Down from the heights of Evee Erb

Chop wood, carry water, roast vegetables, admire diamonds, neighborhood exchange program.

Early this morning, the diamonds were on show. I think these may be the things Shammickite was describing the other day, not spiderwebs. Still pretty though.

Then roasting vegetables for lunch, well, three lunches. Broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, yellow potatoes, thyme, Thai basil, olive oil, Old Bay, baharat, seasalt. 45 minutes at 400°f. 

Good, too. I might add a few capers on the second day.

Mail arrived with my tea supplies, yay.

Also with official notice that my supplementary medicare policy has gone up. I have great coverage, and pay quite a bit. Medicare monthly payment, gap policy, the one that's gone up, rx coverage. They all go up every year. Oh well.  I've got the insurance.

Then neighbor shows up with a large bag of laundry. His dryer broke down, they have the part, waiting for the official service people, gas dryer, utility company has to do it.

So he loaded the laundry into my dryer here, and I took it downstairs for pickup once dry. And asked his advice about the downstairs toilet with the dodgy mechanism, that wasn't flushing right. Then it wouldn't stop running. He said on no account get a plumber, I'll do this.

Here he is removing the works to take to the store and replace. The bathroom is now full of wrenches and pliers. He'll shop, he loves shopping of this kind, then fix it. 

My neighborhood at work. 

Rain, better than ice

 I made a determined attempt to keep up my flagging spirits, feeling left behind in my inability to secure a vaccination slot, everything here so fully booked with people with higher priority that they're not even taking appointments, and the failure of the Covid relief $$ to show up in my bank account.  Deadline now past. IRS says they've finished doing direct deposit.  If it doesn't appear, claim it on taxes.  Meaning I have to file a tax return, despite being below the income threshold to do so.

So, anyway, I decided that a night of rain is better than a night of ice.  And that the trees wearing diamond necklaces are worth noting.

Then, after finally realizing my knives were little better for cutting than chunks of cardboard would be, hauled out the knife sharpener and got to work.

I now have two decently sharpened knives and a resolution to do this more often, despite not liking it.  Not a good cook if you don't keep your tools in good trim.

?

If you're asking why not get a sharpening steel and give the knife a few swipes before use?  Or, like my mom, give it a few left and right swipes across the back doorstep? because that takes a skill I don't have, is why.  You have to swipe at exactly the right angles on both sides or you knock the edge right back off the blade.  And I'm a person who was very challenged trying to keep a violin bow straight on the strings, definitely can't be trusted to work a steel any better.

The point of this sharpener is that it has magnets which place the blade in the right relationship to the sharpening steel inside.  And it's designed to make you insert the blade right each time.  On the left is a presharpening device, which gets the worse of the blunt off before you proceed to the sharpening on the right, then the honing slots on the far right.  For me this works.  So I'm hoping for better cutting with fewer curses for the next little while.

It's safer to work with a sharp blade than a blunt one, anyway, because the sharp blade grips and doesn't jump up and bury itself in your hand.  True of Xacto blades, too.  And ice skates, if it comes to that.  Although I was such a timid skater that I would lose my grip before the blades did, but moving along from there.

And another thing to be thankful about is that I have food to cut anyway.

Diamonds

After a dramatic thunderstorm during the night, which kept on coming back and doing an encore, woke up this morning to find the patio all decked out in diamonds. I  noticed, since the old cherry tree branch was weighted down with water, and I could see into it, that there's a great crop of wild cherries starting.  The birds will love this in fall and winter. Not good for humans, though, too tiny and bitter, all pit no cherry.  Birds and squirrels also eat the thorns on the wild cherry, in the depth of winter when food is at a premium.

So here they are, sparkling, and the houseplants thrilled with their shower.  Click to enjoy better.

I've been realizing that though the patio is not spectacular this year, full of wild flowers and marigolds and various unshowy plants, it's proving to be a much better nature center than when it looked a lot more exciting.  The petunias attract clearwing hummingbird moths, actual hummingbirds, several species of butterfly, all kinds of birds rummaging in there for insects,the herbs are a big bee magnet, and all in all, it's a Good Thing TM.

And because of their visits, the general feeling around it is one of more peace and ease.  I wander out with a cup of coffee in the morning and just enjoy. That's when I often do a daily drawing, too.