Category Archives: August

August Entries

Small Miracle

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orange marigolds in the sun

The Marigols this morning.

What a beautiful day! It is cool, cool enough that I am wearing a long sleeve shirt. But not so cool that I feel chilly. Perfect. Another heat wave is on the way, so say the weather people. I suspect they are right, the first week of September often brings hot humid weather.

Today it doesn’t feel as if I have done much. BUT, I must remind myself that this is simply not true.

First of all, I dealt with the dead mice in the trap that I set on the back porch last night. Mice are usually caught at night. When checking the bucket trap this morning, I was surprised to find two deceased mice. It took me a while to figure out what I was going to do with them. I settled for flushing them down the toilet. The trap has been reset.

bucket and ramp mouse trap setup

This is the mouse trap on the back porch. Fancy it ain’t! The water is roof runoff, the ramp is a piece of scrap wood from the garage roof project, set from the step to the bucket. The peanut butter is about all I had to invest in this very effective mouse trap. NOTE: no mice in this picture of the trap!

More traps need to be set for tonight, in the garden shed and in the garage. This is the time of year the mice are coming into buildings to setup their winter homes, and I intend to stop as many of them as I can from taking up residence at Mist Cottage.

The barriers we setup around the fenced in yard have been effective for keeping out the rabbits. The squirrels, birds, mice, and cats remain undeterred. This morning I watched the neighbours cat prowling around the fenced in yard, in search of mice. Sometimes he catches a mouse, as he did this last week in our compost pile. Today he had no such luck. He is a fat cat, well fed and loved by his people, so he needn’t catch anything, he is never really hungry. To date he hasn’t caught any birds. I would disapprove of the recreational hunting of our birds.

Another little project that kept me busy this morning was installing a contraption to catch drips under the bathtub drain. It leaks occasionally, and Attila’s adjustments haven’t succeeded in solving the issue. The thing is, that is where my canning supplies reside, right under the bathtub drain, and the leak creates quite a mess. So I decided I wanted some sort of catchment system, to prevent the leaks from reaching my canning equipment.

To that end I purchased a lightweight plastic serving tray from the Dollar Store, and some inexpensive bungee cords. The bungee cords gave off a horrid and overpowering odour when I opened the package, and so have been hanging outside on the clothesline for four or five days. They still smell a little, but nothing like their original stench. The project had to wait for them.

Now, here is where the true enjoyment of the new garage roof comes into play at Mist Cottage. I found old cup hooks for part of the job, but I didn’t have enough and needed nails for my project. Attila has his nails stored in clear plastic peanut butter jars (cleaned of course, labels removed). To find nails of the size I wanted, it was a simple as perusing the shelves along the back wall of the garage, where all the nails are on display. It took only seconds to spy the nails I wanted to use, easily grab the jar, unscrew the lid, take what I needed, put the lid back on, and the return the jar to its place on the shelf. It’s a miracle!! Not once in the last 25 years have I been able to easily find a nail when I needed one. A miracle I say!

I have my own little toolbox underneath the cabinet in the kitchen, so my hammer is exactly where I left it. My list was complete, hammer and nails, plastic tray and bungee cords. The wood on the floor joists, where I wanted to hammer in the nails to attach the ends of the bungee cords, was really, really hard. I dropped and lost one nail down behind the shelving, as I struggle above my head to hammer it in. But it didn’t take long to go out to the garage to replace it, voila! It was a little disturbing that old and dusty debris fell on me every time the hammer hit the nail. I persevered. And eventually the job was done. Now the tray will catch any intermittent drips, and it can easily be taken down and cleaned, if that is ever needed. The drips are bad enough to cause damage to cardboard over time, but not so bad that they will fill the tray to its brim. The water will evaporate away between baths and showers.

aa plastic tray suspended from the floor joists under the bathtub

This is the drip tray that will catch any of the small but annoying leaks from the bathtub drain. Now I can store my cardboard boxes of mason jars and canning equipment without risk of water damage!

So, that is how I spent most of my day. Of course, I did enjoy sitting in my easy chair, with the windows wide open all day long, writing this entry, crocheting, and contemplating life, the universe, and everything.

And tonight, another lovely Spicy Chicken with Rice and Mixed Vegetable for dinner. I think I will make this with fresh Scarlet Runner Beans from the garden, we have all winter to eat frozen vegetables.

Worldly

Weather

19°C
Date: 2:00 PM EDT Thursday 30 August 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.3 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 19.0°C
Dew point: 12.7°C
Humidity: 67%
Wind: NNE 12 gust 27 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“You are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.”
George Bernard Shaw
1856 – 1950

It seems to me this is true of only of those with the means to avoid poverty. No one chooses it. (Well there are a few monks etc. but they aren’t facing starvation.)

What I Get Up To

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purple ball in the back yard called wallyball

This is the purple ball that blew into our yard some time ago. It blows from place to place with the passing winds, and I enjoy watching what it is up to. Attila has named it Wallyball.

chimes hanging on the back porch

These are chimes I bought at the dollar store. They pass along whispered messages from the wind. I love them.

perper lunch bags containing seeds haning on the clothsline

These paper lunch bags contain seed heads from the Cosmos, the Giant Marigolds, and the Marigolds. The bags are labelled and hanging out to dry. This method of drying seeds seems to be working rather well!

Giant Marigolds, yellow, and Cosmos, White

These Giant Marigolds are so very beautiful! Behind them are Cosmos. I am really enjoying the flowers this year!

clump of wild flowers, small white flowers, left standing as the lawn was mowed around them

When Attila mowed the lawn this week, he left a bouquet of flowers just for me. This bouquet sits prominently in the middle of the back yard! It is the little things.

nasturiums

The Nasturtiums are doing very well, nestled up against the compost bin. I have been plucking the blooms, washing them, then popping them into my mouth. They taste sweet and peppery. I love them, the way they look, and the way they taste!

Canning assembly line.

The tomato canning assembly line. Top to bottom, the tomatoes were washed in a sink in cold water, then set in the next sink to drain, then cut into pieces on the cutting board, then placed in a large pot (in which they were boiled until soft), then ladled into a food mill which was placed on the 16 quart stock pot.  The tomato skins that were removed from the food mill were placed in the white bowl.

tomato puree

Cooking the tomato puree, in the 16 quart pot. The smaller pot was used for boiling water to sterilize the jars, rings, lids, and attachments for canning.

tomato skins spread out in pan and cleaned egg-shell on small plate

The tomato skins, having been dried in a warm oven, in a pan lined with a silicon sheet, and an egg-shell, drying on a plate. The tomato skins were separated from the pulp using the food mill, then spread in the pan and dried at 200F in the oven, off and on, over the course of a few days. All egg shells are cleaned and dried, then crushed to use as a soil amendment.

jars of tomatoes on kitchen counter

The results of the canning marathon! 12 one litre jars of Tomato Puree. And there is my All American Pressure Canner, resting after all its hard work, and behind it the Instant pot, waiting patiently to prepare our dinner.

Attila’s ankle is getting better, bit by bit, day by day. He will begin physiotherapy soon, and hopefully that will help alleviate the pain. He has two issues, one an injury to his back, and the other an old injury that has been flaring up in his ankle. He seems to be able to control the pain using Voltaran (Diclofenac) rubbed on his ankle, this allows him to sleep at night. I think that applying this locally is much better for him than taking Ibuprofen tablets, as those could affect his stomach.

Yesterday was very hot and muggy, and it did not cool down much during the night. It was, and still is, very windy. The wind toppled the Giant Marigold plants, and one of the Cosmos plants. They were then staked, and fingers are crossed that the plants will suffer no ill effects.

The garden continues to yield a small but steady harvest of tiny tomatoes. They are washed and frozen after they are harvested, to be processed all at once when the harvest season is over, and any green tomatoes have ripened. A total harvest of about two six-quart baskets is anticipated. The tomatoes from our garden will be organic tomatoes, heritage varieties, no GMO.

Last night we ate a quick supper of leftover Lebanese Instant Pot Beef and Green Beans over rice, then loaded the car and headed out to Grace the trailer. On the last visit Attila applied Mouse Free compound to the undercarriage of the trailer, and I set out numerous cotton balls infused with Peppermint Essential Oil. Two bucket type mouse traps were set and left to catch any remaining mice in Grace.

