Hello Family and Friends,
Here is last week's daily journal. Thank you once again for all the nice comments and emails you send me about these, and for the encouragement to continue. I will keep putting them together for as long as I am able to jot things down.
The above weather forecast is for this week, 2-24-25 to 3-3-25.
(I am starting off with a road picture when we were out and about the other day in Manassas (Virginia)).
Monday, February 17th, 2025 - 9:55 p.m: I realized I hadn’t started this.
Dad and son were in Annapolis this morning. It was a short get together as Gregg had an appointment for his wellness check in the afternoon. His doctor’s office is in the next building to where I had my physiotherapy appointments.
I did my knee exercises, reading, tidied up the kitchen and a few other chores, blogging and that was my day. It went fast.
So what was on the menu today?
Breakfast: a banana and black coffee. An interesting combination I know. Didn’t feel like much.
Lunch: Greek plain yogurt and with a few strawberries and blueberries.
Dinner: I made sausage, spinach and mushroom egg bites.They were very good and I made a dozen of them. Gregg was back by then and enjoyed them. They are quite small so we had two each. I will be sharing them next Monday. We had a spinach salad on the side, with cherry tomatoes, artichoke halves, Kalimata olives and diced avocado.
Snack: a bowl of skinny popcorn.
Tuesday, February 18th, 2025 - 12:22 a.m:
Gregg showed me his Facebook entry telling about his wellness check. It’s what he told me when he got home yesterday, and today he put it on Facebook to give family and friends a chuckle. I asked him could I share it here.
The name he used for his bread Killer Dave, he meant Dave's Killer Bread, which is a strange name but it's a great tasting wheat bread.
Gregg’s FB post:
"I went to my doctor yesterday for a regular check in. Went something like this.
Your blood pressure is a little high.
I have white coat syndrome.
Let’s try again, OK that’s good.
How are we doing on your diet?
I’ve given up white bread for Killer Dave’s.
That’s good.
How about rice?
I have a cup a week.
White or brown?
White.
Switch to brown.
How about exercise?
I go to Costco a lot and walk around.
See if you can do more vigorous walking.
OK!
Do cold showers help Doc? My wife’s brother-in-law in Germany takes them.
They won’t hurt if you work into it gradually.
They do a lot of that stuff in Norway. They lived there for a while.
The Norwegians are very healthy.
He told me they help get rid of brown fat. What’s that?
I’ll have to do some research on that he says.
Since he is a young resident, a senior doctor reviews his notes and comes by to say hi
She enters.
You’re doing great!
What’s with all the G’s in your name?
I thank her and give her the short version of the G’s.
I leave feeling happy.
My guess as to the conversation between docs after I leave.
Senior: Any questions?
Junior: Why did you tell him he was doing great?
Senior: He’s making progress - baby steps.
Senior: Did you see what I did about his name?
Junior: Yes, he liked answering your question.
Senior: Isn’t human behavior interesting?
Junior: But aren’t you treating him as a child?
Senior: Now you’re getting it, and as she left, and to Junior. That’s a nice blue suit you’re wearing.
Me to Gregg: as I read this, a thought came into my head and was out of my mouth.
I bet you didn’t tell him what you had for breakfast in that old greasy spoon diner earlier today?
Gregg: baby steps."
Gregg is seriously looking at having cold showers for all the health benefits my brother-in-law says he is getting. It does sound very interesting and his doctor in Germany is a big proponent of cold showers. Anyone reading this had cold showers for their health? Curious as always.
Wednesday , February 19th, 2025 - 3:56 p.m:
For breakfast we had 2 of those sausage and spinach egg bites, and shared an avocado.
Just finished eating my lunch, which was a jacket potato. I didn’t feel like much and wasn’t in the mood to spend a long time in the kitchen.
It started snowing this morning but only lasted 20 minutes. Tomorrow it is supposed to do the same but it is negligible. Last week the forecast showed two days of heavy snow.
I watched two episodes of Father Brown on BritBox. I enjoyed it but two episodes was enough for a bit.
Thursday, February 20th, 2025 - 2.20 p.m: a week ago I had my last physiotherapy session, and I was surprised that I missed heading over to the hospital. Strange!
(The photo below shows where we parked our car and we were intending to walk to and around the house, doing a loop back to the car.)
I asked Gregg if he would like to go over to Manassas to the Old Stone House, and have a car picnic. He was all for it. I said it would be a good opportunity to get some exercise, as it's nice and flat to the house and back (plus we wouldn't be tempted to stop anywhere for fast food).
We packed two small flasks of soup, made simple sandwiches (lacy Swiss cheese, sliced tomato and a lettuce leaf on wheat bread (mine), and a sub roll with cheese, onion and lettuce for Gregg (he needed a change from Dave's Killer Bread), and an apple each.
We stopped off at Trader Joe's as it's on the way. We had in mind to pick up a pack of their fresh pineapple juice that we have been enjoying, the kind that is nice and compact in small cans. I asked Gregg if he could pick up a packet of miniature dark chocolate peanut butter cups for me, and a snack for himself. He came out of the store with limeade as there was no pineapple juice, and my peanut butter cups but he didn't fancy a snack. Here's dessert.
Well, we had a fun time and the place was deserted. We settled in the parking lot of the Old Stone House, facing the hill where we have watched kids sliding down when it snows in the past. It's a great toboggan hill and both parents and kids have a fun ride to the bottom. The only snow that was left were tiny bumps of white scattered over the hillside. Amazingly, we had a few flurries as we were sitting there, but it didn't last long. That was odd because the sun was shining.
We enjoyed our sandwiches and soup but forgot our apples. That will be a snack for later. The limeade was delicious, very tart but we like it that way. I had three of the peanut butter cups and they were a nice treat.
It was time for our walk. I had my walking stick already to go. Thinking my gloves and winter coat with hood and heavy lining, sweater, scarf and thick woolly socks would be enough, we started our walk. First, we walked a short distance and took a photo of the historical markers nearby. It didn't take us long to look at each other wondering if the other was thinking what they were thinking. I said, "Crikey, I think it's too cold for a walk!" The wind was bitterly cold. Gregg gave me a big smile. He had been waiting for me as I believe he knew it was like stepping into a freezer before we stepped into the freezer.
It was 28 degrees F. Gregg was happy - as was I - and we turned the heat on high after we hopped back into the car. We were already a couple of frozen popsicles. Plans were good but plans need to be thought about considering the temperature. We should have worn about four layers of clothing, and we will try again next week. We said goodbye to The Old Stone House and said, "See you next time!"
We drove the long way home having done a loop on the other side of Manassas. It was a nice ride out and I am now at home, sitting here drinking my chamomile, enjoying the inner heat and feeling nice and toasty, no longer a popsicle.
When we turned into our road, a beautiful hawk flew over us very low. It was trash day and it had been exploring a neighbor's bags of trash a few doors up the road. A real beauty of a bird but glad the smaller birds were taking cover. Not good for him to get into the trash either. I have never seen one do that before.
And talking about beautiful birds, Gregg’s sister shared a photo of a Spotted Eastern towhee she had taken. On looking Gregg also found that a group of these birds is called a teapot of towhees. The following photo is one I found at Pixabay and you can read about them at this link.
My sister-in-law takes wonderful photos of birds in her area. I have never seen this one in ours. She lives about five hours away. Added note: thanks to David of Travels With Birds (see in comment section), I learned that the towhee I mentioned is actually an Eastern Towhee. The 'spotted' would be found in the western states. Thanks again David, I am very happy to learn it's exact ID. I have corrected this above and also changed the website that now takes us to the Eastern Towhee.
Here is a diagram showing both Spotted and Eastern, and also Abert's Towee which I know nothing about. I will put links on the following names. Spotted towhee, Eastern Towhee and Abert's Towhee.
