The disaster that was Breakfast

 Mike has been so generous about fixing meals. Breakfast is one that he prefers and does it lots, especially when I was working. Since retirement, he's slacked off a little just because our schedule has changed a little.

He still does do a lot of the dishes, so that's nice. Floors. He's working on our steps for the deck. He keeps busy.

This morning, he asked me if I wanted some blueberry pancakes for breakfast! We have fresh blueberries in our refrigerator. I was going to go pick some raspberries first, though. I have been trying to pick about every other day now. There are not tons, but if I leave them for more than a couple of days, I feel like too many of them get overly ripe and go to waste because they fall off the canes. So, I told him that blueberry pancakes would be excellent! But give me about 40 minutes to pick the berries and then we could eat. 

He watched my progress and noticed when I was near the end of the row and I could hear him clanking around in the kitchen as he mixed the batter etc. When I came in, I found that he had used a griddle that is just terrible. It looks like it would work good, but it does not. I did not buy it. I kind of think it may have come from his parents home. Because it looks good, we figured it might work good. But it might only be good for.. maybe warming up tortillas? I don't know. It's in the trash right now. It burned his pancakes! and they stuck so terribly that they fell apart. All those beautiful blueberry pancakes.

 He grabbed a metal spatula from our drawer for turning them over... That was also a reject from his parents house. It was kind of a cool tool. It was an expandable-handled spatula (telescoping?). You could use it at a barbecue. It will let you reach farther into the flames without being burnt. The only problem was, it swiveled on its expandable post. Or handle. Crazy! So you know, when you go to turn over a pancake, you kind of have to rotate and flip that spatula? That spatula did not rotate like you expected it to.  it just swiveled. What a mess. 

But we struggled through and ate them. I had actually told him, yes, blueberry pancakes on the deck this morning would be wonderful! So we went out to the deck to eat our semi- burnt blueberry pancakes. They weren't totally burned. Just some of them. And I took the one that was least burnt. :-) . As we were sitting outside eating our pancakes, I noticed that there was some uncooked batter in some of my pancake pieces. So they ran the gamut from being burnt to raw.! How funny. Plus, we were swatting flies. And, it was late enough that the sun was blazing in our eyes. And, I forgot to wipe off the table and the prior rain and wind and the construction dust had caused grittiness on the glass table top. Not quite the sublime breakfast I had pictured. But it was nice. Enough. :-) I hope yours was better.

And, you might have noticed that I have some lovely yellow squash up there on the counter that I picked this morning, too. 

Evidence of clumsiness

 Took a tumble on my Friday morning walk. So embarrassing. I just tripped on the sidewalk and went splat. I hit my knee, bruised a palm and a thumb and earned this bright and shiney black eye. Good one, eh? My glasses were bent out of shape, but fixable. One small scratch I can live with. A very much bruised ego, however. I did it in plain sight of the car and driver I changed trajectory to avoid. But he was kind ( dressed in scrubs) and checked to see that I was okay before leaving the scene of my humility. 

Canning Season Begins

 And it may end almost as quickly. 

Apparently it is impossible to buy lids! I don't spend a lot of time in stores, and of course I never remember to look for them when I AM in a store. Mike hasn't been instructed to do so, either. He did go hunting today. He scored three boxes of wide mouth lids. :-/

I do have wide mouth jars, but not exclusively. 

I have 12 tomato plants, 10 of which will probably produce well. Eventually.  Maybe. We may get enough green beans for eating. Possibly enough to bottle a few pints. 

And peaches! The tree is not loaded, but it has plenty.  Maybe I'll be freezing instead of bottling. 

But today was my neighbor's apricots. 18 quarts and one cobbler. Cobbler is what's for dinner tonight.

Oooff. Ouch. STOP THAT!

 I guess I just have to admit I'm getting old. Drat it all anyway.

This morning I walked for three full miles around the track!!  Woo Hoo!  That's been my goal for a bit now.  I think I can continue that. I had no "Hip Episodes," so that was nice. My feet were starting to get a bit sore, hot and tired by the time I headed home, however. I'm walking on a nice even track that is kind of soft and bouncy (compared to concrete sidewalks and asphalt streets) with less risks of falling.  I have to think about falling? Yeah. You heard me. I'm old.

Then I came home and put on LONG clothing so I could go and dig through the raspberries. I got a couple of cups.  I do love those little things. 

I made some Miracle Gro and gave my green bean plants a drink. They were the only things that needed water. Most of the tomatoes and raspberries and squash had moist soil already.  But I went ahead and dumped the wheelbarrow's rain accumulation on them, too. Why not?

I sawed off two dead branches on my apple tree. They just died this year and I don't want the disease to spread, so off they came.  With much effort. I love my pruning saws. They are Fiskars brand, nice and sharp.  But it took me a long time. Lots of rests.  But I did it!  Mike came out and called me "Paul," as in Paul Bunyon.  That'd be PaulINE, if you please.  I pulled up some weeds, too.  Not buckets full, though, so that's nice. 

Then I moved some dirt for Mike and kind of got the back wall of the house covered up to the water-proofing line. Only, all the rest of the dirt has to slope AWAY from that point and there's a lot of dirt back there that does NOT slope away from the house.  I don't know exactly what to do with all that, so I'm leaving it for now.  We have to figure out where and how to put the retaining wall. . . but first the steps have to be put in. He's working on that. He cut one whole block today!! Progress.  Very little progress. In all fairness, it is stinking hot outside.

But wait! There's more!  While Mike went shopping and returning and selling (tools, etc) I dug up more irises and some asparagus and moved those. I dug up, divided and moved a big clump of chives that were kind of crowding and blocking the view of our lovely rose bush. 

And THEN I came in and showered. I was beat, soaked through with sweat, even though most of my work had been (thankfully) in the shade. I ate breakfast, took a nap.  I'm getting good at those. haha. I found that I have a really sore left foot! Ouch. I'm not sure if it's from using a shovel or from walking so long with an extra heavy body on those poor feet of mine. I'm hoping it's a slight bruise from the shovel and nothing more.

This is why we love those raspberries.

Here's the rose bush before I moved the chives.

And I bought two big pots of begonias that are out in the front flower bed. They are quite lovely and add a nice little pop of color out there, now that the spring bulbs have finished and the clematis vine is done. I have some irises I'm going to move out there into that bed, too. And some asparagus stems I'm going to put in water in a jar and see what happens. I couldn't bury all the root systems I dug up, so figured I'd give it a shot. I'm guessing the greenery will just grow, but it won't produce another spear. But we'll see, won't we?

July 15, 2021 LAST DAY

 Well, I did it! I retired after 26 years at the Sherratt Library.  Woo Hoo!

My last day at work included an escorted bike ride TO work, and a highly-decorated bicycle for the bike ride home FROM work. Apparently it's a biker thing. Maybe in Holland--Ha ha. It was all Anne's doings. It made us all laugh and I did get many smiles on the way home. Mike and I went to Milt's for dinner and took Kim and Terri Hunter with us and played games together after.

I really wondered why Anne was SO insistent that I ride my bike on the last day of work. I had all kinds of excuses NOT to ride it--a sore hip joint I've been nursing, heavy things to bring with me, etc.  But she prevailed and I consented to have her escort me for the entire 3 minute commute. It is downhill, so if my hip was hurting, I could always call Mike to give me ride home, I suppose.

But she didn't even have to work that day!  She just escorted me, took a photo or two of me parking my bike and gave me hug. Then she rode home to leave and go with Prof. Emily Dean and head to Capitol Reef National Park to pick apricots and go hiking. And Mike dropped off my heavy items. (Bookends made of library Marble.)

She did, however, leave instructions with Trudy to do it up good, so when I left at 5 pm, I found my bicycle beautifully decorated at the bike rack. Trudy had asked me several times that day, "What time are you leaving?" and when she came to the Circ desk to say goodby, she not only took a picture of the two of us, but also said, "I'll just walk to your bike with you," which by then was really making me wonder and EVERYONE followed us out to the bike rack.

 Yep. Balloons and floral leis. It was really cute and colorful.  So off I went, into the sunset. (Quite literally.)

And here's what it looks like as a centerpiece on my table.

Such sweet co-workers.  They'll be missed.

My Circulation co-workers also gifted me with a lovely honey bee platter (and cupcakes!) and a charming locket necklace. It also has a honey bee on it.  Gee, I decorate my kitchen with a honeybee theme and EVERYthing is now "bees."  Ha. Or, as Gail put it, "Sheesh. You attend one international Bee Keeping Convention and everyone just thinks you love all things Apiarian."  Well, I do love bees because they are important.

Here's the platter. Below is the ONLY photo Mike got of me leaving for work on Thursday. He didn't wait until I looked up, unfortunately. ;-)  My favorite noon-time exercise person (and super-duper network administrator who helped so much, and even encouraged me to apply for the Circulation Coordinator position those many years ago) went in with the Copy Shop ladies and they gave me a gift certificate for Lady Bug Nursery. Because they know how much I like working in my yard and gardening.

And here's a photo of  "my" bees. Because they work in my back yard and I love their work and the results of their work.

Happy Retirement to me!  On to spending more time with the folks and maybe just sleeping in a bit. Because I can.

Or perhaps I should work at getting the back yard put back together. All I've done so far is plant a few tomato plants and dug up some irises.  What's left?  Oh, more irises to dig and some to plant, stairs for the deck, a new basement window on the north side of the house, a small retaining wall, lots of moved dirt, concrete work, landscaping, lawn. . .and more. Hopefully a nice peach crop. 

And lots and lots of lots more raspberries to pick all summer long. Yum Yum.  Let me know when you're coming for pie. I'll be ready!