Same Old

 The weather is still doing the same things it's been good at for the last couple of days. Got one kind of interesting shot of goldenrod out the bathroom window.

Ditto for me. I had no energy at all again today. Dragged myself to the store to get some more pills to try to deal with the hives. I didn't sleep well at all from the itching.

Doctor in morning, assuming I can get out, but probably OK. I need some better answers.

Here is the soup I made yesterday. It's chock full of vegetables, but it's not very good. It's not awful, but I've made lots better. Things still don't taste right, so there is that too.

Sorry, I don't have much of anything interesting to share. Whatever this is has to let go soon, right?

See Chilly Wonderland

Cream of What...ever!

 Well, I woke up this morning expecting to be a little better, but instead I was weak and shakey and my vision was worse. Sigh.

Eye doctor corfirms the shingles are pretty much gone, but now have gneral eye infection. Steriod drops.

I managed to finish the load of laundry and to make the soup. I was thinking it would be cream of celery, but it also has onion and chicken. It is GOOD. Since I had to get the next prescription on the way home, I also got some yummy dark berries. I'm still off my feed. But they also taste good.

I feel better tonight, but still can't read. I'm getting awfully tired of listening to things. O well. Here's to tomorroe.

See Tropical Fauna

Zoup

 Apparently I haven't made split pea soup for about 6 years! It's one of my favorites. However, there were several years that I couldn't get the peas when I had a ham bone. And there was the hike.

I used the pan drippings for part of the stock, so it's much browner and hammier than sometimes.

I also made a complete mess in the kitchen. The blender got put away without the gasket (do I recall that it tore? not sure. Not even sure when I last used the blender). So when I poured in the stock and vegetables it ran right out the bottom. I looked around, but didn't find it. Well, I've ordered a new gasket.

Mashed up the veggies by hand. That works fine.

I did some editing, and worked on a couple of things. Mostly, I'm not happy with myself because there are some projects I need to be working on that I'm ignoring.

But the soup is yummy!

See Pea Soup and Hail

Refrigerator and Friend Soup

 I made the soup. This was a lot of things from the refrigerator: onions, 1/2 a cabbage, hairy carrots, 2 yellow squash, a small eggplant. From Neva I added 6 tomatoes, some parsley, part of a red pepper, some green beans.

It's really good. And I have plenty for the next few days.

Today was the first bell choir practice of the season. I like the pieces we are starting to work on.

As often as I can make it happen, I try to walk before bells. The School Forest is right across the road so it's very convenient. A picture can't convey how nice this was today. The temperature and humidity were perfect. The use was light and it was quiet.

I also did a couple of errands in town in addition to working on required stuff in the morning. I may have made it to tired. I might go to bed soon.

Walked 2.7 miles, mostly in the School Forest.

Miles walked in 2024: 420.9

See Will Walk for Vegetables

Sort of a Foodie Day

 No visit to Marie's would be complete without a trip to the Jolly Cow.

What is the Jolly Cow, you ask? An ice cream place, of course. I generously offered the cow a lick, but she declined.

We spent the morning with each of us doing computer tasks. I got the final approval for the draft of How to Hike the North Country Trail, and I ordered 100 copies. I'll have it at the Celebration!

Then we needed to get groceries if anyone was going to eat for the upcoming days, and there were other errands too. Then Marie had a meeting, so I cooked dinner. We tried a new recipe that I had brought with me. She's eating more normally now, but when she wasn't feeling well a couple of weeks ago this looked like something she could have. It's Zucchini-Corn Chowder. It's really good. I forgot to take a picture when the pan was full. We might tweak it a tiny bit the next time, but we both agree it's something we'd make again.

And we also had fresh salad with homemade herb dressing.

We have some adventures planned, but it was rainy today, so it was a good day to get some of these tasks done. We did find time for a couple of games.

See Chillin?

Soup and ??

  Today I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. I made soup that wasn't "refrigerator soup." This was a recipe on the side of a box of crackers, and it kept calling my name. It's named Fall Harvest Soup, but whatever... you can buy this stuff in any season. Lots of chopping prep work, starting with a butternut squash.

