Taking a second to plug what I wrote a few years ago, Edith, Emma and Me. From time to time I think about self-publishing it on Amazon, or reworking it as a long essay with a bit of a different focus. I also have thought about writing something fictional based on some of what I uncovered. Two of the time periods stand out for me.
First, the late 1600s to early 1700, when Europeans were first settling in southwestern New Jersey. I drive across Cooper River on Route 130 several times a week, and nearly every time I think about Samuel Spicer visiting his friend William Cooper, who owned the south side of the river, and eyeing up the north side, and eventually buying it. I don’t know why this stuck in my brain, but I like to imagine how woodsy and rural it must have been, and what made Spicer (and Cooper) decide this was the place to be.
Second, I think a lot about J. Newlin Wilkins and his development of Amon Heights, and what it was like to take land and decide where to put houses, where to put a church, a school. To create a community out of nothing more than farmland and one or two main roads. It was the 1920s and there was a lot of optimism and progressive thinking. There was this idea that the problems of the cities could be solved to some extent by moving people out into these inner-ring suburbs. Today, there isn’t any place left to develop (although there are places that could be redeveloped) and there’s more of a push to leave places undeveloped. I think that time period and that process of building the first American suburbs would make an interesting setting for fiction — with some interesting characters and plot twists and stuff thrown in.
In other news, lots of cooking and baking have been happening. It helps that it has not been very warm.
Last Sunday, I made red potato salad to bring to a BBQ. I liked how it turned out, but I made way too much.
Yesterday, I roasted carrots and more red potatoes, and sauteed green beans, and made mashed potatoes from some russets. I thought we were going to make chicken to go with it, but everyone was out and about and ate dinner elsewhere, so I had an all-veggie dinner by myself.
And that’s a fresh piece of bread from the very good-looking loaf I had made just prior. I used this recipe again, with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, and the special super powerful yeast.
We had the leftover roasted veggies and mashed potatoes with tonight’s dinner: chicken cutlets, corn, and more sauteed green beans.
Last week’s dinners were pretty good:
Sunday: BBQ at my parents’
Monday: Leftovers/Panera for me and F.
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Shrimp scampi with penne
Thursday: Scrambled eggs, sausage links, hash browns and toast
Friday: Pizza from Cafe Antonio
Lunches: leftover potato salad and bean salad; chicken Caesar salad; and bought once.
The salad is Romaine from the farmers’ market plus butter lettuce from the garden, and rotisserie chicken.
The garden has given me four strawberries thus far, tasty Albion ever-bearing ones, nice sized.
Everything else is doing pretty well, even the onions. I moved some of my extra oregano from the back yard to the front, a free and easy way to get some flowering perennial plants in that front space.
I’ve used lettuce on sandwiches here and there too.
On Memorial Day morning, I spent some time gardening and discovered a tiny bee (or bee-resembling insect?) in the cilantro flowers. I couldn’t get a picture of it, but did get one of a fly that was also pollinating:
It was a lovely day, the best weather of the weekend. Later I took a nice walk with my friend T., and I even took a little nap! That’s how relaxed I was.
I did not buy anything this week, at least not until Saturday, when T. and I ordered flowers for prom. I also had to spend $33 so he can take a reading placement test for college, online… if I was more on the ball I could have had him take it at the school for free.
Tom and F. visited Pitman yesterday after T. did an estimate nearby, and F. got a pretty funny shirt at a thrift shop for $8, courtesy of her dad:
(She loves “The Office.”)
Today, T., F. and Tom took Rocco to Timber Creek. I also took him to my parents’ last night, so he could run around in a different yard for a while.
But mostly I stayed home — cleaned, paid bills, baked, cooked, did laundry, weedwhacked, gardened. And grocery shopped. And spent some time yearning after this Shore-adjacent farmhouse with a couple acres!
I also somehow ended up at a FIRE blog that looks interesting. That got me thinking about moving someplace with a lower cost of living, as that author did. New Jersey is ranked 49 out of 50 states by US News and World Report for cost of living and affordability (but something like 19 for overall desirability). I might want to consider Delaware or Pennsylvania once the kids are out of school, if not further away. I haven’t thought about FIRE much lately. It seems fairly out of reach right now but… not giving up yet.
Wednesday night, I had a bit of a drive-a-thon. Everyone had places they needed to be: the gym, a restaurant, a volleyball session. I started dropping people off and picking them up around 7:45 and didn’t finish til 8:45. All within a three-mile radius. Tomorrow I may have to Uber to get to the dentist. This is life with one car, and I don’t really mind.
It’s June 1. It’s going to be a busy month.
Garden State of Mind 
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