It’s probably not right when your mum says to your best mate: If you don’t eat those vegetables, you’ll get bowel cancer and die. She was a difficult lady, yeah. Such casually cruel observations don’t make for pleasant dinner time chit chat, and so bringing friends home to share a meal was always a fraught experience. Best avoided. Candidly, the food wasn’t all that great anyway.
At the age of about twelve, in that single mother household, I found myself in the kitchen preparing family meals on a rotating roster with my two older sisters. Perhaps my mother took a sense of pride in her lack of domestic abilities? After all, she worked full time and studied University for a degree part time, and maybe had no desire to cook and clean – especially given that us kids were doing that work. My best friends parents both worked as well, and so we walked to and from primary school together. What a change a few decades makes, for in these enlightened times, parents allegedly get harassed by the police for such arrangements. Things sure were different back in the 70’s.
Anyway, people rarely visited the household, let alone stayed for shared meals. However, I did learn my way around the kitchen and how to cook from an early age. Not a bad skill to have, especially given we all more or less, eat three meals per day. It was obvious to me from those earlier experiences that browbeating your guests is a totally bad idea! But exactly how to manage a gathering, well, that was a skill which was never handed down. I had no idea how to handle such a thing. A dude therefore has to learn the hard way, by attempting to emulate better examples. It’s been remarked upon elsewhere, that it is a notable achievement to grow beyond your roots.
Some friends can host gatherings with an effortless ease which underlies the enormous amount of work it takes to effect that casual and relaxed vibe. It’s awesome to be a part of. And over the years whilst ostensibly enjoying myself at those occasions, meanwhile singing for my supper, as they used to say, the observational powers were quietly watching everything, and taking notes.
Nowadays, with more experience, I’d like to imagine that Sandra and I can host a small gathering of friends with the sort of casual ease which smoothes the sometimes muddy social waters. The ultimate test however, is whether the guests will happily return for future get togethers! And so far, so good.
We had a bunch of friends over for lunch during the weekend. What a fun time was had. And fortunately, there was enough tiramisu left over for a small chunk for each us after dinner – that meal also consisted of various left overs. Nothing goes to waste here! It’s worthwhile at this point in the story, mentioning my cunning dessert plan – feed up the guests on other tasty yummy treats, before the dessert was brought to the table. With already full guts, the guests may not have been able to polish off all of the tiramisu, despite doing their best trencherman efforts! The long dead master of war, Sun Tzu, would have approved of the crafty dessert stratagem. And it worked!
Whilst at table, the gathering quite happily and politely discussed various complicated topics, often from wildly different perspectives. In today’s polarised communication landscape, that’s a rare and precious thing.
If a person cares to, they can learn and implement good habits from observing poor examples. Over the long years I’ve been involved in groups which appeared to fall into the ‘dysfunctional’ category of social relations. Without going into too many details, one group fell apart due to the unusual demands from a person who was not even directly involved with the group. Like how was that even allowed to happen? But it sure did! Another group was like a scene out of a remote survivor disaster film where people got picked off, one by one. Truly, if you tolerate such things, you’ll be next. And sure enough I was!
The inability to discuss these sorts of difficult matters, warts and all, whilst maintaining a coherent group, suggests a dearth of good leadership in the wider community. It’s not comforting to observe this inability, least of all because the alert person realises that problems will never get resolved, until they escalate beyond any possibility of control. Oh well, and here we are today. My mother, if she were alive, might cheekily suggest that the ‘powers that be’ are ideologically constipated, and they may well suffer poor outcomes. It pains me to believe that the old virago may have been correct! You’d hope that as a society we can move past this moment in time and free up those ideological bowels.
It’s been an extraordinarily wet week. At times the rainfall, which had it’s origins in the tropical Indian Ocean far to the north west of the continent, dumped torrential quantities of water over the farm. It’s a good way to test the many drainage systems.
The rainfall which collects on the hard surfaces in front of the house, is directed into a drainage basin. The tree fern growing at the bottom of the basin enjoyed every minute of the heavy rainfall.
The house water tanks were half empty at the beginning of the week. Now, due to the tropical downpour, they are full to overflowing. All of the water storages are now full, and that’s a good position to be in on the first official day of summer.
With guests arriving for lunch on the weekend, we mowed the entire property and generally cleaned up the place. As a side note, it rained the entire time during the visit, and so we all mostly kept indoors.
The making of the tiramisu was filmed and will be released over the next three weeks. The first week will show how the mascarpone cheese was made. Next week will cover the lady finger biscuits. Then the third week will show how the super tasty dessert was put together. But for long term readers, I thought it might be interesting to peer behind the fourth wall, so to speak.
And here’s a sneak peek at the completed dessert. Glad we took a photo, because it’s all been consumed by now!
The other evening whilst out walking around, Ollie alerted me to a tiny little orphaned ring-tail possum. Sandra contacted the local wildlife rescue mob, and they now have the possum in their care. He’d have had zero chance of survival otherwise.
There’s a lot of wildlife living here. When the sun shines, reptiles warm themselves on the many rock walls. When walking around the place, sometimes the scuttling noises can be mildly alarming!
During warmer days, the air hums with insect life. Their collected actions can be quite loud. A few varieties of native bees live around here, and all of them do good work pollinating the annual plants.
Oh! I’d appreciate some help with identifying this mystery plant. When it was sold to me, the seeds were described as being the North American pawpaw, which clearly they aren’t. I’m guessing it may well be the North American chestnut, but aren’t really sure. Anyway, what the heck are they? If you know, please do drop a comment below:
The dogs suffered a bit of cabin fever during the rainiest of days. One evening I discovered that the cheeky Ruby had usurped Dame Plum’s usual position on the couch. The clever Plum was having none of that foolishness, and so plopped herself down on top of Ruby. A bold power move if you ask me! Ruby did her best to look nonplussed, but soon enough relocated.
In breaking produce news: The first ripe raspberries of the season were harvested. Yummo! The berries are collected, washed, then stored in the freezer. When the container becomes full, we make a batch of raspberry jam.
The blackberries are still probably a month or so away from being ready to harvest, but at this stage, the season promises to be decent. We also turn most of the blackberry harvest into jam, and during winter months on oven warmed freshly baked bread, it’s awesome.
Cherries are beginning to show some blush, but I’d reckon the birds are keeping a closer eye on these tasty fruits than I ever could.
With the heavy rainfall last week, the apples are putting on some decent size. Early in the new year, we hope to make some batches of cider.
The pears have likewise gotten bigger with the rain over the past week.
Alas, we weren’t quick enough to harvest all of the tasty Globe Artichokes, and some of the flowers have begun to open. With the multitude of spiky chunks when those flowers open, they’re poor eating. However, they’re quite pretty in their own way, and provide plenty of feed for the insects.
The potatoes, sugar beets and radishes have all revelled in the wet and warm conditions this week:
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 23’C (73’F). So far for last year there has been 896.8mm (35.3 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 799.0mm (31.5 inches)
Yo, Chris – Banquet? You’re going to eat the baby possum! 🙂 How many are you expecting for dinner?
So. Two sister and you. Who was the best cook?
Besides your craftiness, deserts can be quit the denouement of a meal. A feast for the eye. You want to hear people go, “Ohhhhh!”
One hopes for scintillating conversation, in a group. Rather than descending into some kind of “Hunger Games.” It takes a bit of a knack, to mix diverse guests, and keep the conversation rolling along on an even keel.
Yes, the powers that be definitely need to eat more vegetables. And if they don’t I suppose it’s bad form, to be a bit gleeful, when they succumb to bowel cancer.
That’s a lot of rain, even for here. At least you can relax a bit, now that the water tanks are topped up.
The picture of the Tiramisu? Are you sure that’s what it is? Looks like a bowl of chili 🙂 . The subtitles are sometimes an unintentional hoot. “Dregs” came across as “DRS.” Where’s my decoder ring? 🙂
Tiramisu seems to be one of those recipes, where you have to pay attention to temperature, and some measurements. Thanks for showing the thermometer. But, I got to wondering how chefs managed to pull it off, back before thermometers and accurate measuring was common? I suppose it was practice, practice, practice. And pulling off a successful Tiramisu, was probably what made a chef a great chef.
But, I thought it was a very good video. Just out of curiosity, what other ways could you use that cheese?
Skinks are very cool.
Those raspberries look very tasty. And the cherries, apples and pears look very promising. Your potatoes, radish and sugar beets, are jumping out of the ground.
The flowers are lovely. Especially, the corn flowers. 🙂
I got an e-mail, that the Master Gardeners, are coming tomorrow morning, to put up the Christmas tat. Will be nice to see them. As the weather has been dry, I’ll do a few things in the garden. Lew
Hello Chris,
Your mystery tree is my best friend, the chestnut!
What happened – we can only guess? Did a wombat dig out your pawpaw seeds and replaced them with chestnuts? A truly impressive bait-and-switch scheme.
Pawpaws are great, but a chestnut tree is maybe greatler?
And indeed – social settings are not easy. We all have (unspoken) expectations regarding how to behave and when expectations don’t align, it can be quite stressful. I was lucky to grow up in a home with lots of guests, mainly informal friends and everyone was welcome to eat along. Both parents worked, and cooking was far from top-notch, but the atmosphere was always inviting to compensate.
Every family is different, though, and every country has different traditions. When I lived in Russia, it was overwhelming. When you get to know someone, and you come into their “inner circle”, hospitality knows of no borders. The whole fridge empties onto the dinner table, and bottles are assembled from every hideout. Generosity above all.
Right now I am in a local nature conservancy group in our town, and we have a very dominant elderly lady who takes and keeps the word in every second meeting or so. If it was all the time, I would have stopped right away, but now it is only intermittent and unpredictable so I am confused about my next move. Probably I will step out and wait for the paradigm to shift, as Planck’s principle posits.
It is great to have people over, but indeed, we choose to clean up the place beforehand and prepare most foods in advance, just to have some mental headspace for all the unexpected things that pop up.
And to be able to connect with the people who come.
I believe that eating together is the most human thing we can do. (As far as I understand, no other animal brings food to share with family and friends, typically only to their offspring.) Eating together and sharing stories are truly meaningful activities in my life.
Peace,
Göran
Hi Göran,
Ah, the vagaries of random seed providers on the interweb can lead to true mysteries. But I reckon these three seedlings are of the American chestnut variety, so I appreciate your confirmation that they are from that family of trees. The leaves look different to the Sweet Chestnuts which have origins to the south of where you are. Hopefully the blight which strikes that tree down isn’t here, and it might not be.
The wombats are super cheeky and unstoppable, but they generally prefer to turn over soil, than actively plant species they’d prefer. They’re one of natures great digging creatures (after humans of course) and no fence will stop them. They simply dig underneath. Unfortunately the rabbits take advantage of those earthmoving skills!
I agree, I’m happy enough with a few more chestnut trees. Might have to track down some pawpaws though! Maybe purchase them from a more reliable seller than some rando off the interweb! 🙂
That’s it isn’t it? I find that in some restaurants and pubs as well, the general decent ambience and vibe of the place is a factor and can assist you in over looking the food quality. Your earlier experience probably left you with excellent hosting skills, and it’s hard to stuff up food when the ingredients come fresh straight from the garden, or other awesome sources like the gleaning you and your lady do.
Oh my! The customs and traditions are quite different down here, although it was expected that with guests, they’d be served the best, and family hold back. The English culture is very much about maintaining appearances, thus the inexplicable historic room of the parlour, where guests were received.
Hmm! Navigating such groups is an intriguing exercise in leadership. If I may, a good leader tends to wind up verbose speakers after a respectable period time. I’ll tell you a funny story: At some weddings over the years, other guests have discovered my profession, then proceed to extract free advice. I learned to speak with them bluntly: You’ve got ten minutes, get it out of your system. In groups I tend to quietly move the conversation on to other people and topics when a waffling person has run out of anything interesting to add. Often their conversation goes around and around in circles. But to be honest, I’m not entirely certain I understood what you meant by the words: ‘takes and keeps the word in every second meeting or so’. Good leadership sadly introduces an element of pain, and people resist change, but the short term nature of this pain, is far cheaper than not dealing with the core problems. Dunno, just my take on the world of social groups.
🙂 My thoughts exactly! It is difficult to connect with the people who arrive, when you are super busy in the kitchen – unless that is where a person extracts their enjoyment of entertaining people.
Göran, I am completely in agreement with you. Despite being an introvert by nature, I also enjoy eating together and sharing stories. Such a meaningful activity.
It was over 30’C today, and we got the sapling fenced enclosure cleaned up, fertilised and ready to plant out. Until the last week or so, it hasn’t been warm enough to get the pumpkins, zucchini and cucumbers seeds in the ground.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The poor little possum would be all bone and gristle. It needs to fatten up in the orchard for a year or two until it would provide some decent roast meat. 😉 Did your mum ever tell you how cheeky you are?
They say pride goeth before a fall, but I reckon I was the better cook of the three of us – even being the youngest. Dunno, the incentive for me was that the meals ended up tasting good. It’s funny isn’t it how people relate to food. And everyone is different. If I made a mistake with the preparation of a meal, I’d go over what went wrong, and try and do better next time. For other people, cooking can simply be a chore and they just churn out whatever rubbish result, and not care about that. I dunno, just like you, food is important to me. It needn’t be complicated, or over the top, but more than merely just good is what I aim for when in the kitchen.
The Editor was a terrible cook when we first got together. Believe it or not, early on, one day after a particularly watery pasta sauce, I actually sacked her from the kitchen and took over, and did better. 🙂 From hindsight it’s obvious how the situation came to be, her parents made mushy food. Nobody could develop any skills whatsoever in such an environment. Fortunately the Editor was open to learning, and is probably the better cook of the two of us now. Our friends of the big shed fame are real foodies too, and they enjoy cooking – and the produce is always top notch. I’ve learned a lot from them. But then do surprise them from time to time with things like the tiramisu. I was toying with the idea of taking a proper made from scratch key lime pie this year as well.
