Author: Karen

Happy Birthday, America!

Happy Birthday, America! I’m going to take the liberty of wishing on your birthday candles – My wish is that all Americans will recognize how lucky we are to live in this country, that despite the flaws, we should all have pride for all that we are privileged to enjoy because of the courage and many sacrifices made by those who came before us and those who stand up for us today. It is not any one person who holds office or their slants that represent what this country is made of, we are the thread. Let us weave a stronger fabric, let us learn from past mistakes and find a way to come together to fix the ills of our society, revel in our successes, lift each other and those who need lifting, TOGETHER. 🎂🎊🇺🇸

Please Pass the Torch

Bernie Sanders needs to get off the stage- I don’t know how some democrats are missing the clear message that swinging too far left isn’t realistic and the middle class is fed up with the huge burden of overtaxation and will certainly not vote for an increase.

I liked him, then … but now is too late, Biden needs to pass the torch. Better yet, we need to light a new torch in politics all together. All across the board. Too bad no one in the Republican Party will challenge Trump.

Right now the field is wide open with plenty of players – Kamala Harris, Pete Buttejieg, – there’s common sense truthful politics and the kind of life experience brought to the table that can benefit us all, devoid of the prejudices of the past, which will sadly weigh down others like Warren.

     That’s my two cents.

On the homefront… K & D’s house begins to take shape… framing has begun!  Last night the Mr. and I walked the foundation and imagined the rooms, enjoyed the warm setting sun over the hill and how the light will play on their homestead.

And Speaking of K… she has recently joined our family business full time in the office and we’re so proud of her accomplishments and hard work.  Long time readers of my blog might remember her story – she is a car accident/brain injury survivor who has done the really hard work of getting her life back through years of determination through rehabilitative work, mostly of her own power and resilience.

You see that little pink unicorn on the desktop?   It used to sit on my desk – but I felt K needed a little mascot in her new position.  After all, I now have three dragons in the space that little pink guy used to occupy.  We could all use a little magic, a little whimsy, don’t you think?

You Go, Girl ❤

Newport

We had two glorious weekend days, perfect weather for doing anything outside. We decided to hop in the truck with two of our four kiddos and head over to Newport, Rhode Island.  What comes to mind for most people when they hear that destination are the famous mansions on Bellevue Avenue, also know as  Mansion Row.  Over the years we’ve taken a tour of many of them, including the Breakers, Rosecliff, Marble House and the estate of the eccentric Doris Duke.  They are something to behold if you’re ever in the area.

On this trip, we went for the food, the shopping, and in search of a possible mantle for the kids future home.  We didn’t find one that was reasonably priced or in great condition, but we had plenty of fun on the hunt.  See the alligator statue in the pool?

The kids loved this table – it’s bigger than it looks in this photo.  Each of those teak chairs were $450., so… you can imagine what the table goes for.

 

These benches were so comfortable and unique, I’d love to have one on the farm perhaps in the back yard near the garden, or down at Stella by the sea. The price tag put a squash on that idea – around $3,500.

We pulled out of that parking lot with a truck bed devoid of new furnishings, and headed downtown for a delicious meal and drinks at The Red Parrot.

It’s a beautiful thing when your kids bring into the fold another person who becomes a loved family member.  The  chocolate monkey  drink is another beautiful thing on a warm summer day.

After a savory lunch of Sexy Steak Salad (that’s what they call it!)  we walked out into the crowds and browsed the shops.   Those fun buggies can be rented to cruise the area, but the traffic is so heavy I’d be nervous in such a small craft.

After the little bit of shopping  ( we came away with a few bars of soap, how’s that for constraint) we appeased the menfolk with a tour of the car museum located near the Tennis Hall of Fame.

They don’t make them like they used to, the detail on these early autos is just stunning.

We stopped by the water just briefly so I could stick my feet in the water and soak up a little  Vitamin Sea, and then we drove  home in the expected summer traffic down I-95.    It was a very good day indeed 🍹⚓🌞

A quick easy fun recipe to share with you, from a friends fb page… I made them yesterday, delish! Perfect summer dessert.  I used a red Cabernet and red seedless grapes.

