Vacationing at Home: Day 7

Day 7:  Sunday

Today was a perfect day. Woke up and brewed some delicious coffee, sat outside and caught up with some reading I have wanted to do. The screen house is helpful during the day with the amount of insects flying from plant to plant, flower to flower.

The Sunchokes and Marigolds are blooming, much later than last year. Morning Glories and Moon flowers appear and disappear each day. The most prolific flowering plant is the buckwheat we spread around. It attracts the largest variety of insects.

This week off has seemed like a month to me. Paying attention to each day - enough to be sure not to miss it, but not caught up in over planning each moment - has really made each day stretch out and I feel very relaxed. When I return to the work I do at my Mon- Fri job, I have a different perspective now. It's just one of the important things I do and no matter what happens or how long it lasts, I feel really good about my contributions there and in the rest of my life. Keeping a balance is what will keep me from being stressed out again.

During the Permaculture class I took - one of the things said is that we all really need to be able to do at least five things, because the way we work is changing, the way we are employed is changing. It may very well be that many of us will work more than one part time job. Or maybe we'll learn to do what our grandparents did? Grow our own food, spend Sundays with family, babysit for each other and live nearby so we can build a stronger community?

The world is changing and it's an exciting time to live in - we have access to more information than ever before and can learn as much as we choose.  My interests and possible jobs would be: permaculture design, gardening, food security, writing, music, cooking, teaching and advertising as long as I have to.  I have heard figures that say 1 in 3 children in this city, where I live,  are not sure where there next meal will come from. Hundreds in the school system are homeless. That doesn't include the adults or the elderly. This is something I would like to help find a solution for.

So my week off was amazing - a week of great food and friends, relaxation and reflection and a start in a new direction, if only internally right now. Every change starts with a decision and that is made.

What tomorrow brings remains to be seen.

Sunchoke flower (Jerusalem Artichoke)

Vacationing at Home: Day 6

Day 6: Saturday

Today was a great day to sleep in, hang around the house and garden and talk with neighbors. Spent a fun day relaxing, watched a couple of movies, and had some friends over tonight for gaming. I, of course, play a Druid in D&D and it's lots of fun to play and write a story with our friends.

I finished my project and uploaded my final for the Permaculture class. Now I would like to find another challenge, another place to design and work toward teaching abundance, food security, and sustainability. I look forward to where this new perspective on everything will take me.

For house projects today, I gathered together laundry and washed, dried, hung up and folded everything I could find in this house that needed to be cleaned. With everything for the week ready to go, tomorrow I work on the next project - gathering all paperwork, books and magazines to the basement to sort, trash, donate and shred where appropriate.

One project a day seems to work well - nice days on outdoor projects, and rainy days on indoor projects. The difference this time, is that when these bigger indoor projects are done - I won't have to do them again. There won't be a junk drawer or closet left untouched and when I'm done, there will only be what is necessary and needed.

For today's pictures - veggies and fruit from the garden. The perennials are growing: trees, vines, berries, nuts, and other plants.  The raised beds change day to day. We dug up the red potatoes and canned 27 pint jars for winter. The other beds have a variety of plants - we keep trying a few different things in each to find what will grow best for us.  The squashes are thriving this year and I am looking forward to a pumpkin harvest in the autumn.  Our cherry tomatoes are just starting to flower and the canning tomatoes just might make it.

Jerusalem Artichoke (Sunchoke) 

Zucchini

Sugar Pumpkins

Gala Apples

Eggplant

Cherry Tomatoes finally starting to flower

Hot peppers!

Small Red beans for drying

Carrots growing, growing, growing

Vacationing at Home: Day 5

Day 5: Friday

The day dawned gray and cloudy and within an hour, we knew that it was going to be a day of much rain. The garden was watered, the rain barrels filled, and we planned out our day.

First we relaxed and I finished my project - all but the final pictures I would be taking on Saturday for the "before and after" shots of the garden.  Around noon we defrosted some delicious Turkey soup from the Mass Local food coop and had a light lunch. We called a cab and went to Higgin's Armory   and spent a couple of hours looking around at weapons and armor. It's bitter sweet knowing that this amazing place has been in Worcester my whole life and I just now am going for the first time. And even more disappointing is that it will be closing its doors in December. Thankfully the Art Museum will keep much of the collection, but it will not be able to replicate the love and attention to detail that this museum has carried for so many years.  The pictures are not the greatest, but they captured some of the amazing treasures and the vision of a great man.

After Higgins Armory we went to the Boynton for delicious dinner - I had their amazing Gluten Free pizza which is my new favorite and I often get when we go there.  After the Boynton, the monsoon let up long enough for us to run across the street to the Wine Vine for their wine tasting. I love this shop and learning about different wines from all over the world.

