Oh, The Folly in Everyday Ramblings

Same trees as last post, different day, different angle. We have frost this morning and it is just freezing. Most of the trees are bare. Our local department of transportation has a huge budget shortfall this year and so there won’t be municipal leaf pickup in many parts of the city, including mine.

My niece spent Thanksgiving with a group of brothers that were incredibly important to me as a teenager, friends of her mother, my sister. She says they all have long gray hair now as they are in their 70’s. I think it has been like 18 years since I have seen any of them.

Much to my surprise travel on Thanksgiving day itself was about as easy as it can get. For a time, I had the Business Class lounge at the train station all to myself. That never happens. And the bus home was quiet and early. And even more surprising it was a gorgeous clear day, cold but not as cold as it is now. Manageable.

It usually rains and is dreary. And I had the luxury, much appreciated of being picked up personally at both ends. I just had to take the bus to the train station, and I am glad I did that because the amount of suffering out there on the streets, while muted by the holiday was quite visible. I was happy not to be walking through it.

My mood is much better now. There are Christmas things to do and enjoy. I need to make cookies for my last League meeting of the year next Tuesday. We are having a board meeting Thursday for the Open Road to talk about film distribution and publishing Walt’s first book.

One of my students, she is in her 80’s, fell last week in of all places, circuit training class, (I feel for her teacher) and broke her hip. Her spirits are good, but she is in Rehab, and I am sure longs to be home with her cat. You do all the right things and still… She’s had a major bout of cancer and a recent knee replacement. She lost her partner cat a few months before we lost Diego. They were a matched pair as well, her cats. She took that loss hard.

It makes my heart hurt as so much does these days.

My niece and Miss E. are going to Dublin for Christmas. Easier for Miss E. as she is in New York but a long trip for her mother from Seattle. I hope things settle down in Dublin before they arrive.

I am happy to be staying home for the holiday, though I might spend the day with Kes and Most Honorable like I did Thanksgiving. I am taking that whole week off! I have missed two full days of yoga all year. It will be nice to have a break. Deadlift Club ends next week and then a break until January when my teacher is creating an 8-week program on core strength and mobility.

It is not like I don’t have anything to do besides all that. You know how some people get hooked into a hobby or craft and splurge on related things. I have managed in the last 18 months in getting a bit of a handle on my habit of buying yoga teacher trainings and then not getting through them but one other thing I can’t resist is books on vegetables.

I have this mistaken belief that if I look at beautiful pictures and read amazing recipes, I will live a vegetable forward focused life. I love them roasted and this is the perfect time for that. I already have a number of gorgeous books. But yesterday as a treat I ordered a new one (from England no less) called A Year Full of Veg: A Harvest for All Seasons. Ah, the folly.

Looking at the books is calming, and interesting. I saw someone on Gardeners’ World this season growing white eggplant and was surprised to learn that eggplant were originally white. Um, that is why they are called eggplants. I hope to try growing eggplant again this next year.

Growing things means starting things and to do that I need to tackle the boxes of stuff still hanging out in my living area from the displacement. You would think I could maybe do one box every few days, wouldn’t you? But it always seems like I have something more important to do. But with the holidays…there is a possibility, just a glimmer, a tiny bit of shine that I might make a dent.

I really want to get some good starts going for the garden next spring.