Tomato Tsunami

Usually, at this time of year, I have a lot of green tomatoes. I listen to the forecast every night and when there is even a hint of frost I go out and gather them into cardboard boxes. I put the boxes in the basement and check for ripe ones each week. I generally have fresh tomatoes right up until just before Christmas. I love that. This year, things are different.

I planted seeds I had saved from just two of the four kinds I had previously grown. My heritage Bulls Heart tomatoes are huge while my purple ones are just two or three times the size of cherry tomatoes. I planted three of each, originally, but my purple ones must have crossed with some other variety as each of those three plants grew something different. While one continued to grow purple tomatoes, one grew beautiful, perfectly normal-sized red tomatoes, and the other grew long Roma-shaped ones that were full of seeds.

 

I have a second raised garden bed this year but since the earth for it didn't arrive early enough for me to plan properly for the addèd space, I just popped a couple more Bulls Heart seedlings in there when it did come.

 The Bulls Heart ones are all ripened now and I am pulling out the plants. The others are extremely prolific and have recently been ripening faster than I can keep up with them. I am completely overwhelmed and feel like I am drowning in a tsunami wave of tomatoes.

Besides eating more tomatoes in the past couple of weeks than most people would eat in a year, I have been processing them in various ways. I have tomatoes frozen in containers and in freezer bags. I have made a couple of batches of slow-cooked spaghetti sauce, which also went into the freezer in mason jars. My freezer is now full but I still have three buckets of tomatoes in the house and more on the plants. I have given away a large number of tomatoes to at least 9 people, most of them, repeatedly.

I gave away my canning kettle earlier this year as I never grow enough in my small garden to can anyway.  This year, of course, turned out to be the exception. This week I saw a YouTube video that showed me how to process tomatoes without a canning kettle. It involved putting the jars in the oven and the lids in hot water and getting the tomatoes just to the boiling point without actually cooking them. If all three elements are hot when you put the tomatoes in the jars and the lids on, the jars are supposed to seal.  I started out thinking I would fill about 8 jars but then wisely decided to do just two the first time, just to see if it worked. Basically that took long enough to wear me out. And the jars had not sealed even by the next morning. I'm disappointed. I managed to put one of the jars in the freezer. The other is in the fridge. I will use it tomorrow or have to dispose of the contents since there are no preservatives.  

I guess I will have to treat most of the remaining tomatoes the way people have always done with their zucchini and sneak around and leave them on people's porches. I'm really tired of dealing with the darn things! 

But really, I must admit I will really miss having fresh ones up until Christmas this year. There are not likely to be any green ones in my basement this fall. I have never had so many tomatoes ripen so soon. The overabundance is only partially my own fault. The rest I will blame on climate change and all the heat we had this year. I will not plant more than my usual six plants next year but I am already wondering if I will save seeds of the beautiful normal-sized red ones, and hope they don't grow something else.

Found But Not Lost

 I'm sorry but I just need to rant for a few minutes.

I keep seeing people on my social media posting pictures of cats they found wandering around. They have picked them up and taken them home, or even to a shelter. I really need to know what makes these people think these cats are lost.  If it was a dog, I would understand. Dogs are not supposed to be running loose.  They are like small children and need supervision. Cats are more like teenagers and need the freedom to explore their world. They go where they go, and will go home again to be fed if nobody locks them in someplace they can't get out of.

Now, I will admit that my previous cat became part of our household exactly that way.  She was just a tiny kitten who took shelter during a big snowstorm under a pile of Christmas trees that were for sale where my hubby worked. She was brought into the building to warm up for a while but when she was still around the next day someone decided to feed her. Of course, then she was quite happy to stay there.  She was brought home to our place and presented to me. I was told she was lost. Well, since we live 12 miles from where she was found, my answer to that was, "Well, she is now!"  

My dog adopted her right away. He washed her ears and followed her around the house. He taught her the rules. No pets on the furniture and no claws in the rug.  He would pounce at her if she tried. I refused to name her for several weeks. She wasn't mine and I fully expected someone to claim her. I was afraid to get attached. I felt sorry for whoever had lost her. But she did become my cat and I had her for nine years.

