Musette’s Musings and a Draw and Winnahs!

SO many things to discuss today, so let’s get started.

Winners~  okay, I am instituting an expiration date for WINNAHS because I have too much ‘won’ stuff still sitting on my desk.  This is for MY draws only – other posters’ mileage will vary.  I alternate Tuesdays with March so: once I announce a winner you have 2 weeks to gmail me per the ‘winnah’ instructions to claim your prize.  If I don’t hear from you by the time my next post goes up (which is two weeks) the prize goes back in the hoppah!   I’m still awaiting PJ McBride to claim her Atelier Bloehm samples.  This starts the 2 week notice!

Water. A LOT of WATER.  I’m sure you are all aware of the term ‘petrichor’ “a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather.”   I love that smell – but even more than petrichor I love the smell of air that is laden with moisture following heavy rains and in anticipation of even more rain.  I Googled the term ‘rain-laden air’ and omg, so many beautifully evocative essays feature that phrase.    Alas, I couldn’t find anything that defines it – but that’s okay, y’all know what I’m talking about.  It happens most beautifully in late Spring and early Summer (any other times it’s  just scary AF).  Flooding is often involved but usually it’s a mild flooding, like my photo below of the Fox River at Oswego.  For me, this ‘scent’ isn’t actually a scent as much as it is a feel, more like the brush of heavy, warm, wet air on skin.  Most effective if you are near a river or a creek, which is moving swiftly – this is not a lake-feel to me, though ymmv.

that treeline is where the shore (with picnic tables) is

Livin’. Speaking of rivers and their ilk, what is it about living along those bodies of water that attract a type of laissez-faire/pirate mentality – and why do I love it so?  I confess to drooling over gorgeous waterside mansions, just like everybody else – but while they are gorgeous they don’t warm my heart the way a slightly ramshackle collection of cottages does.  I HATE ‘ramshackle’ in my own home – but love the notion of it, when it’s somebody else’s house along a river or creek (okay, even a lake).  I think it may be because I was madly in love with the ‘Tammy’ movie series and the idea of living on a riverboat (though that probably would’ve lasted about 10 days) …and even today, get a little tug when I see folks sitting on a deck (or a dock) sippin’ on an iced tea, droppin’ their gerunds and the dogs passed out on the worn wooden boards.  Maybe I think of them as outliers/off-gridders/pirates, living by their own code and stompin’ around to their own tune, in a community of like-minded pirates.  Yes, there is a bit of envy, there, even if they only have 4 teeth between them.  And I’m making all this up, including the 4 teeth (blame Beulah Bondi and Ken Curtis (Festus on Gunsmoke) they could do ‘toothless’ like nobody’s business!)

blame Festus!

– these river people are probably sophisticated AF, teched to the gills and checking their day-trades!

I think I love the idea of that warm, wet wind along a river because it evokes all the best parts of Summer for me, that I am usually unable to experience – that laissez-faire feel (yeah, try it whilst owning a machine shop.  I guarantee you that the moment you think “oh, I’ll just make a pitcher of lemonade and so sit in the garden” your phone will blow UP! with drama.  And since you make your simoleans off fixin’ that drama, it’s off to work you go!)

and…hey!  On that ‘houseboat’ thing?  I just saw this boat on an episode of Good Karma Hospital.  Um.  I think I could do this for a whole lot longer than 10 days…

karmakerala

Okay – I’m OUT!  But not before I announce the All Summer winnahs!  Mim & Jennifer S.  Gmail your evilauntieanita, remind me what post and we’ll get stuff out to you pronto!