Hits and misses

Last night for the first time, I had pain keeping me awake. Not unbearable, but definitely worth addressing. So I finally decided about 3am to go to the dining table/ pharmacy and get an oxycodone pill. I remembered to bring my glasses to get the right bottle. So far, so good. 

Couldn't get the cap off. It's one of those press while turning kind. Many attempts resulted in no success at all.

I was not interested in waking HS with a text alert at that time. He's worn out already.

So I found an alternative source for sleep, on Freevee.

So slow and jerky it induced sleep in a few minutes and I woke this morning feeling much better. HS did unscrew the cap in case I need to get in while he's at work.

Not sure what kind of approach you'd call this, but on this occasion it worked a treat. I don't object to pain meds when necessary, though. 

I've taken so little medicine in my life that it has a bigger impact than on someone more used to it. And I certainly have no fear of becoming addicted. That's more what doctors fear, judging from their handling of this kind of pill. I'm surprised at the number of friends who assumed I feared addiction. It never crossed my mind until doctors insisted no refill etc!

So all's good and if you're cooking ahead of convalescence, I really recommend the soup and quiche idea. I made a split pea and potato soup and a carrot and red lentil, froze them in cup size quantities. The quiche I froze in quarters. It's a nice fast lunch. 

The lasagna works, too. Easy when you're short of oomph for cooking.

So that's us today. Day Four and I can swing my operated leg up onto the sofa without using the leg strap to help lift. Yesterday I couldn't.  Inch by inch! 

Yesterday I embarked on Alexander McCall Smith's retelling of Emma. 

I've seen a few updated and adapted versions, and for me the one that worked best was a movie, "Clueless". Smith does best for me in Botswana.

But you might like it 

Happy day everyone, to each their own.

Postcards, Misfits and Emma again

The current Misfits box arrived, the ice blocks went to Gary, for his cooler, the foil insulated bag to be picked up by the Misfits driver and recycled. 

Once the summer's over, and Gary doesn't need portable ice  I'll resume leaving out the ice blocks for Misfits pickup with the other packing materials.

The tofu and mushrooms are for a Yeung Man Cooking recipe I'll make Friday,  the yellowtail because I haven't had it in a while, to be poached and later fishcakes.

I love that very hot spicy plant based "sausage", which works like burgers and meatballs. Cheese is always a staple,  and fruit is for breakfasts and desserts. I seem to have forgotten to order bread, so I expect blueberry muffins will need to happen. 

All set up now.

Gary is impressed with my improved hearing and is once again thinking about hearing aids for himself. He also started thinking about cataract surgery when I had it, but it's been a couple of years with no action yet. We'll see. 

This morning was about writing postcards to voters, very unexciting work but vital,  so, oh well. Democracy is a dull old business when it's working right.  

This afternoon involves reading,  listening to a podcast, sitting outside and some stitching

 with another Emma. 

This the best production of Emma I've seen, great casting, just very worth watching.

Then the mail brought this

After a year of informing me that my fuel pump could check out any time, causing a recall, but they didn't have parts yet, finally they've laid hands on them. 

My first ungrateful thought was, arghgh another thing to do dangit. Anyway I'll call and set up an appointment for the repair. I'll get them to check routinely while I'm there, usual points. 

My credit card bill which I've been paying buggywhip style, mailing in checks, also arrived and I found I was out of stamps. So I got into the 20th century, though the rest of the world is well into the 21st, and arranged to pay online.  I'm so clever, I am. 

And the flower patch is still blooming though cool nights have slowed things down 

Happy day everyone,  sometimes dull work has exciting results. At least that's the plan,with the postcards. The rest of the day is pretty good already.

Fall may be here

Today 

Yesterday was another cool day Sunday, with the Japanese maple showing signs of coloring, and a squirrel noshing wildly on it, swinging about. 

Flowers still appearing. I've been getting a lot of pleasure out of this little wild corner, with stray flowers showing up 

And just look at the beautiful structure of that bud. I've come to appreciate zinnias much more since I've been growing them.

Still bringing in a few flowers, soon I'll stop picking, in the hope they'll go to seed and reseed themselves 

Lunch was holiday fare, slices of chicken breast with roast potatoes, dash of red chili oil, dessert a piece of plummy snacking cake, fresh plums and chocolate chips.

I noticed when I came downstairs that Gary must have been here 

It's twofold: he gives me a chance at using his glass jars before recycling, and he's strongly hinting it's a long time since I made jam and he'd like some...

Today's matinee was a luscious production of Emma with excellent acting, beautiful sets, costumes, scenery, on Freevee.

The picture is dorky, but the movie is worth seeing.

Happy day, everyone, find an old movie, preferably period, with all the sets and costumes. Some of Emma's coats, pleated, kick opening, were great sewing and construction. They were worth the price of admission alone. Bill Nighy as Mr Woodhouse, had the best threads evah!

