Today I can’t walk.

Today I can’t do a Monday walk. My heart is broken, broken because of the violence: the violence of a death and the violence of burning and looting.

I believe George Floyd’s life mattered and his death was criminal.

I believe all lives matter.

I believe peaceful protest is a right and should be exercised.

I believe looting and burning is stealing and is wrong. It is not protesting.

I believe violence is not the answer and is divisive rather than healing.

I believe not all black men are criminals and not all police are racist.

I believe we need to be outraged at the number of black people killed weekly by other black people in cities such as Chicago as much as we are outraged by this killing and others like it.

I believe racism isn’t confined to one race or country.

I believe we can and must do better than this.

I hope I can believe that light will emerge from all the dark surrounding it.

for Jo’s Monday Walk

Monday walk…in my room

Since not everyone can go out, let’s use the Beach Boys’ “In My Room” as inspiration for today’s walk. Afterwards I’ll make some tea and we can sit on the patio, although it might be quite warm.

Let’s walk into the bedroom, take a closer look, and hear some stories. Stories are especially good these days, don’t you think?

If life gives you lemons

There’s a saying, “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Where I usually walk, there’s a lemon tree heavy with fruit on the other side of the wall next to the sidewalk. The first time I walked by, there were some lemons along the path (yes, of course I picked them up!), so I started taking a bag along. Today I hit the jackpot: 5 lovely lemons.

I looked online to find some recipes/proportions for lemonade. Starting with simple syrup seemed to be the thing to do, but proportions varied greatly.

Teatime with Su & friends

I’d planned to make dark chocolate cherry scones, but that didn’t work out. (I’m also trying to find more whole wheat pastry flour but have had no success so far. Maybe people are making toilet paper from it.). But I had some Trader Joe’s croissants in the freezer, so last night I pulled out one chocolate (AKA pain au chocolat) and one almond for my husband. Just let them sit all night and bake in the morning. Easy peasey and quite tasty, too.

The mug, filled with Mao Feng black tea, was a gift from my parents a few Christmases ago. Not as fancy as some of my teacups, but much used. I’d be happy to get you a fancier, more delicate cup of you like.

Happy teatime!

For Teatime in the Blogosphere

Eating thistles

If my mom hadn’t grown up in California, I might have missed artichokes altogether and what a shame that would have been! Artichokes weren’t big in Nebraska. But we never had them stuffed in the Italian way. We dipped the meaty ends of the leaves in Miracle Whip and enjoyed the tender heart the same way.

My husband and I went through a phase of dipping them in butter, but now we eat them just plain, at least until we get to the heart. I use mayonnaise and my husband uses butter then. Yesterday morning when I was grocery shopping and trying to get used to wearing a mask, I found these beauties. Rinsed, then steamed, they were delicious and quite filling.

I often wonder who first looked the head of a thistle, complete with little sharp ends, and said, “Wow, I bet that’s tasty?” Must have been someone quite hungry!

I also wonder what life would be like if all the thistles in the world, that grow everywhere and are difficult to get rid of, were artichokes. Oh, what a world it would be!

The new view

Friday afternoon we arrived at our new rental house in Gilbert, Arizona after a whirlwind of packing due to a move date that we advanced by almost three weeks due to the coronavirus. We didn’t want to have a problem leaving, so we packed the van and the car, loaded up the cooler with meatloaf sandwiches, apples, and other goodies, added sanitizer to be used at the motels. and hit the road. Three days later, we were here. A day and a half after that, our worldly goods arrived and are now sitting in the house and garage.

Yesterday morning I went out for a walk in my new world. It’s not the woman-in-the-middle-of-nature that I enjoyed at the park. It’s very different. But there are lots of paved walking paths like this and being out early, I didn’t see many people. It felt good to be outside walking after so many days of sitting. The sun had just come up and the day was lovely. Here’s a bit of what I saw. Excursions farther away will have to wait for now and hopefully for not too long. Until then, I’ll enjoy what’s here and keep exploring in the area. You’re welcome to come along for the journey.

Day 3 in (mostly) photos

We left Albuquerque on a cloudy, chilly morning but with a sky filled with clouds of all sorts.

How to show motion in a photo: take a shot out the side window while doing 80 mph. Do it very carefully and delete all unusable photos.

Day 2…keep on truckin’

Started from Springfield, Missouri at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Signs of spring were everywhere: green grass, trees in bud or even with leaves, cattle grazing in green fields, even a long stretch of yellow forsythia.

Gas prices kept dropping, to as low as $1.43. Made filling up an absolute joy. Much of our drive takes us near or next to the iconic Route 66. I saw this gem on my first trip but couldn’t get a photo. I thought this frame gave a feel of an old time postcard.

Day 1 update and thoughts

Nothing like good friends when you have no beds or furniture on general.

Note to self: clean fridge more often! General note: cleaning a fridge isn’t fun at the best of times. Cleaning one when you want to just get done and on the road is excruciating!!

Having lots and lots of things you need to have someone pick up when there’s a shelter-in-place order is impossible. Garbage men will only take things in bags. (Ever tried bagging a hammock? Didn’t think so. Just know it does NOT work!) and the junk-picking-up companies aren’t now. Dear owner: things in the garage aren’t as bad as they appear. Really!

Bit of COVID-19 humor. My husband got this prize in the local grocery store Monopoly game. I challenged him to go back and try to redeem it.

Gas prices are amazing right now. Filling up for $1.79 a gallon doesn’t even hurt at all. 😊. There are a lot less cars on the road, even in St. Louis during rush hour, although it was still hectic enough. And the virus hasn’t had an impact on construction.

The sunset tonight was beautiful, an enormous orange ball. Unfortunately, it was right on the middle of the road for at least three days…or seemed like it. Eventually we went in a different direction, literally, but there was still beauty as you can see from this (very carefully taken) shot. Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for the smushed bugs on the windshield. Well, maybe I am in a way, but Hey, I didn’t force them to fly into the glass..

That’s it for tonight from Springfield, Missouri. After the last few days and six hours of cleaning this morning, the 7 1/2 hours on the road was pretty much just fun. 🤪. Bed is going to seem so good tonight and that’s where I’m headed. TTFN. More tomorrow.

Phew!

Long day (yesterday) but the most downtime for a long time while someone else works. 😁

Great moving crew

Van finally loaded and we’re off to overnight with friends.

Lovely dinner and friend time!

Cleaning up tomorrow and and heading for Arizona.

Bedtime

The adventure begins.

P. S. Anyone else getting forever-dry, cracked hands from all the hand-washing??