Observables #53
on Dog-Strangling vine, Burnt Sugar and Reframeables' TikTok
My arm hacking at the Dog-strangling weed with a machete. Sometimes I hit the ground which Simon has instructed me not to do. But the machete is surprisingly heavy and hard to control. When I get it just right and my machete sails, I feel like an adept forest explorer making her way through the dense brush. Whack whack whack. Dog-strangling vine is an invasive species in Ontario and my sister-in-law who is an environmentalist pressed upon us the need to get rid of it before the pods open up. Otherwise proliferation of more dog weed. VERY BAD. The step after hacking is to burn it or cover it in black tarps for two years. Better yet, my sister-in-law says, rent some goats to come and eat it all up so you don’t have to hack at it in the first place. I’m coming up dry on the goats and too impatient to wait two years, so we make a fire. We have to call in our “burn,” making us officially rural people.
Regarding the machete. It scares me in the middle of the night that we now have a machete on the premises. Night time thoughts are also exacerbated by the the foxes’ high pitched gatherings and our back wash system starting up with a thud. My friend heard it too. In her dream state it sounded like a large tarp crackling. In my dream state it sounded like a cement truck backing into the wall beside my head.
I also spent a large part of the night figuring out out how to get Violet in and out of a forehead and wondering anxiously if it was a good idea at all. What if she got stuck inside the forehead?
Chloe Ting telling me how to wave my arms. In order to help me be consistent I have instructed the family to ask me if I’ve done my arm work out today. So far my streak is only three days because they keep forgetting to ask.
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi. If you follow me in other places, perhaps you’re getting bored of hearing about this book and frankly curious why I haven’t finished it yet. Do I read one page at a time? Actually, three.
Also, I’ve been writing more and reading less.
Also, I’ve been busy watching my sister over on TikTok.
Also, the family is trying to get through all of Gilmore Girls before the end of the summer and that’s a big goal because there are seven seasons. What are your lofty summer goals?
In other news, over on the podcast this week we did a spotlight on a conversation from Art Heals All Wounds, a podcast hosted by our friend Pam Uzzell. We feel connected to her in our shared love of art and its reframing power, and feature a conversation between her and poet Preeti Vangani on mothers, loss, and the reframing power of poetry to heal.