hibernation

 Hibernation. I've turned into a bear - fat and full from gorging myself on sugary treats and now ready to withdraw from life for a while to hang out in bed. It's not dire yet of course, I have been extracting myself from my den under the covers to venture into the main part of the house, where ‘life’ happens. Alas, I still can't pry myself from a semi-reclining position for more than a few moments.

I'm pretty sure my lethargy is directly linked to the 2 days of freezing rain that we've had this week… more cloud and precipitation to dull the spirits. And now the snow is wrecked for any winter activities 😞 

I couldn't even pry myself out of the house to go visit Mom and Dad while Carm went to Costco yesterday. It's easy to forget that this is a normal state for January/February so I'm not worried and will just go with the flow… at least for now.

It wasn't hasn't been like that for long - earlier in the week, and last week, I ‘walked’ with Kirsten four times - from the balmy comfort of the treadmill while she braves the wicked cold and ice on the roads near her place. Twice we walked for an hour! Once 50 minutes, and another short walk of 20 minutes. Wednesday Christina came over to help me snowshoe paths in the field for the dogs - I think we were out for almost 45 minutes - a good workout!

But now I've sunk into a laziness so profound that I can barely make myself a cup of coffee! On with the show though - tonight Pat is coming for supper! I'm downing an extra bit of caffeine to get me energized (will it work? not so far!). Perhaps a bit of music will help.

A few days ago (or was it a full week ago? time is such a flexible construct) I dug out the recipe for bread that I developed 20 years ago. It's been almost that long since I last made it so had to make a few semi-educated guesses… I'd written fairly cryptic notes on recipe cards - the ingredients and proportions were different on each one! So I guessed and got on with it (making better notes this time!).

I'd read somewhere (who the heck knows where - was there even internet back then?), that half the flour could be replaced with bran or other things… so the recipe ended up having 4 ½ cups of flour with 2 ½ cups of bran, ½ cup cornmeal (I'm going to change this to chickpea flour next time), ¾ cup oatmeal, ½ cup ground flax, and ½ cup sunflower seeds. It's got olive oil, molasses, and surprisingly, 2 eggs. Next time I'll add some chopped walnuts as well. It's a dense bread, packed with protein and fibre - I can trick myself into thinking it's healthy!

(I just entered the recipe into an analyzer… only 4g protein per slice so not amazing… boo hiss!)

It's nice toasted with peanut butter, but is da bomb with the cheese puff topping I saw on FB. Crack 1 egg onto a pile of grated cheese (enough to top 4 small slices of bread), mix well, toast the bread, then put it onto a baking sheet and top with the cheese mixture. Bake in the air-fryer for about 6 minutes or until it's bubbling and brown. Yum! 

I have had to start locking Lupa into her crate when I get on the treadmill - if I slow down my pace, she's quick to hop on which would be fine, except she jumps at my legs trying to get me to pick her up - not ideal or safe! She shows no fear of it and can trot along quite well. We could work on her technique but I don't want to create a super-fit Lupa!!!! She's already full of energy and speed, the last thing she needs is to dial that up - no, I'm wrong, the last thing that I need is for her to dial up her busyness!

Awesome!

“not as much freezing rain as expected”

“the sun coming out for a few minutes while snowshoeing with Christina”

“enough leftovers that I barely had to cook all week”

“weird little circles in the snow”