I blame it on the book

 "Braiding Sweetgrass" inspiration. No I'm not going out to teach biology, but I will talk with the plants I see, and admire new ones. Thanks to Robin Wall Kimmerer.

I just finished re-reading about her learning her native language, where every "thing" is described as a verb rather than a thing.

Then the next chapter was about capturing sap from the maples in her yard with her daughters, and making maple syrup.

I crave pancakes now. My syrup is pure maple, bottled in Ohio. I must wonder where the maple trees were which provided this delicious nectar.

I've got my blueberries from Peru, via Ingles Grocery. No kidding.

 So I shall enjoy mixing together some flour, milk, baking powder and and an egg and heating my skillet in which I'll gently pour the three rounds of batter and toss a handful of berries on each one.

After pouring on the syrup (which is kept cold the whole time and returned to the refrigerator) I reheat everything 15 seconds in the microwave for my serving.

 I let the rest cool on a rack and will put them in a bread-bag and then keep them in the freezer. They make wonderful breakfasts, but I seldom use syrup on them then. I just butter the toasted ones with a sprinkle of good tasting yeast.

See you later...yum yum!

Today's quote:

We invented phonetic writing so we could put our sounds down on paper and, by glancing at a page, hear someone speaking in our head—an invention that became so widespread in the last few thousand years that we hardly ever stop to consider how astonishing it is.

—Carl Sagan

Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death

Rewind from the past -one

 

My ex-hubby sent this photo with an email saying he's scanning old photos from a book where many are suck together. He says he'll send more, but is planning to make a book (paper) for each of the family members (our two sons and ourselves.)

I immediately knew that the only place we had possibly stood at a wheel on a ship was the Constitution. I didn't have any memory of the photo, so it must have been given to someone else in the family. It was an 8x10 size, and my ex sent me the full size in the email. A very big document!

We both do ancestry work these days in a real time similarity. We both sit at computers 500 or so miles away from each other. In infrequent emails we do not speak of our current thoughts. Except a bit about the pandemic, and his having moved into a senior apartment after his wife's death last year. I share about my life a bit I guess. He doesn't ask.

OK, that's the status of our lives. You, my blog friends know me better at this point in my life than he does.

And here's the more recent photo of me.  Would anyone recognize the younger me from this photo? 

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week. I have lots of bicycle sepia photos, but didn't get this one from the SS site till Thurs. I'd already composed my SS post with the old photo of myself on a ship with my ex. OK, the connection can be women at the wheel!

Today's quote:

“The mind unconsciously loves problems because they give you an identity of sorts.” Eckert Tolle

Why hello there!

 

This morning I was greeted with this new first blossom on this orchid plant...on Wed. Jan 12! 

Her stem of buds is extended to the side of the pot so far that I can't figure out a way to support it. I found a tall piece of pottery sculpture to be the crutch.

Another figure holds the weight of all those blooms as well as the extra stem on the other one. No they don't have names.

Sharing with Garden Bloggers Bloom Day tomorrow!

Checking on the orchids

 

The one I purchased last year (and haven't repotted) has plenty of bulbs. I think it has white flowers with a purple center.

The oldest of my plants, which was repotted 2 years ago.

This shows my living room windows...with good southern winter light coming in most days.

This pretty lady was a gift from my son Russ. So I've only 3 orchids in all, but they have so many blooms, and yet the structure is exactly the same on all of these.

These were the first to bloom this year, and still has more buds than believable!

I think I've posted a couple of photos twice in this one series. Must have been mixed up with the different batches! (I've got a great excuse, living my 80th year!)

Today's quote:

“Stress is caused by being “here” but wanting to be “there,” or being in the present but wanting to be in the future.” 

Eckert Tolle

Now this is a flower that blooms in winter!

 

I cut back all the Kalanchoe when I brought them inside in the fall.

And they love that winter sun.

They do brighten up the windows, while outside is grey!

The Orchids are back further from the glass, and they're all pretty happy these days too!

Today's quote:

“Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down. As it is, I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true. It causes a serious leakage of vital energy. This kind of compulsive thinking is actually an addiction. What characterizes an addiction? Quite simply this: you no longer feel that you have the choice to stop. It seems stronger than you. It also gives you a false sense of pleasure, pleasure that invariably turns into pain.”

