Grandeur

Some pics my favorite person just sent me from Wyoming:

Fruitful

The two fruit trees we planted in memory of my parents on Mother's Day are doing quite well. This is Mom's grapefruit tree; it's about doubled in size.

Dad's orange tree isn't growing quite as fast, and lately it's been plagued by swallowtail catepillars, but we're giving it extra attention and checking for new pests every day.

One of the oranges that was on Dad's tree when we bought it survived the planting, and there are a few new blooms promising more fruit this winter.

This past week Mom's tree has been flowering like crazy, so we're also hoping to see some grapefruit at the end of the year or the beginning of the next.

Garden Spruce-up

I'll apologize in advance for the steaminess of these pics; it's so hot and wet that my lens fogs up the minute I step foot outside. We'll just call it bokeh if anyone complains. :)

Since we're on the cusp of the fall growing season my guy cleaned out our little gardens yesterday. We're giving the strawberries their own bed because we're afraid they'll sneak in the house and take it over while we're sleeping.

We decided to save the chives, oregano and parsley from the herb section, and transplanted them to their own pots.

Right now only a little bit of basil is left in the veggie garden, but we're going to plant pole beans, radishes and cucumbers again when the temps drop a bit more next month.

Love Hurts

The series Tempted (also known as The Great Seducer) starts off with a very handsome student, Kwon SiHyun (Woo Do-hwan), reading a darkly provocative poem in class. This sets the tone for the melodrama, which is loosely based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (for English speakers, that's Dangerous Liaisons). This isn't one of my favorite tropes, to be honest; I think playing cruel love games to get revenge is perhaps the most heartless thing you can do. But I was curious about how Koreans would handle the story, so I watched.

The story isn't completely faithful to the classic French story, although it hits the same notes. Three very attractive and wealthy students play similar dangerous games of love and revenge in this adaptation, but their parents and family dramas are also interwoven. Celloist and student president Choi SuJi (Moon Ga Young), along with her chaebol heir friends Kwon SiHyun and Lee SeJu (Kim Min-jae) are like a dark version of the Three Musketeers.

After SuJi is humiliated by her boyfriend, Lee KiYoung (Lee Jae-kyun), who belittles her and her mother for trying to use him to better their social standing, she is furious and wants revenge. She then goes nuclear when her mother and SiHyun's father become engaged; a marriage neither of the youngsters want for personal reasons. At this point in the series there is a self-harming scene that will be disturbing to some; I found it very distressing to watch.

The trio decide to take their revenge out via Eun TaeHee (Joy), a scholarship student who was KiYoung's first love. They also scheme to ruin his engagement to another sheltered rich girl at the same time. SuJi sends SiHyun to seduce TaeHee and then break her heart, and promises to marry him if he does, which they believe will ruin their parents' intention to marry. All of this is a bit unrealistic, but they're teenagers, so I was willing to suspend my disbelief. SiHyun then of course genuinely falls for TaeHee, which is the beginning of the end for his friendship with SuJi and SeJu.

Woo Do-hwan is stellar in his role as the seducer, as is Kim Min-jae as the comical yet tragic third wheel of the trio (by the end of the series I was more interested in him as a character than the other two, which is saying something.) Moon Ga Young's portrayal of her character was so intense I often felt uncomfortable watching her, but I admire her talent. It was Joy who impressed me most; she was so convincing as the young, poor scholarship student caught up in these dangerous love games. Along with the graphic self-harm scene there are some other instances of moderate violence in this series, especially with SeJu getting beat up by his family, so keep that in mind. Available to watch on Viki.com with lots of commercials.

Nap Spot

The boys like napping under our dining table. I do most of my computer work there now on the laptop.

I think it's because the tile floor is cool. Wearing a fur coat in summer can't be comfortable.

So cute.

Things I Miss

Sushi with my favorite person; she's the only one who will eat it with me. I might get to do this again one time before the end of the year, if she gets back in time.

Having houseguests. We did host our nephew last month, and he's promised to visit again soon. But the pandemic is keeping everyone at home.

Dining out. We are vaccinated, but due to the new wave of infections we're back to avoiding crowds and eating only at home. I miss seeing lots of people in one place enjoying a meal together.