 

I hope all is well in your world, thank you for stopping by –

 

Pretty in Pink

We woke up yesterday morning to a  soft rosy glow blanketing just about everything.  It had rained during the night and the rising sun was trying to burn through the mist, and most plants in bloom in my gardens right now are pinkish.  It was just so peaceful.

See the rainbow?

We’ve just returned from a four day horseshow – and if that sounds like fun, well it is sometimes.  And it’s also a whole heck of a lot of work, dirty Heavy Sweaty work.  At one point the wind was kicking dust around so bad, we were all covered in about five pounds of dirt/dust/sand after a half hour practice.  When I got into the shower that night, I swear the dirt ringing around the drain could have potted a plant.

K and Miss Leah had some real competition, they made some mistakes and they had some triumphs.   This little horse is just a wonderful guide – she’s patient and calm, the perfect match for K.  In turn, K takes great care with her and is gentle even in her riding style.  It’s great to watch them develop real teamwork.

We’ve met some wonderful people too – competitors helping each other, consoling each other, laughing together. In this sometimes ugly world,  being even a small part of that camaraderie is like a balm for the soul.   If you are as weary as I am of all the crap out there, I recommend you seek  out that camaraderie and nurture it, whatever your interests.

We’ve got the foundation poured for K’s house next door – it’s getting real now!  That’s our home in the background, just a hop, skip and jump.

I hope all is well in your world – and thank you so much for the kind words regarding Ben –    …….. Till soon

 

 

Gentle Ben

 

You know those really fun pictures that are shared sometimes … the little boy with the puppy..  accompanied by the next photo of the  grown young man with the very same now-ancient dog?

 

Well let me tall ya,  It ain’t so fun when it’s not just the dog who’s gotten OLD.  BOY,  what a difference 10 years makes.  *sigh.

About dear Ben, our 11 year old Dane – according to the Vet, he’s ancient for a dog of his size. He used to be 190-ish on a chubby day, now around 150 with atrophy and a more careful diet.  His heart is crapping out, but five pills a day are keeping it ticking for now. The hind end, though.. is what is betraying him mightily.  We’ve built a ramp for him to use to get up into the house from the side porch steps and he spends more time sleeping than anything else.  The vet assures us he’s not in pain, just extremely weak in the hind end due to some sort of failing nerve and muscle situation that is common in the large breed dogs in older age.  He explained it well, but my half-assed hearing didn’t catch most of it and I didn’t want him to have to repeat himself.

PS… You can’t go into a bathroom up here in this old house without expecting you’ll have an audience when you come out, wondering what you were doing in there and why weren’t they invited?!   This was the scene in front of the master bath after my shower this morning.

On occasion Ben looks like he’s ready to hang it up, and we all gather round with heavy hearts and tear streaked faces pondering what we should do next.  And then he perks up again and we say… Not Today.  

We take each day as it comes, and the vet says we’ll just know when it’s his time to leave us.  So hard to watch them deteriorate, and then to lose these members of our family,  well…most of you know the woe.  The love and companionship they provide is immeasurable, and the heartache equally so.  I can’t imagine my life without my animals in it, though, so it’s a price I’ll continue to pay for the bonds we share.

 

We’ve got a horse show in Massachusetts for the next four days – thankfully the weather won’t be GodAwful hot or freezing rain.  In closing, here’s a drink recipe  that looks particularly scrumptious that I plan to make on a cottage day this summer.

 

Coconut Cream and Lime Margarita  

 Ingredients 

  • Kosher salt, grated lime zest and sugar for rimming glass  
  • 2 lime wedges 
  • 2 oz. (60 ml) coconut cream or cream of coconut  
  • 1 1/2 oz (45 ml) blanco tequila  
  • 1 oz. (30 ml) fresh lime juice 
  • 1/2 oz. (15 ml) Cointreau  
  • 1/4 oz. (7 ml) simple syrup

Directions

1. On a small plate, combine equal parts salt, lime zest and sugar and spread in an even layer. Gently rub 1 of the lime wedges around the rim of a rocks glass. Holding the base of the glass, dip the rim into the salt mixture. Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.  

 2. Just before serving, fill the glass with ice. In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine the coconut cream, tequila, lime juice, Cointreau and simple syrup. Cover, shake vigorously and strain into the ice-filled glass. Garnish with the remaining lime wedge. Serves 1. 

Daily Grind

Through my life’s journey my daily grind  has varied greatly – the early years consisted of giving pony and cart rides at the zoo,  waitressing at a jewish synagogue  catering hall , scrapping soap at a factory and loading customers trucks with feed sacks, shavings bags and bales of hay while attending college locally. Then I sat at a desk managing real estate papers in a law firm, and for a while I had a windowless office in the export division of a large company that shall not be named. The windowless thing was torturous for this outdoors loving girl. When my kids were older I had an artisan shop with a partner for a few years and that was a big learning experience as well as a lot of fun and creativity.   All those jobs had some good qualities and I learned valuable skills, worked with good people.    Nothing was more fulfilling than my stay-at-home-mom years, though, and with this empty nest we now live in,  I’ve pondered going back to work in some capacity full time.  With a hearing impairment, my options are limited.

Truth be told, I’m finding this mostly home  part time editorial position nudged in among my farm/home/garden chores suits me just fine.  I’m not longing to go back to a daily grind that is not my manure hauling gator ride to the back field after mucking stalls.  I’m liking my morning commute , sometimes in my Pajama pants, from the porch to the chicken coop to the barn to the garden and back in to clean up and get on with the rest of the day. For a while I toyed with the notion that I might be missing out big time by not pursuing -the next big thing-.  I felt guilty that I had the option to not pursue it.    I believe I’ve decided.. the next big thing is the very thing I’m in the middle of, enjoying at this very moment… and there’s not a darn thing wrong with that.   You know that song by  The Eagles, Don Henley – Learn to be Still -?    I’ve always felt a connection to it, like it was explaining something I needed to figure out.

And you know? I think I’ve  finally figured it out – where I belong is where I am right now, doing what I’m doing,  with the people I love most.   What a glorious feeling, to be grounded and satisfied in the here and now.  I hope you are in that same place wherever your life path has taken you, or are on your way there.

My  GOT Flock (Arya, Sansa, Summer, Snow, Daeynerys, Cersei, Melisandra)  have all been set free into the older flock and all is well. Amazing how fast they grow, isn’t it?  You can tell the new from the old, as the GOT girls are slightly smaller.  The coop yard has gotten a new layer of fresh clean sand, too.

 

 

We’ve begun haying the fields – allergies be damned!    And Damn – they’re awful.  Is it me or is this a bad year for allergy sufferers?

After coop and barn chores were done this morning I ran errands around town and then drove down to Stella to mow her lawn.  That’s where the pollen caught up to me and I’ve felt like a slug ever since.

Every rose has it’s thorn, right?  Small price to pay for a daily grind I love.

Completely different subject to leave you with – have you given a listen to Pete Buttigieg yet?  I am really encouraged by what he has to say.  Gives me hope for this country.

Till soon –

 

 

 

 

Scategories

So much to cover here!  But first, an observation.  I love having my own blog, meaning I truly own it, and it can’t disappear someday when Google decides to get rid of blogger.  The downside is, it appears many friends who used to stop in regularly either haven’t found the space or are no longer interested in reading it.  While it’s never been my goal to accumulate a large number of readers, more a journal for me to keep, I have truly enjoyed getting to know the folks who stop in here.  It sort of feels like some good neighbors have moved away and didn’t keep in touch.

So, we’ve been busy around here!  And… I haven’t paid much attention to the goings on in Washington, it’s been blissful!  Although oddly, it also feels irresponsible, which of course it isn’t.

My daughter K and I were at a horse show for a few days, and she and Miss Leah had a great show!  She grabbed her first Blue Ribbon in Western Pleasure with Leah and two 2nd’s.   At the risk of embarassing her here,  I’m so proud of K for her courage and determination. She shows me every day what it means to tackle and overcome some of the hard things life can throw at you, and these pictures are the proof.

I think they should bring back the Tired Grooms class, just sayin.   That morning I was truly running on Dunkin.

The farm this show was held on is beautiful – looks like it goes on for miles.

We spent Sunday and Monday at the cottage,  had a cookout with family and the weather was glorious! I got my first paddle in around the cove, even brought my co-pilot.

This little “island” community of approximately 140 cottages sits on a 360-ish acre shorefront farm owned by the same family since the 1600’s.  They still farm a portion of that property, and often we are greeted by the cows as we drive down the narrow lane to the waterfront.  These cows also have lush fields not visible in the picture, but they often wander down into the marsh to cool off.

Lilacs here on the farm and on island are just about done, Iris are in full bloom and the poppies are gorgeous –  I need to plant more of those, they are so cheery, uplifting , a real splash of bold color.  My vegetable gardens are planted, too – a tiny one at Stella and two raised beds of a good size in the backyard.  My seedlings looked anemic this year, I’m hoping now that they’re in the ground they’ll flourish. The Phlox are gorgeous!

My Spring Chicks are almost as big as the grown girls – notice the mesh that separates them from the adults – soon they’ll be big enough to incorporate into the flock and I can take down this make-shift nursery, which they are indeed outgrowing rapidly.

 

I mentioned my blog neighbors above, well the best news of all is we’re getting new neighbors right next door.  When we bought this old house and farm and resurrected her,  we also had the idea in our heads that if the children chose to live in this area once they graduated and started their adult lives, they could have a lot on the farm and build a house for themselves if it worked for them.  I’m very very happy to report that both have decided to do just that, and have been saving their hard earned money while living in apartments with their significant others (who we also love.) Yesterday we poured the footings for K’s house foundation – So… once again here on this blog you can follow along on a house build.  She’s chosen a charming cape style house that will blend with the old homes in this neighborhood as if it’s been here for 200 years, just like our “Grace”.  The upstairs will remain unfinished to keep the mortgage down, until they have a need for the two bedrooms and bath that will eventually go upstairs.  The master will be on the first floor.   Stay tuned!

 

Last night we took Mom out for a Birthday celebration Lobster dinner, the food was divine and the laughter around the table priceless.  Happy Birthday, Mom – we all love you very much. May we celebrate many more birthdays together, and may the laughter and love  continue to flow around the table as easily as it did last night.

 

Till soon, friends – thank you for stopping by –

The best take I’ve read on a tough issue

From Seth Wood on Facebook- best take on this issue I’ve read- Amen, Seth.

___________________________________

Oh man. Here we go…

I need to talk to my conservative/Christian friends and family for a minute. About abortion.

First: if you hold the personal belief or conviction that abortion is wrong, is a sin, is against God’s will… That is absolutely okay, and understandable. There are so many reasons to feel this way, not just from a theological/religious standpoint, but from personal experiences, hopes, desires, etc. Your belief about where you stand on the moral/ethical merits of abortion are yours to have, to cherish, to speak about, to share. They are your human rights and your constitutional rights in our country.

Second: America is not a Christian nation. It is not a nation for Christians. It is a nation for all. I know this can be genuinely hard to accept. I grew up in the church too. We are sold this idea of a Christian nation, one nation under God. That was never what we had. What we have is a nation founded on the idea of liberty and equality, with the men drafting the documents having the amazing foresight to make the language broader than their own beliefs about equality (which many of them felt only applied to white landowning men). Thank God! What they gave us was so much greater than their own biases. They gave us room to grow in our understanding of equality and freedom and mutual cooperation. And so all faiths are welcome here. And that is beautiful.

Third: Knowing and hopefully accepting that, we can recognize that there are large portions of our fellow Americans who are not Christian. Imagine a Jewish senator putting forth a bill that would require every male -infant, child, and adult – to be circumcised. Or a Muslim governor signing a bill into law that states all citizens must pray five times a day on their prayer mats. You would be very understandably (and as far as the constitution goes, rightly) upset over someone trying to legislate their beliefs onto your lives and bodies…

Four: Your politicians are using you. They are using your deeply held spiritual and emotional beliefs about abortion to justify racial, gender, and class inequality. The men pushing these laws are concerned with power, not with the unborn. There are documented cases of GOP “pro-life” politicians who are pushing legislation like this with one hand and with the other hand are encouraging their secret girlfriends to terminate their very secret and unwanted pregnancies. For you, this issue is about speaking up for what you believe. For many many of the politicians, it is about feeding their own personal agendas and increasing their power. YOU GIVE THEM THAT POWER. And they are grossly abusing it, not to the glory of God. Please stop letting them use you to control people.