Eckert Tolle

COPD

 

Click on photo to find more details.

This was on the back of the door in the pulmonologist's office the other day. I quickly clicked a photo of it, but didn't read. I remember when first diagnosed with COPD, they told me that it used to be just Emphysema or Bronchitis. But they (probably the American Medical Association) decided that these very different lung diseases should be just one.

My Bronchiectasis is a sub-set of bronchitis. But every time I have a 6-month check up, I'm feeling fine. Glad that I have definite swings in that direction, when I remember the uglies of fevers and coughing. 

OK, grateful to be relatively healthy today. Going to Physical Therapy in a few minutes, and it's probably my last treatment for back sprains that were from bending forward the wrong way. I still tend to do the wrong way, but am working on strengthening my core so I do it right.

Updated...the Physical Therapist didn't have a voice when we started our session, so he canceled it. I'm now scheduled for 2 weeks down the month. Hope he's feeling better soon. And I'm diligently doing my PT exercises. 

Today's quote:

​​Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something. -Gertrude Stein, novelist, poet, and playwright (3 Feb 1874-1946)

Bright and cheerful

If a rose of another name would still be beautiful, what other name would it have?

Red carnations don't change much as colorful spots to liven up the area!

Today's quote:

“Books and stories are medicine, plaster casts for broken lives and hearts, slings for weakened spirits,” Anne Lamott
 

While waiting for my laundry...

The owner of the boots was probably in the laundromat next door. Not sure why he left his boots outside...but he did walk by and pick them up a few minutes later.

I only did one load at the laundromat, and then tried the machines (and much higher prices) at my apartment's laundry room for the rest of my clothes. That was a big mistake. They may be clean, but the dryer didn't do anything much in 45 minutes (and $2) compared to the $0.75 for 32 minutes that's always dry at the commercial laundry. I'm going back there, but fortunately this time a friend said, come over and throw them in her dryer for a while. Yay. Now I won't have to spend time ironing them!

Pepperoni's Pizza has updated it's window with these fun pepperoni/snow men! But they were closed on Sunday, when I went by and clicked these photos.

So I schedule my laundry work and a lunch in the car (pizza and a salad) while waiting for the wash. It's a reward system!

Today's quote:

​All things are little, changeable, perishable. All things come from thence, from that universal ruling power either directly proceeding or by way of sequence. And accordingly the lion’s gaping jaws, and that which is poisonous, and every harmful thing, as a thorn, as mud, are after-products of the grand and beautiful. Do not then imagine that they are of another kind from that which thou dost venerate, but form a just opinion of the source of all.


—Marcus Aurelius
Meditations
 

Not a double exposure

 

With the sun coming into the car as I tried to capture the snow in Asheville on Tues afternoon, there are reflections on my window. It's almost a black and white image.

Today's quote:

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us,” Kafka

I've never read his work, but want to sometime!

Sharing with Sepia Saturday, where many (?) photographers will volunteer a sepia photo or two or...?

My morning

 

When I wake up, most mornings, I get my first cuppa coffee hot...either fresh made or warmed over from yesterday's pot. (In the last couple of days the coffee maker has been being naughty, so my first cuppa is espresso level, and I turn it off rather than having some overflow, though it probably has built-in safety measures to prevent that.) 

I turn on the little heater to take the chill off the living/dining/kitchen area. The split unit in the way supposedly keeps it at 68 degrees, but it sure feels colder coming out of blankets.

I take my blood pressure, which will tell me whether or not to take a blood pressure pill. Sometimes it's too low, so I can skip the pill.  I finally got my cardiologist to define low, less than 50 below, less than 100 above numbers.

I do my 10 minute meditation, stretch a bit, then look at what's been posted overnight on blog or email. I usually turn on some music on YouTube (which has few commercials compared to the radio broadcasting sites.)

I fix something for breakfast, and while reading blogs and commenting on a few of them, I spoon in my granola and fruit. As soon as I finish eating, it's time for all the pills and then the nebulizer (the machine on far right with blue mouthpiece.) It's only saline solution, but at this point keeps my lungs clear, so I can go about my day feeling ok.

