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The fair returned, last month, to celebrate the harvest season.

We missed the one at the beginning of the growing season; we did not go to this one, either. Gabi went with Liz’s parents. (Better them than us.) Not that we do not enjoy a country fair, we do. It is just too darned cold once the sun goes down.

That was just the beginning of October. Cannot wait to know how cold the rest of the winter season becomes. Yikes.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: at the time of my typing this, it is eleven degrees Celsius here.

Again.

I have spent several hours, over the last forty eight, repotting most of the newest plants- again.

Most of the beautiful, tiny little succulents have drowned, and are gone. The few that are left, the medium sized ones, while still alive, are all looking a bit ……. unhappy.

I have taken the few succulents that were left in the pretty terracotta looking bowl, (I will have to find something else to put in that. Cacti, maybe. Hmmm.) and planted them, individually, in real terracotta pots. They need to be watered from the bottom up; set in an aluminum tray with water for fifteen minutes, then removed.

Evidently, they prefer to be watered from the bottom, not the top. Soak the roots, then let the whole thing dry out before doing this again. I do not remember reading that bit of information when I was researching them. Damn.

I also divided, and repotted the three small Birds Nest Snake plants that were growing in the same, small pot. Now, they each have a pot to

Live in!!! (That was funny. Admit it.)

I also have a Monstera Deliciosa, (Swiss Cheese plant), and a Schefflera, (umbrella plant) thriving, finally. Why, you ask? Because they are growing in water, so I cannot drown them. Yay!!!

I do believe that is all of this morning; I have loads of laundry that require my immediate assistance. For whatever reason, they cannot take are of themselves- go figure!

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I must tell you that, when sliced, and cooked over simmering olive oil, peppers and onions are, truly, Heaven sent.

Whenever we get the chance to go to a grocery store, I try to buy three, or four, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, and, two medium to large white onions. After we get them home, I slice them, put them in a large fry pan, with about a quarter cup of olive oil, then simmer them, covered, on a low flame, for about forty five minutes, sometimes an hour.

I set the timer on my watch so I do not forget to stir them, as I am not interested in burned peppers. I cover them for the first thirty minutes, or so, then uncover them once they have started “melting”, is what I call it. It is when they get all soft, and pliable, and smell Heavenly.

The oil is not meant to fry the veg; it is there to carry the flavor of the combined peppers, and onions, when they are used in the near future. I gently salt them, too, but only a bit. I do not know in what way I will be using them, and do not want to risk of them being being too salty, and, therefore, ruining the end result.

This morning, I fried a corn tortilla, and put a large tablespoon of the combo, the same tablespoon of some black beans I made recently, then the leftover eggs and chorizo I made yesterday. The peppers, and onions, took the leftovers to a whole new level.

Maybe I will make another one. Hmmm.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

There are so many things that he needs to know; if I die tomorrow.

He does not listen to me; he does not think it is necessary. He does not want to think I could possibly go before him.

We are all mortal; we will all die; eventually. We have lived our lives, until this moment, together; never thinking we will be separated; divided; one, without the other.

There are so many things here, in the apartment, on the internet, in our lives, that he has no idea how to access. He has no idea how to …

He does not know how to find the bank balances, or, the credit card balances/monthly payments, etc. He does not know how to clean the toilets; how to change the batteries in the thermometer we use for cooking; how to change the time on the bedroom clocks, or the oven. He has no idea what medication he takes daily. He cannot fold his socks, underwear, or tee shirts. He will miss me if I die tomorrow. But,

I

will miss him more.

We live our lives as though we will be here for years to come; maybe we only have days, or weeks, or months. None of us has any idea what time will be given to us. We need to take each moment, grab whatever it gives us, and thank the good Lord for it. It will be all we have.

Please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

We are here, at the beginning of our lives together. This was before our prom dance in 1972. Notice that we both h have hair.

Who would have thought that eating a chunk of ham could be so good?!

No, I am not talking about those thin, insipid slices of ground up, smashed together, then sliced, pieces of lunch meat; I am talking about a chunk of ham, from a larger chunk of ham.

As I told you, we were able to buy more ham the last time we were at Costco. As I was cutting it up, to be vacuum sealed, then frozen for later consumption, an occasional piece accidentally broke off from the whole. Well, one cannot place that small(ish) piece in with the rest; it just would not be the correct thing to do. (That is my excuse. You have to come up with your own.)

As I have started feeling a bit better, though my energy tank is, once again, on the low side, I try not to use up my reserves. I was unable to go to the market the other day, as I had hoped, though, I am hoping to be able to go tomorrow. It drains me just thinking about the walk.

It is only five hundred fifty meters to the Plaza, and the same to return, but, when I am not excited about walking, it feels like fifty kilometers. That is what it feels like today. I can wait until I have more in my reserves. We will eat what we have. Now, that is a novel idea!! For me, anyway.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Do not go near the Pecan Pralines from Costco!

Addiction precaution! One bite of these, even for those of us that prefer salty, dead animal protein type foods, is one bite too many. They are worse than Lays potato chips. You cannot eat just one. Trust me.

