Restful Wednesday

After the excitement of the Wisconsin win, Wednesday was all about trying out the resistance bands, check, and cooking for the freezer, check.

Cream of red lentil and carrot soup, a favorite 

Today's lunch with multigrain toast, and half a dozen servings to freeze.

I used smoked paprika, fine seasalt and umami seasoning mix, usual onions, garlic, olive oil base.

The relief of having a sofa at a better height is surprising. So much easier to navigate. In other nonnews I think I'm running out of tasks. I scrubbed a step stool..

Happy day everyone, if you find you're scrubbing stepstools, maybe reconsider your life path. I did. I invented the Lazy Lady's Tray Cloth.

Nice piece of batik torn to size and chucked on a favorite tray.  Shameful shabby chic. Tea stains, the pot sometimes drips, won't show. 

Meanwhile here's a mourning dove couple checking for this year's nesting place.

They've nested around here several times, laying eggs in a scrappy nest near the deck, if they don't find anything they like along the front path. 

They're nice neighbors, not too noisy. And considering the state of the nests they throw together, they're in no position to snoot my new traycloth.

 

Mourning doves moving in? And other thoughts

The mourning doves are spending a lot of time sitting and fluttering around on the deck, and I wonder if they're planning  to nest. They've done this before, a scrappy little nest on the ground, and their eggs didn't survive. Better luck this time.

I thought those of us who practice visible mending might like to know we're in a long tradition

And Mary, Linda and other doll lovers might be interested in these Chilean significant narrative appliqued dolls, depicting actual people in everyday life

And here's one of the few remaining Ainu people of Japan still creating yarn and weaving it, from tree bark, a long, arduous process for a people with no access for centuries to other weaving fibers.

Nearer home, I've set up an ENT appointment in April, for a hearing test, to see what needs to happen about my hearing. It's harder to keep up with some voices now, and I may need to consider aids.

Meanwhile I'm educating myself about hearing aids, especially the possibility of over the counter ones now that they're available. They're cheaper than rx aids, but far from cheap. 

Yesterday afternoon I spent researching what's out there, how they work, and doing a variety of hearing tests, with results varying from hearing loss typical of my age, maybe requiring a fairly simple amplifier, to profound loss, it's all over for you! 

The world of over the counter hearing aids is a highly aggressive sales pitch environment. I've already blocked texts and emails from would be sellers after just a short time of checking.

We'll see! One thing I am not, in the hearing line, is the answer to the Haggard Hawks puzzle, a 

MAESTRO!   but you knew that!

Happy day, everyone, and

Life goes on, joyfully

 

Two mourning doves came down to a favorite trysting place, first time this year. Every year the doves and squirrels mate on this high part of the fence. Not a great picture, but you get the gist.

I hope the doves will nest close by. They're good neighbors.

Thank you all for the kindness yesterday.  I knew you would come through.

The car is running fine again,  driver doing okay too. The lasagna was a hit with Handsome Son, too. He doesn't do salad so I steamed a batch of broccoli to go with it. The lasagna made six meals and is now history.

So that's where we are, happy day, all!

In the Spring, a Young Dove's Fancy..

Every Spring, the highest part of my patio fence becomes a prime dating scene in the mourning dove world.  This pair has been meeting here daily for a little while, and doing all the courtship dance and preening and chatting and mating.  

Their nest is elsewhere, I think, since they take off over the roof eventually. They're good neighbors as nesting goes, usually very quiet and calm, and having two eggs, from which two quiet babies hatch, and they don't panic if you look in gently.

And the lilac is blooming madly next door, filling my whole house with scent.