The Seasonal Transition

Hello to Autumn! 

Each year when the ambient temperatures cool and frost appears, there is a sense of prepare for winter.

The little shovel and scrapers go into the vehicle. Deicer spray in the closet. A mat is put down for wet boots. Gloves are moved up to the small drawer by the door. 

Soup weather brain lights brighten. Hot chocolate mugs are lined up. The crockpot silently sits on the counter.

There may be hot weather before the trees are all bare, but pumpkin hunting and hot soup season is here. 

Day 261 of Week 38 September 2025

 All week has felt like a Saturday to me. Posting the day and week numbers on Thursday instead of the usual Friday, feels right. I hope it doesn’t throw anyone off.

What new things have I learned this week? 

The pumpkin version of Special K is pretty good (based on my limited ability to taste). 

A quarter pound of Genoa salami is an act of denial for me because there is rarely enough left the next day to make the picnic sandwich I bought it for. I know I need a half pound.

I need a book to keep recipes in that has paper thick enough to glue cut outs in. My menu is so bland and predictable, my interest in preparing meals is nearing zero. I need to use recipe files.

I learned that if you don’t like something a person publicly advocates for, then in America, saying you don’t like that person, might get you targeted for hate speech. That is very scary. 😱 

As for information I didn’t know, I remember listening and knowing the tips are new to me, but I forget what the tips are. They are something about hiking safety. 

Oh! One is to not run because that can trigger a bobcat’s chase instinct. Back away slowly, look bigger, do not run. 

What new have you learned this week?

Rainbow Cloud 18 September 2025

No Place To Go

 Have you ever felt an urge to just move someplace or change your life into something else but have no idea where or what? There must be a name for it. 

Ah! The word wanderlust just popped into my brain. The feeling is along those lines except you don’t feel like traveling a lot. It is similar to feeling burn out. 

Maybe I’m burned out being elderly!? Nah. I think with all the creative things I have to do, I need a hobby focused on self-improvement. I didn’t get far learning Chinese. Maybe trying Irish will help.

The Asters & the Bumble Bee

 Sitting on the porch for a while when I arrive home is what I like to do, no matter what the weather is like. I put the aster plant (i thought was a mum) on the chair beside me. I hear a buzzing going on. This is what I saw.

Common Eastern Bumble Bee

Make-up, Apples & Old Things

At the bottom of a make-up bag, there’s always ancient things I haven’t used in ages. Creams, masques, lipsticks and such have shelf life. If I can’t remember when I bought it or last used it, then in the trash it goes. 

My recent thrift store find is a lovely apple peeler gadget. Dutch apple pie is on my mind. I also want to freeze chopped apples to use instead of applesauce. 

I’ve had that paint scraper tool since early 1990s. I have others in various sizes. That one has an old friend vibe. 

Clearing out things brings with it a lot of memories. 

What is your oldest go to gadget? 

Day 255 of Week 37 September 2025

There is an abundance of news in broad subjects that we can separate into a positive group for each. If we narrow the range, then, I feel, the gathering of good news loses weight. 

A healthy balance, IMHO, requires that the bad news not be so obese that it pulls down our effort to nurture our lives with positive information. 

On day 255 of 2025, the negatives are overwhelming. How do we adjust life for better balance? 

Faith. 

If you have faith, be it with a religion, mindfulness or meditation, having a place to go to comfort your soul might be what you need. 

Shopping List Dropping

Shopping has taken a turn for the worse on prices.

I like the place mats from the local Dollar General store. They are easy to use and clean. For a dollar, they were a good purchase. 

This year, the price is $2.00 US dollars. I want the orange ones for fall decor. I am dropping them from my fall decor shopping list. 

On grocery shopping, my list is being adjusted. Condiments, (since my sense of taste is nearly wiped out by the 2022 covid booster), are very limited. Not buying ketchup is the new norm. I buy cream soups for easy recipes. If the cans are any smaller, then I will not buy them. I will make my own. 

To help prevent lost food in the back of the fridge. a plastic tray will be added for meats go until ready to cook. The difficult to get to fruit drawer will be used anyway. 

Small living adjustments don’t feel unreasonable. The issue is why so many are now necessary. I don’t recall ever dropping so many items off my shopping list as I do today. 

Meanwhile, learning to make bread is added to my to do list. 

Have you made a lot of adjustments to your shopping list?

Meet Pumpkin One of 2025

The fall rituals that I like to follow, this year are pressed flat by the depression episode I am struggling to manage. 

As the deal with it best I can goes, turning a negative into a positive works. Thus, the autumn pumpkin hunt for a country roadside stand also includes: Just buy a pumpkin! So I have. I may also buy from a roadside stand, if I have the energy to do that. 

Pie Pumpkin #1 2025

Catch Up On a Saturday

Moon at 95% Waxing Gibbous
Behind the clouds 9:58 PM EDT
5 September 2025

What’s been going on?

Stuff mostly.

A recent purchase of an over the door rack is the reason I’m rearranging my storage areas. The galley kitchen is too small to store can goods that close to an oven. Thus, out of the bottom cabinet and on the pantry shelves they go. 

The door rack is where spices, cereal, teas and light things will be placed.

That frees up overhead cabinet space for soup bowls and such. So now, instead of moving left to right, I can twirl around to get my favorite little fruit bowl. Also, the bottom cabinet now provides pans a new home that’s off the stove and counters. 

The whole process highlights for me how very important good organization is to having a healthy interior environment. 

A word about low fat foods. 

Low-fat cottage cheese is horrible! With my limited sense of taste, due to covid 2022 booster, I treasure the few flavor levels I can enjoy. I dislike even more the flavors that are horrid. 

I feel the same about most low-fat foods as well as light beer. 

What else? Oh, Instagram has become the babysitter to my bored-self. I spend too much time crying and laughing as I scroll through a tremendous variety of video shorts. 

Let me just say that bravado is in vogue. It can be healing, but too much can cause you tell feel a lot of it is hokey. 

Art. Being busy with moving things around, I’ve been falling asleep for some righteously good naps instead of painting. Now that I’ve finally repotted the pothos and English ivy, the table can be clear for creative endeavors. 

How is your September going?

Day 247 of Week 36 August 2025

In a philosophy class, early 1990s, the instructor is explaining the time line of life in philosophically, step by step out into the universe. The end thought, the end question left to us is what is there beyond, beyond life, the universe?

The air in the room is dead silence until a voice in the far back corner provides the answer:

“New Jersey”

That answer, having spent the majority of my teen years in New Jersey, I felt in my bones to be true. I wasn’t trying to make a joke. But the class laughed and do did I. 

In a way, it is funny. In a bigger way, it is a true answer because, I believe, the proverbial, out there, can be wherever a here may be for us. 

More than any age decade of experience, I feel that our teenage years carry the strongest vibe of being our home-land. Other stages may be as nostalgic, as well loved but not in the same way as our transition out of childhood into adulthood. Ten years is a long time.

Have a Wonderful Weekend 

wherever your here is

Change your wall decor

Browse bird statues online

Read about philosophy

Shop for a soap dispenser

Bake bread

Embroider a favorite word

Take photos of sidewalks

Wind
Watercolor sketch

Summer Photograph: Roses

Climbing Roses

As kids, neighborhood roses

were havens of beauty

that we’d admire, smell and

sometimes pick.