I've noticed the little inhaler part tends to grow mold, so last night I dunked it in vinegar hoping that would cleanse it.

My view when I am not looking at the screen.

Then it's to the shower and get dressed! And I used to have one activity which I'd accomplish each day...like go to grocery, or doctor or something else. It's expanded to several lately, for which I'm very grateful. After feeling sick from this, that or another, it's so good to have enough energy to make it through a whole day to bedtime. I often have maybe 15 minutes of Physical therapy, then 10-20 minutes of cardio by walking up and down the hills my apartment sits on. My goad is 10 minutes of cardio four days a week. And strength training the other 3...which I'm not doing very well with these days!

Here's something I've been thinking about...creating more appropriate names for the months, which we could relate to easier than the old Roman Gods! If you have better ideas, please let me know!!

BARB's year of months:

Joyous - Jan.

Fantasy - Feb

Meditative - Mar

Awesome = April

Marvelous - May

Jubilant  - June

Celebrations = July

Relations = Aug

Satisfaction - Sept

Comedy - Oct

Connections - Nov

Musical - Dec

Was this published already?

I was grateful for the rain in early Dec., but it sent us all inside at Fresh, a "Wood Fired Pizza and various other good meals" place for lunch on Saturday before Solstice. This lunch was actually a week after the one at Ole's.

Bette looks good, and so does my finger!!

Cathy and I en-mask after we'd finished our meals...and in holiday red/green colors! Judy said she doesn't take photos. I respected her wishes.

I had a delightful Shrimp Scampi with angel hair pasta...nice chunks of bread and 5 huge shrimps. I wonder why the tails were left on for shrimp served in a sauce...but I cut off their tails. They were soooo good! I had no shrimp left over, but plenty of angel hair!! And half the salad too.

I stopped by CVS and while waiting in line, this jolly old elf with a lantern stood by my side. I wondered who would buy him.

Today's quote:

The deepest wound is knowing that they know, and that it doesn’t matter.

January 6th was a coordinated attempt to kidnap members of Congress, overturn a free and fair election by its people, and install a president whose criminality is simply unprecedented and whose involvement was complete.
It was a threat to our sovereignty.
It was a rejection of our Constitution.
It was antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.
It was an historic act of treason.
It was a vicious attack on democracy.
It was a partisan act of domestic terrorism.
It was a violent insurrection.

All Americans know this.

All of them.

Only decent ones care.

​-John Pavlovich

His whole article may be found HERE

Within You Without You

A bit of Eastern Indian music the Beatles brought to the west...I've borrowed the link to the YouTube channel from another blog Love is a Place.

A Beatles Tune done again by The Analogues...thanks George Harrison

We were talking about the space between us all

And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion

Never glimpse the truth
Then it's far too late

When they pass away

We were talking about the love we all could share
When we find it, to try our best to hold it there with our love
With our love, we could save the world, if they only knew

Try to realise it's all within yourself
No one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you

We were talking about the love that's gone so cold
And the people who gain the world and lose their soul
They don't know
They can't see

Are you one of them?

When you've seen beyond yourself then you may find
Peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come when you see we're all one
And life flows on within you and without you


—The Beatles

I just finished seeing "Don't Look Up."

I haven't watched a movie for a long time. It will be a short time before I see another one, just to have an experience to wash this one away from my mind. Of course it's important to see the last last, after all the credits. As they say, watch it till the end. 

Character development. Not much, just a copy people on today's news.

Plot - really vapid...the end of the world.

Redeeming qualities? It may be moralistic and have a message parallel to that of climate change, but it is just drama.

So the end of the world is on a lot of people's minds...this is not really entertaining.

A bit more of our tour of lights

 

My first house, before picking up my friend.

Isn't the creche scene shadowed on the house a great addition?

A second shot of the same yard, but snoopy in the back isn't as clear as we wished.

Isn't it fun the way the light flowed in a haze above the edge of the roof? Or maybe I've got a fingerprint on the lens!!

We liked the candy canes (red) as well as multi-colored ice cycles.

Today's quote:

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, 
while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

—Lao Tzu