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.