Traveling to places I love. Maybe next year.

Nagusame Part Five

To read part five of Nagusame, the story I'm publishing online for my visitors, click here.

Way

I have a love-hate relationship with fortune cookies. I finding them alternately inspiring and annoying. Sometimes I resent them. At other times I think they're funny. Perhaps fortunes are like horoscopes are in the West, and most people believe them when they promise something desired.

I don't buy them, but a Chinese friend keeps giving them to me. This will be the first one I've opened in more than a year. I think I was a little afraid I'd get one that read "Abandon Hope All Ye . . . " or something like that.

"The aim is useless without the way." Not as bad as I imagined. I know the aim, but what is the way? Have to think about it.

There's Destiny, or Maybe Not

As long as they make sense I don't mind series with sad endings, but the j-drama You Are My Destiny was a big disappointment for me. I don't watch many Japanese productions because so many are dark, and suicide and bullying are common themes, but I thought from the bright and happy opener that this would be a romantic spin on Cinderella.

Sato Aya (Miori Takimoto) is a modern-day quasi-Cinderella who dreams of meeting a handsome prince, who turns out to be Ichijo Kei (Takumi Kizu), the heir to a large company. By accident and design they are thrown together and spend a night of passion believing the other partner is someone else (I didn't find this comical, by the way.)

When they wake up and discover they've been deceived they set off a chain of events that leads to Aya finding out she's pregnant and Kei being forced to marry her. There are the usual misunderstandings between the couple, and things only get worse when Kei's heartless girlfriend finds out about the secret marriage and decides to break them up by doing something appalling to Aya.

For a series with a happy, romantic opener this show is in reality tragic and depressing. Aya is subjected to all kinds of abuse, and Kei is about as unsympathetic and selfish as he can get. I couldn't believe they ended it the way they did, either, although I was glad Aya made the choice she did. I also wish they had put an emotional trigger warning on it, as it deals with traumas that most women may find difficult to watch. I dislike writing up negative reviews, which is why I try to stick to the positive, but I felt I needed to be honest about this show. My advice is to give it a pass.

Journal Find

This is a page from my 2010 poetry journal. My handwriting isn't the best, so I'll transcribe it:

If my heart survives to tell
all the secrets kept inside
it will be an abalone shell
in which the beauty did reside.
But I think I will always be
lost to the tides that rage in me
. . . humbling and polishing . . .

I don't write many self-portrait poems, but this one isn't too embarrassing. A bit overly dramatic, but the girl I was eleven years ago went through some tough times. I'm in a much more peaceful place today.

Moss and Twig

Lots of trees + summer storms = plenty of falling twigs and branches on our property. I came out to walk the boys and one of them grabbed this moss-topped stick in the grass.

I took it from the puppy, of course, but I couldn't toss it away. I don't know why; it's not exactly what you'd call beautiful. The twig part snapped the second time I handled it, too. But for whatever reason it grabbed my attention. I've never seen this kind of moss before in this area.

I suppose there's something about it that is beautiful -- to me. I stuck both pieces in a little jar and I'm going to look at them for a while.

Beautiful

Every day can bring a moment of beauty that you'll never forget. This was one of mine.

Too Sweet

Because my mom had diabetes I gave up sugar some years ago; I also avoid eating foods with added sugar by checking product labels. Virtually all breakfast cereals, commercially-made baked goods, ice cream, soft drinks and yogurt have a lot of added sugar, but so does barbecue sauce, ketchup and salad dressing. It can't be avoided entirely -- even canned vegetables have some sugar added -- but I make sure I consume less than 10 grams of added sugar per day.

There are more sugar-free options available at the market now, but they can be expensive. For example, sugarfree chocolate syrup (which I add to the oat milk I drink) is quite pricey, and contains aspartame (which I don't use, either) so I looked up a recipe online with stevia and started making my own.

It's difficult to give up sugar, but once you do you become aware of how much the average person eats without realizing it. One study I saw claimed that Americans eat on average 3 lbs. of sugar per week. If that's true, that's too much.

Today

May you walk in beauty.

Mayfly Love

The premise behind the romantic supernatural Korean film The Beauty Inside is really provocative: what if you fell in love with a man whose body changes into that of a different person every day?

