....and What's On Second.....

I'm sorry - after enjoying several nice summer walks that inspired a few nature-oriented blogs today has just been overwhelming.

Watching Sarah Huckabee Sanders at today's press conference "explaining" why The Mooch was no longer part of the team was an exercise in disbelief...at least for me. She stated, "The President certainly felt the comments were inappropriate for a person in that position." (Referring to the Mooch's expletive infused rant.)

Less we forget:

“Ariana Huffington is unattractive, both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man – he made a good decision.”

“If I were running ‘The View’, I’d fire Rosie O’Donnell. I mean, I’d look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I’d say ‘Rosie, you’re fired.’”

“All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me – consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.”

“I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”

“My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”

“Who wouldn’t take Kate’s picture and make lots of money is she does the nude sunbathing thing. Come on Kate!”

“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.” 

“You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything….Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."

“I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.”

“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” 

“He’s not a war hero,” said Trump. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

The aspiring commander in chief is not a veteran himself; he received a medical deferment from Vietnam because of bone spurs in his foot, but later told Howard Stern that avoiding STDs during his freewheeling bachelor days in the 1970s was “my personal Vietnam—I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”

Now I admit that many if not most of these amazing statements came out of 45's mouth before he was elected......but campaigning to be President of the United States is still a "position" that should demand a certain level of behavior......and then again....maybe not.

Who's On First.......

Many years ago I remember seeing a TV show with Abbot and Costello (comedians). They did a baseball routine/conversation and continued to confuse one another while the audience laughed and laughed. It included the following:

"....on the St. Louis team we have Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know is on third..." The two comedians went back and forth with their questions and non-sensical answers and it got funnier and funnier. Look for it on Youtube if you've never seen it.

It's 2:10 p.m. and I just saw the following story pop up on my internet feed:

"White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has been removed from his position after just 11 days on the job, according to multiple reports.

Scaramucci accepted the position on July 21, shortly after the abrupt departure of White House press secretary Sean Spicer. He made headlines less than a week after assuming the post with a profane interview with The New Yorker in which he insulted members of the White House staff, including now former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Priebus left his role suddenly on Friday, and was replaced Monday morning by retired four-star general John Kelly, who had been serving as Trump’s secretary of homeland security.

“Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a statement. “Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team.  We wish him all the best.”

The New York Times reported that Scaramucci’s removal came at Kelly’s request. While Scaramucci reported directly to the president, the communications director traditionally reports to the White House chief of staff and the arrangement with Scaramucci was a break with protocol.

This is a breaking story … please come back for updates …"

My head is spinning......only this isn't funny....at all. North Korea now has an ICBM that can reach Chicago, the ACA is still under attack instead of being fixed, The Boy Scouts of America are still being criticized for 45's "campaign" speech at their rally, our Country is being "led" by a boy-man who says he could "shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose any voters" and as for women..."just grab them by the pussy". 

If I believed in the Bible I might be saying this is the beginning of the end of times........

It isn't funny, it's terrifying......who's at the helm??? Who is steering the Ship Of State? How on earth does Sarah Huckabee Sanders come out and address the press corp with a straight face?

I am sitting here laughing.....it's not funny....but what else can you do??? Who's on first?

Love and the Lemon Bar.....

Just putting together a batch of lemon bars brings memories flooding back. My sister titled this recipe: Beth Clark's Wonderful Lemon Bars and gave a copy to everyone who attended the lunch after her memorial service in 2010. And she also baked and provided a table full of the delicious, tart goodies as the dessert.

So making mom's recipe always makes me think of her.....and food. She enjoyed cooking and spending time in her kitchen in her perfect little Cape Cod home in Park Ridge, Illinois. For her, cooking for family and friends equaled love, as it does for so many people.  Her Swedish meatballs were the best (no surprise there since her parents emigrated from Sweden and she spent many years growing up in the Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago).

Dave and I would take the kids and drive East to visit his family during the summer. Coming back we'd call and tell my mom we'd stop by just for a quick visit on our way home. She'd always ask if we had time for a little "something" and I'd remind her not to "fuss" because we couldn't stay long.
Then we'd walk in the door to the delicious scent of her perfect pot roast with carrots and potatoes. Dining room table set for "company".....and so the visit would last a little longer than planned!

Her lemon bars always went along to Thanksgiving on my cousin's farm down in Indiana.....or anywhere else where mom was tagged to provide dessert. Yum....

I happily repeat this tradition whenever I can provide dessert. I'm not a good baker, but these never let me down.....and people usually take a second helping. Tonight we are off to visit with friends.....lemon bars in the car.

Memories in my heart......

Looking Down and Looking Up.....

A beautiful few days in Port....nice days for dog-walking. Quiet in the mornings as we go up and down the bike path or around one of our area parks. The song birds, the breeze.....a quick "hello" to anyone we pass. But mostly the morning quiet.

Also quiet beauty in bloom. Soft colors.....the wildflowers that some consider "weeds". Gentle blue, pink and yellow. Some of my favorites.....pale blue chickory complementing white Queen Ann's lace with  peek-a-boo pink crown vetch hiding near yellow bird's-foot-trefoil. Soft colors peeking between bushy greens. Some people just see the "tangle"....I see the intricate design and the blossoming....the beauty in unexpected places.....

....and the pale purple wild bergamot...waiting to welcome a bee.

And then I look up.......

Lovely summer days in Port Washington.

.....Cabbage and Monarch.....

It's butterfly-time-of-year. Fluttering dabs of color accompany us on our walks along the bike path and through the woods. Usually the small white cabbage butterflies are fluttering up and down in twosomes....one just chasing behind the other. Probably a butterfly boy-girl thing.

And the more majestic monarchs that fly solo. Slower swooping movements as they go from one chosen bloom to another. I always love to see these guys and marvel at their migration story - delicate but determined. Four or five generations to get from wintering in Mexico to summering by us....and then back again. I can remember sailing on the Chesapeake in September and seeing dozens moving southward across the Bay. Sometimes one or two would stop and rest on Connemara - on the canvas, or the rigging, or even at the helm.

As we walk I keep watching for a tiger swallowtail....that big yellow and black beauty. The orange day lillies are in bloom....so they will be coming. I just have to be at the right place at the right time!

Butterfly-time-of-year.....one of my favorites......

....and the Unraveling......

I think it was about 1972. Our son Todd was about three years old and I was a stay-at-home mom. We lived in our first house in Middlesex, NJ with Dave commuting to work in NYC. It was a fun and busy time during our young marriage. We had friends and neighbors.....but as stay-at-home moms know, mothering full time means a lot of time spent with little ones and a lot of time talking to pre-schoolers. It sort of "limits" the day-time conversation.

So on Thursday mornings Todd and I went off to our public library. It was pre-school story hour for him and Mom's Conversation Hour for me! The librarian, Elsie Nelson, started the activity and most weeks about a dozen familiar faces gathered, took chairs and talked. Elsie often had a topic to present....or sometimes it was just mothering-talk with ideas and suggestions. And then there was a break-in at an office building in Washington DC....the Watergate.

Within months Watergate led the discussion on most Thursday mornings.....for about two years. We didn't have the internet but we had newspapers, radio and TV coverage. And the little "threads" kept coming......each week or so there seemed to be another lead. Another sense of amazement....questions about what happened, who was involved and what on earth was going on in America?

And there were a lot of now "famous" quotes:

"People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook Well, I'm not a crook." - Richard Nixon.

