Friday Fave Five, #52

Is this really #52?!

I have enjoyed doing this Friday meme. I know I've written several times how just knowing that I would be posting something for FFF made me look at my week's events differently. Susanne, thank you, thank you, thank you, for faithfully hosting this group of thankful people each week.

Here are mine for this first week of September~

1. The Professor took a quick trip to 'that other place way far away' when Our New Boy and his Mama live. It seems that Kiti's car didn't get the memo about lasting 200,000 miles. It almost made it, but died a very sad death, and everyone knows that the Mama of a toddler really needs transportation. With his red Superman Cape flapping in the wind behind him, The Professor flew off to help corral The New Boy at car lots and offer sage vehicle purchasing advice. How many Superpapas would do that? And on Monday night, Son #2 donned his Superson cape to brave LA traffic and pick him up at LAX, saving me from that freeway caper.

2.While The Professor was away, I played. With my food. Knowing that cooked carrots are way down on his fave food list, I decided to do the unmentionable to those sweet little farmers market carrots and cooked up some Cream of Carrot Top Soup. I had found the recipe in a gardening book from the library called Edible French Garden by Rosalind Creasy and was intrigued. Are carrot tops actually edible? After cooking carrots and potatoes with various herbs and adding a little milk to the pureed veggies to thin them a bit, I blanched the carrot tops and blended them with some of the soup base. It was delicious!

3. Ellen B and I have been walking a little earlier in the morning this week because of the higher temperatures and poor air quality due to the fires in Southern California. The deer, quail and bunnies have been out early too. Why is it that rabbits sit very still like little bunny statues, thinking that we don't see them squatting right in the middle of a driveway?

4.It's official! My whole family has taken to enabling my photography addiction. On our drive home from (a very yummy) dinner at a local Thai restaurant, Son #2, who was driving, looked in his rear view mirror, turned left and did a 180 onto the gravelly road side by the field near our neighborhood, exclaiming,

"Mom, you've got to take a picture of this sunset!"

Yes, I did. And, so, I did.

The smokey atmosphere over Southern California is producing some amazing psychedelic sunrises and sunsets.

5. Speaking of Son #2, he drove away yesterday morning from Willow's Cottage to begin a new adventure. The Professor says I should change Son #2's name to The Grad Student. Stanford. PhD. Anthropology.


6. Susanne, I just have to add one more! While The Grad Student was doing the gallant deed of braving the Los Angeles freeways for me on Monday evening, I accompanied my friend to a meeting where I watched her greeting and interacting with the parents of the students she has taught in past years and will be teaching this year. Her enthusiasm and passion for her students and for teaching writing skills was evident in every encounter. I have stated for years that my friend is one of the best teachers I've ever known and Monday night's experience only reinforced my opinion. I am so very fortunate and thankful for the opportunity to work with her and assist her in teaching those students.


I hope you have enjoyed the adventures of this edition of Willow's Week. To participate in Friday Fave Five or just read others' FFFs, go to Living To Tell The Story.


Have a great week, everyone! If I don't get around to visit everyone's posts, it's only because, like last week, I just got overwhelmed by the heat.