New daisies, visits and Textiles and Tea postponed

A couple more daisies join the daily arrangement. Picking the first blooms pushes the next to bloom.

I watered outside flowers early, but already at 9 am, too hot to walk.

Yesterday Gary ran over to see how I was doing in the heat, while officially returning containers.  Shortly after, the letter carrier delivered a package of meds into my hand, and asked how I was managing. Some of our local carriers are unofficial social workers. 

Since the stolen meds, he's insisted on personal delivery and even checked whether the man who accepted them during my recovery was my son! Just being careful. And much appreciated. 

I notice since T2 started, it's been like the days after 9/11, people checking on each other's welfare. For new readers: 9/11 was very close to home, we all knew casualties in the Towers,our train station parking lot was filled with cars whose owners were gone. Our post office was the center of the anthrax attack. So we looked out for everyone, strangers, didn't matter, for a while after.

Food notes. I tried mixing canned pumpkin with yogurt and got an excellent dessert. I used to buy mango yogurt from the Asian market until they moved away. Now I realize that with a bit of amchur and turmeric or pumpkin, I have a good lookalike.

I also plan to try Suzanne's idea about Graham cracker crumbs on lime flavored yogurt. Collaborative food! 

And I plan on crushed berries in yogurt. I've always added ingredients but not mixed them in to a pudding idea. I think this will be the Summer of Yogurt. Please weigh in with ideas. The Boudian Cooking Co-op Calls.

Lunch was several ideas drawn from Will Yeung, minimal cooking. I made brown rice, heavily seasoned the water with cayenne, salt, smoked and sweet paprika and tomato paste. 

While that was cooking, I roasted chickpeas with salt,minced garlic and ginger, avocado oil in the toaster oven at 400°f for about 25 minutes. Scallions for garnish.

Nice lunch,  and enough chickpeas left for tomorrow with rice.  I like the idea of seasoning the rice instead of the other ingredients, then serving them together. And I want to try making a dipping sauce but pour it over cooked rice once the dish is assembled. Same flavors coming from different directions.

Since I can't get out walking today, I've got more serious about indoor fitness. Quite a few of the moves I learned in PT are classic and you can find them on YouTube. I have favorite workout people, including this mother and daughter team. The mom is in her eighties, daughter in fifties, so it's good for mid and older women.  

The mom is so good humored about what she can manage and what's hard, the daughter clearly skilled at not pushing but keeping up a challenge. Here's what I watched today.

I used 5lb dumbbells throughout, the daughter switched between 5,8,and10. The mom used 2lb. You use what's right for you, not too easy.  And they take rest and water breaks. I took an extra couple of minutes about halfway through. I really like this pace. There's a timer, with a  second hand going,  top right as you work, so you can see how long to the end of each exercise.  They're about fitting in eight to twelve reps in approximately 30+ seconds.

Quite a few of my PT exercises show up in this workout, so it's a good reminder.  I'm still in recovery mode in my left leg muscles, some of which had shortened over the months of joint issues and compensating. The muscles in front and below the knee are tighter than they used to be, too,  so this is good. None of it hurts, but you know you've been working. 

Meanwhile 

I did not go to the Tuesday knitting group, as you probably guessed.

Textiles and Tea featured Valeria Maldonado, an architect and 3D fiber artist. This post is already full, so I'll talk about her tomorrow.

Happy day everyone, hang in there 

Woman proposes, heat disposes

Today's morning plan was to return the DVDs to the library early, in the book drop, then take a walk around that neighborhood, complete with construction, before it got too hot 

Then I checked before 8 am 

Already too hot for the plan. So I have to regroup. 

Maybe I'll fix the crochet, which I worked too tightly at the knitting group, being a bit distracted. Maybe find embroidery to finish.

My other plan, to make baked shells in cheese sauce, is also on hold, not wanting to turn on the oven. 

Meanwhile, another paragraph beginning with M,  I've been looking at faucets online and find the reasonably-priced name brand, in a design I like, comes without a sink stopper.  I haven't ordered yet, just as well, since I kind of assumed that a faucet with a drain assembly would have a stopper. 

It's not an emergency. In fact I'm waiting for the State budget doings, July 1, new fiscal year, to find out if my property tax refund will happen. That would help. 

