WEEKLY HAPPENINGS - MONDAY 1/27/25 TO SUNDAY, 2-2-25

Hello Family and Friends! Back again with this week's weekly happenings. Thanks for letting me know you still enjoy them. It will keep these going, for a while at least. I hope you've all had a good start to the week. 

Monday, January 20th, 2025 - 1.39 p.m: Gregg went out got himself a bagel with cream cheese from our local bagel shop again. He bought one for me, having gone to the supermarket before coming home. 

After I woke up and before I got out of bed, I did two of my daily exercises with the Pilate ball. I paused for breakfast as the man arrived home, and exercises were completed afterwards.

In late afternoon, early evening, we usually chat about current events. We both have our strong opinions and it's always good to air them. We agree on most things, but sometimes disagree, while staying quite cool about it all, giving our reasons why we disagree with the other. We are both avid readers and keep up with what's going on here and around the world, quite often saving snippets of news and talking about them later. Truthfully, Gregg is more knowledgeable in many areas. If I feel very strongly about something, I am a bit stubborn and hold my own.

Tuesday, January 28th, 2025: “Would you like to stand closer to the wall?”  I had another physiotherapy session. They sent me on a crab walk down a long corridor and I had difficulty balancing, hence the above question. Who knew walking sideways would be so difficult. (In my youth I seem to remember going to the disco with my friends, a dance I did all the time with these movements, but that's been 50 plus years ago.) I found myself reaching out to the wall several times. I had my usual bicycle ride, tippy toes, pressing ball on the wall behind the knee, and then my physiotherapist came in to do the rest of the session. After 45 minute I was glad to head to the door, and yet grateful for everyone who helped me today. The place was super quiet. We were the only ones left, along with the staff.  

Someone has decorated the walls with paper hearts for Valentine's Day. It took me a few moments to realize that February is around the corner.

Wednesday, January 29th, 2025

I had a short walk at Green Spring Gardens today, but I already shared on this post.

I didn't take many photos, except for what I have shown already, and more berries! 

The berry bush is huge and reaches several feet over my head. 

It was still loaded with berries.

In the afternoon father and son went into DC. Son was attending a talk taking place at the Library of Congress. That building is amazing outside and in. If you click this link we were there years ago and I took these photos of the ceiling. I know I have more somewhere but can't find them at the moment. The one below is son's photo.

Thursday, January 30th 2025: and I am playing catch up as I was really bad at keeping my journal going this week. I stopped after Monday for a few days, and now I'm trying to remember.

Dear other half met up with his old buddy today for lunch. It's a drive to get there, about an hour-and-a-half, but always enjoyable for him. He arrived home 5 o'clock-ish. I enjoy my quiet time, pottered, read, pottered some more, read some more, looked at the birds off and on all day, pottered. My day went quickly. Word of the day: "pottered!"

Friday, January 31st 2025: it is 9.16 a.m. and I have a 10.30 a.m. appointment for my physiotherapy. I have to be there for 10.15.

I am back and it is 12:39 p.m. There was a 12-year old with a sports injury today, a young girl. When she got on that exercise bicycle she rode like the wind. Me, not so much! Let's just say it felt like a 3-chocolate brownie day today, but stopped at one.

On the way home our son and daughter-in-law called. They were on their way back from somewhere and wanted to tell us about it. We had a fun time talking to them both. Very happy we had the opportunity of chatting with our dear daughter-in-law for a good length of time. She has a truly delightful humor. Their hours of work vary and when son calls, she is usually working, and vice versa. 

Today I drew a dinosaur! This is thanks to Jan at The Low Carb Diabetic. She has a post here that talks about “Draw A Dinosaur Day”. I'm a bit late but it put the idea in my head and here is mine. Thanks Jan!

I looked through pixabay.com and found several but this was a more simplified version and thought I might be able to copy it. I go to pixabay for a lot of the graphics I use for my signatures and so on. All royalty free graphics. And thank you once again to our good blogging friend Sandra aka MadSnapper n Beau who introduced me to pixabay a long time ago. 

Pretty rudimentary but it entertained me for a while. I have to slow down as I draw too fast, need to be more patient. (Hmmm, sounds like a song I know.)  I forgot to add a leg! Just getting used to holding a pencil in my hand again. Here is Dino with the cat I drew last week.

