Kitchen / Garden / Sanctuary - Urban Homesteading to Nourish Body + Spirit

Tag: around the house (Page 19 of 27)

A Quiet, Rainy Day

There’s nothing like a cozy, rainy day. I’m loving all the rain we’ve been getting lately, and loving the amazing lushness it’s creating all over the city. I’ve always wanted to live in greener, lusher surroundings…and suddenly I do! It probably won’t last, and summer’s heat will be here soon enough, so I’m really savoring this days-and-days-of-rain pattern. I don’t like biking in the rain, and don’t have anywhere I need to be, so I’ve just been hanging low and staying home. Bliss!

I’m also feeling thankful for being able to work from home. After 5 years of working in a dark basement cubicle with no natural light, it feels like heaven to be doing work whilst sitting by the bedroom window, listening to the rain, sipping tea…nice n’ cozy in my slippers and robe (which Hubby and I call “The Hugh Hefner Robe” because of its luxurious red-velour-like resemblance to something likely to be found in the Playboy mansion!).

So what’s the weather been up to in your area?

Gratitude Sunday * May 15, 2011

My lovely friend Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots has started a new tradition — Gratitude Sunday. Sunday’s a quiet and contemplative day, and a good day to share what we’ve been grateful for over the past week.

Each night I write in my gratitude journal at least 3 things that I’m grateful for that day, though the list is often much longer. I love this quiet ritual, and I also love going back through past years’ journals to see what I was doing “this day six years ago.”

So feel free to participate! What are you grateful for? Leave a comment!

*****

Here’s what I’ve been grateful for this past week:

– An amazing almost-3″ of rain that we desperately needed.

– A string of misty, cool, cloudy, wet, green days this week! Love them!

– A mug of hot tea on a chilly, rainy night.

– Waking up to an incredible dawn chorus of birds this morning, before the city noise began.

– Space heater to press my feet against.

– Spending time in my garden on a priceless glorious evening.

– Taking a break from garden work to eat watermelon with my neighbor on her lovely back porch. She’s 81 (acts like 61!) and is like a grandmother to me. We have a special bond. 🙂

– A magical bike ride at dusk.

– The garden’s growing so well!

– Eating salads where every single thing is homegrown.

– Cool spring air. Our apartment is comfortable and not yet too hot. I’m savoring it!

– Doing some contract work for my former employer; it feels good to use my knowledge and “expertise” again, and we both benefit — they get good work done by someone who knows the ropes of the place, and I get to earn some side money.

– Finishing a big, brain-frying project for them that I worked on all week; it seemed like it would never end, and it involved aggravating sentences like: The company will integrate event escalation procedures to identify incidents that require declaration of an incident. And… All data encryption keys must be stored encrypted and in a secure location. Key-encrypting keys must be stored separate from data-encrypting keys within applicable applications. But it’s done! It ended, I’m happy with how it turned out, and I sent it off tonight. That feels good!

– Not working a daily 9-5 job — just doing contract work from home.

– Got 3 loads of laundry done this weekend.

– Having fresh lilacs and lily-of-the-valley in vases around the house, and smelling them as I pass by.

– Eating a lime-juice popsicle. It tasted so good!

– A quiet, subdued week. A good week.

A Day in the Life: Tuesday, May 3

There was nothing special about today…just felt like documenting it with photos, for fun! I’m still not feeling too great, but I’m tired of being sick and I had things to DO today. So I pretended that I had the energy, and did ’em!

The kitchen this morning...and sauteeing some apples with coconut oil & cinnamon. I should really clean up the kitchen. Maybe tomorrow...

Finally cleaned up the living room! And put the tomato seedlings in the open window for the day. A clean house makes me feel good 🙂

Even cleaned the bathroom too! ! I love lilacs in a vintage bottle vase...

My bike is my car...and it's time for errands!

I like to admire this house on my route to the library...

Isn't this sweet?

Someone's pretty flowers...

First stop is the library. I had some stuff on the Holds shelf. I love the library. If I could give it a hug, I would.

Ya know, just your typical curbside lettuce garden.

Trash

The other errand was to go vote.

Crockpot dinner that was smelling SO good when I got home from errands! Chicken-n-onions w/ Penzey's BBQ 3000 seasoning -- yummy!

I made this basket a couple months ago, and I felt so old fashioned picking Vinca flowers in it today. I'm going to go press them right now...maybe while I watch a cooking show, or listen to some music I got from the library.

Happy Easter and spring and birthday and stuff and yeah.

yeah happy whatever.

Happy Easter! Did everyone have a good one? I had a birthday…and Easter happened…and I was sick through all of it! Way sick, since last Wednesday, when I hobbled into the doctor’s office and the nurses hooked me up with a couple hearty liters of IV fluid. Seems that it was back-to-back flu and another viral issue on top of that. My body just decided to fall apart there for a few days. But yesterday was a peaceful day in its own way. From bed, I enjoyed seeing out the window to the cloudy day outside, and later in the day, hearing rain falling on the roof. My dad remembers that I was born on a cold, rainy day, which is maybe why I love that weather so much.

In the morning, F and I stood by the window and watched the little kids doing their Easter egg hunt across the street at the church. And a couple times throughout the day I looked down and saw kids in the backseats of cars passing below, with their Easter baskets and stuffed bunnies. Sweet little scenes.

And a birthday package o’ goodies arrived from my aunt! It really cheered me up. Check it out: an intriguing tote bag handmade in the Amazon (love!!) and Divine chocolate-covered salted fudge — OMG!! — and a couple United Plant Savers herbal newsletters. Thanks Kate!!! ♥

Sick Easter-Birthday bedside cheer

I’m still sick, and three times a day, my antiviral makes me sicker. But I sure am thankful this week for: PRETZELS! POPSICLES! PERRIER!

I’ll be back to writing here hopefully soon. Talk to you then!

(Random!) I love petals on the sidewalk!

Caveman’s Heating Pad

Stuck without a heating pad? No problem! Gather one or two flat rocks (flagstone in this case) and simmer them in water on the stove (or pop them into the oven). When thoroughly hot, remove with tongs and wrap in a couple towels. Use both rocks at once, or keep one in the water to exchange when the first one cools down. You can’t exactly wrap a rock around your body the way you can a heating pad, but it’s a perfectly good do-fer solution!

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 The Herbangardener

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