Fans, Films, Folderol

 Grab bag blog post coming up.

FANS: Moving air is a blessing in these sweltering times. We function on window air conditioners in this house and some rooms are out of their reach. So, we use fans. They work. You can find hacks to lower the air temperature on YouTube. Hanging bottles of ice on the back of your fan, or placing a block of ice in front of your fan is a decades old fix. But moving air against your moist skin will cool just enough to make life bearable.

 FILMS: I am not a movie fan. I never want to sit still for that length of time. I can sit still and, if it's thinking or reading time, I will. But watching someone else's story for 90 plus minutes does not appeal to me. 

However Vox put together a look at the 25 best films of 2021 and some of them are so enticing, I may sit through them. I want to watch Concrete Cowboy. The film, Truffle Hunters, looks fascinating. There is a documentary - without a voice over - that features farm animals. And The Heights! The Heights! I love singing and dancing movies.  Take a look at the trailers. Find a film to love.

https://www.vox.com/22538640/best-movies-2021-so-far-half

FOLDEROL: a list of all the things that occupy my mind.

My Mom turns 95 tomorrow.  We will gather for lunch at a restaurant to sing Happy Birthday. Hopefully, we can get the youngest sibling on FB Messenger to help us sing. He lives in Japan and it will be wee hours there. Mom will not be the oldest person there. Her sister, Aunt Mary, will turn 98 this year. 

Peace Camp at Home. The local peace and justice organization, LEPOCO, has held a week long camp for kids for 30 plus years. Last year, we went virtual because no one was going anywhere. This year, we decided to do virtual again because kids are not vaccinated yet. We put together a packet of activities for each day and send them out to registered campers. So I have been hunting up ideas to go into the packets. Click on the link above and look for Peace Camp at Home for more information. 

 And I discovered PORCUPINE VIDEOS!!!!!!

Teddy Bear is a North American porcupine, I think. And he LOVES to eat.

 Kemosabe is a South American prehensile tail porcupine who loves to eat, too. 

 The noises they make are so adorable.  They sound like cartoon animals!

 Books: I have read so many books lately -kids' fantasy and adventure and family stories - but mostly, as recent posts have reported, mysteries written in the first half of the 20th century by Patricia Wentworth or Ngaio Marsh (Dame Edith), or cozy mysteries I read so long ago that I can read them again with gusto. I stray into non-fiction from time to time. I keep promising a full report. Someday.

Other Amazing Stuff:  The grandgirl is awesomely fun. We made some puppet show videos this week. They need editing but they are typical homemade silliness. We are so lucky to have her in our lives.

I have given up on getting any beans. That plot of ground is not even growing weeds - well, not many. I suspect that my salt and vinegar weed killer may have leached into that area. DO NOT SPREAD SALT on your weeds. It will render the ground infertile. Get horticultural vinegar at your garden store if you want to kill weeds without killing bugs and birds or the soil. Save the salt for paved areas.