I looked for an image of the setup for the mouse trap, and found only one image, which included the deceased mice, which I didn’t need to see, and probably you don’t either. All of the other bucket mouse traps were more elaborate than ours, involving beer or pop cans. They may be more efficient, I don’t know. I am very happy with the efficacy of the trap we set. The first time we set it we caught two mature mice, while the traditional snap traps were all empty.

To create the Mouse Trap that works for us:

Materials
5 gallon bucket
two tablespoons peanut butter
table knife
water
piece of wood for a ramp

Instructions
Using the table knife, smear peanut butter horzontally to the inside of the bucket about six inches down from the rim.  A one inch by three inch smear works nicely. Pour water into the bucket to a level about in inch below the peanut butter.  Place the wood as a ramp up to the rim of the bucket, resting  just above the smeared peanut butter.  I make sure the ramp rests just on the rim, firmly.  Check occasionally for dead mice.

When I opened the door to Grace last night, I knew from the smell that we had caught mice. They must have passed away the first night we were gone, more than a week ago. In this heat, well, it wasn’t pleasant. Four mice were caught in the living room. There were no mice caught in the boot or in the bathroom traps. Although less humane, the bucket allows for much easier clean up. We burn or bury the mice we catch in the trailer, because we have warfarin laid out. It is undesirable that animals further up the food chain eat any of the mice caught in the trailer. The trap was washed with bleach, sun-dried, reloaded and set back in place, in case there are any more mice in the trailer.

When Attila applied the Mouse Free he found two hidden entry points that hadn’t been located or blocked previously. Those entry points were plugged, so that in theory any mice in the trailer from that time forth would be trapped there. The Mouse Free, in theory again, will repel further attempts by mice to enter the trailer. We are hoping that the recently trapped four mice were the last mice in the trailer.

We sat under the trees at the Camp until dark, letting the trailer air out. It was hot, humid, and windy. A flock of geese flew overhead, in V formation, heading away from the lake, probably to a nearby wetland to shelter for the night, or perhaps they would press on. It is getting to be that time of year, when the geese begin thinking of migration. Oh how I love the quiet of the bush.

Worldly

Weather

26°C
Date: 10:00 AM EDT Wednesday 29 August 2018
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.1 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 26.2°C
Dew point: 23.9°C
Humidity: 87%
Wind: S 25 km/h
Humidex: 37
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not lived at all. In which case, you’ve failed by default.”
J. K. Rowling

Projects

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Projects!

They can be horrendous.

The garage roof was one of those horrendous projects. It began in late June, and the exterior portion of the project was completed on Sunday, August 26th. And it was a two-day push, those last two days, all day Saturday and all day Sunday, to complete it. Of course, there are a few little things that aren’t done, but that is the way of it with Attila’s projects. He is a person that always leaves a little bit… in the pot when serving food, in a project that he is working on. I think it is one of the reasons he likes to work alone, someone else might want to finish a job completely. Like me, I like to finish jobs completely and forget about them. Blasphemy!

The garage roof project was undertaken by Attila, and it overtook him. In his absence from daily life, I took over and fulfilled all the day-to-day tasks that he usually takes care of, in addition to my own day-to-day tasks. Because they aren’t my tasks, they aren’t setup the way I would do them, so they were challenging. I kept Attila’s routines going, because I knew that he would experience additional stress if I changed things on him. So project support was a long and tedious process for the garage roof project.

The exterior of the garage roof project, although it probably needs wee bits of tweaking to completely finish it off (like painting the caulking), is done to my satisfaction, as well as Attila’s. The new roof, wall, and window, keep the weather out, and it all looks lovely.

The interior, well it is only my concern in that when Attila moves all his materials and tools out of the basement, I will reorganize the basement to make everything stored there accessible to me. No more asking Attila to move heavy objects so that I can fill the flour canister, or fetch a few mason jars and lids. No sir, I’m going to go and get what I need, when I need it!

Not all projects are horrendous.

This past weekend I tackled a project that was not horrendous, was rather enjoyable, but exhausting.

I canned a half bushel of Roma tomatoes. They were available in half bushel boxes at the local grocery store, were grown in Ontario, and were $7.97. The produce from that particular grocery store, the one we usually visit, does not last long. It is cheaper for a reason, and that reason is that it isn’t the freshest produce available on the market. I needed to start canning as soon as possible.

