My friend Beth and I met on the very first day of fourth grade, on the bus that was to take us to our new school. We had both been chosen to go to a special school for “gifted” children for the next three years – the very opposite of the mainstreaming of students of differing needs that is the accepted practice in education today. I think it was a bit of an educational experiment that only lasted a few years. Whatever the case, we very quickly became inseparable. As is often the case with longterm friends who live hundreds of miles apart, we have not always been perfect at keeping in touch over the years, but in the last two decades we’ve been pretty tight. When the pandemic hit we started Saturday morning Zoom and then FaceTime calls that I look forward to all week.
This month marks 50 years since that first day of fourth grade. Fifty years of friendship. We celebrated with a long weekend staying in an Airbnb on the East Side of Providence (home of Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, amazing bakeries and restaurants, and stunning old homes). We used the apartment as our base of operations for exploring our old neighborhood, our old teenage stomping grounds of the East Side and downtown Providence (we were experts at taking city buses from an early age), and for going a little farther afield. We took a narrated boat tour of the Providence River and learned some new things about the history of Providence. We drove out to Point Judith, Rhode Island to take the ferry to Block Island for the day — to ride bikes along the country lanes and drink Del’s frozen lemonade in the shade (Beth had Del’s, I had ice cream).
To give a play-by-play of the entire long weekend would take many paragraphs. Suffice it to say a grand time was had by all and I am so thankful to have this dear friend who is really family to me. I love you, Beth! Thank you for planning the entire weekend and for being my friend all of these years.
Hello, friends! It has been a busy couple of weeks since I last wrote here. Last week I was in Connecticut for an extended weekend visiting family. The weather was absolutely perfect during my stay.
Since August 22 I have been preoccupied with a competition we are having at work. The powers that be thought it would be fun to have a friendly wellness/exercise challenge for anyone interested, using the app Wellable (link here). You can earn points in a variety of ways: 0.05 points for each step you take, 5 points for every minute you exercise, 100 points for every mile you walk/run, 30 points for every mile cycled, etc. I’ve definitely gotten caught up in the competitive vibe of the thing – out of 48 participants I am currently sharing the 3rd/4th place position with a perfectly nice coworker who has become my nemesis – up until yesterday. The problem with the competition is that they cap the number of points you can earn at 1,500 per day. That’s the equivalent of 15 miles of walking/running a day (about 30,000 steps). That’s a lot. And that’s what everyone in the top 5 or so have determined is needed to maintain their position. So, yeah, it’s been exhausting. The competition lasts until October 2 and yesterday I decided to scale it back to something more sustainable (and something less likely to give me a stress fracture in my foot). Fifteen miles a day is technically do-able. But do I want to do that? It’s quite a chunk out of my day. Yesterday I ended up doing 18,884 steps, which felt like a walk in the park compared to 30,000, and a lot more reasonable. We’ll see if the rest of the top group feels the same way soon, or if I’ll be left in the dust.
Last Friday was a momentous day – Chris became a naturalized US citizen. It was quite moving seeing the 50+ other people there with their families (and in some cases the entire family were becoming citizens at the same time). People from all over the world whose life paths somehow brought them all to the same court house in Cleveland, Ohio on this day. The culmination of lifelong dreams for many of them. I will never forget the feeling of that morning.
The hummingbirds will soon be all gone for the year. As it is, there seem to be only a couple left: two immature males who are in the process of molting (in the photos above you can see the lost/new feathers). I imagine they will be on their way after the process is complete. In the three years that I have been photographing hummingbirds I have never witnessed any of them in the process of molting, and I must admit it looks a bit freaky to me, lol.
On Friday I will be flying to Providence, Rhode Island for a celebratory long weekend with my BFF Beth – we met on the first day of school in 4th grade and immediately became friends. 50 years later we are still friends. I am so excited for this trip. There will be visits to Italian bakeries. There will be self-guided walking tours all over Providence. There will be a boat tour of the Providence River. There will be pizza strips and Del’s lemonade. But most importantly, there will be plenty of time to visit with my oldest friend. We haven’t had a good, long, in-person visit in many years.