Five: this is pretty core, and I’m not sure how to say it, so forgive me my ineloquence here. If you want to see a world without abortion, you need to work to create a world that doesnt need abortion. That world cannot be legislated into being. That was never the job of the church anyway – to legislate their way to the kingdom of god? Ugh. You may want to see a world that didn’t drink alcohol – how did prohibition work out? No more drunks? No. You cannot legislate morality. You can work toward it though. I love that you love the unborn. I love that you have a heart that feels that. Please have a heart for those who are already born as well. Please be truly pro-life, and take care of women instead of criminalizing them. A world that didn’t need abortions would be one where birth control was extremely affordable and available, where young people everywhere were well educated about sex. It would look like accepting that abstinence is not the only choice that young people are going to make – “I believe sex is supposed to be saved till marriage, however, if you choose to have sex before marriage, as many of you will, there are things that are very important for you to know” is a totally acceptable way to talk about your beliefs AND the facts of life with your kids.

You are NEVER going to get close to having a world where people dont have sex unless they are married. TRUST ME. That will never happen. You absolutely can work toward a realistic world where we take care of people, where we help and educate and love people in a way where the number of unwanted pregnancies declines drastically. Do you want a world where people arent allowed to get abortions? Or do you want a world where people dont need to get abortions, where it’s not even a question or an issue that they have to face, because they have been equipped with the tools to navigate sex and relationships and personal choices with maturity and safety and love? And look, I havent even brought up the very very troubling issue of rape, incest, abuse. And real quick on that: you CANNOT make descisions like that for another person. YOU CANNOT DO THAT. A person who has been abused needs to have our support, our ear, our compassion, and if they need assistance or advice or comfort or a friend then we can be that. What we can’t do is make a life altering decision for them after they have already experienced a traumatic life altering assault. We shouldn’t be making those descisions for anyone (just like we shouldnt have the legal ability to tell anyone else whether or not to drink, or to pray, or to get circumcised).

There’s so much more. So much. And it all needs to be said – not just said but talked about. But here’s what I want to end this with: WE NEED YOU. We need each other. We have become so divided from each other, and so much of that is because we rely on our intermediaries: the media, the politicians, the social media algorithms. But we are never going to go anywhere unless we come together to figure this out. No matter what you believe this issue really is (a woman’s issue, a moral issue), it is not JUST that. Left and Right. It is multifaceted, it is personal, and there are real people on both sides. And so I am saying to you my conservative christian pro-life friends: we need you. We need you to stop letting your politicians use you. We need you to BE THE BODY OF CHRIST to people. Not because we believe what you believe, but because we could use some very Christ-like people right now. Who challenge the powerful and who love people, not judge them, not further abuse them, not investigate them after they have miscarried a pregnancy.

We are never all going to believe the same things. But we do not have to be enemies, we do not have be opposed. I get that this sounds crazy, but we need to work together to build that world where people are loved and safe, where humans have freedom to make choices, and we have equiped them out of love and with love. Please work with us to make that world where women are not put in a position to need an abortion. Our women are amazing and powerful and inspiring, and if we could make a world where they are not always having to fight to be heard or respected or taken seriously, then I think we would all be blown away by what they could accomplish for the world.

Thanks for reading this. It was written out of respect and love and with an open heart. If you are reading this, it is because I love you. Thanks.

For Life and Rights

Oh, the irony of those who don’t believe a woman has the right to make reproductive decisions regarding a pregnancy and her unique circumstances, those who “defend life” at any cost to the woman who’s actually affected – Without fail, those are most often of the republican persuasion, and the religious persuasion to boot.  They act as if they are crusaders for life, although the life of the woman and women’s rights be damned. Follow their path – as a whole, (but there are of course always exceptions), they do not support so much of life on the ground – the mother and eventual child if they aren’t able to take care of themselves, just look at our homeless population, our starving children, our orphans who aren’t adopted, our children born of addiction and abandoned, our mentally ill left to fend for themselves, life if that life might come from another country seeking safety from a repressed and violent existence, (BUILD THE WALL) they do not support life if that life is what they call “sucking off the system”, they do not support life if the person they chose to love doesn’t meet their comfort levels.

