Christmas 2019 in the Rear View Mirror

Christmas 2019 at the Mother Ship in Queens.

Before more time passes, some images to record the day ... a mish mash of Mother Hen hobbies (that’s right, the plants have taken over the upstairs bathroom), Papa Rooster eccentricities (juxtaposition of scale model of house and erratic holiday lighting of actual house), and my hobbies/just being...

Wooden Snoopy, painted at a classmate's party sometime during the latter half of elementary school.

Santa socks, snow globe pajamas.

Mama's African violets.

Papa's model of the Mothership.

Papa's lights for the coming year.

Burlap wrapped gift with recycled ribbon and card tag.

Haphazard tree lights.

A lot lamp post.

Mama's amaryllis.

Bathroom jungle, by the only southern exposure upstairs.

Christmas cactus, blooming on schedule.

More African violets...

... in different shades.

Classic poinsettia.

What’s to be drawn from this?  Interestingly, my interests seem to be a mix of theirs.  The green thumb is definitely Mother Hen.  The shelter interest would seem more Papa Rooster, though, truth be told, he hasn’t a particularly strong interest in home improvement - his has more to do with blingy-ness of whatever is on hand or has caught his eye at that moment.  And the overarching theme?  A high tolerance for some messiness and coziness and relaxed, non-neat, non-minimal, non-streamlined existence.

[Edited February 8, 2025 to add photo captions and delete "compromised" tag.]

That Man Woman Work Thing

We think we're enlightened, but men and women still revert to traditional roles when making use of workplace leave policies.

So, we've come a long way, but not far enough.  Women are still supposed to be nurturers and men are still supposed to be breadwinners....  So employers offer all these great policies that are supposed to support families, and then corporate America thinks it has done all it can do.  But men don't actually utilize the benefits.  And women do; more like, women are stuck utilizing the benefits.  So then women get dinged, and men don't.  And so the cycle continues - women make less, so then it makes more sense for them to step away from the workforce.

Argh!!  It's a giant hamster wheel, gentlemen - jump the heck off it once in a while!  Help out the ladies, won't you?  Take your full paternity leave, for heaven's sake!

Too Small to Fail

Making changes can be hard.  But Arianna Huffington breaks it down - first time I have heard the term "microsteps" - all with the goal of "how we can actually be more productive when we prioritize our well-being and take time to unplug and recharge."  The very essence of balance.

It's not a new concept, but nice to get an additional take on the whole process and approachable phrasing to go with it.  As the article says, "behavior change ... is built on the idea of microsteps. These are small, actionable and science-backed steps you can take to make immediate changes in your daily life. It’s the idea that if you make the steps small enough, they’ll become too-small-to-fail. And as research has, starting small makes new habits more likely to stick."

She lays out a plan of ten microsteps.  Happy to say that some are already part of what I do - sitting down for meals, getting away from the desk at work.  But there certainly is room for incorporation of the others - lots of room.

And the approach works for other big goals too, which I have been trying to implement - weight loss and health, activism, many areas where microsteps can be applied.  Maybe those can be the subject of future blog posts - pathways to more content!

In From the Cold

As a caterpillar fattened itself for the coming Winter on the petunias, ...

... it was time to rescue the tender bonus hydrangea...

... and geranium...

... and strawberry plants, ...

...and do some seed gathering along the way. 

Their indoor home will be the planter vacated by one of the old mandevillas that got consolidated. 

Unorthodox gardening tools?  Perhaps slightly unorthodox....  Yes, that is a sled, liberated from the sidewalk piles, great for containing stray soil on slatted tables (and if we ever get our sledding hill back from the bulldozers behind Gracie Mansion, great for use by petite adults!).

And yes, disposable chopsticks wrappers repurposed as seed envelopes. 

And, yup, all of these plant transfers done on the convertible bench table used as half-table while the wooden table awaits repairs.  Repurposing and multitasking!

Marathon Sunday Captivity Activities - 2019

Yorkville life on Marathon Sunday.

Living on the east side of First Avenue, every first Sunday of November means we need to plan on staying put in the neighborhood until much of the New York City Marathon is over.  So, with the sun out yesterday, what better day to plan to transition the tropicals indoors?

