Great Movie

I just watched "Legends of the Fall" (1994) again. If I had to name 100 best movies, this would be in the top ten.

Yum!

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At poetry meeting, my poem was over-praised, as usual. Maybe it's because I'm the antique relic and they feel sorry for me. Or maybe my poems are pretty good, after all. Either way, it makes me feel strange.

Still Here

After sleeping 12 hours without twitching, I spent half the day trying to wake up. Then I decided if I took a shower, maybe I would come alive. So after the shower, I went to the grocery, and now I think I'll go to the poetry meet after all.
Gonna take my Conrad Aiken poem, based on his "Beloved, let us once more praise the rain," one of the finest poems in any language that I know. Which includes English, a dead language.

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
Oh, receive my soul at last. . . .


Charles Wesley

Inspiration

This is a page from an old quilt magazine. It's where I got the idea for the little basket quilt. I think I still lived in the Southside apartment when I started my quilt scrapbook. I've made a few quilts based on saved pictures and patterns.

Book Club Tuesday

All seven members of the book club met at Ramey's yesterday. We enjoyed a delicious lunch, and then discussed E.M. Forster's book A Room With a View, and the delightful 1985 movie based on the book.


This morning I put the makings of chicken and dumplings in the crock pot, and will add a little can of LeSeur peas. So for dinner this evening I'll have a good meal, including a fruit salad. I'm counting every calorie, so I'll have leftovers to go into the freezer.

New Quilt, I hope

These blocks are four-and-a-half inches square, plus quarter-inch seam allowances. If I make a miniature quilt, maybe I can finish it this year. But a full-size one will take much longer.


I cut out all the pieces for a full-size quilt, several years ago, and sewed together the light-colored block. Each square in the box holds pieces for 3-4 blocks.

I want a brown-and-white quilt for my bedroom, and I hope this will be the one.

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Over the past week, I've watched all 6 re-run episodes of "The Night Manager," plus the Saturday night replays of the first 3 episodes of "Poldark."

Stars and Strikes

Jed came down Sunday. We really didn't have any great plans; ate at Cracker Barrel Sunday evening. I celebrated(?) the Fourth of July with a terribly messed up digestive system, so we didn't do much then, either, except watching some movies and old TV series. Jed celebrated by fixing everything around the house from the closet door in the "reading room" to trying to plumb the kitchen faucet. He went back to Atlanta today.

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One of my favorite hymns sings in my mind:

My Faith Looks Up to Thee

Ray Palmer (1808–1887)

My faith looks up to thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary,   Saviour divine! Now hear me while I pray, Take all my guilt away,         5 O let me from this day   Be wholly thine!   May thy rich grace impart Strength to my fainting heart   My zeal inspire!         10 As thou hast died for me, O may my love to thee Pure, warm, and changeless be,—   A living fire!   While life’s dark maze I tread,         15 And griefs around me spread,   Be thou my guide; Bid darkness turn to day, Wipe sorrow’s tears away, Nor let me ever stray         20   From thee aside.   When ends life’s transient dream, When death’s cold, sullen stream   Shall o’er me roll, Blest Saviour, then, in love,         25 Fear and distrust remove! O bear me safe above,—   A ransomed soul!

Found it in the yard

Birds are talented.

New Crock Pot

My new slow cooker arrived yesterday. What it was: I had put chicken and veggies in the old one and left it for ten hours. I accidentally had set it on high instead of low. During the ten hours I took a nap and fooled around, and all the liquids in the pot boiled away and all the solids stuck to the pot and got very brown. After scraping them out and scrubbing the pot, I found a hairline crack down one side and across the bottom.


Of course, I resorted to Google to tell me what to do next, and the consensus was to plant a flower or something in the pot, and buy a new one. Although you could buy any other part separately, you couldn't buy just the ceramic insert, and the possibilities of using the cracked one ranged all the way from a kitchen explosion, to using it for a few days until the new one arrived. So I ordered a new one, identical to the old. It cost less than $30, with free shipping, so now I can slow-cook again. Carefully.

All my dish towels are so old, most of the embroidery is gone, leaving the holes and shreds where it used to be. So I also ordered a new set of dish towels. When they arrive, I'll be set for another 10 or 15 years of problematic cooking and drying dishes, for less than $40.


***
An Interesting Dream

One night I dreamed there was a black velvet box on the night stand, and in it was a beautiful black spider with a pearl on its back. I thought it was a piece of black enameled jewelry, and I reached out to touch it, but then it spread out its legs and crawled out of the box.