Summer Wrap-up Randomness

I'm burning the excess energy with home organization.  The blog gets residual randomness today.  The laws of thermodynamics state that energy can neither be created nor destroyed.  The former is accurate, and the latter is suspect. 

You could rush to point out to me that it is a matter of energy allocation, rather than presence or absence.  I've spent the last few days listening to young men beat on my house from the outside.  They ripped out rotted sills and trim and boards, and put new ones in.  Permanent composite boards replace soft, stupid pine trim.  The Brazilian carpenter shakes his laconic head, and assures me this happens to all houses.  I hired them to replace two or three areas of rot.  A week later, they finally finished.  All that just sucks the energy and money right out of a body.  I had a talent for settling in a room far from the noise, to find that I had just selected the next room targeted for *bang*bang*bang*.  They are done.  So am I.

I'm decluttering and organizing.  The place looks like a semi-permanent pigsty, which is probably an insult to some perfectly good pigs.  I have found some measure of peace with the half-way points of the process.  This is not something that can be checked off the to-do list in any measurable time format.  Two hard parts dovetail:  getting all the crap of similiar ilk in one spot, and then organizing it to take less room, and be accessible. 

The shredder has come in very handy. 

Organizing the blog is easier:  random can simply be another synonym for catching up. 

Memorial Day weekend, Kennebunkport, Maine hosts a parade, and a celebration.  GHWBush trots out to speak.  He did not trot this year.  He shuffled to the podium, supported by a Secret Service suit.  Rumors speak of a hip replacement.  I wondered about Parkinson's. 

On the way home, I saw Brenda's Bloomers.  Mr. Etherknitter was instructed to screech to a halt,  and back up the trusty Subaru.  Pictures were unavoidable.

Mr. E's mom took us on an architectural tour earlier in the summer.   Much was lost in Mrs. O'Leary's 1871 Chicago fire.  Rebuilding gave the city a sequence of architectural styles that displays the evolution of materials, technology, and imagination. 

Geometric stands alongside organic.  An office building on a corner juxtaposes with Gehry's concert pavillion.  

 

Not all recipes are virtuous.  Peach tatin DOES contain fruit.  But the gorgeous, ripe, local peaches are then adulterated with carmel and purchased puff pastry.  The recipe is by Jonathan Benno of Per Se in NYC.  It is easy, and the result is impressive in presentation.  I added one modification, born of mistrust.  I coated the skillet with a small bit of butter to make sure the carmel and peachy goodness would release.  It did.  The recipe is here.  Our ice cream was not vanilla.  I subbed in Dulce de Leche.  YUM.

All done! Love it love it love it. You should make one. Yes, YOU. RIGHT THERE. I SEE YOU. MAKE THIS DESSERT.  (Apologies to Randomcyn, who was speaking of Onerva, and not peach tatin.)  I sometimes do what I am told, and Onerva is awaiting her photo shoot.

 

Comments

[Mary Lou]

I tried to take a nap yesterday. Hah. Air compressors and nail guns all around. My house is still only partway done. It will be a few more months, I think. I've been organizing other areas to help myself mentally. It does help. My closet looks clean and half empty.

[Lynn]

I think I might need instruction in that peach recipe. Or maybe I should just watch you sometime? I can help clean up afterward.

(Why are you laughing so hard right now?)

[margene]

Your organizational energy is admirable. This house is in need of massive energy surge.
Need to find a GF puff pastry. Peaches scream summer!

[naomi]

No. I won't. You can't make me. I'm going to make an apple crisp, instead. So there.

[Caroline M]

I'd love to make one of those but I haven't seen a decent peach in years, smelling of sun and running with juice. Rumour has it that they don't ripen after picking and they seem to appear in the shops here hard and dry. I would seriously consider a dwarf variety in a pot and attempt to grow my own if I had a south facing garden.

I feel your pain with the noise, the gas main in the street is being replaced. It could be worse, it could be this side of the road and not the other, and of course I'm not paying for it. I'm sick of the noise though.

[Marcia]

I think the only thing worse than the noise of construction on one's own house is the noise of construction on the house next door! At least THEY are going to get something out of all the racket. Actually, they moved out during this massive remodel, so they just get something. I don't mind the saws and air compressors, I don't even mind the endless chatter and hollering in Spanish, but I draw. the. line. at loud radio!

Love the birdhouses....there is a house nearby that decorates a long privacy fence on the road side with very colorful, beautiful birdhouses. We marvel that no one ever steals any. Must take photo.

Have you discovered FlyLady. I lurves FlyLady. First time in my life I'm getting control of it all.

[Teyani]

so it is true that out of chaos comes organization? (grin) And I tend to agree that it is suspect that energy cannot be destroyed - because I truly wonder who has taken mine? (another grin) Time to be a knitting slug.

[Cheryl S.]

We've done a lot of home maintenance this year, including replacing a lot of rotted wood. Though we did replace it with more wood.

The dessert looks yummy! I even have some puff pastry in the freezer. But sadly, I just finished off the last of the peaches. Maybe I'll get some more next week.

[SpindleRose]

It's a good think I read this after my morning trip to the farmers market. Peaches 48 hours before I leave town for most of a week are a bad idea. Buying the peaches and making peach tatin next weekend, when I will be home long enough to enjoy all of it, is a much better plan.

[Angie]

I"m so sorry their statue of R2D2 fell over. It must have been *very* cute.

About that tatin. Way too many substitutions required for the vegan version. But I remember that stuff...all too well!

[gayle]

Oh, for a true peach. Up here, we get spray-painted tennis balls that claim to be peaches...

[pat]

I've been doing this since May (almost daily - a little at at time) and my house is now CLUTTER FREE! I love walking in and seeing all the space.
Started some of my own home repair too - just sanded and urethaned 2 doors and trim, painted the entryway and bought "floating floor" that I'm going to attempt to install myself - hahaha.

[Anne]

I have destroyed all the energy at this end. Or maybe hours and hours in the sun and 90+ degrees and blast-furnace "breezes" did that. Hated to do it, but the AC is on around here all day today.

[Peg in Kensington, California]

We also are attacking the clutter. Emptied the attic so the roofers can come. Discovered that we had put the silver there before going to New Zealand a year ago. Sorted through masses of bank and investment statements that my father-in-law had saved and which we ended up with when my husband became the executor. Decided that many stuffed animals, games, etc., from kids who are now 23 and almost 26 can go to the White Elephant Sale. But it is such a process. We have found that everything has a half life and until that life is reached, there is no throwing it away.

[Cathyc]

Did the de-clutter thing while M recuperated from surgery. Feels good to have the house clear and ready for winter.

Must. Wash. Windows.

[Lucia]

Yesterday I attacked our bedroom and consolidated a large amount of outgrown girl clothing into one big box. Clutter metamorphoses into charitable donation. That, alas, is the easy part; the hard part is determining which items in the residue are really worth keeping.