I think I may begin posting old art and music again. Should be fun. :)
I'm still trying to minimize our posessions. Even my email box was horribly clogged. I had 124 emails on my private account. Most of them were from nonprofits. During grad school I did a newsletter signup frenzy. I must have been lonely or something! I unsubscribed to almost all of them. Wow! What a difference. Our house is also filled with things we can't seem to say no to. Gifts from family, my mom sends me boxes of junk. Last night I made a list of things I want vs things I need. Need: Clothing, food, shelter. Medicine and cleaning products. Safety items (phone, flashlight) That doesn't sound like a lot until you remember that clothing alone is shoes, shirts, fall coats, winter coats, boots, gloves, jogging clothes, agh! Want: Art and supplies, amenities, furniture, books, cat toys, modest decor, some electronics. Girly things. That is still a lot of stuff, and it doesn't even include sentimental things. Very hard to choose. On a somewhat unrelated note, I love this clothing site called Prana. They make great yoga clothes and they are partnered with Conservation Alliance, a wonderful nonprofit. And they don't brag about stuff. I love that.
Going to my favorite semi-local market today. Finding products that aren't wasteful gives me a raging migraine. Companies brag about all sorts of things that are weak or completely meaningless. Like "made from sustainable materials". Says who? Oh yeah, the company who makes the product. Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission has finally decided to step in. ABC news had a good story on the matter. As they point out in the story, a few good labels exist already. Terrachoice mentions Ecologo and Green Seal. Here's a quick and dirty eco-guide: ** Items that will be tossed in days or weeks are wasteful, period. The "biodegradeable" label is not regulated by law. Packaging should be minimal. **Plastic is evil. The end. Try glass or metal. **As our beloved Alton Brown says, we don't like Unitaskers. If you buy a glass bottle of milk, or whatever, think of ways you can Reuse the item. Put candies in it as a Christmas gift. That way you'll also avoid gift wrap for the holiday. **Paper can be biodegradeable, but habitat loss and deforestation are, in my opinion, the most serious environmental problem these days. Buy used furniture, use a cloth bag. Be happy and dance.
are written for things we hold dear to us in the community. Because fiddle tunes often last an eternity, their titles carry a little bit of community history with them. Like many great stories of the past, tunes and titles change and grow like fish tales as time goes on creating a life of their own. That's why you often see names like 'The Foggy Dew', 'O'er the Moore and among the Heather', or 'Jerry's Beaver Hat'. I would surly like to know the true story behind that hat!Anyways, here's a very simple little jig composed and played by yours truly
I'm still doing my photos but I always forget to post them. So to the week that was whenever it was.
This is a little bottlebrush that grows in our front yard. Its a pretty little thing. The flowers just curl out of the buds over a day or two.
Lol. This is something that I think Kimba made for me about 12 years ago. I sent them to pottery classes over one lot of school holidays and now I have all these strange pottery creations about the house. This one sits in the kitchen. Always gives me a smile.
One day I woke up, turned my calender and found this. It really wasn't enough information to know what I was meant to be doing. I can't remember what it turned out to be.
Bacon is always good.
Betty having a nanna nap
The cook at the old peoples home I volunteer at makes the most beautiful cakes. She has two lucky sons. I think Lloyd would have liked to have grown up in that kitchen.
And this was yummo. It was a strawberry/kiwi fruit salsa that we had with salmon fillets.
If you could only drink one beverage for the rest of your life (not including water), which one would you choose?
Well thats easy.
Wine. White. Sem/Sav/Blanc preferably. Wolf Blass is good. With ice. Although if Jem and I are out we go with the Pinot.
And in fact wine already is just about the one beverage I drink besides water. I have one coffee in the morning. Water through the day, then wine at night. I'm thinking of giving up the coffee though. I don't really enjoy it, I think I just have it out of habit.
I haven't had any wine since last Friday though. Because on Saturday I read that drinking a glass of wine is equivalent to eating a slice of bread. So I figure I ate about a loaf of bread on Friday night. I wish I could go back and never have read that. Because I find it disturbing. I don't even like bread. But I think I've just about put it far enough to the back of my mind that I'll be able to ignore it tonight.
