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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

On This Very Wednesday

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1.  Somedays I take lunch into the studio.  Not to eat while working, but just to be in that space.  It's no bigger than a standard bedroom, but somehow the room seems to expand with breath around me, currently smelling with a curious mix of oil paint, leather, and damp soil.  Scent.  It's such a potent sense for me; in all honestly I sometimes wonder if it it my strongest sense.  It's one that has become ever more curious since the rounds of chemotherapy of last year.  Something in chemo affects the nose, making some scents unbearably strong, others more picante than ever.  I've always had a bit of a nose on me, but I think my sense of smell has remained in a slightly confused state.  I smell phantom scents.  I can smell the potting soil from my seedlings all the way down the hall.  Rubber still makes me a bit nauseous.  The mangos on the kitchen counter overpower every other scent in the kitchen, including the wet puppy in from the rain.  It's curious and can't be trusted.  Like smelling in the 6th dimension.
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2.  Is this not the sweetest little succulent in the sweetest vintage pot on the face of the earth?  To combat all that sappiness, I've decided to name her Succubus the Succulent.  She'll grow big and strong and slurp up the hearts of men.
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3.  This afternoon the sky looks a bit like non-fat milk; translucent and slightly blue around the edges, watery and pale.  BC and I took ourselves out to breakfast.  It's an absolute luxury to breakfast out on a weekday, an informal date, a time for us to check in with each other over house-made biscuits and black coffee.  I love it.  Eating out is a legitimate love language, I'd stake my money on it.  And I would have to say, after a year living here, we're working ourselves in the niche of "regulars," chatting first name basis with our favorite servers and hardly needing to even glance at the menu before rattling off our orders.
When we go to Big Blue I have the Tofu Scramble.
At Luke's the Pesto Goat-Cheese Tart.
And at Golden Harvest, well, all bets are off.
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4.  Baby's got a brand new bench.  She's perfect and unmarred, all smooth wooden surfaces and neatly arranged drawers.  I'm in a state of utter delight and itchy fingers to dirty her up.  She faces North and I have a feeling she and I will make some serious magic.  Also new to the studio and facing South are approximately two hundred seedlings popping up from their little peat moss pots just under the windows.  The nasturtium and California poppies are almost ready to be transplanted into the front beds, the snapdragons and lupines need a bit longer before they land in the big turquoise containers.  I'm already tempted to snack on the arugula, which makes me wonder if I really am part rabbit.  I am a child with Spring: every thing green goes right in my mouth.

Speaking of that, it's time for the last of the girl scout cookies.  The carmel drizzle ones, the ones that used to be called Samoas before it was decided that was terribly improper and now they're called something that I can never remember.  But you know, the ones in the purple box.
CHEERS!
~ Umber

14 comments:

Jaime/GirlLovesGloss said...

I loved this post!

a) - yes that is the cutest little succulent in the cutest little vintage pot. I wish I could keep plants alive in this dark little suite of ours!

b) D and I were just out for dinner the other night and the server recognized us. She said she saw us waiting to be seated and told the hostess that she bet she would get us, because she always did. She is lovely and i swear one of the reasons we keep going back ( besides the food of course!)

c) all my childhood my parents were convinced I was half rabbit - I would snack on lettuce! Hippity Hop bunny sister!

xo
Jaime

MrsLittleJeans said...

I love plants all over and I don't have them all over for very obvious reasons...one orange furry dude likes to dig out the dirt and pee on it, but we have discussed this before.

Altho I agree about sense of smell, so very strong, I don't seem to have smell memory while I have a pretty good visual and sound memory...I have only recently discovered that. So when you speak of dirt, I can only picture it but not so much smell it!

I do believe that you are part rabbit, a rascally one!

xoxo

Pat in east TN said...

OMG, our Girl Scout cookies were gone a l-o-n-g time ago! What self control you must have, LOL!

UmberDove said...

Jaime - It's it the BEST when you know you're in the elite circle? It is a real thing, as my 7+ years of bartending will attest to: you remember your favorite regulars for YEARS.

MLJ - Kitty Boys, harrumph. Maybe if you named a plant "succubus" they would be steer clear? I have to be incredibly conscious about what goes where, as Mr. Thai is ALSO part rabbit and will crunch right through ANYTHING green that pleases his palate. Punk ass.

Pat - The secret is to stick them in the freezer. We both forget about them for whole weeks at a time, then slowly, deliberately eat them one at a time.


I love girl scout cookies. I think it's half nostalgia. But every year I'm suckered into boxes of them.

Joyful said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful day. I think you are part rabbit ;-)

resolute twig said...

I love all the green in your life... a fortine cookie told me that green was a luck color this week.
xo

Lizzie Derksen said...

I recently finished the last 'speculaas' cookie we had left over from Christmas. I believe I shoved it whole into my mouth in a ravenous moment on a writing day, but boy, it was good.

I love your studio, your plants, and the thought of you and your tofu. Although I'm a quasi-vegetarian, I can't stand the stuff.

Emily L. said...

Have you tried making girlscout cookies? I made some thinmints a few months ago and they were fantastic!

candacemorris said...

On reasons why I love this post:

1. YOUR NOSE. I thought mine was in tune, but you are spiritually gifted there, lady.

2. Succubus. DORK.

3. In my book to Joel, I wrote that for us, dining out was more than foreplay...that it was perhaps the intimate exchange itself. I never feel sexier than with a low-cut blouse, a martini in hand, and my brain engaged and inspired by the most amazing man I know. (BC is pretty close...cant't wait to squeeze him).

UmberDove said...

Joyful - Yes indeed.

Twig - I believe it!

Lizzy - You know, that's exactly how I used to feel about it too. It's all in the cooking and chopping it into itsy bitsy pieces.

Emmy - Oh no girl, you have just planted the seed of desire in my heart!

Mme - You're a dork too. Don't deny it.

pencilfox said...

i want to eat up your whole blog of today and yum it all down: from greenery to the list of what you eat when out and about. your words and photos fill me up. fill me whole.
xx

Andrea said...

A wonderful warm post...Appreciated, as it's snowing here again tonight!

I have a nose of some power as well. Today I could smell corned beef! UGH. Honestly, it was terrible. I haven't even seen the stuff for 15 years...

Would your new bench be awaiting a sprinkle of magical silver dust perhaps?
xo

Mum said...

Succubus!
How I love that little name!! And what a cutie SHE is.

You realize, of course,
that calling an inanimate object
(no offense intended, dear Succubus)
SHE is somewhat amazing to me.

Heretofore, I believe that, in general, all the inanimate objects you encounter tend to be male in gender.

UmberDove said...

Oh my gosh! You are so right! Up till now, I do believe ALL my houseplanties to have been male!