Community Supported Agriculture (2)

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Acclimating myself to being a CSA member (Milsap Farms) again is still a work in progress!

The third week, I was out of town; my husband took the whole distribution to my daughter: watermelon, kale, green beans, cucumber, bell peppers, zucchini, and mixed greens.

My son-in-law cut up the watermelon in wedges and we got half of it when I got back. My daughter also decided that she didn’t have an immediate use for zucchini, so I enjoyed that unexpected bounty too. What a difference it makes to have my daughter close enough to handle the share when I am gone! This probably cinches our continued participation next year; the only question still outstanding is whether we go with a full share or the smaller one that we are getting for the remainder of this season.

The fourth week we split down the middle except for the sweet potato leaves which I have for myself. Each of us got 2 carrots, a garlic head, 2 bell peppers, half the scallions, and half the bag of basil.

I am anticipating some excellent salads and then freezing any basil or sweet potato leaves I can’t use soon enough. Once frozen they can be used in smoothies or soups/stir fry. I didn’t have an extra freezer in my Maryland house; now that I do in Missouri, I have lots of options!

Community Supported Agriculture (1)

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I enjoyed my membership in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) when I lived in Maryland. When I first moved to Missouri, I decided that I would try to simply go to local Farmers Markets for locally grown produce. That remained my plan until recently when I realized that one of the best things (for me) about belonging to a CSA is the prompt to enjoy more variety…maybe even a totally new-to-me veggie or herb. So – I researched Springfield MO area CSAs and discovered that I could become a mid-season member of  Milsap Farms!

It is a bit different from the CSA in Maryland.

  • Instead of being less than I mile from where I live, it is on the other side of Springfield. I pay a little extra for delivery of my share to my front porch.

  • In Maryland I went to the farm every week and did ‘swapping’ while I was there. In Missouri, the share composition/swapping is handled with an email prompt and then an online app which is completed by the day before delivery. I didn’t quite get the routine the 1st time around, so I got the default delivery for that week. By the 2nd delivery, I was comfortable…knew when to look for the email and do the tweaking.

  • My daughter lives closer to me now so we can split up the share after I receive it. For example, out of the first share I gave her half the carrots, celery, herbs, and onions (she suggested that I keep the kohlrabi since I like it better than she and her husband do). For the rest of this season (until the end of October), we are getting the small share and evaluating how well we like the CSA; at this point, we think we’ll sign up next year…but still need to decide if we want a small or full share.

The first week’s share (picture below) included: carrots, celery, Thai basil, dill, onions, and kohlrabi The second week included: salad mix, radishes, green bell peppers, pea shoots, basil, carrots, and watermelon.

So far – a positive experience!

Collecting Puzzles

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One of my parents’ favorite challenges is a new puzzle. That dominoes into a challenge for my sisters and I to keep them supplied! August has been a good month for collecting puzzles after they completed the previous pile (i.e. ran out of puzzles they had not done before)!

One of my sisters ordered 3 from eBay. They like the 500 piece puzzles the best but appreciate an ‘easy’ one (300 piece) occasionally.

I bought 5 puzzles when I had a coupon that got the price down to about $8 each. There are two 1,000-piece puzzles in this group which could be hard for them but there are a lot of helpful clues in the map puzzles. They’ve enjoyed this brand of puzzles previously.

My daughter visited the Gateway National Park in St. Louis and bought a puzzle for her grandparents. It is an unusual one: the box is triangular, and the pieces have a back and front (i.e. it is two puzzles in one…Gateway Arch views from the Mississippi at night and from the city during the day). There are 500 pieces...hopefully not too challenging.

My local library branch had a Friends of the Library sale that included puzzles! I bought 12. They were $2 each….a good deal! There are two more sales this fall that are close enough to me; I’ll be collecting enough puzzles to keep them busy until April when the next sale is scheduled!

Farmers Market

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The joys of summer produce….

I was overwhelmed by the bustle of the Springfield MO farmers market – decided to explore the smaller ones in the surrounding communities. The first one I tried was too small…the second was just right! They are open on Thursday afternoon, and I go before the after-work crowd. So far – I’ve enjoyed the heirloom tomatoes (big ones and small ones),

Zucchini,

And basil (one time they had arugula…one of my favorites).

There are more than produce vendors. I bought goat milk soap (with lavender) last week….tried a fried pie the week before.

There are more than produce vendors. I bought goat milk soap (with lavender) last week….tried a fried pie the week before.

There is not enough produce variety to support a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture); maybe there are some veggies that just don’t sell well enough for the farmers to grow for the market. Things like collards, kale, Asian veggies, tomatillos, fennel etc. I wish there were. I might look around next spring for a local CSA. I like to discover new favorites while I also enjoy the regulars. Freshly picked heirloom tomatoes are always better than the ones in the grocery store!

Zentangle® – June 2023

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30 tiles….selected from the ones created in June. Most of the square ones started as white pulpboard coasters; they are thick enough that both sides can be used. It was a good break from the light brown colored tiles cut from cat food box dividers!

15 of the tiles selected are rectangular. It is still my favorite size/shape. My set of gel pens and older ultra-fine-point Sharpies are beginning to sputter; I’ll do one more month with lots of color then maybe take a hiatus from color…designate August as a black and white ink month!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Zentangle® – February 2023

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I opted to create most of the tiles in February using one pattern….which  I call ‘5 circles.’ The idea is to make 5 circles (or ovals) on a framed tile….then proceed to aura in various ways….color the circles and some of the aura rounds…and finally add some highlighter.

I found myself enjoying the pattern so much that I had a lot of them to choose the 28 for the month. The amount of color allowed me to use up some pens I had since the CZT class in 2019 plus some that my sister had acquired during her teaching career. I discovered that having a pen low on ink to draw the circles and auras is not a bad thing; the amount of coloring overpowers the original drawing anyway!

Now I am ready for March….and more variety to the patterns I make!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Coursera Again – Neuroanatomy

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The beginning of Coursera coincided with the beginning of the post-career portion of my life a decade ago. It burst on the scene offering auditing of online courses for free (a small fee was charged for the testing and projects for credit). I was like a “kid in a candy store”…so many topics of interest that I never had time for during my undergraduate/graduate years….and some topics that didn’t exist until more recently! I audited a flurry of courses in the first few years then settled into an occasional course – usually in the wintertime when I spend more time indoors; there was an uptick during the COVID-19 pandemic but not to the levels of the first few years.  

I recently looked at my records and discovered I have audited 74 courses! The topics are varied: art, anatomy, nutrition, history, meditation, education, entomology, exoplanets, poetry, psychology, design, and architecture! The nutrition course was one of the early ones…and is where I learned about the Cronometer site that I am still using to track what I eat so that can take off a few pounds.

This month I completed a Neuroanatomy course from the University of Michigan. It is a 7-week course; I completed 3 weeks before I went to Carrollton TX in late January and completed the other 4 after I got back. I did my usual notetaking as I made my way through the material – trying to learn the vocabulary and the anatomical structures. Now I find I want to learn more about neurobiology!

This course pointed me to a new-to-me source of reference books: PDF Drive. Just look at the list of books available for Neuroanatomy! There are lots of other topics as well. I am getting the “kid in a candy store” feeling all over again!

Maria Martinez (potter) in 1925

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The first picture in Carl E. Guthe’s  Pueblo Pottery Making - a study at the village of San Ildefonso published in 1925 is one of Maria Montoya Martinez that is widely used elsewhere (including in the Wikipedia entry for her). 1925 was before she started making her black ware pottery that survives in many museums. I recognized her name when I first started browsing the book; it was one of those times I appreciated Wikipedia and Google search to learn more about her before I continued browsing. I celebrated finding Guthe’s books on Internet Archive and the myriad pictures that documented the situation in 1925…the state of the art then, before she was producing black ware pottery.

1925 was during the time when much of the culture of the Pueblos was fading….the challenges of people trying to survive in the world. Fortunately, Maria learned pottery skills from her aunt… a “learning by seeing” beginning in her pre-teens. She, with the collaboration of her family members, continued to experiment and produce pottery throughout her long life (she lived until 1980) and taught others the same way she had learned. She helped establish pottery of the Southwest as an art form we recognize today.

