Americans
This would be happening when I have all these proofs to read: this is my Americans week. I have visitors like twice a year in a good* year and I’ve already had Hannah and her family for an incident-packed week** . . . and now this week I’ve got Americans just passing through on three different days. Yeeep. First one today, second one Wednesday and then I’m going up to London on Thursday for tea at the Ritz*** with Merrilee, my agent, who is over here for a week of licking British publishers into shape. She arrived today; I hope she remembered to take her arnica.† She’s going home again Friday so I will pump her shamelessly for publishing gossip Thursday night and she’ll smile kindly and not tell me anything. Sigh. But if I’m lucky I’ll get the odd free book or galleys. Plus tea at the Ritz is approximately my favourite (ridiculously overpriced) silly indulgence, and I haven’t been in years. I pay for it worse now than I used to–never mind the money††, pre-menopause I used to have a working metabolism, instead of a series of carpenter gremlins who apply all calories directly to my waistline with tiny trowels. One of the greater ridiculousnesses of tea at the Ritz is that you††† have to wear a skirt‡ and lady shoes. ‡‡ But then men in tail coats bring you tea in silver teapots‡‡‡ and two or three courses on tiered silver tea trays of the stodge that built the Empire. There are quite a few London hotels that do serious high tea–some of them even have silver teapots–but no one else does it with quite the authority the Ritz displays. And, since we’re at the final sitting and are going to be pretending it’s supper, § we can also have champagne. It doesn’t get any better. (Except for the failing to get the belt buckle fastened the next day.)
But today’s friend and I just hung out. You were supposed to get a photo of Connie and Her New Friend today, because I took my friend (and Peter, who hadn’t met Connie yet either) over to Jenny’s yard, and pressed my camera into my friend’s hand. And she took lots of photos and they’re all terrible. I would have gritted my teeth and allowed a terrible picture of me, but you will have a good photo of Connie, or none at all, and so, unfortunately, for the moment, it’s none at all. Waaaaah. And here I am stuck writing another entry. But it’s been a beautiful day, so before I took my friend back to the train, we sat in my tiny garden at the cottage, with hellhounds frolicking about our knees, and listened to my tower ringing a quarter of a death-defying abyss-brink surprise method. With long golden afternoon sunlight, cups of tea, hellhounds, roses (not forgetting the scent of said roses, which, as I’ve mentioned, tends to get held in my garden by its walls–like tea in a cup), and the sound of bells, it was pretty flapdoodlingly idyllic, if I do say so myself. And I didn’t know yet then that I didn’t have a good photo of Connie to get me out of writing a blog entry.
* * *
* Or possibly bad
** Hannah says she suspects Cormac misses driving in England. Every time they come to another jammed-up four-way he says, Roundabouts! Give me roundabouts! –Roundabouts really are a very sensible way to deal, once you’re used to them.
*** No, really
† Arnica for jet lag. Did you write it down the last time I told you?
†† Merrilee and I will wrestle fiercely for the bill. I can stop galloping horses with my bell ringing shoulders, but she’s a gym bunny. Even odds.
††† If you’re a girl. Boys have to wear jackets and ties.
‡ Although I showed up in my barely-covers-my-ass black denim mini once–the one that I still wear occasionally because I’ve officially decided to grow old disgracefully: the one that some day I will get Peter or someone to take a disgraceful picture of me in–and nobody batted an eye.
‡‡ The idea that All Stars count as trainers [sneakers] is of course deeply offensive . . . but I just love tea at the Ritz, what can I say? It’s like being a Noel Coward character for a couple of hours. Or possibly PG Wodehouse.
‡‡‡ Proper tea: loose tea, which you’ve chosen from a list of varieties. And they pour it for you too, from a height. I think there’s some nonsense about aeration involved. I think it’s just flash for the tourists, myself.
§ Merrilee is also metabolically challenged
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For once, our weather isn’t completely opposite. Perhaps that only happens in April.
We had a lovely day here too, though I regret to say I do not have a walled garden with which to catch the scent of roses. But I DID get to see a mother hummingbird feeding her chicks in a tree outside, and that was very very cool. Hummingbird chicks are tiny. Make that TINY. TEENY TINY LITTLE SPECKS OF SKIN AND FUZZ.
No chance of a photo of tiny fuzzy specks, I don’t suppose?
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Well, I just went out and took some photos, but how am I to get them to you if your email won’t accept attachments?
Flickr?
I don’t have a Flickr account.
Also: Have you any idea how to get a poor abandoned baby house finch that doesn’t really know how to eat to eat?
No, but your local Audobon Society will.
AND here you go. It’s Picasa (the Google equivalent of Flickr).
http://picasaweb.google.com/thecurlyQ/BabyBirds
OH, well done! *Awwwwww!* (I hope she DID figure out how to eat!)
This is to make us envious, isn’t it? Tea at the Ritz, tea in your gardens, scented by roses and hearing bells ring (in real life, rather than hallucinations). Lucky so and so, we deserve a picture and a blog entry for this eggregious rubbing of fun in our faces. I hope the ME stays well away and the hellhounds digest normally and none of us gives you an (inadvertent) evil eye.
YOu’re still the one has fresh-off-the-tree apricots. :)
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Eating gorgeous cherries, plums and melons as I read this (to do a bit of rubbing-in of my own). :)
Oh, I nearly forgot. And it’s completely unrelated to this entry, but I wanted to say that I read one of Peter’s books (AK) and it was very good.
Ugh. I forgot to type my name in. That was me re: AK.
Sounds like fun! Too bad you can’t coerce them into guest blogging for you! (Well, what about Wednesday’s? There’s still time!)
Tea at the Ritz: fancy!
And I didn’t know yet then that I didn’t have a good photo of Connie to get me out of writing a blog entry.
We like hearing your plans, too. Really, I think most of us are happy to hear whatever you have to say. I mean, the other day, we all willingly read about dog barf, so… ;)
Sunday’s friend, it would have been too cruel, she was just off the plane and feeling for which way was up. :) Wednesday’s friend, now . . . [she ponders] . . . hmmmm. . . .
I mean, the other day, we all willingly read about dog barf, so… ;)
******** I wonder if you need to be speaking for yourself here. :) There ARE people (although probably not many of them read this blog) who don’t have animals for just this sort of reason.
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Seems like it should be a rule: Go to Robin’s house and you must guest blog to earn your keep.
I wonder if you need to be speaking for yourself here. :) There ARE people (although probably not many of them read this blog) who don’t have animals for just this sort of reason.
Hah! Okay, yes, you have a point. I willingly read about dog barf the other day! *giggle*
You definitely have attracted a pretty animal-friendly crowd. It only makes sense, given your very animal-friendly books. :)
I’m enough of an animal person to have spent some of my early pro-writer years being surprised at the amount of mail I got from people who were delighted by the animals in (most of) my books. I was *aware* of my Girls Who Do Things preoccupation, and the fact that there wasn’t enough of it around (say I), it hadn’t occurred to me that I was doing Animals as Characters too. . . .
It is nice to read about nature being in…nature. ;)
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s read a book with a long trek through the forest and wondered where all the animals are. (Except, of course, when they all suddenly go quiet.)
And all the animals in SPINDLE’S END (since that’s the last one I read and it’s fresh in my head)? They were darling. Definitely characters!
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s read a book with a long trek through the forest and wondered where all the animals are.
***** This is one of the things that really annoys me in books. That and the horse-as-car. The horses that never get untacked or groomed or FED or WATERED. And never get tired and can go all day every day forever. **Arrrrrgh.** Not to mention the waste of a character and a few plot complications. (Must have grazing for horses! Horse goes lame! Horse is cranky! :)) Robot animals generally. Like they have no PERSONALITIES, no needs or desires.
I think horses must be like cars to people who haven’t had much experience with them! For a long time, when people found out I’d lived in Texas, they asked if I rode a horse to school. (Uh, yeah, because horses *like* sitting there for eight hours, waiting for you to get out of school…) Yes, people, in Texas, they’ve replaced cars with horses! Less trouble.
(Eek.)
That strange noise you hear is my jaw dropping . . . well, if everybody DID ride their horses to school, there would be a stable! :)
“I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s read a book with a long trek through the forest and wondered where all the animals are.
