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The week walks like a little girl in a brand new pair of black patent leather shoes, in a full house, ready for a huge piece of pumpkin pie with real whipped cream.
1Wednesday Inge and I toasted to eight years of good health and friendship since her breast cancer diagnosis. There is no way to express what this person I trust with all my being, with whom I have shared every discovery in tandem, means to me.
2Saturday the five of us (Don, me, Lesley, Brian, Peter—six with Poppy Seed) squeezed into Don’s new Chevy Cruze to drive down and help Don’s 83-year-old parents move into their new apartment. While the men moved the heavy stuff, Lesley and I made three pies: two apple and one pumpkin that we roasted a couple weeks ago. (If you don't have molasses in your recipe, add two tablespoons; you'll thank me.) I made pie crust from scratch for the first time in I don’t know how many years, and it was well worth the effort. (Ina Garten’s recipe was perfect.) A rare-for-me baking fest felt so good. Then feeding it to the five weary men felt even better.
3Tuesday is my Rilke blog partner Lorenzo’s 55th birthday. (Oops, I didn't ask him if I could tell you that, hope he doesn't mind.) Who'da thunk I'd have a blog partner in Spain whom I've never met? It just shows that you don't have to be with someone physically to develop a close friendship. Lorenzo's blog The Alchemist's Pillow is a haven of art enthusiasm and history, poetry, Spanish culture and other beauties that belie categorization. Happy Birthday, Lorenzo!
4Wednesday is the Willow Ball, and the moon goes harvest-full. Last week I wasn't feeling the ball thing, and then I got inspired. I'll tell you next post. I hope you'll go, because if you don't you'll feel like a slug. Everyone's invited. Go to the link and look at the invitation.
5Friday is our son Peter’s 29th birthday. He is now back in Michigan to live after moving to L.A. in the summer. All five of us are in Michigan now (six with Poppy Seed)! After Peter's accident last month, you can imagine my feelings hugging him a couple of weeks ago. His jaw is healing well; just a couple of more weeks of wiredness, and then we'll cut loose and celebrate his birthday a bit late with SOLID FOOD.
Now if only the Detroit Tigers win the American League title in the baseball playoffs against our son-in-law's Texas Rangers, we’ll be "hitting on all sixes ." To "hit on all sixes" is Jazz Age slang for performing at 100%, as in hitting on all six cylinders. Don's new Chevy Cruze doesn't have six cylinders, but it is a six-speed, the new Eco model. Sweet (but claustrophobic for five, especially when one of the five has a sixth in her).
The Wes Montgomery Quintet gets the idea of this glee in "Full House," recorded live in Berkeley in 1962. On Piano: Wynton Kelly; on tenor sax: Johnny Griffin; on bass: Paul Chambers; on drums: Jimmy Cobb. I love watching Wes's five l - o - n - g fingers on his right hand on the strings and the left five on the frets, then Wynton's five+five fingers on the keys while sun flare music and Wes's smile drive headlong on all six cylinders into my heart.
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41 comments:
What a fine life to celebrate. The kindom of Heaven truly is (here) where the heart makes its home.
Well, all I can say is that this is an entry that simply made me smile and want to go have cocoa. I think I will. And I hope your life is full of weeks like this.
(And I wound up having to follow this blog a while back because of Tolstoy, among other things. I'm just looking to the right at that quote)
Sounds like Celebration! Wonderful music.
That first picture looks very “autumny.” Here trees are still mostly green. Sounds like you had a great time. I enjoyed you clip – that reminded me of going, every night, to listen to live jazz in San Francisco and Berkeley in the early 60s – great memories. I still have many Blue Note albums – some even signed.
Many blessings for your 'full house', Ruth, and thanks for the b'day wish... friendships like yours remind me to be ever grateful for the 'royal flush' that life has dealt me.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful family, friends, and life with us, Ruth. Oh, and the recipes, too. This is definitely baking season--I have a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins I am thinking very seriously about. I'm glad everyone has all gotten back within easy visiting range, and hope you can avoid any more moving expeditions for awhile.
Sounds like a full and wonderful life celebrated. Lucky you to have your entire family close by in Michigan with you!!!
Your week sounds wonderful and I love the pictures. It is cooling off here. So pleasant to feel the cool air. My son and daughter in law are about to have birthdays. She will be 30 and he will be 40. We are having a family dinner with my son, daughter-in-law and Jill and my daughter and her family. We haven't done that in a long time. I am thinking of a fall dinner like a pork roast and apple and pumpkin pie. (Mrs. Smith's) Very much like a dinner my mother would have made. I think I will light a fire even though it will certainly be too warm. I thought of making it a big deal and inviting other people, but then they would want beer and wine and it would get complicated. So it will be just "us" which is a full plate for my husband to handle even then. I am looking forward to it.
Beautiful post cascading blessings right down to that wood chopper! I'll have to make a point of going to your friend Lorenzo's blog. I added it to the blogger feed but it doesn't come through.
Oh, I love Wes Montgomery!
So much to celebrate! Birthdays, recoveries, babies, grandparents, pies! Life is good:)
xoxo
Wonderful to be all close! Enjoy! What a wonderful week!
This was nice to read ( Even I understood every word :)
Happy birthday to Peter and his parents too!