Ivan bought these, “just to try them”. Right! Fortunately, for me anyway, they are up on a shelf, in the kitchen, that, for me, requires a step stool to reach. I try not to go near that cupboard, and definitely not to that shelf.

When they are sitting out on the counter, however, that is an entirely different matter altogether. I am compelled to put about a dozen in a small custard dish, eat one, then go about my business, coming back every so often to grab another one.

When the bowl is empty, I have had my fix.

Until the next time. 😉

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Do NOT buy the Pralines. You have been warned!

I have a lot planned for today; how much I can accomplish is yet to be seen.

Cleaning out, and, rearranging the freezer, is to be the beginning of the foray. Next, I will try to make some lovely salsa roja, then freeze it, in pint sized portions; provided there is the requisite space in said freezer. After that, it is anyone’s guess. I was going to peel, slice, and freeze the papaya we bought; we had almost a full half of it for breakfast. Job well done.

There are a couple of different salsas I wish to make; some to freeze, and, one to leave fresh. I also need to peel, cut, seal, and freeze part of a medium sized jicama we bought. I am just hoping that it will freeze well.

After that, there is the ubiquitous laundry to be done. (There is that word again. What does it mean?) It seems to be a never ending chore in this apartment; clothes needing to be taken care of. Where is the maid?

Only one more thing on my LOTTDT*- cut up, seal, and freeze the chunk of ham we bought. Costco has been making me crazy(er) these past few months. I just get used to buying a lovely chunk of ham, approximately two to two and a half kilos, once a month, and boom, they do not have it for two months. I decided that they had to make room for all of the Christmas stuff.

Oh. Before that, however, was the Kerrygold™ (Irish) butter!! They had it, for months, then- gone. What? So this time, when we went, they had both the ham, and, the butter; we bought both. Now, I have to preserve the beauties. Who knows if there will be any more before the holidays!?!

In the meantime, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

* List Of Things To Do Today 😉

I had forgotten to show you some of the things we undertook, before the head colds hit us.

I finally found the correct name for this beauty; its common name is Piggyback plant, and the botanical name is something quite different. I will be right back. I have to look it up; again. Tolmiea Menziesii. That was not easy to remember. I have moved it all around the living room, however, now, it resides on the top shelf, where it can begin cascading out of its container. Lovely.

Chiles en escabeche, or chiles in vinegar. The yellow chiles are called Cubanos, and are closely related to the Habanero. If one removes all of the black seeds from the chile, it is quite edible in this form. If one does not, it is only edible by those that enjoy scalding heat. Not interested. Which reminds me that I have to go make more. This jar, though quite attractive, is, also, quite empty at present.

This is one of the results of my latest batch of pineapple flavored Kombucha. It tastes delicious. This, the Flor de Jamaica, mango, and blueberry are the ones I will continue to make for the next little while. The second fermentation goes so well with those fruits.

Lastly, we hung up the iron bars we bought, and I filled them with my heavy cookware. It freed up quite a bit of cupboard space, and in this small kitchen/pantry, every inch needs to be purposeful.

That is if for follow ups today. I will look through my photos as I continue to recover, and see what else I need to share. Thanks for stopping by.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Who would have thought that watching a young Polish man on YouTube, could be so addictive?

This kid takes hidden beauties, old rugs, and carpets, that have been used God-only-knows-where, cleans them up, and makes them look as if they were just purchased. Really!!! Look at these.

Those are minimal. Look at these.

Look at the fringe. Crikey

Lastly, because you need to go watch him for yourself, here is a filthy carpet that he, unfortunately, only shows a few squares of when it was finished. A shame, really. I would love to have seen the whole carpet, in all of its glory.

He has hundreds of hours of video, and his channel is called Lubuskie Centrum Czystości. Just look up Polish rug cleaning, and you will find him. The background music is spa-like, the slow motion sludge is really neat, and he has almost a half million subscribers watching this stuff. It is hypnotizing. I put it on when I want to relax, or knit, or go to sleep. Let me know what you think.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones. Please.

Ok. One more carpet; in case you were not convinced.

This time I got to do some rearranging; unlike YKW, who rearranges something daily.

I swear, the more he rearranges, and replaces these things into that tote, the more things go missing. Do not tell him that though; he is finding it out for himself. The hard way. However, I must say, he is making this mess into a more organized chaos. It is becoming quite livable here. Thank you honey.

We spend hours, every week, looking for something that was in this tote last week, but now, when we all of a sudden need it, it is nowhere to be found.

Luis came by, the other day, with the glass we ordered for our living room shelves. As I told him, it probably does not make a bit of difference to anyone else, but it does to us. That is all that matters.

I hope you can see the glass on the two smaller shelves. We think it adds so much to the few items we have displayed. There are so many things we have picked up on our adventures together, but cannot show here; they are all amazing, believe me. We have been many places, and have seen some truly wonderful things in our fifty years together. Hopefully, we will be able to continue that journey for many years to come.

Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.