Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

We have walked to the bank, where I am, at present, waiting outside, and, enjoying ever moment.

The air is fresh, and the sky is a beautiful turquoise blue, complete with sparse, yet, puffy white clouds. It is a moderate seventy five degrees Fahrenheit, twenty four degrees Celsius. What could be better?

This is my idea of a perfect day. Plus, we are out of the apartment, and getting some much needed exercise. I feel like we have awakened from comas, and are up, and about for the first time in a month. We really need to do this more often.

We are home now, and have just come downstairs from the living quarters of our friends, Jesús, Lizbeth, and their three year old son, Gabi. I do not know what else to call it, as it is just a room, (on the roof of the condo), about ten feet by ten feet, with a bathroom. The “kitchen” is in another, separate “room”, about five by five, which you can only get to by going out of their room, and, into an adjoining room; they are not connected. It has no windows. The walls, and floor are concrete, and the roof is corrugated tin.

There is just enough room for a full sized bed, that the three of them share, a regular sized dresser, with about six drawers, and a small chair.

The laundry is done outside, in their washing machine, which is up next to the wall of the back side of their living space. Everything is hung up to dry there, as well. The only window is in the bathroom. I do not know what I expected but that was not it.

In Los Altos, when their home is finished, it will have three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a large, eat-in kitchen, a dining room, and living room; if all goes as planned. It will be huge; not just in comparison to what they endure now, but to what anyone, here, has. It will have three livable levels, and it will be amazing. We cannot wait for it to be finished.

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

So many nights we have gone without much sleep; much interrupted sleep it has been.

Not so last night, by golly. Last night, for the first time since Los Altos, I, at least slept almost the entire night. Had a bit of help with my friend twenty five milligrams of Benadryl; that friend.

It rained, quite hard, for about twenty minutes, just before I went to bed, so I got to enjoy that. (Unfortunately, I only heard one clap of thunder, much to my dismay.) Once again, however, my jumpy legs had me up, walking the floor, a half hour later; only for about thirty minutes, though. Then, back to bed for the night. Wow. What a difference a nights sleep makes.

The plants all seem to be doing well, especially now, with the new grow lights. I have some different bulbs coming; these, it appears, are for starting seedlings, which I am not doing, at the moment. After the next new set of clamp on lamps arrives, I am going to try to sprout some Genovese basil, as well as chives, cilantro, dill, oregano, and sage. I bought the seeds, on line, from somewhere, some time in the winter, hoping for warmer weather, I guess.

We do have a bit of basil at the moment, but the leaves are very small, not like the Genovese basil, which is what I am used to. In fact, they look so much like the mint, that I planted a mint plant, and, the basil plant in the same pot, when they arrived last week, thinking they were two basil plants. I did not even notice until yesterday. It made me laugh.

They have been successfully separated, each having its own pot.

Yesterday, I decided to start rooting some cuttings from most of the herb plants, as well. It is called insurance. In spite of my best efforts, I feel the need, at the moment, to have backup, just in case I lose control of the watering can again. I mean, I have spoken with Ivan about not watering the plants so much that they drown.

That was funny. He does not have any idea what is happening in the jungle. He just knows that it makes me happy, to have all of these living things around us, helping us be happy, especially in this time of semi-self incarceration.

Again, we have not been out of the apartment for at least two, maybe, even, three weeks. It gets depressing, seeing the same stuff, day in, and, day out. But, as I have said before, at least we are alive to be bored. Always a plus in my book.

Well folks, it is that time again, when I beseech all of you to stay happy, stay healthy, and stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: happy birthday to my older brother, Eric. I absolutely cannot believe how old the four of us are getting.

For the first time in several months, (as you will know if you are “following the dream” with us,) I have had two, maybe three, nights of only slightly interrupted sleep. Yay.

Normally, we go to bed about eleven o’clock, and are up, again, about eleven thirty. We watch some computer stuff, then, back to bed, around twelve; up, again, about one am. Then, back to bed about three, sleeping, maybe, until five thirty. Up, again, then down about six. Some deep sleep after six, and, finally, up for the day around seven thirty, or eight. Ivan is usually up more often than I am, but sleeps later in the morning.

In the past few days, I have gone to bed at about the same time, getting up only once, about eleven thirty to watch a show, or two, on the computer, then back to bed about twelve thirty, sleeping until about three, not getting up, except to go to the bathroom, then, back to bed until seven thirty, at which time I have been getting up for the day.

My most productive time is in the morning, while everything is still a bit dark, but, more importantly, quiet. I really enjoy, sitting at the table, (read, the “office” 😉 having a nice big, hot cup of fresh coffee, listening to the different parts of the building, and our fellow inmates, arising to a new day.