Right now in Alabama they do not support the well being and life of the woman, no matter how young! if she’s been raped, incestually or otherwise. There are more than 3,000 homeless people in Alabama every day. Why aren’t the “pro-lifers” taking them in? There are 266,000 children living in poverty in Alabama alone!  Many of them go hungry on a daily basis – why aren’t we feeding the children? I laugh when those people feign religion. I laugh when republicans say that want less government interfering in their life… and yet they believe a woman’s body should be the exception. If you’re a woman and you follow that cult, shaking my head here.

I am truly pro life – and pro choice – I don’t believe in late term abortion and that’s true of most women, just look at the actual statistics. I believe women to be capable of making decisions for themselves with their own body and circumstances. Because we have already proved as a society we aren’t gonna do the job for them or truly help them, no, we’ve failed miserably at that. Because I don’t have to have experienced rape or incest or the horror of a dying or severely deformed fetus or any other awful medical crisis to have sympathy for the woman in that position, and I don’t believe your or I have a right to hold her up in the medical decisions she and her doctor have to make in horrible circumstances. Because I don’t practice whatever your religion is – and there are over 400, and I believe in science – and that a cluster of cells at the beginning of a pregnancy are just that – with the POTENTIAL for life, but not yet viable life. I believe in taking care of babies after they are born,  not dumping them at the proverbial altar.

That any part of this country is reverting when it comes to women’s rights is pathetic. All women should be alarmed, no matter what your stance on abortion. And if you still can’t see the forest for the trees, may your God help you should you ever find yourself in one of those awful situations above. Because your chosen republican lawmakers won’t.

Not a democrat, not a fucking snowflake. I’m a believer in freedom to have control over our bodies, our decisions, our circumstances, our chosen religion or non religion. I believe in compassion, empathy, and assistance for those who need it, the life WITH BOOTS ALREADY ON THE GROUND.

First, let’s kill all the hypocrisy

Well, holy hell

If you’re a GOT fan but haven’t watched last night’s episode, the second to the last of the series – (I’m crying here!!) then look away unless you’re into spoilers.

I was going to write about it, but the following is posted on CNN today, and it’s utterly hilarious and spot on.. … read on.

If someone asks you about what happened this week on that little dragon show you watch,  you are more than allowed to just scream at full volume for an hour and 20 minutes. Because that’s what this episode was. Just one, long 80-minute “AAAAHHH!!!”

Jon Snow went from outsider to king. Is the Iron Throne next?

Things start off quietly enough.  Without Missandei to braid her hair or apply her undereye concealer, Daenarys is leaning into the “foreshadowing fiery genocide” aesthetic while moping around Dragonstone. She’s mad at Jon, mad at Tyrion and especially mad at Varys for going around blabbing about Jon’s true lineage. It appears the “Master of Whispers” has become the “Master of Discussing Deadly Secrets at Full Volume,” and before you can even get emotionally prepared for this week’s carnage, everyone’s standing on the beach looking stoic and Dany is sentencing Varys to death and Drogon is bearing his 3,000 teeth and wow, we’re off to the races.
One major character death down, a shocking amount left to go.
Tyrion, full of doubt and fear and definitely not used to either, finds Jaime who has been captured and imprisoned at Dragonstone. The two brothers share a good hug and Tyrion outlines a plan for Jaime to escape with Cersei and start life anew in Essos, where ostensibly they are more forgiving of murderous incest.

But first, it’s time for war. The mood is tense in Kings Landing, where throngs of common folk are being herded inside the Red Keep, and the Golden Fleet and the Iron Company are assuming their positions as unwitting dragon appetizers. If Dany’s general haggard appearance wasn’t foreshadowing enough, we get lots of good, salt-of-the-earth shots of the innocent citizens of Kings Landing with their doe-eyed children in tow. By the laws of television, you only get affectionate close-ups of the unwashed if something really, really terrible is about to happen to them.

