plastic + high fructose corn syrup + syrup on my 'dines

In the bathtub a sea of plastic fish, buckets, boats, monkeys, everything plastic. Should my son be floating in all of this plastic? I think not. It all slowly drifts into two separate, but distinct areas of the tub, am thinking of the place in the ocean where all of the post-butyrate injection molded plastic detritus of consumerism ends up and then on to the stomachs of seabirds. uck.

And the potty beans? The gmo-corn high fructose corn syrup, artificial color, artificial flavor, Jelly Belly nastiness that were supposed to facilitate potty training? I will find a better carrot. My bad.

On the culinary front: Oliver asked me tonite if we could 'please put some syrup on his 'dines' (maple syrup + sardines, yes. Anthony Bourdain would be oh so proud). How could I refuse? 

And he is most often lately, in the early evening, seen dining in the buff. The food must just taste better...

  

Mallard Strawberry Ice Cream, The #1 Cure for Spicy Throat.

Pardon the plug. We have eaten a lot of Mallard ice cream. We really like it. Especially when our throats are spicy, and Oliver likes to go there with Laura, and with mom after music, and with dad, and you get the picture...

O. tasted peppermint yesterday, but he always gets strawberry.

Swinging in the swing next to him at the park today, he looked, suddenly, like this little adult.

'Spicy on the back of my throat.' + Robin Hill

Just as I thought we had escaped cold and flu season unscathed, along comes the bug. Berto has had the ubiquitous runny nose and mild, raspy, cough for a few days. This morning he told me that he had  'a spicy on the back of his throat.' The wind chill has been outrageous and temperatures in the high 20's, low 30's, but the sun is stunning and the skies a piercing bright blue. At times like these, I am grateful for his imagination as we can still manage to spend hours inside where it is a balmy 76 degrees with a big fire and puzzles, endless art projects, online video footage of any type of farm implement (today the cotton harvester was a hit), clay creations, books, and he has his (construction) Project Zone, a huge clay pot filled with soil and all of his small digging toys, plus and assortment of improvised 'attachments'.

Robin Hill

There are so many robins on Sehome hill at the moment. Oliver and I watched three of them canvassing the side yard for whatever they were scavenging and yesterday it seemed as though every time I looked, a bird was perched on a post in the yard...where we are planning on putting in grapes and berries and where fruit trees are already located. 

On a midday jaunt around the neighborhood yesterday, we chased robins up the street/hill, and saw (not kidding) more than 8 - 10 robins in a parking strip darting this way and that. 

Stellar jay(s) are putting a nest in one of the trio of pines closest to the parking area. An ADU (accessory dwelling unit)! 

Also of note the decapitated one-winged thing Poor Wendy (the cat) left me on the back porch in protest of my having allowed the canned cat food supply to cease to exist.