And I wish they'd all stop harping on about how alcohol gives you breast cancer and mouth cancer and dementia and cellulite and wrinkles, because it ruins the whole drinking experience for me. Not enough to stop mind you.
I'm always surprised when people say they don't drink. Its all my parents fault I think. I seem to recall they were drinkers when I was growing up. Now they have drinks at lunch and before dinner. And my father has a wine fridge in his bathroom. He says you never know when you might get caught out.
One of Lloyds friends dropped around the other night and they shared a bottle of wine. Thats another thing. How they say on the label there are 7.bla glasses of wine in a bottle! They are obviously not using my wine glass.
Anyway Lloyd and Lauren were going to a fancy dress party and the theme was red. Laurens was in black with red red lipstick.
I did feel a little stalkerish taking photos of Laurens glass after she was gone. I was still finding lipstick on it a week later.
Had a lovely 1st of November walk in town last night. I had a latte to go in a reuseable mug that was black cat themed and on sale Post-Halloween. Folks were outdoors chatting. Ladies were in their pretty Fall jackets and long skirts.
I'm sort of in grad-school limbo, job searching. But I'm still super busy somehow. I'm in kind of a strange frantic mode. So I enjoy my town visits. Our area is unashamedly liberal. The bookstores have bumperstickers about goddesses and yoga, growing local and Earth conservation. And grassroots organizations.
I strolled around the local bookstore. I need a datebook and I have a list of fiction books to buy. Along with our other new-home features I think I'm going to need a study with tons of bookshelves. I have stacks of journals and sketchbooks.
I'm experimenting with other forms of art and I'm using stuff around the house like buttons. I might start a scrapbook. J thinks I should begin a comic strip. That sure would give me an excuse to spend a fortune at the local art supply store. I should go back to the cafe / bookstore and ponder all this.
I wish all you guys could join me! :)
I've been doing really well with my diet, and I've been sleeping better. Endorphin highs are great. I went jogging at my Lake on Saturday. The weather was amazing. It was humid and the sky was dark.
The rain cooled off my skin. Raindrops pattered on the orange and scarlet leaves that were carpeting the ground. The whole Lake was eerily quiet. Odd birds singing, and a pair of blue jays chasing each other!
Ring-billed gulls gather by the dozens this time of year, and I saw one that had a bright-green tag on its wing. Now I have to look up whom I call to report banded birds.
Running really clears my head. I'm able to solve problems while I jog.
Lovely weekend all around.
I have decided not to delve any further into the tinnitus situation for now. Even though it really can make some days bloody awful.
Main reason being that I'm fed up, and not in the mood, to get on that expensive, time wasting road of tests and specialists that seems to lead nowhere.
It all started a couple of years ago when I found a small lump in my breast one day. I went to the doctor, which lead to a mammogram, that lead to an ultrasound, that lead to them telling me it was just a cyst.
Then, my doctor decided that since I was over 40, I should have a full set of blood tests done. The one that they use to test for ovarian cancer came back at a high level. This led to a trip to the ultrasound place for an internal unltrasound, which is possible one of the most embarrassing yet humourous things I have ever had to go through. This led to a trip to the hospital for a laproscopy. This all led to nothing. Turns out there was no problem, some women just have elevated levels of whatever it is.
And then there was the Weird Undiagnosed Throat Thing. That remains undiagnosed. It started with a trip to the doctor, that led to an ultrasound, then on to the ENT guy who stuck a camera up my nose and down my throat, and finished with a barium swallow. All of this led to nowhere. Apparently I'm just making it up in my mind.
So. The tinnitus. I have been for a hearing test and I have some slight hearing loss so far. I was given a referral to another ENT doctor, but at the moment I just can't be bothered driving for an hour and a half, to sit in his waiting room for another hour and a half, then pay him a small fortune for him to tell me there's no cure anyway. I said to my doctor, well what will he tell me anyway that you haven't. And he said - he'll advise you.
Thats one problem with small town life. You have to drive to the big smoke to see any sort of specialist.
Maybe I'll look into it next year.