That will be my next post. In the meantime, take good care of yourselves.
I am a big fan of little books filled with many little essays describing things that bring joy or contentment. Ones already in my library are The Joy of Small Things by Hannah Jane Parkinson, Delight by J.B. Priestley, and Joy in the Little Things by Kerrie Hess. This summer I discovered a new addition to the genre, Things to Look Forward To by Sophie Blackall. I wrote here recently that I have a few trips I’m anticipating with great excitement, the first of which happens very soon. But there are some little things that I look forward to each and every day, so I thought I would share some of them here with you today:
Wordle – yes, I am one of the millions addicted to this little game. I love that you can only play it once a day and I love that a few people close to me also play it daily. “Have you played Wordle yet today?” is a common text between my friend Beth and I. Chris and I always use the same starter word (“adieu”) and so it’s fun to see the different paths we take each day after that first guess.
Worldle – Similar to Wordle in that you get six guesses. Different in just about every other way. Each day you are given an outline of a country or territory. With each guess that you make, you are given clues in the form of how many miles off you are and in which direction from your guess the correct country is. Beth and I also both do this one and are so pleased when we get the answer without the use of maps!
That first cup of coffee – On a work day I wait until I’m in the office to have that first cup and it is hilarious to me just how much I look forward to it. Such a lovely, lovely treat.
Having a moment to dip into whatever novel I’m reading – currently Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (loving it!)
That moment at the end of the work day when I can change into “play clothes” and relax
I nearly got up early this morning so that this post would be “Seven Mornings” – a full week. But, nah.
It struck me when looking at these photos that every day is unique. We go through life sometimes thinking it’s the same thing every day – same ol’ same ol’ – a sort of Groundhog Day vibe where we get up, go to work, come home, repeat. But no day is exactly the same as the one before it. The natural world we inhabit changes every single day. And we change too. Time travel is real, and we’re living it every single day of our lives.
Today is my birthday. I am 59 years old today. Nine years ago today I had no idea that I was soon to be diagnosed with a pretty significant case of breast cancer. Eight years ago today I was certain I’d never make it to fifty-nine. Yet here I am. And though I often find living this human life to be quite difficult, I am filled to overflowing with gratitude that I am still here.
I was thinking about the term “self care” this morning while I was on my Sunday hike. These days I walk at least 45 minutes every morning, and on Sunday morning my walk is a hike in one of the parks we are lucky to have nearby. I don’t always feel like putting my sneakers on each morning at 6 (later on the weekends), in fact about half the time I need to push back the “I don’t wanna” voice inside me. One hundred percent of the time, though, I feel wonderful during and after my walk. The “I don’t wanna” voice can also crop up at a restaurant when I have already decided earlier in the day that I would have the arugula salad with chicken but the people with me are getting pasta and meatballs, or when I am at the grocery store on a Friday after work and turn away with some effort from the margarita mixes.
I’m finding that, for me, self care is not so much the pampering of massages, mani/pedis, and bubble baths. Instead it is the hard work done every day to keep my mind and body as strong as they can be. It is clawing my way back from bad patterns and habits that never made me feel good (hello, pretzels and chocolate, I’m talking about you). Self care is telling my inner 5-year-old that a dish of chili pistachios will “ruin your dinner,” because the parent in me knows the child in me will not stop at that one “little dish” of nuts. Marcus Aurelius said, “The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.” I think in order to truly take care of ourselves we need that aspect of unflinching assessment of who we are and what we really need. I know that in order to feel mentally well, I need to feel physically strong. Sweets, junky food, alcohol, being sedentary – none of these things work for me in the long run. I will have the occasional (less than once a month on average) glass of wine or margarita, but honestly they make me feel like crap the next day – even one glass so that will most likely go by the wayside as well. I am truly a work in progress and always will be, but I feel like I’m on the right track whenever I address the physical aspect of my being.