🙂 That’s exactly it! And have you noticed that when it comes to a very good dessert, people always make room… Hehe!
I like your analogy with the Hunger Games, but yeah, these days can be a bit terrifying when it comes to reactionary reactions. I’ll steer the conversation onto a new topic if things get heated, or worse, dull. The early house mates who took me under their wing and taught the gentle arts of conversation, opened a whole new world. Everyone needs some gentle guidance at some point in their lives.
Maybe it is poor form, but didn’t they bring that poop down on their own heads? Not my circus… 🙂 And did anyone ask you or I? Don’t think so.
It was quite warm here today. After doing another shady mixed day of work, we got stuck into cleaning up the over grown sapling fenced enclosure. Did the work in the hottest part of the day, ook! Anyway, it all got a decent feed too and is now ready to plant out. Got the pumpkin, squash, zucchini and cucumber seeds soaking tonight. A local lady gifted us melon seeds from a variety which does well in this area.
Also potted up several Japanese maple seedlings into much larger pots.
Hehe! Look, if it makes you feel better, yeah sure it was a bowl chilli. Except it was super awesome. Yum! We just don’t get enough views to make it worth the time keying in the subtitles. I’m sure the robot which does that job, is having fun with all of us.
Yeah, I’d always believed that the temperature was kind of important when it comes to adding the lemon juice or vinegar to the mix, but the truth is, I don’t know. Some things in the kitchen are like that, and I’ve heard purists breaking peoples cojones about some minor technicality or other, and am unimpressed. There was a cider making book I read years ago where the author was nuts about exact quantities, and it’s simply not true, or may only be true in his area. Dunno. The thing is, the cream was $6 for 300ml and there were two of them, so I just don’t want to waste the stuff to find out the truth of the matter.
But I reckon your point is spot on, practice, practice, practice. To know the recipe intimately in all its permutations, is to be able to claim the title: ‘expert’. Long ago I read that the potty mouthed chef in his first job made club sandwiches for three solid years. You’d learn a lot that way and know the end result intimately.
Wow! What an interesting question you asked. Turns out the cheese is most useful in some very yummy savoury and dessert dishes. Man, I really was salivating reading about the dishes. Thanks for mentioning the idea.
Despite the heavy rain last week coming on the back of a run of dry weather, we seem to be having a good season produce wise. I suspect that the improved soil feeding regime Claire got me onto is paying dividends. The plants and trees seem hardier somehow. It’s raining right now, again.
And they’re blue! I believe they are a native wildflower from around these parts, maybe.
That’s my thinking with apples as well, they’re all useful, you just have to know what to do with them. We’re going to ramp up the cider making over the next few months. The earliest batch was served on the weekend, and got good feedback. It’s a drier flavour. They make an apple sauce for preserving the apple harvest in your country, don’t they? I wouldn’t know how to use the stuff, but it seems like a good idea. Is it any good from your perspective?
Oh yeah, the snake would not have enjoyed the air conditioner, especially if it was under the dash. Far out. I reckon the driver must have left their window open. Dunno man, but we do not leave windows and doors open for this very reason. One of the good things coming out of the recent interaction with the local wildlife rescue mob, we got the phone numbers of the local snake catchers who work in this area. A handy number to have, and it’s better having such a thing and not needing it, than needing it, and not having it, don’t you reckon?
One of those murder wasps would be equally bad news as well. 🙂
Good to hear that the new Beetlejuice film was worth the watch. I’d been wondering about that, but there’s no harm in re-doing old films.
The Odysseus findings story is stupid. Is it the tomb, or isn’t it? How hard can this be, and I see that apparently tourism mad cash and allegedly prestige is involved. What could possibly go wrong?
Oh yeah, Asian cooking does introduce the concept of sweet and sour, so the spam and pineapple combination would probably work quite nicely. It’s not much different from the traditional Hawaiian pizza down here, which is usually ham and pineapple. Look, it’s not my first choice, which would be the Capricciosa pizza, but I’d enjoy it. I’d not known that the recipe dated way back.
Very funny! I’ll hopefully avoid the prospect by not visiting quaint English villages. 🙂 Just seems so much to go wrong there…
Are you enjoying any leftovers from Thanksgiving?
Cheers
Chris
chestnut- yup, looks like it to me. You will likely need at least one more for pollination and subsequent nuts.
umbrellas- This past summer, during a pretty substantial rain, I went out to the field with the swales to see how well they were holding on to the deluge, and found an area that needs improvement. Some things have to be observed as they happen, to really confirm performance.
learning to cook- when you are the oldest of 10, you learn how to cook. Actually, mom and my sisters did the meal cooking, but a young guy gets hungry between standard meal times. I still remember the egg and sausage sandwiches I’d fry up.
The last two years of college, three friends and I moved off campus and rented a farm house. So we all cooked ( well, one guy hated cooking, but offered clean up, so win-win) and got to learn other family food preferences. One gut came from a bit more culture than me, so learned about coq au vin and all sorts of new yummy things.
conversational adeptness- I find that our newish book club is where I practice trying to engage and question in ways that show interest but not judgement. A good life skill that many never acquire. I’m still working on it.
Yo, Chris – Possum hors d’oeuvres? 🙂
Hmmm. If I want to do a real flash desert, I do individual lemon meringues. I have a recipe where the number of egg whites you need for the meringue part, are equal to the number of yolks you need for the lemon filling part. An innovation of my own, I do a separate dab of meringue, to float in the middle of the lemon. I’m pretty hopeless when it comes to pies. Practice, practice, practice!
I can think of many legendary hostesses, but no hosts come to mind. Maybe James Beard? There was a Washington, D.C. hostess, who led the pack for decades. Perle Mesta. She was called “The Hostess with the Mostess.” There was a movie done about her … and, even a musical. 🙂 Jackie Kennedy pulled off some pretty spectacular events, when she was in the White House. She liked a good mix. Intellectuals, artists, musicians.
Our high yesterday was 36F (2.22C). The overnight low was a steady 28F. Forecast for today is 47F. I’m calling it. First frost. Although the grass was not crunchy, there was white on a lot of the garden plants. The rhubarb leaves look pretty sad. Prof. Mass had a post, recently, that La Niña is dying. Well, that was short and sweet.
So are those cornflowers native to Australia? They look similar to our cornflowers (aka: Bachelor’s Buttons.). As near as I can tell, the stamens look longer. More spidery. Ah! Not native but naturalized. Same here. Wow. Interesting plant. With a lot of uses.
https://w.wiki/CGvU
I suppose if you made club sandwiches for three years, you’d also be taking in everything else going on in the kitchen. I’ve heard stories of other young chefs, who spent years doing the same repetitive task. Some believe the true test of a chef is making the perfect omelet. Have even seen that in a movie or two, as an interview performance, for a job.
Oh, we’re a very apple sauce kind of a country. 🙂 It’s everywhere. Often tinned, or in bottles. Home preservers put it up by the quart. It seems traditional to pair it with pork chops. It’s also often dusted with cinnamon. Unsweetened apple sauce can be swapped, 1/1 in baked goods calling for oil. I use it when I make biscuits. There is also “apple butter.” Thicker, darker, and can be spread on bread. Also a favorite of home canners (tinners?)
Always handy to have the snake catchers number, on hand. And, you’ll probably meet an interesting person, with all kinds of useful bits of information.
Well, I’m convinced it’s the tomb of Odysseus. Homer was pretty lavish with geographical details. And, other details. Odysseus had a cloak clasp / broach with a lion or dog, pulling down a fawn. It was kind of his trademark. Well, next to the body, in the tomb, was a seal stone made out of rock crystal. Guess what was on the seal. Yup. A dog / lion pulling down a fawn. They had an American archaeologist, who among other things, is an expert in Mycenaean seal stones. He’s never seen that motif, anywhere else.
Thanksgiving leftovers? Well, I’ve been hitting the fudge, pretty hard. 🙂 Rationing out the pumpkin pie, a slice a day. Only one left 🙁 . But, mostly, I’ve been eating sensibly. I had a craving for garbanzo beans with greens, last night. Out in the garden, picking mustard greens and parsley, by torchlight. Some broccoli, some garlic. Rice. Dried tomatoes. Tasty.
The Master Gardeners were here, this morning, to put up some Christmas tat. Not too bad. They go pretty simple. A few strings of lights and a lot of evergreen and holly.
I cut down the Jerusalem artichoke, as it was looking pretty tatty. I’ll get around to digging up the bulbs, and replanting for next year, eventually. I also buried a bag of kitchen scraps. And planted some Vinca in the hanging basket. It’s an evergreen, and about the first thing to bloom in the spring. The geraniums were well past their prime. Lew
Hi, Chris!
Your mother was going it alone. That’s hard, no matter one’s personality or character. It was good that you and your sisters helped. Good for you, good for her. Yeah – things were better in the 70s.
“Casual ease” – what a wonderful phrase. That does seem to describe you. Maybe you are not as crafty as you think. Now your guests know to save some room for the tiramisu. I loved the video. I like your chef’s hat and I like learning about Masa Pony Cheese, the cheese with undoubtedly a kick. I am still laughing about the cheese and the subtitles and at Ollie licking the cream container. And the vision of the pile of dogs on your couch. I have not heard of double thick cream. Our heavy cream here is 36%.
“Leaders aren’t born, they are made”. This blog is a coherent group, thanks to you, our leader, who keeps things structured.
That’s an awful lot of water, but not so awful that we can’t be grateful for full tanks. And that IS one happy tree fern.
Ha! The film studio!
That little possum has the funniest legs I’ve ever seen. Our resident possum, Petey, has decided that the front porch is his new home away from home (wherever home is). He and Mr. Baby eye each other from a safe distance. Since each is king-sized for his species, I think they’ll leave each other alone, unless Petey takes over Mr. B’s bed by the drive-thru window.
The leaves look like chestnut. Ask Goran?
Thanks for the flowers! Imagine – a wild cornflower. I always plant cornflowers.
Pam
Hi Steve,
There’s probably no problems here with chestnut germination now that there’s another surprising three new seedlings growing. Who knew that seed merchants had surprisingly flexible morals and would mislabel seeds? 🙂 Anyway, I believe these three seedlings are in fact the North American chestnut variety, which are hopefully virus free. They might be, you never know. In the more fashionable end of the mountain range, there are some very old European ‘sweet’ chestnut stands, and each autumn I watch the burrs fall to the ground with a sense of dismay, and also lost opportunity. I already grow a few varieties of those trees, so the genetic mix here can only but improve?
Hehe! All very true. To observe rainfall conditions in the field, does require a person to become slightly damp, even with the best of umbrellas! Agreed, and it’s been remarked upon elsewhere that battle plans have a short shelf life when finally encountering the enemy. Like your most excellent example, when such heavy rains fall, I like to get outside and see what is going on. Always a lot to learn. And over an inch of rain fell this morning… Saves me having to water anything other than the plants in the greenhouse.
Steve, reading between the lines, the ladies ejected you from the kitchen! 🙂 Just sayin… You had your revenge though and earned the title: tasty snack food maker extraordinaire! Ever tried one of those cast iron waffle makers – two slices of bread can sandwich a vast array of fillings and cook them to perfection.
Such things were my experience as well, and one must deeply experience people who are not of one’s family in order to teach new skills and file off the rough crusty outer edges. House mates will rarely tolerate things that family have done, and they always bring new skills to the metaphorical table. 😉
It’s hard isn’t it, but respect. After almost a decade, the conversation last weekend was super chill. Although, someone has just reminded me by email, that there are limits to this. 🙂 The person did pick an extreme example, but I agree with them, and would never let the conversation venture into such bonkers waters…
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
🙂 Having been at the pointy end of that arrangement, I do acknowledge the many difficulties involved with bringing up kids as a single parent. However, as an adult, it is my opinion, that my mother shared the larger burden of responsibility for the entire scenario, all other considerations to the side. It ended up being tough for her, and tough for us kids, but then I learned a lot about responsibility and how to get things done, at a very early age. Things were very different in the 70’s and I recall that her father had to go guarantor with the bank on the mortgage for the house which kept the rain off our heads. In those days, it was a socially unusual situation, but like being poor, I never really thought about it all that much at the time.
As an adult, I can appreciate that not all child rearing scenarios are sustainable, people being people, what with all that entails.
But yeah, despite the many odd things like the financial discrimination, the times were actually simpler with less demands. I’ll say it softly so that nobody notices, it was near on half a century ago! 😉
My friends of the big shed fame are without doubt the best hosts that I’ve had the pleasure of dining with.
Oops, you’re right too, the cat is really out of the bag, and the guests are onto my food tricks. 🙂 Oh well! It’s a lot of fun those dogs, and Ollie really did want the cream. Hey, you could say that he was the dog that got the cream, as in the old timey saying, the ‘cat that got the cream’.
Thanks! It’s such a fun description, yup! Pam, I wasn’t always this super chill, back in the top end of town days, they were stressing me out for sure. Not nice those cheeky scamps… Unlike the dogs playing a game of ‘stacks on’!
What? 36% milk fat is rather lightweight, and I can assure you, most likely won’t produce a solid cheese. The first cream I tried was around that percentage and that formed the basis of one of my favourite essays – the tiramisu fail. Perhaps the best stuff is being redirected elsewhere? Or there may be no demand for such rich cream?
🙂 Thanks for saying that, and very occasionally over the years I’ve had to stamp out some nonsense.
Would you believe that another inch of rain fell this morning. It’s rather damp out there right now, and even the overflow water tank, overflowed earlier today. Had the window open overnight and the noise of the rain and wind woke me up a few times, so got up and closed it. Wasn’t heavy enough to worry about, this time.
The six foot tree fern is really beautiful and loving the conditions. They tend to prefer damp soil and creek sides, so are no stranger to wet feet.
🙂 Thought you might be interested in how complicated it is to produce the videos.
Your opossums are marsupials aren’t they, albeit very toothy ones? Is Petey a toothy variety? And they’d kind of fill the same ecological niche too. Yes, best if Petey left Mr Baby well alone. The possum here was a little tiny thing, and was very fortunate that Ollie pointed him out to me. Life can be very chancy for the wildlife.
Goran has confirmed that the three seedlings (which are the same looking) are indeed a chestnut. I reckon it is a North American variety of chestnut.
Aren’t they all delightful! 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Oh you’re super bad! But also correct, the little forest critter will have so little meat, that it’d hardly make for a proper sized appetiser plate. The guests will be rather disappointed, except – we ordinarily serve vegetarian food, even to guests. Most people don’t seem to notice. Although, we broke that rule and did provide some some Cabanossi, or as is known down here as Cabana or Kabana.
Your description of the individual lemon meringues has left me salivating. Super Yummo! I can see that you’ve been paying close attention to the ‘best food’ essays. 🙂 Has the book winged its way back to you from the library hold? It’s an excellent innovation too, waste not, want not. The basis of the tiramisu is also using up old biscuits, but from memory a little bit of egg white went to waste – or the dogs, if you consider that wasteful.
I’d heard of that saying, but had not realised that it was attributable to any formidable individual. Perle Mesta was not broke, and that’s a fact. But interestingly, whilst many folks can attain wealth, only a few can do so and act with good grace and intelligence. My mind vagued over the ‘m’ word. 😉 There is an obligation to provide spectacle for the gratification of the general public. No good comes from acting like Smaug the dragon.
Those temperatures do sound as if they’re in the frost category. And a little bit of frost, calls it. It was warm here today, but an inch of rain fell this morning, and the wind was feral. It woke me up a few times due to the sheer howling noise. Closed the window, and was able to get back to a proper sleep. This morning was blurry, and damp.
Hmm, the local weather bureau is reporting similar findings to the break down of the La Nina building conditions, or the possibility of it occurring during the summer months. Candidly, the sea surface temperatures around this continent, are not what they once were. Warming oceans increases evaporation, still as a phenomenon, it’s far more complex than that. La Niña and negative IOD declarations unlikely this summer. I’ll check out Professor Mass’s words after replying.
Ah, the local variety of bachelor buttons are Brunonia australis, otherwise known as the Blue Pincushion. They turn up in clusters. Ooo, your variety does have some rather interesting properties. Might have to get some of those plant growing here.
I have heard such claims too about training chefs having to perform repetitive tasks for years, but I reckon there is some method to that madness, in that cooking at its core is about reproducibility. Always seeking novelty in the kitchen is simply not my cup of tea. It would be very difficult to run a commercial kitchen on that novelty basis. And I’ve also heard of using an omelette as a test of a chefs skills. If the basics are unknown and out of reach, the more advanced stuff could be good, but what about the basics dude?
You never see apple sauce down under, and pork chops are around, but again, rarely spotted in the culinary landscape. Dunno why that would be. Usually cooked pork is prepared as roast pork, or the super rich ‘pork belly’. Too heady for my tastes that delectable meal. Quite interesting that apple sauce can be substituted with oil on a one to one ratio. Presumably the apple sauce would caramelise whatever it was added too? Apple butter is way outside my experience. I’ll have to look up what exactly is this stuff?
Here, I’ll be guided by your views on the subject of the tomb. Certainly the facts suggest that this is indeed the case.
Hehe! Enjoy your fudge. It’ll warm your bones on a cold winter evening. Sorry to hear that you’re down to the last slice of pie. Ah yes, it does sound to me like the enjoyment fits the everything in moderation category.
All very traditional for the Christmas tat going up on or around the 1st December. We don’t generally put up any tat, but do enjoy seeing other peoples contributions to the art form – as you’d know with the over the top lighting photos from earlier years.
Do you dry the Jerusalem artichoke bulbs out over the winter months? That hasn’t bothered them here. Do you get any forgotten bulbs surviving and popping up?
Oh! The turmeric tubers have finally sent forth some shoots now that things are warming up.
Your garden is winding out for the winter. There’s always surprisingly more to do though, even during the winter months. Hope to get all the pumpkin and friends seeds in the ground tomorrow. We’ll see.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chris,
My mother did take pride in her lack of domestic skills especially cooking. She would proudly say that when she got married she knew how to cook two things, scrambled eggs and fudge. I mostly recall broiled meat and frozen vegetables. When my father’s career as a pathologist began to earn significant money she advanced to Stouffer’s frozen dinners which as frozen dinners go are quite good. She recruited me as the oldest to do much of the cooking (as much as you could qualify it as cooking). Luckily my father was easy going and easy to please food wise. I was never taught to cook really but kind of learned on my own. Doug’s family, on the other hand, was really into food and that continues today. What they are serving especially to guests is a Big Deal to the extent, at least IMHO that it brings on a lot of stress and often not much fun. Daughter, Carla, has inherited this knack for entertaining as she did on Thanksgiving though once again to me it’s way too much work. She had little appetizers of crackers and cheddar cheese that looked like wedges of pumpkin pie complete with something that looked like a dollop of whipped cream and some meat, cheese and pepper creations that looked like turkeys.
Anyway while it sounds like you put on a good spread it doesn’t sound like it was overdone.
That possum is so cute – nothing like ours.
The Marty saga continues. My sister and I are working on a way to keep him at the nursing home until a space opens up in a few months at the assisted living facility. I went to visit him and explained the plan verifying that he liked where he was. All was good or so I though until that evening when he started calling various family members obviously very confused about the whole thing and stating in no uncertain terms that he wanted to go back to his apartment. Somewhere he got it into his head that he would lose all his stuff (if that were only true). Just to add to the fun he can’t hear on his cell phone so we couldn’t explain over the phone. Another sister and BIL went to see him the next day and they think they may have calmed him down but I wouldn’t bet on it. He gets something into his head and gets very anxious and obsesses non-stop.
The reason I didn’t get over there was I had cataract surgery yesterday and couldn’t drive and with the patch over one eye couldn’t see too well either. I’m cleared to drive after today’s follow-up and removal of the patch (except I have to wear it at night for a week) so I’m off to do damage control tomorrow.
No snow and still quite cold. A couple of nights it was 10F for a low.
Everything looks so lush your way. Looks like you’ll have a good harvest this year.
Margaret
Yo, Chris – I had to look up what Cabonnossi is. Sounds tasty. Would probably be good sliced thin, on pizza. Of course the foodies have to get all fancy, and call an arrangement of different types of meat and cheese, a charcuterie board. I bet there’s a lot of oneupmanship, when someone mispronounces it. And, a spread of raw vegetable nosh, is now a crudités platter. La-de-da.
I think the first time I made individual lemon meringues was back in the early 70’s. The recipe is in my old BC (Betty Crocker) cookbook. Over five years ago, I took it to a Club potluck. Made up about a dozen. People still mention it, from time to time. 🙂 I saw Kenna, this morning, and asked how she and her chef boy / friend, liked the fudge. Michael wanted to eat the whole package. I don’t have much left, myself. It really is addictive, even eaten in small bites, and savoring it. I wonder if there’s a 12 Step meeting … 🙂
Our high yesterday was 36F (2.22C). It was a steady 34F, all night long. So, no frost. The high today is forecast for 44F. It will start raining, in a couple of days. Overnight lows are forecast to be in the 40s and 50s. I like a good howling wind, as long as it doesn’t blow the roof off. That article was very interesting. Lots of detail. But, bottom line, they really don’t seem to know what the weather is going to do. In past, the osculations seemed to settle into a longer term pattern. Weather seemed to be more predictable.
We’ve hybridized some of our bachelors buttons, so we get pink and white. But, when I buy the seed, I always look for the packs that are blue only. Even so, I had to pinch out a few pink ones, this last year.
I suppose novelty in the kitchen is what some people hunger for. 🙂 I don’t roll that way. There’s a new series, that the library put on order. I placed a hold on the first season, just to check it out. It’s called, “From Scratch.” A guy takes a recipe (not necessarily a complicated one), and has to source, or make the ingredients. If the recipe calls for salt, he has to distill it from sea water (or, find a salt mine.) If a recipe calls for butter, he has to milk a cow, and churn the butter. You get the idea. It might be interesting. We’ll see.
Of all the odd Australian things I’ve heard of, I think your lack of apple sauce is the oddest. 🙂 Apple sauce appears as a side, at a lot of dinners. Not just pork chops. It also a staple baby food. Do your cafes have little containers of different jellies and jams, for breakfast toast? Even the meanest cafes here, do. And, usually among them, is apple butter. Home made, smeared on fresh bread, is, as they say, “a little bit of heaven.”
When substituting apple sauce, for different kinds of oils, in baking, I can’t say it caramelizes. It more imparts a bit more moistness. Just a bit. And, of course, as nasty as some oils are, it’s a bit healthier.
I usually don’t go through the front door, of the Institution. But after one of H’s walks, we took a look at the Christmas tat, in the entry. I’d call it tastefully restrained. Lots of evergreen and holly, in the planter boxes. A few (phony) poinsettias, here and there. A couple of wreaths. Small, clear lights twinned up the columns. A steady glow, not the blinking kind.
I dig up the Jerusalem artichokes, and they keep about as well as potatoes. I throw in some good garden dirt, and replant a dozen or so. I usually get more growing, as, yes, I do overlook some tubers.
Go, Turmeric!
I called the auction, this morning, just to reconfirm they’ll be picking up, next Monday. Yes. Then I called the groomer, as H is do for a trim, again. Thursday. At 8am (!).
I finished the “Bunker” book. He spent quit a bit of time, in Australia. Mostly, teaching positions in Sydney. He and his wife also took a trip, similar to the one the Editor and you took. Heading into the Outback and bush. Even as far as Coober Pedy. He became quit friendly with the folks at Australian Frontline Machinery, in Sydney.
Actually, folks here, are better prepared, than I imagined. A graduate student (Chris Ellis) released a working paper in 2020. On prepper demographics. He found 11.7 million are “resilient citizens.” Who can survive 31 days or more, without power, running water, or transportation. He found 5.8 million were “highly resilient citizens,” who could survive 90 days or more. Then there were 2.5 million, who were “ultra highly resilient citizens.” Who could survive 97 days, or more. (I’d guess the Mormons really contribute to those high numbers.) He also found that prepping cuts right across all social demographics, and ethnic groups.
I’d guess that since You Know What, the figures are probably even higher. I know my larder is a lot deeper, than before. Lew
@ Lew:
“I’d guess that since You Know What, the figures are probably even higher. I know my larder is a lot deeper, than before.” That’s a very good point that you make. My larder is in much better supply than before that time and if you look into my linen closet, you will see a very nice stock of TP.
Pam
@ Margaret:
Oh, goodness, Margaret – please take care of yourself! How you get through it all, I don’t know. It’s a delicate situation – again – with Marty right now. You are in my thoughts.
Pam
Hi Margaret,
My mother was much the same in that regard. To be honest, if I wanted to consume a good meal, the lesson learned was to make it myself. Surprisingly, that lesson has wider applications in our society. And sadly to say, that early on I grew up consuming lamb chops and three boiled vegetables, which candidly is not much different from broiled meat and frozen vegetables you experienced. The vegetables were so poorly prepared, that the water would be green with whatever essential pan vegetable juices that probably would have been better for all ’round health to be consumed! Oh well. Few people have the skills to easily navigate all areas of life. There are aspects I struggle with.
A low point in my childhood was observing the classic English dish, which was always intended to use up uneaten food (Bubble and Squeak), originating from a plastic frozen packet. The concept itself defies kitchen logic. But then my mum bought the stuff.
Interestingly, learning how to cook on your own was my path as well. There were basically no skills to be handed on in that area and a person had to begin all over again from scratch. That’s how things roll sometimes.
Ah, I so hear you. Hmm. Well, then there is the other extreme. Ook! 🙂 Hehe! Sorry, for the chuckle, but the sharing of food to my way of thinking should be a relaxed experience to be enjoyed. As always a bit of middle ground never goes astray, and truthfully I make tasty food that is good for people to consume, but rarely aim for exotic culinary delights. You know, deep down I’m a casual and relaxed kind of guy, basically a well fed peasant at heart! 🙂
Go Carla, and I’d have marvelled at the creations, whilst scoffing them down.
I’ll tell you a funny related story here. As a young adult I used to live not far from a late night café strip (Acland Street in St Kilda). And back in the day it was grungy with all sorts of err, interesting stuff going on just out of plain view. But also it was very colourful and never once was I threatened or felt that way. There was even an old school amusement park with a timber scenic railway. The late night cafés had lovely looking windows full of tasty treats which were so well presented. Like tiny little art works. Very desirable. The thing is, the taste rarely matched the visuals, and I dunno, but I really wanted them to do so. Maybe, the mind does wonder whether if there is too much form, the function (i.e. taste) is lessened? Dunno. It’s a mystery, but yeah, nah, it’s that middle ground thing again. There was an awesome burger joint there as well, Greasy Joes, but far out it was rough back in the day.
Exactly, the food served to the guests was comprehensible and very tasty using fresh ingredients of high quality. Just received a delightful thank you email. So nice. And the company was lovely too.
Oh yeah, the local possums are herbivores, whilst your lot are toothy carnivores. Until speaking with lovely folks from your country, I’d not been aware that the possums had mutated into something mildly scary… 🙂 Keep fingers well away from such bitey critters.
Hope Marty comes around to your way of thinking and ceases with the obsessing about things that will never be. He’s in good company though, did you know that Mark Twain is quoted as having said: “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”
How are you feeling after the eye surgery, and has your sight improved? I remember you saying years ago that your night vision was a bit difficult when driving.
Far out that is cold! Margaret it was 23’C / 73’F today and I’m so summer soft that the thought of 10’F mildly freaks me out. Mind you, it will get to 31’C / 88’F tomorrow before another big storm will hit. With that weather in mind, planted out the pumpkin, squash, zucchini and cucumber chitted seeds today. A lovely local lady provided us with some locally adapted melon seeds, and hopefully they work. It takes a very hot year here for melons to grow and produce fruit.