For now I'll lie on the sofa singing Manana, provide your own accent, and drinking lemonade. Watching a bit of Wodehouse Playhouse, maybe. 

I'm in search of Pie in the Sky, a series about a trying-to-retire met detective opening his dream restaurant. 

I loved it back when, and I might be able to get it on DVD.  Or maybe streaming if there's a non subscription possibility.

Happy day everyone, keep cool, sez I, never mind about bears wearing warm hats, what do they know.

And here's today's bouquet, blue day flowers, lavender, coleus, philodendron, daisy 

Summertime, and animal tales

 So this is where we are 

There's a map with a ! right over my house.

Moving along to more weekendish thoughts, I was asked this morning about my long ago pet and plant care service.

I thought you'd enjoy, as a change from the state of the world, a few animal anecdotes. I had a flourishing service, visiting pets and plants in their homes, sometimes both, working seven day weeks, animals don't take days off! 

My older sister, never owned a business in her life, employed in corporatelandia, advised me to refuse to work weekends!  I explained that would be a fast track out of business. When live animals are involved, you attend. 

The court system even allowed me excuse from jury duty on that account. And when people say well, hire a backup, without the faintest idea how, oh well. Anyone with the insurance liability and bonding coverage I carried wouldn't be an occasional backup, they'd be in business themselves. 

Moving on to the animals. There was dear old Wellington, 21 years old, whose older brother had died at 22, in my care for three weeks while the owners were in Europe. They were sure he wouldn't live, left careful instructions about his body, complete with little container in the fridge, yes, that's what you do, and departed.

They were lovely people, very high strung, noisy, perpetual motion study, and the first few days Wellie just slept. I woke him to feed and use his box, then he gratefully went back to sleep. He was recovering from his owners, loved them dearly, and they wore him out.

The second week he was playful, getting on and off the sofa unaided, coming to meet me at the door. By the time the owners returned, he'd completed his rest cure. They called me in great excitement "We came in, expecting  to check the fridge for Wellie, and suddenly he was running to the door. Running!"  He lived another couple of years.

I've often thought owners, including me, are something for their pets to grapple with. We're all a bit high strung, wanting the best, reluctant to accept that sometimes that entails doing nothing.

Then there were the koi I fed, in a house which had a cat who let herself in and out via a garage window. She never bothered the koi pond. The fish were eager to feed and more than once one leapt up and attached himself to my finger! Bitten by a fish.

I've been bitten by a nervous rabbit, a v-shaped dent in my finger, just a pinch, nothing between friends. And there was dear Suzy the ferret, in a household of many pets, with a permutation of who could and couldn't encounter whom. She liked to ride in my sleeve while I did the rounds of amphibians, birds, cats and pet spiders.  She tried to come home with me more than once.

In fact, that was an occupational hazard, pets trying to stow away in my pockets when I left. Or jumping into the fridge, a specialty of tuxedo cats. I learned to check before I left. And to unplug small appliances owners had forgotten, after one tuxedo set the electric can opener going, luckily not getting a paw in its path. I wasn't moving fast enough for his requirements.

Then there were the cats whose owners assured me I'd never see them, too shy, here's a photo, oh wait, he's jumped on your head, how about that? And the cat whose owner said Kitty loved to drink from a  dripping faucet in the kitchen sink but was too old to jump up, would I mind lifting her? Of course not. Except that in the owner's absence she leapt up like a two year old. She'd got them well trained in serfdom.

I drew a lot of portraits on those visits. The pet business enabled me to support myself while making art, some free daylight hours and and endless changes of scene, with no humans talking at me. In fact a couple of petcare clients when they found out about my art life, took an interest,  attending openings, buying pieces, one arranging a corporate solo show for me. Unexpected bonuses.

I never mentioned art when I met clients, largely because a lot of people think artist=flake,  unreliable. They admitted this much later when I was established with them, and they discovered artist=focused, dependable. 

It's wannabes who run about with black berets and intense expressions. Real artists just want to get on with the work, and wear black when they're working with black blockprint ink.

That was an energetic period, twelve years of successful pet care and art. I couldn't do it now, good thing I don't have to.

Happy day everyone, and to all older sibs, this is dedicated to you