October's Over 2024

Hello dear reader! I'm deterined to keep posting monthly summaries this year. Here are some notes from this past month! I hope that you are doing okay wherever you are, whenever you read this.

 

Cozy Gaming

Playing video games has been a nice relaxing hobby lately. In October I finally finished two long-playing games. Wytchwood is a cute little "fetch & carry" game with a slightly sinister vibe (that I like). It took me about 3 years to complete the gameplay because I only like playing it at the beginning of fall. This year I finally finished it up. I recommend it!

I also "completed" The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which I'd been playing for over a year. I put "completed" in quotes because I will probably keep playing it (and its predecessor, Breath of the Wild). The open world is so fascinating to roam and there are still quests and goodies to find. But I defeated the final boss and am very proud of myself. 

I also started and finished Inside, recommended by a coworker, and it was excellent. I was explaining that I like puzzle games in a post-apocalyptic setting, and this fits the bill exactly. It was so addictive that I played every chance I got and finished in under a week. Then I accidentally reset the puzzles and decided to play through just those parts again. Love it.

 

First Frost

The weather is turning to cold and night-time temps dipped below freezing this month, which put an end to the tender herbs and tomatoes in the garden. We made a batch of pesto with our basil before the frost came. (Note to self: you do not have to put ALL the pine nuts into a batch of pesto; just add a reasonable amount and taste as you go.)

Espresso

No I'm not talking about the 2024 Sabrina Carpenter hit. I'm talking about the original concentrated coffee beverage. I've been kind of dragging lately and feeling low on energy, so I decided to try boosting my mornings now and then with a tiny homemade espresso. I think that just the ritual of preparing it is kind of energizing--I have a small stove-top espresso-maker that hisses out a dark demi-tasse that I then sip with tons of sugar added. Yum!

Halloween

I wasn't sure we'd be celebrating this year but in the end a family member did put on my emergency T-Rex costume and went trick-or-treating. Also I wore my emergency J.S. Bach outfit on a work video call. I enjoyed surprising my co-workers with my snow-white Bach wig and "composer jacket" that I've had since high-school. Good to have those emergency outfits ready, you know?

Tell me about you? How was October in your world?

Remember September?

I'm not so sure about September 2024. I usually love September as a time for back-to-school vibes--fresh pencils and plaid skirts and rosy apples and crisp note-paper, stuff like that. This year had a little of that feeling, but mostly it felt like a rush. But here are a few things!

New 2025 Hobonichi Journal

September is Hobonichi season, when I order myself a new Japanese planner to use for the following year. For the past 4 years I have been using the "avec" style of Hobonichi journals to make small notes or drawings or collages each day--this style has two small planners that cover 6 months each. You can see this year's pair on the left of this photo. But I've also long wanted a Hobonichi cover, which is usually a fabric book-cover that you insert a journal into. This year I treated myself to a 2025 Hobonichi full-year journal, with an orange and blue cover and a plastic "cover on cover" over that. It has cute little pockets and ribbons (it's on the right below, and in the 2 photos below that).

Common Merganser

I love the pointy silhouettes of mergansers, which are water-birds I sometimes see when I'm out kayaking.

 

Brattleboro Museum & Art Center

I got to see the exhibits at our local museum this past month. They always have such neat stuff!

Harp by Benedict Scheuer, Hand-dyed silk

 

Coyote Imagery by Duane Slick

Raven sculpture by Susan Brearey

Spacemosque is an exhibition about a vessel from the future that grants one prayer per 24 hours and is infused with Islamic mysticism in a genre the artist, Saks Afridi, calls "Sci-fi Sufism." I love it so much.

Spacetime 2019, part of the Spacemosque installation by Saks Afridi

Breath of the Beast by Ilana Manolson, Acrylic on Yupo paper

Perfume Nerdery

I haven't ordered any more perfume samples (they can add up!) but I've started testing and organizing the samples and bottles that I do have. I got a little index card holder and am making one card for each fragrance. I print out the notes and accords and stick them on the back of each card. I'm writing notes on the cards about what I like/notice/dislike about each perfume.

Index card case on bottom right

Notes printed from Fragrantica.com

Fall begins!

