more rain, yard work, rainbow at sunset, and other miscellania

The Mexican bird of paradise growing next to the shed over at my sister’s house.

We’ve been getting more rain. It rained Tuesday and again today but the rain today came in with some very high gusty wind and lots of lightning and thunder. Unfortunately, It started about 20 minutes after the guy who cuts and trims the shop yard had started so he retreated to his truck and will have to come back later in the week to finish.

I worked in the yard some Sunday and then did the lion’s share of cutting back all the dead and gone by purple coneflowers in the back and front yards on Monday after I doused myself and my clothes with mosquito repellant and came in after almost two hours hot and sweaty and peeled off my sweat soaked clothes.  Hauled it all over to the burn pile this morning.

Later in the day, I got an email and a phone call from a friend and early pate de verre mentor, Delores Taylor (link to her website), when we were just starting out trying to work out the technique and problem solve. She lives in the PNW and we ‘met’ via an early glass art related internet group. We’ve traded work and I was her teacher assistant for one of the classes she gave at a conference. She’s also the person who sent me all the professional watercolors I’m using now since she no longer uses them. Anyway, she’s writing a very comprehensive book on the subject and has asked me for some images to help illustrate some sections of the book as there are various techniques that fall under the pate de verre umbrella so I’ve been going through my images and sending them off to her with a document  with details for her to choose from.

Yesterday I went with my friend to her doctor’s appointment in Angleton an hour away. We haven’t had time to visit lately so it was a good opportunity to catch up. She’s had so much to deal with just fighting cancer and then her mother passed away so she’s had to handle all the affairs that go along with that. Then we stopped by the farmer’s market on the way home.

Tuesday night, my night to cook dinner, I fixed a one dish meal, blistered broccoli pasta with walnuts, pecorino, and mint only I used pecans instead of walnuts and parmigiana instead of pecorino. This is an easy and quick dish and it’s very good. I sliced up one of the tomatoes I got at the market earlier to go along with it.

And then last evening at sunset there was a double rainbow in the east. By the time I got my phone out the second fainter rainbow had already mostly faded but my daughter got this picture standing in the shop yard, a better view than the one I took standing in the street. 

This is what the sky looked like in the west from where I was standing.

I was listening to a segment on NPR coming home from yoga Monday evening on whether or not listening to a book is the same as reading a book and the conclusion reached was that it didn’t matter if you read a real book, read it on a kindle or phone, or listened to it, the result was pretty much the same though you don’t have to be able to read in order to listen to a book. But it turns out what they were referring to is a study that determined there was no difference in comprehension between reading or listening if, and it seemed to me a big if, the person already knows how to read. It also determined that not knowing how to read did affect comprehension when just listening especially if the material was complex but also that it was beneficial for auditory learners to listen to the material as well as read it. Being able to read has the advantage of going at your own pace, being to reread sections for better understanding, and developing attention span and focus while listening had the advantage of auditory clues like tone and emphasis. I prefer to read because I find it’s easier to concentrate on the story or content. If I’m listening my mind will tend to wander and I will have missed part of the story. My mind will wander sometimes when I read as well but then I just have to go back and reread a page or two. Pretty interesting really, the different ways people learn.