zucchini 3 ways

I'm taking another day off from walking… my back is still giving me lots of trouble unfortunately :-(  The last few days I have walked a full hour but then end up gimping around the rest of the day so today I'll try another full rest day. It's gotten a lot better than it was almost 2 weeks ago but still isn’t great… I'm not sure what I wrenched but it was something bad!

Today is overcast and cooler, but the last week has had days and days of hot, sunny weather! It's been glorious, at least for those of us with AC… I pity the people without and especially those that have to work outside. We were able to have the shade cover up for several days in a row so I've been able to convalesce in paradise!

I did pry myself off the sofa on Friday to do some prep for Saturday's afternoon visit with Olaf & Steph. I kept it pretty simple but it still seems that everything took ages to make, especially when I had to lie down to rest often. 

Friday after his golf game, Carm dashed to Costco for a package of their awesome wings which cook up ‘real good’ in the actifry. I made Greek potatoes and popped them in the fridge giving the potatoes a chance to convert its sugars to a resistant starch which doesn't spike blood sugars as much. Saturday, I just heated them in a frying pan with a tiny bit of olive oil, and yes, more garlic! The leftovers have seen a few incarnations, including with lentils and roasted zucchini last night 😀 

I did an experiment with the focaccia… instead of just garlic and rosemary, I loaded it with sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, feta, and thai basil flowers. It was good and a definite do-over!

Olaf and Steph arrived sometime past 1pm on Saturday, just as the focaccia came out of the oven, so we had a quick snack and then went straight outside for the rest of the day! It was a gorgeous day and I was determined to eek every last moment of summer… 

Monday Carm played golf in the afternoon and the weather was still fantastic, so I sent a last minute invite to Mom and Kirsten for a ‘girls’ afternoon on the deck. It was another lazy day in the heat of summer :-)

Aside from those two social afternoons, I've done nothing… we've eaten a certain amount of take-out and easily made meals… I just can't stand at the kitchen counter for long, especially by the end of the day. It's incredibly frustrating! I was just getting back to my workout routine before I hurt myself… now I'll be back to square 1 (well maybe not 1 but not where I was!). I can't even imagine lifting a weight at the moment :-(

Yesterday I forced myself to walk for an hour, with a few breaks for stretching, which I think was a mistake… then after a stint outside and a bit of a rest I tackled a pile of zucchini. Some I made into a sort of fritter which I can heat up for supper one night, the rest is in ribbons ready to make the lemon zucchini salad, I just have to make the dressing which seems insurmountable at this moment… At the end of all that I could barely stand, let alone walk, so I just read in bed for a few hours. Ugh!

Over the past few days I did manage to get some garlic chili crisp made with the rest of last year's garlic, and sliced some lemons for the freezer. Carm got me another bag from Costco today, so I'll slice a bunch more, but also make some lemon zucchini cake for the freezer! Lemons and zucchini are a great combination!

Tonight we revisited an old favorite movie… ‘Moonstruck’ never fails to bring a few laughs as well as some tears… Carm's got some arias playing now - one of these days we must go to an opera in person!

Awesome!

“more summer days”

“focaccia with extra toppings”

“lunch with Mom and Kirsten”

time passes faster

As was forecast, last Thursday was unsettled with dark clouds marching across the sky, keeping me mostly inside. With more moderate temperatures, it was the perfect day to get the clippers out to sheer Lupa. She's sleek and shiny again! 

In the afternoon I met up with Mom & Dad at liquidation for a little shop and then coffee at Tim's. I bought a linen’ish dress which can be dressed up or down. I think I have everything that I need for our trip this November! Oh, and on the way home I popped into a little thrift store that I'd never been to - and scored two tops to go with the beige striped linen pants I bought a few days ago. One is dressy, perfect for dinners out, and the other is a simple tank top. 

Friday I got up at the crack of dawn so I could do my exercise and then get some food made to take to the villetta. I got everything made ahead of time that I could, but would have to make the lentils when we got to the villetta…. in the end we settled for take-out fish & chips for dinner Friday night as it was just Kirsten home. I only had the lemon zucchini salad to contribute on Saturday as we were out all day…

Saturday we putzed around all morning, taking the dogs for a longish walk, coffee with Kirsten and Shawn, then we got ready to go to Kingston for my friend June's father's Celebration of Life. I've written about June's father, Mr. Jenkins, during the Write Your Life class that I did at the library years ago… he hired me out of high school for a temporary job that turned into a 29+ year career in IT… a turning point that influenced my whole life.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7eCjar2ZfkU?si=wahJ8bz2TOL6C7cI  My contribution to the memorial video.

It was a lovely gathering in the garden of a glitzy club in downtown Kingston. The weather was perfect with a cloudless blue sky, and not blazing hot! A week ago would have been another story all together… 

I'll segue back to Saturday morning… Shawn is big into fitness and cross-fit so I thought it would be a good idea to get some tips from him… I'm hoping to be able to do a few pushups someday but my form was all wrong so we got that straightened out (I can barely do 1 kneeling pushup) and then there was another plank with shoulder tap which was also very hard… one or both of those totally F'd up my back and core as I seem to have over strained a few key muscles. So I've been gimping around, barely able to move or stand since. I thought that by today I'd be back to walking on the treadmill, but I'm still having a hard time walking to the kitchen sink! Obviously I have some pretty big weaknesses… more goals!