Here's what I like to do when Autumn starts. Drink more tea. Play the game Wytchwood on the Nintendo Switch. And get out my "Mabon" Oracle deck and start pulling cards from it. This year I'm also adding in the deck I made myself that features my personal values and is decorated with copyright-free images (see my July post). In this spread I got the Wool card (which is about opportunities for coziness and self-care) and the No-Mind card. Lovely.

August Favorites 2024

August seemed super long this year! Here's a little recap.

Quantifiables

We said happy birthday (18!) and then goodbye (college!)

I have a new blue car that is actually 12 years old

29 years of living in one place was reviewed, moved, stored away, and distributed.

80s-nite rollerskating was neon salvation.

Photos

Fresh tomatoes baked with bread, cheese, basil, and egg

First time seeing the "Viking Village" in a nearby town

I saw a skunk!! I love skunks

I located the path that kept disappearing, and took a photo to prove it exists (It's the path to the left that is completely clear and obvious)

 

A loon! I also love loons.

 

My my, July 2024

July seemed like a good month! Summer is still a fresh new thing in July. It feels delightful to slip out for an ice cream cone or bring in a load of clothing sun-warm from the line. Here are some things I got up to this past month.

My Own Oracle Cards

I've been thinking about my personal values: things that are important to me, that I think are good and important, and that I want to hold onto and grow. My values include creativity, curiosity, authenticity, humor, and embodiment. Because I like oracle cards, I thought it would be cool to try to make cards with these values. For artwork, I turned to the public domain photography at the National Gallery of Art. It is a TREASURE TROVE! I had a great day on the 4th of July just scrolling and scrolling through hundreds of photographs that are available for download. All of those people, those expressions, those relationships, those souls, looking at the camera from long ago. I picked photos I especially loved and matched them up with a list of values using the Procreate app on my iPad. This is a little of my work in progress:

Next I want to figure out how to print or stick these onto cards somehow.

Gaming

I've been playing Legend of Zelda games for over 2 years now, including Breath of the Wild and the newer Tears of the Kingdom. This past month I decided to try some new games. One of them was a "platformer" with two characters, called Shady Part of Me. It has a girl character who can't be in the light, and a shadow character who can only travel on walls where the light creates shadow for her to exist. So basically, there are 2 characters that you toggle back and forth as you work through one and then the other to get to a series of checkpoints. The characters can help each other by doing things like moving boxes or flipping switches. I finished the game in a couple of weeks, but maybe I'll try it again because I missed some little elements I was supposed to collect along the way.

Perfumes

I go through phases where I get interested in perfumes. I've read a few books, including The Secret of Scent by Luca Turin. Now and then I'll buy a bottle of something, usually a blind buy based only on the description. (I've had pretty good luck with my purchases.) My most recent perfume phase involves watching YouTube reviews of people talking about scents they like and don't like, and I discovered that the site Twisted Lily sells tiny sample bottles for $4-8. I don't mind paying that to see what something smells like! So I placed an order and have been playing around with interesting smells this month.

There are perfumes that smell like a cup of coffee, or like suntan lotion, or like cinnamon. There are perfumes that are just one synthetic molecule and "develop" on the skin uniquely for each person. Most of the samples I've tried are delightful. Only one was a miss, smelling exactly like the pine shavings I used to put in the cages of my pet mice when I was a kid. I really love smelling nice. It's like a little lucky charm I can carry around and reset myself whenever I smell it.

MAD Magazine exhibit

My love and I traveled to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to see the "What, Me Worry? Art & Humor of MAD Magazine" exhibit that is there until October. We both grew up loving MAD Magazine in our own ways. To me, MAD was a fascinating send-up of the odd mid- to late-20th century culture that I found myself in as a child and teen. It was kind of a relief to see grownups poking fun at other grownups. I especially liked Don Martin (who drew Captain Klutz among other things) and Dave Berg (who did "The Lighter Side of..." series). I also liked the caricature-like movie "re-dos" by Mort Drucker, who created spoofs like Star Blecch, Shtick Tracy, and the Da Vinci Coma. We were allowed to take photos at the show, so here's a little taste of what we saw.

Wallace Allen Wood, Is a Trip to the Moon Possible, 1955

Don Martin, Peace on Earth and Goodwill Toward Men, 1962

Dave Berg, The Lighter Side of... selections, 1970s

Roberto Parada, X-Files the Spoof is in Here! 1998

Tom Richmond, Harry Plodder and the Torture of the Fan Base, 2007

Mort Drucker, Saturday Night Feeble, 1978

One of my favorite things was an interactive touch-screen kiosk where you could virtually fold in a bunch of different Al Jaffee Fold-Ins from the back covers of the magazine. It was really fun to be there and mingle with the other weirdos of all ages. Highly recommend!