Fingers crossed with the harvest. Picked some early black currants today. So tasty!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It’s a standard preserved meat down here, and is very tasty. Can’t say that I’ve met anyone who doesn’t like the taste of the stuff, and hey, I’m a mostly vegetarian. 🙂 It’s good stuff. Now, on the other hand, there are places which serve charcuterie boards and I don’t go out of my way to ever order one. If someone puts one of them in front of me, I’ll nibble a bit, but yeah, look, the offerings just don’t call to me, let’s put it that way. Maybe I’m just not wired right? Dunno. Most people love those boards of processed meats.
Oh no! Turns out that I’m not wired right for a crudités platters either. Hehe! Strips of raw carrot are crunchy, yeah, but what’s wrong with cooking them just a little bit? But yeah, it is a bit of one-upmanship. Probably both are some sort of weird test of loyalty? Eat this stuff, and prove that you’re one with us.
Going back in time to solid origins, such as the Betty Crocker cookbook is time well spent. Before innovating, the master should first deeply know the basics. Clearly, from that feedback, the results were beyond good, they would have been great. People mentioning such foodstuffs are a way of reminding you to get back to the kitchen so that you deliver the goods again. 😉
Hehe! Funny, and the same observation applies equally to the fudge. Not all chefs are good at desserts.
Gawds it’s getting cold where you are. Today was glorious at 73’F, not a breath of wind, and clear blue skies. Mind you, except for a brief period, we worked in the shade. Had a shandy day of paid work and work around here. Poured another cement step. Planted out all the pumpkins + squash + melon + cucumber + zucchini previously chitted seeds. Then smooshed up two boulders, one of which was quite large. As you’d imagine, with all that outdoors work, we didn’t get to lunch until 3pm. I believe all the planting for the season is done now, unless this lot of seeds doesn’t germinate properly. Worked on paid stuff until late tonight.
That’s my take on the near climate forecasts as well, it’s hard to know what will happen. The computer models provide decent guides, but the fog of reality becomes greater, the further out the forecast reaches. It’ll be 88’F tomorrow.
A stable climate, is not a situation I’ve ever been familiar with. Each season down here is unique in its own special way. The continent simply lacks your very tall mountain ranges, so tropical wet weather can arrive here from any direction – and traverse the entire continent.
True, and I’ve had some of those pink Batchelor Buttons growing here as well. The local variety seem much hardier to the drier seasons, and they stick to the blue colour flowers. We used to grow an Ixia bulb which was the most amazing colour blue – you rarely see that shade of blue. Although the Editor now tells me that we never grew that colour bulb here (the ones here are pink), the memory gets hazy about such matters. Whatever, the flowers are astounding.
Me neither! I like to be able to reproduce recipes, and that’s a skill because it takes practice, and then some, as you’d know. Oh far out, the dude is taking cooking to its logical extreme. You know, I’m happy to support people producing decent quality ingredients, and nobody can be physically across all aspects of that. There are aspects to this place that the Editor knows all about, that might as well be a total mystery to me, and vice versa. It takes a village, etc. So, what I’m curious about with that series is: Did the food taste any good?
Condiments are rarely supplied with meals down here. Even seeing packets of sugar on tables at cafés just doesn’t happen much nowadays. When I was a kid, little shakers of salt and pepper used to be on each table, but now that’s mostly died out as well. We’re meaner than the junk yard dog. Things actually are cheaper in your country – with the exclusion of medical stuff.
Never seen apple butter, and might have a look at the recipe.
That’s true, and oils ain’t oils, as they used to say. Some of the cooking oils used don’t taste all that nice to my palate, but mileage here will vary.
The master gardeners sound as if they’ve done some top work with the tastefully restrained (like the description, it paints a most excellent picture) Christmas tat. Bizarrely, the Poinsettias actually produce their brightly coloured leaves down under at this Christmas-ey time of year.
Thanks for mentioning about the storage of the artichoke tubers over the winter months. With a huge potato harvest in the works, I’ll have to think about how to store them all.
Ooooo! The turmeric has shot up a third shoot this morning. The tuber is about three years old now. One day I’ll work out proper ginger tubers, but in the meantime we have the tasty Japanese ginger which thrive outdoors.
Good stuff and the auction mob sound organised – at this stage. Hope H’s new do looks good and that her admirers at the Club recognise quality work when they encounter it.
Coober Pedy was a hoot, and the underground houses were really quite good. Nooo! Years ago I had a neighbour who parked one of those huge military vehicles on the street. The thing was awesome to look at, and the go-anywhere promise, was no small talk. It was the real deal. What a truly amazing business, now I’ve shopped at army disposal stores, but that mob you mentioned is the entire next level – want an ex military aircraft, no worries, when you can pick it up?
Well yeah, surviving a 97 days or more stint, is no small feat. Here, running out of spare parts would reduce the enjoyability of that process. It really takes a village.
Cheers
Chris
@ Pam – I always keep at least 42 rolls of TP, on hand. Because 42 is the answer to “life, the universe, and everything.” I also found out, during You Know What, that TP was a good trade item. I always asked for guns, gold or canned goods. Usually, I got canned goods. :-). Lew
Yo, Chris – A story about Melbourne, in the news, yesterday.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/melbourne-australia-food-drink-powerhouse-vegemite
Yes, there’s always a bit of … wistfulness when someone brings up the individual meringues. 🙂 Once I get my apartment under control, I might have Kenna and her chef boy / friend over for coffee and a nibble. Maybe I’ll do the meringues. I was just thinking … you know, just a small pinch / dusting of nutmeg on top, might be good. The Two Fat Ladies were advocates of nutmeg, in just about everything. I even put a bit in my fudge.
I noticed that about big, fancy kitchens, early on. Most chefs seem to have pastry or desert chefs, to do those. LOL. Early on, in Stephane Alexander’s massive cookbook, she said there wouldn’t be many deserts. Pretty much stated, “I don’t do deserts.”
Our daytime high, yesterday, was 36F (2.22C) The overnight low was a pretty steady 30F. The forecast high for today is 48F. It’s sunny. We might get a bit of rain tomorrow, and over the weekend. But nothing over the top.
There’s never any condiments, in our food boxes. It’s one of the things I pick up, when I go shopping. At least, mustard and catsup. Sometimes, hot sauce or little containers of honey. Never any mayo, as it’s too expensive for what you get. Speaking of food boxes, we got two, early this morning.
A lot better than last month. The “produce” box had a bag of about a dozen, little individually wrapped cheese burgers. We’ve had them before. I don’t know where they come from. Those go straight down to the refrigerator, next to our swap table. I’m not risking it. There was 2 apples (but, very nice looking apples), a weird looking squash, 2 sweet potatoes (yams?), about a dozen small yellow onions, 8 or so nice looking carrots, 3 red potatoes. There was also a 2 pound brick of cheese “product,” and a 1 pound package of frozen “chicken crumbles.” Whatever they are. Notice, no eggs. Bird flu. Last time I was at the grocer, I glanced at the egg display. Nothing under $5 a dozen, and several were over $7 a dozen.
The other box had the usual 2 boxes of cereal, a gallon of grape drink, 2 quarts of shelf stable milk. The usual mix of tinned fruit (only one tin each of apple sauce and plums), and veg. 1 tin of salmon. So, not a bad lot. Better than last month.
Speaking of medical stuff, the CEO of one the the biggest Medicare Advantage plans (not the “real” Medicare), was shot down and killed, in the streets of Manhattan. Hmmm. I bet there’s an interesting story, there. Maybe they denied treatment, to some close relative?
All these spare parts you keep squirreling up. A wise move. Someday, you’ll have to chuck in some pictures of your spare parts storage. Lew
@ Lew:
Canned goods are what you want. What good is gold, or even a gun (does it come with ammunition?), if you ain’t got nothin’ to eat? Go hide somewhere and eat – if you remembered the can opener!
Pam
Hi Chris,
It got down to 28F for our first frost on the 26th, a day shy of the record for the latest first frost. That was kind of disappointing, to get so close, but just not quite there. And we also ended up with the second-largest monthly rainfall for November, again a bit of a disappointment. The ground wasn’t frozen, nor was it saturated, so we could have used that extra bit of rain to beat the record and keep the soil moist so roots grow well. But we did set a new daily snowfall record on 30 November of 3.2 inches. I felt better then. 😉
It sounds like you had a most excellent dinner! I had to learn the fine art of relaxing and letting dinner parties flow. Like you, I’m an introvert. Eventually I figured out that most people are extroverts and very happy to talk; all I had to do was ask a decent question to get them started. Once I learned that and stopped being self-conscious, I relaxed and began to enjoy being a hostess. I also enjoy it when our guests leave and the house is quiet again.
You would not have liked the last several days here. It got as cold as 17F at one point and may well reach that again tonight or tomorrow night. But it’s supposed to be warmer than average starting this weekend for a few days. The leaves have finally fallen, after the longest autumn in my memory. Not that I have any problem with a long autumn; it will make a short winter more likely, and I am no fan of winter.
Claire
Chris,
Rescue a baby possum. Have guests over for dinner. Possum too small to eat. Not necessarily! One of our favorite meals is to cook dried beans with a ham hock. Not a lot of meat on the ham hock, but it sure adds a lot of flavor to the beans. So, you could have had dried beans cooked with baby possum for the flavor.
Sunday was actually sunny. Very bright. And 42F, a perfect temperature. 😉 So the remaining leaves were raked up. Most were added to the vegetable patch, a few to the compost pile. None will break down over the winter, so I’ll dig them into the garden sometime in late March. A month or so later I’ll dig in other nutrients. By planting time they should be mostly broken down.
Sunday was a nice break from, yes freezing fog. But we’ve had fog since Sunday, at times precipitating and freezing and causing slick roads for the morning commute.
This is Dame Avalanche…Go Dame Plum! You have my FULL and ENTIRE respect for what you did to that interloper, Rudy. Ooops! Here comes papa and he’s yelling at me to leave the computer alone.
Dogs. Somehow Dame Avalanche figured out how to use voice activation to make her snarls, growls, whines and barks turn into written words. I didn’t know that “Siberian Husky” was one of the AI languages available on my computer.
I was in 2 or 3 of those classic New Mexico thunderstorms, the kind that drop 2 inches of rain in 20 minutes. That’s a lot of water all at once. Sorta feels like being in a waterfall, doesn’t it?
The nearly constant fog means that Spokane is now best described as 50 shades of gray. Your cornflower and geranium pictures were more than needed as a break from the bleak. Thanks.
Culinary skills. Hmmm. Dad always had a roommate who could cook. Dad did the dishes. Then he married my mom, and mom could cook. We hated when mom got ill and couldn’t cook. Dad could barely heat up a tin of soup for us to eat. Thankfully, he could read the directions on the tin!
One time when I was in my late teens, the folks were away for a week, probably right after Christmas. They trusted me to cook for me and my younger sister. I started experimenting with vegetables, meats, potatoes and the frying pan. We ate well. However, everything was a brownish color. I’d serve up dinner and my sister would say, “That smells good! What is it?” I’d reply, “Brown.” That happened every night the folks were gone. Brown never tasted the same twice.
DJSpo
Hi Claire,
28’F is cold and the minimum ever expected here, but at this point I must say that 17’F is entirely the next level of unpleasantness. At such moments, the mind looks longingly at the firewood pile, then considers the condition of the wood heater, hydronic pumps, double thick insulation, radiators etc. and finally asks the hard question: Would it be enough? Truly, it’s hard to say…
Have you brought any cold sensitive plants into the shelter of the closed in veranda? The summer soft plants here, especially the citrus, would quail in fright, and perhaps soil their root systems, at the thought of having to endure 17’F, even if it was only briefly. 🙂
It was 31’C / 88’F here today, and when in the shade, the conditions were quite pleasant. However, when out in the sun and being exposed to Extreme UV radiation (and recall that we are closer to the star due to wobbly orbits than your experience of summer), the glare was quite brilliant and the feeling on the skin was intense. As you’d imagine I stuck to the shade, and had an otherwise pleasant day maintaining the machines and trying not to end up too hot.
3.2 inches of snow is beyond my experience, and certainly would be likewise record breaking here and provoke a significant amount of whinging on my part – you’d hear me for sure! Did the heavy snowfall melt away, and hopefully your plans for that day did not include going anywhere? I’d not be able to see the road in those conditions and simply cancel any and all plans.
Introverts of the world unite! 🙂 People are generally confused about the introvert label. By no means does it suggest that introverts dislike social gatherings and activities, it however suggests that they require time out to recover from those same occasions. Recharge the batteries, then head back into the fray is the general way of things. 🙂 I enjoy the quiet moments as well, and truthfully, it works for me living in this little remote hamlet surrounded by the wilds of nature.
Respect too! That was my journey as well, although early house mates guided me in the gentle art of conversation. Same, same, but different. But importantly, relax. Few people are comforted by an anxious emotional state – tends to put them on edge.
The poor trees are most likely confused by your recent run of unseasonably warmer weather, thus why they have not dropped the remainder of their leaves until the past week or so. Sadly, you have missed out on the experience of the dreaded leaf change tourist hordes, otherwise you’d be talking up the benefits of a short autumn. 😉 The change over between warmer weather and winter weather is becoming much briefer down here. The deciduous trees drop and/or turn their leaves not only for the ambient air temperatures, but I’m guessing also for the lack of solar energy.
The winter solstice is but a mere two and a bit weeks away for you, then the sun’s energy will slowly bit by bit return. Spare a moments thought for the poor sad little solar PV panels in your part of the world. Not only is the sun low in the sky and not facing them at the proper angle (someone should do something about this! 🙂 ), but heavy snowfalls would also put an abrupt end to their fun.
Hope you are both keeping warm and well at this cold time of the year.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
The lucky little possum is doing well from the last update of yesterday. A real little fighter. In one of those minor workings of synchronicity, Sandra knows one of the locals involved in the volunteer wildlife rescue mob. It’s really lovely that people give their time and resources unstintingly in the ways they do. And also that everyone has different gifts to offer to the world.
