Haven't posted a Morning Kitchen shot in a while, so here's today: starring Dora's Yellow Leash.
Here too is a poem I posted various places yesterday, for the Solemnity, but didn't think about yesterday morning when I was writing my post for this blog:
The poem was commissioned by, and appeared in, Evangelization and Culture, in 2021, I think. They always do a beautiful job with layout --- this is what the pages look like:
We were four at dinner last night for the first time in a long, long time. Of course, I look at my kitchen table and try to remember how six people sat comfortably at this table night after night, for all those years, and it's hard to picture. At any rate, we ate leftover pork tenderloin and applesauce and vegetable fried "rice" (it was actually quinoa, because that's what I had), and we talked and had a nice time. It's good to have the people home.
The best thing is that we're all united in our annoyance with Dora, whose food-drivenness in the house has become a mania. If there's food out anywhere, she will pursue and consume it, and she doesn't care what she breaks in the process, even if it's my favorite pottery bowl (not one made by the daughter, thank goodness). Everyone agrees that the only way to train her not to jump on the kitchen counter every time we aren't looking is for there to be nothing in it for her. This translates into: everyone wash your dishes as soon as you use them, instead of leaving them in the sink. Where in the past my exhortations to do just this have failed, now there is a clear reason beyond Mom's Preference.
I hope the persons can keep it up while we're gone, because it does help. Dora just loses her mind in the presence of food, or even at the thought of food. Last night I uncrated her and took her out to walk while my husband was finishing the dishes, and on the return up the park loop she was dragging me toward the house, with yelps of impatience, because she knew that food was happening in the kitchen in her absence. This must stop, I said. And the only way it's going to stop is for her to learn to think that there's no food available to her anywhere but in her crate . . . Again, my hope is that I'm going to get not only a marginally saner dog, but a really consistently clean kitchen, out of all of this.
Willow, who's probably not going to Norway, so I'll get in some wears before we go, and before the summer here heats up too much for sleeves. This is a first June wear for this dress, and might or might not be a last, depending on what the weather does.
The best thing is that we're all united in our annoyance with Dora, whose food-drivenness in the house has become a mania. If there's food out anywhere, she will pursue and consume it, and she doesn't care what she breaks in the process, even if it's my favorite pottery bowl (not one made by the daughter, thank goodness). Everyone agrees that the only way to train her not to jump on the kitchen counter every time we aren't looking is for there to be nothing in it for her. This translates into: everyone wash your dishes as soon as you use them, instead of leaving them in the sink. Where in the past my exhortations to do just this have failed, now there is a clear reason beyond Mom's Preference.
I hope the persons can keep it up while we're gone, because it does help. Dora just loses her mind in the presence of food, or even at the thought of food. Last night I uncrated her and took her out to walk while my husband was finishing the dishes, and on the return up the park loop she was dragging me toward the house, with yelps of impatience, because she knew that food was happening in the kitchen in her absence. This must stop, I said. And the only way it's going to stop is for her to learn to think that there's no food available to her anywhere but in her crate . . . Again, my hope is that I'm going to get not only a marginally saner dog, but a really consistently clean kitchen, out of all of this.
Plenty on the agenda for this week: trying to finish five weeks' worth of poem essays for the Sun before I leave, plus hammering out trip details and logistics.
The weather is soft and cloudy right now, though the sun's supposed to come out, and the high to be 80F. Really perfect weather, warm but not too hot.
Wearing today:
Willow, who's probably not going to Norway, so I'll get in some wears before we go, and before the summer here heats up too much for sleeves. This is a first June wear for this dress, and might or might not be a last, depending on what the weather does.
Keeping it basic, in just the dress with Xero Oswego shoes.
I try to take photos from different angles and in different poses, though the same poses tend to strike me as more flattering. But here's a side-ish view:
Day 3 hair in a ponytail because it's easy. I'm still trying to remember to wear a hat. Off soon to walk the dog, then to buckle down to the day's work.