***** This is one of the things that really annoys me in books. That and the horse-as-car. The horses that never get untacked or groomed or FED or WATERED. And never get tired and can go all day every day forever. **Arrrrrgh.** ”
Or…plumbing! Given the number of time-and-life-devouring events connected with water supplies/waste disposal, the lack of any mention at all of (the infrastructure connected to) these activities often surprises me. OK, it’s not appropriate to include every frequent and gruesome detail, but just think of the amount of blog material here that has come from such things, and the insights into everyday life, motivations, and progress that we all (well, most of us) share through them. :)
This is one of my oratory soapboxes. And it’s a big joke with Peter that every time we visit some old ruin I want to know where the (a) kitchens and (b) latrines are and HOW THEY WORKED. The way fantasy works is by its REAL world details!!!!
*****This is one of the things that really annoys me in books. That and the horse-as-car. The horses that never get untacked or groomed or FED or WATERED. And never get tired and can go all day every day forever.*****
Not to mention the characters who ride a horse to death for some reason or other and this fact is mentioned as a VIRTUE. Terry Goodkind’s hero Richard did it in, I believe, one of the early books of his long, long series for the purpose of saving his lady Kahlan. Really made me, er, unhappy.
Judith
Oh YUCK. That would stop me reading it.
well, now you have a judy and a judith in the same conversation, but I ALWAYS look for the loos and the kitchens, and it’s landed me working in a living history museum job wherein I get to talk about both. There’s nothing like the glee of a 4th-grader who realizes that he’s in a museum that’s going to show him and tell him about old toilets–
Old *toilets*? Ooooh. I know a bit about the History of Waste Disposal but old *toilets* per se. . .
. well, if everybody DID ride their horses to school, there would be a stable! :)
The FOOTBALL players’ horses would have a stable. And the cheerleaders’. In small-town Texas, the rest of us might get a lean-to to park our horses under. ;)
Well, that sounds normal. :)
Well, I don’t have tea-at-the-Ritz OR fresh apricots, I’ve got ants coming out of the wall on the 14th floor of a NYC apartment building), but it seems like you’ve earned the Tea, one way or the other. (Can’t you let her pay?? She should be able to put it on her expense account. Although, god knows, in my children’s-lit.-editor days, I never had the sort of expense account that would send me to London, with or without the Ritz.)
The complaining is mostly a joke. Not sure what the emoticon is for “mock kvetching.”
I hope you figure out how to put your music on the blog some time. Partly I want to hear it and partly I want to compare it to your description of it, so that I can figure out what some of the terms mean. When I failed to be able to tune a 3-string Appalachian Mountain dulcimer, ever, I decided I wasn’t going to be much good at music.
There was a young bird, variety unknown, standing on a Brooklyn Height’s stoop today yelling FEED ME, DAMMIT! I didn’t have anything to offer, but it looked okay, so I guess mom or dad were just running late at work.
Wait, you’re in Brooklyn Heights? I had a flat there for a while. It’s so nice–proper neighbourhoods only a bridge-length from Manhattan. See, lucky you! :)
If you discover/invent the emoticon for ‘mock kvetching’ for pity’s sake POST IT. I NEED it. :)
Gods! I am SO NOT GOOD at music! **Tune** something??!? **Shudder.** Surely you’re allowed a pitch pipe or middle C on a piano or something.
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Well, drooling distance of Brooklyn Heights–about one block into downtown Brooklyn. The Heights got expensive and my partner (‘s lousy old knees) needed an elevator. We can see the Statue of Liberty, though, at least from the knees up, and mysterious fireworks on Thursday nights, somewhere between New Jersey and Ellis Island.
About pitch: no. I would know what a string should sound like and know it was wrong, but nothing could teach me whether it was too high or too low . . . ho-hum.
Wish I had you for a neighbor! Could then deliver real rather than imaginary/virtual chicken soup.
That’s what pitch pipes were invented for!
(Closing eyes and inhaling virtual chicken soup aroma . . . )
Arnica for jet lag. Did you write it down the last time I told you?
I will remember for when I go over next spring. I’m about ready to start carrying some around with me anyway after I fell down a month ago.
It certainly helped Hannah’s daughter Ruby after she got kicked by the pony. And I’ve had unblackened fingernails at least once. You only need a TINY bottle. YOu can keep it on your key ring. :)
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Well, my parents have a bottle. I think I just need to break down and buy one for myself. And I did take it for several days after I fell down. I just didn’t know about the jet lag help before.