Over in New Zealand, the exact same possum would have been considered a massively invasive pest and received no assistance whatsoever. Of course, over there, they may lack the many owls inhabiting these forests here which feast upon the little marsupial herbivores. On such matters, it is of note that the rabbit population is booming down under. Hmm. I’m aware of four here, which are mostly kept in check by owls, dogs and foxes. However, in the nearby township, the little bunnies are reaching significant populations. It’s hard to know if and when to act in this matter, and sadly peoples first choice is poisoning, which is effective, but has consequences for the local wildlife, owls, foxes, cats and dogs which would otherwise keep the bouncy (and fast) critters in check. Soon, I may have to act by shooting them, and here I must say that humans are not the passive creatures that some in the green movements may believe them to be. We as a species have shaped the landscape to this point, and have made somewhat of a botch of it if the general signs as to the state of environmental health are taken into account. Doesn’t mean that we should stop acting though, we just might not like the outcome. Oooo, this possum talk took a strange route!
No meat to speak of in this instance. I may have already mentioned what a cooked up guinea pig looks like, and by all accounts it was a bony meal. The marsupial would be kind of like that. Now, ham hocks are an entirely different matter – and hope the pig didn’t mind lending the foot for the purposes of the feed? 🙂 In winter, a pea/bean and ham hock soup is a true delight, and I’m a mostly vegetarian. Yum! It’s an excellent use of a hoof too. Waste not, want not.
Today was quite warm at 31’C, so ended up doing a shandy day of paid work and work around here. Began the regular process of giving all of the farm machines a once over service and maintain. Always interesting what you find, and it took an hour and a half just to inflate all the tires. Seriously, it’s no quick job servicing this stuff. Speaking of which, is Big Bertha ready to go for the first big snowfall in your part of the world? It’ll be a warm night here as at almost 8pm it’s still 27’C outside. In the big smoke it’s warmer again at 31’C. It’s meant to rain tomorrow night and then into Saturday.
42’F and sunny over winter is pretty nice conditions. I’d be doing a burn off if enjoying such a winters day. Always nice to get outside and enjoy some sunshine when only a few weeks out from the winter solstice. Like your strategy with the leaves, and absolutely that will work great.
The most excellent description of your winter weather gives me an attack of the vapours. 🙂
Dame Plum to Dame Avalanche – on the instant canine messaging app – sends cordial tail wags and respects for all the good husky work going on with the various birds and squirrels. The fight continues. Alas due to quarantine restrictions Dame Avalanche will be unable to assist with adding her might to the ongoing rabbit wars, but the local Kelpie cadre, unit 42, no less, accepts her kind thoughts of support – Over and out!
DJ, what the heck are the dogs doing at the keyboards! 🙂 Smart creatures. Hehe!
That’s about how it feels. A waterfall. Or someone turning a fire hose on you.
More flower photos to come next week.
It’s an interesting dilemma when all the household skills are concentrated in one person. The old timers in more enlightened days used to quip that: It takes a village to raise a village. And of course, us mere mortals can know many things, but be adept at only a few.
What did they say in the Hitch-hikers Guide about brownian motions? Had something to do with physicists too, didn’t it? Your cooking, just sayin’!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It was a lot of fun to observe this city, and some more distant attractions, through the eyes of a well travelled and enthusiastic Englishman. The guy clearly has an enjoyment of life, and an appreciation of good coffee. I’d not tried one of those croissants, but may brave the journey to do so! Good to see he was freaked out by the ‘hook turns’, locals and folks from pretty much anywhere else are also freaked out – good for keeping the trams moving through intersections though.
It’s a gift to supply wistful memories of most excellent feeds. That’s the stuff of community and shared spirit. It seems a bit churlish now to ask the hard question: Where’s mine? 🙂 Occasional lapses of grace can be expected from time to time, especially when good desserts have been utterly missed. Like that café you mentioned in North Melbourne – completely passed me by, and now it’s too late. One must accept life’s vicissitudes with humility, or at least that’s what they tell me.
Ooo, yes all very true, but did the Two Fat ladies take things a little bit too far with their love of all things nutmeg? It might work out on a lemon meringue, but just in case I’d make two batches – one with, and the other unsurprisingly without. Then you hedge your bets and can serve up whatever works best, or let your guests choose. I’m not suggesting your innovation is a good or bad thing, it’s just that my mind would not necessarily be expecting the flavour of nutmeg on a lemon meringue, which usually is a citrus-ey and sugary-ey confection, maybe with a tasty biscuit base. Dunno. Now, nutmeg would be expected on a custard tart, which looks kind of similar to the lemon meringue.
Hehe! Surely big name chefs would not look down their noses at dessert and/or pastry chefs work? 🙂 That particular cookbook is very good, and extensive. Sadly I never had the opportunity or foresight to dine at the chefs restaurant.
48’F sounds a much more reasonable temperature than 30’F. Have the weather gods no mercy? 😉 Soon you may even get some of that much vaunted lowland snow. Hope you and H are staying warm, especially when the lady is about to be clipped (hope she enjoyed the attention). 88’F here today, and I did my best to keep out of the direct sun, although such things can hardly be avoided. Did another shandy day of paid work, and work around here. Began the long process of servicing and looking over all of the machines. Believe it or not, it took an hour and half just to pump up all of the various tires. Who knew there were that many of the things? 🙂
I can sort of see why there’d be no condiments in the boxes – the stuff has a long shelf life, it’s basically a form of preserving. The word ‘catsup’ is not heard down under, we’re quite dull really on that front and things are plainly called: tomato sauce, or barbecue sauce etc. Catsup sounds exotic as in the person only has the vaguest of notions as to what is actually contained within the bottle.
Look it’s hard to know, but I’d also go with your gut feeling (please excuse the unintended pun) there, and do much the same. The rest of the haul sounds pretty good, but one does wonder, and perhaps everything including the beak may possibly provide a glimpse into that mysterious crumbly food world?
You’d be hard pressed to purchase eggs here for under $5 a dozen, and the good ones with larger yellow yolks and coherent albumen will cost far more than that for a dozen.
It’s a pretty good haul really. Did you end up taking any down to the Club.
And yes, I read that item of news. Hmm. I don’t know the people or situation other than what was reported on, but an eerie little whisper remarked: That’s personal. One of the things which is not lost on me, is that it is unwise in the extremis for faceless folks to poke hard those who have nothing to lose.
Thanks about the spare parts! It’s not my natural inclination to be mysterious, far from it actually, but sadly this is a public forum.
It’s going to be hot again tomorrow, with some late rain and a thunderstorm for this area. Oh goodie!
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – And I thought our Round-About of Death was bad. Hook turns take it to a whole new level of driving anxiety.
Are you feeling like you’re being watched? News from Australia.
https://www.cnn.com/science/australia-cyborg-beetles-cockroaches-hnk-spc
What if AI took over the cyborgs? Coming to a movie script, near us.
Speaking of movies, I saw a trailer for a new rom-com. “Your Monster.” Looks like a lot of fun. I hope our library gets it. Speaking of the library, when I picked up some stuff, yesterday, I was whinging about the catalog. Three times in the last few days, after I sign in, the sign in page freezes. Also, one night, I must have spent 45 minutes, wrestling with the catalog. Pages freezing. Pages that wouldn’t load. Life’s too short.
Once I get past this auction nonsense, I’m thinking of making some Divinity. Haven’t had any, in years. Mom used to hit all the Christmas church bazaars, and stock up on good homemade nosh, of one sort and another. Freeze it up, and then lay out a pretty lavish table of nibbles, for any guests or family that showed up. There was usually a plate or two of Divinity. I’ll have to consult the B.C. (Betty Crocker), and see how complicated it is.
The Two Fat Ladies were pretty restrained, with their fat little fingers, when it came to nutmeg. I’d envisioned just a sprinkling pinch. If anyone takes offense, they can scrape it off. 🙂
An interesting article about chocolate. That’s about how much dark chocolate, I eat.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/04/health/dark-chocolate-type-2-diabetes-wellness
The high yesterday, was 45F (7.22C). Our overnight low was 30F. The forecast for today is 48F. When I took H for a walk, around midnight, there was frost on the cars. I thought I’d be scraping ice, this morning. But, when I got up (way too early), the temperature had risen to 36F. No frost on the cars, to speak of. The wind is very sharp, this morning. Clouds on the horizon. Change in the weather, coming. We may get some rain, later on.
The plan is, I dropped the dog off. Came home. I’ll head for the Club, and I hope while I’m down there, they’ll call and say she’s done. So I can pick her up on the way home. I don’t know. It was kind of a doggy traffic jam, down there, this morning.
I took two bags of groceries, down to the Club, last night. I’ll take down two more, this morning.
I had to give a bitter little chuckle, over the shooting. One of the articles mentioned “unknown motive.” Just out of curiosity, I took a look down the rabbit hole. “Complaints: United Healthcare.” Oh, my. There will be many, many suspects. I’m surprised something like this hasn’t happened before. And now that a precedent has been set … The victim was on his way to a shareholders meeting. I hope they were satisfied with their third quarter earnings.
I imagine your spare parts stash looks something like Aladdin’s cave. 🙂
I picked up a couple of books, and some DVDs, at the library, yesterday. A book on Tolkien and the Finnish myth cycles, the Kalevala. And, a book about Julia Child’s kitchen. Her home kitchen. It’s in the Smithsonian Institute (along with Archie Bunker’s living room.) 🙂 It ought to be interesting. Lay out and equipment.
I started watching the animated “Star Trek Prodigy”, season two, last night. A lot of fun, but the temporal mechanics get a little deep. Lew
Chris:
The weather is such – being below freezing at night and not a lot above during the day, with a lot of wind for the past week (20mph [32kph} most of today) – that I had to add another blanket to my bed, thus making a total of 5, and I slept in 2 shirts with a hoodie, with the hood over my head, and long johns and wool socks under sweat pants. She’s a chilly out there!
What do you and Sandra wash your hair with? Can you use your homemade soap? I have such a scalp problem.
Pam
Chris,
It’s good to have a wildlife rescue mob nearby. The little possum sounds like it has a good chance now.
Way back in the mists of time when I was maybe 15, a neighbor boy gave us a baby robin he had found. We raised it. My sister got to name it, so she called it “Obbs”. Our hope was that we could teach Obbs to fly, let him have more and more time outdoors, and that eventually he would join the summer robins on their migration south in the fall. All of these goals were met.
On the journey to that end, however, there were *events*. We were feeding Obbs some luscious and juicy earthworms near sister’s parakeet’s cage. The parakeet promptly and clearly said, “What are you doing? What are you doing?” Obbs, having learned to fly, would sit atop the peak on the roof. We quickly learned that we had to put an arm out level with the ground so Obbs could land on the arm rather than on our heads. Obbs was also friendly with the neighbors, who had kids our age. One evening the neighbors had a large gathering. One bald gent went outdoors and Obbs landed on his head. The poor gent thought he was in the middle of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, making a loud ruckus with his panicked yelling about being attacked by a rabid bird. It was a fun summer.
The parakeet, meanwhile, tattled on mom eventually. Mom was alone in the house during the school year, worked on chores and crafts and practiced the piano. Swearing was extremely forbidden in our house. However, one evening during dinner, the parakeet let loose with a string of extremely interesting words, many of them beginning with the letter F. Bleeping bleep of a bleep was liberally said by the bird. We all looked at mom and asked her what she was really doing that allowed the bird to learn such language. The dadblasted parakeet knew words and phrases that I hadn’t heard before!
You’ve mentioned before that you might have to shoot the rabbits. Make sure you’re wearing a proper Elmer Fudd hat and frequently turn to an imaginary audience and exclaim “Be vewy quiet, we’we hunting wabbits!” I expect to see such things on one of your upcoming videos. 😉
There was a very nasty coating of ice on everything this morning. Not very visible to the naked eye, either, so most vehicles didn’t slow down. A lot of wrecks, of course. There was a tragedy 25km from here on Interstate 90. A tanker semitruck slid and crashed due to the ice. It rolled and caught fire. The driver was trapped in the cab when the tanks exploded.
Agreed, that 42C and sunny is fantastic weather this time of year. I try to take full advantage of such days. Days like today, with ice everywhere? Not so much. Dame Avalanche and I waited for the worst to thaw and then made our way to visit Killian the Red. The dogs played hard – indoors.
Ohhh, thank you! I had never realized that my “brownian cooking” was actually intimately related to my physics ventures. Appreciate your pointing that out. 🙂
A neighbor called me on the phone when we were leaving Killian the Red today. He needed my help with something. Turns out he bought a brand new snowblower and needed help unloading it from his truck. Not quite as big as my Big Bertha, but still a very good size and robust machine. A big upgrade from his old machine. The two of us having two good machines, Big Bertha and Medium Margaret, should be good. We already share the load for snow removal at our part of the area. This will make it even easier for both of us.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
I’m so with you. A below freezing night is very much a five blanket experience, then maybe some. The same is true here, although it is very tropical right now and also raining. Six blankets may be too much though, depending, and four is definitely not going to cut it. Hang on a second. I’m getting an idea here – Mr Baby as a foot warmer! 🙂 It’d work for sure. He’d be happy as, your feet would be toasty warm, and without any doubts a cat would be worth at least one blanket, maybe two. Like an old school hot water bottle that stays warm.
Far out, the wind at those temperatures just makes things feel all that much colder. Hope the conditions settle down for you.
This is what I’ve been saying for years though, the change from pleasantly warm conditions, to that of freezing cold, is becoming rather abrupt in recent years.
Oh my! Olive oil soap is awesome for washing hair and not drying out either your skin, or hair. I recommend it and have used the stuff for years. But if that’s too much like hard work, or expensive, I’ve had good results with shampoos derived from oatmeal. Now, what is the stuff called again? … … DermaVeen oatmeal shampoo. Nice stuff.
Dry skin sucks, and I used to suffer from eczema. It’s a bit woo woo, but I add a small chunk of coconut oil to my fruit and home made toasted muesli brekkie mix too, and it’s my belief that the stuff works to reduce dry skin, but you know, give it a go for yourself. Maybe it will work, maybe it wont.
