Tues. Nov. 10, 2026: A Weekend of Soup, Books, and Music
image courtesy of -Rita-👩🍳 und 📷 mit ❤ from Pixabay Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Waxing Moon
Neptune, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Venus, Mercury Retrograde
Rainy and mild
Happy new week! You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here.
Friday, I did some puttering around the house in the morning. I also finally got a chance to type up the new Boiler House contact sheet and the notes, and get those out the door, and do some admin work for the December gallery show. In the late morning, I made Ina Garten’s minestrone soup, which took a good bit of time (over an hour, especially with all the chopping), but was worth it, and we have plenty of leftovers.
I read in the afternoon, putting aside a couple of books that came highly recommended that did not do it for me. I enjoyed Tim Sullivan’s THE MONK, though. The George Cross series is very good, with a terrific balance of plot and character growth.
Bea sat on my lap for the the first time since she’s come to live with us! She became a regular on my mom’s lap while I was out of town, and now she is expanding her world to sit on my lap, too, when Charlotte hasn’t commandeered it. It’s very cute.
I cooked dinner, then put on Real People clothes and walked down to the Future Labs gallery for the opening. It was well-attended and the work is really intriguing. I’m glad I went. It was nice to catch up with some familiar faces. It was much warmer than I expected, far too warm for November, but I guess we should be happy it’s not snowing.
Home, changed immediately into my pajamas, and read until bedtime.
Slept through the night and woke up at the usual time on Saturday. Did stuff around the house, like taking the garbage out and other housework. I should have started the ironing, but I didn’t feel like it.
After lunch, I put on Real People clothes again and headed out to the Clark Art Institute, where a friend and I were attending a concert built around the current exhibit, about 19th Century Caricature. Jan Swofford, the composer and biographer, spoke first for about 20 minutes, and he was fascinating. I ordered his biography of Beethoven from the library as soon as I got home.
The pianist was a man named David Kaplan, who was extraordinary. The level of skill and nuance he brought to the pieces was enlightening and transcendent. It was all done without ego. It was about storytelling through music, and he is an exquisite storyteller. We spoke to him briefly after, letting him know how powerful his work was for us, and he appreciated it. Again, the lack of ego (while still being grounded and secure in his skill) was refreshing. I’ve certainly worked with enough musicians over the years where the ego was far greater than the skill.
He is an artist I would rearrange my schedule around to see perform live again. He’s performed at the Clark before, and I hope he will again (he’s based in LA).
My friend gave me some potato soup she made. She’s a wonderful cook, so I look forward to even more soup! I stopped at Stop ‘n Shop on the way home to pick up a couple of things I’d forgotten on Thursday at Big Y, and headed home. I was relieved that my parking spot had not been appropriated in my absence. It was only raining lightly when I was out and about, but the rain intensified once I was home, and I was happy to be tucked in before the deluge.
I’d picked up something for dinner at the store, another lasagna by the company out in Quincy, so I put that in the oven and got out of my Real People clothes to relax and float on the fumes of the wonderful concert.
Had a relaxing evening, and went to bed at a normal time. Slept through the night, and woke up at the usual time on Sunday.
Morning routine was fine, did some hand washing of fabrics, washed the copper pieces that hang in the kitchen, and cleaned around the stove. Did the Community Tarot reading for the week, which you can read here.
It was still a bit gray and chilly, but warmer than usual for this time of year. Tessa decided to spend most of the morning sleeping on my chair in the kitchen.
I made Ina Garten’s easy tomato and orzo soup for lunch, along with grilled Gruyere cheese sandwiches. They were supposed to be croutons, but I made sandwiches instead. The soup turned out really well. I was a bit hesitant, because I’m not a big fan of tomato soup, but liked this one. Probably because the heavy cream cut the acidity of the tomatoes.
In the afternoon, I ironed. I didn’t realize how much had stacked up – three hours’ worth of ironing, which meant I did not get the cutting done on the textile piece. So I will build in a little bit of time every afternoon, when there is still decent light, and sew it over next weekend. It’s a small piece, so if I take the time and care in the cutting, the rest should work. Famous last words.
I read Lydia Millet’s FAIR ONES, which was interesting and messy for the right reasons. I like her writing, and I want to read more of her books. I started reading the Agatha Christie for the month’s Christie Reads, which is SLEEPING MURDER. I’m pretty sure I’ve read it before, but didn’t remember the details.
Elder care was challenging this weekend, and I am tired.
Cooked Ina Garten’s chicken in herbed bread crumbs (also drenched in a mustard/wine mix), baked in the oven. Again, it turned out well. Four Ina recipes this week, from her FOOLPROOF cookbook.
Woke up around 1, managed to get back to sleep and overslept into Monday morning. It was still rainy and dark, and I did not want to get out of bed, but too bad for me, right? The cats demanded their breakfast.
Decent morning routine, and good free-write session (Day 445) that shook a few things loose. Had my friend’s soup for lunch and it was so good.
I had some decisions to make before my meetings Monday evening, and I was torn between what I wanted to do and what I knew was best for me. That increased my grumpiness to start the week, and I would prefer not to start the week grumpy. Also contacted my elected officials to encourage them not to vote for Schumer and Jeffries going forward. They had their chance to prove leadership for years and have failed. Let’s move on and get things done.
Mid-morning, I walked down to the post office to mail the last of the month’s bills. I ran another errand to pick up a few things for the Future Labs opening in December that a colleague and I are setting up.
Home, and to work. Looked at job listings. There’s one I would really like, but would be a stretch. I might apply anyway. There was another that I would be really good at, but deep in the requirements is using AI, so they can shove THAT right up their you-know-where.
I did some work on the Future Labs reception organizing before turning to the ghostwriting. I made some good progress, although slower than I would like. It was too dark to work on the textile piece.
I threw together a pasta puttanesca, because I didn’t have a lot of time to cook, and was a bit tired after all the cooking over the weekend.
We had a good meeting for the Future Labs January show. They are excited about a project proposal I made, that is in partnership with the Bechdel Project – remember I said I wanted to find ways to work with them? Well, now we are, for a reading/discussion at the gallery that compliments my installation in the January show. When I got off that meeting, I filled out the paperwork with Bechdel, got a confirmation, and will follow up in the next couple of days. We will be on the national map for this project. I will share more information about it when I can. Let’s hope we don’t have a blizzard that day – in January in the Berkshires, you never know.
I had a short break, and then there was the library cohort meeting, which was a lot of fun. Great to see people and catch up, especially as I hadn’t been able to attend last month.
I was delighted to wake up to the news this morning that Jennie M. Jadow won for her work in WAM’s ROOTED earlier this season. And two women tied for best director of a play, both for productions at Shakespeare and Co. All good news.
This week is mostly a head-down working week. My mom has another follow-up appointment in Lenox on Thursday, and we will run some errands on the way home, and I have a library Trustees meeting in the evening. I have a lot of ghostwriting to get done, and I also want to work on BETTING MAN, the radio series, and the textile piece.
Mercury and Venus go direct on Friday, thank goodness.
#art #classicalMusic #food #freelance #gallery #library #life #recipes #theatre #writing
