Back when we first started watching Bake Off I told my betrothed that I didn’t think pavlova looked that interesting. I couldn’t understand why people would lose their shit over meringue and fruit.
Determined to prove me very wrong, they made one. And I. Was so wrong. They make it with fresh cream, lemon curd, berries, and meringue. It was blissful. I adored it.
That was several years ago and now it’s one of my favorite treats.
Today, while finishing off the one they made for a dinner party they paused and said, “I think you saying you didn’t think pavlovas were interesting is the truest example of eating your words.”
What a lovely 1835 home right on Bourbon St. in New Orleans, LA. 4bds, 5ba, 3,587 sq ft, and it was reduced $52k down to $1.998m. It's at the end of Bourbon St., in a more residential area, not near the nightlife, but it looks like it's still a hard sell. Also, there's only on-street parking.
It doesn't look like much outside, which may be intentional, but as soon as you enter the hall you can see how large and beautiful it is.
I think that maybe a wall was removed, judging by the size of the sitting room and the matching fireplaces.
I like the wallpaper. The fireplaces are original marble.
I kind of like this moody kitchen.
It has a chef's stove. Look at the doorknobs on the ovens.
Gold sink and backsplash and black counters.
There's plenty of everyday dining space in the kitchen. I like the brown subway tiled walls, too.
Here's a fancy guest powder room on the main floor.
The primary bedroom is stunning. Look at the old brick wall.
It has a combination original vintage ensuite with modern amenities.
It looks like they made a small TV room in a hall.
Beautiful, large secondary bedroom.
The old brick walls in this home are just georgeous.
Small back area with the doors to the terrace.
The long narrow terrace in the rear of the home.
In this bedroom, they painted the brick white.
Updated bedroom and bath in the guest suite.
This is a family room.
And, it has a kitchenette back here, and a shower.
I have to live until 2037 specifically because that's the year The Wolf Man (1941) enters the US public domain, and with it, the last major portion of the Universal Horror franchise, and I desperately want to see what people will do when the world's first Big Stupid Cinematic Universe is fully in the public domain.
There’s this guy in town who owns this little house, and a while back he rescued a street dog that was going to get put down. Turned out she was pregnant.
Problem is, he has mental health & drug issues and couldn’t afford to get them all spayed & neutered, so now there are 6 grown bitches with 15 puppies total, and they’ve dug under his fence in multiple places but he can’t afford to fix it so they go roaming all around town. (When I say can’t afford it, I mean his house is currently running on a generator because he can’t afford his electric bill.) He’s also a day laborer so he cannot take multiple full days off work to take them to the vet an hour away. He’s in a really rough spot.
He’s not a bad person. He’s just overwhelmed.
And this little conservative town with 6 churches for 300 people, have they tried to help their neighbor? Have they adopted the puppies he’s been trying to give away? Have they offered resources?
NOPE! All they wanna do is talk shit about him and complain about the dogs but never lift a finger of their own. And they come to his house to yell at him and cuss him out about the dogs, which does not exactly engender in him a cooperative attitude, as you might imagine.
So after a while of this going on, my mom gets fed up with all the NIMBY bullshit and starts talking to the guy, because she’s done animal rescue for 20-odd years and has Connections. He’s resistant at first, but when he realizes she’s not being an asshole to him on account of his addiction or the dogs, he decides to let her help.
She gets to work organizing and networking. Finds a non-profit that will cover vaccinations, spay/neuter, and flea treatments for all the dogs. Talks the next-door neighbor into paying for materials to fix the fence, since this guy can do the work of it himself. Gets him in touch with another non-profit that will adopt out the adult dogs.
Less than 2 weeks after she decided to do something, all puppies have been to the vet, 10 puppies and 4 adult dogs have been adopted out, and the second non-profit is coming by next week to pick up the remaining 7 dogs to ship them out for adoption.
I’ve learned a lot of things from my mom—some good, some bad—but I think the most important positive message she lives as an example of is this: sometimes, when something needs done and no one else is willing, you gotta stand up and say “I’ll do it.”
The most mind-blowing revelation I received on this lesson happened to me when I was in college.
I was driving along a mountain road with a person I kinda knew in the passenger seat (like a roommate of a roommate or something). The road was very narrow, very twisty-turny, steep cliffs on both sides. I came around a blind curve to see a huge tree branch in the road. I managed to swerve just in time to avoid it, and also not veer the car into the sheer cliff face going up on the left, or of the sheer cliff face going down on the right.
"That's so dangerous. Someone should move that." I said.
"You're someone." said my passenger.
I very slowly pressed the brakes, my car slowly rolling to a stop as what he'd said started to sink in to my brain.
It had never occurred to be before, in all my life, that I could be the "someone" who could fix the thing. Not ever.
It was dangerous to stop here. If another car came, they could easily hit me, as it was a blind curve. We talked about it, decided it was worth the risk to possibly save a life, and we quickly ran to the branch and moved it to the side as best we could, then hurried back to the car.
It changed my life. After that, every time I have the thought "Someone should _____", I now hear that voice. I'm 'someone'. Now I evaluate whether I'm able to do something about a situation- that doesn't mean I always can! Sometimes I truly don't have the energy, knowledge, or time or money to fix something. But I should at least think about doing it myself- consider that I could, and weigh the options, which I never did before that moment.
I came to this realisation at work when a pigeon slammed into our second floor office window and fell into the car park injured.
Everybody got up to look but no one cared about the pigeon (many people just laughed and went back to work). I was so upset asking myself why nobody was doing anything to help the pigeon - then I realised that I was the person who had to help it.
So I marched downstairs to get gloves and a box (the guard on the reception desk was helpful in getting this stuff for me). I then went into the car park to help the pigeon. Sadly it was in a very bad way and it passed away as I picked it up. But I got to tell it I was sorry it was hurt and that I wanted to help it.
Some of the managers came out to see what I was doing (some people were watching me and told them what I was doing). They were unsympathetic, stating I should be working, but I told them I had to do something and nobody else was helping so I was doing it myself.
I didn’t save the pigeon that day but I realised that I could always act to do something and not have to wait on others to do something instead.
There is actually the remains of a Woodhenge two miles from Stonehenge - so the evidence for this theory is growing stronger all the time - https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/woodhenge/history/
Woodhenge is a concentric timber monument built in about 2500 BC, around the same time as Stonehenge and only 2 miles away from it. Today it
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