A sunny day here and Attila is using it to its fullest advantage. He is repairing the roof on the screened in porch, which has had issues since it was built; largely due to some unusual design specifications I insisted on. He is also gathering materials to take to the little house when we next visit. Further winterization of our country house is also high on his list for today. He will install the insulated panels over the windows downstairs and parts of the windows upstairs, literally boarding up the windows to prevent excessive heat loss. And finally, there is a lot of wood to split!
I am having a very busy day as well. I’ve been baking apple crisp, two so far and another will go into the oven this afternoon. I baked bread yesterday for the first time since we started commuting to the little house on a regular basis. Attila is extremely pleased to be eating homemade bread again, as he does not consider commercially made bread to be palatable.
My most recent visit to the doctor revealed that my blood pressure is excellent but my cholesterol levels are slowly creeping up. Yikes. I had hoped to reduce my dosage on that medication because it has terrible effects on my digestive system. Rather than reducing the dosage, I’m facing an eventual increase. So, after reading various forums where people have talked about what worked them in reducing their cholesterol levels, I decided to eat nuts and oatmeal daily. I used to eat granola daily, but I now find it far too difficult to chew, since the difficulties I had at the dentist’s office. However, I’ve come up with a plan, and that is the oatmeal apple crisp, made with very little fat or sugar and lots and lots of apples. Nuts make a very satisfying snack food. I began with walnuts and will add almonds to my list of snacks. To that end I purchased a kilogram of raw almonds last weekend, and today roasted them. Delicious! I spread a single layer on a cookie sheet and baked them at 350F for 15 minutes, very simple. I’ll store them in large glass canning jars.
I was tooting around on the computer when I ran into a few blasts from the past. One is an article describing a school closing in Toronto. I began my teaching career at this school, just after it opened its doors to students. Now it is closing! How time flies and how things change. This is the article describing the closure of Arlington Senior Public School.
My university years in Toronto were filled with wonderful experiences and very wonderful friends. I found an article that includes one of my friends. I was glad to see that she is surviving, and sad to see that she has had to struggle to do so. Kris Scheuer wrote an article that describes Mary Milne’s struggle with hunger, representative of the struggle of many in Toronto and elsewhere.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
13 °C
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.2 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 13.0°C
Dewpoint: 3.1°C
Humidity: 51 %
Wind: WNW 15 km/h
Quote
“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
Kurt Vonnegut
(1922 – 2007)