Greetings from Wingaersheek Beach

We went out early Tuesday to drop a package off at the post office and to pick up bagels (plus I got Pokemon into four showcases, three of which I won). Then I folded and put away laundry and did some other chores, we ate lunch, I did some reading, and then I got a package containing the Oracolor deck Illuminated Paths so I read with that for a while. It was another gorgeous not-too-hot day, so perfect for walking and seeing bunnies. 

My DS9 group watched "Shakaar" (Kai Winn! Lupaza! Bajoran politics! And, fine, Shakaar, though he and Kira bother me less together since I know it doesn't last). Then we watched the end of the extra-innings Red Sox-Marlins game (grand slam!) and a bit of coverage of the Orioles blowout of the Cardinals (13-1!) before the new episode of Futurama (Taylor Swift?!). A gull and her very hungry child we met at Wingaersheek Beach seeking potato chips:

Greetings from Shrewsbury

It rained the entire day on Tuesday so it's all kind of a blur. I spent too much time doomscrolling, telling off people who just had absolutely no idea Graham Platner could be such a disaster for the Democrats I mean who could have seen that coming, and insisting that however evil you may think Taylor Swift is and for whatever reason, you just sound like a clown when you compare her to Donald Trump. 

I did, at least, get the laundry folded, some World Cup watched, and some reading done, and I got to chat with Chris for a bit in the afternoon. My DS9 group watched "Visionary" -- poor Miles O'Brien -- and when the Orioles game got too terrible we put on Swapped, which is beautifully animated, amusingly performed, and generally charming. Crafts for sale at the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival:

Greetings from A Bug's World

Monday was mostly rainy, so I tried to do outdoor chores early -- sweeping the deck, setting up the new hose which I didn't get to use because I couldn't find the master switch for the outdoor spigot -- it was already drizzling when I wiped down the railings out front. Then I did laundry, unpacked a box of astronomy books and Grateful Dead souvenirs I found in the garage while looking for the water valve, and finished reading Mieville's Un Lun Dun. 

It was pouring when Paul got home, so we never took a walk, though I did a lot of running up and down stairs doing chores. Instead we had Cincinnati chili for dinner, watched the finale of The Way Home -- pretty satisfying all around -- and now we're watching the second season of The Agency, which is less stressful now that my two favorite characters aren't sharing the screen much. From the Bug's World exhibit at the Roger Williams Park Zoo:

Greetings from 'Detroit'

Quick post because I'm watching The Vampire Lestat: After Dark after the first episode of the new show, after waiting with wild impatience after Interview with the Vampire; this was my favorite of Anne Rice's books and the show thus far is everything I adored about it plus extra (the sex! the incest! contemporary songs!). Anne Rice so overdid the Immortalverse that I fell out of love with it, but kick a season off with the auction from Phantom of the Opera, have Daniel call Lestat the Cuntessa, toss in some Taylor Swift insults and give me Sam Reid playing Ewan McGregor playing Iggy Pop from Velvet Goldmine -- saying lines like "MDMA and LSD, the Torvill and Dean of hallucinogenics" -- I am going to be screaming aloud on my couch. 

Otherwise, I had a quiet Monday. I was up late talking to Daniel (it was his anniversary yesterday), so I got up, did laundry, cleaned 2/3 bathrooms, sorted a bunch of photos I took over the weekend, took a walk and discovered that our neighborhood now has teeny baby teacup bunnies out running around on the back cul-de-sac by the unfinished houses, enjoyed the gorgeous weather. We ate dinner around the Orioles' loss to the Mariners (I had a bit of a dilemma because I can't root against Josh Naylor, but I wanted Baltimore to come back), then we watched the episode of The Way Home that we missed during the Tonys last night; it was fine, but let's face it, that time slot is going to vampires for the rest of the time travel show's run. Kangaroos at the Franklin Park Zoo: 

Greetings from Old Sturbridge Village

Sunday was another gorgeous day, not quite 60 degrees and sunny, so we ate lunch early and went to Old Sturbridge Village to see the lambs -- they have ten of them! We walked through the farms and along the river, where the turtles are out, and saw several chickens and cows as well as the sheep. We also visited a few of the farm buildings, then stopped in the Yankee Candle outlet and a pottery store in town before going to Shaw's for food for the week.

