Showing posts with label strength training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strength training. Show all posts

Monday, August 25, 2025

Late summer reading, resting your eyes and art

Sunday feels like a day off because  one of my (many) pills is to be taken six mornings a week, and I chose Sunday as the day of rest. It means I don't have to time my breakfast, which seems like an amazing piece of freedom. I know, easily amused.

Then I started my day with this YouTube yes2next video.  It's great and you might consider it. 

Mom Aiko used 2lb  weights,  daughter April, aged 60(!) used 8 and 10lbs. I used 3 and 5 at different times.

My library, unlike one of my pills,  does not take a day off, so I went in to return Brideshead and take out the Foyle waiting for me. And I picked up a jigsaw puzzle because I haven't done one in months.

I found I'd skipped over one episode of Brideshead, so I watched the last one, by which time I was glad to be done with them, especially the popeyed Cordelia. On to Foyle!

Sunday lunch was more crisp breaded hake,  roasted potato dice seasoned with long red pepper (relative of black and white pepper but fruitier heat) and basil salt, which I'd ground from kosher salt and dried basil. 

Plus a side of portabella mushrooms sliced and cooked in butter and olive oil, with a peppermint leaf crushed and torn in. It looked like a quiet dish of food, but it was packed with flavor. 

Dessert was yogurt beaten with lime juice and sugar, blueberries added in.

My long awaited Anne Tyler came in Sunday morning and took me less than the afternoon to read, including watching butterflies and hummingbird moths 




and failing to capture them in pictures, listening to the cicadas beedling away, not the deafening ones this time, then resting my eyes, and dreaming, on the deck. Anyway, about the book -- it's very brief but vintage Tyler.

Definitely recommended. 

I returned unfinished the Lily King book Euphoria, set in some exotic part of the world among anthropologists, who, like the climate, are hot, humid and oppressive. 

I disliked it the same way I  dislike Kingsolver,  too green and intense. Which probably means that if you love Kingsolver you'll like this novel. This is a kind of negative recommendation. I'm not designed for the tropics,  even reading about them.

Gary has returned, singing to his dog, talking to his daughter and me  both at once, she on the phone, and looking well but thinner. He finds he's developed a gluten sensitivity. So I need to remember that,  when I bring baked food over. 

I do a nice fruit crumble with an oat flour topping, gluten free. That would work.  His health is less robust than mine these days, so I hope he does better. A nice dish of plum crumble would help.

Happy day everyone


It's worth fighting for. Resist! Read the preamble above aloud.





Sunday, July 27, 2025

Freecycle rules

Early morning on the deck 




And home to check Freecycle. The tray went fast and here's the happy ending


Everybody's happy now.

And the orchid is going on and on



Today's bouquet is humble next to the high end fancy orchid

This morning's early walk was shortened because of stratospheric humidity, but back home I followed it with a free weight video from April and mom Aiko. This one 


Then I found I'd slept when I thought I was reading. Off to shower and the doorbell rang a couple of times. Then I heard Gary calling you okay? Liz? Liz? And when I was dressed, I found neighbors from both sides just checking!

But first, here's how I stop myself from getting into the shower with hearing aids in.


Leave the charger case on the stairs. The aids are imperceptible in use, so I need a reminder. I can't go upstairs without noticing the case, then I remember to put the #$#_$ hearing aids in the little slots.

Turns out we all three neighbors called the auto body shop this week. That guy must be feeling a bit under siege. But we all got the waiting-for-parts answer.

And both neighbors wanted to know about the contractor for the house. Gary wants to be there. The other neighbor is off on Tuesday for a month in India. Never a dull moment. Rapid plans about his plant care are now set up.

I have rides for my final surgeon appointment Monday and knitting group Tuesday. Then contractor comes Wednesday. Misfits Thursday. It's all go. These are the golden years, rocking on the porch?

But I did get a bit of drawing in 


Happy day everyone. Don't just do something, sit there! Never mind self improvement, we're all just fine already sez 

Ted and Big Ursy