Now to the mundane, dinner tonight was a piece of cod baked in the oven, served with peas and a few pan-fried potatoes using olive oil spray. The same with the cod, a light spray of olive oil, sprinkled with little salt and pepper, garlic and onion powder, pop in the oven at 405 degrees F. for 20 minutes. The original instructions called for 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Our oven runs colder. It was a thick piece of cod and the changes were perfect. It easily flaked with a fork. I added a tablespoon of chili crisp on the top for garnishing and taste.
Friday, February 21st, 2025: Gregg's morning started off a little more interestingly than most mornings. He was meeting up with son who had some business in Maryland, and he was going along for another ride. He always says the fun is in the journey and never misses a chance to get together. Our son goes off for a couple of hours and his dad enjoys looking around until they meet up again. He gets that exercise.
It is 3:19 p.m. and they are now together and making their way home. First thing this morning he texted me to say he had a story to tell. A couple of hours later when he was waiting for son to come back, he called. He also wrote everything down and said I could put it on here. He wants a record of the experience to look back on, one of those interesting memories that is a cautionary tale as well.
This is his written down version. "I was heading over to our son and daughter-in-law's place and I reached an area of parking spaces which isn't very large. You have to drive over several speed bumps and I’m driving about 5 miles an hour. All of a sudden, I see a black car coming directly at me at what I thought was about 35 miles an hour in this little parking area. I stopped and pulled to the side as far as I could, thinking they have to see me. They’re coming right at me and at the last second the car swerves to the right and we miss each other by an inch or two. She, the lady driving the car, stops, rolled down the window and says I’m sorry but didn’t seem that sorry, to which I say, you might want to slow down, and she drives on, a little more slowly this time."
We both said we were thankful there was no one walking around as you often see people between the cars here, about to walk across the parking lot to their homes. School kids had not long been picked up to start their day. We were trying to figure out why on earth she was driving like that in a space that had barely room for two cars to pass. So that was the start of his day.
Mine has been very quiet in comparison and enjoyed. My introverted nature always seems to kick in. Gregg left a little before 8.00 a.m. I was reading in bed for a while, got ready and had breakfast. Weetabix, banana, 3 dates and a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds.
My day starts off slowly, after breakfast I opened up my laptop to see what was going on in the world. Always nice to catch up with family and friends. I also check my texts.
I do my chores at a snail's pace but what I've done I feel satisfied. Then I sit down and have a cup of coffee as it's still in the morning. I do the knee strengthening exercises as I am looking forward to going over to the garden to see if I can walk further than last time. It's so cold though, as we found out yesterday. The weather is going to start getting a tad warmer and keeping fingers crossed. Otherwise, we thought maybe going to our local inside mall and getting a bit of exercise that way. I can't remember the last time we went there. We are definitely not mall shoppers but we may be mall walkers until the weather turns.
Lunch was a small piece of cod. I also had leftover peas.
I'm going to pop into the kitchen and get myself a cup of my chamomile, honey and vanilla tea, and then I will have a go at a few more chores.
Gregg arrived home and we chatted about his day and mine. Then it was time for bed.
Saturday, February 22nd, 2025: I am sitting here with a wonderful aroma wafting through the house. We have beef stew on the hob and as it has red wine as one of the ingredients to be added to the broth, Gregg poured me a glass of red to sip on. I think it was Rachel Ray who once said when I watched one of her cooking shows years ago, don’t bother buying cooking wine, get something you can also serve up with dinner. I found a box of Atora Beef Suet in the pantry which I bought from our pasty shop, so I am making suet dumplings to go with the stew, channeling my dear mother who never made her stew without suet dumplings. You may have seen the recipe as I was posting it yesterday.
Sunday, February 23rd, 2025 at 6.19 p.m: son came over for a few hours this morning. It goes too quickly. He brought me a coffee and a poppyseed muffin today.
Gregg and I had the stew and dumplings for lunch and it seemed even better. I suppose the flavors have had a chance to develop.
Dinner was light, we grazed. A little chicken, a banana, a Greek lemon yogurt and that seemed to take care of me for the day.
This is the end of last week's around-and-about.
Thanks for looking everyone, and I hope your week is going great.
