Poem for Wednesday and The British Pantry

The New Year 

By Carrie Williams Clifford 

The New Year comes—fling wide, fling wide the door

Of Opportunity! the spirit free

To scale the utmost heights of hopes to be,

To rest on peaks ne’er reached by man before!

The boundless infinite let us explore,

To search out undiscovered mystery,

Undreamed of in our poor philosophy!

The bounty of the gods upon us pour!

Nay, in the New Year we shall be as gods:

No longer apish puppets or dull clods

Of clay; but poised, empowered to command,

Upon the Etna of New Worlds we’ll stand—

This scant earth-raiment to the winds will cast—

Full richly robed as supermen at last!

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Paul only had to work half a day on Wednesday, so in the afternoon we went to the British Pantry -- a restaurant and British food store connected to the Three Lions Pub -- for afternoon tea (and scones, cake, fruit, and several British cheeses). Then we walked along the Sammamish River Trail while the sun was setting to see the waterfowl and the moon. We also stopped at Trader Joe's because we were out of pita, hummus, and various snacks.

 

We weren't very hungry after tea, so we ate some hummus and pita for dinner. Then we watched The Princess Bride, which we've both been in the mood for since Rob Reiner died -- it's one of those rare movie that completely holds up to memory, even after years of seeing it parodied at Renfaires. Now we're watching Bride and Prejudice, because it's a Jane Austen-based Bollywood musical and therefore full of joy. Happy New Year and best wishes for 2026!

Lyrics for Tuesday and Nutcracker House

Waltz of the Flowers 

By Marvin Kahn and Mel Mandel 

See how the flowers dance,

Waltzing in time 'round the ballroom.

Each gardenia dancing with a rose,

Gently swaying while the music flows.

Every gold chrysanthemum

And geranium in full bloom.

See how the flowers dance,

Wonderf'ly gliding together.

Every tulip leads a violet,

While the pink petunias pirouette.

Daisies do a gentle jig

With each little sprig of heather.

Now they're whirling, and they're twirling.

Oh! What magic they're unfurling.

Stardust settles on their petals.

It's a marvelous sight.

May they dance all night.

And when the flowers dance,

Doesn't the world seem appealing?

Don't you hear the music of your heart?

Don't you think it's time for you to start

Treating everyone you know

To that special glow you're feeling?

Like the pretty flowers

In their sweet gentle peaceful bowers

Why don't we all devote our hours

To making other people happy, too?

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My Tuesday morning was about reading, washing my hair, and some bank-related chores online, then yogurt, granola, fruit and nuts for lunch. Then we went to Bella Vision so I could order new glasses; I had a prescription from a couple of months ago but my benefits hadn't kicked in yet, and now they have. We went for a short walk on a gorgeous chilly day and saw a couple of eagles, many mergansers, and a few geese and coots in the lake. 

My DS9 group watched "Profit and Loss" which I'd remembered as a pretty good Quark episode but had forgotten is also an important Garak episode. After that and dinner, was in the mood to watch Interstellar, and since it's been ages we did; I really enjoyed it, it remains quite unique among speculative science fiction movies and has some great performances. Some more photos of amazing Ballard Nutcracker House:

Greetings from Bellevue Botanical Garden

Most of my Monday was busy work, enlivened by visits from maintenance to fix one of our burners and someone else to look at a leaky shower, until late afternoon when we drove to Bellevue and parked at Wilburton Hill Park to walk to Bellevue Botanical Garden, which is in the last days of the annual Garden D'Lights show. We got hot chocolate in the coffee shop there and walked around the winter light garden, which isn't a holiday show but a recreation of elaborate gardens in string and cluster lights, with some animals and a dragon too:

 

We ate our leftover Christmas Swedish food for dinner, which was still yummy, and watched the end of the Rams-Falcons game (for the sake of the Seahawks, I rooted for Atlanta, who fought hard and won despite being out of playoff contention). Then we put on Always Be My Maybe, which is a few years old but I'd seen a good review of it somewhere and it always amuses me how Asian family-and-romance movies remind me of good Jewish family-and-romance movies (shit like Nobody Wants This does not count). It's funny and Wong and Park are sweet together.