June Doin's 2024

Hello dear reader! Here are some things that happened in June this year. I hope your year is going okay so far. 

Intro to Psychology

I'm taking this 100-level class at the state community college and really enjoying it. We have one topic per week and are given a choice of learning formats, whether reading an article, a textbook, listening to a podcast, or watching a TED talk, etc. I like the audio and video options best because it fits my learning style better to have people tell me stuff. So far we've covered sleep and consciousness, deception theory, classical conditioning (like Pavlov and the dogs), multitasking, and conformity. It's a fully online class but the instructor has figured out how to make it interesting and engaging nonetheless. This will go until mid-August.

Biking in the Woods

I mentioned last month that I've started biking on local trails with my kid. We continued to do this in June, with afternoon or evening rides of 3+ miles up and down local woodland trails. It's super fun. We're getting stronger at climbing up tough inclines by bike, and more confident about speeding downhill while negotiating rocks, roots, and winding paths.

Crookies

What's a crookie? It's a portmanteau word that means croissant + cookie. To make crookies, get a croissant and a package of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough (ideally with mini chips). Split the croissant in half and flatten out a chunk of cookie dough and put it in the middle. Then flatten out another chunk of dough and put it on top of the croissant. Bake for about 13 minutes. The result is a chocolate chip cookie experience that is on another level, because it's bursting with flaky crunchy croissant-ness. Bonus: Cookie dough can be kept in the fridge and used in small portions, so you can make a crookie anytime (if you also have a croissant).

Revolution in Our Time, by Kekla Magoon

This book was on the Juneteenth display at the public library. It's a history of the Black Panther Party. The book is very clear and does a great job establishing how the Black Panthers evolved, what they did together during their heyday, and what is still important today. I was grateful to learn more about this important group--its members, its platform, its social justice programs, and it being heavily targeted by COINTELPRO and the FBI. I think everybody should learn more about the Black Panthers and their legacy, including activist work continued by Bobby Seale, Jamal Joseph, and Aaron Dixon.

 

Garden Harvest 

We've had several meals with veggies from the garden. Green beans and chard are growing well. I've also been harvesting kale and freezing it to make a big batch of chop. The sungold tomatoes are starting to produce, too!

Kayak Float Days

One of my favorite things to do in a few spare moments is go float around in my kayak. I had a couple of days to do that in June. One day was a scorcher and I took a companion with me. We spent 2 hours just floating, paddling lazily, and dipping in and out of the water to stay cool. It was lovely.

Yes We May 2024

Hello dear reader! Let's look back at some highlights from the month of May, 2024. These are some things that I really enjoyed last month and would like to share.

Biking

One of my family members has developed an interest in riding their mountain bike on local trails, so we've been doing that together and it's very exciting. I love the hard work of negotiating the bike up hills and around corners, and then there's the payoff of speeding down hills. 

LP Shelves

For too many years my beloved record albums have been literally mouldering in my basement. When we went to IKEA last month, we picked up a 4 x 2 Kallax shelving unit that I finally put together this month. I attached it to wall anchors all by myself using a DRILL. So proud. Then I filled it with about 500 records. How satisfying! It is fantastic to have all of this music at my fingertips. Some of these albums are deeply meaningful, part of the musical fabric of my childhood. Others are just fun to have and listen to a key song or two.

Planted the Garden

It's Year 4 of the hugelkultur project in the front yard! The "hills" have collapsed down so they're really just long, regular garden beds now. I added several bags of new topsoil to each bed, and then planted Sungold tomatoes, green beans, chard, kale, and one spicy pepper. We also had collards and kale left from last year, and the garlic I had planted in the fall is growing nicely along with some volunteer potatoes. I also put in some annual herbs in the kitchen garden, including cilantro and basil. I planted nasturtium seeds all over the flower beds just for fun, and put marigolds in among the tomatoes. Now everything can start to grow!

