Walking Is Work

 I recently had to fill out a survey for my medical provider, Kaiser Permanente. I guess I am supposed to be doing 30 minutes of brisk walking about five days a week. 

So let's see, how am I doing this week? Monday I did my long PT program, did a little house work, and the laundry. I had an appointment in the afternoon to get a referral for a cyst on my finger and I got a flu shot. I came home and rested, then made dinner, then did 30 minutes on my stationary bike before planting myself in my chair for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday I got up, always a job in itself, had a Zoom meet up, and then we went to the nearby Highline Botanical Garden to scope it out because we are supposed to guide our garden group there on the 27th. I took photos which I'll share in a bit. We walked about a mile. I finished my PT and did another 30 minutes on the stationary bike. I rested and worked puzzles and read the paper and made dinner, and was tired and back in my chair for the evening. 

Today is Wednesday. We got up late. I did my long PT, then went to the park to walk a mile. It takes me 30-35 minutes to walk a mile, not exactly brisk. I was beat, but I kept going after a short sit to talk to Tom on the patio. I harvested basil from the garden and chopped it up to freeze. Then thankfully it was time for a a long lunch, reading the paper and working puzzles. Now  I am sitting at the computer catching up on blogs and writing a post of my own. I am physically tired and won't do much until it is time to make dinner. 

I do my best to get enough exercise, but "brisk" walking is no longer an option. I don't think those guidelines exactly fit a person 81 years of age who has been as chopped up by joint and spine surgeries as many times as I have, or who has to use a walking stick to keep from falling over. 

So, yeah, I try, and then I take photos and enjoy beauty wherever I find it.

Amazing old trees in this Japanese garden.

And now it's time to move to my chair to work my on line puzzles. Brain exercise, you know. 

Sauce, Seahawks, and Settings

I forgot spiders. 

There are spider webs everywhere now, fine filaments stretching across anyplace that I walk outside. This photo was taken through the family room window. Fortunately I have not run into anything like that on my person. 

On Saturday I made more tomato sauce using the next picking of Roma tomatoes. This is a photo from before. I didn't take photos this time.

The big basket full of tomatoes made a good pot full of sauce, reduced down more this time, and seasoned with chopped fresh oregano, salt, and then fresh chopped basil later. I put the pot full of sauce in the refrigerator for overnight, because I had plans for it on Sunday. I decided on Friday that it was time to get this family of mine all in one place for a sit down dinner and a sharing of stories of what's been happening.

Sunday is Seahawks football day and Jill has season tickets. She and Jake were going to the game. Through the next 24 hours I got everyone to check in on line and managed to get everyone to commit to dinner here after the game.

Tom and I spent time Sunday prepping for the family event. The photos of the table settings are the only pics I took. You'll have to imagine Jill, Jake, Isaac, Irene, Tom and I in the chairs at dinner time. 

Irene picked up Jill and Jake at the light rail station after the Seahawks game, which they lost at the very end. Isaac came from work at Boeing. He's working all of the extra time he can.

As they arrived they dug into a platter of Caprese salad with home grown tomatoes. 

Dinner was a great big bowl of spaghetti with my homemade sauce, all of it, green salad with fresh picked cherry tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese bread. I thought there would be left overs but the kids just kept eating and eating. They liked that sauce so much that they spooned out what was left in the bottom of the bowl until there was nothing left!

We had good sharing of Jake's trail maintenance outing in the mountains, Jill's first week back at school, Isaac's chance to watch salmon spawning while getting his car window replaced, and Irene's more detailed account of her five days kayaking in the San Juans as part of her class. She got very high marks on her evaluation, by the way.

Irene brought a cake that she created using bits and parts of recipes and a little of that and this. She is a creative baker. It was very good, served with Tillamook ice cream. 

It was a very good "command performance". I don't very often expect all of them to "Be There!", but I am very glad that I did. It gave me the warm glow and uplift that I needed, and it looks like they were happy too. The sure ate like they were. :-)

 

Blooming

 The Brugmansias (Angels Trumpets) that were mostly in bud in my last post are now in full bloom.

It's Friday evening and I just walked down the driveway to get the mail. The heady fragrance of their perfume filled the air. 

This one is right by the gate to the  driveway. 

Yesterday I raked up all the the fir cones off the driveway that had fallen from this very large Douglas Fir. It all looks tidy again, at least until the next wind storm.

More Brug  blooms:

Sitting on the patio, I enjoy the complexity of the plants in the "Danger Garden".

Yesterday I finally took time to revisit my "throne". I sat and read there for a while, and then I was compelled to take more photos. 

The garden is looking pretty good for late summer. Tom and I, Tom more that I, have both been doing some trimming and cleaning up, getting our exercise and fulfilling our need to "get our hands in the dirt". 

Now as evening falls, we will soon see the bright orange moon peaking through the trees. We are having a lot of smokey air from wild fires west, east, and north of us. The sun in the day casts a smokey golden glow and the moon at night is a bright orange ball of almost fullness. 

We're having a cooldown starting tomorrow. Will there be thunder storms? We shall see. 

Back To The Ordinary

 With the Labor Day weekend behind us, we are settling into September. 

  I picked flowers for new bouquets.

We made a bit of good trouble on Labor Day.

Our daughter Jill went back to work today, part time PE teacher and part time district Health and PE Coordinator.  

We have been retired for 20 years now but I still get a bit of that feeling of melancholy that summer is over. Summer always meant freedom.

Of course we have all the freedom we need now, and do our best to keep busy. This morning we both worked in the garden. Tom does heaver stuff than I manage, but by 12:30 we were both hot and tired and ready for a long lunch break. Now it's 81 outside and I am inside, already getting my mosquito bite for this day. One is enough. Maybe we'll take an evening walk. 

Tom picked tomatoes.

There will be tomatoes and cottage cheese for lunch, Caprese salad or sliced tomatoes for dinner, and once is a while tomato sandwiches. 

Tom is very proud of his Brugmansias (Angels Trumpets). Each fall he takes cuttings from that summer's plant, discards the old plant and grows the cuttings in the greenhouse. The spring we decided to keep two plants, which started about about a foot tall. Now look!

Soon all of those buds will be open, emitting a lovely sweet fragrance as the evening cools.

Summer doesn't end until the calendar says so. We'll work a little, relax a little, read, spend time with friends, and stay informed. We'll find TV to watch in the evenings. It's all good.