Sounds like a perfect June day, aside from the photographic failures. Good for you.
No info on puppies today; I have restrained myself, and will not be a pest until TOMORROW.
******** this week I’ve got Americans just passing through on three different days.
Like buses, they come all at once Lol
******** tea at the Ritz is approximately my favourite (ridiculously overpriced) silly indulgence
But so lovely once in a while as a glorious treat, especially with a friend/agent you don’t manage to see very often :)
******** it’s been a beautiful day, so before I took my friend back to the train, we sat in my tiny garden at the cottage, with hellhounds frolicking about our knees, and listened to my tower ringing a quarter of a death-defying abyss-brink surprise method. With long golden afternoon sunlight, cups of tea, hellhounds, roses (not forgetting the scent of said roses, which, as I’ve mentioned, tends to get held in my garden by its walls–like tea in a cup), and the sound of bells, it was pretty flapdoodlingly idyllic
These moments creep up on you don’t they? Sometimes I only notice afterwards – waah! why didn’t I know how good that moment was at the time? How amazing to have all those wonderful elements in conjunction – yaay for good times!!
(and there’ll be good photos of Connie another time… but lots of sympathy on having to spend blog time that you thought was sorted – hugs and the biggest bar of green & blacks that’ll get thro your letterbox ;)
I have a LARGE letter slot in my door. :)
I’ve gotten a bit better about noticing **really nice moments** while they’re happening. I often don’t . . . but sometimes I do. I noticed galloping Connie the other day. I noticed sitting in the garden with my friend. I remember to make myself STOP and LOOK AROUND occasionally when I’m out tramping over countryside with hellhounds . . . although I can’t stop for long. Darkness trots back to me, stares up into my face and *whines*. Chaos is usually just hitting the end of his lead and yanking my arm another inch longer . . . Ah, gods, **dogs** . . . ! :)
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Okaaay… Just finding BIGGEST bar ever made of G&B to post through letterbox ;)
Dogs! Yes! Just talking to people I train every Tuesday who have a great terrier, and saying I can’t ever see myself without a dog.
A friend (the one who’s getting the puppy in a week) said today that lots of people have told her she’s mad to get a dog, but she said she listened to me instead – Eeeep!
Then she added that I’d told her to do what SHE wanted to do – sigh, relief!
There are lots of excellent reasons for NOT having a dog, because if it’s **not** a tremendous responsibility and tie then *you’re not doing it right*. But I also wonder if our ADHD brain-byte commitment-phobe world isn’t aggravating this . . . when in fact having furry things around is also very GOOD for you.
Tea at the Ritz with a friend, how delightful (*happy sigh of remembrance*). I hope you both have a lovely afternoon/evening.
Mind you, I’d be interested to know – when the appointment was first made, how close to the top of the list of associated pleasurable thoughts was ‘Ooh, something else I could blog about’…? :)
A very reasonable question, but in this case . . . not at all. I have loved tea at the Ritz since I emigrated. Somehow I never got around to it when I was a tourist.
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***Boys have to wear jackets and ties.***
When we went to the Ritz for afternoon tea many years ago, it was the middle of winter, so my husband was wearing a big woollen overcoat, with his best jumper and shirt and tie underneath. When he took off the coat in the cloakroom, an attendant came rushing over: “But Sir must have a jacket!” Moment of panic from us, but all was ok. Sir was ushered into a room full of jackets, and fitted with a loaner for the occasion. The Ritz has obviously had this situation arise before. I wonder if they have a similar room with skirts, pantihose, shoes with heels, etc?
***pre-menopause I used to have a working metabolism, instead of a series of carpenter gremlins who apply all calories directly to my waistline with tiny trowels***
What a wonderful concept – all is now explained! (Re me, I hasten to add; I’m not commenting on your weight. From the photos I’ve seen you have nothing to worry about.) When I was on chemo and not interested in eating anything, 14kg of my menopausal weight fell off, but unfortunately my apetite has come roaring back, courtesy of the Vitamin B in the multivitamin I’m taking through radiation therapy. I’m struggling hard to keep the carpenters at bay.