Sunday we came home in the morning and did the usual Sunday stuff… then yesterday, despite being barely able to move, I perched on a low stool washing the dirt from the garlic as Carm pulled it. We managed to get the whole 150+ bulbs harvested and stored away in the garage to cure. Most were pretty decent sized bulbs, possibly better than last year's.

Our garlic from last year is on its last legs so the harvest is just in time - I should try to rescue what I can and make garlic crisp oil… maybe tomorrow when I can stand at the counter for longer... I also have a bag of lemons to slice and freeze. My experiment with freezing whole lemons was a success, but I'd like some pre-sliced to pop into my water jug :-)  We can get lemons from countries other than the USA right now so I want to stock up!

Do you ever wonder if time passes the same way for all the creatures of the earth? How does time pass for a fly? How long does a minute seem? When I squashed the horsefly on the window, did it seem like a minute or hour to it or did it die in an instant like it was for me? When your lifespan is 30 days (which I was surprised to learn - I thought maybe a few days at most!), does a minute seem like weeks? A human's lifespan is about 29,000 days longer than a fly's!

Awesome!

“fish & chips”

“those damn mini carrot cakes from Costco - we will never buy them again as I could not resist their siren call in the middle of the night - who am I fooling? They called me 24/7 as if they were made with heroin and not just plain sugar…”

“great garlic harvest on a beautiful day”

melting brain

 It's another scorcher! I think it's the hottest day yet and here I am, freshly out of the pool and clean from my outdoor shower. I had a good workout today - I felt stronger than I have for a while…  I'm in bliss! Peaceful easy feeling washes over me whenever I take a moment to be grateful for life. It's hard to be unhappy these days!

Yesterday was our 36th anniversary! We went out for supper with Julie & Peter, Ken & Francine, just to the Works for burgers. Somehow the Keg seemed like too big of a slab of meat. Julie & Peter got married on the same day we did, all those years ago! 

Looking back over those 36 years, it seems like it's been a very gentle rollercoaster ride and as the years pass, it just keeps getting better and smoother. Every obstacle that we've faced together has strengthened our relationship - I feel lucky to go through life with someone who has my back and is there when I need him most. He never fails to show up on my dark days. 

I think the heat is melting my brain and making me maudlin! 

I just recently discovered k.d. lang and I feel like I've missed out on her beautiful voice all these years! I saw a youtube video of an opera singer watching her sing ‘Hallelujah’ for the first time - he was blown away and went over some of the highlights and how they show such tremendous talent. I believe Leonard Cohen said that she sung it best!

okay… it's f'n hot out today! I'm sweating already and am not sure if I'll be able to spend the afternoon outside 😱  Maybe I need to get the fan out. The crazy thing is my body does not like the heat and I can start feeling sick pretty fast if I can't get cool. I've always been like that but some of my medications made it worse, however,  I love the heat and there are only a few things that feel more awesome than getting hot and cooling down in the pool… summers would suck pretty hard for me without it. A lake or ocean would be nice too :-)

So while I'm ‘suffering’ in the heat, Carm is suffering in the dentist chair - which is downtown in the city, so not only does he have to endure a filling, he also has to battle horrendous traffic to get there and home.

Humidex is 41 at 1:30pm… forecast to be 43 by 3pm when we take the dogs to get their nails trimmed. Yikes - two dogs in a hot car…

Oh, I have to ask you a favour… a few months ago I got a tub of creatine to add to my morning protein shake… it's supposed to be good for muscle growth, and a bunch of other good things, however! Some brief research revealed that it triggers hypomania for some people… am I one of those people? At the time I wasn't ready to risk it since I was going through so much on the tamoxifen. Well, the other day I did some more research, this time going beyond the one study. There are lots (it seems) of people that have no trouble at all, some felt just a tiny boost in mood and energy, although there were a few people that did trigger a stronger response… so… I'm giving it a try but will be on the lookout for mood changes. If you notice that my writing seems a little ‘out there’, please let me know! (I know I'm blathering on more than usual, but I only started taking it yesterday so there would be no effect yet - the people who it affected, didn't start to see changes for 2 weeks… so it’s just my normal spectrum).

I'm not too worried as I've got a strong habit of checking in with myself… but sometimes I am too paranoid and freak out at the smallest change… and surely having some days with more energy would be considered normal? I've spent so many years in a bit of a daze and struggle with energy most days, mostly triggered by my meds… I'll take it day by day and rely heavily on Carm to be a bellwether.

… past supper time… the deck has been ‘put to bed’ for the next few days - there's lots of rain in the forecast tomorrow and if I'm honest, a little break from the sun is a good thing! I'll spend the morning getting Lupa trimmed up and the afternoon with my parents 😀 

Awesome!

“36 good years”

“sweat”

“stretching out on my deck chair, feeling like a cat in a sunspot”

“peaceful easy feeling”

“burgers with friends”

“my little corner of paradise”