After we picked up our favorite wine, we got a cab home, changed into p.j.'s and had a mini marathon of Game of Thrones - drank wine and ate popcorn and had a fun night.

I would encourage anyone who thinks where they live has "nothing to do" or is boring - to take a walk or a cab, start looking at the city you live in as a tourist would. The places on brochures were often built by the people who founded, supported and often still are benefactors of the place you live. Then I would encourage you to ask what will be left when you are old? Will you begin something that will leave a legacy? A place to visit ? Will you do something that will create a lasting memory for you, your family and friends, and community? 

Forget what you know and go out seeking what you don't know. There is so much more of life to live and so much more to see! 

  

The old display hall - before everything was put into cases

     

     

      

     

     

     

Vacationing at Home: Day 4

Day 4 - Thursday

It was a rainy and quiet morning, so we slept in. Rob went to see his Dad and I worked on cleaning up the house. This paring down of excess takes awhile. The nature of what we are trying to do with our garden, and becoming as sustainable as possible, requires some pretty specialized equipment for canning and food storage. I have no problem keeping the tools and equipment we need - what I still am figuring out is the massive amount of paperwork, mail, magazines, etc. that four adults generate. If I am honest about it - quite a bit of it is mine. I'm letting all but one of the magazines expire. I really enjoy Countryside, and have read it for years, and reread them - so those I'm keeping.

I spent some time hanging out with my daughter when she got home from work, which is always enjoyable, and then I worked for hours on the Powerpoint and drawings for my Permaculture final project. Working on this project for a design to make our property sustainable reveals some things to me personally. I feel overcrowded with many of the things around me. Clothing, books, paperwork, etc. I have been spending time thinking about my habits, hobbies, and day to day living and the effect it has on the world around me - and if my personal lifestyle is sustainable. Where I buy my clothes from, where our food comes from, all of the the other things we buy or throw away and how it effects the environment. We have found a place to buy local meat, cheese, eggs, etc. through Mass Local Food and next I want to find a way to buy clothing local. I'm just starting the research on this.

When Rob got home - he suggested we go to Rosalina's for dinner. It's so great to have such an amazing place to eat that we can walk a couple of blocks to. Dinner was delicious and I have almost 1/2 of my steak left - so tomorrow it's going to become a topping when I make my first gluten free (rice crust) pizza!

It was a slower paced day - but I find that I get more done when I can work on a project, then take a break and walk around or sit in the yard - and then get back to the project. Smaller bursts of work have a longer lasting effect on the progress I make.

One project was to clear off, organize (and get rid of) a bunch of useless things on the counter downstairs in our basement kitchen. So, I cleaned everything up to make a nice area for baking (and storing baking supplies) as well as a bigger space for canning and processing veggies from the garden. The cabinets are for food storage - for what doesn't fit in the couple of cabinets we have upstairs. Most of the baking supplies need to stay in a cooler place, so this is perfect. Also - with the space ready to use like this - I will be more likely to whip up some delicious meal or treat.  During the summer, when we don't use the wood stove for heating - we do our cooking downstairs in the gas stove.

Vacationing at Home: Day 3

Day 3

Today we woke up early and went to breakfast at Shaker's. Delicious, delicious eggs, bacon and potatoes. It was a beautiful early morning walk there and back to the house. Again, something right near home offers such an amazingly satisfying experience.

During the day there was much relaxing and I worked on my project for awhile. Then we did some weeding of the garden beds and planted some lettuce in the spaces where nothing is growing, checked the carrots and decided they need to wait a bit before they are ready to can.




Tonight I tried the first of the gluten free recipes:  Rice Flour Muffins (Sue's Rice Flour Muffins - it's on the package, so I figured a safe place to start.)

2 Eggs
1 Cup Liquid (water, fruit juice, milk)
I used Coconut Milk (yum)
4 Tablespoons Sugar
4 Tablespoons Canola Oil ( I used Olive oil)
2 Cups Bob's Red Mill White Rice Flour
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons finely chopped pecan halves or
1/4 cup Dried Blueberries (I used 1/2 cup fresh delicious organic blueberries)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly grease 12 Muffin tin
(I used brown paper muffin tin liners)
In a mixing bowl, place all ingredients, mix well.
Pour into prepared muffin tin.
Bake for 17-20 minutes.

Allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing from tin.
Yield: 12 Large muffins.

I can't be sure of the exact time it took for the muffins because I brought them downstairs, put them into the oven and heard a huge crash, and then a pop and air coming out of a tire.

Someone was (as per usual) screaming up our street above the speed limit and hit a parked car belonging to the friend of our neighbors. Fortunately, no one was out playing at that time and everyone in the car that crashed was ok. With the ambulances, firetruck and police cars, it could have been a much worse situation.