I’m including my morning walk playlist just for fun. I have Apple Music and there are many curated playlists with titles like, “Sunday Brunch”, “Family Drive”, or “Yard Work”. I found a playlist called “Feeling Happy” that has 100 songs on it and whittled it down to 15 songs that energize me when I’m walking up that hill (apologies to Kate Bush) for the 10th time. I have to say that very few of these songs are ones that I would listen to when not exercising, but they do get me going.
I had my third infusion last week for my bones – three out of six, halfway there. I’ve started taking a Vitamin K2 supplement along with my daily calcium supplement (I try to get about half of my calcium from actual food though). I’m not a big fan of supplements in general because I think they tend to overdo it – why do I need 6000% of the daily recommended allowance of some nutrient? The key should be in the name: it’s supposed to supplement not supplant the nutrients we get in our food. Vitamin K2, however, isn’t in a wide variety of foods – it can be found in egg yolks, fermented foods, cheeses, and some other animal sources. The supplement I have started taking (Amazon link here) has 83% of the daily value for K2. I feel good about that.
Chris and I have been watching “Doc Martin” these days. Neither of us had seen it before, so we’re starting with season one and working our way through the 9 seasons out there. I quickly became addicted – I just love everything about it. We’re also watching “Murder in Suburbia” – we do like a nice, gentle murder mystery, and this fits the bill. This week we also started watching a fascinating multi-part documentary called “Light and Magic.” It follows George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic company from its earliest days – the first two episodes cover how a team of honestly brilliant artists and cameramen (no women, alas) figured out how to create the groundbreaking special effects for the first Star Wars movie. Now, I’m not a big Star Wars fan, but I do love watching stories of incredibly talented and creative people (whether they be artists or engineers or scientists) overcoming challenges. It’s so inspiring.
Hello there, friends. Tomorrow is August 1st. Children in Ohio go back to school in August and I’ve been told Halloween candy can now be found on grocery store shelves. Yikes! I don’t have much to say this week but wanted to post some hummingbird photos. My latest plan is to try to put a blog post up once a week whether I have much to say or not. So there! 🙂 I hope you have had a lovely weekend and have something fun planned for the coming week.
It’s baby deer time and oh my goodness they are so adorable. I took the top photo this morning, standing in my driveway looking across to my neighbor’s yard. And yes, that is the sidewalk running between the two fawns. They were just hanging out while their mother foraged in the garden, sometimes munching on a mouthful of grass. They did not seem afraid of me, but did jump up and dance around a bit when a car drove by.
We have an abundance of chipmunks this year. Some might say an overabundance – I’ve found that many people view them as pests! But gosh, they are just so cute! I love watching them. For several days we also had a skunk in our back yard in the evenings, the only wildlife around here that I am actually afraid of as I’ve never been skunk sprayed and I’d like to keep it that way.
I’ve been trying to add a layer of difficulty to my morning walks by doing repeats of a bridge that goes over some unused train tracks (I wish I could do repeats of the hills in my little park at the end of the street, but at 6am that’s not an option as the park is deserted at that time of day). The timing of my walks has been perfect to catch some gorgeous sunrises.
The hummingbirds continue to be very active, but I didn’t take many photos last week. I just didn’t have the time or patience to sit around waiting for them to show up. I know they’ll only be around for another 6 or 7 weeks, though, so I’ll make some time this week.
Hello friends! It’s still technically Sunday morning as I write this, but it feels like this morning has stretched out loooooong for me, in the very best way. Woke up before my 8:00am alarm, headed immediately out to hike my favorite park (thunder showers predicted for the afternoon), a leisurely breakfast after, reading some of my new book, a couple coffees. I missed catching my daisies at their peak beauty, darn it, but I wanted to document them here anyway.
