The End of September and a Mini-vacation: Movies, Movies, Movies
This year, Clif’s birthday fell on a Friday, and our daughter Dee, who lives with us, decided to take it off so that we could have a three-day weekend. A mini-vacation, of sorts.
Longtime readers, knowing that we are all movie buffs, can probably guess what we did on those three days—go to the movies, of course. We each have a Regal Pass ($22 per month) that allows us to see any movie we want at no extra charge. Two movies a month pays for the pass, and we usually see at least four.
Friday, Clif’s birthday, was as fine a September day as anyone could ask for—sunny but not hot. Our movie that day was The Wild Robot, a lovely animated movie about a sentient robot named Roz who is shipwrecked on an island with no people. However, the island is home to many animals, whom Roz eventually learns to communicate with. Equipped with an emergency beacon, Roz’s first impulse is to return home, but then she comes across an orphaned gosling. Reluctantly, Roz decides to stay on the island until the gosling becomes a goose who can migrate south with the other geese.
This heartfelt movie never veers too far into sentimentality. Even so, I cried more than once. If you have young children in your life, take them to see The Wild Robot. If you don’t have young children in your life, go see it yourself. The Wild Robot, beautifully animated, will no doubt be nominated for an Academy Award. And it just might win.
After the movie, it was off the Red Barn for a big order of fried food. There was a misunderstanding at the Red Barn about the order, and we ended up with an extra helping of onion rings, free of charge. While we are enthusiastic eaters, there is a limit, and we brought home enough for another meal.
On Saturday, we picked up our friend Joel and headed to Maine Film Center in Waterville to see Megalopolis, written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Alas, I wish I could praise this movie as highly as I have The Wild Robot. Unfortunately, I cannot. On Rotten Tomatoes, Megalopolis is described as “A Roman Epic set in an imagined Modern America.” Accordingly, the theme of the film is of empires crumbling—with the comparison being between the U.S. and ancient Rome—and what might be done to stop the crumbling to make a good society for everyone.
So far, so good. But Coppola did not tell the story in a compelling way. Instead, he has characters declaim and pontificate. There is far too much telling and not nearly enough showing. The characters are flat and one dimensional, and by the end of this long movie, my only feeling was relief. There was no crying.
Still, as someone who loves movie, I am not sorry I saw it. Francis Ford Coppola is one of the major film directors of our times. But for readers who don’t like movies as much as we do, I would advise a pass on this one.
After the movie, we went to Buen Apetito for Mexican Food and lively movie talk. We were all in agreement about Megalopolis.
Sunday brought us back to Regal Cinema for the animated movie Transformers One, a Transformer origin story. Even though it was loaded with action scenes, Transformers One was moving in its own way as two Transformers struggle with a corrupt society, a leader who lies to them, and the unraveling of their friendship. Surprisingly deep for a Transformers movie.
We capped the evening with drinks in our screen house on the patio. As the darkness came, we listened to crickets sing and barred owls call to each other. The solar lights blinked on, and we all reflected on what a good time we had had.
Thankful Thursday: Tomatoes, Chickpeas, and Music
This post is part of a series called Thankful Thursday, where I list some things to feel thankful for. To some extent, focusing on what is wrong appears to come naturally to most people, who often complain, complain, complain when they get together with family and friends. (I’m no exception, that’s for sure.) So focusing on things to feel thankful for seems like good spiritual practice, a way to counterbalance the tendency toward negative thinking.
Still Life with Tomatoes
In my garden, my four little tomato plants are at the end of their production, and soon I will be pulling them. However, our own Farmer Kev’s tomatoes are still going strong, and this week I got a wonderful selection from our farm-share box. I like the way they look lined up on the kitchen window sill. Also, with this picture you can see how our yard sits on the edge of the woods.
Chickpeas, Chickpeas, Chickpeas
Clif, Dee, and I are huge fans of the the humble chickpea aka garbanzo beans. They are delicious, economical, and good for you. What more can you ask for? I buy them dried, in 16-oz bags, soak them overnight, and then cook them in the morning.
