Wednesday Hodgepodge: In Season and Out

1. In two or three sentences describe yourself to someone who has never met you. 

Squirrels collect and store whatever they find, sometimes to their own detriment. I do collect some physical things, but I'm more likely to run around collecting up words and ideas. 

When my little backpack is full, I try to put them back together and give others something to chew on. Metaphorically speaking.

2. Will you celebrate Halloween this year, and if so tell us how? Let's play this or that-chocolate candy or fruity candy? pumpkin seeds or pumpkin pie? Halloween party or scary movie? hay ride or corn maze? carve a pumpkin or paint a pumpkin?

It's not a big deal for us, and we hardly ever get trick-or-treaters. 

We might watch a semi-scary movie and eat some of the little chocolate bars that we bought with the full knowledge that we might get, like, one kid knocking on the door.. 

The stores are full of pumpkins right now, so I bought a small one and turned it into pumpkin bars yesterday.

3. What's something that scared you when you were young? Are you still afraid? 

Ferris wheels...ski lifts...escalators. And yes.

4. Your favorite soothing drink? 

I suppose coffee is disqualified?

Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea, a.k.a. caffeine-free chai. Drinking it reminds me of past poetry teatimes with our kids.

5. Are you thinking about Christmas yet? Does this make you feel happy or stressed? 

How 'bout we keep that one for another hodgepodge.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

How is it that fall doesn't technically end until the winter solstice? I think we should have extra seasons, like they do in Japan; because right now we're getting near the end of orange-leaves-on-the-trees, heading into I'm-not-sure-what-season-November-is-but-it's-cold, and looking towards get-out-the-boots.

In keeping with not being sure what season we're in, yesterday I thrifted a sleeveless linen-blend dress, more or less for next summer. (And did I have a hard time photographing a black dress on a dull day? Eventually I gave up and hung it on the bathroom door. Not elegant, but at least you can see it.)

But we can always layer up until then, right?

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

A Weekend of Good Cheer (Overnight Travel Wardrobe)

Her favourite clothes site, The Vivienne Files, has done lots of posts on Tote Bag Travel. And this weekend she's getting her opportunity. She's been asked to address a group of educators at an overnight retreat; and her topic is William Morris, of all things. William Morris was not a teacher, but he was an observer, and a thinker, and a maker, and a learner. He cared about history, he cared about nature, and he cared about people living with beautiful things around them. So there's lots to say about him.

She has a list of extra things to take along, like art books to display; so she wants to keep her own luggage  to a minimum. She figures out what she wants to wear on the drive there and for the first evening: black jeans, a grey top, and a vintage cardigan, along with her Allbirds Mizzles because the weather's been wet and there have even been a few flakes of snow. 

She has a warm jacket, hat and gloves along as well, although they may be a bit much in the car.

She decides to take a satchel instead of a smaller purse, because she's going to be carrying things around like notes, her tablet, and a re-useable coffee mug. Also a pair of scissors, because the participants have been told they're going to be doing something crafty. William Morris would surely approve.

Here's the tote bag she's using for clothes. 

What's inside?

A pink turtleneck, a scarf, a black moto jacket, and a pair of burgundy lace-up shoes.

Plus nightwear, socks, a toothbrush, and those sorts of things. That's really all she needs.

Well, and a favourite pair of earrings.

Bracelets and a watch. She might not wear the bracelets (too clunky when she's doing her talk), but she's going to slip them in just in case.

Her daughter just gave her a bottle of Sinful Colors nail polish in a sparkly shade called Hush Money. Odd name, nice colour. (She'll do that before she leaves.)

So, rain and cold be darned: it's going to be a cheerful weekend with good friends.

Wednesday Hodgepodge: Squash those annoying thoughts

1. What's something you wish you'd figured out sooner? 

You don't have to put everything you own in your suitcase. The things you don't take will still be there when you come home.

That sounds like I spent my childhood as a refugee or something, but really it was more about being completely clueless as to what one might actually need for a weekend away vs. what might be stuffed into one's vintage hard-sided junior suitcase. Like a week's worth of library books, vs. an extra pair of shoes.

Book I thrifted yesterday

2. Something from childhood you still enjoy today? 

Complete transparency here. Over the last while we've been able to buy those variety packs of small boxes of cereal at the local supermarket. The kind that we used to break open on the lines and eat right out of the box. We don't do that anymore (I think they took the lines out years ago). But, while I would not be buying an entire box of Frosty Frooklers or Frooty Flippies, an occasional single serving does break up the "usual" of Semi-Healthy Oaty Circles or Shredded Shrickles.

3. Are you a fidgeter? What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word fidget? 

Fidget the Bat in The Great Mouse Detective.

You did ask...

When we feel fidgety  we go to the flea market.

4. Your favorite fall vegetable? How do you like it prepared? 

Butternut squash, I guess. It's the least loathsome of the tribe.

I slice it up, cook it in a little water, then add butter, sage, pepper, and brown sugar.

Fall table things (pumpkin candles are vegetables?)

5. What's something you find mildly annoying, but not annoying enough to actually do anything about? Might you now?

Life is short. If it's mildly annoying, it can stay mildly annoying.