Susan in Melbourne
Yes, they still have coats and ties, and I don’t know about the skirts–the same thing has occurred to me but I’ve never quite asked . . . :)
Yes, I’m still thin, but it’s a lot HARDER than it used to be. And you *keep taking* that vitamin B, it’s GOOD for you. In fact, *enjoy* your carpenter gremlins–you deserve it. I have a friend who went through all that a year ago and she’s sorry to see the old weight coming back on. Some of the rest of us are GLAD.
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Tea at the Ritz sounds nice. Except for the shoes part. I don’t own a part of those! How do you avoid the CREAM though?
A few weeks ago my homeopathic doctor recommend that we cut back or stop eating dairy, due to digestion problems. I should have asked him for a recipe book.
This past weekend I went into my ‘mad scientist in the kitchen’ mode trying out what I could make without dairy that would still taste good. Amazingly everything I tried turned out well. Which is shocking, normally I end up with at least one or two flops.
One of the things I tried was a modification on the Passionfruit parfait recipe posted by Diane in MN.
I’m not sure what kind of texture parfait is supposed to have, but I like the end results. I choose to try banana chocolate because I love to eat choc. ice cream with banana. I think this recipe will work with any fruit though. Because I was experimenting I only did a half of a batch. Sorry, but I rarely write anything down when cooking so I’m not the best with instructions.
Here it is:
Passionfruit Parfait Variation Rebecca Surprise (surprise because it worked)
100 g butter
125 – 175 g mashed banana (about four)
75 g sugar
2 eggs – separated
60 g bar chocolate
Melt the butter and the chocolate
Add banana and sugar
taste – if it isn’t chocolaty enough add unsweetened baking chocolate powder and sugar until it tastes rich and sweet enough
Add egg yolks and stir constantly until thickened, like loose pudding. COOL
Beat egg whites. Fold into cooled banana mixture.
Put into something that will fit into your freezer and freeze it until set.
WARNING: This does have a strong banana taste. If you don’t like banana use some other mashed strained fruit! (or add so much chocolate that you can’t taste anything else)
Campari Orange Sorbet
1 cup Orange juice
1/8 to 1/2 cup Campari topped off to one cup with orange juice
1 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup heated water (cooled)
throw in ice cream maker or put into bowl in freezer and stir it once in a while
Rebecca WinkleBeam
It’s really not hard to be dairy free once you’re doing it–at home. It’s kind of a nightmare doing it away from home because the world is very dairy. (Go you milk lobby.) I miss cheese and ice cream because I miss cheese and ice cream . . . but it’s not *hard* to do without, if you follow me. And I notice you’re still using butter, which is *my* life saver.
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Thanks. I don’t know anyone off milk products here. Now I can see that it will get better once I adjust.
R.w.
I have to ask: what all does “tea at the Ritz” entail (besides the proper tea itself of course)? I can imagine little sandwich-y things and scones, but that doesn’t sound like 2-3 courses.
Regarding my going-blind greyhound, the specialist has said it’s a genetic condition called progressive retinal atrophy. It’s gradual (probably started when he was as young as four months old), painless (though it increases the chances that he might develop glaucoma), and he doesn’t seem at all bothered or dismayed by it. He gets a vitamin supplement that seems to slow the progression of something very similar (macular degeneration) in humans, we’re doing some training to help him (seeing eye human!), and my husband and I work at keeping stuff he might trip over off the floor.
Lots and LOTS of little sandwichy things, scones, tea cakes, and mini fruit tarts, pastries, chocolate mousse, etc. It’s ALL wicked carbs except for a little sandwich filling. :)
Homeopathy could also help slow down your dog’s fading sight, if you have a vet you can consult. (Homeopathy works fine alongside whatever else you’re doing.)
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Sounds like very tasty wicked carbs, though!
Since conventional medicine doesn’t really have anything to offer Gryphon besides “he’s going blind and it’s not painful, but there’s nothing we can do about it” I’ll have to ask around and see if I have any homeopathic connections.
Good luck!
*****I’ve officially decided to grow old disgracefully*****
Brava! People who age “gracefully” LOOK old and ACT old and are BORING. People who age disgracefully are generally mistaken for being at least 20 years younger than they are and are almost always a lot of fun. And people with that mental attitude are the most likely to survive life-threatening diseases.
Judith
So being a hellgoddess is occasionally a Good Thing. :)
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arnica for jet lag
No no–alcohol for jet lag! Alcohol! :)
Well you can get arnica SPRAY in an alcohol base .. . :)
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