked all but the very basic adult responsibilities and spent the day tinkering with my stamp collection.  Does anyone even collect stamps anymore?  Some of my hobbies would make a person think I was 80 years old.  Or 12.  Whatever.  My father found a grocery sack full of stamps from when I was younger and gave it to me.  There are three bowls here: "duplicates", "foreign" (my uncle lived in England)  and "check the book".  There's a binder that I organize the stamps into, in kind of a "collect one of each from 1800-something to modern day" fashion.  I am trying to find one best example of each stamp.  It's like putting together a puzzle and is really soothing in a mindless way.


There was a lot of napping that day as well.  




What else?  Another seed order arrived in the mail today.  I'll talk about this later in the week. 

Big news:  I have decided to go ahead and order myself a flock of geese.  I've wanted them for years.  We only live once, just what the hell am I waiting for anyway?  Call it an inheritance of spirit if you will.  I'm leaning towards Brown Africans.   Wow, are they stunning.  We don't have a pond but we do have a bunch of kiddie pools and I can turn on a hose when I need to. 

And I read a book last night; A Wild Swan by Michael Cunningham.  He's my favorite author.  You can read a NPR interview about it here.  I don't have the energy to review it.  He took classic fairy tales and explored the human emotion hidden between the lines.  I will say that it is a book I will read again and again and gain a better understanding each time I open it.   It's a book that explores the wonder and frailty of being human.   And that Michael Cunningham seems to have been blessed with a window into love and the human condition that I cannot remotely understand how he channels.  It's amazing.  

Made several loaves of bread, served up homemade soup.  Survived on mostly beer and lunchmeat and Arby's.  It happens sometimes.

Here's to the start of another week. 

4 comments:

  1. A condition of making my wife move here was that we were never aloud to get geese as she's scare of birds (much better now than she used to be as she has to deal with chickens a lot). Glad you're doing okay, I've put my seed order together but I think I've gone a bit mad so maybe I'll wait and see how mad you've been with yours before I click "order".
    x

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    1. Thanks Kev, I didn't go too crazy with the seeds just a couple of new things I'd like to try growing as I'm cooking with them more. Like to hear your opinion on ot as I got fava beans and leeks among others.

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  2. Oooh geese :) but you know I love geese already :)
    I too have a crazy amount of seeds, they keep right ;)
    We all have days and weeks like that - enjoy whatever you do. Life's too short x

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    1. Tracy, these geese will be for lawn ornaments and eating but I am afraid that I've wanted them so badly for so long that I'll turn them all into pets! They're soooooo pretty!

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