by Kat | Jun 19, 2023 | General, In This Moment
The best thing for any day is poetry… and today is no exception! I stumbled across this beautiful poem by the brilliant Tracy K. Smith (you can listen to her read it here)
And if you want to hear the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters… well, enter the rabbit hole here!
Wade in the Water
by Tracy K. Smith
for the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters
One of the women greeted me.
I love you, she said. She didn’t
Know me, but I believed her,
And a terrible new ache
Rolled over in my chest,
Like in a room where the drapes
Have been swept back. I love you,
I love you, as she continued
Down the hall past other strangers,
Each feeling pierced suddenly
By pillars of heavy light.
I love you, throughout
The performance, in every
Handclap, every stomp.
I love you in the rusted iron
Chains someone was made
To drag until love let them be
Unclasped and left empty
In the center of the ring.
I love you in the water
Where they pretended to wade,
Singing that old blood-deep song
That dragged us to those banks
And cast us in. I love you,
The angles of it scraping at
Each throat, shouldering past
The swirling dust motes
In those beams of light
That whatever we now knew
We could let ourselves feel, knew
To climb. O Woods—O Dogs—
O Tree—O Gun—O Girl, run—
O Miraculous Many Gone—
O Lord—O Lord—O Lord—
Is this love the trouble you promised?
Tracy K. Smith, “Wade in the Water” from Wade in the Water. Copyright © 2018 by Tracy K. Smith.
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Jun 12, 2023 | General, In This Moment
Brings some much needed rain! I am hoping that it washes away much of the pollen that is making me miserable! (as well as bring a bit of life back to our very dead lawn!)
We did have a good weekend… there was a happy hour that might have celebrated a certain indictment! I made the NYTimes recipe for spinach artichoke dip (and it was insanely delicious!) A couple of weeks ago I picked up a set of these produce containers that Carole had raved about a few weeks ago. They are crazy… and amazing!
But perhaps the best thing of the entire weekend was this little cutie wandering into our back yard Saturday afternoon and spending a few hours with us!
So tiny and so stinking cute! For a few hours I felt very much like dear Margaret Renkl with her Comfort of Crows in my own backyard! (An added boon… that rabbit in the end of the brief video is the Papa Bunny who has successfully watched over his third nest of babies in our yard this year!)
Today I am going to savor the rain as I sit in and paint a bit today! Happy Monday everyone!
See you all back here on Wednesday with some unraveling!
by Kat | Apr 10, 2023 | General, In This Moment
is focused on the search for calm.
I confess, I did some rage knitting over the weekend… which resulted in the finishing of my Handspun Sweater. It is getting a good soak and needs a few ends woven in, but I think it will be ready for the big reveal on Wednesday.
This morning, I am ignoring the mundane and instead have painting front and center… watercolor painting, that is! It is the one sure thing that will get me out of my head, and after the weekend’s news… I need that!
See you all back here on Wednesday with a NEW SWEATER!
by Kat | Mar 20, 2023 | General, In The Kitchen
It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.
― Rainer Maria Rilke
It has been a March of All The Weather… we have had very warm days (72° F on the first!!), some very cold days (a low of 18° F over the weekend, sigh), winds, rain, snow, more winds… and this morning clear skies and sunshine!
But despite all this indecisive weather… I can see leaves beginning on the bushes in our yard, the forsythia have some flowers, my neighbors daffodils are blooming (and stunningly the deer have yet to eat them!), and the maple tree in our front yard is full of “red flowers” that are the harbingers to Helicopter Season! And today I welcome spring! (and I am so very ready for it!)
I also am happy to say that taxes are “done and dusted”… whew! Of course, we owe… but it is such a trifling amount, I can’t even be upset about it!
I had some follow up bloodwork on Saturday… and the results were stunning. My cholesterol dropped 70 points in just six weeks! Thank you, Lipitor™!! Honestly, I am stunned by how quickly that little pill has made a difference… and this morning I am so grateful for the scientists who make life better!
I began the picking up of stitches on the neck of my handspun sweater… it was rather grand, I picked up *the correct number of stitches* the first time! I know. What?!? I am at the three-inch-mark of ribbing and I will put the stitches on yarn and try it on this morning to see what I think about the length… soon after I will be back on Sleeve Island! I could not be happier with this sweater. The yarn gives me such delight as I knit away.
I also raced past the heel turn on Steve’s Pi Sock… and I am in the “straight-away to the toes” which is still a good bit of knitting.
So… all in all, it was a very celebratory and productive weekend! Now I have a bit of homework to get done… the Penultimate Painting for the first day of Spring… it is one giant sea of green… but the real challenge lies in my ability to create the exact shade of green…it is vivid, oy!
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Feb 20, 2023 | General, In This Moment
Is a continuation of the weekend.
I thought I’d share some of the things that have made my weekend extra wonderful!
First, I saw this on IG and I had a batch of focaccia in the fridge… so on Saturday I did a bit of a riff on it. One russet potato, a couple of shallots, and some cheddar and gruyere cheeses and we had the most delicious “potato bread” I have ever eaten! I followed the baking instructions for Richard Reinhard’s focaccia not the IG post baking instructions. The leftover potato focaccia was just as good reheated with some fried eggs for Sunday night dinner!

Quite possibly, the perfect focaccia!
I have been enjoying the new On Being season and on Sunday I spent an hour with Ada Limón. It was so delightful to hear Ada read some of her poems from The Hurting Kind and of course, I now have some new favorites! A bonus was listening to Ada read A New National Anthem.
As for today… I *think* I will begin a sleeve on my handspun sweater! Yes, the body is almost done! I have about one inch of 2×2 ribbing. Today is a bit gloomy here… a good day to knit and think about President Carter, his dear wife, Rosalynn, and his family.
See you all back here on Wednesday!
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