Surprisingly, Guthe’s biography (archived from the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology) does not mention this book at all. His work establishing collections and institutions overshadows this book!

The Whole Orange

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I’ve enjoyed oranges all my life….sometimes cutting them in slices…sometimes in wedges. In recent years, I cut them in wedges so that after I eat the pulp, the peels fit nicely into the food processor.

Once the peel is chopped up, I let it dry on a plate to be used in cooking…or in hot tea.

It feels good to use the whole orange….getting all the nutrition from the fruit! I have some recipes that use the whole fruit as well; my favorite is cranberry orange relish that I make any time I see fresh cranberries in the produce section (usually November and December).

My mother reminisced that oranges were special treats of the holidays when she was child, and her mother often candied the peel. Every time I use the whole orange, I feel an affinity with my maternal grandmother…good vibes through the years!

Morning Fog and Moon

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I went outside just after sunrise to photograph the fog; there had been no color with the sunrise because the fog was so dense. There was an advisory for the morning commute and I was glad I didn’t have to leave the house. Then I looked up and saw that the sky was quite blue and the moon distinct! The blanket of fog was clearly thin and close to the ground!

I am a morning person. This time of year, I am always up before the sunrise and ready to welcome the light of the new day. A colorful sunrise is always welcome but sometimes clouds and fog can be just as interesting because they alter the perception of surroundings. Noticing the beginning of the day…however the increase of light happens…is the best way to start my day.

Plant of the month – Pine

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We have three pines in our new yard, and I appreciate them as big contributors to the greens of January. Only one of them appears to have cones…and it has a lot of them in all stages of development. It has shorter needles than the other two.

I enjoyed taking some macro images of the cones close to the ground. As the cones get very old, I will probably harvest some of them to add to the pinecone wreath that was made years ago from cones from my sister’s house. It will be a good way to fill in thin places as the wired cones (that are larger) shift a little…and add even more of my heritage to the wreath.

I read an article recently about pine needle tea and have started cutting a small handful of pine needles from the two longer needle pines to add to the black tea bag and home-dried orange peel in my tea maker (a coffee maker that has never-ever been used for coffee!). I like the flavor of the result…no sweetener required…and it smells good too.

2023 Diet (Strategy)

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I am thinking about my diet strategy for 2023. It’s a mix of things that have worked before to keep my focus on nutrition and moving toward a sustained ‘normal’ weight…skewed toward lowering my carbon footprint.

  • Use the Cronometer app to watch nutrition and calories until I am at the ‘normal’ weight for my height. This worked for me 5+ years ago so I am going to do it again now that I have gained a few pounds. It is important to sustain a healthy weight rather than yo-yoing. Using the app I know I am getting enough protein; if I need to reduce something to get the calories low enough, it is usually a fat…and I want all the calories to go toward meeting nutritional goals.

  • Reduce ultra-processed foods (those foods that have a long list of ingredients…some of them unrecognizable). The hardest might be soft drinks. I also notice that when I travel, there are more instances of ultra-processed foods in my diet.

  • Eat less red meat. In 2022 it was about half my protein. In 2023, I want to reduce it to 25%. I’ll ramp up eggs, chicken, turkey, and vegetarian sources of protein (although I am not keen on the vegetarian sources of protein with ingredient lists that indicate they are ‘ultra-processed’).

  • Become vigilant about avoiding lactose. The Lactaid does not seem to totally solve the problem anymore, so it is better to avoid the foods. The big change is moving away from Lactaid Milk to Soymilk. Deciding what to eat when I travel will be a bit more challenging as well.

The theme for my 2023 diet is:

‘Good for me…and for the planet.’

A 50th Anniversary

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I posted about my parents’ 70th anniversary back in December; now I am celebrating my own 50th wedding anniversary with my husband. The anniversary prompts me to think about those 50 years of shared life from different perspectives.

Our external focus shifted through the years:

  • For the first 10 years, we were completing our education – a PhD for him, a masters for me. I was working full time during those years…not thinking about computer science as a career for the first 5 years but gradually realizing that I liked the work too much to switch fields. From the beginning he seemed to have a clearer idea of what he wanted to do. We were the first in both our families to go beyond an undergraduate degree.

  • We moved to the east coast for my husband’s work; it was a great career move for me too. We were both focused on our careers for about 5 years.

  • Then we decided to have a child and took the precautions needed for a successful pregnancy in our mid-30s. We thought we were prepared when our daughter was born but quickly realized that there was a learning curve that was just beginning. Between the two of us we successfully juggled parenting and careers…until she went off to college 20 years later.

  • There were 5 years of career focus with occasional bursts of activity to help my daughter move out of the dorm into an apartment, get to an internship, or move for graduate school. The internship and graduate school were more than halfway across the US!

  • 10 years ago - I retired and my husband started a ramp down from his career that continued for several years.

We’ve lived in several states over the 50 years: Texas for 10, Virginia for 3, Maryland for 36.5, Missouri for .5 years. The two long haul moves (from Texas to Virginia and from Maryland to Missouri) were quite different. We had a lot more household items to move the second time, the technology of finding a new house/selling our old one had improved dramatically, and we were able to buy our current house rather than get a mortgage.

Our shared interests have evolved over the years.

  • Photography. My husband was the one that enjoyed photography from the beginning….doing his own black/white and color developing (and printing too). I remember in our first house when one of the developing chemicals was not diluted enough when he poured it down the kitchen sink and it dissolved the disposal flaps! We have a lot of negatives and slides from those pre-digital years. The transition to digital happened about the time our daughter was old enough to start taking pictures. My interest in photography picked up a little when my daughter was born but ramped up dramatically once I retired.

  • Travel. From the very beginning we’ve both enjoyed day trips and vacations to outdoor destinations: gardens, state parks, and national parks. In the beginning, we economized by car/tent camping and not eating out. By the time we moved to Virginia we could afford flying, staying in hotels, and eating out although the road trip still dominated our vacations. When my daughter was born, we shifted our accommodations to ones that had a small kitchen to accommodate her food requirements/preferences. Some of our travel was associated with either my career or my husband’s…so that part of the travel was paid for as part of our work. After she got older and as we travelled more on our own, we enjoyed short term house rentals. For a few years before the COVID-19 pandemic, my husband and I used birding festivals as a focus for our travels.

  • Astronomy. My husband was interested in astronomy before I knew him. One of our early dates included a lunar eclipse at the local astronomy club’s observatory. In the early years of our marriage, we participated in grazing occultations (stars and the mountains of the moon); my role was to help him get the telescope set up as quickly as possible in the assigned location so he could take the measurements. Later I used the cast iron telescope mount to add weight in the back of my rear-wheel drive car – to give it more traction on snowy days in Virginia. His astronomy activity ebbed although he did replace his telescope; we (daughter included) observed the sunrise in 2000…our celebration of the new millennium. Once he retired, he became active the local astronomy club in Maryland and we both camped on the field for a star party at a dark sky site in Virginia several times; he liked the dark sky (and being able to call it a night whenever he got tired) and I enjoyed being outdoors, hiking during the day.

A lot has happened in 50 years and we’re both realizing how fortunate we are that the big decision we made all those years ago was a good one for both of us!

Cancer Diary – Entry 13

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It’s been a year since my cancer surgery. All the diagnostics at the one-year mark show that I am cancer free….so the surgery was a success.

My last post was 4 weeks after the surgery but now I realize I should have done a post at 8 weeks since that is when the hematoma was finally gone. And two weeks later, in the area where the last hematoma color had been, cellulitis developed. The cellulitis might have been unrelated to the surgery, but it was a first instance of cellulitis for me…disconcerting; it was quickly resolved by antibiotics (unfortunately, I develop a reaction to the first type prescribed right after the second dose).

My fingernails became very brittle in the spring. They have returned to normal now. I suspect that the surgery and associated medication change might have been an issue but that my body had recovered/acclimated at this point.

The scar and puckering around it are not fading as quickly as I expected – perhaps because of skin sensitivity to the recommended topical vitamin E and/or cocoa butter and sunscreen, developing hives in the scar area (reaction to an antibiotic), and the silicon patches not being as effective as advertised. My current strategy is to cover the scar when I am out in the sun (rather than using sunscreen) and to use the mildest of moisturizers.

My cancer was detected early before it impacted my perception of health, and the surgery happened expeditiously. A year later, I am feeling healthy (almost like I felt before the surgery) but 2022 had the most health related ups and downs of my life!

Previous cancer diary posts:

Ten Little Celebrations – December 2022

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Ten little…and big…celebrations for December 2022. The big ones include:

A 70th wedding anniversary. That’s a lot of years for a relationship to thrive….and for both to still be healthy enough to enjoy life and the celebration!

Winter holiday. They happen every year, but it doesn’t reduce the joy of the virtually back-to-back family celebrations that flow into January: a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas, New Years and then another big anniversary. I’m celebrating now and savoring the anticipation of more still to come!

And then there are the little celebrations that are more like the other months of the year:

Finding puzzles. When I first started looking for puzzles, I didn’t find any that I likes and then I found 2 at a thrift store and another 4 at a pharmacy….and celebrated the finds!

Gardens Aglow at Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden. Celebrating a walk-through holiday light display in Springfield MO. If we hadn’t found it, I would be missing the Brookside Gardens lights in Maryland.

Getting the wreath on the door. The kittens prolonged the time it took to get our house decorated this year (some trial and error with how they would respond). The wreath was one of the last things we did…and I celebrated that the decorating was done!

Getting to stay home on a rainy day. Celebrating that I can usually rearrange plans to avoid getting out on a cold, rainy day!

Hot tea with orange peel. Celebrating a little hint of citrus….and probably the vitamin C as well.

Macro photography at Springfield Conservation Nature Center. Celebrating the beauty of native plants through all the seasons…..particularly close-up.

New glasses. This is my first time to get transition lenses. I am celebrating not needing to juggle my sunglasses on and off on road trips!

The plastic vase works. I was a little skeptical that the flat plastic vases would expand and hold a large bouquet....celebrated when the one I tried worked great! Now I feel more confident giving them as gifts!

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2022

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Ten little celebrations for November. Some of them weren’t so little: a 91st birthday, a grandnephew, and Thanksgiving. There was a lot of food involved too. Celebrating November foods is probably my favorite lead up to the crescendo in December and then the beginning of a new year.

A mini-pumpkin – perfect for 4 servings. My sister bought small pumpkins for a table centerpiece; we decided to cook one of them for lunch along with meatloaf. The oven was nicely full. I pricked the skin of the pumpkin before I put it in the oven since I was cooking it intact. After about an hour, I took it out of the oven, lifted the stem off, cut it into quarters, and took the seeds out from the center. Everyone sprinkled cinnamon and added butter to melt into the pulp. All that was left at the end of the meal was the skin! Yummy!

Cranberries. I like cranberries in just about everything: stir fry, sauces for meatballs (combined with tomatillo salsa), chopping as an addition to stuffing, sauteed with apples + butter + cinnamon + honey for dessert. I used to make cranberry relish on the stovetop because I enjoyed watching the cranberries pop as they cooked, but I don’t like the relish as much anymore (too sweet) so now I enjoy cranberries pooping in stir fry or when they are sauteed. I celebrate both their flavor and their color!

Getting 141 bulbs planted. It took multiple sessions in the yard…and I celebrated when they were all finally in the ground. I hope most of them survive the squirrels and bloom next spring!

Leaves – raked, blown, shredded. Mowing is adequate for the leaves at our house but not my daughter’s. She has very large trees and the leaves were thick enough to kill grass. She and I spent an afternoon focused on leaves…and celebrated our accomplishment! The weather cool and crisp for a traditional fall activity …. always helps get me in the mood for the beginning of the holiday season.

A 91st birthday. Both of my parents are 91 years old as of November. Our family celebrates these milestones…enjoying that we still have them with us.

A grandnephew. Celebrating a baby in our family…the 1st one in over 20 years…adds a another facet to our joy during the holidays.

Walnuts. Not sure why…but walnuts have become a favorite this year. I am celebrating all the ways I’ve found to add them into food I am preparing!

Ritter Springs and Neighborhood Ponds. Celebrating the crisp air outdoors…the color of leaves…the frost on the grass.

Thanksgiving. Celebrating a day to appreciate all the recent events of our lives…a prelude to the family events/gatherings of December.

Leftovers. It’s a treat to have great food in short order… prolongs the celebration. I ate too much on Thanksgiving…did better on the subsequent days and maybe enjoyed the food more.

Zentangle® – October 2022

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31 days in October….31 Zentangle tiles. A lot of the tiles this month have a seasonal palette: orange, muted red, pale green. I had a purple gel pin that I was using up too. Most of the tiles in the mosaic were made in London, Ontario during the hotel room part of my ‘retreat’ from my normal routine. One of the ways I filled the time I gained from not doing online activities or interacting with people was making the tiles. I had taken plenty of supplies.

I also drew 31 tiles that I didn’t color. I’ll probably finish them next month…maybe post the before and after images.  

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Unique Aspects of Days – October 2022

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Unique aspects of October….

Border crossing (US to Canada). This was not the only time I crossed the boarder from the US to Canada…but the first time in more than  decade…so rare enough to be unique for me. It was the first day of their new policy to no longer require documentation of COVID-19 vaccination….probabay made it a little faster than it would have been the day before.

Buying a baby present in Canada. Two aspects of uniqueness of this one: deciding that having a baby in my exended family is unique enough to buy an ad hoc present and enjoying shopping during vacation …wanting to buy something (and not always something for me).

Discovering that the fireplace vent was leaking cold air into my office and the hearth room upstairs. There was cold air from the bottom of our gas fireplace doors (the vent area) during our first cold weather of the season. The magnetic strip I ordered from Amazon has fixed the problem…and I am glad I noticed the problem so quickly.

Dry Cleaners. I hadn’t been to a dry cleaners in years. I probably could have taken the jackets I had been wearing for a couple of years several years ago…but then the pandemic stopped our being out and about. I aired the jackets and continued to wear them occasionally. When I went to a dry cleaners near our new house, I was the only customer…and the racks didn’t look very full either.

Exploding broccoli. I was pleased to find a cup of carrots, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli in one of the places we stopped on our way back from Canada. I had not anticated that the lid would be so hard to get off. As my daughter was pulling us out of the parking lot, I was working on the packaging…finding it a bit of a challenge…when the lid suddenly came off and broccoli flew out into my lap and onto the center console! I ate it anyway…and the other veggies too!

Hail. We had quarter sized hail at our house for a brief time. I’m glad our cars were in the garage. In Maryland we never got hail above pea sized (and it was slushy). This hail bouced and stayed around on the ground longer!

Peppermint honey. I bought some peppermine infused honey in Canada…and it is yummy!

Sitting in a sunny window like a cat. A very nice place on a cold morning while I was in Canada.

Tator tots. I hadn’t had tater tots in a lot time….and they were a big disappointment…so the event will probably be unique.

Went to the doctor’s office but the doctor had called in sick. I was signing in for a doctor’s appointment when the nurse came from the back and informed the front desk that the doctor had called in sick! I ended up making an appointment with another doctor since she was so fully booked it would be more than a month before I could be worked into her schedule!

Looking back at London, Ontario

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The week in London, Ontario was a different sort of week away from home. I had anticipated several aspects and intentionally took steps on others.

More alone time. My daughter was busy with her conference, and we had separate hotel rooms…so I was alone more – and I anticipated that that it would be that way. I brought activities with me for the time the hotel room and planned at least one activity away from the hotel room for each day. Because it was cold in the morning – I usually waited to leave the hotel until mid-day. I saw the sunrise from the hotel window almost every morning and

a few sunsets with the moon visible too.