I give a good look-over to all of the plants in the living room, and, adjust things accordingly; water this one, leave the rest alone. This morning I came out to see the heliotrope leaning over, hoping to be noticed. The water meter showed it was on the dry side, so, it got a drink. I will see if it helps.

We must be in one of the rainy seasons here, these past few days, as there has not been much sunshine. Fortunately for the plants, I have two new grow lights coming in the mail today. Thank you Amazon. Now, if I can find a couple of working outlets, things should improve.

That is one thing of which one can never have enough; outlets. We have counted, and, decided that we need about twice the number of outlets currently in the apartment. Not really sure how that will come about, as the walls are concrete, but, as I am not the contractor, it is not my job to figure it out. My job it to explain the need to him, and provide the necessary funding, and he can do the magic. Job done.

I am going to stop now, as I am trying to listen to a book on Audible.com, while writing this post, and, am having very little success with either. I cannot think, and type intelligibly at the same time. (Wow, that was an understatement, if ever I read one. Hahaha)

I am listening, currently, to the fourth book in the Cormoran Strike detective series, by Robert Galbraith, (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling; that is correct, the creator of Harry Potter,). If you think the HP series is creative genius, read the CS series. She goes from amazing Sy-Fy fantasy, to murder, without skipping a beat. It will keep you on your toes. Guaranteed.

Please, in the meantime, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones, will you? Thanks.

Post script: those with Amazon Prime Video, and/or, an HBO subscription, can watch the first two books as a TV series, starting with the Cuckoo’s Calling, then Lethal White. Amazing.

What did you find, you ask? The name of the flower that I bought called a Mona Lisa!

I searched the internet, for about thirty minutes, this morning, before finally giving up, and going to bed. But, when I got up, just now, boom. It hit me. Read on.

I have been up since about six thirty, after having, finally, fallen asleep, this morning, around two. I could not find the name of the very pretty plant that was delivered yesterday, called Mona Lisa. All I could find, under that search, was an obviously, very old, but weirdly familiar looking painting. Argh!

After a few hours of fitful rest, I got up, and searched for Monalisa, in Spanish. Here it is. Eschinanto. (Sleep is so highly overrated.)

Absolutely beautiful, is it not? Unfortunately, it is not identifiable in the plant care app I have, Plantin. I have sent them a request for it to be added, so I will see if that happens anytime soon. For now, however, I will have to get my care instructions from the internet, then, somehow, remember to follow them. What could possibly go wrong with that idea?!!

There are a few others I need to look up, but that I will do later today. Actually, I will probably wait until the sleepless wee hours of the morning, giving me something to do, since sleeping is out of the equation.

Now, if I can just find out what the common name for the Millonaria is. The best I can tell, it is a Swedish ivy. It does not look like an ivy to me. The leaves are growing directly out of the prior stem.

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

Post script: a very happy birthday to our wonderful b-i-l, Brian. Many more. Hope you are happy, healthy and safe, all the white enjoying a well deserved retirement.

I got another batch of plants today. So many of the herbs I bought earlier, drowned. I simply do not understand how that happens.

I am going to start hiding my beautiful watering cans; out of sight, out of my hands. Even the aloe vera drowned. Who else drowns their plants? Probably no one but me. If I was not in the apartment all of the time, maybe that would help. But I am, and there is no getting around that; not for the foreseeable future, that is.

Here are a few photos of our ever enlarging jungle.

This little beauty is called a Darling Orchid, of the common genus, Phalaenopsis, and is only about eight inches from flower to the pot bottom. I figured, it I kill it, it is so small I may not grieve too much.

I am trying to get the most use out of this one window box. Most of the plants, in the middle, are herbs; basil, sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary, lavender, parsley, a few scrawny chives, and some epazote. I was able to use some fresh thyme, and rosemary the other day, in a dish, and some rosemary tonight, when I basted the fish with butter, and rosemary. It was delicious.

We also got a new Areca palm, (five bucks folks), as the other one is, what? You got it; drowning. I bought twenty four plants total, for around ninety dollars. Five dollars for a palm tree! You cannot beat that with a stick.

Other than the pink orchid, the pink flowers, at either end, are Cyclamen; they are so pretty. I have never had the opportunity to grow those, so we shall see if I can grow them here.

The small orange flower, top photo, middle, front row, is a Calendula; it has medicinal properties, none of which I can remember at present. I have to tell you, though, that I tried growing this from seed from when we bought our first house, in Moline, IL, in nineteen hundred and eighty two. Nothing. They never grew.

The bright red plant in the middle, is known as an Anthurium; here it is called Anthurio. It is commonly called a Flamingo flower, because of the bright red flower disc’s. I am not going to explain it all here because A) I am too tired, and B) I really do not understand all of the terminology; (most especially at one o’clock in the morning.)