How to speak like a true Targaryen from 'Game of Thrones'

It’s a laughably easy win for Daenerys and company. Even Cersei sees it, perched atop the Red Keep with a concerned Qyburn. Side note: Ol’ Cers must be about 500 months pregnant now, so why does she have the belly of someone who had, like, five bites of a burrito for lunch?
Anyway, she’s hemmed in and she knows it. As the city’s fortifications burn to ash and enemy forces close in, the bells of surrender begin to sound. A single tear rolls down Cersei’s proud face. Drogon and Daenerys let up, the Unsullied and the Lannister forces exchange a hearty round of handshakes and the two sides proceed with a peaceful transfer of power.
Just kidding! Dany goes full-on Mad Queen and burns the living hell out of EVERYTHING. Innocent children? You get a Dracarys! Entire city blocks? You get a Dracarys! Everyone gets a Dracarys! Jon and Tyrion’s faces say it all. This is definitely not how it was supposed to go. Daenerys Targaryen has gone rogue.

However, don’t think that just because thousands of people are being burned alive and King’s Landing is literally crumbling to the ground that there isn’t time to have a slapfight about who gets to be Cersei’s boyfriend. Somehow, among everything going on, Euron, the drunk cockroach of Westeros, finds Jaime and they have an extremely athletic tussle on the banks of Blackwater Bay. It’s not all bad though: Jaime kills Euron, which we can agree is a personal favor to us all.
Oh, right! By the way, Arya and the Hound must have ditched their horses for high speed rail, because they’re also here in Kings Landing. The Hound urges Arya to get out while she can, and they part with as much tenderness as two soft murder beings can muster. There’s nothing like apocalyptic dragon fire to make a girl forget all about her kill list, and before long Arya is running terrified through the streets like everyone else.

Meanwhile, The Hound has revenge on his mind. He runs into Cersei, Qyburn and The Mountain as they’re fleeing the Red Keep, and after The Mountain ragdolls Qyburn into the afterlife, CLEGANEBOWL IS ON. (Again, gentle reminder: Everything is burning! Is now the best time to be settling personal scores?)
Actually, the answer is yes. The Hound finally unmasks The Mountain, revealing a swole moldy Darth Vader where his brother used to be. They fight. It’s glorious and gory. Goryious? Apparently, The Mountain is impervious to literally everything, up to and including daggers through the brain, so The Hound does the only thing left he can do: Trucks him through a crumbling wall and off the side of the Red Keep to a fiery, mutual death.
(By the way, people are still burning.)
Jaime and Cersei finally find each other, and if they weren’t both deeply horrible people who have committed unspeakable sins and backtracked on seasons worth of character development, their reunion would almost be sweet. You would almost, for one second, be forgiven for hoping they could escape and be weird with each other in Pentos for the rest of their days. But you only get one second! Remember Brienne! And Missandei! And Margaery and everyone else who has ever suffered and died at these people’s three collective hands! Jaime and Cersei deserve the poetic, meaningful deaths that are inevitably coming their way!
Hmm? What’s that? Oh, they get crushed under some rubble while trying to escape? Two of the main antagonists, who have driven the show’s id since the very first episode of the very first season, just kinda get squished?
That’s disappointing. Alexa, play “The Rains of Castamere.”

Eventually, Daenerys lets up on her scorched earth campaign, leaving a horrified Jon to deal with what has become of his queen. With a million questions hanging in the air, we close with Arya escaping on a white horse that just happens to be prancing around the charred bodies of Kings Landing. Where is she going? Hopefully to Storm’s End, because a girl deserves to relax with a blacksmith lord and forget about this smoldering mess. Yeah, Valar Morghulis and everything but… come on.

Burning questions

If we’re supposed to buy Dany turning Mad Queen after seasons of building her up as a hero and a revolutionary, why did she get about 3.5 seconds of screen time once she started burning everything down?
Bran was pretty insistent that Jaime had something important to do when he came to Winterfell, but other than breaking Brienne’s heart and going out like roadkill that… didn’t seem to manifest?
Was the wildfire interspersed throughout the inferno significant?
Why was no one wearing HELMETS?!
What is Jon going to do now that his aunt queen is completely off the rails?
How much self control will it take Sansa to not laugh in Jon’s face and say “I told you so?”
Has anyone outside of the North or Kings Landing been affected by anything that’s happened this season or are they just browning their butter and tossing back ale as usual?
Speaking of, is Hot Pie okay? He wasn’t in this episode but just, in general. Can we get a welfare check?