Saturday morning Attila took the time to carry my All American Pressure Canner up from the basement. I spent an hour or so reading the manual again, since I haven’t pressure canned for quite some time. I also researched canning tomatoes, and finally found a good guideline offered by the Ohio State University Extension, called Canning Tomato Products.

I started just after 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning, and was taking the last of the dozen one-litre jars out of the canner just before 10:00 p.m. Saturday evening. I was on my feet the whole day, washing, trimming, dicing, boiling, straining, cooking, sterilizing, bottling, and finally, canning. It was a lot of work, and those jars, filled with lovely tomato puree, lined up on the counter, looked wonderful to me!

Pressure canning commands a lot of respect, mistakes can be dangerous. I took a certificate course in pressure canning before I did it for the first time, so that after months of preparation I felt I was able to proceed safely. It was nerve-wracking, the first few times. This time I found it a lot less intimidating, after preparing by re-reading the manual and reviewing my notes. It went smoothly.

Freezing tomato puree is a lot easier, but that requires a lot of freezer space, which we don’t have. Canned goods can be stored on shelves in the basement.

Another project, a much smaller project, I set for myself, was to begin a binder of Instant Pot recipes that are low-sodium, low-cholesterol, tasty, and easy to prepare from ingredients we keep in the house. It is easy to reduce the sodium and cholesterol in a recipe, but that usually results in a far inferior taste.  My small collection are those recipes that still taste good after reducing the sodium and cholesterol, at least to our low-sodium adjusted palates. I have about six recipes now, taken from online publishers, then altered to make them fit within the sodium and cholesterol limits of my diet. I had to order some page protectors from Amazon, to keep my printed pages in. Uncovered pages have a way of getting splattered.

One recipe I am currently working on is Tuna Noodle Casserole. I have tried several recipes, and none of them offer desirable results. The latest recipe calls for adding milk to the Instant Pot before pressure cooking. Well, it burned, I knew it would. BUT what I didn’t know was how much flavour was added to the dish when the milk caramelized.

I wasn’t in the room watching the Instant Pot when the burn warning first came on. I discovered it later. When I did discover it, I did a Quick Release of the pressure, then lightly scraped out the mixture into an oven proof dish, and transferred it to the oven to finish cooking, which didn’t take long. The taste of the casserole was amazing! I am thinking of trying it again, while watching the Instant Pot constantly for that burn warning, then immediately doing a Quick Release. Then, if the there isn’t too much burning on the bottom, Saute to deglaze the pot, and stir while cooking for several minutes to completely cook the noodles. That is my plan at the moment anyway, working towards getting that flavour!

So those are my little projects.

Attila’s first non-reno project was to pickle some hot red peppers from the garden. He wanted to experiment with making pickled peppers with substantially less salt. The taste test results will be in by next week!

Life is about to evolve here, there are no more high pressure projects on the immediate horizon, and perhaps not on the horizon at all, if we decide the house is fine as it is. It is unlikely the renovation projects will cease altogether, and that after a long break after the garage roof project, we will begin to think about other projects, all of the low-key, at least low-key for us. Things such as building stud walls in the basement, insulating and drywalling; extending the back porch; rewiring most of the upper floor of the house; new siding on the house; a new metal roof on all buildings; none of these things, or others on the long list, is crucial. If they don’t get done, well they don’t, we will survive.

Worldly

Weather

29°C
Date: 4:00 PM EDT Tuesday 28 August 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.2 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 28.8°C
Dew point: 23.2°C
Humidity: 71%
Wind: WSW 31 gust 45 km/h
Humidex: 39
Visibility: 19 km

Quote

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”
Will Durant
1885 – 1981

This one didn’t just speak to me today, it shouted!

Turn, Turn, Turn

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Some sort of turning point has been taken here at Mist Cottage. I can’t really define just when it turned, or what it is, just how it feels. It feels settled. It feels comfortable. It feels right. It feels challenging. It feels fluid. It feels a bit unpredictable. I don’t really trust this change, not yet anyway, in time, if it is real and stable, I will grow to trust it. Trust is earned.

Attila seems to have not only recovered from his “terrible, terrible mistake”, but to have come through some kind of dark night of the soul, and out the other side. He is still the same old Attila, but seems to have awakened anew, and is now able to smell the roses in this lucky life he has with me.

What a year this has been so far! Every year seems that way though, but my mileage varies.

The garage roof project is not done yet. Attila doesn’t usually finish projects at one go. He will push until he is very nearly finished, then suddenly stop altogether. It will take some prodding on my part to get him to complete the few, small remaining bits of the exterior. And that prodding will not occur until he has completely recovered from his injured ankle, however long that takes.

The interior of the garage, well as far as I am concerned, the interior is his space and he can take the rest of his life to finish it, if that is what he wants to do. As long as he moves his tools and building materials out of the tiny basement, to make room for easy access to the stored items that are going to be stored down there long-term, then I am good with whatever timeline he has for the garage interior.

The Heliopsis in the garden is a transplant from my Granny’s flower garden. So many fond memories of that garden, and time spent with my Granny, sitting on the porch beside the flower garden. It loves being here at Mist Cottage. It is over eight feet tall, and is blooming profusely. The right yellow blooms have been cut for vases, and grace the living room and the kitchen with their cheer.

The Rose plant that was transplanted from my Granny’s garden is alive, and has about a foot of growth on it, no blooms this year. I have tried many times before to transplant cuttings and root-stock of those roses, and this is the first time the effort has succeeded to any degree. I am concerned about the plant surviving the winter here. At my Granny’s house the snow is deep all winter, covering the plants and protecting them from frost damage. At Mist Cottage we get some weather just as cold as that at Granny’s house, but the snow cover is significantly less, and sporadic. I plan on putting a heavy mulch over the rose for the winter months, and hope that will protect it from ground frost.

The Inspector for the Hydro Affordability Plan visited yesterday for our eligibility inspection. He was a very personable young man, and even though the news was disappointing, it was a good experience. The upshot was that we are so frugal with our use of hydro that our points were negligible. Assistance is given based on points, the more points you have the more assistance you are eligible for. So no new energy-efficient appliances for us. But we were eligible for some LED light bulbs and a power bar, which was a pleasant surprise. With this assistance program we shot ourselves in the foot by being so frugal with our use of hydro, altering our lifestyle significantly to keep the bills affordable. No rewards for trying! Still, no regrets, we will carry on as we have been, minimizing power usage whenever we can.

The tomatoes are really coming on now! They are being frozen whole as they are harvested, so that the processing can take place all at once. Processing will involve placing the frozen tomatoes in boiling water to thaw them, draining away the water, putting them through the Food Mill, and finally canning them in the pressure canner. Three of the varieties are heritage, so they are high acid and can be canned in a hot water bath, but I will pressure can them, just in case.

I don’t really like eating meat. Attila loves meat.

Years ago we bought a quarter of beef, grass-fed beef. Two grocery bags of the beef packages are still in the freezer. There are several packages of stewing beef. One package came out of the freezer, was thawed overnight, and cooked yesterday in a dish new to us, Lebanese Green Beans and Beef Casserole. Preparing it using diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce and reducing the salt to 1/2 teaspoon as opposed to 1 1/2 teaspoons, resulted in burning, which I caught immediately, turning off the Instant Pot, and deglazing the bottom of the not so very burnt pot in order to try again. Not enough liquid in the recipe, I reckoned, so a cup of water was added before starting again. The cup of water did the trick, it cooked as it should. It was a bit watery though, so it needed to be thickened after cooking, which is easily done by adding a flour and water mixture and cooking it on Saute for a short time.

This recipe is a keeper at our house. Attila loved it. I wasn’t sure how I Liked it, but found myself returning for a second helping without thinking. That must mean that I like it.

Since Attila is supposed to stay off his feet as much as possible, the shopping has landed in my court. I am more prone to impulse buying than is Attila, as I demonstrated once again. My indulgence? A three litre basket of new potatoes for $3.97. My Grandparents grew wonderful potatoes, and the only commercial potatoes that come close in taste is autumn harvest new potatoes. What a treat!

