News Trend Partnership|Actual

My first-born has been rencana out this triple layer cake for days.

She special ordered the pans and searched out matching pre-cut parchment paper liners.

She found the richest and lushest chocolate cake recipe and did a special shop for the ingredients.

She spent the better part of two hours on this gorgeous sun-soaked day slaving away in the kitchen, getting every detail just right.

And when the last bit of frosting had been gracefully swirled into place, she stepped back and said, "Hmm. I feel like it needs just a little something more."

"Washi tape kecil banner," I mumbled from the other side of the counter, where I was coaxing my baby dog into yet another drop stay position.

"Say what?L" she countered. And I quickly whipped through my Pinterest app to show her an example of what I meant.

"Perfect," she agreed. "Can you make me one?"

Five minutes later, my wonky little flags fluttered in place atop this chocolate majesty.

And that was my contribution to tonight's delicious dessert.

News Trend Chicken Drumsticks|Actual

This is the chicken I got from Aqil last week.

I unashamedly begged him for a few pieces of his latest shipment.

He goes to school at University of Washington, and lives twenty minutes away from me.

Though Aqil is totally in the swim of American culture, he loves his native Malaysian cuisine

The chicken was prepared by his mom.

In Havana.

Where she lives with her husband, the Ambassador of Malaysia to Cuba, and Aqil's brother and sister. Her Cuban kitchen is filled with the spices of home, and even in the midst of this sparse Caribbean island, she manages to feed her family their favorite, familiar meals. .

Aqil's mother grew up in Kelantan, a quaint little corner of Malaysia, tucked up under Thailand on the beaches of the South China Sea. She learned how to blend spices and flavors in proper Kelantanese style from her mother, Aqil's grandmother, whom I hear was quite a cook.

As so, as I tore into these delicious drumsticks with my fingers and sucked every delicious and spicy morsel from the bones, as is the Kelantanese way, I thought of Aqil, and his mother in Cuba, and his Kelantanese grandmother, and what a beautiful miracle it is that they all helped to bring this tasty treat to my American table.

All I can say in return is, hey Aqil, thanks for the chicken.

* * * * *

More stories about my friend, Aqil:

An Invitation To Dinner

Aqil's Chicken

Chicken Drumsticks

Ready To Launch

An All-American Dinner

Moondawg For The Win

* * * * *

Check out more stories about my once-in-a-lifetime trip to Cuba and my wonderful friends who lived there:

I Will Bake You A Pie

Cuban Makan

Cuban Economics

El Malecon Cloudburst

A La Playa

Creepy Cuban Kudzu

Plaza De La Revolucion

Old Havana

Poolside in Havana

A Cuban Sunset Story

Sunset Chasers, Cuban Edition

The Puppy At The Castle

Old Havana On The Eve Of Fidel's Birthday

An ASEAN Celebration

Nayli's Bedroom

Varadero, Cuba

Winding Down

Dear Cuba

Aqil's Chicken

The Gentle Art Of Reframing

My Cuban Home

Tickled Pink

Full Circle

Chicken Drumsticks

News Trend Director's Cut|Actual

It's one thing to haul a van full of stuff from your parents' homes across the country.

That's the easy part.

The hard part, I am learning, is trying to figure out what to do with it all once you get it back home.

I'll be honest. I'm not going to spend my precious and fleeting Seattle summer in my garage, digging through the endless boxes and rearranging all my storage. Oh no. There will be time for that when the clouds roll in.

For now, I'm leaving my newfound treasures to rest in the dark while I enjoy myself in my gardens.

Well. Except for two striped director's chairs from my mom's deck at the lake in Michigan.

The minute I dragged them out of the truck, I knew just where to put them. They seem to be enjoying their new life in the Seattle sunshine just fine.

News Trend Cat Chair|Actual

My mother-in-law, bless her soul. Was a cat lady. Now, for the most part, this was a theoretical concept, as she really only had just the one cat during her entire adult life.

Well. One live cat. During her battle with Alzheimer's, she cared for a whole collection of stuffed cats and happily enjoyed their quiet company until her dying day.

So it has given me great pleasure to let this old wicker rocker - which she gave me many years ago - live out its waning years as a special spot for our three furry boys.

Now lately we've developed a duduk perkara. The weather and the years and the sharp little kitty claws have each taken their toll, and what I discovered when I lifted up the seat cushion this spring was that the bottom of the seat had finally given way.

Well. I was not about to give up quite so easily.

So using my best MacGyver meets Gilligan Island repair skills, I armed myself with some sisal rope from Home Depot and went to work.

Mmhmm. I know. I've got some pretty professional weaving chops right there.

But the bottom line is that my kittens are back in business with a soft, secure cushion underneath their furry selves for some sweet afternoon naps in their favorite chair.

And I'm sure that my mother-in-law is smiling down from heaven.

News Trend Butterfly Effect|Actual

"Inchaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence oninitial conditions in which a small change in one state of a system can result in large differences in a later state.

The name, coined byEdward Lorenz, is derived from the metaphorical example of the details of a tornado being influenced by minor perturbations such as the flapping of the wings of a distantbutterfly several weeks earlier."

- edited from Wikipedia

Smoky sunsets are gorgeous and terrible.

Here in the American West, wildfires are a summer fact of life.

For the past week, our neighbors to the north in Canada's British Columbia have been under siege. More than a hundred wildfires are burning; as of today, twenty-three are considered to be significant in size.

Check out these photos. The devastation is horrible and beautiful.

Smoke from these fires has been drifting down here to Seattle all week long. Our normally perfect blue summer skies have been hazy, our air quality compromised, our sunshine brassy and unfamiliar.

And while our discomfort is a small price to pay for Mother Nature's destruction, I find this a stunning reminder that when a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, an tornado truly is born in Texas.

News Trend Innocent|Actual

"Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing."

- Jean-Jaques  Rousseau

Look at that dreamy little angel, stretched out across my bed, the morning sunshine creating a perfect halo of light around her precious being.

You would never guess that just a few hours earlier, while I was out of the house and her babysitter napped, my sweet dog had brazenly stolen and snarfed down an entire loaf of freshly baked banana bread.

Her innocence knows no bounds.

News Trend Hydrangea Reminders|Actual

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.

I love summer.

Well, I love all the seasons, each for their own special moods and emotions.

But ever since I was a little girl, I have loved summer best.

Playing barefoot in the woods,

splashing in the lake,

baking mud pies, and

picking wild strawberries.

I haven't really changed much since those days.

"The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot."

Inevitably, I feel a certain sadness as summer reaches the height of her power, and slowly, as the sun drops lower in the sky and dry leaves fall to the ground, she begins her quiet descent into fall.

I feel this loss sharply in my garden. The spring tulips and daffodils are long gone, the lush rose blooms and delphinium spires of June have faded, and even the mid-summer day lilies bare their spent stalks.

"It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone."

But summer is not over. No, in some ways, the best is yet to come.

Because the hydrangea are ready.

Their flat flower heads explode into fluffy bursts of color, pink and blue and purple.

And even though I know, as I have since I was a little girl, that bittersweet fall will be upon us soon enough, at the first week of August, the hydrangea remind me that there is still plenty of summer to come.

* * * * *

Quotes from my favorite midsummer book, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit.