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Another cloudy day! But it is relatively mild, so I am not complaining.

We have had some rain, so the rain barrels are full, and ready for planting season. The first raised bed, the one I planted, is looking good. The rows of spinach are advanced enough that I can see them from the kitchen window, the rows of beets are just starting to form, the parsnips have yet to show any progress, which is expected.

Attila, having completed the shoe rack between the studs, has moved back outside, and is filling the fourth raised bed. This one will serve as his temporary spring greenhouse. He will build a frame for it, over which plastic will be placed and secured, to cover vulnerable starts from frost. Building the last two raised beds will wait until the greenhouse bed is setup.

It is a real pleasure to be reading a lot. I’d gotten away from it over the years. For many years, when we lived in the small city, I had no transportation to visit a library, and needed to stay close to home because Terra was having her teenage wild child years. When we lived at the country house there was no reasonable access to books, the nearest library was an hour away, our internet connection was a slow dialup. My how things have changed.

I am enjoying the book Shogun. It began with descriptions of a sadist’s proclivities, which was disturbing, and not entertaining at all. That was short lived, meant to set the tone of the novel. Subsequently is deals with historical political and power struggles, relying on some known facts, bolstered significantly with artistic license. I enjoy pausing to read about the factual aspects of the story. The protagonist, John Blackthorne, is based on a real person, William Adams, so that the Eurocentrism in the novel seems logical.

Today I needed to bake muffins for my breakfasts, having enjoyed the last two this morning. I prefer batch cooking and baking, so that for most meals I am merely thawing or reheating meals. The muffins are perfect for that. They take up most of my daily limit for sugar, due to the chocolate chips in the recipe, but they make me happy, so I am willing to devote my sugar ration to them. Attila came into the house, from the garden, and announced, “it smells like a bakery in here!”

Yesterday I started another batch of Kombucha. It is one of our little pleasures, and our primary flavoured beverage other than the morning cup of coffee. This batch was perfect, fizzy and tart. Sometimes I leave it too long and it is a bit too tart, but yesterday’s batch was spot on. It is difficult to predict just how long to brew it, as the temperature and light change day by day here at Mist Cottage.

I am so glad we discovered Kombucha, thanks to my youngest sister, who sent us home after a visit, with a pellicle and scoby to start our own batch. I feel we should eat fermented foods. Many fermented foods are high in sodium, so no those. Then there is yogurt, which I only like with some sort of sweetener, otherwise I dislike it, so no to yogurt. Kombucha is perfect for me, the sugar used to make it is consumed by yeasts and bacteria, turned into alcohol then acids, and the resulting beverage is quite wonderful, not high in sugar.

I continue to work on organizing the pantry. Food related items that were stored, anywhere there was room for them, are being set out, decisions are being made, should it stay or go, and then the items to stay are being stored in the pantry. Things are steadily getting easier to find. There are still a few hidden food “treasures” to find, eventually though I find and organize all of it.

Worldly

Weather

18°C
Date: 2:00 PM EDT Tuesday 6 May 2025
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.5 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 18.1°C
Dew point: 15.1°C
Humidity: 83%
Wind: SSE 16 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

It comes to me suddenly, from somewhere inside,
it surges into emotion, an unstoppable tide,
the awareness of the fortune of the ordinary.
Maggie Turner, May 5, 2025

After writing the above, a passage from the bible came into my head:
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5)

Also,
” ‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there ‘s no place like home; A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which sought through the world is ne’er met with elsewhere.”
John Howard Payne