Floral tribute to Ukraine, also ice cream

Today's flowers are another daily shout-out to Ukraine, daily since the Russian invasion, in different forms. They all reference the blue and yellow national colors of grain and sky.

Here there's an additional note. The blue flowers are forgetmenot, to promise we won't forget Ukraine.

Today yet another medical appointment, this one easy and local, the newest COVID-19 vax.

And, since I've been so conscientious about doctors and injections and hearing adjustments, I decided, for the first time in months, to pick up ice cream, from the vax store in fact, as a reward.

Breyer's Neapolitan. Also see flowers over there on the hearth, and postcards to voters waiting there.

I usually need a day to recover from COVID-19 vax, so just in case I have symptoms requiring ice cream, I'm set. I notice the higher prices and smaller containers, too. Getting toward thimble sized cartons. But I'm worth it.

What I did not see were the security precautions noted by bloggers elsewhere, items tagged or in locked cases. So this CVS has perhaps not been so subject to theft as some.

I did balance this indulgence with lunch of a spicy plant-sausage croquette on a bed of steamed spinach. Funny how no matter how much spinach you start with, you end with a tablespoonful.  Where does it go?? Up in steam, I guess.

I found a great YouTube tutorial for an interesting project that you really can do if you're learning crochet. It's Marion again, such a good teacher. 

This bag is a rectangle three times as long as wide, eg 30"x10" which is folded and stitched, origami style.

I wouldn't add the foofy bits, but chacune a son gout. Translation: everyone's got gout.

Just an idea if you're in search of a project or one to interest a beginner if that's not you.

Happy day everyone, many thoughts about Florida right now, keeping in touch with friends there.

Boud 2, obstacles 0

 Here's a joyful picture

It's the view from the recovery area after I got the bivalent Covid booster yesterday. Success. I had tried yet again to make an appointment at a different CVS. 

why CVS you ask? Because Rite Aid and Walgreens, the only other chains with vaccine sites, had no appointments within 25 miles. In NJ that means up to two hours away. In NJ, heavily traveled, you explain distance by time required not by miles.

Anyway back to CVS,and this time I took a same day slot, figuring they had less time to run out before I got there.

I knew where this store was, meaning I only got lost twice on the way, and once coming home, pretty much my style.

And the other customers were lovely, once they heard me speak, offering condolences (!) and was I watching all the funeral events. It was done in a friendly way though, not that "othering" intended by the rude " where are you from, really?" type of question.

And the pharma was lovely, very cheerful, assured me it was the right vaccine, took care of me early because he could, and all went well. 

I had to switch from Moderna to Pfizer to get an appointment,  but I'm told that's not a problem. And the aftereffects are nothing more than a sore arm. Nothing like the days down with fever and chills and weakness after the other boosters.

Part Two of my excellent day was that the formerly nonworking website for my prescriptions sent an update email about renewal, complete with working link. 

I was able to get in and navigate and it's working. None of the malarkey I experienced in August when they nearly drove me mad. 

My theory is that whoever knew how to run the website and do updates correctly was on vacation, and it was fixed after they got back. 

My son the geek says that's not a joke, it's very likely why I was getting such silly advice, people over their heads treading water till she got back.

After a celebratory little bag of m&ms, I took a look at the plants to come indoors soon. 

This is why it's good to let pots contact the ground, so they flourish by putting down roots through the pot. Both the basils are doing well and once I clear these hair roots, they'll adapt to the kitchen for ready use. 

This is  about the fifth year I've done this with the Thai basil, letting it reseed in the same pot. First year I've grown the Italian basil from seed in a pot.

And since lunch was interrupted by the vaccine trip, it became dinner, tilapia on a bed of basmati rice cooked with walnuts and dried cranberries .

The fish was just excellent quality, from Misfits, 385°f for fifteen minutes, butter and oil and Old Bay. This is one of three dinners I'll get from it. 

Very easy cooking, and very happy results. My style.

Happy day everyone, may all your attempts be successful today.

Yes we have no vaccine, but gardening is there

So yesterday's greatly nervous trip to the pharmacy for the Covid booster involved getting up my driving nerve to navigate a major highway to a town I was unfamiliar with and a pharmacy inside a store. All that went well, I arrived in good time, very proud of my effort.

And found an apologetic pharmacist telling me there was no vaccine, hadn't been for two days. She waited till half an hour before my appointment to leave a cancellation voicemail. I was already on the road. 

I had received a confirmation text that morning, reminding me of the check-in procedure. For an appointment they knew they couldn't honor. Clearly the software has no relation to the facts. The pharma said I could call to see if they had supplies. And gave me the number I'd been calling since Friday with no answers to any of my questions.

So now I wonder how I can trust them to honor any future appointment I might make, endless input of information required. If I can get one nearer home it would help if they don't have vax after all, I could regroup and do other errands. To give the pharmacist maximum benefit of the doubt, she told me they have no idea when and if vaccine will arrive. So I'm guessing they delay canceling until they're sure it hasn't arrived.

I came home and took a walk to soothe my savage breast. 

Here's part of it, where there used to be all that garbage dumping I complained about. Now it's once again a nice walking area.  

It's the broken window syndrome -- where there's garbage, it attracts more garbage, but where there's obvious care, mowing, pruning, there's no incentive to throw garbage. 

It was only after I got the management to get the cleanup done that the landscapers were able to access this area and mow. The results are terrific. 

In other news, I did a bit of gardening at home, pruned the dead twigs off the thyme and the Thai basil, tied up the butterfly bush and found there are two of them, now tied together, next to the mystery plant.

Amitha's back from India, so I must ask her what it is, since it migrated from her plantings.

I was talking to her husband yesterday, who told me it rained almost every day they were in India, cooped up indoors with the inlaws..by the time they left, the children were quarrelsome with the grandparents, longing to be here with their friends. 

He commented that when they got home and it rained here they were groaning,  until Gary said no, we're longing for it, after the heatwaves! I think India and NJ must have had a climate exchange.

Back in the garden, I cut a bunch of sage to hang in the kitchen to dry, along with the basil already drying. 

They're near the stove, right there to use.

Soon I'm going to bring in the ficus, a heroic effort usually, and the pots of Thai basil and Italian basil to the kitchen. 

I'm reading Donna Leon, essays on Venice, really entertaining and funny brief writings, highly recommend 

And I finally, after many weeks of waiting, got

Which turns out to be a chicklit beach read rather than the engrossing novel I'd hoped for.  

It definitely suffers from being read soon after the piercingly intelligent and funny Leon. Like chicken nuggets after Julia Child's roast chicken. But okay if you're in the mood for chicken nuggets.

On one of my many recent doctor office visits recently, the receptionist was intrigued by this pin and asked about it.

It's the bird's nest longtime blogistas will remember. A friend with cashmere goats sent me a sample of cashmere fiber from a couple of them,  needing to be processed, guard hairs and debris removed, long picky job, but I was happy doing it. 

I spun then knitted this bird's nest, in the natural colors of the goats, whose names I knew at the time.  This used up all the samples, just a tiny experiment. 

I pinned it on this jacket and forgot where it was. I do this, then when people ask, I have to squint down at my lapel to see what pin they're talking about. 

So I guess this is today's art offering.

Happy day everyone, if your vaccine doesn't arrive, don't take it personally. It's the triumph of software over reality. A metaphor for life.