Deleted Instagram

The phone app Instagram was taking up my time every single day. I put a tracker on it and learned that I was spending over 7 hours a week looking at garbage on Instagram. Then I saw a video on Youtube where a self-proclaimed minimalist said he had deleted Instagram from his phone and it was great. I think it's hilarious that I had to see a Youtube video to learn about deleting an iphone app, but that's what happened. I deleted Insta in mid-May and have not gone back. It has helped to declutter my mind a little and give me more time to do other things (see next item!). However, I still watch a lot of Youtube, ha.

Finished Diamond Painting #1

I started this diamond painting in June 2023. It was a new hobby for me at the time. It is kind of like painting by numbers but done with little flattened pieces of plastic that you stick onto a patterned backing to create a cheap-looking mosaic. Finally, 11 months later, I finished my first design--a beautiful octopus! I immediately started another one, this time a sea horse.

 

Good Thrifting 

My new year's resolution last year was to try to find more clothes at the thrift store. I don't have much chance to go shopping in "new" stores, and stuff I buy online always seems overpriced and not quite what I imagined once it actually comes to my doorstep. Good news: I have scored some excellent clothing at the local thrift shop! I got several beloved pairs of jeans that actually fit me, and this past month I decided to go look for summer tops and I found SIX great ones. Very satisfying.

6 shirts, with pair of shorts &
pair of jeans in front

Phone Photos

I took some photos of wildflowers while running in the woods in May.

Red Trillium

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

What is this?? It is gorgeous
but I haven't identified it yet.

April Days 2024

April seemed really long. There was the first and only school snow-day of the 23-24 year. Some family things happened this month. One family member made a decision about the next four years of her life. Another family member who had passed on was remembered at a special celebration with love and many stories. Here are some more memories and little things from the month of April.

Favorites

The solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, was pretty cool. Where we live it was a 96% eclipse. The light got gray. The air got cold and things felt... strange. Everyone had eclipse-viewing glasses and our family sat on the front lawn and watched the eclipse while chatting with our neighbors who were also watching. For about 30 minutes during the peak of the eclipes, it seemed that everyone stopped what they were doing and just looked up at the sky. I didn't hear any cars going by during that time--it was just a unique, quiet, focused few moments. Then life started up again and everyone went back to what they were doing.

A family member and I took a trip to IKEA during spring break, the Swedish furniture+more store. The two nearest IKEAs are about equidistant from where I live. One is in New Haven, CT, and the other is south of Boston. We chose the Boston one and had a great time exploring the showrooms, the marketplace full of all kinds of useful items like lamps and spatulas and plastic plants, and then the warehouse where you serve yourself from the tremendous aisles of packaged goods.

 

Part of a showroom--I was interested in
how there is shelving ABOVE the TV unit.
Maybe a future living room idea?

Of course we had lunch in the IKEA cafeteria.
I had the "plant balls" which were a vegetarian version
of Swedish meatballs. However my partner couldn't
finish their regular meatballs so I got to try
those too. Pretty good, and very inexpensive.

Warehouse

New Things

I am on a roll with my collection of divination cards! I got a new deck this month, the Moonology Messages Oracle by Yasmin Boland with artwork by Ali Vermilio, produced by Hay House. Here are a few examples of the cards:

The IKEA trip yielded an exciting new furniture addition: the RASKOG rolling cart. I had been dreaming of having studio space where I could arrange all my little hobbies and creative materials, and I realized that a simple cart like this could be an easy way to have current projects at my fingertips! I love my "art cart" so much, and it's even the perfect metal canvas for showing off some of my magnet collection.

The current projects in my art cart are divination/
tarot cards on the top, crochet in the middle,
and drawing materials on the bottom.

Close-up of top shelf--the cool felt caddy
for my little tarot bags is also from IKEA.

Bottom shelf has my drawing pad, pencil case,
and colored pencil collection.

Consumed

This month we watched the 2001 movie Amelie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. I remember that the movie made a big impression on me at the time, but I hadn't seen it in many years. I'm happy to report that it holds up extremely well and is completely charming. We just laughed and smiled throughout the movie and it was a lovely escape. The soundtrack by Yann Tiersen is also iconic.

Phone Photos

These are flowers I saw while running in the woods this month.

I believe this is Hepatica americana
(Round-lobed liverleaf)

This is the purple version of the same plant, growing
right next to the white one
(this web photo does not do it justice--
it is a gorgeous violet color)

I believe this is Wild Oats or Uvularia sessilifolia
(also known as Sessile Bellwort)