Nature's Jewelry

Olga and I walked to the Heath yesterday, where we found this colorful pair of thick-legged flower beetles (Oedemera nobilis). I don't recall ever seeing a gold variety of this insect before -- only green ones. And so cool to find them together! I always call these "David Bowie beetles," with their glittery shiny shells and those expanded legs. They're like jewelry.

Anyway, we had a good walk. (When do we not?) Olga never used to be a barker, but now she barks all the time. It's the strangest thing. If we ever stop momentarily she drops her ball and barks repeatedly, but she won't let me pick it up or throw it. She's saying, "Ha! I have it and you don't!"

Here's yesterday's bit of found pottery. I have quite a bowl of these chips accumulating on the dining room windowsill!

Last night I subjected Dave to another old movie -- "Farewell, My Lovely" from 1975. We watched it in honor of Sylvia Miles, who died this week. I know her mainly from "Midnight Cowboy," one of my favorite movies, where she plays Cass, the high-rise glamazon who seduces Joe Buck and then wheedles cash out of him. She has some of the best lines in the film. I'd never seen "Farewell, My Lovely," which features her other most prominent movie role. It's a noir murder mystery based on Raymond Chandler and truthfully, it's over the top -- it's so noir that it's almost a parody, with the hard-bitten detective uttering crisp one-liners in between hails of bullets. (About ten people die during the course of the film.) But she's great, as is Robert Mitchum, who plays Philip Marlowe.

So, yeah, we toasted Sylvia. Or I did, anyway. Dave tolerated her.

Also on the pop culture front, I finished Jeannette Walls' book "The Glass Castle" yesterday -- an excellent read. It reminds me of Tara Westover's "Educated" in that it's about a girl with a very unconventional, isolated, even abusive family who somehow manages to extract herself and go on to great things. Definitely recommended.

This is what summer is going to be -- me, wandering around with the dog and discovering nature and reading and watching movies and gardening. After this week, that is. I haven't mentioned it yet, but this week I'm going to Germany for a five-day teacher-training course at the European Institute of Applied Buddhism, part of the Plum Village community led by Thich Nhat Hanh. One of my colleagues is leading the course, and as I used to practice Buddhism when I lived in New York, I thought it would be interesting to attend. (My professional development allowance through school even pays for it!) I leave on Tuesday, and I'll take you all with me! Should be interesting!