At the time I got on top of my eczema I also began making my own yoghurt, so I don’t know which change finally defeated the pesky issue, maybe all three, but am now too afraid to stop. 😉 Maybe try one at a time and see if it has any effect? Dunno.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
The volunteers do such great work, and sadly to say, there are a lot of thoughtless people travelling through this part of the world. In the summer months, because the road sides are sort of regularly cut by the locals, the plants there have better protein levels than the exact same plants in the forest. The forest critters gravitate to such locations. Wildlife and cars rarely interact well, but will people slow down when in rural and remote areas? I don’t think so.
My experience of pet parakeets is that they’re super noisy, and onto every little thing going on around them. The orphaned robin flying around would have annoyed the daylights out of the caged bird. Out of sheer curiosity, what was the derivation of the name ‘Obbs’?
Hehe! The bird alighting on the bald gentleman’s head would have been a good laugh – especially as the squawks were from the human as distinct from the avian. Well you learn something new every day, after your mention of the rabid bird, turns out that birds have an ability to produce rabies antibodies, so are most likely to be asymptomatic, and recover. An impressive feat for such a nasty virus.
Sometimes swearing is a necessary form of communication, and the parakeet was perhaps rather than outright dobbing on your mum, was attempting to enliven the general conversation with a few choice expletives! And you have to admit it, the facts suggest that your vocabulary was widened that day. The alert mind wonders whether if the parakeet had been given more scope to engage in hobbies, like I dunno, say giving the bird a drum kit and/or electric synthesiser, and here a moog wouldn’t have been out of the question, the colourful yet noisy creature may have – dare I say it – kept mum!
I now retire from the field with full honours at the cheeky humour.
Ooo! Turns out rabies is a problem for rabbits, thus perhaps explaining the killer rabbit scene? Well something has to explain it. 🙂 Nah, the Elmer Fudd cap and exercises may not see the visual world lest people have a major freak out. Surely you recall Art Garfunkles tear jerking tones crying for ol’ Bright Eyes? Lewis, maybe a year or two back remarked about blaming Bambi for such reactions, and I can’t fault his logic.
DJ, I’m so sorry, but it’s 22’C inside the house after a very warm day, and I know it’s wrong, but I felt cold an hour or so ago and put a woollen jumper on. Ook! I can’t even proclaim a proper ‘Ugg’ at this time because it’s not very manly behaviour. This loose talk of ice over everything is giving me an attack of the vapours. It rained about 5mm an hour or so ago.
Man, that truck accident is very bad indeed. Absolutely nothing would stop the conflagration. At a middling guess, 30kL of fuel in a tanker contains something like 270,000kWh of energy depending on tanker size and type of fuel. That’s a lot of energy to be released all at once. Not good.
Despite the ice, and I was wondering if the side walks were slippery, but you and Dame Avalanche got out and about and had some fun. Winter is a time for rest and relaxation and generally taking things easy.
That brownian motion has noted effects, at parties too, apparently. Although I never got invited to such events. 😉
Good to hear that your neighbour and yourself are working towards similar ends and can cooperate. I’m impressed. DJ, it surprises me greatly that the people living around these parts don’t cooperate more. Makes no sense to me. And did you mention an earlier ex with that particular name, or is my memory playing tricks on me?
Did paid work today. In the lead up to Christmas I’m kind of trying to clear my work slate so I can take a break from such activities for a few weeks. It’s a plan, but yeah, we’ll see how it goes. I’m not whinging, but it’s been many, many years since I’ve had more than about a week and half off paid work. I enjoy what I do on that front, but I’m looking forward to this upcoming break to recharge the batteries.
Speaking of batteries, an experimental battery maker down here has apparently hit very rocky business shores.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Hook turns are a real head trip of an experience. And from time to time, the locals are amused at the antics of those who are not in the know with these turning ritual things. Inevitably they’ll block the tram tracks, and the things are huge and the tram drivers get on their bells and buzzers, which are notably backed up by amplifiers. Lots of pressure for unwary other vehicle users. Always fun.
Way, way back in the day, I did my driving lessons and license in the big smoke. Those city blocks was one complex place to learn how to drive. Took the lessons during lunch times. My mother absolutely refused to assist me with learning how to drive, so it was expensive process. Still, on the other hand, I dodged picking up her bad habits.
I’d not realised such insect research was even being done. The suggestion that the wider use of the bio-tech suggests to me that there are more than a few bugs to iron out. Sorry for the dodgy pun. Still, the little critters could get into some tight spots.
That’s a great plot line too. Yeah, things would go badly for us humans. 🙂
Hehe! Thanks for mentioning the film. Had some good chuckles, so it might need to go on the to-see list.
Didn’t the library upgrade the catalogue software recently? Dude, seems to be the day for software troubles. Far out, one this morning – which we eventually fixed – gave a lot of nightmares. I can comprehend why the profession is losing people. Being an old school tech geek, at least I’ve got some vague notion about the many crazy systems small businesses are required to use. It’s a bit nuts though the demands. Anyway, did mostly paid work today. I’m trying to ensure that we’re on top of everything before switching off for a couple of weeks break over Christmas. No disrespect to the people who pay for my services, I just need to recharge the batteries, like most other people seem to be able to do.
On the other hand, it is of interest to me that the particular business model we run, is coming into its own lately.
Do you know, for a second there, I thought you meant that you intended to use the filthy lucre earned from the auctions to make regular donations to some religious organisation. That’s kind of what your words sounded like! Probably didn’t help that I’d been reading an article which suggested that church attendances is on the up, for young males. All part of the second religiosity, which was predicted by the comparative historians, although I now forget whether it was Spengler or Toynbee, or maybe even both.
Never seen the Divinity recipe before. Looks like tiny little meringues. Very nice looking. What’s in the filling? It’s hard to tell from the images, and the recipes are wildly different, with possibly local adaptations. Yum! And snack sized.
Hehe! Thus perhaps the Two Fat Ladies popularity in that they knew exactly how far to push things. 😉
Go the dark chocolate! 🙂 I reckon you’re onto a winner there, in moderation of course. Lots of plants have anti-inflammatory chemicals. What did Michael Pollan say about eating widely, whilst not over doing it? Incidentally, that author is starting to look like my grandfather. It’s a bit uncanny, really. Did I read that statistic correctly about 10% of the US population having some form of diabetes? Holy carp – it’s about 5.6% of the population down here. Well, this is all news to me. I’ve got plenty of rocks for people to haul back uphill if they can get off the couch.
That’s definite frost territory, although the wind defeated the winters best efforts there. Brr! It rained here earlier this evening after an otherwise warm day. Lewis, I’ve become summer soft and had to put on a woollen jumper this evening. It was 70’F indoors…What has my life become! 🙂
Did you get any rain? Any loose talk of lowland snow in the immediate future?
Doggy traffic jam – an pretty funny concept – but it kind of makes sense. You’d think the dog groomers would be quiet in the winter months? Hopefully you got the right dog returned – trust me, that can happen, because it did. What kind of numbskull takes the wrong dog? I was very annoyed, but you’re only ever as good as the weakest link, and whoever took that dog was worse than a weak link.
Nice work with the groceries for the Club.
What? Surely they can’t be serious saying ‘unknown motive’? Well, if they said that… The reported actions sort of suggest to me a very personal encounter. I’m likewise surprised that such things have not happened more often, and always very deeply unwise to push people into a corner, that have nothing to lose. Weren’t such acts more common in the early 20th century in your country?
🙂 Yeah, maybe it is. With spare parts, Liebig’s Law of the Minimum equally applies.
That’d be some interesting, but hardly light reading. Mr Greer keeps mentioning that allegedly Mr Tolkien was a grumpy sort. Raises the awful question: Do authors even make for pleasant interview subjects?
The animation is amazing. Might have to put that on the to-see list as well. Now, how to get some more hours in the day? 😉 Here’s where a bit of that temporal know-how might just come in handy!
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris and others
I am about to stop commenting here. While I am physically well, I am mentally exhausted. This is annoying and strange. It renders me very irritable which is a feeling that I have never had before in my life. The irritability extends to the internet and my computer.
So, goodbye to you all and my best wishes.
Inge
Yo, Chris – Now, the details are sketchy (being 50+ years ago), but Mum taught me how to drive. I think. We were living in north Portland, at the time. A student driver needed a licensed adult, along, for the year before you could take your driver’s test. I would drive to high school. Now here’s the thing. How did Mum drive home? She didn’t get a license, until a couple of years later, when we moved to Vancouver, Wa.. Mysteries.
Speaking of movies, I watched an interesting documentary, last night. “1982: Greatest Geek Year Ever.” I hadn’t realized so many classic movies, landed in that year.
https://w.wiki/CKf5
Let’s see. You would have been about 8 🙂 . There were some interesting observations, made. “Going to the movies,” was still a communal event. And, a lot of the movies portrayed free range children. Back in the day when parental oversight was limited to “Be home by dark,” or “Be home by supper.” Think of the mob in the movie “E.T.” It was also toward the end of the era, when Hollywood was a bit daring. More willing to be experimental and take risks.
I chatted a bit with our postie Jake, yesterday. I mentioned that I had dropped a couple of packets off, for the seed exchange at our library. Not much. Just a packet of fennel and some Scarlet Runner beans. Somehow or another, it came up that he has a Medlar tree. He’d heard of bletting, and I passed on what you’d said on the topic.
Just between you, me and the gatepost 🙂 I’m donating any filthy lucre I get from the auction, to the Club. I’ll have the auction send the paperwork and check, to me, but I’ll have them make out the check to the Club. Mostly, just to keep it from running through my bank account. Which might complicate things, when it comes to the financials on my yearly recertification, here at the Institution. It’s the same situation, in that I had toyed with the idea of investing a bit in stocks, but don’t know how that would impact the recertification. Now, if it’s the same situation as my CDs (certificates of deposit), I have to declare them, each year, but the interest doesn’t apply to my income, unless I cash them in.
Speaking of the Club, there having the Rummy tournament, tomorrow (Sat.). And, the woman who used to do the sandwiches, is going to do Philly Sliders. I’ll probably stop down, and partake.
Divinity doesn’t really have a filling, but you can mix in nuts, crushed peppermint or candied cherries. I suppose there’s other things. If I make some, I’ll keep ’em virgin. 🙂
Well, given that 41.9% of our population is considered obese, yeah, diabetes stats are high. A couple of weeks ago (I wasn’t on scene), a woman collapsed at the Club. EMTs were called. Diabetes. Although there was diabetes in her family, she didn’t know. Her blood sugar was over 500. But, she’s doing well, and off visiting family, in California. I hope she’s keeping away from the desert table. 🙂
I switched awhile back to alternating, daily, between two squares of dark chocolate, or, a handful of walnuts. I used to do both, ever day. Part of the switch was economy, part to cut calories a bit. Oddly, I look forward to the Walnut Days, more than the Chocolate Days.
Our high yesterday was 54F (12.22C). The overnight low was 32F. The forecast for today is 51F. No lose talk of lowland snow, yet. It’s been dry, but we may get some rain after 3am. So our walks today, will be pleasant. It was a bit breezing, this morning. And, when the weather changes, we may get wind gusts to 23mph.
Oh, I suppose a lot of people were getting their dogs spiffy for the holidays. Gotta look good in those family pictures, they put in their Christmas cards. 🙂
I’ve taken 4 bags of groceries, down to the Club, so far. I’ve got another one, ready to go. I might do a bit of shopping, tonight. Stuff we don’t get in our boxes. Condiments, etc..
I’d say if they catch the insurance assassin, the story is going to be interesting. He wrote some things on the bullets. Words from a phrase popular in the insurance industry: “Delay, Deny, Defend.” That’s even the name of a book. Just as a bit of explanation, insurance companies have what they call “in network.” Hospitals and doctors that they have vetted to be paid (supposedly). If you happen to get care, out of your insurance companies network, it’s not covered. And, the network is constantly shifting. It’s a trap many people fall into. Having that out of the way, the insurance industry average, for rejecting claims in network is 16%. The insurance company of the murdered man has a rejection rate of 32%.
Random murder vs targeted assassinations. I suppose there’s statistics, somewhere.
Most of the author interviews I’ve heard, or read, are pretty benign. After all, the author is trying to sell a product. :-). Lew
Hello Inge,
Thank you for sharing your voice, news from afar, and ideas here for over a decade. I respect your thoughts and decision. It has been a true pleasure to have made your acquaintance, and there are only fond memories of our long and winding discussions. May your garden and ancient forest continue to grow for many years to come.
If I may make one final observation: the role of the Elder was never intended to be one of comfort, and rarely can any of us alter the course of events. In many ways, being an Elder requires us to know history, comprehend people and motivations, guide where we may, and then simply watch uncomfortably whilst the same events play out, time and time again.
PS: Your observation of: ‘Concision!’ And yes, I believe the exclamation mark was warranted :-), has been branded into my consciousness – as befits an act of command. Of course, you were totally correct, although at a guess you may now add that the addition of the word ‘totally’, was inappropriate in that sentence. And I’d not be able to fault your logic! 😉
Cheers and best wishes for the future. You are always welcome here.
Chris
@ Inge:
Goodbye, but I hope it will only be au revoir. I have enjoyed so much reading your comments here over the years. Please do get some rest and relaxation.
Pam
Chris:
I floated the footwarmer idea to Mr. Baby and he sneered. He wants to know where HIS footwarmer is. Never mind.
Well, I saw somebody had the lye out on the kitchen counter yesterday, and I still have all that old olive oil – but I haven’t put up my Christmas lights yet! Priorities! Anyway, thanks for the recommendation of olive oil soap and the oatmeal shampoo. Is castile soap olive oil? I have some of that.
I actually have quite oily skin, which seems odd for my age. I have to watch out for breakouts. I cook with coconut oil sometimes. It makes the best pastry. And thanks for the yoghurt suggestion.
Hey – the pond/dam behind us is frozen. I can’t tell how much.
