All The Best

I’ve written of clouds before**

In order to hang onto that summertime feeling, I had to find a fruit to replace the peach that would carry us into the fall. Kiwi, an Australian with a fuzzy skin and slightly sharp tang, fits the bill. The yellow version even has that peachy hue.

It defies logic (but probably not genetics) that a kiwi with yellow fruit (and skin) is sweeter than the old standard green variety.

The texture requires you to use a spoon rather than a bite.

This type of kiwi is also smoother skinned, and the ones I’ve found are branded Zespri.

These seem to be bred for a milder, less acidic flavor. The ones I sampled are also juicier. Expect to get your fingers sticky.

Cliché

The tried and the trite can keep us just as entertained as watching a ping-pong ball across the net does.

Here’s what I bring to the table.

So, I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place.

Maybe I opened a can of worms when I let some secrets slip to that loose cannon friend of yours.

The more the merrier I say, bring it on, this challenge is the perfect storm.

It’s an uphill battle but I know that like me you’re as tough as nails so for you this will be a piece of cake. The question is will I weather the storm?

Let’s think outside the box here for a minute. If I play my cards right I’ll be right as rain.

Maybe I should read between the lines because I’ve learned you can’t judge a book by its cover.

Well, I guess better safe than sorry.

You have been as quiet as a church mouse. Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? Or has the cat got your tongue?

I know you’re going to warn me that what goes around comes around. That’s easy for you to say.

Whoever said the grass is always greener on the other side never had to mend fences. If I didn’t act in haste, I would be dead as a doornail.

Chances are I’d be serving up a tray of low-hanging fruit. You’d be eating the plenty of fish in the sea.

Good mornings

My insistence on referring to these beds as “fresh flowers” is just an eccentricity.

Seeing floral bouquets plucked or planted brightens the day.

My immediate neighbors have a vast empire of flowers the staff tend. They also have urns filled with color in their lobby.

Some lobbies give off an aura that is both exotic and elegant.

If you had to guess, what might you expect my morning essential to be.

My guess would be coffee, even as I signal virtue by a cutback in quantity. I was a 3 cappuccini a day gal at one point and that dubious fact lingers as if the real virtue is in excess.

Actually, my morning necessity has become the brief walk to pick up our morning necessaries.

I grab a smoothie and a couple of madeleines. I visit the local Subway restaurant to pick up a couple of salads. Sometimes there’s another stop to be made, perhaps for banana or peach.

It’s during that walk that I pass the lush planting in our neighbor-building’s frontyard.

Flowering trees behind a playground gate

Cry coffee

A Green Bean Cafe coffee in a Beck household mug.

It’s a bit unfair that I never cited my smoothie joint for its very fine coffee.

Sometimes you just don’t think of your relationship that way. Truth is I get a coffee with my tofu scramble breakfast special. Truth is I really enjoy it.

It’s going to be 50-50 for me sitting at one of the Green Bean Cafe’s outdoor tables or dragging the breakfast home.

Tofu makes a great egg alternative, when it subs in for the scrambled variety. I make a couple of meals from the one breakfast.

The home fries wait their turn for a dinner in which I add cocktail tomatoes to the pan while reheating. The 7 grain toast is a next day breakfast with or without hummus, and sometimes as a mini grilled cheese.

BTW, as a rule what’s described above subs in for home cooking in my kitchen.

The Green Bean serves fresh coffee, brewing up a clean pot every 30 minutes. For their iced coffee, they do as I do which is to keep a carafe in the fridge so it’s nice and cold before ice. The coffee, which is proudly organic, is mythically robust yet never bitter.

While there, ask for a Heartfelt Smoothie or a Jolty Green Giant (the “t” is an apt typo.)

We all scream

How does a nice cold scoop of your favorite flavor make you feel?

Word is that ice cream is a natural mood enhancer. It’s supposed to make you feel just as good as it likely does.

Most people, my friend AJ told me, prefer vanilla. When we discussed this we felt it was a shame that so many of our fellow ‘screamers did not dip into the deep diversity of the freezer.

Don’t get me wrong, vanilla is a fine taste. It lacks some of the umph you might find in the more colorful choices. Pistachio is a robust green and raspberry a feisty purple while peach is a full-throated coral.

This pretty array also sparks your palette with excitement and savor. I invite you to take your senses on an adventure.

Our future home

This is not architect Manas Bhatia’s treehouse!

An Indian architect tweaked artificial intelligence until it came up with some amazing structures. His story and designs can be found in this CNN piece.

In the future Manas Bhatia and the AI program he used envision us living in tree houses. Giant living breathing tree houses.

Life on Mars? Well, not exactly. There is a project called MOXIE which might make living on the planet feasible, however.

The technology involved uses artificial trees to generate oxygen, ie the air we need to breathe.

Someday, we might be living in trees and living by the grace of trees.

Friendly Competition

In an attempt to outdo my friend A.J. in her spectacular image of a cloud emerging from a god-spot, I took a couple of shots through my window.

Just between us, her picture was better.

Postscript: When asked to explain myself by my friend MSG: “A god-spot is my way of seeing that little halo in the midst of the clouds.

A special breakfast

As a rule, I don’t make it to the breakfast special at Effy’s which ends at 10am. Hallelujah, I am here today.

Drizzly weather encouraged me to grab the early bus. I stopped by on my way to a workout.

Effy’s at 88th and York by Asphalt Green. Breakfast special @ 7.95 is 2 eggs toast home fries and good coffee.” Note to self put Effy’s on my coffee trail!

Cloud capture

Cloudy

My Fruit Patrol