Friday Orts and Blurbs: Things That Are Making Me Happy

If you are a long-long-longtime reader of this blog, you may remember that a long-long-long time ago on Fridays this space was reserved for Orts and Blurbs. This was back when I had Thoughts in my head and didn't invest all my mental energy wondering where I left...something. Anything. Everything.

Anyway, orts and blurbs are short features of things I love and endorse. This week I have several things I'm loving:

1. The apples shown above. Husband and I spent last weekend with Boy#1 and Lovely Girl in their Missouri home, and One thoughtfully put out a bowl of apples as snacks. I took a bite of one and lo, the heavens opened and angels sang. They were Honeycrisp, and this cultivar is certainly the most delicious thing to come off a tree since the Garden of Eden. Better, really. They're sweet, tart, and crisp, but without the Fall of Man associated with that original apple. I immediately bought my own over-packaged Honeycrisps, and they are not inexpensive (think $1 each), but when I consider how many wizened apples I normally throw away from the bargain bag, it's about the same cost.

2. This book. Oh, people, this book. I know I am late to the party (it was published in 2004) but I am savoring it as if it were a Honeycrisp apple. To sum it up: An aged father, knowing he will die soon, writes his legacy to his young son. I'm only halfway through but I have re-read, lightly underlined (it's a library book and I will erase before I return the book), and pondered at least a dozen pages that are now paper-clipped for future reference. One of my favorite paragraphs:

For me writing has always felt like praying, even when I wasn't writing prayers, as I was often enough. You feel that you are with someone. I feel I am with you now, whatever that can mean considering that you're only a little fellow now and when you are a man you might find these letters of no interest. Or they might never reach you, for any of a number of reasons. Well, but how deeply I regret any sadness you have suffered and how grateful I am in anticipation of any good you have enjoyed. That is to say, I pray for you. And there's an intimacy in it. That's the truth. 

Oh, so lovely, and such truth in that for any writer or parent.

 

3. Knitting and Netflix. As the weather has cooled from if-it's-July-in-Kansas-this-must-be-hell highs to September's more reasonable temperatures I've been able to put several projects into the finished column. I hold dear the superstition that if I'm happy while knitting the stitches come off the needles easier so it was the perfect time to discover that The Great British Baking Show is now on Netflix. This series is quite possibly my favorite television show of all time, and I'm including Here Come the Brides in that assessment. (My teenaged self is shrieking in disbelief.) Lovely people, lovely food, and the self-delusion that if I were in the tent I'd get a Paul Hollywood handshake for my dinner rolls. This and lovely Icelandic wool are the perfect companions.

4. Finally, the thing that happened during my junior high accompanying gig yesterday. The delightful and energetic young teacher was warming up the group when she uttered the following sentence: "Boys have one wonderful thing that girls don't have. Does anyone know what that is?" The seventh grade boys on the front row came unglued, as did the accompanist, because the accompanist apparently has a junior high sense of double entendre.

Falsetto. She was talking about falsetto. And she carried on with the class without missing a beat. Brava, Mrs. M.

What's making you happy these days?