Poem for Wednesday and Sailing Through the Solstice

The Country Bedroom 

By Frances Darwin Cornford 

My room's a square and candle-lighted boat,

In the surrounding depths of night afloat;

My windows are the portholes, and the seas

The sound of rain on the dark apple-trees.

Seamonster-like beneath, an old horse blows

A snort of darkness from his sleeping nose,

Below, among drowned daisies. Far off, hark!

Far off one owl amidst the waves of dark.

-------- 

I spent Wednesday morning chatting with my high school friends even though I saw both Kay and Linda last week, and an hour of the afternoon watching the first episode of Loki with Kristen. In between, I finally finished unpacking, reorganized some craft stuff, and took a walk to the beach, which was very chilly but the ducks did not seem all that concerned. 

After dinner, we watched Doctor Who's "The Star Beast" -- enjoyable, a little predictable, so good to see Donna again -- then The Masked Singer's disco night episode, goofy fun, and now the first episode of Faraway Downs, still uneven like Australia but superbly filmed. Some of the lighted boats from Frederick's Sailing Through the Solstice in Carroll Creek:

Poem for Tuesday and Great Cats

Poem 

By William Carlos Williams

As the cat

climbed over

the top of

the jamcloset—

first the right

forefoot

carefully

then the hind

stepped down

into the round

of the empty

flowerpot.

-------- 

It will surprise no one to hear that my Tuesday involved a huge amount of unpacking, laundry, and sorting things that had been in toiletry and snack bags. I did get to watch Voyager's "Pathfinder" with most of my usual crowd (I hadn't remembered the details and there was more Deanna Troi than I'd thought, which was nice), and our neighbors stopped by to return our key so we also gave them gifts and they got to snuggle the cats. 

In the evening I had a bunch of computer cleanup stuff to do, so we caught up on the finale of Lessons in Chemistry, which I thought was excellent throughout. We also watched last week's For All Mankind -- Mars is depressing, and I'm actually more worried about Ed than Margo. Since our own cats are claiming starvation again, here are some of the cats we saw at the National Zoo (sand, fishing, clouded, pallas, cheetah, lions and tigers):

Greetings from Redmond

...where we have just arrived to feed our cats after dropping Adam off at his home (Daniel and Cahaya took a slightly earlier flight and are retrieving their dogs). Had a nice day seeing my parents and Linda, one of my oldest friends -- more when I'm awake!

 

Greetings from Frederick

On Sunday we got up, got organized, and drove to Hanover, where we picked up Paul's parents and went to lunch at Blue Koi. Since there were too many of us to fit comfortably in the van, Paul took Cinda and Clair back to their home while the rest of us stopped in Giant to get some desserts since we won't be here for Cinda's birthday next month. Paul then picked us up and we spent time in one of the lounges in their building eating and chatting. 

We headed out in the late afternoon and arrived in Frederick as it was getting dark to see the lighted boats in Carroll Creek decorated for Sailing Through the Solstice. After we walked around the creek, we drove to Derwood to Gourmet Asian Bistro to meet the Helgesens for dinner. Then we came back to Silver Spring, where we just watched the Ravens beat the Chargers and we're taking turns doing laundry, cleaning, and packing.

Greetings from the Zoo

Adam had plans downtown with friends all day Saturday -- brunch with one, climbing with another, dinner with another, then a concert by yet another with a group -- so the rest of us went downtown with Cheryl, who drove up for the day to see me. We went to the zoo, since Cahaya was hoping to see the wolves, but of course the wolves were the one animal not on exhibit; nevertheless, we got to see the baby Andean bears climbing a tree, the baby meerkats wrestling, the elephants indoors and out, the sleepy Pallas and sand cats, the playful sea lions and otters, and all the animals in Amazonia and the Small Mammal House. 

We ran out of time for the rebuilt Bird House, but we got to see most of the zoo lights set up for the evening and we ate lunch in the Mane Grill, which wasn't crowded by the time we got there and which has Impossible Burgers as well as non-veggie stuff. When the zoo closed, we went to Barbarian Comics so Cheryl and I could check out all the Loki statues and Daniel could get Pokemon cards for Cahaya, then we went to Barnes & Noble at Washingtonian and walked by the lake to see the holiday lights. Cheryl had to get home afterward, so the rest of us ate some leftovers and some delivery for dinner while watching the end of the day's football -- go Terps!

Greetings from Great Falls

The only shopping I did on Black Friday was for food. Otherwise, I spent a fairly quiet morning with my kids, then we dropped Daniel and Cahaya off at the Metro to go downtown, left Adam in Rockville to meet friends, and we went to Panera for lunch before driving to Great Falls, where we enjoyed a long chilly hike along the Potomac River. 

We went to get Starbucks to warm up, then walked next door to Safeway for cheese and crackers to bring to my parents. Then we went to hang out with them for a little while before going to pick up Daniel and Cahaya, who came came to have leftovers with us and them. Now we're watching Oregon-Oregon State and waiting for Adam to return.

Greetings from Potomac

We spent Thanksgiving morning watching the Macy's parade, then three of us walked to Wheaton Regional Park to enjoy the weather while the other two caught up on the Lions-Packers game. Then we headed over to my parents' house, where my sister's family had already arrived. We had lots of awesome food and too many desserts, and it was great to catch up! Hope everyone celebrating had a nice holiday, more tomorrow!

Greetings from Brookside Gardens

I spent a full day Wednesday in Maryland for the first time since we moved west. We took a walk to downtown Wheaton in the morning (Barbarian Comics, Wheaton Triangle, the mall for lunch), then we went to nearby Brookside Gardens, where at this time of year there are more geese than flowers but we got to see the winter lights set up for the evening. 

Cahaya thought she was going to have to work all day, but her office emptied out early, after which we all went to my parents' for dinner (they brought in Grand Fusion), and hung out playing with brain teasers provided by my mother. Now we're hanging out discussing video games, the decline of Pixar, glitter shoes, and other important topics.

Greetings from Maryland

Hello from the east coast! We spent the whole day traveling, starting when we got up at 5:30 a.m. so we could pick up Adam and drive him to SeaTac (Daniel and Cahaya were already there, taking an earlier flight on a different airline). We had bagels in the airport waiting for our check-in time, then spent the next several hours flying to Dulles, where we met Daniel and Cahaya, picked up a rental van, and went to CAVA in Tysons Corner for dinner, followed by a stop in a Safeway for essentials. Now we're at an Airbnb in Silver Spring (four bed, four bath, full kitchen, fireplace)!