We made a stir-fry for dinner. Neither of us liked it very much, even though we have made stir-fries before. We added a can of stir-fry vegetables and the whole meal had an after-taste, completely took away from the rest of the fresh vegetables. Not the kind of after-taste that would make us feel ill, but not what we are used to. It was not very pleasant. Gregg found the can in the pantry and quite rightly thought we could use it. There was something about the brine. It would have been a good idea to drain the can and rinse the veggies before putting them in with everything else. But there you go, we live and learn and both agreed, never buying that again.

Saturday, February 1st, 2025: not much of note going on today. Very quiet!

We made a new recipe. Thankfully this one was very good. I will put it on one of my recipe posts. It was seafood.

Sunday, February 2nd, 2025: son came over. Always enjoy catching up with his week.

Later in the day Fluffy Kitty turned up.  She was sitting on the steps looking around. I wondered why the birds disappeared! She is definitely someone’s cat. With all the cold weather, we haven’t seen her for a few weeks. She stayed on those steps, turned a few times when she heard me talking to her. I left her alone and when I looked again half an hour later, she was gone. Hopefully back in her nice warm house.

Nothing of note for the rest of the day, and will end my journal here.

Have a great rest of the week, 

and thanks for stopping by.

FIRST TRIP TO GREEN SPRINGS...

 A couple of days ago, on the 28th, Gregg and I went to Green Spring Gardens. The weather was just too good to waste. It was in the low 50's and warm enough to get outside without a coat.  

The top left of the collage you can see a sign for Annandale Village. Annandale is not where the garden is but an area we pass through on our way home. I had never seen, or maybe more appropriate to say, never noticed the sign before. The design of the cardinal in the tree made me take note. We passed several of them. Gregg reminded me that we had taken a different route home this time.

That's me in the collage. You may notice that my cell phone is on a lanyard that I keep permanently wrapped around my wrist. Gregg bought it for me as I once almost lost my phone out the window while taking pictures, and it was almost buffeted out of my hands. I am always taking photos out the passenger side window. The lanyard is always attached to my phone. It's been saved a few times as I have also dropped it while walking. It gives me an awful start as if it hit the pavement, well I don't like to think about it. But that good old lanyard saved the day yet again.

The house that I love always greets us as we walk up one of the paths from the parking lot. The berries are still keeping the birds happy, and part of the Moon Gate can be seen behind me. 

I didn't get very far as my knee is just not cooperating. We made our way back to the car, disappointed I could go no further even with my cane. I made it 300 yards along the pathway and could not go any further as knee started to give way. The important thing is I made a start and hopefully each time we come here, I will be able to walk a little further. 

My goal is still to get back to Huntley Meadows in the Spring, or even Meadowlark Gardens. Huntley Meadows is a long, long walk to get to the marshy area where all the bird life is, and Meadowlark has a very big hill to walk up and down.  

However, baby steps and I am eager to go for another walk. We will definitely wait for another nice day like this one, after all the bitterly cold days we have had. The sun was shining and it felt wonderful, a real tonic.  

Have a great day everyone and 

thank you for stopping by. 

RANDOM PHOTO

(A photo from my archives, taken when on holiday in Florida several years ago. You can read all about this plant here if you would like to know more.)

BERRIES APLENTY!

Birds sing
Lunch bell rings
Sun Shines
Happy feathers fly!

MONDAY RECIPE POST - MIXED BERRY CROSTATA

This Monday's recipe comes from Saving Room for Dessert, hosted by Tricia.  You can find it here. Thank you Tricia for not only a delicious but very pretty dessert.  Always encourage you to read the original recipe just in case I have missed anything out.  Also there are great recipes to enjoy.

Mixed Berry Crostata

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

For the pastry dough:

2 cups all-purpose flour

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 large egg yolk

2 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:

4 cups mixed berries, (blackberries, blueberries and raspberries)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/3 cup granulated sugar

Juice of 1/2 lemon (I also used the zest)

1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Egg wash

Coarse sugar for topping

Instructions

To prepare the pastry dough:

Combine the flour, salt and powdered sugar in the bowl of a food processor.

Add the butter and pulse until it forms a coarse meal.

Add the egg yolk and ice water and pulse just until the dough comes together.

Gather the dough together and divide into two equal size pieces.

Form each piece into a disc and place on a piece of plastic wrap.  

