Move 2008 and the County Fair
Posted: August 26, 2008 Filed under: canning & freezing, Emma, family, festivals, Firsts, food, goals, grandparenthood, Harvest, health, home, Move2008, strength training, Summer, Walking, weather, yoga | Tags: Randolph Fair 3 Comments(Morning ablutions at the county fair.)
Time for another look at how the mileage and Move 2008 are going.
Could be better, but all things considered, I’m doing ok. I had some pain last week (back, hips, and shoulder) from an almost-fall, and that slowed me down a little.
Here are the stats:
- Mileage for the week: 12.535 miles
- Total for the year: 717.825 miles
- Strength training: x2
- Yoga: x3
I’m feeling better so I should be able to pick up the mileage this week.
You may (or may not) have noticed that Body For Life is on the list of what I’m currently reading. I intend to start the 12-week program on September 22nd. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll have to tweak things a little to suit my lifestyle and my fitness level, but nothing major.
The Exquisite Emma and her parents came for a visit this weekend. As always, I enjoyed seeing them. I can’t believe how big Emma is getting! She’s lost that toddler look and is beginning to look very much like a girl instead of a baby.
Sunday morning Emma and I went out to my garden where she got to look at the empty robin’s nest, pick some tomatoes and flowers, and rub her hands across the asparagus ferns (she said they’re soft). She brought her camera with her and took some photos of the Queen Anne’s Lace and the Black-Eyed Susans. We walked down to the sunflowers so she could take a few photos of those, too. Then she helped me fill the birdbath and water the flowers out front.
That may not sound like everyone’s idea of a good time, but I certainly enjoyed every moment of it. It was nice to have her there for company, and to spend a little time in the garden showing her the vegetables and flowers.
After Emma and I finished our trip around the yard, we all hopped into the car and headed to the Randolph Fair. It’s a good thing we went early as the day heated up quickly and by the time we left (near 2:00pm, I believe) we had all just about melted.
I have lots of photos from the fair, but little space for the month left in my Flickr account so the photos may have to wait until next month (or maybe I’ll figure out how to resize them on my own so I can get them posted before that). As you can see from the above photo, they were celebrating 150 years of fairdom.
I entered a jar of my pickled hot cherry peppers. I didn’t get so much as an honorable mention, but I was expecting that since this was my first entry. It gave me a chance to look over the other peppers, especially the winning jars, and now I know what the judges are looking for and will alter my methods accordingly. The jar of peppers I entered wasn’t what I really wanted to enter because the peppers were sliced rather than whole or cut in halves. But we’d already eaten or given away the peppers that were halved before I thought about entering so I went with what I had available. The judges seem to prefer whole peppers. That’s cool. I have admit: They are prettier that way.
I forgot to post this yesterday. And forgot where I was headed after the pickled peppers. That’s ok. It’s tomato season now and I have plenty to keep me busy for at least today.
Words and food
Posted: August 15, 2008 Filed under: canning & freezing, food, Harvest, home, Move2008 5 CommentsClick for a larger view. (Clicking will take you to another website. Hit the back button to come back. I know most of you know how to do that, but I also know that one or two of my readers might not because they’re not yet internet savvy.)
I was visiting Bookbabie and she had a link to Wordle so I thought I’d go over and play. Above is the word cloud generated from Life in the Bogs. Pretty cool.
I always enjoy new toys. 🙂
I’m once again way behind on my Move 2008 stats. That’s because there isn’t much to report lately. The beginning of harvest season is here and I’m spending most of my time in the kitchen prepping vegetables for canning and freezing.
The harvest count so far:
- 17 lbs. of broccoli, blanched and frozen
- 1/2 bushel yellow wax beans, blanched and frozen
- 1 gallon of salsa made from a large portion of the peck of tomatoes I bought, almost gone because we’ve been enjoying/eating it
- 1 peck of Hungarian sweet peppers chopped and frozen in quart-size bags
Tomorrow I’ll be picking up another peck of green bell peppers for freezing. I’m not sure if I’ll be getting tomatoes or not. Depends on how they look.