Greetings from Magical Places

Sunday was a chilly but gorgeous day, so we spent most of it out -- at least, after the Seahawks beat the Panthers, meaning they're on top of the NFC West assuming they can beat the 49ers next weekend. We went first to Gas Works Park, which we've only seen from a distance across Lake Union; now we've climbed the kite hill with the sundial, walked through the abandoned compressor building that's now a play area for children, and followed the trail along the lake with Canada geese, mergansers, mallards, and seagulls. Then we drove through Fremont, past the troll and Lenin (who currently has a big snowman head), and stopped in Ballard at Scandinavian Specialties for cheese. 

From there we headed to Loyal Heights, where the principal harpist for the Pacific Northwest Ballet and his partner set up their home and yard every winter with sculptures designed by Maurice Sendak for the production of The Nutcracker that the company used to do before they adopted the Balanchine ballet. The partner, an antiques restorer, was doing yard work when we arrived and took photos of us. Since we were near Golden Gardens Park, we wound up there near sunset, watching the boats, waterfowl, a couple of snorkelers, and either a seal or sea lion diving just offshore. The mountain views were lovely all day. After dinner we decided to watch The Player, which holds up surprisingly well.

Greetings from the Cougar Mountain Zoo

We spent much of Saturday at Cougar Mountain Zoo, which is in the final days of its annual Reindeer Festival -- Santa has gone back to the North Pole but the large herd of reindeer live at the zoo year-round, so we got to see all the girls with their winter racks and the boys stuffing themselves on apple pieces. We also got to see the three new lion cubs; two of the cougars for whom the zoo is named; all three wolves; the one remaining tiger; lemurs, alpacas, and deer; and the emus, cranes, and raptors who are the only birds outdoors in winter. Since we were in Issaquah, we also stopped at Wild Birds Unlimited and at Safeway.

 

We ate Christmas week leftovers for dinner, saw the delightful end of the Ravens game (sorry Packers fans but I'd really like to be in the playoffs and you already will be), and watched Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World just because we were in the mood for it; everything about it holds up beautifully, especially Russell Crowe's Jack Aubrey. Now we're watching Four Weddings and a Funeral because it's another on the "everybody but me has seen" list and I've disliked Hugh Grant for so long, for so many reasons, that I figure he's never going to get better and probably can't get worse. It feels overrated, but then I'm biased.

Poem for Friday and Virginia Piglets

Henry James 

By Robert Louis Stevenson 

Who comes to-night? We open the doors in vain.

Who comes? My bursting walls, can you contain

The presences that now together throng

Your narrow entry, as with flowers and song,

As with the air of life, the breath of talk?

Lo, how these fair immaculate women walk

Behind their jocund maker; and we see

Slighted De Mauves, and that far different she,

Gressie, the trivial sphynx; and to our feast

Daisy and Barb and Chancellor (she not least!)

With all their silken, all their airy kin,

Do like unbidden angels enter in.

But he, attended by these shining names,

Comes (best of all) himself—our welcome James.

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I had a pretty quiet post-Christmas Friday -- some chores, some reading, and a bit of a walk in the afternoon around Crossroads Mall, where we stopped in World Market for food, Barnes & Noble to browse (I had a gift card that was a birthday present), and Trudy's Hallmark to see if there were any must-have fannish ornaments on a big post-holiday sale, only to find the whole store on sale because it's shutting down permanently! With Joanne's and Party City also gone, the whole mall feels like a ghost town apart from the food court. 

We watched this week's Fallout and Percy Jackson, both of which are fine in their sophomore season but I stop thinking about them the second the episodes end. I don't even remember what made me think of it, but I'd been thinking about the fact that I never saw Notting Hill though I've seen it ripped off in so many places, so since it's on Amazon Prime, we wound up watching that and it was quite enjoyable though a little dated; Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts are charming together. From our trip east, Kidwell Farm piggies:

Greetings for Christmas

Merry Christmas if you celebrate! I only celebrate as a guest in other people's celebrations, but that's generally been fun for me. This year Paul wanted to make most of the Swedish holiday foods his mother always made, so we had homemade rye bread, meatballs, mashed potatoes, and lots of cookies. Daniel came to eat them with us -- Cahaya wasn't feeling well -- and we played some Azul and played with the cats. 

It was otherwise a quiet day; we talked to our parents and kids on Google Meet, took a walk in the mist, and saw lots of birds because our neighbors gave us a seed ring (and a blown glass hummingbird) as Christmas presents when we got together in the morning to exchange gifts. We watched some football, I chatted briefly with some of my Thursday chat group, and now we're watching the Heated Rivalry sexy season finale.