The Valentine

My father 1939

Happy Birthday

I grew up without much affection, except for my grandmother and a bit from him. He was a smart, athletic and extremely selfish person. He loved to ice skate and had me on double bladed skates by the time I was three. He taught me to ice dance. There was an ice arena near our home and he got into long blades sometime in the late '60s. I carried my ice skating skills to roller-skates in my early teens. We also had a rollerskating arena near home.

He was the reason I got my first horse. He loved horses and had an American Saddlebred as a boy and an Arabian as a young man. Guess what I have owned for forty years. My first horse was a draft cross, he encouraged me toward a steady, well trained fellow, which was the right thing to do.

He is also the reason I was able to ski. I joined the ski club in junior high and he encouraged me. I spent years on downhill skis. He taught me how to change car oil, how to change a tire.

What he didn't do was protect his two children from our mother.

Chatty

Blackberries

While at Costco I picked up blackberries, something I haven't had in I don't know how long. This recipe called itself a cobbler but I wouldn't call it that. Anyway, whatever it's called it's good. I have developed, at my advanced age, a sweet tooth. My thought is that I'm stressed, depressed and all around out of sorts. Somehow, not only eating, but baking desserts is comforting for me. I am cutting the recipes in half. 

We are an ice rink. Melting during the day, freezing at night. I won't be making anymore adventures until this changes. My balance is terrible. I don't need a broken hip. I have been using the treadmill and my little peddler machine to help build lower body strength. I faced a tough fact recently. I'm not getting younger and there will be no magic wand waved over my head to fix me. I need to dig into myself and find a thread of the very determined person I once was.

Back to food. I bought steelhead trout, a favorite of mine, yesterday. I've been depriving myself because the cost soared and I balked. I gave in yesterday. So that is happily tonight's dinner. Fascinating, I know.

Life in the Eavestrough

What happened to decorum? Basic manners? Someone who knows what they are doing?

 *Credit Ann Telnaes

Whiling the Winter Away

Yes, I'm housebound and just a tiny bit stir crazy. I will be leaving the abode sometime on Thursday.....yay. In the meantime I go through photos. Why not? It's more enjoyable than cleaning the house. I have no idea who these two are but they were in with the hundreds of others. Why did children always look stern? They are a distant relative of some sort. It's really too bad no one thought to put names and dates on the photos, but then either did I when I was actually using film.

Fast forward decades........

This is a photo of Matthew, upper left, with the neighborhood buds. He was early teens. He is all paternal family in looks and build. He did somehow end up with black hair in his early twenties, which would be my lineage. Always a serious expression.

 We are in a too warm spell.

Let Me Eat Cake

We are having a warming trend at the moment. I know this sounds good, but warming above freezing causes problems for hoofed animals. It always turns to ice in the end. I prefer 20-30 F myself. But the weather does not care one whit what I prefer.

Even if I didn't know it is warmer Tabby's behavior would tell me. He is spending less time in the house. He was enjoying his repose the other day.

I've been spending time on small organizing jobs. They do add up over time. I also have been spending time baking. I have never been very interested in desserts but the anxiety swirling around seems to have awakened a sweet tooth I didn't know I had. Yesterday I made a lemon ricotta cake. Too bad my baking friends live far away. I have a lot of whey they could have. I use it for making bread.

My food hoarding urge is on alert. As my friend, the psychiatric nurse, told me, it's all about the need to feel control. Mine manifests itself in stocking up food. Just as I had become less of a hoarder we went back into turmoil. So both freezers are packed. Shelves are full. And I'm eating desserts! Which isn't the worst thing in the world. I'm going to Aldi this week to buy food for the local food shelf. I've donated money to an organization providing food for the residents in Minneapolis and St. Paul. It's what I can do.

That's the news from my corner of the world.  

2008

Things change yet stay the same. Or worsen. 

I wrote this the first month of my first year of blogging, August 2008. I remember this. It was horrendous what was done to this young woman. She had/has serious mental illness and to do this to anyone, much-less one so vulnerable is unforgivable. The anonymous writer scalded her. If you are going after someone on a public forum at least use your name. 

The reason I reposted it is, look at where we are now. The bile that is spewed daily, the loss of decorum, of basic manners and decency is overwhelming. The vilifying of large groups of people, the murdering of people in the streets. The fact that the government is now trying to deport a five-year-old. And about 40% of our population condones this. It's shameful.

Off my soapbox now. I'm in a mood.

Horse Play

Geezers at play

 

24 and 26 years old and they never grew up. I should be so lucky.

 

Fruity

Boud had asked for photos of my big Costco adventure but I got to replies after the fact. Since my life is rather narrow, as in a trip to Costco is an adventure, I saw this as I was getting ready for bed last night and knew it would make a fascinating blog post. Without further delay....fruit from the adventure! Tomatoes are, actually, a fruit, right? 

I have a lot of cut glass and crystal. Most of the cut glass was my grandma's. I decided a while ago that instead of collecting dust in a cabinet it may as well collect dust on the counter with fruit. So I load them up. 

I made a pot roast a few days ago, of which the leftovers became Wednesday's dinner. I don't like cooked carrots and Mark does, so he got the last of the potatoes and carrots. I opted for Brussels sprouts. Without the pot roast vegetables it doesn't look like much anything but some gravy covered meat. It was good all the same.

I've been spending time on the treadmill, just short slow walks throughout the day. I need to build up leg strength. I also have a pedal machine I haven't use for quite a while that I need to pull out. A few days ago I thought about the fact that I'm not getting any younger and if I want to be able to function as time goes on I had better take it seriously. So I'm trying. It's difficult for me to feel engaged at this time. Something many of us feel. But now is not the time to pull the blanket over the head. So.....that's that.

Power to the People

My deeply felt thank you to those who speak up. Not all have this talent but we do it in so many ways and it all matters.

https://youtu.be/fO-9JrPtj3Q?si=o2XLAqzFt0QzFIUt 

Carrying On

With the amount of absurdity swirling around those of us in the US, the schadenfreude of the few and the shock of everyone else, I have been busy trying to keep my sanity. What little remains. I've been doing a lot of baking and, of course, the general meal prep. Simple is so satisfying. Pan fried flounder. How simple and delicious on a cold Minnesota night.

Don't choke on your coffee, I will be leaving the walls of my own security to venture into the chaos of the world. I'm going to Costco. I feel like a world traveler.