We wanted some flowering elements, so the aforementioned are the flowers I bought. Oh, I forgot, the Heliotrope; last photo, fourth plant from the right; three snake plants then the Heliotrope. It is tall with purple flowers; also medicinal.

Last, but not least, in the first photo, just to the right of the tall ZZ plant, is, what here is called a Mona Lisa. What its true name is, I cannot say. When I look it up, it says it is a lipstick plant. Not so, I say. The leaves look similar to a violet, and the flower is tiny, and looks like an orchid. Who knows? I certainly do not.

The Anthurium was the second most expensive plant, coming in at sixteen dollars, but the new Rubber tree plant won first prize, at twenty dollars. Each of the herbs were one dollar each. What is not to like?!

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

Well, sort of.

I have been blessed to have my health, and my sourdough starter, both, back in full swing. When I took ill, so did the starter. I am happy to say that we are both recovered, in good spirits, and doing well.

I have been busy, lately, cleaning the apartment, doing laundry, making more Kombucha, and, baking bread; forgetting to mention dehydrating some veg, and, my favorite thing of all time, dusting. Ugh!

Living with the windows open, twenty four-seven, comes with a price; bi, or, sometimes tri-weekly vacuuming, and, (shudder) dusting. I have no problem whatsoever with the former, but loathe the latter. When we get the totes up to the rooftop storage, and have acquired more horizontal, open space, I am going to have Liz help me with the cleaning. She offered, I graciously accepted; pleaded, truth be told.

We will be good company for each other, as she is a joy to be around. Plus, I will be able to pass along some of my knowledge, such as the different types of food preservation; dehydrating, fermentation, etc., baking. Also, while she helps me learn more Spanish, I can help both her, and Gaby, learn some English. Win-win, to my way of thinking.

I do, at times, forget that I am quickly approaching sixty six, and, cannot do all of the things I used to do. I have lost a lot of my strength, what with my recent retirement, and, then, this forced semi-incarceration. Nor do I have the stamina I once had. I have become more sedate; it does not look good on me.

I enjoy, however, the ability to choose how busy I am; the ability to decide that I will do this thing today, or, maybe, wait to do it until tomorrow. I am no longer forced to cram everything I want to do in the few hours I have between coming home from work, and going to bed, at nine o’clock. Now, I am as busy as I want to be, when I want to be. It is liberating.

In signing off for today, know that the plants are surviving, the fermentation’s are well, and fermenting, and we are healthy, and happy. We hope you are, as well.

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

Post script: here is a look at another batch of sourdough bread, using about ten percent sprouted Einkorn berries. It smells devine.

We have been introduced to the delightful fruit called lychee. It is used quite a bit in Oriental cuisines, and I have wanted to try it, but had no idea how, or where to find it. Or, if we would even like it if we did find it.

We found it, well we did not find it; it is sold on most street corners in Peróte, the “big city” outside of Los Altos. It is a smallish, round, reddish, fruit with a bumpy, spiked surface. Peeled, it resembles a large, peeled, white grape. There, the comparison ends, however.

Actually, it is delicately sweet, with a central seed that reminds me of a shiny, black olive pit. Thankfully, we were able to bring a kilo home with us, as they are difficult to stop eating once you start.

I will have to do some research to see if they can be frozen, to be used when my Oriental cooking is up, and running. Hope so.

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

We have returned from spending another glorious weekend in Los Altos, with our newly acquired family; the Garcia’s, et al.

There is nothing quite like the peace, and quiet of the small town, puebla, that is Los Altos. There are less than five thousand inhabitants, however, you would never know there were that many people living there. As I already said, it is quiet; and, unlike here, there are no dogs barking incessantly.

The air is fresh, and cold at night, but fresh and cool during the day. We require a thermal shirt over a tee shirt during the day, so the thermal can be removed on the chance of it getting too warm. But at night, even in the house, a thermal, plus a vest, or jacket, or sweater is necessary.

There is no central anything in the house; nothing but love. It makes for the absolute best nights sleeping ever. The first night anyway. The second night is usually a toss up. But the first night, Friday night, we both slept at least seven hours; I think Ivan slept for nine. Talk about recharged! It was marvelous.

And no one cares that we were not up in time for breakfast. When we got up, Maria, Jesús’ mom, always has hot water ready for a cup of coffee for us. That, and a bag of pastries. Remember, here, the pastries are not cloyingly sweet. They have just enough sugar to be enticing, making you want to finish the piece; about two hundred and seventy degrees different than the pastries up North. That is another one of the myriad things I love about being here.

We are back now, and, I am happy to report, the plants have all survived. In fact, I do believe they have thrived without this worry wart always hovering. Lesson learned. Plus, do not forget that I have, and am following the new app I got, Plantin. It is just what I needed. One of these days I will upload some photos of the beauties.

Not today, however. Today is Monday, and I have scads of laundry to do. Please stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones. I am off to enjoy the delights of washing day. Adios.

