In the Panhandle of Texas residents greet rain with joy. We rarely get enough and when it does rain, usually it brings lightning, thunder, sometimes hail, wind, downpours. Today was different. When I arrived home, I heard the waterfall running, saw droplets on the evergreens and flowers, saw flashes of sunshine.
Purple and gold
carpet emerald grass
from recent rains
Note: I live on a canyon rim near Amarillo, Texas. One story as to now Amarillo acquired its name is from the fact that in the both the spring and fall, the countryside is carpeted with yellow flowers.
Sometimes a teacher’s work seems to never end and, honestly, it keeps me from posting here as often as I might like. At the same time, it provides me with endless joy and entertainment. The last couple of days brought lots of laughter.
I teach 8th – junior English and Spanish 1 and 2. This past Friday, Spanish 1 class became the site for lots of laughter. We were practicing translating sentences from English to Spanish. To date they have learned to say what they like, sentences about the weather, write about time, and to use the two “to be” verbs used in Spanish among other things. Somehow in the process of describing a person using a variety of adjectives they have been taught, one of the students blurted out, ” I think old people are ugly.” I said, “So you think I am ugly?” This caused a minor uproar with laughter and indignation. In an attempt to make the situation better, he continued, “No, I mean people over 60.” I repeated, “So you think I am ugly?” By this time everyone was laughing, including me, protesting his attitude. He started to try to wriggle out of that one when I pointed out that it might be better if he kept quiet. He started to say something about wrinkles but that got shut down by the other students.
Just before all this, his younger brother came into the classroom. He is the student who wrote a page-long poem about my hair last year. He said to his brother, “What is wrong with you? She is beautiful.” Then walked out of the room.
By this time everyone was laughing and talking except the student who made the original remark about old people and a few were shouting at him about his awful attitude. By the way, in case you do not know, the word for ugly in Spanish is feo or fea, depending on whether you are describing a male or female.
This weekend I read 50 or so book reports. One of them included this statement in response to the question, “What did you learn from this book?” “I learned it is sometimes fun to be bad.” The student was referring to the book, “Tom Sawyer.”
I have no clue how to respond to that remark.
My friends and I spent the last two days of my California sojourn driving to and staying in San Francisco where they have an apartment. I had not been in this part of San Francisco before and some things there surprised me. Next to their apartment building resides a grocery where we went shopping for some salad items and cheese. Much to my astonishment most prices were no greater than in Amarillo Texas, near where I live. Some items were cheaper. Who would have thought? Not me.
On the road to San Francisco.
The view from their apartment.
The purpose of our going to San Francisco rather than staying near Carmel was to see the new opera, “if I were you”, commissioned by Merola Opera. It is a modern retelling of the Faust story. The devil is female and much to my astonishment sung/acted by a young woman, Cara Collins, from Amarillo, Texas. The director, a good friend of my hosts, informed me that Cara’s teacher, Mary Jane Johnson who is famous throughout the opera world, was there also. That saying about how small the world is seemed all too true.
After the opera several of us went to a French restaurant where the waiter spoke several languages. I felt a bit envious.
After breakfast the next morning, we took a walk to Alamo Square and to The Mill, a famous coffee shop.
A view of City Hall through the trees.
Above: the Painted Ladies.
Latte at The Mill.
Then off to my flight home.
Not dreaming, real. My college roommate and husband (we all went to Grinnell College in Iowa together) moved to California a number of years ago. We take turns visiting each other at least once a year or take a trip somewhere together. This year was my turn to visit them. First, I stayed at their house near Carmel.
Taken later in the day after the fog lifted. They live where fog creeps in during the night and burns off slowly.
Late one morning we drove to Big Sur for lunch at Nepenthe. The name really fits. It is Greek for pain free or painless. Definitely this place makes everyone feel wonderful, especially the views.
Succulent heaven resides in this area and around San Francisco. Here are photos of a few near the shop below the restaurant.
On another day, we drove through the Salinas Valley to Salinas to visit the house where John Steinbeck lived and the John Steinbeck Museum. The following views show fields along the way. This is lettuce country. The majority of the lettuce consumed in the US grows in this valley.