These images were fun to create, many layers, saves, 3D effects, gridding.

Maggie Rudy salutes fall with woolly bears

On other sites I'm careful to use alt text when I post images, for the benefit of  vision impaired people who need to use readers. 

It just occurred to me that I need to ask if anyone reading here would appreciate that, too. Let me know and I'll do it. I don't have the alt text function, but I can add a description to each image. 

  

Solstice Greetings

Happy Summer Solstice to northern hemisphere blogistas, and Happy Winter Solstice to blogistas reading in Oz and NZ. and any other southern hemisphere readers I don't know of.

Longest day here, and wildflowers everywhere. They're tiny so you need to keep looking.

Here's vetch, finished flowering and now making tiny seedpods. I expect they're related to edible peas, same vining tendrils and small flowers succeeded by pods.

I forget the name of this creeper, which showed up a few years ago and has brightened the ground cover with a lovely green. I like that it climbs right over the top of the ground cover. Right now it's in yellow bloom for a few days. 

Sorrel everywhere, edible where they haven't sprayed it, a dark sour flavor great in salads. I've never had enough to make soup but I believe you can.

The summer Austenfest continues, with the BBC Emma. 

Low budget costumes, wonderful sets, great acting, except I think Harriet Smith and Emma should have exchanged roles. Mainly because though Romola Garai is a powerful actress, she's not up to the subtleties of Emma, and I think Louise Dylan, who plays Harriet, would be a very good Emma.  

Mr Woodhouse brilliantly played by Michael Gambon, Miss Bates likewise by Tamsin Greig.  You can tell who understands Austen and who's following a script.

I'm only partway through, since this is a four episode TV series. With subtitles, I'm happy to say.  And I may adjust my attitude as I see the last two episodes.

Then I will return the DVDs to the library where I found recently someone's put a box for collecting donated eyeglasses.

I'll add these prescription sunglasses to the collection. I used to donate old glasses through my eye doctor but the person who was doing it had to stop temporarily for Covid reasons. 

Meanwhile these will be useful. My eye doctor told me years ago he'd done voluntary work in Haiti, fitting people with the nearest to their required correction, free of charge.

I was doubtful, after Handsome Partner died, whether his glasses would be useful. He had no vision in one eye, so clear glass, and a massive correction in the other. Astonishing that he did great scientific research at a lab bench with such limited sight.  But I wondered could his specs be useful for anyone else.

Eye doctor, who knew him, explained to me that the glasses would be prized. With that correction even in one eye, it could make the difference between employed active and helpless. He was happy to take all of them.

Speaking of happy to receive, my next door neighbor is delighted with his little jar of plum jam, and as soon as I handed it over, ran for the muffin to toast for it.

Happy day all around.

Movie for grown up kids, and other pursuits

After the excitement and stress lately I thought I'd catch a nice unstressful movie so here it is

It was lovely, funny, you knew nobody would come out traumatized, and the voice of Paddington was just right. Diffident, polite, a bit of a Bertie Wooster, very appealing. Maybe I'll watch more kid stuff. Not Disney though, they're sadistic, deliberately upsetting and off-putting. 

I know too many people my age who first saw Snow White at about age 6 and were terrorized by it. Well meaning parents taking them to see it as a treat, after said children had experienced bombing, war terror, rationing which was close to starvation. 

To this day I can't eat a red apple because of the poisoned one. And the wicked queen coming after the little girl, like our imagined enemy invaders. Nooooo.  

And don't get me started on the Wizard of Oz, with the writing in the sky, which meant death coming from the sky to my mind. I can't sit through it. 

And the witch under the house like a bomb casualty, I can't bear to think of that scene, or the melting. It took three tries to type that last word. That's about Hiroshima. Never assume young children are unaware of world events.

Moving on from the inferno of my childhood trauma, I'm reading Emma with my Tiny Email Book group. We started Mansfield park, but the other member said nah, not into it, let's do Emma instead. The beauty of a tiny group! Emma it is.

I usually look for an illustration of what I'm reading, more interesting for you and might be a lure to reading or rereading yourself. 

I don't write about books I don't like or respect, of which I start a lot, somebody went to a lot of trouble to write them, after all.  But some books I do love are not always well served by marketing.

Here's a bodice ripper version of Emma, created I guess to present it as an olde worlde romance novel.

And here's an inadvertently comic one just asking for a caption. Please offer one in your comments.

And here's what looks like Emma taking a rest while dragging a bag of laundry to the washer's house.

This one plays it safe with historically authentic silhouettes and maybe wallpaper, but still thinks it's all about coupling, rather than the brilliant comedy of manners it is.

 

It's still a rattling good novel, great set up for how it unfolds. And whatever cover it comes in, highly recommended.