Yesterday I advised on making poptarts, which was mainly about referring people to Jack Monroe, from Cooking on a Bootstrap. I made these a couple of times, a while back, and now someone else is excitedly baking her own junk food.
He was part of the start of today's problems in damaging the natural habitat in the south, taking part in his plant expeditions as part of surveying land for cultivation and pretty much forcing the resident indigenous people into accepting treaties which were promptly broken. He was full of admiration for a white rice farmer whose method of flooding and draining the rice fields he observed.
He also talks of gophers, not the mammals, but gopher tortoises. I wonder if they still survive, too. He writes eloquent descriptions of fish, such as the red belly, which I looked up for a picture, and really loved everything he was seeing as he went around on endless horseback treks.
He does tend to fall into endless lists, though, and you tend to glaze over, but his enthusiasm does keep you reading. I got this as a library ebook, thanks for the recommendation, Mary, I'm learning a lot.
And the detail aspect was very timely, as I sat in later on an online free writing lesson from a college professor who's unwillingly free at the moment, his writing classes having failed to meet enrollment numbers.
Take a look at his subject! He did emphasize selecting significant details, though, not a Bartram info dump.
And you never know who'll show up in your manuscript
The State will eventually send me the difference between my established baseline tax year and the increase in the taxes I've been paying since. It's meant to keep seniors in their longtime homes as taxes rise. It will be more than $5.
Happy day everyone, Tuesday knitting group today, last week having been snowed out. I'm taking my Tunisian crochet scarf along and I'll cast on a glove for the knitting ministry for a change, if I can't do the lace and talk at the same time. Lace work is not always a social activity.
Enjoy your day, social or not.
Speaking of pop tarts, I saw an item on the news recently that the man who created the commercial version of them just died.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how he thought them up. They've certainly done well commercially.
DeleteI am thrilled to see you reading Bartram! Quite a character, wasn't he? We do still have some Florida panthers. There has been a program to raise their numbers. The Gopher Tortoise still roams. We see them not so infrequently. The are beautiful prehistoric looking critters. They are often colored a dusty orange because they burrow into our red clay.
ReplyDeleteMy mother used to talk about knitting in the dark movie theater when everyone was knittin' for Britain, knitting bandages during WWII. Far easier done than socializing while doing Tunisian crochet.
What will you be doing with your newly found riches?
Thanks for the info about the tygers and gophers! He describes your region as a paradise packed with plant and animal life then. It's still a lot better than some regions of our country where commerce has moved in.
DeleteI haven't decided what philanthropy I will do with my $5, mustn't rush into it.
Yes. There is still a great deal of wildlife around here. Not as much as there used to be and threatened every moment but there are glorious areas, yet rather untouched.
DeleteI love the medical humor!! Property taxes aren't capped for seniors here, which is too bad. Although not as high as NJ, property taxes are high here. Enjoy your financial windfall!
ReplyDeleteMedieval humor!
DeleteIt's nice when they help seniors. Sue recently got a government plan for seniors dental work. I haven't received the offer, so I might not qualify.
ReplyDeleteThe property tax freeze is the result of several years of bare knuckle fighting from AARP, legislators like mine, Linda Greenfield, and individuals like me. Even after the law was passed, the fight continued to get the State to actually implement it. It took three more years to get my base year established. That saved the State a lot of $$.
DeleteIt's good to hear Sue can get some dental coverage. I was surprised to find that the Canadian system covered a lot less than I'd thought, and the waiting times for procedures, evidently different by province, not a national standard.
There was considerable pressure to give seniors a break, since property taxes here are the highest in the country. Not sure where the medical humor came in? Maybe earlier.
ReplyDeleteMedieval. Spellcheck.
DeleteI shoulda guessed!
DeleteJust checked: Minnesota is nineteenth, with 1.1%, NJ highest with 2.13%. property taxes.
ReplyDeleteHad to go and look up Pop Tarts - never heard of them, but don't feel now that I've missed out on anything that would change my life. Interested in Mrs Moons comment on knitting in the darkened theatre. My Mum said her Mum used to do all her Wartime knitting in the dark hour (when in NZ electricity was turned off at peak demand around dinner prep time) in order to use the time productively. The turn off must have been a bit daft as it would simply move peak demand I would have thought. The writing course looks interesting - and will you be the next fashionable playwright?
ReplyDeletePoptarts are just fun, not food exactly!
DeleteI remember similar power blackouts from 5-7 pm, at that period, eating dinner by candlelight.
My writing career was a very satisfying one, decades ago. I'm not really interested in revisiting it, just in being supportive to beginners in what may be a monthly event.
So great the State wants to help keep seniors in their homes. Not so great that they think $5 a month will make a difference.
ReplyDeleteI would not want to be a monk, but the idea of living my life “doodling” in the margins of books does sound heavenly.
The five dollars is the raise in the meager pension the Brit gov sends, based on my meager earnings when I lived there way back. The senior freeze is the state keeping my property taxes pegged at my established baseline. Different. Much better, though it's returning my own money, since I have to pay the taxes first.
DeleteI often wonder about these doodles and if they were inserted by bookbinders or clerks in the centuries since they were written.
Keeping seniors in their homes is a great goal and financial help is essential!
ReplyDeleteWe're a vital social resource!
DeleteProperty taxes are merciless, aren't they. I lived in the highest taxed region in Ohio due to the school taxes, in a pathetic backwater. Friends and I all sold our houses around the same time; we were being taxed out of our homes.
ReplyDeleteSchool taxes are by far the biggest expense. Over 70% of my property tax funds the schools.
DeleteI love that cat in the Book of Hours! Will you continue with the writing course - or perhaps rather, will the professor?
ReplyDeleteI'll see. Its the kind of stuff I taught way back, and he's got enough signup not to need me there as a warm body. He's got plans for a monthly presentation.
DeleteI am often surprised at the paltry little increase we get in our old age pensions. The amount doesn't even begin to cover even our yearly rent increase, much less the food costs. One bit of good news recently though - the government has finally agreed to implement free (or low cost) dental care. They're rolling it out slowly so I don't know when I will qualify....Resident Chef is over 80 so he is on the list. Eventually they will have all low-income people registered.
ReplyDeleteThat's great about dental care. I've been surprised at what Canadian health insurance doesn't cover, and lengthy waiting for procedures. And that it is provincial rather than national, as I understand it.
DeleteOddly enough RC worked at the local hospital for 42 years and our medical plan through them was terrible. The minute he turned 65 we were dropped off that plan and have had to rely on the government. Getting free dental (or mostly free) will be a definite boon for us. Now it's to be hoped they expand it to eye care as well.
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