God Save the Queen

My mother hates the Queen – you know the one in England. Are there other Queens? Well anyway, she hates that one. I have no idea why.  I’m like “have you ever met her mummy?” It’s like this irrational hatred, in my opinion.  But then again I’m only through Season 1 of The Crown.  And in Season 1 the Queen is very likable – I’d even say lovable.   As I watch this, before bed most nights, I’d have dreams with me as royalty of course. And then I wake up confused as to where I am (not to mention who I am). Mostly I end up wondering where my double or triple strand pearls are. YEARS ago, I had a dream that me, my sister, and Princess Diana were playing cards in a bedroom in a castle.  We were all sisters in some other lifetime, big dresses and all, big cold castle, and I looked out of the window high above the grounds to see my children playing in the gardens with the nanny then went back to playing cards with my sisters.  Often in the series, The Crown, the Queen looks out of the window at the children playing in the gardens.  It really gives me the chills..just like my dream I tell you.  Well anyway, I had that dream before Princess Di was killed.  It was a long time ago but I remember that dream.  Mostly I remember looking out of the window like she does.  Tonight is a TV special on Princess Di’s last 100 days.  I better watch and see what Sis was up to in her last moments.  After she died I had another dream where she came to me in the dream and told me she was ok. So you tell me.  I joke with my sister Kerry, in this lifetime, continuously about our nephews in England – always wondering if she’s paying attention to them.  She thinks I’m crazy of course.  And I am but what’s your point?

So today I had the full intention of going to the beach…and then changed my mind.  I wanted to walk on the beach and get some sun but I didn’t feel like making the drive.  So I just walked up town here, in the sun and shade and then binged on The Crown. Turns out I missed one or two episodes since I started watching somehow.  I watch on Netflix and turn off the TV when an episode is over, then the next night or time I’m ready to watch the next one I turn the TV/Netflix back on and it tells me where I left off.  Well, I watched on my computer today, instead of my TV, and first of all even though Netflix was saying “hi Lynn” it did not recognize where I left off – which fortunately made me go back and look at episodes and somehow I missed TWO of them.  Now how does that happen?  So now I’m wondering if I missed any of Grace and Frankie.  I started to go back through the 3 seasons of Grace and Frankie to see what I missed and then was embarrassed about myself, sitting here all day.  I decided to walk up to the corner store, to get off my arse and to get out in the sun again.  I briefly thought of jumping in the car and making the 30-45 minute drive to the beach but quickly opted for the short walk buying an avocado, a banana and a small $1 bag of mini Oreos.  I know.  Shut up.

Yesterday I ran errands, just like a working girl does on a weekend and ended up sitting in my yard.  I bought some bulbs during my errands, planted them, put the rest of the Virginia daffodils under a tree (in the ground) just to see if they might come up here in Florida, had my book and my phone, ready to sit in my yard and read in the sun.  I never got to my book.  I never got my face out of my phone.  I was catching up on Words with Friends, Yahtzee and some texts.  I think I don’t love my book enough to read it.  It’s called fly away by Kristin Hannah. The sequel to firefly lane. I just don’t love it enough.  I was thinking of trying to read today too.  Then decided to watch the Netflix.  Ya know?  It’s bad.  And now I’m blogging just to get out of reading that book.  What is wrong with me? I wonder if people will say that when my book gets published.  That they’ll want to do anything else but read it. (see how I did that there with the when?)

In other news, work is work.  I haven’t quit and they haven’t fired me.  I have no intention of quitting a job, ever again, so it’s a good thing I like it.  I like everyone I work with and although it’s only been a month I feel very comfortable there.  It’s not an easy job which is good for me personally and as with any university job there are challenges that are apparently industry wide (in higher ed) but at least I’m not surprised by them. I just keep my nose down, eyes on my own paper, shake my head and do my job. That’s all I’m going to say about that.  But I’m happy there and here’s a picture from my desk.

My boss, who I love, sent me a weeks worth of Blue Apron – another one of those cooking box things…just because.  Purple Carrot doesn’t deliver to Florida.  I wonder why?  Anyway, so this week in my Blue Apron box I have lemongrass burgers, seared salmon and chicken with creamy couscous.  I love these box deal things.  I love everything about it.  The ease, the recipes, the directions, just everything.  The first night I made the lemongrass burgers and thought I died and went to heaven.  Of course I can make these on my own now, if I can find where they sell lemongrass stalks but goodness it was delicious.  My only complaint with the Blue Apron recipes are they have added sugar in them.  Like in Purple Carrot there was no sugar. Purple Carrot is also vegan or vegetarian. I LOVE sugar, so says my waistline, and well I probably don’t really need any extra of it in my cooking.  Even so, since Purple Carrot doesn’t deliver here, I think I might continue to get a Blue Apron box a month. I could just leave the sugar out. I feel like I’ve brought this up before haven’t I?  Well, just think of me here, sitting alone in my chair, in a town where I know nobody, binging on Netflix.  You’d repeat yourself too.  AND you’d probably buy $1 bag of Oreos too.

Here are a couple of pictures of my yard where one day there may be flowers.

I also planted some vegetables over there by the fence (see pic below) that won’t come up because it’s too hot.

Views from my chair – Just look at that sky:

One of the things I spent my time researching on my phone was those raised garden boxes I thought I might put over there by the fence. But then the question is why?  Why raised boxes and not just in the ground?  Anybody? Is it just a craze?  A fad?  Or is there some logic to planting in a box and not in the ground?  Don’t we want the nutrients of the earth?  Well anyway, I was pondering that yesterday.  I shall continue to ponder throughout the summer because September is really when I should be putting seeds in.  Not in the spring like the rest of the world.

Tonight I’m having a salad with the bag of greens I bought at the farmers market on Friday night.  I walked over Friday night to our little farmer’s market and met Julia and Joe for a drink (ok I didn’t drink but I did sit a spell) bought lettuce and walked back home. Just like a resident. So I thought I’d save my last Blue Apron meal for maybe tomorrow night and tonight I’ll throw everything I have left over from the other two nights into one big salad.  Doesn’t that sound delicious?  And then…I’ll get back into this chair and get ready to watch Princess Di.  I will put on my single strand pearls for the occasion.

xoxoxo

And here’s a random picture of my son (third from the left or 2nd from right) and his friends at a Kentucky Derby party.  They are all so handsome.  I love these boys.