Take a Break, Think about Home

From Sippican Cottage:

I was reading Essays In Idleness by Kenko. He was dead in 1350. . . .


. . . the personal essay is tie that binds us.


I hate the term: blog. It's ugly, and it's come to mean something even uglier than the sound of it. It's become the minor leagues of hate. I write personal essays here. Zuihitsu. It might not be noble, but a person has little to offer to others but knowledge of which they are sure. "I am an expert in the affairs of all men" is the banner of the professional politician and their toads. Not hardly.


Why am I wandering in the few moments between exhaustion and sleep in the dusty stacks of an alien culture dead and buried for seven hundred years? To find a kindred spirit. . .


I have never been in a hotel room as comfortable and pleasant as my own bedroom, and I have been in Presidential Suites before. Money can't fix the problem, and the availability of money without the governor of a framework of rules to expend it almost always makes things worse.


Our post-modern zeitgeist evangelizes that rules of any sort that govern personal behaviors or the appearance of our surroundings or entertainment are stultifying and worthy only of mindless opposition. The unthinking rejection of all tradition leads to a counterintuitive outcome: a set of rules, much more stringent than what they replaced, will replace the old ones, and they will consist of the worst possible alternative to what was there before.


. . . How else can I explain a Japanese man writing about my house, and the house you should be living in, in the fourteenth century?

From our own unfashionable but comfortable home and garden:

Interesting Tomatoes, both old and new varieties
Assorted garden gifts and a dog
BIG tomatoes
Ripe Green Tomatoes

And recipes for garden vegetables:
Skillet Lasagna with Zucchini
Grandma's Chili Sauce

Some thoughts on happy children and expectations

Independence Day, Observed

Well, they're not fireworks, but they go well with an Independence Day celebration. We've got some fruit, too. We had to keep the dogs calm with the fireworks in the neighborhood last night, and will again tonight. Otherwise, it's been a fairly quiet holiday so far. The Fourth fell on Sunday this year, so today is Independence Day, Observed.  We did hear some fine thoughts about our country yesterday.

The forecast is for 99 degrees today - kind of hot for complex activities. But that doesn't keep us from being thankful for our favorable circumstances.

Here are some links concerning the Declaration of Independence and Independence Day. For your enjoyment and contemplation. They include some ideas about making your holiday more meaningul.  There's some fine writing at the links, both historical and current, plus some videos.  I was especially interested in what Wretchard, an Australian, said about the Declaration.  Sometimes it's easy to take our country and our freedom for granted.  We need to fight this impulse.