But the day started with hauling out to cheer on a high school friend running in the marathon. In years past, sometimes I have missed my tracked runners altogether - easier now that there's a tracking app, but still, there are lots of runners to scan and locate. So this year, a sign was in order. And, drawing inspiration from all the other runners to get up and move...

... off to walk and check out the Smashing Pumpkins event at Andrew Haswell Green Park on the East River Esplanade ...

Finally, back to the task at hand. The old mandevillas did not grow much over the season, and some departed for plant heaven, so one got dug up and consolidated into the planter with the other old timer mandevilla; the interwebs say the tubers aren't really necessary to the plant, but just in case, I decided to move them too and delay any experimental trimming for next Spring. The baby apple trees grown from seeds of a delicious apple moved into the same planter - all a bit crowded, but they can keep each other company New York City style.

Happily, the Thai lime recovered from my neglect of last Winter. Not sure how it will do without a main leader trunk; we shall see. Bringing it in made clear there are little offshoots that will be too close to the main growths, so I decided to try to train them to grow a little more outward.

By dark (earlier now with the end of Daylight Saving time), everyone had been settled into the "Winter Greenhouse" - a.k.a. the unoccupied windowsills in the guestroom.

[Edited February 8, 2025 primarily to intersperse text with photos and remove "compromised" tag.]

Blazing Pumpkins

Autumnal bucket list item #1 - check.  Been wanting to see this since I first heard of it, and it was pretty cool! The parentals enjoyed it too.  Fun things I could do if work were not an issue.  Will have to keep this in mind when the rat race resumes, and try to strike a better balance.

Howloween 2019

Out to get some vitamin D, fresh air, exercise (practice resuming normal life), and liberal dose of canine community immersion....  A small sampling of the done-up doggies, in their Halloween finest.  I may be anthropomorphizing too much, cautiously sneaking only a few photos without asking the pooch parents first; there were more creative costumes, on very wriggly pups - hard to photograph.  But the rains came in, and we left to take shelter.

And then, just a pretty doorway en route to picking up a (single) Persian cucumber and a (single) tomato - you know, to complete the Israeli salad-inspired salad to accompany the leftover homemade falafel for a single girl meal.  New York City living.  One trip out, multiple tasks accomplished.

Functionality in Fits and Spurts, and Falafel

The long yearned for time off hasn't been nearly as productive as envisioned.  Not even close.  At the outset, even with mandated recuperation factored in, it seemed like there would be tons of time to do so many things (tackle the paper piles, organize closets and dressers, vet contractors, complete projects, organize finances, clean out inboxes, get the house in order and life under control).  But it seems mental recuperation takes far more time than physical recuperation.

So onward we plug, substituting low bars for high bars.  And let go.  And accept.  That's why during working spells, those short vacation breaks, even when they are a week long or, gasp!, even the rare two-week respite, are never enough.  It just takes longer to calm the brain.  And when those "vacations" are constantly interrupted by actual work, well, they're not so much vacations at all.  Sigh.  Gotta figure out how to change that.

So today's modest accomplishments were measured in culled flowers (the arrangement from the Orifice got thinned of its rotting members), harvested herbs (it is early Fall, and many are on their last legs), ingredient utilization (chickpeas began soaking days ago, and on the brink of fermenting; the last of a container of tahini settled to the bottom, with a plastic container of lime juice from heaven knows when - before I knew better), and falafel production...

The final assemblage - falafel patties over spinach dressed with a tahini, yogurt, lime juice dressing.

...  (put together harvested herbs, ...

Flat leaf parsley - still very abundant.

Basil, starting to fade, particularly the bottom leaves - but still very fragrant.

The herb harvest, including Vietnamese balm (kinh gioi).

... chickpeas, ...

Mixture of chickpeas, onions, the herbs, and various spices - cumin, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika.  I forgot salt - will remember next time.

review a DVR'd episode of "America's Test Kitchen" and scan the interwebs for tips and variations, and ...

Oven baked method; I remain leery of deep frying, even of shallow frying.  Happy to sacrifice some crunchiness for less mess.

... voila!).

Crisp and browned falafel!