Woo-jin (played by 30+ actors) is a custom furniture designer with a very odd condition: he transforms completely every time he goes to sleep. After he wakes up in the morning he changes into a different body that can be of any age, appearance, race, gender or nationality. It's completely random, and he can't control this change at all. When he becomes a new person his eyesight, body size and language can alter as well. Switching nationalities, for example, leaves him able to understand Korean but only speak in his new body's native language (which he doesn't understand.)

Despite his complicated life Woo-jin manages to get along okay. He works alone, does everything via the internet, and has the support of his childhood best friend and business partner. He even dates, although every girl he sees is destined to be only a one-night stand. Then he meets and falls for Yi-soo (Han Hyo-joo), a furniture store sales woman. He stays awake for two days to have a chance to romance her while in his current tall, handsome male body (played wonderfully by Park Seo-joon.) Of course he can't stay awake forever, so just as things get interesting with Yi-soo Woo-jin falls asleep on the subway, and wakes up as a different person.

Woo-jin can't give up on Yi-soo, and approaches her again, this time in the body of a pretty young woman. He manages to convince her of his condition, and Yi-soo agrees to date him. Their relationship grows from there, and every time they meet Yi-soo never knows who Woo-jin is until he holds her hand and tells her. They seem to have fun with it, too, but gradually the stress starts to get to Yi-soo and affect her job, and she has to go on medication to cope. I don't want to spoil the whole film, so I'll end the description there.

This was a marvelous story, and whoever did the casting for the many faces of Woo-jin gets a gold star from me. There were a lot of very famous actors in this film playing the role of Woo-jin, including Lee Dong-wook, Lee Beom-soo, Go Ah-sung, Park Shin-hye, Seo Kang-joon, and Yoo Yeon-seok to name a few. Despite the fact that most only got cameo-length performances they all did a great job in keeping Woo-jin's character cohesive no matter who was playing him. I did think Park Seo-joon did the best job with the character portrayal, but I'm rather biased there.

There are no special effects in this film, and the supernatural aspects are kept wisely to a minimum. There is a bit of an explanation for Woo-jin's condition toward the end of the movie, but the emphasis was more on what it's like to live this kind of mayfly life and try to have a loving relationship. How Woo-jin manages things like ID cards and passports when he never has the same face is not explained, either, but I was willing to believe he'd find a way. Available to watch on Viki.com for free with lots of commercials.

Possibly Immortal

We inherited a lot of plants from the people who sold us our home; the lady of the house liked to garden. Unfortunately she tried to grow a lot of things that don't fare well in this region. She also put in some invasive plants like this Mexican Petunia, which is a Category 1 troublemaker that displaces native flowers, and is a real pain to eradicate.

Since the petunia patch happens to be contained in a spot where it can't spread we decided to leave it alone and just cut it out when it died during the winter. Which we did, down to two-inch stalks we planned to till into the ground in spring. Only it grew back within a couple weeks. That started a cycle of cutting it again or watching it freeze during frost nights, and then seeing it grow back again.

Since then we've tried everything we can think of short of setting it on fire to discourage it from growing, and it still grows and flowers beautifully. It's hard to kill something that determined to live. It's still going strong -- which is likely why it's a Category 1 invasive -- but we really need to get rid of it. So, next spring I'm going to persuade my guy to dig it all out and replace it with a native plant.

In the Gardens

I've been so busy with the new puppies that this morning was the first time I've gotten out to check the gardens in a couple weeks. The strawberries have finally stopped burying us in berries, but we need to thin them out.

The oregano and the chives are fighting for territory. Pretty sure the oregano is going to win. Meanwhile, the parsley is getting huge.

The basil grew a foot taller and bolted while my back was turned. What is with these herbs becoming such monsters?

So far the artichoke is hanging in there, too. Hoping to keep it alive until my favorite person comes back to claim it.

In Five Weeks

"In mid-September each year, we greet the fall season with the arrival of the fall equinox (otherwise known as the autumnal equinox). This is the moment when the Sun crosses the Equator, and those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere will begin to see more darkness than daylight. Regardless of whether it has been chilly for weeks or there are still balmy summer-like temperatures, this is the start of astronomical fall. This is different from “meteorological fall,” which began on September 1st." -- FarmersAlmanac.com

Fall this year begins on September 22nd -- a reminder to enjoy every day left of summer.

Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay

I Remember

I was able to have a milestone birthday this summer without a lot of fuss, which is how I prefer to celebrate. My two favorite men took me out for lunch, which is all this girl ever wants. To my surprise one of my closest friends just sent me a mystery quilting box containing three yards of fabric, a spool of expensive thread, and a free pattern download. I love mysteries, and this one certainly was fun to open.

I'd probably never put together this combination of fabrics, but I like the boldness of the palette. I might try a new pattern, too.

The designer info card that was included had these words on it: Remember why you started. I don't often think about that because it's a sad reason. I lost a quilt that my grandmother made that was precious to me; it was thrown away after she died during a time when I was away from home. No one understood why I was upset about that old, worn quilt. It was made from scraps my grandmother saved from making her own clothes, so to me it was her sewing history.

Anyway, I was heartbroken, but I decided to deal with my sadness by learning to quilt. I'm still glad that's how I chose to resolve the situation.

Old Loves

This is an old stool I refinished and painted with a little trompe l'oeil a long time ago. My guy still uses it every day. It reminds me of when I was a teenager, and how I had quite arrogantly decided that I'd either be a painter or a poet. I wasn't particularly talented at either, but you know how you are when you discover the art in yourself for the first time. Eventually I found another passion and gave up both to follow a different path, which turned out to be the right one for me.

May you find an old love that makes you smile today.

Bulldozer and Baby Shark

One more pic of our new puppies. My guy took this one.

The boys have very different personalities. Our sable Beau seems to be fearless; he throws himself into everything whole-heartedly. He barks at everything and gets in your face and can be grabby with toys and food. Whether he's eating, walking, or playing, just get out of his way. That's why I gave him Bulldozer as a nickname.

Our tri-color Shadow is the exact opposite: quiet, standoffish, and sneaky. He's only barked once since he came to live with us. As the runt I thought he would be scared of everything, but he just watches everything for a bit before he decides what to do. Then, when he jumps in, he's fast and precise. That got him the nickname Baby Shark (also he loves it when I sing him that song while we play.)

They're both really lovable, and each in his own way is very affectionate. It will be so much fun to watch them grow up.

Nagusame Part Four

To read part four of Nagusame, the story I'm publishing online for my visitors, click here.

Training Days

We're house training our new puppies, and it's working out well. Beau and Shadow have the run of the house during the day, and only go into the crate when we're sleeping or if we have to leave the house to shop or run errands. They've already learned to wake us up in the morning when they need to go outside. Accidents in the house are minimal now, too.

Shetland Sheepdogs typically aren't biters, but I discourage the puppies (who are teething now like babies) from gnawing on me. Kisses are fine, biting is not.

The pups stay with me most of the day in my home office, which I've transformed into a play room for them. They nap there whenever they're tired. When I leave the room they always come with me.

Because we're in a rural area with lots of wild life we always take our dogs out on leads. They're a lot faster than we are, and there are a couple of farms around us with working dogs who might attack them if they get loose and trespass. I also think it's part of being a responsible pet owner and neighbor.

Training very young dogs takes time, but it's fun and rewarding. The work we do now will also pay off in the future.

Blooming Again

It's been an exceptionally rainy summer here. Usually in June it rains every day, which it did, but we've also had storms almost every day in July. The end result is that everything is lush and green, and there are wildflowers everywhere in the yard.

I haven't noticed much of this. I've been focused on the things that trouble me, make me unhappy, and keep frightening me. I think we all have in some way, and maybe that's why everyone I know is exhausted. I certainly am.

Despite the awful things that have happened over the last eighteen months wild flowers still bloom. Maybe it's time I try looking at them.

Show and Tell

I made this fox-themed crazy quilted block to indulge my love of orange and turquoise.

A peacock feather inspired this piece.

Sometimes all it takes is an interesting pendant or bead to get my gears rolling, like this rose.

Roses are definitely a recurring theme in my crazy quilt work.

I don't often do pictoral quilt pieces, but this one was an exception.