The joy of fresh farm eggs

My friend Erin gifted me a dozen eggs from her hens. The colours are amazing, from bronze to khaki to blue. My camera doesn't do them justice. Such variety in the world! Does the colour change the taste? No, but it gives me joy.

It's the same feeling when I grow my own dry cooking beans. So many varieties to choose from, hundreds if not thousands, but if you go to a grocery store, there are maybe 4 or 5 kinds on offer.

Conflicting Wants

We've been invited to a wedding up north, for which my husband will play the bagpipes. It's a four-hour drive and will include a two-night stay in beautiful cottage country, with kayaking and good food and friends. I'm excited about going and have been mentally packing for days.

At the same time, it means leaving my Velcro dog behind with my son. I know it won't kill him (or my son), but still, I've rarely been away from Brio, especially in the past five years since Covid. It also means leaving my garden, where tomatoes are still ripening and bean pods are still drying. Again, it won't harm anything to leave it for a few days. 

I love to travel and explore new places. I did a semester in Wales and I've gone to Italy a couple of times. I've been the the sub-Arctic and the American West. I've been to Hawaii multiple times. I dream of exploring the Maritimes, the Yukon, British Columbia. Further afield, I wish I could visit New Zealand and Ireland and Iceland. I keep my suitcase in my bedroom closet, where it's ready to snatch and go at a moment's notice.

I also hate leaving home. I dig my roots deep into my garden, I surround myself with my books and yarn and loom, and I feel I could snuggle down and never move an inch ever again. When I'm at home, I wish I were up at the church we're renovating, and when I'm at the church, I wish I were at home. The pull is so uncomfortable that I've considered selling one of the properties to avoid that conflict.

How to reconcile these two opposite attractions? Why can't I just be content being wherever I am? I think part of it is a control issue -- I micromanage everything, to my own irritation, and I want to be here making sure it all ticks along as it's supposed to. While I yearn for adventure, I also yearn for stability and comfort. So...

I'm going to try to practise being in the moment, right here, wherever I am. I don't have to choose which I like best, I can just enjoy whatever I'm experiencing right now. I tell myself this, but somehow it doesn't ever resolve itself.

A Productive Morning

Woke up, read my scriptures, watched my ASL lesson on YouTube, checked my messages, had homemade yogurt with oatmeal and blueberries for breakfast, walked the dog, shelled a bowl of dry beans, depodded a small amount of radish seed, did my finances and paid some bills, harvested and juiced wild grapes, picked tomatoes, harvested parsley and put in dehydrator, had toast and homemade apple jelly for second breakfast, picked tomatoes, harvested the last of the basil and made pesto, cleaned the kitchen, and chatted with Son #3 about a concert he attended. It's now 10:45 a.m. and I need to make the grape juice into jelly before my Homesteading Summit starts at noon (hosted by the School of Traditional Skills). While I watch that, I'll be working on my twining loom.

I love mornings like this.

Take Advantage of the Rapture

Still here? Didn't get taken up? Well, no one else needs to know that! Here's your chance, today only, to totally disappear from everything and everyone in your life, no questions asked! Change your name and skip town and start over somewhere else.

Turn this opportunity to your advantage!

Funny Juxtaposition

 Today my Facebook feed fed me two posts right next to each other. The first one was this:

followed immediately by:

and I can honestly say my brain has felt like both at different times today.

Culture Wars and Other Misunderstandings

 Term                            What I first think

Spin Class                    I should show up with my spinning wheel and a bag of wool

Gaslighting                  Old-timey London street lights

Pickleball                     People in tennis whites batting Kosher dills back and forth

Culture Wars                Yogurt-making competition

Delulu                          Coming from that print-on-demand site

Bussin                          Taking public transit

No Cap                          Hatless

Cash Grab                    An encounter with a pickpocket 

Doomscrolling            A papyrus copy of the Book of Revelation

What ones did you think meant something else?

Next Best Thing to Robert Redford

 An appropriate time to resurrect a recipe from my childhood: The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford

Layers:

First layer: 1 c. flour, 1/2 c. butter, 1/2 c. chopped pecans, 1/4 c. powdered sugar -- mix and press in a 9x13" pan. Bake at 350 for 15 mins and let cool.

Second layer: Mix 8 oz. cream cheese, 1 c. powdered sugar, 1 c. Cool Whip and spread on cooled first layer.

Third layer: Mix 2 small packages of instant pudding (one vanilla and one chocolate) with 3 c. milk, spread on top of 2nd layer.

Fourth layer: Spread whole thing with 1 c. Cool Whip.

Chill and serve. I've also seen this done with an Oreo type of crust. It's a heart attack in a pan and costs about $15 to make, so I've only ever made it once as an adult.

And finally, a true story from my youth: a friend of mine, M., was riding up the ski lift at Sundance with her friend. M. was going on about how she hoped to see Robert Redford there at Sundance and how much she liked him. They neared the top of the lift, the person in the chair in front of them got off and turned...and it was Robert Redford. Who had likely heard their giddy chatter all the way up the mountain.