three bean soup

I started Ulysses the week before last. I read some in the hammock and walked up to a brewery for the third chapter. On the way there I thought about a Very Online Personality distressed by prattling personal narrative introductions to recipes on food blogs. I reconnected with a bartender I haven't seen since the Before Times and made it through the chapter, which has been notably easier in the days of Internet. We talked about grief and Colleen Hoover, and I thought about my own monism, my religious and artistic reckonings, and the ways Joyce influenced my life. I met a friend at a different bar in the city this last Friday for pool. He won both games and we bought each other a round deep diving on our pasts and influences. I went bowling the next day for another friend's birthday then sat around a fire as a chill rolled in.

I thought I'd cook after the party but saved it for Sunday morning. I made a chickpea curry and jasmine rice that finished just in time to bring to the neighbor's for Easter dinner. It was warm out despite the overnight freeze so I walked with the dogs and gave them a scoop of the rice with their dinner.

We've been up and down the Wissahickon again and spent an afternoon at the Farm Park. We went on a Tuesday and so did everybody else. The lot was full of cars and the trails were full of people and dogs.

We hiked out and back and stopped for Dany to roll in a mud puddle. We perched on top of a hill when we got there then sat in the grass at the base of it resting and snacking. We found bugs, graffiti, and a Dumble door that I sent to a friend who likes Harry Potter.

The bugs have been waking up at home, too. The peach blossoms also seem fine. I recently read that wetting them before freezes in the winter can help insulate them so I gave them a spritz before the weekend cold. I don't know how much it helped but the petals are still on and the bees have been happy, though some of them kept falling out of the tree over the hammock the one day. I watched an aphid crawling up Dany's leg, which I agreed looked a bit like a tree.

I've been whittling down hobbies, or contouring them. Homesteading as a hobby is a convenient abstraction because it subsumes all the crafts so I don't have to choose. I'm letting the wild flowers grow a little longer while the insects wake up and revitalize, and between St. Patrick's Day and Easter I've been feasting myself and focusing on kitchen crafts. I tried making THC cubes, but they need improvement. I used glycerin as a solvent, which I diluted then froze in molds, but the freezing point lowered so much that they came out slushy. Still they were solid enough to slide into a hot cup of tea. The Easter curry was a little disjointed but I wanted a mix of colors so I added parsley, tomatoes, carrots, and a green bell pepper. I brought a baked hummus with maitake to the bowling alley, with parsley for a little color. I had the parsley to begin with because earlier in the week I saw a bag of some seven or so mixed dried beans labeled for soup. I wanted soup right then so I bought cans of kidney, cannellini, and butter beans. I sauteed onion, garlic, celery, and carrots and seasoned with smoked paprika and parsley. I added the liquid from the can of butter beans to the broth and simmered until the carrots softened, then served with more fresh parsley and personal reflection.