summer = salads

Summer is unofficially here! Seeing as how this spring was unseasonably warm, the grill's gotten a respectable amount of use already, decked out in chicken and veggies.  Over the holiday weekend, though, we made honest-to-goodness hamburgers.

And this fine concoction:

Corn and Black Bean Salad
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
3 ears of corn, cooked and cut off the cob
1 medium cucumber, chopped
splash of olive oil
splash of lemon juice
honey to taste
garlic powder to taste
fresh chives to taste

Mix it all up and enjoy!

holiday

(Taken during our trip to Castine last year)

May you all have a happy -- or reflective and appreciative -- Memorial Day.

Forget what I said.

The other day I mentioned that one of my goals this year is to show you pictures of flowers from the garden than I hadn't posted about last year. I still think there'd be enough variety to do that, but... well, the irises are out in force again this year.  And they had rain on them this morning.

They weren't rainy last year.

So it's different.

Right?

Blueberry pie, coming up! In about ten years.

Our yard is the stuff of high hopes (pipe dreams?) and long term plans.

We'd like to have a deck.  And a place to store our kayak and canoe.  And a couple flower gardens that look purposeful rather than haphazard.  Maybe a better spot for the hammock so we can have it set up for the whole season.

While we're at it, one of these days we'll get around to trying to make grass grow where we want it to (the lawn) instead of where we don't (the vegetable garden).  Details.

One thing we've started -- and probably will be tackling for the next several years -- is creating a hedge along one side of the back yard made up of useful perennials.  We have raspberries there now, and the solitary blueberry bush in the picture above.  Maybe we'll move the asparagus plants over here too.  I don't know how well they handle transplanting, but actual soil with nutrients has got to be better than the sand pit where they live now.

Because clearly we don't have enough to do here... what are we missing?  What else would you have in your ideal back yard?

In bloom: daffodils

Is that time of year: the garden is starting to look like more than a patch of dirt once again. I'm hoping to be able to post only about different flowers than I did last year. Not that you all keep track of what I've already shown you or would necessarily notice if the photos were very similar, but for me it's more interesting to talk about new things.

To recap, here's what I showed you last year:
sweet peas
chives
irises
anemones
strawberries
marigolds
sedum

Now for the daffodils. Oh, the daffodils. They were in the garden last year, but I never posted about them. They've declined a bit each year (apparently bulbs have a shelf life), so by now it's mostly daffodil shoots with no actual flowers. This year they also migrated so they've sprouted up through the lawn instead of the flower bed. I guess we've got rogue daffodils.

They're in short supply, but they're pretty nonetheless.

feminism ain't easy: gaslights around every corner

I may have mentioned it once or eleven times, but Meet the Press on the television is a must around here on Sunday mornings. This past weekend was no exception, and goodness, was it interesting. The highlight (for me, anyway -- I know not everyone enjoys political debates) was a roundtable conversation about how the upcoming presidential election will be influenced by female voters. If you didn't catch it but you'd care to, it's available at the Huffington Post here.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Rachel Maddow and the way she handled herself during the conversation. Partially, sure, it has to do with the fact that I agree with her viewpoint, but more importantly I admire the way she articulated her opinions in an unfailingly civil and rational way. What impressed me even more in this particular exchange was the fact that she made of point of calling one of her adversaries' tactics what it was: condescending.

I posted that article with the Meet the Press clip on Facebook as well, in the hopes that more people would see it and participate in the cultural conversation about how the policies advanced by the two major political parties in this country will affect women. As an afterthought, I also added a link to this article by Yashar Ali about the concept of "gaslighting": the dismissal of women's feelings and opinions by way of framing them as irrational or otherwise invalid and unimportant. Sometimes it's intentional and sometimes it's not, but it's insidious, and it's everywhere.

When Alex Castellanos stopped debating the merits of Rachel Maddow's factual argument and referred to her as very "passionate" about her opinions, he was -- either intentionally or not -- engaging in gaslighting. He was framing her statements as emotion-based rather than fact-based, with of course makes them sound a lot less convincing. Kudos to Ms. Maddow for calling him on it.

I posted the article about gaslighting in connection with the Meet the Press clip in part because I think it's fascinating to watch the exchange with that in mind. I'm also hopeful that more people will notice (and, of course, work to decrease) gaslighting not just in political debates, but in their own lives.

Imagine my surprise, though, when I realized that Mr. Castellanos's comments during the discussion weren't the only gaslighting example on display. Once I'd clicked "submit" and the video clip appeared as a link on the page, the title as provided by Huffington Post was an example of gaslighting unto itself:


"WATCH: Maddow Flips Out on 'Meet the Press'"


You'll note, if you watch the piece, that Ms. Maddow does not "flip out." She states her opinions. She appears to be annoyed with Mr. Castellanos. She counters points she disagrees with. But she does not "flip out," and to say that she does inaccurately presents her as someone who is irrational and less worthy of respect.

But what, you ask, is the best part in all this? Could it get more deliciously ironic? Why yes, yes it could: the Huffington Post also ran the very same gaslighting article I linked to above on its site here back in September of 2011. They filed it under, among other things, "women's rights" and "inspiring."

Insidious, indeed.

a tired puppy is a good puppy

It's like he walked halfway out of his crate and decided he just couldn't go on.  Life is tough.

I realized that the pictures of Cecil here make it seem as though he does nothing but nap.  That's not true.  I mean, yeah, the sleepy pictures are just plain cute, but it really has more to do with the fact that if he's not napping, he isn't likely to be standing still.

The exception, strangely, is when it's rainy, blustery, or otherwise unpleasant outside.  A sunny day calls for some running to tire him out, but when it's dreary outside, Cecil curls up in his crate for hours on end.  He fits in well around here, to be sure.