"The fact of the Watergate cover-up is not nearly as interesting as the step into making the cover-up. And when you understand the step, you understand that Richard Nixon lied. That he was a criminal." - Bob Woodward

"What did the president know and when did he know it?" - Howard Baker

"Watergate is a sad and tragic incident in our history. They were wrong, dead wrong, those men at Watergate. Men abused power, but the system still works. Men abused money, but the system still works. Men lied and perjured themselves, but the system still works. - John Wayne

"Watergate was unique because it allowed the public to play its democratic role in expressing its outrage at the presidency. And as a result, for the first time in history a president resigned. - Samual Dash

"From Watergate we learned what generations before us have known; our Constitution works. And during Watergate years it was interpreted again so as to reaffirm that no one - absolutely no one- is above the law." - Leon Jaworski

"Watergate showed more strengths in our system than weaknesses....The whole country did take part in quite a genuine sense in passing judgment on Richard Nixon. - Archibald Cox

And finally, in August of 1974 we watched history being made as Richard Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to resign.  Gerald Ford took the oath of office and then made a remark that became - and remains - a famous political quotation: "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over."

Deja vue all over again.....the unraveling....one thread after another......

Unfinished Masterpiece......

It will always be my cousin's farm....even though she died in September. In my mind.....when we go to visit her husband....we are still going to Claudia's Indiana farmhouse. Last time we stopped, on our way south last winter, the men went off to town and I spent time picking dead leaves from her houseplants, making a dinner and then sitting at her art table in the sun room.

This is the spot where Claudia sat to create her lovely watercolors. Her brushes are there, her paints....jars and rags.....her tools. Completed works are framed and hanging all over the house with others gracing the walls at family and friends' homes. She was good. She looked at everything with an artist's eye. Her garden, her morning walks down wooded lanes, her delicious and colorful meals. That artistic gene showed up again and again and again.

I sat for a few mintues and looked through a pile of her unfinished works. Some were just sketches....others seemed almost but not quite complete. And then I found the truck......

It isn't finished.....the fine details were still moving from her creative spirit to the brush in her hand to the paper.....I know she would have outlined the flowers and added final touches. And she would have   added her signature at the bottom.  But I held the painting and thought to myself "I love this!" Somewhere she and Rob saw this truck and snapped a photograph. And she was moving the image from photo to watercolor before cancer interrupted everything. I wanted it. So, when Rob came for a visit last weekend he brought it with him....carefully padded in his briefcase. I won't be keeping the original.....but he is letting me get a print made so it can hang on our wall.

An unfinished masterpiece.......and maybe that's one of the reasons I so loved this truck. My dearest cousin wasn't "finished" either. She left us all way too early. I still miss her and think of her every day. When I see one of the paintings I already have on our wall, or when I walk the shaded bike path......and now when I look at her rusty truck.

She saw the beauty.....and so do I....and it will make me smile.

No Fun Anymore.....

The huge 4th of July celebration is over.

We started our day downtown watching Port Washington's short (and I do mean short!) parade. The high school band with pom pom girls, the city band, a few fire trucks, two church groups, a few cars with the mayor and a few other dignitaries and lots of kids on their red-white-and-blue decorated bikes. A real small town tradition.

Then back home to watch some of the festivities in the park from the comfort of our deck. The contest to determine the best bike decor, a watermelon seed spitting contest and an all afternoon cover band playing the oldies. The weather was perfect for all the family fun!

We enjoyed Wisconsin brats, potato salad and ice cream covered in blueberries and strawberries for dinner......another salute to summer traditions.

And then we buckled down to wait for the fireworks that would go off over Coal Dock Park. We closed windows and turned up the television. All because of our little four-footed-family-member who is terrified of thunder and fireworks. His thundershirt doesn't help....and now Fenway is on drugs to ease his anxiety. They don't seem to help at all.

With the first boom he is shaking and drooling and will not be comforted. He won't come to sit on a lap or let us hug him. He won't hide under the bed. He won't find some way to relax. He just shakes....and looks miserable. And it's getting worse as he gets older.

We know he's "just a dog"....but it makes us so sad to see him so upset.

Poor little guy......he suffers and we feel bad for him. So we don't really enjoy the fireworks part anymore.....we've seen plenty of displays over the years. Maybe next year we can drive somewhere to the middle of nowhere and find the quiet instead. Then again I just saw a post about a city in Italy that passed a law saying fireworks must be silent to protect pets and wildlife.

Maybe we'll move......