I’ll leave you for now with a photo of the yellow wax beans. They sure are pretty.
Too bad the camera didn’t quite capture all their yummy goodness and color. (As usual, click on the photo for a larger view.)
Have a good weekend! 8)
Briefly
Posted: August 8, 2008 Filed under: thinking out loud | Tags: 2008 Olympics Leave a commentThe opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics have been, so far, amazing. Spectacular. Dazzling.
And a little bit… Orwellian.
But there’s been a lot of that Orwellian feel going on during the past eight years in the country where I live so it’s possible that’s influencing me more than a little.
Beautiful day
Posted: August 8, 2008 Filed under: Empty Nest, fall, family, home, NaBloPoMo, Summer 2 Comments(Today’s view of the pond.)
I normally upload my photos to Flickr or Photobucket and link to them, but I thought I’d give uploading to WordPress a try. You can click on the photo for a larger view.
We’ve had an unusual August cool down. Storms moved through last night. Once the rain moved past we were left with cooler and drier air. Summer may not be over yet, but it sure feels as though autumn is on its way. Even the birds are feeling it. They’re beginning to flock and chow down on everything in sight, getting ready for their migrations.
As you can tell, I gave up on NaBloPoMo for the month of August. I think I’ll save myself for November. It’s easier to keep up with that sort of thing in the winter (or verging on winter) months.
I spent a week home alone while M the Elder and M the Younger headed west to get M the Younger settled into his new apartment and new job. It sounds as though M the Younger will enjoy Colorado (is enjoying, I should say, as he’s been there over a week now). M the Elder returned home on Tuesday. After a grand reunion, life is now settling back into normal mode.
The house has these empty spots now that M the Younger has left. It doesn’t feel as full as it used to. I went through this a few years ago when we had a practice run at empty-nesting. MTY had moved into the dorm at college and even though he wasn’t far away, we thought that might be it, that the final bird had left the nest. But life took us on another path and, a couple years later, we asked MTY to move back home to take care of the house and property while we were off on our sabbatical adventures. (The commute to the university is only about 20 minutes from here.) He stayed after our return as we all thought he might as well save up some money during his final year in college rather than spend it on rent.
The first time MTY left we were faced with what all empty-nesters must face: Who are we now? You spend all these years — 18 at least for each child, and we had our children 10 years apart — being somebody’s parent. A lot of your life is wrapped up in this endeavor. When they leave, you are still their parents, but when they all leave you find that parenthood as you knew it has come to an end and it’s now time to be a parent on a new and different level as well as be a person in your own right, no longer wrapped up in that role of Mother or Father. It’s an exhilarating feeling — Freedom! Scary, too, because it’s a beginning as well as an ending.
I suppose this is the point where some marriages fail. I can see how that might happen, especially if the only commonality in the marriage is the children and holding it together for their sake.
When M the Elder and I married, my father gave me a piece of advice that I believe helped with this phase of life. He said that I should love my children, but put my marriage and my husband first because children grow up and leave, and then you’re left with just each other. It’s advice that makes much more sense to me now that my children have grown up and left the nest.
I don’t know where I’m going with this post. Probably nowhere at the moment. Writing this did remind me of a post I wrote after MTY moved out the first time about the abandoned teddy bear. Perhaps I’ll dig it out and post it here.
In the meantime, I have some weeding to do and should probably get to it. The weather here is gorgeous, and the garden awaits.
8)
Move 2008 — Week 31
Posted: August 4, 2008 Filed under: goals, health, home, Move2008, strength training, Summer, Walking, yoga Leave a commentI’m still moving, but have not been doing a good job of keeping track (or updating, obviously). To top things off, I’m been feeling pretty run down for the past few weeks, something I only noticed when I began to get my energy back over the weekend. I’m assuming the anemia has been playing a role, and the iron supplements kicked in on Saturday, thus making me feel better.
Anyhow.
Here’s the stats for last week:
- Total for the week: 18.00 miles
- Total for 2008: 668.22 miles
- Strength training: x1
- Yoga: x3
Now that my energy is back, I should be able to improve on that this week.
🙂