 

The Orioles had won before we got home, but we saw some of the Mariners game, which was nice because they won and even more nice because they beat the Astros. Then we ate bread and cheese with tomato soup for dinner -- I'm told it was National Grilled Cheese Day, but I prefer mine spread on fresh hard sourdough -- and watched Billy Idol Should Be Dead, the documentary with lots of music and animated sequences (I loved the David Bowie one).

Greetings from Misquamicut State Beach

I opened boxes on Tuesday that were packed quickly when our basement flooded in late 2022, containing books I didn't even remember that we still owned. We still have lots of big art books, and books about penguins, in addition to the children's books we kept. I need to rearrange the rest of the boxes to find out what's in them, and figure out what's going on which bookcase -- we have a new one upstairs. So I spent a lot of time going up and down stairs with boxes, plus we took a walk in the chilly neighborhood late afternoon sunshine. 

We went out to the Bagel Inn at lunchtime -- they had green ones in honor of St. Patrick's Day -- and we had veggie Irish stew with Dublin cheese for dinner. My DS9 group watched "The House of Quark" (some fun moments but you can tell none of the writers have one clue how women in functional relationships actually behave). Now we're watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 because neither of us really remembered it; I feel like that was no great loss. The beach at Westerly, including Block Island, a seal, and the view toward Taylor Swift's house:

Greetings from Westerly

Quick post-Academy Awards post after a lovely Sunday in Rhode Island, where Kay and Chris were visiting his father in his beautiful home where he paints and creates art and plays the piano, which he did for us -- showtunes and jazz, entirely by ear. They took us out to lunch at Quinn's Meltdown Cafe, then drove us to the beach by way of Watch Hill, which I didn't realize until we arrived in Westerly was where Taylor Swift's High Watch aka Holiday House is located, though we could only see the gates from the road and the chimneys from the parking lot of the stunning nearby Ocean House hotel. 

It was too cold in the wind for a long walk on the beach, but we did wander a bit by the Atlantic, and we got to see seagulls and a seal (which you can see as the black dot by my shoulder in the photo below). Then we drove into town, where we visited the historic main street with the Savoy Bookshop and several pretty boutiques, plus Wilcox Park, which has a goddess sculpture and another of Margaret Wise Brown's Runaway Bunny. We got home in time for the start of the Oscars, which had a few good things (Jordan, Buckley, "Golden") but One Battle After Another won many of what should have been Sinners' top awards. 

Poem for Wednesday and the Chapter House

At Tynemouth Priory 

By William Lisle Bowles 

After a tempestuous voyage. 

As slow I climb the cliff's ascending side,

Much musing on the track of terror past,

When o'er the dark wave rode the howling blast,

Pleased I look back, and view the tranquil tide

That laves the pebbled shore: and now the beam

Of evening smiles on the gray battlement,

And yon forsaken tower that time has rent:--

The lifted oar far off with transient gleam

Is touched, and hushed is all the billowy deep!

Soothed by the scene, thus on tired Nature's breast

A stillness slowly steals, and kindred rest;

While sea-sounds lull her, as she sinks to sleep,

Like melodies that mourn upon the lyre,

Waked by the breeze, and, as they mourn, expire!

-------- 

Apart from the endless unpacking, my Wednesday was pretty normal, albeit shifted three hours from the previous three years. Everything that isn't books is out of boxes in the living room, though most of the items are on random shelves and I haven't managed to set up my desktop computer because I have to set up all the tchotchkes on the desk first. I talked to my high school friends after lunch, and a couple of hours later I watched some Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power with my usual pair of friends. 

We ate leftover food from Siam Nine for dinner before this week's The Masked Singer (Ozzfest in honor of Ozzy with Kelly Osbourne as a guest judge, looking like a ghoul with fake lips). Now we're watching Young Sherlock, which is kind of uneven -- decently interesting mystery, good acting, lots of nice shots of Oxford, some weird character dynamics. From the Worcester Art Museum, the Chapter House, purchased and moved stone-by-stone from Poitiers, the first medieval structure rebuilt in an American museum: