Mexican food and crazy sky

 

Picking up some Enchiladas for lunch last week...Ole's Guacamole restaurant was full of guys from construction jobs...all sitting in tables together but separated by the tables that had been removed. You can't tell me those guys live together, so they shared lots of the same air. I wasn't happy to have to wait for 5 minutes in the hall for my food, even though the staff and myself were masked.  Incidentally, I was very very off my diet to eat this favorite.

Not every sky on Lake Tomahawk is this amazing. Those mountains are called the Seven Sisters. Large building in center with green roof is the Senior Center, which is closed still.

Today's quote:

there are moments in moist love when heaven is jealous of what we on earth can do. —Hafiz

New blooms

 

The purple shamrock (Purple Oxalis) has beautiful blooms

The Purple Oxalis blooms are usual on the sunny side of the plant on the windowsill. Here I caught (out of focus maybe) the screen shadows from the sun.

I was glad the phone could focus down on these blooms, which I've never seen before. This is the Rosemary plant!

It's had this scaly stuff for all the years I've had it. somehow it just keeps on growing.

Today's quote:

In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out of politics". All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. -George Orwell, novelist (25 Jun 1903-1950)

Blueberry Pancakes

Fresh blueberries. They had been shoved behind bagels in the refrigerator from my last shopping trip.

So I washed and drained them, and almost put them in the freezer. But decided I hadn't had blueberry pancakes in a while...so I just kept them by the stove, and got out the blender. A few minutes later and I had batter ready to go. I pour it into the pan, 3 small ones each time. Then dot the berries around the pancakes as they start to cook. This was the first time I've made them in this non-stick skillet. I used to use my iron skillet. I like this!

I make the whole batch, putting each threesome into the toaster oven on "keep warm" setting. Then when the last batch is done, I serve 3 for me to eat now, pour the syrup on them and nuke the plate in the microwave for 15 seconds to warm the syrup. I let the rest of the pancakes cool down at this point. They are put into a baggie and then the freezer for another breakfast whenever I wish.

I almost didn't get a photo of the served pancakes...here's one of the last bites! Very yummy supper. I like the reheated ones with just butter and good tasting nutritional yeast...and they were all gone within just a few days.

Today's quote:

Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance more than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality. -Sheri S. Tepper, novelist (16 Jul 1929-2016) 

The ongoing orchid

 

The sun hit the orchid one morning, and I couldn't resist. It's lasted a really long time.

Happy Valentines Day!

Today's quote: 

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
 only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate;
 only love can do that. 

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world
 that we must love our enemies - or else? 
The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate,
 wars producing more wars - must be broken,
 or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. 

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love
 will have the final word in reality. This is why right,
 temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. 

I have decided to stick with love.
 Hate is too great a burden to bear. 

Love is the only force capable of transforming
 an enemy into friend. 

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.
 He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid 
of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us
 and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this,
 we are less prone to hate our enemies. 

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

She said "no" to him, but then she did it anyway

 Which we all know means he'll not pay any attention when she says "no" the next time!

This lady said "No" to the Canada Goose which was following her.

Then she went ahead and broke off some of her bread and fed it to him. That was the clue...and lots of other ducks and geese came over looking for their own bits. Mr. Goose didn't let them have his bit though.

You can tell that it had rained the night before, but the weather gave us nice high 50 degree sunshine for this walk around Lake Tomahawk.

Today's quote:

Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge.
—Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

All stocked up for a couple of weeks

 Last week I paused in my shopping to take a few shots of this, one of my favorite grocery stores!

Early on a Tuesday morning I drove to Asheville before doing many of my normal morning things. Wanted to get there before many people were also shopping. And I was among maybe 20 in the whole store, which was doable for 6 foot distancing.

I carefully drove my cart around and around, and I think I got enough produce that should be cooked in the next couple of days...in order to keep for a few weeks...as soups, stews etc.

Aldi's has a great selection of produce, especially early in the day.  I now skip the meat and cheese departments...which look pretty good. I had to grab some more coffee, a fair trade brand.

You can see by the slightly out-of-focus shot that only 2 other people were bagging their groceries after I left.

I was happy to get everything into my 3 big shopping bags...then carted them out to the car. I learned the first time I visited that this is a "bag it yourself" store.

My next stop was to visit with a friend who works at a gas station...and I filled up the gas tank and did a car wash as well. Then home to put away groceries and then a walk with another friend around the lake! All in good time. Except I'd not done my morning meds or nebulizer treatment. Oh well. When I got home I did them at lunch time. And didn't seem the worse for changing the timing so I could shop early.

That night I fixed a couple of heads of broccoli in the steamer and some rice and a patty of fake meat for dinner. There are still lots of other things to cook and eat for my plant based low-fat diet.

Quote for today:

... the most fundamental scientific ‘fact’ is not the existence of a universe of things in space and time but awareness of such a universe.

Awareness is not a ‘thing’ that can evolve from or arise out of an unaware or insentient universe of things. On the contrary all things in the universe emerge and take shape out of a universal awareness. 

—Peter Wilberg
The Awareness Principle

Ducks and geese and snowy mountaintops

 Hi, it's Thursday in Black Mountain NC! And this series at Lake Tomahawk is from the day after our snowfall on Feb 2...so these photos are from Feb 3.

The water was flowing into the drainage channel.

This had been my first choice for the header...until I checked it when it was enlarged that much...and it seemed a bit fuzzy.

The ducks had decided to stay out of the wind. This is where they usually come to snooze after their morning feeding.

There were quite a few Canada Geese and Mallards that morning!

I'm including my header photo here, because in a few weeks I'll be changing it (after all, I know something else will come along that's of interest) and I don't want to lose it. I do delete the original photos after I post them to the blog, but still have several thousand saved in my computer's "Photos" file.

So why did the geese and ducks take off across the lake at that time? A family with a child was on the other side, and they started tossing some food out. These are wild fowl, but have been around here long enough to know that's a good thing, any time of day!

Today's quote:

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.


—John Muir

Sitting rather than walking

 The third post of one day by the lake...and tomorrow will be from another day, with different focus!

Don't get dizzy, this just happened when I slipped the phone into my pocket.

Yes, I hadn't seen this parking lot this full since I used to come eat lunch here daily. A clear Saturday in January brought everyone out!

Because of the crowded walks, with a few of the walkers wearing masks, I chose to sit and enjoy the day without walking around the lake. I also felt a bit lazy.

But rather than going to this bench on the peninsula which had some mallards enjoying lunch, I just clicked their image and kept on moving.

More ducks were joining them, coming out of the water (in the shade of the rocks so you can't really see them jumping up.)

My seat afforded me a rock to make sure I didn't go into the shallow water between the huge rocks. No ducks had yet made this a slope where some landscaping people had put a bit of grass sod.

View of the Rec. Building at Lake Tomahawk, from my peninsula. 

I just shared a great link on Facebook, which NPR posted...it's apparently been around a while. Radio Garden. Try it out and listen to radio stations anywhere in the world!

Today's quote:

The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within—strength, courage, dignity.

RUBY DEE

From a bench on a peninsula in a lake...

 

To continue my Saturday, Jan. 23 2021 sitting at the lake....some days I just don't have any new photos to share!

Yes, my bench was at the same peninsula as the gazebo at Lake Tomahawk

I was interested in the bark on this tree...perhaps a cherry tree? It certainly has lots of dead or dying  limbs.

Today's quote:

I and this mystery; here we stand.

–Walt Whitman

A very satisfying lunch

 

The last serving of my herb potato salad from Earth Fare grocery. And my hamburger that's plant based! However the thin whole wheat bread didn't make it through the whole sandwich, and I used my fork to eat the second half! I didn't see any reason to purchase a package of buns for the two patties I bought. The second patty was eaten plain, with various side dishes!

All the oil around the patties came from them, in my non-stick skillet. And I found pressing down on the patties to make them bigger, thinner, was a good idea. All the impossible burgers I've had at restaurants were thin and wide!

Yes, there's lots of fat grams in each one! But the taste is definitely of a real piece of hamburger!

This is what I made my sandwich from..as well as a bit of Veganaise. A flatter piece of lettuce and a bigger slice of tomato might have helped...as well as a real bun! I found it interesting that the 20 grams of protein was offset by 18 grams of fat. Many plant-based eaters scoff at that and say it's worse for you than a real hamburger. But hey, pea protein didn't mean killing a cow!

-------------------

Today's quote:

Listen to your heart and trust the direction you are being pulled.

Something inside you already knows what to do.

SPRING WASHAM

Jan 23 at Lake Tomahawk

 This poor old cherry tree sits near the gazebo at Lake Tomahawk.

Today's quote:

". . . the belief that humanity will soon become involved in a deep and abiding worldwide partnership with nature. Millions of us will commit ourselves to reversing the long legacy of environmental degradation that threatens to destabilize the climate as well as the great ecologies that sustain life on Earth. We must develop a vast stewardship initiative, which will become the great work of our time. Fortunately, there are as many ways to serve the Earth as there are people willing to engage in this vast restoration project. It includes nothing less than stabilizing the planet’s climate as well as saving ourselves."John Todd