One of the ways I like them best is mashed up in a food processor with thyme, salt, and pepper. Clif uses two cups of chickpeas, 1 tablespoon of dried thyme and salt and pepper to taste. After which he scoops the mash into a bowl and adds a few tablespoons of mayonnaise. I know this comparison is overused, but the chickpea salad really does taste a little like chicken.
This is a wonderfully versatile salad. For those who like a little zing, onion or garlic could be used. Don’t want the Mediterranean flavor? Add curry. Or smoked paprika. Or whatever pleases you.
I scooped some of the chickpea salad onto one of Farmer Kev’s fresh tomatoes. Wicked good as we say in Maine.
Music
From—where else?—NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts—featuring Jenny and the Mexicats. If they don’t pep you up, nothing will.
Thankful Posts and Simple Pleasures from Other Blogging Friends
Derrick of Derrick J. Knight describes how he and his wife Jackie brought garden refuse to a recycling center, came back with some treasures for their garden, which, in turn, will be recycled when their time has passed. Yay, Derrick and Jackie!
Kate from The Cozy Burrow shares her October Reading list. I’ve already requested two of them—Moon Tiger and The Ministry of Time—through my library.
Barbara from Thistles and Kiwis celebrates her twentieth wedding anniversary with her husband Karl. Happy, happy and cheers to twenty years!
Dorothy from The New Vintage Kitchen features a mouth-watering pasta dish using autumn’s bounty. I could have some right now.
Ju-Lyn of Touring My Backyard finds beauty and serenity at Round Pond in Kensington Gardens in London. How lovely to find such a place in a big city.
Cimple from The Curious Introvert praises the world of books and reading. Her own words say it best: “This week I’m grateful for a lifelong love of reading and books. A day doesn’t go by without reading or adding new books to my want to read list.” Hear, hear!
Wordless Wednesday: Little Stars of Autumn
In Which We Rally from a Disappointment, and I Review Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone
Last weekend, our daughter Shannon, her husband Mike, and their dog Holly were supposed to come to our home for the weekend—they live in the Boston area—to celebrate my birthday (September 15) and Clif’s birthday (September 27). Alas, they were having car troubles and couldn’t come.
Disappointing not to have them join us, that’s for sure. Because Shannon and Mike aren’t sure when their car troubles will be resolved, our eldest daughter Dee, who lives with us, decided to carry on with the birthday celebrations. She treated us to Chinese food at the utterly delightful Wei Li in Auburn.
Oh my, the food was good. I could have some of their delicious lo mein and general tofu right now.
Comfortably full, we headed back home for drinks on the patio in the screen house, cake and ice cream, and presents.
Among other things, Dee bought us solar lights for the backyard. Now that we have passed the autumnal equinox, it is dark by 7:00, and it’s a little tricky making our way to the front steps.
Not only do those solar lights have a magical glow, but they also give us enough light for navigation.
This upcoming weekend is Clif’s actual birthday, and there just might be some more simple pleasures planned. (Simple pleasures are Clif’s and my birthday presents to each other. )
More to look forward to.
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Reading: The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
I have a fondness for mid-twentieth century women writers, especially ones who come from the United Kingdom. When I was in my 30s, I started with Rumer Godden, went on to read Barbara Pym, and have continued on with other terrific writers who, with precision and heart, have chronicled the changing roles of women in the twentieth century. And my goodness, there have been changes, mostly for the best.
To my delight, I have found a blog—JacquiWine’s Journal––that often features reviews of women writers from that period, and I have gotten many recommendations from Jacqui.
One of them was the wonderful novel The Millstone by Margaret Drabble. (The link above is to Jacqui’s review of the book.) Set in in the 1960s, The Millstone centers on Rosamund Stacey, a young woman living in London in her parent’s fashionable apartment in Marylebone. Her parents, do-gooders of the highest order, are in Africa trying to do good, which means that Rosamund has a free place to live as she finishes her thesis, not a bad situation for a young woman in the swinging 60s.