I have just about finished organizing all my seeds that I saved from the last couple of years. I had been meaning to do that for some time (there are a lot of them; some bought ones, too), but you know – Christmas lights!
Pam
@ Inge,
I wish you the best, Inge. You will be missed.
DJSpo
Chris,
People not only don’t slow down in remote areas, they will not slow down during adverse driving conditions either. More freezing drizzle overnight, icier conditions than yesterday, more wrecks than yesterday. Rather than slowing down due to conditions, people are blaming the City, the County, the State for not keeping the roads perfect. Personal responsibility doesn’t exist.
When we drive in rural areas, we spend more time looking for deer, etc., than anything else. This is especially true during the times they are most likely to be moving. And you never know when there will be some cattle loose on a rural road.
The parakeet liked having the other bird around, until it was feeding time. Then jealousy took over. But the parakeet was generally very good-natured. Until it got loud, of course. 😉
Why was the robin named Obbs? I think that sister wanted a name similar to “Robin”, but not exactly “robin”. So it became Obbs.
Oh, yes, we had a good laugh at Obbs on the bald head. So did the neighbors after their guests had left. That brought a good laugh for quite some time.
I tend to the belief that mom didn’t teach the parakeet fowl language. 🙂 That bird would tend to spend time blethering and randomly joining various phrases and sounds together. Sometimes the random becomes, well, something not so random. That was another funny episode with the parakeet.
Nice visions of sugarplums, er, um, performing parakeets you’ve brought to mind. Parakeets and drums, moogs, etc. Brilliant. It made me remember an old piece from the early days of Saturday Night Live. They spliced together various parakeets dancing, edited so that all were bouncing around in perfect time to the Village People’s song Macho Man.
Indeed, you won yesterday’s cheekiness award for your keeping mum remark. That was good.
I think Lewis is spot on with his Bambi explanation. Regarding the rabid rabbits? Makes sense that that would get into the medieval killer rabbit thing. And we all know the only way to deal with rabid rabbits and killer rabbits – the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
Dude! 22C and feeling cold? Well, I get it. I’ve felt chilled at 22C following a long day of hard work or bicycling in 35C weather. It happens. Then there were days (note the past tense) when I was so acclimated to cold weather, that hiking in the woods in the snow at -15C, I had to unzip the jacket, uncover my ears and take off my gloves to release heat, as I was getting hot. In the shade, yet.
Today’s jaunt to see Killian the Red was a bit less safe than yesterday’s. The sidewalks were mostly slick. We tend to walk on the edge of the roads, but there were a few slick spots there, too. One more night of this expected.
Alas! Like you, I was never invited to those parties that featured “Applied Brownian Motion”.
Margaret? She was a friend’s ex back when the friend and I were in our teens. So your memory is working.
I’ve been fortunate in this neighborhood. Said neighbor is great. He moved into his house about 2 years before we moved here. We’ve helped one another back and forth ever since we moved here in 1996. We both looked out for the old fella next door (old fella lived in the house between us) and the 3 of us worked together clearing snow from all 3 sidewalks while also carving out parking areas in the street after heavy snowfalls or the plows plowing us back in. There are 2 other neighbors who help with various other things. And a lot of us keep a watch out for abnormal activities around the various houses.
Here’s hoping you get a good and long break this season. You can use a good break.
“Speaking of batteries, an experimental battery maker down here has apparently hit very rocky business shores.” You’ve got my interest up. Details?
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
For a moment there, I’d forgotten the usually pleasant, but occasionally abrasive nature of our feline friends. 🙂 And possibly Mr Baby is correct there in his assertion, and is suggesting one of those seedling heat mats be installed for his comfort?
Good stuff, and do you know, it’s been our experience that the oldest olive oils usually make the best soaps. Someone, somewhere probably knows the reason for this outcome, but it ain’t me! Do you have a recipe for making olive soap? Lye is a very interesting product, and it’s surprising that two such disparate products, one of which is particularly caustic, can make most excellent soap. Baffling, and lucky I wasn’t required to come up with the idea…
Never used castile soap before and it is hard to know whether you’re discussing hard soaps, or liquid soaps. Without knowing the details, it sort of sounds the same as the soap we make, but I truthfully I have no idea. However, you sent me on a rabbit hole and turns out that the soap has a long and complicated history. And I’d been completely unaware of the industrial uses of the tree (which happily grows here): Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis).
Back in the day, people used to extract Eucalyptus oil from the trees around here, it’s not a complicated process. A lovely very fragrant essential oil, which is also found in the Bay Laurel trees. Hmm. Might need to put some brain cells towards this matter.
Lucky you, oily skin is one of the secrets of ageing gracefully. 🙂 Not always easy to achieve past a certain age. My skin now does far better with the change in diet I mentioned to you. But yes, agreed, one does have to be alert for breakouts, and I tend to stick to what works for me. Coconut oil is really tasty, and I suspect quite good for you because at body temperature it is not a solid.
Far out, that sounds so cold to my summer softened brain. 🙂 Wasn’t it only a fortnight ago that daytime temperatures were in the mid 60’F range? Whiplash ensues! Hehe! It’s really hot and humid here today, and we went to visit an open garden about an hours drive north of here. Had a nice lunch sitting in the shade of some old elm trees whilst looking out over a lake. Apparently the ocean off the north west of the continent, is now the hottest waters on the planet and is sending heaps of moisture down this way, although the rains have been fairly benign all things considered.
Will put up the ‘lady finger’ biscuit video tomorrow night for the tiramisu. It’s in the editing stage right now. All I can say is that I’m no purist… 🙂
Did you get to the Christmas lights? 🙂 Sadly there does seem to always be more things to be done, than hours in the day. It’s funny how seed collections can accumulate – I hear you. Every few years a cull is done of the collection. We had a surprising self seeded plant germinate. Sometimes less care is more with this plant stuff!
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Did you just say that you’ve gone from freezing fog, to freezing drizzle? My mind is now reeling from the implications that ice can form in all sorts of watery wintry conditions. Sorry to hear about the road disasters, but honestly there is little you or I can do about such matters. The authoritas down this way also advise to drive for the conditions in extreme weather, but people hear what they want, and act as if circumstances are a constant. For a city, county or state, that belief system would be hard to deliver upon.
It was hot and humid here today with a bit of rain this morning, although the coming week’s forecast is for cooler dry conditions. Might be able to bring some more firewood in to the stores, but we’ll see how it goes.
Headed an hours drive north to visit an open garden today. It was all quite lovely and still sort of green (but drying out), and also very hot.
That’s the thing with rural roads, you have to drive along scanning the side of the road for wildlife, and not to forget, also the possibility of trees falling and squooshing cars and their occupants. It happens. And cattle and sheep are escape artists. True.
Cool, and admittedly my experience with parakeets is minimal. However, feeding time can occasionally be an issue with pets, and we stopped communally feeding dogs after one much larger dog began starving out her erstwhile friend. That was not good, and in these more experienced days, the dogs enjoy measured meals in their own bowls. If they choose not to eat the stuff, the chickens will do so.
Thanks for the explanation, and that makes sense in regards to the name of the Robin. It’s a mysterious name too. We’re super casual about naming dogs, and the shelter advised me that Ollie’s name was in fact Charlie – to which he didn’t respond too. It’s hard to even know where his Ollie name came from, he just looked like an Ollie, as must your Robin have looked like an Obbs.
Oh, that’s good: Fowl language! Master, when will I be able to be to depart the interweb and head out into the real world? (said in best Kung Fu series flashback. I loved that show.)
Yes, the Village People, who could forget their catchy melodies and lyrics? I’d not seen the sketch, and have only watched a few skits over the years, like the Will Ferrell more cowbell music skit. Very amusing. For some reasons unbeknownst to me, that show has sketches now feeding into my utoob feed. It’s amazing that a lot of great comedic actors have had their start on that long running show.
It was pretty witty, but your fowl language pun which you casually slipped in – possibly some sort of experiment to see if I was awake (thankfully passed, a close thing) – was equally good. Mucking around with language can be fun. I appreciate the award though, master. 😉
Yeah, Bambi has a lot to answer for. There was an article about deer hunting and venison pie in the news, but the additional words about some ecologists having concerns, kind of put me off reading it. That killer rabbit scene makes me laugh, every time.
Temperature and comfort is such a relative experience, yup, and if I felt 22’C inside a house in the middle of winter, I’d be reaching to open some windows and doors to cool the house down. -15’C is not a temperature I’d experienced, but I can comprehend how the body adjusts to cooler ambient air temperatures – and it can get stiflingly hot at times. Fortunately it is easy to lose excess energy in such conditions. Have you ever felt the early stages of hypothermia? I’ve had a number of encounters with heat exhaustion, and now recognise the signs early and take evasive manoeuvres.
Not good, and watch out for the ice. Is Dame Avalanche better adapted to the slippery icy conditions?
Thanks for the confirmation of your friends story. The finer details of such things can get a bit hazy over the years.
Things on that neighbours front may have been different way back in the day, and probably looked a lot like your experience. Everyone is on little islands up here, and I do wonder about the longevity of that particular stance. It’s not my natural community space, but you get what you get, and you got good. A lot of the neighbours are getting older and many of the properties are starting to come up for sale, but younger folks can’t really afford them, and I seriously wonder about that story. It doesn’t mean nothing.
Thanks! I appreciate your words of support. The blog of course will continue during that time.
Here goes: Redflow was the great hope of Australian manufacturing. Its collapse left customers with broken batteries. I’m not entirely sure that particular technology can scale downwards in size, maybe it can, but then again, maybe it can’t.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That’s how things used to be down here as well, and the Editor’s mum taught her how to drive, although the lady probably wasn’t up to date with the latest ways to pass the official drivers license test. That is a mystery indeed! Possibly such formalities were a bit more loose in those days, and the chances of getting caught were insignificant.
This morning whilst heading north towards an open garden, in a nearby township I was breath tested by the cops. They were stopping everyone and testing for greater than 0.05% blood alcohol content. I don’t enjoy drinking during the daytime, and so just blew into the machine – hard (and was told to stop!), and then went about my day. Didn’t look like they caught anyone, and for all I know, it could have been some sort of leading up to the silly season driver reminder exercise? Dunno.
Anyway, the open garden was nice, although hot and humid so we didn’t hang around too long. Replenished fruit supplies at the nearby cool store. Picked up some local honey. Had lunch under a very old and shady elm tree next to a small lake. Got back home again, unpacked, and had a long nap. I still feel sleepy too… Took the dogs for a decent walk. Encountered a huge bull kangaroo, which seemed unfussed and stood its ground. And that was the day. Nice to have the day off any and all work.
Yeah 1982 was a good year for geeky movies. I recall them all well. They call me Bruce was amusing, as was 48 Hours. Airplane II, the sequel – you already know my thoughts about that film – so irresponsibly funny, and would never be made today! Oh, I’d not realised that Peter Sellers was in the Goon Show, well there you go, you learn something new, every day.
At that age, I’d go to the movies with my older sisters, but they’d ditch me, something, something, uncool and stuff. Whatever. Oh yeah, things were different back then, and I doubt my mother even knew where I was most of the time. Getting back by dark / dinner was simply adhered too as an easier option than the alternative, which was going hungry and probably getting yelled at. And I so agree with you, take Fight Club for example, and the message that film delivers.
Nice work with the seed library additions. You don’t see medlar trees around much these days, but the fruit (when it blets as you noted) makes a thick jam and a very tasty country wine. The jam is interesting and it ends up being quite thick, almost like a vegemite or marmite sort of consistency. Hope Jake gives the old fashioned fruit a go. Persimmons are another fruit you have to blet before it’s edible.
Absolute respect, and the Club will surely appreciate the act of generosity. Just quietly, I donate too, although usually don’t talk much about such things. Some groups and individuals are worthy of support. Ah ha! A dude has to know the system, in order to navigate the system, and wise to be flexible there with your approach. Hopefully the rules don’t change, but adaptation is the watchword.
Holy carp! I’d be there for the Philly Sliders too. Yum!
I’ll be interested to hear how your Divinity candy goes, and it’s very thoughtful of you to keep them err, pure. 😉 Getting the meringue to not crack is a difficult process, thus the Eaton’s mess recipe. The best we can achieve is to get the shape of the meringue to stay together, but there’s always a few cracks. Difficult. The ‘lady finger’ section of the video should be up tomorrow night. Hope the purists don’t come for me… 🙂 And I’d didn’t measure the ingredients out in the more usual technical sense of what some folks require.
Interesting, and funnily enough, milk chocolate doesn’t seem to have the cocoa intense benefits that dark chocolate does. It’s funny how your palate and food desires can be altered. Walnuts are very tasty too.
Maybe next month for the lowland snow. It rained here again this morning, so the humidity has gone through the roof. Did you and H manage to dodge the late wind change? It was getting darker by the time the dogs and I went out for a long walk, so at least the air had cooled down. It feels positively cold outside now, and the wind has picked up. It’ll be cool and dry for the next week.
Hehe! Hope H looks spiffy for her adoring audience? 🙂 Actually, for a Saturday, things were quiet everywhere. That surprised me. Maybe people are busy doing Christmas shopping, or catching up with people? Dunno.
I’ve been following that story in the media, and I’m really sorry to say it, but the guy is an unsympathetic character. Some of the alleged statistics relating to that business reported in the news, kind of horrify me. And there was some throw away statistic that 100 million Americans have medical debt. Like WTF? Surely that can’t be true?
I read that statistic being reported on as well. The awful truth about such poor behaviour, is that so many people are impacted, sooner or later, the wrong person will be pushed too far. There was a case down here recently I mentioned in a passing way. And it seems that an angry old bloke appears to have allegedly encountered the wrong person, and boy, did he get a response or what.
Of course, and thanks for the correction. I may have confused the matter with authors complaining about social media. Apologies for the confusion.