This morning, at 5:45 a.m., those lovely little potatoes were lovingly washed, pricked with a fork, and set on the rack in the Instant Pot. A cup of water was poured into the bottom of the pot, the lid secured, the vent closed, the timer set to 12 minutes, and the start button pushed. At 6:15 a.m. the lid came off and those lovely little potatoes were cooked to perfection. And that is what I had for breakfast, two little potatoes, with salt free margarine, and a sprinkling of roasted garlic and pepper spice. I felt wealthy!

For dinner tonight I plan on steaming Coconut Lime Fish in the Instant Pot, to serve with new potatoes and fresh Scarlet Runner Beans from the garden. Steaming fish in the Instant Pot is an experiment, wish me luck!

Worldly

Weather

14°C
Date: 8:00 AM EDT Thursday 23 August 2018
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.5 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 14.4°C
Dew point: 12.1°C
Humidity: 86%
Wind: WNW 10 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

As you can see, our heat wave has ended! What a relief!

Quote

“The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.”
Umberto Eco
1932 – 2016

Not all cowards are honest cowards!

YouTube Videos

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Attila went the Emergency Department at the hospital last night, the injury to his ankle was becoming more and more painful. He was there for five hours, most of which was spend in a hard plastic chair in the waiting room, waiting for the results of the x-ray. Thankfully nothing is broken, it is a soft tissue issue, and the Emergency Department has no further interest, so sent him home with instructions to see his family doctor, and to rest the leg and foot for two days. Attila is sleeping right now, and will probably spend most of his day in bed, or sitting on the back porch when he gets tired of sleeping. Is that a thing, getting tired of sleeping?

He will see the Nurse Practioner later this week, so hopefully she will be helpful.

Projects for Attila are “off-line” for the next little while, until this leg and ankle heal properly.

I have been experimenting with YouTube. Watching videos with subject matter that is of some interest to me, I am following several dozen content creators. I have been very selective in the content I am watching.

Most of the content creators engage respectfully with the comments, whether they agree with them or not, the subject is explored respectfully. Those are the creators who are operating from a position of sharing, which allows for reciprocation of ideas and information.

Very few content creators react negatively to sharing comments, actually I have only observed two so far. What I noticed about both of these creators, was that they routinely went through the comments on their videos, loving every “yay you”, “you are amazing” comment, and ignoring all sharing comments made by viewers.

While looking at this phenomena, I discovered something truly interesting. A sharing comment that was made on a video was discussed as having been made by a “troll”. WOW! I let that sink in for a little while, then went back to have another look at the video and the comments. The comment involved sharing a link to plans for a do-it-yourself off-grid camping air conditioner, as the video content included a discussion about suffering in the heat. To me the comment seemed like a considerate and thoughtful sharing of information. To consider such a comment to be the work of a “troll” is mind-blowing. WOW!

Troll: “Someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as a forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.”
Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=internet+troll&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab

I guess I have a completely different view about what “normal on-topic discussion” means.

YouTube brings the ability to create content and publish it to just about everyone. What is available is truly the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

There are pitfalls to exposing your life online. I think the pitfalls are more numerous for videos than for the written word. The audience for the written word can read with comprehension. The audience watching a video need only their eyes and ears, so it is a much broader audience, and includes people with a less education, and perhaps less analytical ability. That seems to be a media trend, less. In this case less is not more.

One sad situation I witnessed was a family who were creating videos of their mobile lifestyle, with children. One child was struggling with the fishbowl life, and frequently threw toys at the camera, and interrupted other family members to shout, “look at me”, clearly hostile to the camera and the dynamic. The rest of the family laughed at all this, not seeming to see or hear the child’s distress, so very enthralled with their own images were they.

Another sad situation, a woman who for years presented videos, thought very highly of herself, presented a fairy tale life, sought to build a following, then suddenly began complaining about how awful it is to be watched. The attention she sought so obsessively, once attained, was not what she had expected.

Well, like anything else in the big wide world, your mileage may vary. I have stopped watching the creators who are looking for accolades, and regard reasonable feedback as intrusive. Luckily that leaves the vast majority of interesting creator content to enjoy.

Worldly

Weather

21°C
Date: 9:00 AM EDT Monday 20 August 2018
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.1 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 21.3°C
Dew point: 19.2°C
Humidity: 88%
Wind: SE 10 km/h
Humidex: 28
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
1850 – 1894

The secret of “success”.