The only problem is that Rosamund is so shy and reticent that she has a hard time swinging. She goes out with a couple of men, but doesn’t have sex with either of them, and they, in turn, think she is having sex with the other man.
But then she meets George, whom she thinks could be gay. (Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. In the case of George, Rosamund might not be a reliable narrator.) They make love once and seem to have real affection for each other, but George, as shy and reticent as Rosamund, is no more able to express himself than she is.
From that one encounter, Rosamund becomes pregnant and after considering abortion, illegal at that time, she decides to keep the baby. Being middle class and college educated, Rosamund feels that she can make it on her own, and although she longs for George, she doesn’t tell him about the pregnancy.
As it turns out, Rosamund can make it on her own. She has the baby, a girl she names Octavia, after the social reformer Octavia Hill. As soon as Rosamund sees Octavia, she falls totally in love with her infant daughter. (I remember feeling the same way when I first looked at my babies.) I found this expression of maternal love to be so moving, and Drabble’s writing, understated but warm, never veers into sentimentality.
This slim novel packs in so much: class, the changing mores of the 1960s, the bond between mother and child, a young woman’s journey into adulthood, and the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, still relatively new when the book was written.
Will Rosamund and George ever get together? No spoilers here. You must read this fine book for yourself to find out.
Thankful Thursday: Lunch with a Blogging Friend
This post is part of a series called Thankful Thursday, where I list some things to feel thankful for. To some extent, focusing on what is wrong appears to come naturally to most people, who often complain, complain, complain when they get together with family and friends. (I’m no exception, that’s for sure.) So focusing on things to feel thankful for seems like good spiritual practice, a way to counterbalance the tendency toward negative thinking.
Lunch with My Blogging Friend Judy
One of the great pleasures of blogging is making friends with different folks, some far, some near. I love getting glimpses into their everyday lives—to see what it looks like where they live, to read about their comings and goings, to see pictures of what they eat, to learn which books they’ve read. And every once in a while, I get to meet a blogging friend in person. This is always a treat.
On Tuesday, I met Judy, of NewEnglandGardenAndThread, for lunch at Stonewall Kitchen in York in southern Maine. This is the second time we have met. Last year we got together at beautiful Bedrock Gardens in New Hampshire, and what a great time we had.
In September, southern Maine is still a busy place, and Stonewall Kitchen is on Route 1, the lovely but clogged-with-traffic corridor that goes along the Maine coast. Knowing this, I suggested getting together early, at 11:00 a.m. (This turned out to be a good plan because around noon the cafè became very busy.) With minimum fuss, we were able to order our food and find a place outside on the veranda to eat our lunch. The dining is extremely casual, which meant we were able to sit on the veranda for about three hours.
I had a delicious salad with apples slivers, candied pecans, and dried cranberries. (Judy had the same thing.)
There might have been a pumpkin scone for dessert.
As we ate, we chatted about family, gardening, and exercise. I mentioned that the exercise bike really helps my creaky knees but that I have a hard time motivating myself to use it. Judy acknowledged that indoor exercise is boring, but she has made it a routine in her life, something she does at the same time every day. (Inspired by her example, I have used the exercise bike for the past two mornings. Before breakfast seems to work for me.)
Judy is a master gardener, and her sharp eyes spotted this tree not far from where we sat.
Neither of us had ever seen such a tree. After taking a picture on her phone, Judy was able to get an identification—a magnolia tree. Those red pods are both unusual and striking.
As if getting together with Judy wasn’t treat enough, she also brought me some plants. More hydrangeas for my shady yard—she gave me some last year, and to my utter delight they have thrived—and some oh so lovely Japanese grass that does well in dry shade. Holy cats, I was thrilled to get these gifts. Next week, they will be planted.
Many, many thanks, Judy, both for your delightful company and for the plants.
Thankful Posts from Other Blogging Friends
A Curious Introvert from Cimple extols the virtues and value of Time. Amen!
Ju-Lyn from Touring My Backyard celebrates her favorite uncle’s imminent return to his home from the hospital.
