Here is a simple meal to make…..Shrimp and Pasta.
Heat olive oil in a pan and when hot, put in a carton of grape or cherry tomatoes. Shake around until they split. Add chopped garlic, green onion if you have it, and several handfuls of baby spinach that you have cut into smaller pieces. Now add one cup of medium-sized thawed shrimp to cook a few minutes until pink. Meanwhile cook pasta, angel hair, until just right (not soft). Drain the pasts (I do this with a wire spider so as to save the pasta water) and dump into the pan where shrimp, spinach, onion and garlic are cooking and toss til well mixed. Add some parmesan cheese and mix it in. You could also toss in some capers. Add some pasta water to keep it all pliable, stir and serve with more parmesan on top.
Whole meal takes less than 20 minutes to make and there is plenty of leftovers for two to three more meals. Tasty and healthy.
I dragged the newly painted bench out under the windows in the living room. The paint I had matched the tone of the cedar pergola. So it went in the space I was thinking of putting a swing, glider, whatever. Then I realized, why would I sit there in the sun when I have a rocker, table and chairs on the porch. Good thing I am learning to think more before pressing the “buy now” button on Amazon.
My yardman comes this week to help kill weeds and clean out the pond. I will ask him to flip over the bench so I can get more paint on the bottom of the legs. Also I can ask him what I could put on the bench to help hide the outlet I was hoping it would cover…..always something not quite right.
And knowing friends in Tasmania were still gathering to make things, I started a patch piece with fabrics I bought there at WafuWorks.
This morning I decided to dig out some of the threads I bought there, add them to others I had, and just draw them to fill out the two pages. So here is the latest page in the Gatherings Book.
I am back to writing. Another piece for the Brevity book.
Here and There
I will stay over here
on the side of knowing
that those over there
have made the wrong choice.
And this one that only seems long because I kept it to a column of words instead of stanzas.
Old
Do you have any idea
how little things matter
once we get to Old?
That place hidden from view
somewhere up ahead.
Until suddenly here we are,
being escorted off the train
with all the things
we thought we needed.
We are told to “settle in”,
another train will come
one day to take us further.
But not today.
Once we discover
what Old has to offer,
we call it home.
Unpack our baggage
only to toss half in the bin,
and get comfortable
with what we cling to.
Mostly fragments
of things we remember.
We find ways to keep
them close as we sort
through their meanings.
Some of us will measure
each one carefully into
a simmering pot,
wanting sustenance
for weeks to come.
Others will take the time
to scribble all they can
on pages of blank journals
to be read later by them
or those left behind ___
after the train comes through.
I will thread my needle
and hold onto pieces of my past
while I sew them together.
Never mind that the stitches
are easily distracted as they
wander across the surface
of what used to be.
None of it matters.
This last one came to me as I stitched those Japanese fabric scraps from WafuWorks and thinking of friends still gathering to share their memories together. I like thinking I am there with them keeping my hands busy and laughter on the tip of my tongue.
It occurred to me that the stitching lines were not only uneven but actually meandered a bit. I never pulled out a thread, nor did I even think of putting it out of sight. I finished my stitching and smiled that I still want to do more. Then picked up my pencils and drew.
Til later….