1. Cognitive patience

I’m reading lots of academic books in order to write my own academic blah-blah-blah. A few weeks ago, I was struck by the friction I felt getting back “into” this mode of reading, absorbing and digesting this information in order to benefit from the exercise. I think that’s why, this comment on “cognitive patience” struck a chord as I was listening to this episode of the Ezra Klein Show in which Maryanne Wolf says:

Everything I have done, which was meant to be an apologia for reading, led me to a darker insight, which is that the very act of reading has become so degraded because of the bombardment of information, because of the affordances of the particular medium, and because we have become all, all of us cognitively impatient. We don’t want to spend the time.

2. I'm quite terrible at drawing trees

so I really appreciated this video that explains why trees are so hard! Steven Travers makes such good points!

3. Beans, beans, beans

Our garden has produced an abundance of beans. That might be Mr. Gardener's fault (maybe don't plant so many darn beans? I tease!). They're not as versatile as zucchini, which can be baked into loaves and frozen for future zucchini-loaf cravings. Beans are their own standout ingredient. They need to be tenderly blanched and carefully dried before being frozen in order to be enjoyed mid-winter, and still, even then, they're not quite as magical as when they're freshly cooked... slathered in butter, sprinkled with salt... This week, I sliced them up, cooked them and added them to fried ground pork and served that over rice. No real recipe, but a kind of toned-down variation of this.

4.Hey! We had a birthday party!

Check out our home-made decorations!

5. The scenery here

Psst! Happy Friday!