sturdy as potatoes

Tonight I'm attending a reading organized by one of my dear friends, Maya. It's been a while since I've gone to a literary reading, so I'm quite excited! Also, anticipating all the great fiction, nonfiction, and poetry I'm going to hear reminds me of this awesome series of poetry books by Faber & Faber.

Poetry Classics

Plath

Hughes

Based in Britain, Faber & Faber has been publishing poetry heavyweights for almost a century.  T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, W.H. Auden, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and Philip Larkin all have collections under the F&F imprint. Pretty impressive poet roundup. Plus, they just appointed Jarvis Cocker as their newest Editor-at-Large. How rad is that? I mean, do you see U.S. publishers making those kinds of moves? Nope. 

Auden

Yeats

Betjeman

Eliot

Aren't they lovely? Don't you want them all on your bookshelf? If you have a little time today,
I suggest you pay a visit to Faber & Faber's:

  website,

literary podcasts,

or swell blog, The Thought Fox. 

P.S. This post's title is taken from Plath's Poems, Potatoes.

miscellaneous blather

What to post? What to post? I have a couple Christmas-related things ready (or ready-ish), but I've decided I absolutely cannot get into that business until December begins. So, I'm left with succulents (which I still need to get together), the Washington State Department of Dreams (the state department dedicated to cataloguing and preserving dreams, of course) Dream Log (which is something I came up with like a year ago and haven't done anything about), and the here and there projects I have going (many top secret). So, I watched an episode of The X-Files, ate some leftover spinach lasagna, and decided I'm just too sleepy to accomplish much tonight. (I started nodding off a work today, by the way. Why is my office so very warm? Oh, and boring?)

So, I settled on some items from my collection which seem particularly fall-ish. You know, for visual interest.

These acorn caps were collected in Catherine's yard.

Doesn't this little seed pod look like a cluster of mouths? Like mouths belonging to the beasts from Tremors and
 Tremors 2: Aftershocks. I just impressed the hell out of you, didn't I?

I found this at Finch Arboretum in Spokane.

Also from Finch Arboretum. It goes quite well with my bee collection. Send me your bees!
No, seriously, send me your bees.

And since the meat and potatoes of the blog (that's the text, right?) has already sort of wandered away from anything resembling a theme, I'll just say that last night I did a little writing of the real variety (at least, I hope so {and not to, in any way, diminish the writing we do here, on the blog, that you're reading or not reading right now}). This may explain why I'm all sleepy-time tea tonight.


I'm also trying to decide exactly how much Garth Brooks should be on the party playlist. (Remember? Mom's 60th birthday party is in the all-important planning stage.) Right now, we're at zero Garth Brooks. I'm thinking we should have more than that. Anyone want to weigh in on the perfect music for a party with guests ranging from 25-65 years old (or maybe 70! I honestly don't know.) and that may or may not include dancing at some point? Heavy on the R. Kelly, or no? Please let me know before it's too late.

Minding the minutiae of the recently deceased.

The estate sale season is coming to an end. I suppose this means my Sundays will have to become more productive. Although, I did make enchiladas today. I did the dishes too--and I wasn't even avoiding anything! I don't mean to be self-congratulatory, but being proactive about dirty dishes (when there isn't some sort of deadline to be avoided) isn't really my strong suit. Anyway, I did make it to a couple estate sales. Without further ado...


An overview of my finds.

Item 1. Giant vintage picnic basket.
Item 2. Paul Bunyan postcard.
Item 3. 1930s ledger, blank.
Item 4. Metal tape measure.
Item 5. Handkerchief with ghost ship.
Item 6. Lot of vintage and antique postcards.
Item 666. A chandelier in pieces. (Actually, that would be Lot 666, and I was reminded, of course, because I just wrote lot. It doesn't take much. I'm pretty simple.)
Item 7. Two small square tablecloths, one embroidered and one printed with crazy Norsk flower names.
Item 8. Hem-Rite tool. It helps you hem stuff. Fabric. (I am determined to learn how to sew this winter. Very. Determined.)
Item 9: Gargantuan topographical map. (This thing is the size of my bed. For reals. I mean, it's a twin bed {because I'm obviously not an adult?}, but still. HUGE.)

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Bemidji is in Minnesota. Paul Bunyan lives there.

There's a ton of wilderness in the East Half of the Umatilla National Forest. I know because this map's national geodetic datum of 1929
told me. I think it's showing Oregon (the Umatilla covers WA and OR, right?), but I'd probably have to remember how to figure township
and range to be certain, and who wants to do that? Not me.

I won't be sending this to an uncle, dear or otherwise.

Right now, this is a ghost ship. I will make it a real ship!

One of the things I love about estate sales (other than going into a stranger's house, which I do love {but only under non-terrifying and voluntary circumstances}) is finding things that people have used often and loved and sometimes left unfinished. I'm all about the Umatilla map with the red circle drawn around the Keeney Mine and the big red X over S13-T8S-R33E (Township 8 South, Range 33 East, Section 13 {It is Oregon, the Willamette area, specifically.}). I will write those postcards. I will embroider that ship onto that handkerchief (and then I might turn it into a pillow, but that's my business).


I like the idea of picking up where a complete stranger left off. I like to think that these people (who are, most probably, recently deceased) would be pleased to have someone completing all these little tasks.

It's a little covenant between us.

Yes, let's.