Cheers
Chris
@ Inge – I’ll miss your observations. But, I know how you feel. The older I get, the more frustrated and irritable I get. Mostly, due to the direction the world is heading, and ever more complex technology. Unresponsive bureaucracy. Well, as they used to say I’m probably “preaching to the choir,” here. In parting, wishing you a merry (and quiet) Christmas, and a happy and prosperous New Year. Lew
@ Inge, I wish you the best! It has always been a pleasure to read your comments.
Claire
Yo, Chris – Maybe the police coffers are empty? More likely, your breath test, is due to the holidays. Often, those police stops are done around the time the bars close. In our state, the legal limit is .08. Anything over that, will get you a DUI (Driving Under Intoxication.) Fines, possible suspension of license, remanded to treatment depends on if there were previous arrests, or, damage done. It really depends on the judge. There’s also a .02 zero tolerance. That applies to certain drivers. Teenagers, bus and truck drivers, etc.. Anything .15 and higher, gets “enhanced penalties.”
Some people must have a “blow and go” installed in their cars. The ignition won’t unlock, unless alcohol free breath, is blown into the machine. They’re very expensive. And, buggy. But, I suppose if you have a small child along, to blow into the machine … 🙂
Your day trip to the open garden (etc.) sounds nice. LOL. “We were going to the cold store, and to get some honey, and just happened to see this open garden.”
It was commented on, in the documentary, that a lot of those movies wouldn’t be made, today. Either for economic or societal reasons.
Well, there’s chocolate, and then there’s chocolate. You need 72% cocoa, in chocolate, to get some health benefits. Milk chocolate, falls way below that. Some bars that claim to be dark chocolate, have a cocoa percentage of 45 or 50%. If they don’t have a cocoa percentage, right on the package, it’s probably at the low end of the scale. Finding out the percentage takes a bit of research. It’s the companies that proudly proclaim their percentage, right on the package, that are trustworthy. That’s why I hope I can always find Lindt chocolate. They have bars that are 72, 78, 85, and 90%. I even found a couple that were 100%. Whoa. Bitter. Only good for cooking, I’d say. So far, I’ve been able to keep myself in Lindt bars. With luck, I can usually find them for about $3 per. One bar last me about 5 days. Or, 10 now, that I’ve switched to alternate days. Ghirardelli is another fine chocolate company, though I don’t see them, too often.
I can’t tell you what the high was, yesterday. There was a five hour gap, in the weather history, right in the afternoon. The overnight low was 50F (10C). When I took H out for a walk, last night, we went slightly earlier, as rain was forecast. We encountered just a few drops. But, it’s a deluge this morning, and we got quit wet. It got pretty windy, around 2am. Gusts to 25mph. But, it’s settled down. The Chehalis Christmas parade, should be starting, about now. I wonder if they’ll cancel? Probably not. We’re made of sterner stuff. 🙂 Santa is going to get wet!
I was going to link to some articles about our sad medical system, and the assassination, but figure you’re getting a lot of that, right now. Coals to Newcastle. One comment caught my eye. “My empathy is out of network.”
Medical debt? Depends on who you ask. Statistics. But, it’s high. I’ve seen 10 million, 14 million and 20 million. I saw 14 million have medical debt, over $1,000. And 3 million have debt over $10,000. And, I wonder if they take dental and optical into account?
Well, today and tomorrow, and then the auction picks up, on Monday. I’ve been busy cleaning stuff, making tags and filling banana boxes. I think I’ll make it. Lew
@Pam
Thanks! Wondering if you went through some of this insurance stuff with your mom. At least I have two sisters helping out. I’m quite concerned how things will be when my sister, Nora, goes to Florida for 3 months. She’s the most help and understands the insurance issues. She leaves in less than a month. Marty won’t have moved yet. We realize we have to repack all his stuff as things were just dumped together in boxes like clothes and tools. Of course nothing is labeled.
On a good note I’ve convinced him that his stuff will be fine so he’s backed off insisting on going back to his apartment.
Margaret
@Lew
Marty’s Medicare disAdvantaged plan is with United Health Care. However as of January 1st he’ll be switched to a Medicaid managed care plan. I can hardly wait to see how this turns out.
Margaret
Chris:
Somewhere I do have a recipe for olive oil soap. It’s probably in the book I have titled “Soap” . . . I expect soap was discovered when some animal fat got in with some ashes in water. I have hard and liquid Castile soap!
I don’t think bay laurel will grow in my climate; that’s a shame. I have Eucalyptus Oil in my medicine cabinet, but I’ll bet it’s from California (I just looked; no country of origin).
I’d rather age ungracefully than have to deal with pimples at my age.
Did the elm trees in Australia get Dutch Elm Disease like they did here and in Europe? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a native American elm.
Looking forward to Lady Fingers!
No, I didn’t get to the Christmas lights. It looks like it’s going to be Christmas before I do so. However, I have finished organizing my seeds. It’s a nice collection. I have also ordered some new ones. Oh, yummy, yummy, yummy, yum!
I nearly spit out my dinner when I read that your police were stopping people and making them take a Breathalizer test without even probable suspicion of being under any influence. I have not heard of that happening here, though it sounded like Lew may have indicated that it happens.
Pam
@ Margaret:
Medicare covered a great deal of my mother’s last two hospital visits, the ones just before she passed away (she routinely went to the ER for falling). Now I am trying to figure how to pay what Medicare didn’t cover. I’m going by the hospital Monday to see if I can work out a payment plan.
Best of luck managing things for Marty while Nora is gone, but good for you for soothing Marty’s worries – for now!
Pam
Hi Pam,
Isn’t good to be able to reach into the book shelves and pull out an appropriate book on a subject, such as say, soap making? I constantly refer to the most excellent book on pruning someone (maybe Claire) recommended. Of course, the details very much depend upon the quality of the author to be able to explain what they’re doing, using simple English. Not always the case! Years ago I was forced to pay for a consultants report where a technical term was introduced, which had an entirely different meaning from the literal words – and the report provided no glossary! So there was not even the vaguest hint that the words were a technical term. Waste of mad cash, but it worked out to my advantage in the end, thankfully.
Hadn’t thought of that set of ancient circumstances, but you’re probably right. The ancients were every bit as observant as people are today, maybe more so.
I’ve got two of those bay laurel trees growing, and I’d imagine they’d do well in your summer months, but perhaps not be so good during the more extreme winter days. When I was a kid, eucalyptus oil was commonly seen as a cleaning and disinfectant fluid, and it’s powerful stuff with all sorts of interesting properties, but over time you see it used less and less. For your interest, on rainy or hot days, the entire area is redolent with the aroma of eucalyptus oils. The forest smells quite nice.
You know, I thought that when I got a leading 5 in my age that pimples would be a thing of the past, but the little blighters seem to have their own plans. I salute your determination!
I’d not been aware of Dutch Elm disease, mostly because it is not present down under. The old avenues of honour have century old elm trees, and they’re beautiful trees. Tall, stately and provide 100% shade. I’ve observed that the trees tend to produce a lot of saplings, which may be part of the story of the downfall. Too many trees in a small area in my opinion creates a very stressed out forest when conditions are sub fluffy optimal. Things of course may be different in other parts of the world.
The video is now live. 🙂
Hehe! Isn’t it traditional to get the lights up twelve days before hand? Maybe… Respect! Happiness is a well stocked and appropriate for the area, seed collection.
Oh no, that happens all the time, and is entirely random. Down here, you can get stopped without probable cause. And I’d like to recount the story of the day the heavily armed teamed pulled me over, but can’t, although it is not in my nature to be mysterious. Pam, they can even randomly test people for illicit substances. You have freedoms in your country which are so good, they may be unappreciated. Just saying, I’m not free at all to say what is on my mind, let alone agree with someone who does so. It may surprise you, but in the lead up to your election, because of certain interweb links here, the blog was outrageously throttled. Hmm. There are some things I can not talk about, hmm!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
🙂 It’s been remarked upon elsewhere that this state is in some serious debt depths, more than any other. Don’t blame me though, I didn’t vote for them, although I was in the minority there.
No, it is quite common here to be stopped and breath tested for the presence of alcohol, which is at a lower percentage than in your part of the world at 0.05%. That’s pretty much the standard upper acceptable percentage down under, any more and you immediately lose your license, endure community service and face significant fines. For your interest, with some rough back of the envelope maths, assuming we have 9L of blood and the spirits are about 40% alcohol which is a bit higher than reality, I’m guessing that means consuming about 45ml of ethanol, or about 1/7th of a bottle of 700ml spirits, which is not all that much (maybe two shots). The problem really becomes, everybody processes the stuff at a different rate, so the official number is a line in the sand, and so you just have to be careful.
Learner drivers have I believe a zero tolerance, as do some other drivers, like those big trucks in mines. They also face other testing for different substances. And in accidents where someone is injured, expect to be tested, and things go very badly if the results are not good. There was some sort of alleged dark cloud hovering over the former state premier apparently in relation to just such an event. Hmm. Like a zombie, that issue keeps coming back from the dead. If you can cope with a short cartoon, here’s one perspective on the matter: The State of Melbourne. Hmm. Is it true, is it not, but like zombies, the story keeps coming back. That’s what some sectors of the community are saying. The last time I was in such muddy waters was like, never.
Hehe! Things are a bit more loose in your country! 🙂 Along the freeways there are number plate readers tracking your moves, and also these weird looking dalek machines which wouldn’t surprise me at all if one day unlicensed and unregistered vehicles were simply zapped with powerful lasers. Freedom is a wonderful thing.
The open garden was really lovely, and we do try to organise ourselves so that one trip serves many purposes and the overall number of car trips is kept to the minimum. Fuel is not as cheap as in your country, although observing the sheer volume of traffic on the roads, other people feel differently.
Can you imagine the film Fight Club being made today? Let alone some of the raucous John Hughes comedy films of that era. The Breakfast Club film was made about that time, and it left a strong impression upon me. I have the distinct impression that there is a lot of censorship going on in the form of societal media programming. If movies get too dull, people will simply shrug their shoulders and move on to other forums of entertainment.
Lewis, I still enjoy milk chocolate in small quantities, but I get where you are coming from with the dark chocolate and its health benefits. And Lindt also produces my favourite choccie. Man, I’ve never tasted 100%, and will take your words under advisement. 🙂 Usually the dark chocolate sold is around the 80% mark, from memory. Never heard of the Ghirardelli mob, but noted who they were owned by. I’ve observed that chocolate tastes differently in other parts of the world, even when they are purportedly the same item. Tropical countries I guess have to add stabilisers so the stuff doesn’t melt before it’s purchased.
Ook! The Christmas parade does sound like it will compete with some dodgy weather, although at your time of year people expect such things, maybe. I’ve long noted that the iconography and symbols suggest snow, reindeer and stuff, and your local conditions don’t sound at all like that. 😉 Mind you, in two and half weeks, your weather could get close to that. Here, not a chance, maybe. A neighbour had photos of a way out of season storm which delivered a little bit of Christmas snow, but it was way before my time. He’s a keen photographer.
Santa’s gear is made for cold snowy weather, not cold wet weather!
I agree with that comment, and here and in other parts of all of our lives, the golden rule of ‘do unto others’ applies. It’s quite a good rule, because it mostly stops us humans from killing each other, whilst reducing a persons karma. Hang on a second… I’ve read that bios have been taken off line now. Any idiot with half a brain can discover the same information through the company records. History suggests that stores of gold coins were dug up in England from ancient Roman villas. How does hiding work out again?
That’s a lot of people in debt for medical services. I’d not burden the household with such costs, but then that would place the burden onto me personally. It’s an option. I take personal responsibility for my own health.
Fingers crossed, and may you make the finish line with all that packing for the auction. 🙂 And also that you score a decent return. Respect!
Cheers and better get writing… Ook!
Chris
Yo, Chris – Just to kick off today’s post with an “animals do the strangest things.” Of course, so do people. Who knew Orcas were into fast fashion? 🙂
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/07/science/orcas-salmon-hat-puget-sound
So many things can contribute to alcohol readings. Sex, weight … even ethnicity. I figure you were stopped for “Driving While Ginger.” 🙂 They installed license plate readers, over in Centralia, about a year ago. But they seem to use them to spot stolen vehicles. Every week or two, there’s a mention in the newspaper of another apprehension. Not that they couldn’t be used for other purposes.
That cartoon was really funny. I probably missed a few nuances, but got the general drift. If they have such strict libel laws, in your country, how do they get away with it?
I got to thinking the CEO assassination, once all is said and done, will become a major motion picture. Cast of thousands. All singing, all dancing. 🙂 Then there will be the tragic opera. Mr. Greer will dissect it, over many posts. 🙂 The chorus will be made up of people “done wrong” by their insurance companies.
As an interesting side note, you know that there are a whole pack of “internet sleuths,” that often help in solving crimes. There’s not much interest, from that mob. And the few who have shown some interest, have been roundly shouted down. I think it’s also interesting that the reward for information, is only $10,000. I predict the perp will be identified by DNA information. If any of his relatives, no matter how distant, have gotten one of those ancestry tests, he’ll be identified. But, it could take months.
Our high yesterday was 48F (8.88C). The overnight low was 43F. The forecast for today is 49F. When I took H out, yesterday morning, it was bucketing down. Just about the time the parade was supposed to start. They didn’t cancel it. But I guess there were few spectators. Afternoon and late night walk, H and I managed to stay dry. I usually take her out, after I get up from my afternoon nap. The sunlight was pouring through the window, so, we hustled right out. 20 minutes later, it was pouring, again. Gee, we haven’t had an ear worm, in awhile. Here’s something appropriate. H has aspirations to be a disco queen. Maybe I should have kept her costumes.
https://youtu.be/SFzMs2SN–s?si=5dz-WwtAvD8yavRx
Things are falling (not literally!), into place, to get a lot of stuff, out the door. Luckily, the weather is clear, tomorrow, to load the truck. But, it’s going to be a long day … and maybe into the night.
Well, I got the yearly notice as to how much my social security is going to go up, per month, next year. $16. They should really call it something other than a cost of living increase. As that’s laughable, in a sick kind of a way. Lew