Currently In June

This month I am joining Anne in Residence for an attempt at her “Currently” link-up. Anne posts 5 action verbs each month and writers respond to each of them. Here goes!

Celebrating

My husband and I are currently celebrating regaining the ability to visit my sister and brother-in-law, who live on Cape Cod.

We have not seen them since January of 2020 due to the pandemic. We are all vaccinated and ready to travel and visit family once again.

I am looking forward to everything about the visit – the beach, the salt air, the fresh, delicious seafood, running on the bike path along the Cape Cod Canal. Most of all, of course, I am looking forward to seeing my family once again.

Something momentous to celebrate.

Collecting

This was the most challenging verb to write about. I am not much of a collector. I finally realized I have been collecting flowers to bring into the house recently.

It is the scent that I love. Scent triggers memories.

The photo above shows blossoms on a mock orange bush that grows outside of our bedroom window. I nurtured it from a cutting taken at the house where I grew up.

We had a boxwood hedge separating our yard from our neighbor’s. The last shrub in the hedge, however, was a mock orange.

My first best friend, Stevie, lived on the other side of that hedge. To get to his yard, I had to brush past the mock orange.

I can remember padding barefoot beneath the overhanging branches and inhaling the subtle, sweet odor of its creamy white blossoms.

Bringing that scent inside brings the memories along with it.

Gifting

Actually, I am trying to gift. I am currently not successfully gifting.

When we recently visited my son and his family in Colorado, my daughter-in-law inadvertently handed me an excellent clue for a gift for her upcoming birthday.

I ordered the gift from a reputable merchant and immediately got an email stating the item would be back-ordered until a few days after her birthday.

No big deal, I thought. I will send her a card on her birthday and explain the dilemma. She may have to wait a week or so to get her present, but it will be worth it.

Then, I got another email stating the item will be back-ordered until six weeks after her May birthday. Ugh!!!

I hope it is worth the wait.

Thinking

At the beginning of June, my thoughts always return to the same topic: strawberries. Farm-fresh, red, ripe, juicy, sweet strawberries.

I am fortunate to live in an area where you can’t travel on a country road without passing a farm (or five) featuring hand-lettered signs advertising strawberries for sale.

These strawberries have as much in common with supermarket pseudo-strawberries as fresh jumbo lump crab meat has with surimi.

We bought two quarts a few weeks ago for the first time this year. I ate almost one whole quart before we got home.

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Trying

In an attempt to keep my cholesterol in check, I have been trying to prepare more vegan dishes.

I found a recipe for vermicelli and veggies with a soy-Sriracha-peanut butter sauce that I thought sounded good. When I showed it to Bill, he was less than enthusiastic.

The recipe contained tofu. Bill does not like the texture of tofu.

I get it. I am definitely averse to consuming anything with an unappealing texture. (I’m looking at you, Jello).

What if I tried deep frying the tofu?

I lightly coated it in cornstarch and dipped it in the deep fryer.

Win!

It was delicious and crunchy, without the offending texture.

Now, if I could only find the recipe again.

Thank you for joining me for this edition of “Currently“.

You can find the places I link up here.