Being ill has absolutely nothing to recommend it. There is so much to be done, once you feel better, that it is not worth the time, or effort, to be ill. I do not want to do that again.

We went out today, paid our utilities, went to Costco, then, in the same parking garage, to Soriana. It was mostly a vegetable run, as we were completely out of all edible produce. It is hard to put together a meal without vegetables. I wanted to go to the Mercado closest to us but I am still a bit leery about the crowd there.

A big concern for me is usually prepping the veg for storage, so that, when it comes time to use them, they are not all moldy, or wilted. From the course I am taking, about cooking what you have to hand, Mike Greenfield, the instructor, (you can find him at ProHomeCooks on YouTube, or, on Instagram at LifebyMikeG), showed us how to prep the veg to keep things fresh for the next week, sometimes two.

So that is what I did when we got home from the store. We ate lunch first, because we were starving, but after that I got to work on all of the produce. Here, you have to disinfect all of the produce before using it so everything has to soak in a disinfectant for fifteen minutes, then you are free to do with it what you will. For all of us, it is a timely process but a necessary one. There are dire consequences if one does not follow these dictates; hand to God.

I was going to explain all of the different things I had to do with each of the veg but, really, no one cares about how long that took me, except me. Let me just say, we bought four small heads of Romaine lettuce, and one head of green leaf; they were soaked, spun, dried, and placed in air tight containers. Next, came the large bunch of cilantro; the dead, or dying stems culled, then, soaked, spun, dried, wrapped in paper toweling, and placed in Ziplock bags. The large container of baby spinach, I simply transferred half to an air tight container, to be used as is; it said on the container that it did not require washing. The other half is to be shared.

The carrot preparation was, however, a revelation, to me anyway. Carrots, here, spoil about four minutes after they enter the apartment. If I put them in the veg drawer, by the third day they are shriveled, and unrecognizable. What is up with that? Anyway, I was taught to peel them, and cut them in quarters lengthwise, and place them in a Mason jar with our filtered water. Duh! Why I could not think of that myself, who knows?!

The eggplants, sweet potatoes, red and green bell peppers, avocados, and cherry tomatoes did not require anything on my part, so they were put, loving, in their respective places; the first four in the veg drawer of the fridge, and the last two, in the veg stand, on the counter. Do you remember the veg stand? I actually saw it, before I bought it a couple of years ago, on the show Elementary, starring Jonny Lee Miller, and, Lucy Liu. It is a really fun take on Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Joan Watson. Hah!

The garlic heads we have had for a couple of weeks still feel solid, so, for now, I am going to put them in an air tight container, and, those that do not get used in the upcoming weeks, I will dehydrate when they start to dry out. Then, when needed, I will grind them into garlic powder; nothing wasted, right? You can do the same thing with onions; dehydrate them, and grind them into powder. I almost forgot dried chilies; make your own chili powder. Yay.

For the first time, ever, I bought celery sticks, precut, and in small plastic bags. I just do not use enough of it, or often enough to waste an entire bunch. It makes me think of the blurb I saw on FB some time ago; someone lamenting that they almost got out of the grocery store without buying the bag of Spring Blend lettuce that they normally throw away in two weeks, unopened, and spoiled. Unfortunately, that was me, before this class. I hope I will be able to use the beautiful produce we purchased before any of it spoils. Not “I hope”, but “I will.”

Listen to this. (You will not be able to hear it but maybe you can read it instead.) I am thinking about a menu for the next two weeks. I want to make Cream of Poblano soup; Ratatouille; some kind of fresh homemade pasta with sauce; Tortilla Española; tilapia with roasted veg; and a pork Ramen, with fresh veg, and medium cooked egg. I made two and a half quarts of pork bone broth the other day when I had a bit of energy.

For now, though, I am going to go watch another episode of Elementary; again. I have watched the entire seven seasons three, maybe four times. All of the times I “watched” it in Iowa, however, I was also knitting, and not paying much attention. Now, I can pay attention.

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

I have no idea where it goes, it just leaves me.

Sleep, without alcohol, is fairly difficult to come by these nights. I am sleepy, so, I lie down, pretending I am going to fall asleep. Then, boom; my legs start jumping, and I am awake. Then, not much later, I have made enough commotion that Ivan wakes up.

Yoga. I think I have to give it a try. I have heard good things about how it will stretch the muscles in my back, and strengthen my core. It has to be better than standing at the kitchen counter, at one o’clock in the morning, typing a blog post, hoping I will be overcome with fatigue.

One can look at only so many recipes on Pinterest at this time of night. I keep telling my brain to shut off, but it refuses to listen. Ugh!

I am going to go back to bed, and see if, this time, I can fall asleep. Who knows, maybe I will be asleep by the time you read this. Please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.