Weekend Coffee Share#36-The Official Vegetable

21 Replies

Coffee’s ready. Today we have Columbian coffee. It is pretty good for a change. We used to drink Columbian all the time until we discovered the darker roasts. There are blueberry bagels to go with it. I got a couple of walks in this week. I need to get out early though. Yesterday it was about 85 degrees F at 6:30 AM when I started out. It is still pretty quiet around here at that hour. I did see a few other walkers and people with dogs again. They need to walk their dogs before it gets too hot. One thing that I am missing is roadrunners. I haven’t seen any lately. While walking, I admire all the different plants in the front yards. I came across an interesting one yesterday.

These are a type of agave plant and they do look like an artichoke. Although, you need to be careful of the needles.

I do like regular artichokes and we did enjoy eating a few this year. California supplies about 100% of the artichokes to the country. They are grown all over but I am familiar with the farms on the central coast below Santa Cruz. The cooler climate and moist air are good for artichokes. I usually cook them in a couple of inches of boiling water for about 45 minutes. I trim the leaves ,cut off the tops, and squeeze some lemon juice over them. I looked up a recipe on the California Artichoke Advisory Board website. I may try it in the future because it looks easier than the way I do it. When I trim the leaves, I cut off those little needles. The artichoke needles are not as scary as the ones on the agaves here. While reading about our artichokes I found out that the artichoke is California’s official vegetable.

Cooking artichokes in water

We like to eat them with melted butter or mayonnaise.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.

Weekend Coffee Share#34-End of August

22 Replies

Coffee’s ready. Grab a cup and pull up a chair. Today we have bagels with lox and cream cheese. The bagels were delivered this past weekend by our son from one of our favorite bagel places. He brought us two boxes. We put them in the freezer. They are fine there and just need to defrosted in the toaster oven. After heating mine, I sliced it and toasted it for a few minutes. We find that we don’t have any good bagel places near us. The one we used to go to went out of business during the pandemic. Our son tells us there is a good one near Palm Springs.

If we were having coffee I would tell you it has been a quiet week here. I decided not to participate in indoor exercise with mostly unmasked people. I did buy one of those foot pedal exercisers, mainly for my husband. I want to try it too for all the days when it is too hot to exercise outside.

It was so great to see our son and our little grandson last weekend. Our grandson just started TK, which is Transitional Kindergarten. He was born very premature so he is younger developmentally than other kids his age. His is so smart. He loves watching children’s music videos on his IPAD. I am getting familiar with his playlist. Some of the songs are ones my kids listened to when they were little, like ‘Wheels On The Bus.’ I am able to sing along with those. We have a stash of toys for him here, which he is not bored with yet. Some of the toys are over 30 years old. They were our kids toys that we had saved. He used to like to play ball with me, rolling a small rubber ball back and forth. I noticed this time he rolled me the ball while he went on playing with a toy he was more interested in. He was multi-tasking with Meme, and didn’t want to leave me out.

It’s hard to believe this is the end of August. Another year passing in this pandemic fog. I know we will come out it but the news from many places is sad. Stay well, stay safe, get vaccinated.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.

Weekend Coffee Share #33-Slowed Down

30 Replies

Coffee’s ready. Grab a cup and pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I would tell you life has felt slowed down this week. I have been out of the house for routine errands, like grocery shopping with my husband. But I did not get to my yoga classes this week. I missed one class because we were staying at another location while the air conditioning was out. Happy to report that the the AC is repaired and working fine now and we didn’t have to buy a new unit. We did a lot of driving back and forth from the place we were staying but now we are back home. Something else made me miss the second yoga class. The county we live in is having a surge of COVID infections and the health department recommends all people wear masks when indoors with others. The community I live in has not required people to follow this recommendation and I don’t feel safe exercising in a room with unmasked people. I have been wearing a mask but most of the others are not. Neither my husband or myself can risk even a ‘break through’ infection. I feel I need to avoid indoor gatherings for now. Seems like it is going to be a longer road to recovery from this pandemic. I worry about my little grandson who has just started back to school. We are excited that he is coming to visit us this weekend.

So much bad news these days in the world. I find myself taking refuge in my genealogy research. It helps to take the load off my mind. It is like detective work looking for clues about the people on my family tree. It is satisfying when I can find the answers.

Well, time to hit the road.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is “ode.” Find a one- or two-syllable word that rhymes with “ode,” or use the word “ode.” Have fun!

Wee Things

11 Replies

My English grandmother used to use the word ‘wee’ to mean small or little. We never got accustomed to using the word that way and thought it was funny. We might say ‘the wee hours of the morning’ to mean very early. I used to look forward to the weekend when I was working. Now every day is like a weekend. The days run into each other. If you watched ‘Downton Abbey’ you heard the Dowager Countess of Grantham say,’ Weekend? What’s a weekend?’ She didn’t know what a weekend was because she never had to work. So me and the Dowager Countess have that in common now. We are a wee bit alike in that.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ‘wee’, use the word ‘wee’ or use a word that contains it in the post.

Featured image ‘Portrait of the Countess Anne d’Escherny by Alexander Roslin via Irina on Flickr.com

Weekend Coffee Share #31-Weathering The Heat

15 Replies

Coffee’s ready. Grab a cup and pull up a chair. We are having Italian Roast today. If we were having coffee I would tell you the weather this week gave me a great excuse to spend a lot of time indoors with genealogy research. The temperature reached its apex with 122 degrees on Wednesday. I was watching the temperature climb on my cell phone weather app all day. I did get out for Yoga in the pool and an indoor class this week. I am getting more flexuous from the yoga exercises.

Back to wearing masks in grocery stores and indoors, anywhere there are other people. Getting tired of this virus, its variants, and reading about people who refuse to get vaccinated. I am glad many businesses are starting to require proof of vaccination.

There has been a considerable amount of bad news stories about drought and fires here and around the world. Does anyone really doubt global warming?

The temperatures are heading back down. It is just hitting 100 degrees mid-day today, and predicted to reach around 113. We already did some errands and I took a few minutes to snap some photos of a place I was curious about. Some cool photos of water around me and a glimpse of badlands, a place for future hikes.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.

Flexuous was the Merriam-Webster word of the day for Wednesday, meaning ‘lithe or fluid in action or movement.’

Weekend Coffee Share#30-Desert Life In July

18 Replies

Coffee’s ready. Grab a cup and pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I would tell you that I am starting to fall into a weekly routine. Not saying it won’t be disrupted by some random event like the shifting tides of the pandemic. There are more advisories about the need for masks when indoors. I was just getting used to participating in a yoga class without a mask. I continue with the Zoom book group. We discussed a book I really liked this week, so that helped me open up more. The book is ‘Station Eleven’ by Emily St. John Mandel. I heard it is being made into an HBO series and I will look forward to that.

The roadrunners have been out and about around here more and more. I spotted 2 siblings (?) crossing the street in the next block. They quickly disappeared into a backyard. There was a large adult outside the clubhouse when I went for a yoga class. It made that rapid clicking sound as it took shelter behind a shrub. One of these days I might have a camera ready to capture a good photo of one again.

It’s still a bit too hot to go for walks. I did go out walking before sunset, 108 degrees, and it was a challenge to make it through one of my routes. There was a hot breeze blowing and I didn’t mind getting sprayed by one of the large sprinklers from the golf course. I wonder if the breeze is like the wind chill factor only it’s the wind heat factor. No roadrunners in sight. They were probably sheltered under a shady bush somewhere.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.

Weekend Coffee Share #29-Don’t Zoom In On Me

14 Replies

Coffee’s ready. Grab a cup and pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I would tell you I have got a head start on you today. I had to be out early and already finished my coffee. Driving down a nearby road I spotted a roadrunner which is always a great way to start my day. I worry about them crossing busy streets though. This week I have spent a lot of time indoors again because of the hot weather. I did manage two yoga classes and took a drive with my husband to Palm Springs. I still like our end of the Coachella Valley better.

We are reading in the newspaper every day here about the rise in COVID infections. So we wear masks at the grocery store again, because we have heard that even fully vaccinated people can be vulnerable when there is an overabundance of virus out there. My book group is still on Zoom.

On that note, I have to tell you that Zoom book discussions are pretty uncomfortable. It really is similar to public speaking. All eyes are on you and on top of it you can see those eyes looking at you on the screen. As an introvert not comfortable with such close scrutiny I find it difficult to speak well. I was talking to a friend who does not like the Zoom experience and doesn’t have her camera on if she is in a Zoom get together. At a couple of Zoom memorials for people who had passed during the pandemic my husband and I had our camera off as well. It is too distracting and an invasion of privacy. My friend and I discussed how it feels intrusive, unless you are Zooming with someone who is close to you. I know many have done Zoom meetings for work and I sympathize with you.

Well have to zoom off now. Have a great weekend.

Image by National Park Service Death Valley

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.

Least Favorite Word

12 Replies

The Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt is ‘least favorite word,’ use the least favorite word in your post.

This is a hard one on the spur of the moment and because I love words. Words go in and out of fashion. Word snobs rub me the wrong way. I am democratic in my acceptance of words unless they are crude and derogatory toward others. That being said I can think of one word I am not fond of. Not so much that it is a ‘least favorite.’ The word has become very popular in recent years. The word is ‘awesome’. I would hear it over and over, like ‘you’re awesome’, or ‘that’s awesome,’ or just plain, ‘Awesome!’, as an exclamation. Even if I see something to which the word would apply, I would not say ‘Awesome!’ Or maybe it’s because people use the word so liberally for so many things that aren’t really awesome.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill.