Category Archives: December

Today is cloudy and mild. I’ve been puttering around all day long. The computer has been turned off most of the morning, and the loudest sound in the house is the ticking of the two clocks in the living room.

The Crabapple tree in the front yard is still covered with little red apples. This year they are being gobbled up by squirrels. I reckon that is because of the decimation of the wetland at the end of the street, the pressure on the wildlife to find sources of food is probably desperate, leading the the squirrels, for the very first time since we bought Mist Cottage, to consider them acceptable food. Other years the Crabapples remained undisturbed until late February, when the local birds found them a last resort.

Squirrels are messy eaters. There are bits of bright red Crabapple all over the front walkway, the steps, and the porch entry. The bits stick to shoes and boots, and eventually get tracked through the whole house. Since there is no snow, and the weather was mild enough to be out in just a sweater, for a short period of time, I took the broom and swept the walkway, porch, and entry clear. We will see how long it takes those pesky squirrels to litter it with debris once again

Yesterday I missed an appointment. This hardly ever happens to me. It was my fault, I got really into cooking pinto and kidney beans, then making Taco Soup, that the time just got away on me, and by the time I realized I needed to get ready to go, I was three hours late. There is no recovery from that. So I called the office and left a message, no one answered the telephone.

It isn’t often that I can pleasantly interact with medical staff, it is usually a struggle because of my condition, which often irritates them because it isn’t on their checklist of things to cover, things with a pat response. This morning they returned my call, and I must say, the person I talked to was incredibly respectful, accepting my apology with good grace, and setting up a new appointment for me in the New Year. Really, I am not used to being spoken to politely by medical office staff, particularly when I have introduced a factor they aren’t used to dealing with. I am used to having to get down and ugly, to assert the bases I need covered because of my anaphylaxis. Interactions with medical facilities are seldom pleasant. But this one was all I could hope for, tolerance and respect were offered to me, and I accepted it with relief. The call made my day!

Worldly

Weather

RAINFALL WARNING
4°C
Date: 2:00 PM EST Thursday 20 December 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.2 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 4.1°C
Dew point: -2.5°C
Humidity: 62%
Wind: ENE 7 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else’s life forever.”
Margaret Cho

The sun was peeking out now and again this morning, so cheerful.  I enjoyed listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons this morning, it is very uplifting.

We have two Instant Pots, a 6 quart and a 3 quart.  This morning they were both pressed into service.  The 3 quart cooked Red Kidney Beans, and the 6 quart cooked Pinto Beans.  This was in preparation for cooking Taco Soup, a recipe I cannot share because the online poster requested it not be shared.  Fair enough.  It has ground beef, onion, tomatoes, corn, beef broth, and taco seasoning, you get the picture.  After cleaning the 6 quart Instant Pot, it was used to cook the soup.  I need healthy lunches, which are comprised primarily of vegetables, and this soup hits the mark.

I need to make bread this weekend, at Attila’s request.  He wants to use homemade bread to make the stuffing for the turkey, for Christmas dinner.  He will prepare a feast, and then we will eat leftover turkey dinners for most of the rest of 2018.  We both love leftovers, so this is something to look forward to.  I don’t eat very much bread, even in the machine it takes about three hours, so it is not really something I want to tackle when the hydro is least expensive, after 7:00 p.m.  Bread baking is a weekend indulgence, when the hydro is least expensive all day and all night long.

It looks like the weather will turn cloudy later today, and stay that way right through to Christmas Day.  This, combined with the shortest day of year coming up on Friday, will be well mediated by brightly coloured lights, the Christmas Tree is a most welcome addition to the living room this time of year. 

One of the things I would like to look into at Mist Cottage is good lighting.  Our lighting is supplied by a collection of lamps, and ceiling lights.  The ceiling lights are stark, providing excellent light for times when visual acuity is important.  The lamps are of varying ages, collected over the last three or four decades, some used, some purchased new because the price was marked down to next to nothing, which reflects their appeal. 

One of my lamps, that I purchased during my years living in downtown Toronto, was found at a yard sale on Brunswick Avenue.  The base is hand turned pottery, and shade is hand crafted, consisting of various plant snippets pressed between two pieces of opaque material.  I like it as much today as I did the day I bought it.  I have no idea who made it, but whoever it was, their creative vision resides comfortably in my home.  That lamp will not be replaced, and it does accommodate an LED bulb.

Another lamp I bought for next to nothing, because the price was right, is a floor lamp.  It is functional, but neither Attila or I care for the light it throws out, an it takes up floor space, as it is a “big house” lamp.  The bedroom lamps are old, from yard sales, and will probably not make the cut.  There are two lamps that we bought new decades ago, and although we like them I don’t know that they will accommodate LED bulbs; in addition there are no tables to put them on, as the living room is too small for tables, actually there are no tables as such anywhere in the house except the kitchen table. These two lamps are “big house” lamps. 

I think new lighting will have to wait until the “big house” furniture is replaced with something more appropriately sized for a house as small as Mist Cottage.  I will be thinking about an interim addition though, to add some lighting to the living area, for reading and for atmosphere during the long winter nights.

Lighting is just something interesting to think about, to research, to contemplate.

Today I thought I’d turn the computer off for the day.  Well, it was a good intention, but today wasn’t a day for success.  I turned it off, remembered something I wanted, turned it on again, then turned it off again, then wanted something else, like a recipe, so turned it on again, and so it went all day long, on, off, on, off.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll do a little better, worth a try anyway.

Worldly

Weather

2°C
Date:9:00 AM EST Wednesday 19 December 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.8 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 1.6°C
Dew point: -1.2°C
Humidity: 82%
Wind: SW 20 gust 31 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Never learn to do anything: if you don’t learn, you’ll always find someone else to do it for you.”
Mark Twain
1835 – 1910

Sounds lazy and manipulative to me.

Today the sun shone bright, and it was cold, as it usually is in the winter when the sun shines bright.

I had a busy day!  I went for a drive in the sunshine, went shopping, went for a walk, chatted with a friend, puttered in the garage, puttered in the back yard, and managed to do a bit of organizing in the basement.  Here, there, and everywhere.  I had fun.

Attila had a busy day too, he was off Christmas shopping again, this bodes well for me! We tend towards the practical end of things when it come to gift giving, things we use all the time, and every time we use them we remember the warmth with which it was given.

Last night the temperature outside dropped below -7C, so the oil furnace heated the house overnight.  That means the relative humidity in the house dropped.  And guess what, no nose bleed!  What a thrill it is!  Perhaps the nosebleed I had after the cauterization were a result of incomplete healing.  I am also running a humidifier in the bedroom overnight, which helps, but that didn’t help in winter’s past, so this is a change for the better.

The most exciting thing going on right now is that there is nothing exciting going on!  Love and peace!

Worldly

Weather

-5°C
Date: 4:00 PM EST Tuesday 18 December 2018
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.3 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: -5.3°C
Dew point:
-14.2°C Humidity: 50%
Wind: NW 19 km/h
Wind Chill: -12
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.”
Kurt Vonnegut
1922 – 2007