Warm greetings to Lesley with her precious Poppy Seed !
Thank you for your visit and comments Ruth!
( I have been listening your voice and I love it )
Oh, Ruth. I love this fullness of life and time for you. I know you're eating it all up, and rightly so!
So much to celebrate here! These wonderful events are enough to build a mountain of gratitude. A small personal anecdote: Ina Garten and her husband, Jeffrey, were friends of mine when we were living in southwest D.C. in the early seventies. I never thought that I would live to see barefooted Ina turn into the Barefoot Contessa.
Thanks, Brendan. Clouds, palaces and pearly gates don't have nothing on us.
Thanks, JeannetteLS. You in turn made me smile with your cocoa. And your comment about Tolstoy is synchronously prophetic, which you will see in the next post . . .
Thank you, Robert. When I stopped and took inventory of the week's happy milestones, I was amazed. I'm glad you enjoyed the music. I don't know how many times I've listened and watched since posting it.
ruth - such wealth!!! such fortune!!! i'm truly pleased for you and grateful that you elevate the blogosphere with your own gratitude for the goodness you enjoy. steven
Vagabonde, your memories from different periods of your life, especially in SF, are some of the most wonderful in my acquaintance. You are rich and wise.
Thanks, Lorenzo, and may you continue to enjoy a beautiful "run" in the year ahead.
Hedge, I would love not to see another brown cardboard box for another few weeks at least, when the time comes for us to move Peter into his house. :-)
Enjoy those culinary pleasures of autumn when cinnamon and cloves warm and ease us into winter hibernation. At least like the bears we do not have to go without eating during these dark, sequestered months. :-)
Marcie, it is bliss. I was happy for Peter to follow his music career and hoped it would pan out with the band there. But these things take time, more than he had to invest. Thanks for stopping by!
Shari, the heat in Florida is like our winter and keeps you indoors. But autumn, outside! Planning your birthday dinners and enjoying each other while celebrating sounds just right. I am sure it will mean a great deal to everyone who partakes, maybe more so because it will be a small gathering.
Mark, thank you for sharing these joys with me. I hope you can make Lorenzo's blog feed work, because when he is able to get back to posting (though you could read what is already there and enjoy), you will find exceptionally high quality posts, both visually and in writing skill. But beyond that, his beautiful heart permeates every post.
I've downloaded two Wes Montgomery albums now and am enjoying him very much.
Sounds like a wonderful week ahead!
Oliag, my smiles get bigger when you're around. Thank you. :D
Reena, thanks for sharing my enthusiasm!
Mimmu, your sisterly presence here is well felt and warm. Thank you so much for all your blessings and celebratory greetings! Thank you for listening to me read.
Thanks, Boots. You know when you think your heart can't get any bigger? Then it does!
Dear George, I have felt a wee bit self indulgent to flaunt these joys here, but I feel better when friends share my glee.
I'm thoroughly geeked to know you were friends with Ina Garten and her husband! Lesley and I (and Don, too, I think) are the most fond of her of all the TV chefs. We like her recipes, her style, her quiet demeanor, and of course her fabulous house in the Hamptons. I think Jeffrey is an attorney like you, so maybe that is the connection.
Steven!!! You deserve three exclamation points in return for your enthusiastic response to my gratitude. Thank you!!!
Thanks, Ellen, funny how things can come in a rush!
Now that my Atlanta Braves are gone (gone gone) I'm pulling for the Tigers too. This week anyway - I am a National League girl after all & if the Brewers win then I might have to pull for them in the series :)
I'm so glad all your family is near you!
Now, I have to go put a little more effort into teh Willow Ball. Mike plans to attend so I really should participate too!
This is the kind of week that fills your heart. Happy b'day to your son and happy continued healing to your friend, Inge. I'm running in the National Breast Cancer Marathon in FL in Feb. since I can and so many need to be honored. Beautiful tribute to your friendship. Thanks for the links that were new to me.
Just something rather ordinary, which when you think - and write - about it, maybe extraordiary, to be appreciated!
Placid life on the farm, warm family togetherness, dear friendships across borders, and great expectations for the coming of a new life... how blessed you are, Ruth. Thanks for sharing with us such beauty. I can understand you would only watch 'blissful' films... I don't particularly enjoy violence films either. Especially those with gratuitous violence, I find despicable. But if the complexity and negative content are set up to contrast grace, then I can forbear, albeit still would not enjoy the violent scenes.
Dana, thanks for rooting for the Tigers! They almost pulled out last night's game. As for the ball, I look forward to seeing you there!
Mary, thank you for the birthday wishes for Peter, and wishes for Inge's continued health. I love that you're running in the National Breast Cancer Marathon in FL!
Thanks, Peter. I do find joy in ordinary things.
Thank you, Arti. Yes, I am quite blessed.
Thanks for your thoughts on films and violence. I do understand, and I don't have any moralistic objection to violence used as you say. However, I do not "only" watch blissful films. :-) I find bliss even in well crafted stories of pain. Violence is a sad reality in this world, as is pain, and I believe in writing about it. Even I have been known to do so myself here at synch, because it is unavoidable.
Thank you so much for the conversation and your excellent reviews.
quite a good thing to sit back and be grateful for what brings us joy. Hope the ball was lovely and that the Tigers bounce back.
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