Moons, exercise program and thoughts about aging and productivity

There's a full moon, and I found a little chart with moon names by month. Some are indigenous and refer to natural phenomena such as flowers blossoming -- mountain pinks in April-- and some are colonial --wolf moon.

For very interesting and knowledgeable posts on moons and their goddess significance, check out Debra, She Who Seeks. She also does a lot of funny non-moon blogging and has a fairly new blog, Beautiful Woman of the Day, definitely follow that.

And so you know I'm keeping up with my August challenge, this was today's video

I thought it would be good to do this before I went out walking, because I was a bit stiff Saturday morning. It wasn't so gentle, but it was great.

And I was reading the latest feature from a writer acquaintance who just turned 90. She's impatient with her slowness, moving, walking, even thinking. But she's proud of being gainfully employed, her words, at 90. Hmm. I wonder about that. 

There's so much more than being paid. I think to her it means her writing being taken seriously. But I dispute that a little, too. Unpaid bloggers, particularly those of us who have written and sold their print work, are still being read and noted. Anyway I think I'm coming from a different viewpoint about the value of work. I don't think it's limited to dollar value, or even related to it. Me, musing. Please weigh in.

It's very quiet here this week, Gary away for maybe ten days, neighbors on the other side in India till September. That means no renovation from either side for now. 

They employ moonlighting contractors which means evenings and  weekends are full of hammering and drilling and whining electric saws.  My own repairs were done daytimes, so the evenings were quiet.

And in other good news, my Senior Freeze check arrived, refunding me the increase in property tax over my base year. Just in time to pay the next quarter taxes! And the check I wrote for the house repair has cleared, so all's up to date. 

Next I have to replace the heat pump at the condo. That's a big expense. But the current heat pump ran flawlessly for 23 years, so there's that.

Happy day, everyone, happy birthday to everyone born in August! That includes blogista Ellen D, 75 today!! 

 I'm learning to just sit outside, no book, no tablet, just watch and listen. There's so much happening it's hard to keep up, what with birds, insects, squirrels, flowers, trees,  clouds. It's a busy world.

Then I turned to my year of poems, and found the one for the day is a Sylvia Plath worth pursuing on your own account, about childbirth. 

And the bookmark I found in it, at August 10,  is a piece I wove, using paper I'd spun, with wool roving, woven with a cotton warp. Nice reunion.

Speaking of which, on Saturday afternoon, Mrs Hummingbird showed up, flitting around a few feet from me, and swooped around feeding on butterfly bush flowers then in the nearby evergreens. So there's a pair though I haven't seen them together.

Stuff and its perpetrators

Handsome Son has been living here for just over a week, and I'm beginning to understand how his condo is so full of stuff. 

He's basically catering for himself, since his everyday taste in food is very different from mine, other than seeing yogurt as a major food group.  

And his food, packages and little boxes and containers have packed my fridge. He's leaving one top shelf available for me, easy for me to reach, and the rest is jammed!

It's really interesting to see that he packed more clothes and doings, including two laptops, different purposes, for a few days here than his parents did when they emigrated across the Atlantic!  Mutts says it here.

Same with his surroundings. I feel totally minimalist in comparison to all the things he totally needs around him. My own bits pretty much fit on a little side table, and he, in contrast, has to be careful to keep the floor clear of obstacles to my progress across the room.  

These are just bemused observations, not at all critical. He's been so wonderful, basically putting his life on hold, that it would be churlish to fuss. But it does make me wonder about a passing thought we had recently,  that, if the economy really plunges, we could sell the condo for the income and share this house. Hm. 

Anyway, just passing thoughts. Meanwhile I did make it up to my regular bed last night, and it was a  tricky thing. I hadn't expected a resurgence of pain, making me wonder about the whole idea. Evidently this aging body wasn't happy about the  change, and needed more pillows and ice to make the bed tolerable. 

Eventually all calmed down and I could sleep.  So I think it's okay.

I need to get going again with the crocheted top, mainly because my hands are stiff with disuse other than gripping Walker Two-step and Carol Cane. Time to move my fingers. 

This period has brought me face to face with age, I think. All my life I was always by far the youngest in family groups, and I think that feeling of youth has persisted, long after it was no longer applicable. 

Just now, being treated as a nice little old lady, emphasis on little and old,  seems to be having its effect. Reality dawning. But no complaints here, considering the alternative. I still have a lot to enjoy. 

Happy day, everyone, enjoy whatever's there. Reclaim our flag and restore, and expand, its meaning. Inclusive rules.

Weather, aging, flowers, macrame and -- soup?

 Here we still are

My dry skin and hair love the humidity, so there's that. The heat, not so much.

And with all the various subdivisions of the population massing together for Kamala, there's one I can definitely get behind

I'll be there.

About aging: you're lucky if you manage it, even luckier if you have good health. I hate the expression X years "young". Old is lovely, and I'm not flattered at being assured that young is somehow better.  Speaking as a  person who has outlived the doctors who wrote me off at an early age, I think aging is just fine. 

Yesterday's high heat and humidity resulted in thunderstorms and torrential rain, which saved me from watering the flowers. How's that for an egocentric take!?

And today, new flowers are opening. I planted wildflower mixes as well as recognizable flowers, so I'm guessing at some of them.  

When I was out early, pottering about, there was a shriek and a leap into the groundcover, so I guess our frog population is happy. We have toads, too, but I haven't seen any this year yet.

Speaking of aging and everything old is new again, Tatters is teaching

Let's hear it from everyone who made plant hangers and bracelets and various messy string things way back!

Guilty as charged. Admittedly this piece involved knitting, in string and copper wire, and handmade beads,  as well as the inevitable lark's head knots. I made it in memory of my late great cockatiel, Emily Hope, whose favorite swinging perch is the support.

More in the moment, here's some spinning I did this afternoon. 

I can't spin for long, so I seize the moment. In this cop (yarn on the spindle shaft) there's sari silk waste followed by mixed silk, then wool. I might knit or weave this eventually.

Meanwhile I have a bunch of small amounts spun, waiting for a purpose beyond the pleasure of spinning.

Today, you know the weather, full disclosure, I made chicken soup. It happened like this.  I'd been slicing and picking and generally enjoying the chicken in various forms, and was down to the bones.  

I really didn't want to freeze them for later processing, so I thought, oh well, mad dogs and Englishfolk, and chucked the carcase into a pan with celery and carrots, and simmered it for ages. 

Then, bones lifted out, meat all picked off and back into the pan, bones and skin disposed of,  I blended the contents of the pan, added salt, pepper and powdered milk, and came out with three pretty good helpings of cream of chicken soup. 

It tastes all old-fashioned, and there'll be an evening I'll be glad of it, one of these cooler days. 

On a saner note, happy day everyone, happy Olympic watching and pontificating on 

It's tiring being an instant expert on presidential politics, and multiple sports all at once. Especially sports you'd never heard of before.