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!

Fall Chores Begin - 2019 Edition

All growing season, as far back as Spring, the dreaded time has been looming...

How to deal with all the shiso?  There was just too much to eat through Spring and Summer.  Now, the Fall dilemma: Seek and destroy in advance next year's weedy overabundance, or leave the seed heads to feed the birds?  As soon as the flowers began to appear, my goal had been to go in with scissors and snip the buds before they went to seed.  But between vacation, then getting ready for leave, then recuperation, it got to be too late.  Now there are seeds.

And the seeds brought birdie visitors to stop in and dine - a male house finch, according to Google photos and various sites.

The naturalists say to leave the seed heads.  Sissy agrees; she says this is supposed to be a very harsh Winter, and the birdies will need all the sustenance they can get.  Don't relish the thought of starving birdies.  So, next Spring's weeding and shiso culling and consumption will just have to be particularly aggressive.  Oh well.

Then there was the windblown mess from the recent rainy nor'easter.  One of the gutter planters that had been unused all season came toppling down.  It will stay on the ground until Spring.  Then, hopefully, portulaca or poppies.... to be determined.

"Holiday" Hepburn/Grant Style

Holidays - in classic films, in real life.

Serendipitous Saturday night introductions to classic films like "Holiday," starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, courtesy of PBS, totally count as happening when you're an introvert in mid-life and on mandated medical leave, taking it slow and not going out much.  So, I had an absolutely rockin' Saturday evening!

Apropos of nothing, so did NBC's Harry Smith, although it sounded like he spent Saturday viewing that same broadcast of "Holiday" just a smidge differently - relishing in his alone time to throw open the windows and smoke cigars while viewing....

It was a gem of a film, really resonated.  I recognized both Linda/John and Julia, all duking it out inside my one brain.  One of those films that makes me reconsider my life choices.  And without the distraction of work, there's time, too much time, to ponder and noodle.  BigLaw was always the expected, well-worn path.  And so, to counter that, there is a tremendous magnetism about those who chose differently - the NF's of the world (attended the premier schools, but then chose adventure in the military, that led to life overseas, to NGOs, to work in conflict zones that allows for travel holidays every six weeks - NOT a life compatible with my current stable one)... I want to think I have Linda in me, but fear I am too much Julia.

All this time during my medical "holiday," when not noodling, has afforded space to practice getting back to the routine - i.e., outside and moving - too.  So, step by step, on to adventures farther afield ...

Autumn foliage in Poughkeepsie. 

...but for the first practice run, it was a lunch outing with a law schoolmate, former colleague, friend at BigLaw Firm#2.  Took me back to old stomping grounds, viewed with fresh eyes, revealing new details.

And in the meanwhile, on the home front, there were more well wishes, from a dear longtime high school friend.  Such a great fortune to have longstanding, caring friends.

And also to have family, game for indulging my whims to explore uncharted territory and make the most of this mandatory "holiday" ...

Spirit Store

If consumption is a necessary aspect of modern life, which, of course, it is, then Precycle is where all of my grocery spending dollars would be left, if it were practical and feasible.  A supermarket that eliminates all packaging?  Yes, please!  Totally in line with my philosophy and the direction in which I've been trying to move for two decades.  Now, if only they'd open an outpost on the Upper East Side.

(As an aside, Brooklyn, yet again, seems to be my spirit borough - it being the locale of Precycle.  Sigh.  Still fighting that one.)

In that vein, on the plant front, seeds without packaging ... straight from the source in Carl Schurz Park.  Decided to take a stroll out to forage for some seeds from some of the specimens I've been eyeing.  Double-petaled hibiscus was a successful target.

Double-petaled hibiscus specimen in Carl Schurz Park, against tonight's pretty pink and purple evening sky.

Those seeds will go into the planter that just received the little baby hibiscus plants that sprang from the hedge at the Mother Garden (the best source of no-packaging plantlings if there ever was one).  If they all take and survive the winter, well, we'll deal with culling decisions if they need to be made when that bridge looms - happily too far off at the moment.

Hibiscus seedlings, from the hedge at the Mother Garden, originally from Neighbor Lady's since culled hibiscus.

Seeds from the green shiso formerly in the planter now housing the hibiscus seedlings.  That shiso was the last survivor, all the leaves having been eaten and all its neighbors gone into my belly.  Now, question is whether the shiso seeds can be consumed, whether their omega-3 potential can be tapped.

Also in the Jardin today, dianthus seeds were gathered and cast.  To a more prolific year for the dianthus in 2020!  Tomorrow some will be gathered and kept inside as a hedge.

Dianthus seeds - from an especially productive pod.  The moss cover was pulled back and the seeds scattered beneath onto the soil.  Little plants from seeds planted earlier in the year seem to have taken, and little baby dianthus plants have emerged through the moss; they won't survive the winter, but nice to know the seeds are good and the technique the correct one.

October Restoratives - Anomaly Edition

Sometimes it takes a long while to get spurred into action and make hard life choices.  Some of us contemplate a whole lot more than the average Joes and Janes - more meticulous?  Maybe.  Or maybe just plain scared sh*tless to step off the beaten path.  And then we decide, but the heavens decide a monkey wrench is in order instead.  Nothing like a health curve ball to keep things interesting....

And health is perpetually the squeakiest wheel.  It has to be; everything else is meaningless without life.  And even then, when it came time to scheduling procedures, instinctively my immediate reaction was to see whether everything could fit in around Tax Day client demands - life coach friends would say capitalism and the patriarchy got their claws in and don't let go easily.  And it's true; the nagging guilt only let go when I pried them off.  But waiting till year end wasn't a good alternative.  So the schedule was set on MY timeline for a change.  Once in a while, personal priorities get oiled first.

Yes, this is all very cryptic.  The lawyer in me is skeptical about disclosing personal information on a public blog, even while the whole point of the blog is to be public.  Ah well ... feeling my way through THAT balance.  Suffice it to say a medical issue needed tending, and now disability benefits have kicked in.  A blessing in disguise.  The only other time I have been away from work this long was the last procedure.  An anomaly.

Very kindly, floral well wishes arrived from the Orifice to the Mother Ship, where the post-hospitalization recuperation began...

... all the better to access Mommy comfort food, a necessity for re-establishing the gut microbiome that got decimated by the post-surgical fasting and clear diet...

Brown rice fish congee, and invocation of the social exceptions clause to the vegetarian policy.  There should be a health exception too, so the social exceptions clause needn't be stretched so thin.

... and the boardwalk out at Jones Beach for slow practice walks on unusual 90 degree days in October.  It was a most lovely way to ramp back up gradually to full mobility and get the digestive tract back on track.

Beach goldenrod.

Whale sculpture - a relatively recent addition.

The full picture - hollow inside, save for plastic bottles and debris, to draw attention to the impact of our plastic consumption habit on our wild marine friends.

Blessings disguised around illness and mandated recuperation and disability leave.  Fingers crossed that these disguised blessings pave the way for greater blessings.