Onion and red bell pepper (and the kale stems) saute to start.

Then broth, the squash, white beans, seasonings, and a whole bunch of kale. Really yummy. I've had two big bowls today.

Worked at cleaning up the kitchen, and I got a lot done. But kitchens resist being cleaned completely. I'll just say that I put in a fair amount of time.

Outdoors, it's finally looking a lot more seriously winter-y. Lots of white.

However, I did get my self out there and did a big snowshoe loop. Oof. Not quite in shape for that yet! So now there are tracks through the white. But the snow is deep enough that you can't really see the snowshoe pattern. I could be lying to you, and those lines were made by a deer! But my knees think it was no deer.

In other news: I spent the afternoon working on an editing job.

See Refrigerator Soup Day

Refrigerator Soup Day

 
I spent the morning in the kitchen. Dehydrated a couple of things for hike food, frosted the other half of the birthday cake before the rest of the evaporated milk went bad, and made refrigerator soup. This one isn't quite as good as sometimes, but it's fine. Good solid soup. The only thing that wasn't a refrigerator clearing item was a can of kidney beans. But it was pretty old. Good to use it.



In other news: Om and I got all the rest of the old shingles cleaned up. All that's left to do is the second round of caulking in a few days and clearing the gutters. I also dug up a few more small autumn olive that had sprouted in the yard. And I may have figured out what the problem is with the mower. We shall see about that.

This sounds like I really did a lot. However, it was really hot again, and I mostly worked in little spurts with cold drinks in between. I have something quite interesting to show you tomorrow.

See Refrigerator Soup, Deluxe

Stay at Home Fun

 
Cold and rainy today. So I stayed home and finished two more squares for the Ludington Area Center for the Arts Bingo Game.

The line I chose included the landscape, which I did first- see link below. It uses the middle free square. So I have 3 to go. One is to do a still life. This is nothing wonderful. It's not even a great composition. But I'd been wanting to try to copy this particular style. So my goal was accomplished, and it will count for the square. Medium is colored pencil.



One of the squares in my line is kinda whacko! It says "COVID-19 virus art - create your own virus." OK then. I call this work "Dance of the Naked Virus," and it's mixed media. My reaction... meh. I tried a new technique with the background. My success was poor, but I learned a lot. The virus studded cells turned out pretty good. The naked virus proteins are off balance. Mixed media. I'm calling it done. It was totally experimental anyway.



I also made soup. It's better than refrigerator soup because I bought some things to put in it. However, I did trim down some freezer burned sausage to salvage the good parts to put in, and thawed a pile of black beans I'd thrown in the freezer some time ago that went in too. This was a complete winner because Omer even liked it, and he hates soup.



I guess it was a day of experiments. I also tried Navajo Fry Bread. It's OK. Actually, it's pretty good. But it's just a plain fried bread: flour, salt, baking powder, water. The pan has to be oiled and quite hot and I managed to set off the smoke alarm. You can only cook one at a time (unless you use multiple pans), so I wouldn't want to make enough for a big group. I like biscuits or pancakes better. But now I can say I've tried it!



In other news: Did a little bit of accounting work, and worked on a web site.

See Art Center Bingo- Square One

Philadelphia Flower Show - White Plants

 
I always like to find the plants with white foliage at the Philadelphia Flower Show. The choices go way beyond dusty miller and lamb's ear!

There were more than this, but a lot weren't labeled. The huge succulent garden in the entrance had few labels, but I think this is some kind of agave.



This is a border plant that looks a bit like lamb's ear. It's a Senecio. There's a genus with an incredible amount of variation. This is Senecio candidans, Angel Wings



Centaurea are knapweeds, yes like the invasive spotted knapweed. But many are beautiful ornamentals that aren't a problem. Centaurea cineraria 'Colchester White' has really white foliage.


This is a near-white succulent. This is a gasteraloe, a cross between a gasteria and an aloe. Variety 'Green Ice.'



And finally, for today at least, is an Aloe, 'White Fox.'



In other news: Busy day. I made yogurt, refrigerator soup (which turned out yummy), and whole wheat soda bread. I packaged and mailed books. I wrote a newspaper article.

See Meijer Gardens- White Plants

Pea Soup and Hail

 
I haven't been doing a very good job of taking interesting pictures this week for the blog.

One thing I finished today was making split pea soup. It came out really good. Much to my surprise, I've never shared a picture of split pea soup here before, although it's one of my favorites, so at least this is a "new" (to the blog) idea.



What I wanted to share with you was a book club I met with. They had all read North Country Cache, and we talked about it, and writing and publishing stuff. It was a lot of fun, but I forgot to take even one picture.

The big local news is the weather. Today we've had wind, rain, hail, lightning and thunder. Tomorrow is supposed to be serious ice. But the most interesting thing I didn't see, so of course, didn't get any pictures.

At several places along the shoreline today there was a seiche. This is an event caused by wind or disturbance (could be seismic, but this wasn't) that results in a rapid change in water levels. The water must be partly enclosed, like in a harbor, bay, river mouth, etc so that a standing wave can form. There are pictures of the breakwall in Ludington completely submerged. There was damage in Manistee along the river, and the water level change was observed in Pentwater. I guess the change was as much as 20 feet in a few places. Pretty amazing.

When it happened, I was eating lunch with the book club, and we watched the sky turn black and then the hail begin. We had no idea the water was creeping up the street just a couple of blocks away!

Now it's thundering and lightning. Hope it's not glare ice when I have to come home from work. Next to last Friday night, coming up!

	See Turkey Soup Fog
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Cherry Soup

 
One of the things about putting a Hungarian tenant family in the Dubois Files children's books is that I have to learn more about Hungarian culture! Seriously, I know practically nothing about it. Thank goodness for the internet.

In The Hitchhiker, the book taking place in cherry season... the kids are helping with fruit sorting... I went looking for a Hungarian recipe that used cherries. I had no idea if they even had cherries there. Well, they do, and there is a popular traditional cold fruit soup made with tart cherries! Cherry Soup.



It's really good. Of course, I like most everything cherry, but it's spicy and refreshing.

It's not too complicated to make, so the recipe is going in the book as one of the craft/skill items.

	See Cherry Pie II
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Turkey Soup Fog

 
Yes, I know the expression is pea soup fog, but sorry, I have turkey soup.

I'd really like to bring you something new and different every single day. Unfortunately, my life (probably yours too) is not quite like that. Turkey soup follows turkey. Fog shows up regularly in the chilly damp.



Sometimes I like to think of "facts" as hard little nuggets of some material harder than titanium or diamond. Nevertheless, the circumstances which intervene between the facts and my perception of them may alter things considerably. Remember the March photo in best pictures of 2016? I'll just remind you.



Here is that same landscape today. OK, the trees have grown another 10 months, but it's basically the same picture.



And the turkey soup. This year's iteration for enjoyment- yours must be visual (unless you visit me in the next few days) and mine will be gustatory.



It's good. That's my opinion, but since I'm the one that counts, I'll pawn it off as a fact.

	See Houston, We Have Soup
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Somewhere in My Memory

 
I've decided I can't share the videos that just show me looking surly. However, this piece was sung by the choir and some of the soprano chimes from the bell choir accompanied them. This one is good. (These people smile. Be like these people, Joan.)

I have a couple more chances to get video of all of the handbell choir. I think I can borrow a tripod to make it happen. Only one remaining clue what happened to mine. I may have left it in Lyle's truck on the North Dakota trip. Have sent him an email.

Anyway, here is "Somewhere in My Memory" from Home Alone.





It takes a while to produce each video because they have to be converted from what my camera takes to a different format.

In other news...

Remember the pork hocks from freezer day? I made pretty much refrigerator soup, not deluxe. It's not great, but I'll eat it.



Frigid wind here. I had to take the tarp off the snowblower and weigh it down.

	See Handbells at St. Joseph's See Refrigerator Soup- Deluxe
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