What have I been up to? I just finished a book that I loved. It is called “Still Life” and was written by Sarah Winman (Goodreads description here). I had accidentally happened upon the book as I thought I might reread the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny, and the first book in the Gamache series is called “Still Life.” I’m still reading all of my books on my iPad, checked out from our metro library system. I find it so very convenient being able to check a book out from the library at 10pm on a Sunday if I have a mind to, and never having a book go overdue (the checkout simply expires when the time is up). I also love the ease of getting my name on a waiting list for a book and being notified by email when it becomes available, then just opening up the app to download. No human interaction required! Which could be part of the problem in our world today…Currently I’m reading a book called “This Time Tomorrow” by Emma Straub. It involves time travel which I’m usually into 100% but I actually preferred the trajectory of the story before the time travel element was introduced. We’ll see.
My latest little mini-hobby is making freeze pops and I’m having a blast! I’m sure there must have a been a version of them in your childhood no matter where you grew up – like a popsicle (ice lolly for you Brits) but in a plastic tube. I bought a package of 200 empty zip-lock tubes from Amazon and I’ve been experimenting with flavors ever since. So far I’ve made watermelon/strawberry, watermelon/cherry, tangerine/coconut milk, and pineapple/coconut milk. I use fresh and frozen fruit only – adding only a packet of stevia to the ones I think need an extra boost of sweetness. I blast the ingredients in my nutribullet and use a funnel to fill the tubes. If you feel so inclined, hereis the link for the tubes I bought. They are of good quality and the zip-lock works easily with no leakage. The funnel that is included is a bit fiddly, however, and I use my own.
Work is good – we’ve officially gone to a hybrid arrangement where people can choose to work up to three days a week from home. I’ve decided for the moment to work only one day a week from home. I like the office. I like having a clear delineation between my work environment and my home environment. But I also like to wear whatever I want one day a week and drink coffee from my own coffee maker. 🙂
I love the saying that to be happy one must have someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. I have so many people that I love. I am just bursting with love for all the dear people in my life. I have plenty to do – my job, my photography, reading, enjoying nature. And I have some lovely things to look forward to. At the end of next month I fly to Connecticut to spend time with family; in September I fly to Providence for a long weekend with my bff Beth (during which we will walk a lot, eat yummy food and celebrate/reflect upon our 50 years of friendship – that will be a blog post all of its own!); in October there will be a wedding and other adventures in London with Chris; and in the first part of 2023 there will be a two-week trip to New Zealand where my step-daughter Chloe and I will cause all sorts of trouble.
I had originally included a paragraph here about my anxiety and how I’m dealing with it (pretty well, with the help of Zoloft and lots of exercise in nature) – I think I included it to push against the “shiny, happy people” aspect of social media or other online presences. I don’t ever want to suggest that I live the perfect life or am perfectly happy (hashtag “I love my life!”) – I feel like that aspect of social media is completely toxic, and I don’t ever want to be a part of it. I don’t want anyone to ever look at my life portrayed here and feel that their life is lacking in comparison, because I myself did that so much when I participated in Facebook and Instagram. I think, though, that if you’ve been reading this blog for a while you realize that I have stuff to deal with just like you. I am an incredibly privileged person compared with much of the world and my “stuff” is decidedly of the first world variety but when it’s your own stuff it looms large. But deal with it I do, and amidst dealing with it I also like to share with you lovely people some of the beauty that I find around me.
As I said in my previous post, most of my photos of hummingbirds are immediately deleted. Every now and then, however, I get lucky. I think this is an immature male (in the third photo from the top you can see a pattern of gray feathers on the gorget (throat) which will turn red during his first winter (fun fact: average lifespan of a hummingbird is 5 years). I just love how different he looks when he ruffles his feathers.
I’m doing well. Listening to music, reading, safely soaking up a little sun each day, reveling in the ease of summer. We bought a “smart scale” last week which is motivating me to hit the gym again after a month or so away. Our wall of daisies is almost at its peak (next post). I visit Sam and Pokey about once a week in their new digs. I’ve worked from home for the past two weeks as there has been major construction where I work. Next week I go back in, and I have mixed feelings about that. Mostly I’m looking forward to going back. I like having a clear demarcation of “work” and “home.” I like to leave work at the end of the day and not have any reminders of it until I clock in the next morning. Still, there’s just something about the comfort of home that is hard to leave each day.