Wrap tightly and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight. If chilled overnight allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before rolling out.

To assemble the crostata:

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit.

Place the berries in a large mixing bowl.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar and pour over the berries.

Add the lemon juice and toss to combine (if you are using lemon zest add this also).

Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured, clean work surface, roll each half into a 10-inch round. 

You can freeze the extra round.  As there was just  the two of us we didn't make the extra crostata.  We adjusted the filling ingredients accordingly.

(I found a page here to refresh on freezing dough and it said:

"Pie dough is a great keeper in the freezer.  As long as it is tightly wrapped in heavy-duty aluminum foil or freezer-weight plastic wrap and sealed in a freezer bag, it should keep up to 6 months.  Pie dough freezes so well, in fact, you'd be wise to make some extra to keep around for whenever inspiration strikes. For extra convenience you can freeze pie crusts in the pan.  This allows you to roll-out the dough ahead of time, and best of all, the crusts need no thawing prior to baking.  A little extra cooking time is the only adjustment necessary.")

Back to our recipe. Transfer the disc to a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Repeat with the remaining dough if you are using and forget about freezing the extra disc of pastry.

Mound half the berry mixture in the center of a dough round leaving a 2-inch border.

Fold the edges of the dough up, overlapping as needed, covering part of the fruit.

Scatter half the diced butter on top of the fruit.

Brush the dough edges with a lightly beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake the crostatas until crust is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling, about 45–50 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Recipe Notes

Do not make the dough rounds any larger than 10 to 11 inches. The dough will be too thin and not hold together well.

My crostata did not come out as pretty as those in Tricia's photos, but it tasted delicious.  It is the first time I have made anything like this that wasn't in a pie dish and I need practice.  I found a  YouTube video here.  It is very close to Tricia's recipe and it is good to have those pointers.  

I not only juiced the lemon but I also used its zest.  

I bought ready-made puff pastry, the kind that is frozen and comes in two sheets to the box.  

I only needed one sheet and when thawed I placed it on a flour-dusted board.  As they are oblong shapes I used a dinner plate roughly the size needed, and used it as a template to cut out the round shape.  I rolled this out a bit but had to be careful as I didn't want to get it too thin as it will break.  I've used these puff pastry sheets before and have always been pleased with them.  

I used fresh blackberries and strawberries for the filling.  

There are a few slices left for the next couple of days.  

I think that's about all I can think of on the changes I made.

Did anyone ever go blackberry picking?  I would love to hear your story.  On Sunday drives in the countryside when I was very young, my family and I would often find a pretty place to stop and have a picnic.  This was in the 1950's/60's.  Mum sometimes packed sandwiches, but mostly always included cold sausages, hardboiled eggs, and carried a knife for thick slices of fresh bread with butter and cheese, probably a few other things I can't remember, and pop.  On the way home Dad would find a farmers gate to tuck the car into, read his newspaper while Mum, my sister and I walked along the lane and searched the hedgerows looking for wild blackberries.  These quiet country lanes which barely fit one car width, rarely had any traffic and we were quite safe but you know, always aware with eyes and ears.  Sometimes we would collect enough to make a pie and sometimes just enough to fill a small bowl topped with cream for that night's dessert.  Another nice memory from childhood.

Writing this on the 4th of July, I am listening to the sound of fireworks and firecrackers as we enter the twilight hour.  We opened our patio door, stepped outside for a while and watched at least two families, and listened to the giggles of small children. The heat had gone out of the day and it felt very pleasant.  I would gladly sit outside if it were not for the humidity and worst of all the mosquitoes. We are not very fond of each other.  (How on earth did they get on Noah's ark?)  Well, I should say they are fond of me but I definitely don't return the feeling.  The first time they arrive they always take me by surprise and I start swatting.  It isn't long before I have a dozen or so bites. The next day I am itching like crazy, tormented by the fact that I can't scratch while reaching for the magic ointment to calm the fire.  Occasionally one gets inside the house and I wake up with my feet or elbows on fire.  They leave hubs completely alone.  Noah, for crying out loud?

Enough of the jest, we spent our day quietly just the two of us, the first time in many years on Independence Day.  The introvert in us is okay with that and we both enjoyed it, though we obviously thought of our family and friends.  God willing, as my dear old Dad used to say, there is always next year.  He was also introverted but always optimistic.