My current cat is very snoopy.  Curiosity is generally a sign of intelligence.  It's how we learn.  It may be true that it can also get you, or your cat, into trouble sometimes. We have alerted our neighbours to please check their garage or shed before closing the door, especially if they are planning to be away for an extended period of time. If my cat goes missing, it will not be because she is lost. She would either be locked in someplace, killed by a preditor, or taken in by some misguided helpful person who thinks she's lost.  That has actually happened twice this past year when other people on my block thought she was lost and were determined to rescue her.  So please, unless you find a cat that is in obvious distress, do not assume it is lost, it is just exploring its world and knows the way home.

Use It Or Lose It

 I'm sure you have all heard the old adage "use it or lose it" but maybe you didn't realize that it pertains to a lot more things than just muscles. 

I have told people who say they are having trouble doing something that used to be easy that they need to practice it more.  I started that when I saw an elderly relative who had always been spry and active struggle to get up off the couch. Apparently, she had been sitting too much that winter, and then she thought she was just slowing down because she was getting older. In reality, it was because she had not been using those muscles as much in the past few months and needed to retrain them.  We can strengthen our muscles at any age, no matter how old we get, but if we don’t use them they get weak.

I have glasses for reading. They are prescription glasses with a prism in them, not drugstore reading glasses. I don't always use them. I'm typing on my tablet at the moment and my glasses are not even in the room with me. My hubby cannot read anything without his, and they are not as strong as mine. He has progressive glasses so he wears his all the time. His eyes, or his brain, have gotten used to having assistance.  My eyes just see what they see and my brain must fill in the rest.

Just recently I got new hearing aids. I have worn one for close to twenty years but it was once again time to get a new one. I was losing my word  recognition so I needed to upgrade to a stronger model and I finally accepted the fact that maybe I needed two. It did not take a week for my ears and brain to adjust to all this help and suddenly I could no longer  hear without the aides in place. I am hearing much better now, while wearing my new hearing aids but without them I am suddenly a lot deafer than I have ever been. Just more proof that if you don’t use it, you lose it.  As it was, I wasn't using the part of my brain that could recognize words and I think that's worse. I'm better off needing help to hear properly than I would be if I could not understand what was being said. Even so, I have now turned the volume down three clicks and can still hear just fine with the aids. Maybe that will help me be less deaf without them. One can only hope.....

Organizing My Priorities

 I recently won another book from LibraryThing. This one is called The Beginner's Guide to Organize Your Life. Well, at this stage of life, I'm hardly a beginner, and up until not long ago, I was pretty good at organizing things.

This book seemed to arrive at the most opportune moment. My office/studio has just had a facelift. We had to move everything out of that room in order to repaint the walls and put down a new floor.  Let me make this clear. I live in a 900-square-foot home and this was the room with the most stuff in it. The hallway and every other room in the house soon had extra furniture, boxes and other piles of stuff anywhere we could find a place to set it down. Organization went completely out the window. While I will admit that the desks in that room were often cluttered, suddenly my whole house was a complete mess. I felt like I was living in a hoarder's house. Maybe I was, but usually, my hoarding was confined to just one room. And then, to make matters worse, we had a major storm that created a flood in the basement.  Where were we supposed to put the things that needed rescuing from down there?

As I began to read this book I found all the normal helpful hints about goal setting, building a routine and being consistent. We are told to plan ahead. I already had a list of things I wanted to get done today.  I was ahead of the book on that one. It did mention leaving time for things that might come up unexpectedly. One of my planned tasks did not get done because my hubby had his own agenda as he was reorganizing the contents in the basement now that it had dried out. He presented me with a couple more boxes to go through. That snowballed into making a few more messes than I expected today.

I am supposed to review the book so I need to read it first. I was trying to fit that in, in between other tasks. I sent an e-mail requesting a Kindle version as this book arrived as a pdf file. Every time I closed it or shut down my tablet the darn thing disappeared.  I would hunt it down and find I had to flip through the pages one by one to try to find where I left off. This is not how any previous books I have received in pdf format have behaved and I know the Kindle version is available. I found it on Amazon.  I was able to both forward it to my Kindle and open it in my Kindle app on my tablet, but it was basically useless.  I am now flipping through more than 40 pages.

I had received no response to my message and I cannot see myself flipping through the 109 pages to finish reading this book. I could likely have finished reading it by now if I had a proper Kindle version or a pdf file that was not apparently meant to be an audiobook. The audio part is only available in the UK and the US, not here in Canada. I am assuming that's why I'm having problems with the file.

Then I reached the chapter on time management and prioritizing your tasks.   I decided to take my cue from the book and prioritize my time. I have stopped fighting with the file and written a blog instead of a review.  I feel like I have accomplished something more worthwhile.

New Fangled Gadgets

 Recently I had a discussion with a group of ladies in my own age group about air fryers.  While the younger generation seems to love them, most of my group had a different opinion.  This kitchen gadget is all hype and not worth the counterspace. In fact mine is so big it took up entirely too much countespace so I found another place to keep it. Now it's even less handy and I maintain that if you can cook something in a frying pan then I don't see the point of using the air fryer. Not only would I have to move it into place but washing that big basket is rather awkward.  If I had a split sink, as seems popular these days, it would not even fit in there. Mind you, I do see it as an energy saver if the food would normally go in the oven.

I won a gift certificate for Home Hardware last year and finally decided to spend it on an air fryer. It wasn't something I would have bought for myself but they seem all the rage these days. When I got it I went through a lot of recipies I found online. I love using it to make  French toast and apple fritters. Cooking frozen French fries in there somehow stripped the product of any flavour they may have had so I roasted potatoes and made homemade fries. That worked.  I am the only one here that eats asparagus and this is a quick and easy way to cook that too but it certainly doesn't work for cauliflower. 

Everyone said the air fryer is great for meat but I was timid when it came to that. I didn't want to ruin something that costs so much these days. I don’t even hesitate to use my Instant Pot. I love that thing! The air fryer was beginning to go the way of my crock pot. That's something else I seldom use but will drag out for only certain things. I always cook beans in there, for instance. 

I finally decided to try it. My large basket has a divider that you can put in when you want to cook two things at the same time. I cooked chicken and potatoes and they turned out well. Then this week I put some honey garlic sausages in there. The air fryer now definitely has a use! I will never cook sausages any other way. You don’t have to watch them, or turn them and they come out beautiful and evenly cooked.  I might actually try some other meat now. Perhaps this gadget will grow on me yet.

What is your favorite thing to use your air fryer for? 

Artificial intelligence

 

I just finished reading a book by JL Lycette called The Algorithm Will See You Now.  

This is a story about allowing artificial intelligence decide who can or cannot receive medical treatment based more on whether the treatment is good for the profit of the health organization than on what is necessarily good for the patient. It is also a book about human nature and the lies we tell ourselves and others. Would we really be any better at making these rational decisions than a machine? Read the book and decide for yourself. It's a good story. I received an advance review copy for free, and left this review in various places voluntarily.

Artificial intelligence seems to be everywhere these days. 

This morning I have already seen an ad for an AI app that will write stories for me. I'm not interested in that as writing is how I like to express myself. It wouldn't be my story if I let a machine make it up.  It does prove that the algorithms are at play though. Already my tablet knows I was reading and writing about this subject. Why else would this ad pop up, not once, but three times this morning?

I already have an app with AI doing my bidding. I can say "Hey Google" and have any question answered. It's handy to just be able to check the weather before I get dressed, check for any needed conversions or even find out how to use left over egg yolks without even having to type the questions in.  I really should use her more often. I know she's listening because Google will occasionally pop up on her own and ask, "How may I help you?" That normally annoys me but next time I think I will just have her tell me a joke or play a song for me. A little something to brighten my day never hurts.

And, in case you have not noticed, I have been using AI art work on my blog and elsewhere since the beginning of the year. My eldest son has been having a great time with it and since he introduced  me to it I have had it  generate a few images that were useful to me. Sometimes I use them to illustrate my story and other times I use them as a jumping off spot for my own art.  If you look at the AI pictures I have posted so far this year you can tell they are computer generated as they often have obvious flaws in them. Many artists are worried about AI taking over the art world. While it may come in handy for writing factual pieces, and coming up with pictures you cannot find by simply searching I do not believe the human aspect is something  that can ever be totally replaced in either the arts or medicine.  What do you think?

Covid Time

 

Well, it had to happen eventually,  I guess.

I sneeze most mornings due to cat allergies, but the sneezing and snuffing lasted longer than usual Tuesday. My hubby kept asking if I was alright and I assured him I was. We went about business as usual and I picked up my new hearing aid. I get to test it out for a couple of weeks and then go back for adjustments. 