Taken from the car window.
The following is a photo of the John Steinbeck House.
Volunteers dressed in costumes of the time serve a lovely lunch.
From an elevation nearly sea level, another day we drove on a gravel road up into the mountains above Carmel Valley to an elevation of 5000 ft. About half way to the monastery at the end of the road, the road enters Los Padres National Forest.
The pine trees in this area bear huge pine cones. The tree here and a similar one in the previous photo possess unique trunks, limbs, and foliage. I never learned the species of either. There is a parking area and some hiking trails. While not particularly difficult, the trail we took goes up and down and can be a bit steep in places. The views are spectacular.
After several days away from home, I made a quick, tasty, vegetarian dinner this evening.
Since I am leaving for California early Wednesday morning and did not want to buy more food, I used what I could find in the refrigerator: Brussel sprouts, red bell pepper, poblano pepper, broccoli, onion. I found a container of pepitas in the pantry and added some of those as well.
1/4 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 small poblano pepper, deseeded and coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper, deseeded and coarsely chopped
6 Brussel sprouts, sliced
Several broccoli florets
Olive oil
Basil essential oil or dried basil
Pepitas
Pour enough olive oil in skillet to cover bottom and heat on medium low. Add onions and saute until carmelized. Add Brussels sprouts. When sprouts are about half done, add remaining ingredients and six drops of basil essential oil. Saute until tender but still bright colored. Toss in a handful of pepitas. Serve over pasta or rice.
I served this with pasta and grated asiago cheese on top. Although I frequently use parmesan for grating, I actually prefer asiago. Without the cheese, this is vegan.
Last year I joined Now Read This, the online bookclub sponsored by PBS and The New York Times. Why did I join? To expand my exposure to books I might not otherwise read, to learn, to explore, to interact with others reading the same books.
I rarely read fantasy or science fiction. This summer has become an exception. The June choice, The Fifth Season by Jemisin, won the Hugo in 2016. The other two books in the trilogy won in 2017 and 2018. I wanted to know what happened to the characters so I read them all. The spine says Fantasy. I think they are more science fiction. Even people who claimed they did not like either fantasy or science fiction became like me and read them all. This series tells a futuristic tale extremely applicable to events, both social and political, in the world today, how prejudice kills both overtly and covertly, how fear of those who are different affect everyone, what it costs to live in a world where certain attitudes exist.
It took me two days to finish the July title even with chores, touchup house painting, all the things teachers attempt to do during summer break. Although I had previously read at least three books by Luis Alberto Urrea, I had not read this one, The House of Broken Angels about a family who lives back and forth across the border–San Diego and Tijuana. It is a tragic-comedy about the endurance, hopes, dreams, cooking, living of several generations. His non-fiction book, The Devil’s Highway, is a must read for those who want to understand what occurs along the US-Mexico borderlands.
In the midst of all this, I went back and reread Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Wow, no wonder it caused a stir when it was published in the 1960s: a whole country where everyone switches back and forth between male and female and those who cannot do this are considered perverts. Additionally, the main character is described as having very dark brown skin and those who do not behave exactly as they should or politically protest are sent off to a stark camp where they work in excessive cold and eventually die.
Then I read an article about Toni Morrison and authors who do not write for people based on a certain audience, e.g. black, white. They write about what they know, what they feel, for a different purpose. One book listed was Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, a fantasy, all of which takes place in what we now think of as Nigeria. It has not one single white character in it. I kept thinking, wow. I read a lot of literature from Africa, Middle East, and Latin America. Most of the time, for better or worse, characters from other cultures show up, usually European and usually for the worse. Not in this one. If you go to a book store looking for it, look in Young Adult. Jemisin’s can be found in Adult Science Fiction/Fantasy. When I mentioned to someone I could not tell why some are categorized one way and some another, I was told there is less graphic sex in YA. Really? I cannot tell the difference.
Next on my list? I annually act as a judge in a literary contest. Three novels arrived in yesterday’s mail. Guess I need to get busy.
“What is a country but a borderless sentence, a life?
What is a country but a life sentence?”
Ocean Vuong
“Freedom is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.”
Ocean Vuong
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