Library, food pantry and game hen

Again I was up at five, me and the moon early breakfast,  then a nap. Then I marinated the game hen, about which read on.

Friday was about errands then food, how unusual. I still hate driving and have to force myself out, not getting easier. 

Anyway I went to the library in the next town, haven't been there for so long, but I made it. I needed to go in person to renew my card as an out of town holder. If you live in that town, you can do it online. 

So now once again I have access to that account, and their Hoopla has a different collection, so more choices.

On the way home since I was out anyway, I left my small offerings at the food pantry. While there I met a young woman donating bag after bag of food. I thought she'd done a drive but no, it's all her own effort. Next week is distribution, so this is in good time for their sorting. What a good soul that lady is. I was very impressed.

Then home to roast the game hen. Earlier I'd put coarse seasalt inside and out, olive oil and garlic paste spread on.

I roasted it for about an hour at 400°, turning over at halftime. Served with green beans, garnished with a sprig of fresh peppermint mint and some dried cranberries. Dessert was the last of the pureed pumpkin beaten with honey and whole plain yogurt.

This was a great meal after a fairly difficult morning, with the driving and many detours, roadwork season. But the newly repaired road outside this development is a treat, so easy to drive without multiple potholes. It's been years of pressure to get it done. 

Then at home I was able to borrow a new acquisition, a Margery Sharp collection, on my renewed card, on my Kindle.  I plunged into The Nutmeg Tree this afternoon.

The home library is planning on another exhibit of Tuesday Knitting Group items. Last year I showed knitting and crocheting, so I think this year it's stitching, maybe goldwork. I might even finish the fabric book, too, to show.

All in all, Friday was a day of doing things, some of which I fear, but did anyway.

Happy day everyone, do the thing anyway, you'll be proud. Or don't, your life, your choice.  

Yes, proudly flying my flag. We did it proud this week.

Lovely Sunday, sunny, windy

Sunday has been quiet -- Gary's away celebrating a granddaughter's law school graduation -- and I had a few more firsts.

I was able to carry out the recycling to the dumpsters area at the end of the block,  without cane or any assistance. Also scrub the container, high time, once back home.

And I'm now able to wear ordinary jeans, yay, the incision having healed and subsided to where I don't need soft knit pants. Back in civvies.

Cheerful picture, wild hair, it's windy out 

I'm now ending some of the panoply of medications, so I'm leaving behind the early recovery period.  In itself, that's a welcome step. Taking a lot of pills at every turn makes a person feel weak.  This one, anyway.

I'm tapering off the PT, but will continue exercising as usual. It's time. I don't want to get dependent on Emil, wonderful as he is to work with.  I'm starting week five of six.

And I'm taking several shorter walks a day rather than one big push. Here's this morning's trip, done without a cane, because I forgot to bring it.

These chairs were left outside someone's fence, with a ton of dumped stuff,  and escaped the cleanup  I requested, well, demanded, of the HOA.  Now someone moved them to here, but I like them here. They're expressive. So I won't ask for them to be removed.

I forget what these blossoms are, smelling sweet and fruity. They really epitomize May for me.

And home again, the sage is blooming and the rose planted by the birds put out a first bud 

Reading and sleeping on the deck, me and the bees and the Carolina wrens.

I love her humor and her heroines, all quirky and out of the box. Here it's Louisa Datchett, Photographer of Dogs, checking out marriage prospects.

Tomorrow I think I'll make black bean salsa, using the beans that came labeled chickpeas and have been waiting ages in the freezer till I got an interesting cooking idea for them. 

Happy day everyone, mine's been a ten.

 

Water woes and a comedy of errors

Here's my indoor landscape, with decorations hardly detectable, handmade paper artworks on the far walls, cosy Ted and knitted Dollivers, seasonal poinsettia, and the growing stack of small knitted and crocheted things.

I succeeded in getting my car started and running. Backed up a little to rest on a different part of the tires. Tire pressure is low, of course, from the sudden low overnight temps, not urgent. I like to know the car will start just in case. In case of what, don't ask me, I only live here. 

I seem to have a permanent need for a functional vehicle, probably from years of urgent runs. I also don't want to be bothering Gary for help because I failed to run the motor. I can use my battery charger, but I can't get the hood up to do so. Fingertips numb,  not operating that well, to fiddle with the unseen latch under the hood.

Moving on to the water sitch. For several days our water supply, usually very good tasting and definitely safe, has been smelling and tasting more like coal oil than H2O. 

Many communications from the harassed water people, day and night, via text, voicemail, email, assuring everyone it still passes State and Fed drinking requirements.  

They've tested for hundreds of potential contaminants, no joy, and I don't envy them.  They're flushing all the hydrants in the region, advising about everything they can think of. 

Handsome Son has not being receiving these endless messages because he's in a large account, covering the whole condo complex.  I imagine their management is on it and proceeding with caution, not wishing to have hundreds of unit owners panicking all over and blaming them.

So I have been forwarding emails in case there's a health hazard, and he, being of the non-email generation, needs a text alert to check his email.

I noted he hadn't opened the ecard I sent for the holiday, so I texted to suggest he check email. I could hear the eye rolling from here, Moooom, I know about the water company. No, no, it's something else, just check. Ooookay, when I get a minute..

 I find Christmas too pressured and emotional, usually glad when it gets past. I never feel I'm doing enough, or doing it right, even when I enjoy it. Scornful older sibs voices in my head.  This too shall pass.

I do like electronic greetings, though.

And my holiday reading is an old favorite, long out of print but available suddenly in my Kindle.

It's light, funny and pointed, like all Sharp's writing.  And no Amazon employee has to pick, pack, and deliver under pressure. I wish their strike well. 

Happy day everyone, don't drink the water and don't breathe the air. And be aware that most of my comments on your blogs seem to be vanishing after I've seen them published. I'm not ignoring you! Thank you to the bloggers who remember to check spam and release the prisoners.  

Curried red lentils at last

 The holdup on the diced tomatoes resulted in the red lentil curry not happening till today.

It's from Yeung Man Cooking on YouTube, a cook I really like, calm, prepared, great food with no evangelism. I've dumped quite a few fervent this is the right way to live people, who give me indigestion before I even get to the recipe. Likewise the people who write a chapter about their family, friends, history, hobbies, and might eventually get to a recipe. 

Will Yeung has great healthy food made in a quiet, calming way. 

Anyway this recipe is like an extended meditation, many ingredients and stages, involving toasting, grinding, chopping, dicing, mixing. It doesn't take a long time, though, each stage being only minutes. 

When it comes to counting plant ingredients, there are, well, a lot. And the results are spicy, many flavors going, different with each bite, just great. The coconut milk gives a warmth to the spiciness.

So here's the stage set. Rice is cooking offstage right.

Then, after toasting and grinding spice seeds and pods,  

here's the pan with all the spices plus lentils and tomatoes, and the last of the Serrano peppers, simmering gently before the coconut milk is added and it's brought to the boil then cooked gently for the last stage.

Here's the cook's share 

What a luxury, to cook exactly what I felt like eating, as hot as I wanted, when I was ready. 

I also got a couple of bargain reads for my Kindle, reissues  of Margery Sharp, lovely writer, serious issues with a featherlight touch. 

Cluny Brown, which I owned in paperback and read till it disintegrated, is one of them 

Happy day, everyone, enjoy your day. We are embarking on some hot weather this week.

I'm planning accordingly. Spicy food, reading material, then furniture moving after Ficus leaves..