It is raining! A soft gentle rain to bid summer adieu, and even though I forgot to bring in the dishtowels from the clothesline last night, I am so glad for the change in the weather. Hopefully today will be better.
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~ what I ate this morning ~
Tasty tasty Sister Gigi's corn pancakes aka using what I have on hand to make breakfast... Since I was all out of wet dairy product this morning (today is Alpenrose delivery day) I decided that it was cool enough that something cooked would be nice, and I remembered I had a package of frozen corn. Since I have started using masa instead of cornmeal, mixing up the batter did not require the added "soak overnight or suffer gritty results". I have noticed that I need to add some additional water to get a good texture for spooning out onto the griddle or pan. I added a small slice of Gruyère cheese (for a dab of extra protein) to my plate of a few pancakes topped with salsa verde, and put most of the them into the freezer for future meals.
~ what I ate this morning ~
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grrrrr... Yesterday had a rough start, with yet again a silent junk phone call at 6am, then one with what sounded like a live person at 6:20am... the kind that tries to get you to answer "yes" to a query so the have a recording of your voice "agreeing" to who knows what. These sorts of calls refuse to identify who they are, and I'm angry at being awakened so early. (Yes our phone is on the "do not call" list, for all the difference that makes)
So, when the phone rang today at 6:30, I fought a lifetime of conditioning and didn't answer it, knowing that the call would be picked up by the answering machine; if it was an actual human with important information I could choose to pick up or just let them leave a message. Sure enough, when no one picked up on our end, the "caller/bot" just dropped the call... Time for this plucky heroine to develop a new habit!
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Wednesday morning I went out on the front porch (a parcel that just arrived, (a replacement for my retractable sewing tape measure that exploded, yay!) and saw that the bushytail tree rats aka squirrel varmints, had attacked my new baby crocosmia that I had put on the porch to allow them to become properly rooted before planting them in the garden bed... I hadn't weighted down the wire mesh encasing it, and it was knocked over, holes dug in the potting soil, and worst of all, the new foliage had been chewed off and then spit out! It didn't occur to me that they would damage the plant itself, as the ones that are growing out in the front yard are untouched.
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"how to keep house while drowning" book (and workbook) arrived this morning, which will be very helpful for the presentation I am giving on Sunday. In addition, I had a Useful extended conversation online with Mikki about preparing for same, and we will be spending time tomorrow making further progress, with the result that I'm feeling less stressed about my talk. I am improving on accepting and asking for help...
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Managed to get outside when it was mostly just drizzling, and pick up all the damaged windfalls to put in the green waste bin (where they go to make compost and won't draw more danger bugs to the back yard). Added a bit of random pruning to the bin as well, and noticed that the plums are just about ready to be picked... Time to make some space in the freezer! I wish I had kept better records about what six varieties of apples were on the former espalier. I am pretty sure one was Gala, which has survived. I did write once on the blog that one branch was Golden Delicious, which sadly did not survive. I wish I knew what the green apple was that is the other survivor, it is not Granny Smith, but is obviously a cooking apple as it is firm and tart. I thought it might be a Yellow Transparent, but it refuses to turn yellow, and is not tender at all.
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August SMART goals (x=extra)
| # | THINGS MADE | THINGS FIXED | THINGS GONE |
| 1 | bed socks | driveway window cleaned | recycle bin |
| 2 | more bed socks | eye flannels edged | recycle bin |
| 3 | feather linocut | bathroom scale pad | yard waste bin |
| 4 | sunhat toile | some apple pruned | Ailanthus |
| 5 | fungi linocut | hemmed rainbow gauze veil | yard waste bin |
| 6 | fire linocut | epoxy blocks to wood backs | yard waste bin |
| 7 | x | windfalls picked up | recycle bin |
| 8 | x | x | x |
| 9 | x | x | x |
| 10 | x | x | x |
| 11 | x | x | x |
| 12 | x | x | x |
| 13 | x | x | x |
| 14 | x | x | x |
| 15 | x | x | x |
todays gratitudes -
1. shrimp stir fry for dinner last night, when I realised that there was no reason for me not to use some of the frozen shrimp for an everyday meal! I somehow had the idea that they should be saved for something "special", when in fact they make cooking dinner easy and fast!
2. "How To Keep House While Drowning" is a very useful book indeed and I am looking forward to sharing information about it to other folks
3. I have a variety of ways to preserve food available to me: canning, drying, and freezing, to make use of what will hopefully be a good fruit harvest year
Time of Isolation - Day 1162