Barbara from Thistles and Kiwis enjoys two new shirts with snappy designs—one with cats and the other with cassettes.
Eliza from Eliza Waters celebrates zinnias and dahlias from her fall garden.
Xenia from Tranature features a walk with her adorable dog on a beautiful beach. Oh, that dog’s happy face made me smile.
With a friend, Carol Ann of Fashioned for Joy hikes to Assateague Island where there are grazing ponies, salt marshes, and sand dunes. Who could ask for anything more?
Shadows on Wood
A Birthday Weekend of Simple Pleasures
Sunday, September 15 was my 67th birthday. By a fun coincidence, it was also the anniversary of Agatha Christie’s 134th birthday. (I have been reading Christie and have joined our library’s Agatha Christie Book Club.)
Instead of getting a small present from Clif, I asked for a weekend of simple pleasures. He readily agreed, noting that we have a house full of lovely things, and we don’t need any additions.
Fortunately, the weather gods were on our side, and the weather was absolutely perfect—sunny and warm but not too hot.
On Saturday, we went to Bolley’s Famous Franks, not for their hot dogs—we are all vegetarians—but for their utterly delicious hand-cut fries. My oh my, they were good. Clif is a fan of onion rings, and we added that to the mix. Because the weather was so fine, we were able to eat outside.
After that, it was on to Hallowell to sit by the Kennebec River, eat donuts, and watch the rippling water.
By the river, two things happened that made me smile. First, when we got there and decided to move our chairs into the shade, a group of women jumped from their chairs to help us with ours.
The second was a hobbit’s birthday kind of thing, where you give rather than receive. As we left, I notice two bike riders, a man and a woman, not far from us. Clif and I were once keen bike riders, and I stopped to talk to them. As we spoke, I could see by their red faces how hot they were from their ride. I remembered feeling that way. I also remembered how warm the water would get in our water bottles on the bike. That water was better than nothing, but it wasn’t refreshing. In our cooler were a couple of cans of sparkling water, kept cold by an ice pack.
“Would you like a can of sparkling water?” I asked.
The woman hesitated only for a moment. “Why, yes we would.”
We tried to give her two, but she insisted that one was enough.
She thanked us kindly, and as I made my way to the car, I reflected on how we had received and we had given, a good balance, it seems to me.
Then home we went, to enjoy drinks on the patio and after that to watch the movie Get Shorty, still delightful after nearly twenty years.
Sunday, my actual birthday, was another fine day. And what did we do? Longtime readers will not be surprised to read that we went to the movies in the afternoon to see the excellent thriller Speak no Evil. (For those who are little squeamish, the way I am, I want to assure you there isn’t much gore and no jump-scare scenes.)
Because it was my actual birthday, after the movie we stopped at Fielder’s Choice in Manchester for ice cream. Mine was a hot fudge sundae with peanut butter soft serve. So good!
Supper that night was by the fire pit, where we roasted veggie sausages and had s’mores for dessert.
Here is the line-up.
We had never cooked veggie sausages over an open flame. As it turns out, they do very well cooked over a fire, and during the fall, we plan on roasting them again this way.
In the next to the last picture, you might have noticed two candles—making the number 66—in a bowl. Those were from my cake last year, and I decided to keep them until my 67th birthday, where I could burn them down.
In with the new, and out with the old.
Note: Next weekend, Shannon and Mike plan on coming to Maine where we can celebrate both Clif’s birthday (September 27) along with mine.
We certainly are a family that likes to celebrate.
Thankful Thursday: In Brief
Yesterday, I had a Covid booster, and I am feeling a little under the weather today. It’s nothing serious, but my energy level is way down, and I’m going to spend most of the day on the couch, where I’ll alternate between reading and napping.
Nevertheless, I am very grateful for science and medicine and booster shoots. Wouldn’t want to live in a world without them. In fact, as a breast cancer survivor, I wouldn’t be here without them.
Next week, there will be a regular Thankful Thursday post.
Now, back to the couch.
Wordless Wednesday: This Golden Time of Year
Notes From the Hinterland 