As I'm sitting here now, I can hear cars rushing by above the speed limit and were it not for our new, amazing windows, I'm sure they would be rattling...

The muffins are delicious, the inconsiderate selfish nature of people and the violent reaction to poor choices of others - makes me desire a home in the woods away from the rushing speed that people feel they need to live at!

Don't miss it, people. Get out that mixing bowl, and make these delicious treats, mixing slowly by hand and eating slowly, one bite at a time. You will know they are ready because they look ready and are firm to the touch. I stuck a knife into one, and it came out clean. They probably could have used a couple more minutes if you want to brown them, but I didn't want to dry them out too much. I think the next batch will have chocolate chips.


Don't miss it! Treasure this life because so many are taking it for granted and not paying attention. It makes no sense to me because there's no reason to hurry...

Tonight we watched a movie called Babette's Feast - a charming movie about love and food.
Quote from wikipedia:  "Although the other celebrants refuse to comment on the earthly pleasures of their meal, Babette's gifts breaks down their distrust and superstitions, elevating them physically and spiritually. Old wrongs are forgotten, ancient loves are rekindled, and a mystical redemption of the human spirit settles over the table."

If only every meal shared could be such a meal, and if only I could be such a chef !
A perfect way to end the day. Good-night.

Vacationing at Home

Vacation is this week from Saturday the 3rd through Sunday the 11th.

I wasn't really counting Saturday or Sunday for activities and projects, we just had a nice relaxing weekend.

Saturday we went for lunch at the Boynton and then hung out with our friend Bob to watch the final 4 episodes of Season 2 of Game of Thrones. Great company, great show and a great kickoff for the week. Bob just bought a house nearby and it's so cool to have another friend nearby.

Sunday was our 18th Anniversary so we took it easy, no projects or anything. Just a good amount of rest and dinner out at the 111 Chophouse - which was amazing and a fun way to celebrate!

This weekend was fun for me also because I had some sightings of things I haven't seen before in our yard/neighborhood...

I was sitting in the back garden on Saturday morning and a Hummingbird came up to some flowers about 5 feet away from me. It was the first time I have seen one in our yard! They are so amazing.

Saturday night at Bob's we were walking outside to see the yard and the pear tree and after we went in side we looked out the window and saw a wild rabbit hanging out in the yard. Luckily we have not personally seen rabbits in the our garden. It was really neat to see the rabbit roaming around his yard.

Saturday I also heard a different bird song outside the window and looked out to see the Goldfinches on the Sunflowers. This time last year, as the Sunflowers and Jerusalem Artichokes were blooming, the Goldfinches came around. So beautiful!

One decision my husband and I have made is that we really don't need to exchange gifts anymore. I can't think of anything more that I need and we both prefer a nice dinner out together - rather than gifts we don't really need.

Lemon Sorbetto with a special message from the waitstaff

Perfect Yellow

Today is the beginning of "vacation" for Rob & me. Technically it's vacation time for Rob and a little short term disability for me, but I am making the most of this and today was beautiful.

Because I've been home for four weeks with this ankle/foot/air cast thing, I thought it would just be like another week home, but it isn't, and Rob is here!

We spent the day today enjoying the birds and the garden. The weather was perfect - warm with a cool breeze...and it really, truly felt like a vacation day. That timeless, nowhere to go kind of day that seems endless.

Being home hasn't been so terrible. When I open all the windows and pretend I'm on vacation - it's a little easier with this view out the living room windows of the Sunflower, Corn, Beans and Squash bed.

Of course, it does look more impressive from outside - but I love that I can see the plants while I am resting indoors.

And the view of Sunchokes through the front windows is amazing!

Today, we got a little surprise of a pair of American Goldfinches!

I saw some rustling in the flowers and it took awhile to see them because

they are the same color yellow. If you look closely, he is in the center of the picture below.

This was how the day started and I was so happy to see them!

This is how the day ended - blue skies...

Wine & Chocolates.

I'm learning more and more to take each day as it appears and make

the most out of what I have to work with. I could find faults with the day, the situation of 

my health, the noise in the neighborhood, etc. etc.

Instead I chose to focus on the things that I really have control over. 

My attitude, and my choice to enjoy the many, many things I have to be grateful for.

I hear the voices that say: it's just a yellow bird, a few flowers and sunflower seeds are at the store and take a lot less work.

But I say that until you really look at the flowers and hear the song of the Goldfinch, sip that wine and taste the handmade chocolates from Vermont...Until you sit on a couch for four weeks with yourself and realize how much you have to be grateful for, you cannot know, and I cannot explain what this means to me. Every time I put my hands in the soil and connect to the Earth and harvest seeds from plants that grew in this yard...I realize that I would not trade this moment and this experience for anything. 

It is magical and I don't want to miss a minute of it!

And by a happy accident, I don't have to...