There was even some fall foliage visible from the window.

I made a lot of Zentangle tiles, wrote more than 3,000 words per day, and read novels. My favorite morning time was sitting with my feet in the sun coming through the window…feeling warm and cozy….reading novels. It was good to have a week to simply spoil myself.

Walking everywhere. I originally thought I would take the car and visit some parks in the area, but I opted instead to just walk everywhere. I went to Covent Market frequently but also down to the Thames River path, to Banting House, to Museum London, to the RBC Center. And my daughter and I walked to buy at least one meal a day…mostly take out but we ate twice at Crabby Joe’s Bar and Grill. The COVID-19 infection rate was lower in London, Ontario that most places in the US, but we were still being careful – masking when we were in indoor public places.

The slower pace of walking allowed me to see more things – the street sculpture and murals I posted about earlier…and the changing color of leaves.

From my hotel window, I noticed the street sweeper machines in the early morning…and the streets did seem cleaner than in the US. I appreciated being around people after the aloneness of the hotel room….people watching as I walked:

  • The city’s homeless were evident in this downtown area; some had strollers or battered trailers to pull behind a bicycle to carry their things. One slept in a sunny doorway of a building before the store opened.

  • There were waves students that came for snacks or lunch from the local high school…some in uniform and others not.

  • One evening there must have been an event that required costumes since there several people walking along in exaggerated outfits and makeup.

  • Part of the street was closed to vehicular traffic and there was a mini-concert one evening there.

  • The picnic area at Covent Garden had an Autumn Festival at mid-day on our last day in London, Ontario. They had decorated with squash and gourds…country music filled the air. People were enjoying the sunshine, music, and food.

  • The street was modified for handicapped access and there were people in wheelchairs maneuvering easily through the area.  I also noticed a few sight-impaired people. The crossing lights made sounds as well as visual countdowns.

  • The hotel next to ours had a fire alarm and people streamed from the building…multiple fire trucks arrived. A person in our hotel lobby commented that he was getting his passport just in case the fire spread. But it was all over quickly. We never saw any smoke or fire.

Less online time. I intentionally spent less time online. I didn’t take a complete break, but I wasn’t checking news or email frequently…and I didn’t turn on the television at all. The strategy made for a calmer…less stressful week.

Canada. I found myself looking for differences between where I live in the US and London, Ontario. It seemed that the small city was cleaner than similar places in the US and that the downtown area was more vital…that infrastructure was in better shape…basically that the government was more effective. In general, people seemed less stressed. Yes – there were people looking at their phones, but they didn’t seem as distracted by the device – the high school students were generally spending more time talking to each other than looking at their phones!

One of my themes going into the week was thinking about what I want to change. I thought about it…but didn’t come up with definitive answers. I’m changing the idea to ‘what I want to change in 2023’ to give myself a little more time to decide.

London, Ontario Purchases

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My first purchases in London, Ontario were at the Covent Garden Market and were food I that would enjoy while I was there: bread from the bakery, mint dark chocolate Smoothies and dark chocolate covered ginger from The Chocolate Factory, and two kinds if tea and peppermint honey. I enjoyed the honey on the bread and to sweeten the tea.

I splurged on bone China mugs for myself…feeling the chill in the air and realizing I would be drinking hot tea in the coming months. The poppy mug was purchased from The Tea Haus in Covent Garden Market and the other I purchased from the Museum London shop; its design is from a Frank Johnston (Canadian artist) painting: Sunset in the Bush. I also purchased some other gift items at the museum shop but am not posting about them yet…want them to be a surprise to their recipients over the next few months.

I did purchase some gifts for people that are not online…more dark chocolate and an outfit for my grandnephew from Happy Wear in Covent Garden Market. Hopefully the outfit will fit him this winter!

The last day I was there I tried to find some toys for the kittens. There was no place in Convent Garden…so I opted to go to a nearby Dollarama store as I walked back to the hotel for the last time and found what I needed; the kittens are enjoying the small toys!

I am very pleased with my purchases…good food and items that are useful (not stuff to simply display in a shelf!).