I did a test for Covid that day and I got a negative result.

The next day I had what I chalked up to be a weather migraine along with my snuffies. But again my hubby was looking at me funny and asking repeatedly if I was okay. I took the covid test again to prove that I was, but this time I got a positive result. Oh, joy. I had several events lined up to give my new hearing aid a good test in various situations before my next appointment but I guess that won't be happening. 

I am isolating in our spare room, trying not to pass this bug on, though in a 900-square-foot bungalow in the dead of winter, I doubt that will do much good. At least I have my tablet, my Kindle, and my sketchbook to keep me occupied. And I am also lucky enough to have a good man who brings me food and lots of treats. I have accused him of trying to fatten me up but he is a Cancer and they tend to show love by feeding you. I have seen lots of evidence of that over the years.

I have done my best to avoid Covid up until recently because I am prone to bronchitis.  That's scary enough, without Covid. I have gotten a bit lax with the masking lately. And I admit to being slightly overdue for a 5th vaccine.  My antibodies are still high, according to the latest Stop-CoV blood sample I sent in. Still, I feel foolish for having let my guard down when I knew there were so many sick people in our area.

Because of my age and history of bronchitis, I was able to get the antiviral,  Paxlovid from our pharmacist. Let me say, that stuff works! It got rid of all my symptoms right away. I had a strange little reaction after the first dose but it didn't last long. The next morning, after a wonderful night's sleep I was thinking about how glad I was that I got the antiviral. And then I took my second dose.

Within minutes I was reminded of the little reaction the day before. Only this time it was much worse and lasted longer. I called the medical center and asked to speak to someone about Paxlovid reactions.  I explained the pressure on one side of my head that started with feeling like my brain was swelling and progressed to make my face on that side feel weird....not quite numb but kind of like when the dental freezing is coming out. The nurse had never heard of that side effect before and could find nothing like it on the symptom site they use. She put me on hold while she checked with a doctor. The doctor she consulted was not mine but he told her I could go ahead and continue taking the antiviral since the reaction went away the previous time. I told her it was a much stronger reaction this time and very scary. She said I could quit taking them if I wanted. 

By the time it was time for the next dose I had decided preventing the bronchial condition I didn't have yet was suddenly less important. I figured I would be better off seeking medical assistance with that than if I blew an aneurysm or something.  It was probably an allergic reaction but whatever it was, it was so much worse after the second dose, I didn't want to try a third one. So, of course, without the pills, I woke up coughing several times last night and have my other Covid cold-type symptoms back.  As I said, the antivirals work.  Don't let my experience stop you if you are qualified and may need them.

 

Getting My Ears On

My hearing aid is past it's warranty period and basically worn out.  I have needed a new one for the past couple of years but I have been putting it off. With Covid-19 restrictions I wasn't going anywhere anyway and really only had one person to annoy by making him repeat eveything. 

I found myself tuning into the radio news several times in a day to try to catch what was being said. I'm not sure if that's a hearing problem or if I have just lost my listening skills. I gave in last fall and went for a hearing test. That's when I found out things had changed. Not only had the prices gone up but the warranty period had dropped from five years to just three. You get a trial period with new hearing aids in case that style or model turns out not to be the right one for you.  But I still was not getting to places where it could be tested properly so I decided, once again, to wait. I saw no point in wasting my warranty period when there was little to hear anyway.

But hey people, dispite the fact that there is a new Covid varient speading rapidly normal life seems to be making a comeback. I have been to visit family and friends and attended both the Legion Senior's Lunch and the Ladies Club dinner this past month.  I couldn't follow conversations in any of those situations so I went back to the audiologist. 

My last hearing test had apparently expired so I had to do it over again. There was no change and though I felt like I was not hearing as well, I just need to learn to listen again. People think that comes naturally but really, it's a skill. I need to practice.

I will be getting my new aid just in time for an upcoming event where I may get to talk more than I have to listen. There will be a small crowd there and I expect a lot more noise than at the meals I have attended. This will be an excellent testing ground to see what adjustments will be needed to my new assistive device. I do expect I will still need some people to repeat things but maybe I will at least be able to watch tv without closed captions.  One can only hope....

Busy Ladies

I told you recently that I had not been blogging much in recent years because the pandemic put an end to my rambles. Well, it looks like things are about to change. This little tiny village now has a very active Ladies Club.  Last summer they formed a walking group, a kayaking  group and occasionally met for a meal. I joined the group during the summer but failed to take part in anything until now.

This past week I joined them for what will become a monthly dinner at a local restaurant. Fifteen of us gathered and got to know one another a little better by talking about our various hobbies.  The group now actually has 279 members (by the latest figures) but even among the small dinner gathering we found several things many of us like to do. 

In just this one short week, individual groups are currently in the planning stages.  There will definitely be a darts group, a knitting group and an art group. Spaces have already been secured at the local Legion and Library.  I, of course, will join the art group. I imagine it will be informal but some of the ladies have recently gathered to do a paint along and some paint pouring events that were also organized by members of the Ladies Club. I know there is also a lady among us who teaches card making so maybe there will be some actual lessons of one sort or another over time. I will happily encourage some urban sketching expeditions once the weather is suitable again.

There was also some talk of a story telling session, a trail walking group and a visit to a farm to see some mini horses.  I think the group is large enough that if there is anything anyone wants to do she will have no trouble finding others who will do it with her.

I am already looking forward to next month's meal. Who knows what that may spark.

 

New Beginnings.....Fresh Start....Again

 

Happy New Year!

As I turn the page on the calendar to a new year I am also hoping to turn a leaf or two in my life and get some fresh starts. I am not making resolutions but just starting over. There are many things in my life that I have fallen away from during the pandemic, and though that's not over, I have decided that it's time to try a little harder than I have been to get things done.

I don't tend to walk as much during the winter, but with all the treats over the holiday season, I now suddenly weigh more than I have for the past three months. I don't want to diet but I can pick up the pace with the walking. I am lucky enough to have been gifted a treadmill this past fall by a dear friend who is moving. The main reason I don't walk as much in the winter is that I have this tendency to fall on ice, so I avoid it. Now I don't have that excuse but over the holidays it's been rather hit-and-miss. I will pick a specific time of day, and if I don't go out, I'll hop on there.

I have not been painting as much in recent years either. I have been trying to learn to draw and I seem to take a lot of online courses. That's good because it actually gets me to practice my art, but I do miss doing my own. Also, when people ask to buy what I've done, I can't sell it because it's not really mine. I did sell a few small paintings this past year and had a commission, so I do think it's time to get back to doing my own thing. Step one is to unsubscribe from some of the artist newsletters I get. I can't even find time to read them all let alone try what they tell me about. I will join a couple of art Zoom groups where they work on their own projects and that will at least give me a scheduled time to paint.

We are about to put down a new floor in my office/studio so at the moment there are lots of boxes piled up in various rooms. I'm starting to feel like I'm living in a hoarder's house. I need to feel like I have some control over this mess so I have already downloaded a decluttering schedule and will start to tackle the chores on that. It starts in the kitchen, which is good as there are no boxes piled there, but my cupboards certainly do need sorting out.

I have acquired a large number of unread books over time and though I like to read, I seem to spend more time trying to keep up with my e-mail. Apparently, the art newsletters are not the only things I need to unsubscribe from. My Fitbit tells me when it's time to settle down at night so I'll be ready to go to sleep on time. I will make a point of reading for at least that half hour before I go to sleep. That likely won't dent the book pile much, but it's still worth doing. I especially feel the need to get the books I win read in a timely matter so that I can review them. The latest one that arrived a couple of days ago is called "After Its Over" by Hunter Chadwick. It is an apocalyptic story of what could have happened to our world after Covid if even more people had died and there was an even bigger supply chain problem. It was originally written as a series for Kindle Vella. That's kind of like the old radio shows where you tuned in on a regular basis to hear the next installment. I never knew they were doing that in a written form before Mr. Chadwick released his story in book form.

Another thing I really need to do is get back to this blog. I miss it. I didn't feel I was out rambling around enough to have anything to say. But hey, I miss just talking to those of you that manage to find me so I'll try to get on here more often this year. I have cat stories to tell you if nothing else.  We got a kitten this past summer and she's certainly different from any other cat I've ever had.

I need to pick up my usual daytimer like planner from Staples so I can schedule things properly. That could hopefully keep me on track, or at least tell me what it is I'm supposed to be doing each day. Wish me luck. 

Nice talking to you.