Mildly annoying: hands with wrinkles.

On the other hand, I did clean out my baking cupboard because I was tired of having the same spatula always fall out when I opened the door. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

After much summer same and September standard, it's time for October Out of the Ordinary. Having long graduated out of the junior hard-sided and tossed my '80's parachute luggage, I've worked my way through a series of thrifted and scrounged backpacks and carry-ons, and...I still haven't found what I'm looking for. But I have figured out how to stuff a duffel for an overnight Charlotte Mason homeschooling retreat, which is what I'll be doing this weekend.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Breaking Records with the Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Volume 478. Sounds like a lot. Where were you in 1978? If you weren't born where were you in 2008? 

1978? The first half of the year, I would have been in sixth grade, the end of elementary school. The little kids of just the year before were suddenly listening to News of the World and banging out "We Will Rock You" on their desks. Wearing polyester school clothes from Sears was bad; The Incredible Hulk, Charlie's Angels, and Mork and Mindy were cool (i.e. on your lunchbox). Playing truth or dare at a sleepover was cool, bringing your Barbies or your Nancy Drew books, not so much...although the Hardy Boys were an in-thing, especially Shaun Cassidy. Going to see Grease as many times as your parents would let you was cool. Buying the double album and knowing all the words to the songs, very cool. But most of us were still "good kids," still attached to our families in spite of rattier clothes, more makeup, and louder music. (Mine wasn't much louder. I had Andy Gibb's Flowing Rivers and John Travolta's solo album.)

And then the summer was over and we moved into middle school, with lockers and split gym classes and all the drama. I felt like I had been thrown into a blender with a pile of Judy Blume novels (and maybe a frog or two as well). So typical, I guess, but there's always enough seventh grade angst to go around.

2. Raise your hand if you remember records playing at a speed of 78 rpm? What's a topic that when it comes up you 'sound like a broken record'? 

Oh, sure, I had a pile of 45's and little '78's. Popeye the Sailor Man and all the rest of them.

What am I a broken record on? Probably everything since 1978.

3. What's the last thing you recorded in some way? 

Verbally? Besides a voice mail to somebody? I guess that would count. Maybe a couple of podcasts I spoke on.

Pendelfin bunny and book from an antiques market

4. Thursday is the first day of fall (in the northern hemisphere). How do you feel about the changing seasons? Something you're looking forward to this fall? 

Although things seem to be getting back to "normal" in most ways, the sense of time being kind of mushy over the past two-plus years hasn't entirely gone away, and sometimes the seasons scoot past too quickly, waving from their 1978 roller skates. Fall is good, pumpkins and leaves and blue October skies are nice, but snow comes behind all that.

Thrifted scarf, flea-market necklace found last weekend

5. In what way (or ways) are you like the apple that didn't 'fall far from the tree'? 

Not sure right now.

But here's a poem by Denise Levertov that seems to fit the question.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

My bread sometimes turns out somewhat random-looking, but it tastes all right.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

A Fetching Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Something you've labored over recently? 

A book revision!

2. How will you rest on Labor Day? 

That sounds funny! But no special plans yet.

3. Margaret Mead is quoted as saying, "I learned the value of hard work by working hard." Would you agree? Where and how did you learn the value of hard work? 

All the adults I grew up with worked hard, and if you were working with them they expected you to do the same, even if it was just fetching and carrying. But that didn't mean I never tried to get away with last-minute school projects.

4. It's National Eat Outside Day (August 31st). Will you? Do you enjoy dining 'al fresco' or prefer indoor seating? 

Indoor. Less fetching and carrying.

5. Somehow it's the end of August. What was the best day of the month for you and tell us what made it so? 

I'm not really sure! Mostly it was the little things that made it a good month, rather than any big one. Going to the Kitchener (Ontario) Blues Festival one night was a lot of fun.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

The year goes by, the clock ticks, the pages are filling up. How am I going to finish that 2022 reading list I made almost a year ago?

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Wednesday Hodgepodge: No Schooling Around

1. August is National Back To School Month...how does that make you feel? Share a back-to-school memory. 

Why is it Back to School Month when, where I live, nobody ever went back to school until September? I know some places in the U.S. start in August, though. Or is that just a "National Go Buy Your Back to School Supplies" thing?

First days of school were sometimes strange. In the third grade I started a new school, and since I had almost the same name as another girl in my class, the teacher assumed we were the same person and hadn't set up a desk or a name card or any of those things that are important when you're a kid. When I started middle school, I somehow got into the wrong homeroom the first day and nobody knew who I was or where I was supposed to be. I decided that I must have a special "Who are you again?" goblin following me around. It was actually nice to reach high school and have a little photo card I could whip out if anyone ever doubted my existence.

2. Something you've learned in 'the school of life'? 

Someone tried to scam me over the phone today. Names and places have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.

I had just hung up on the usual sort of telemarketer, when the phone rang again, this time showing a number from another part of the province. I picked it up, assuming that it was the same spam company as before, and a deep voice addressed me as "Grandma." I don't have grandchildren, other than the grand-doggies, who aren't too likely to be phoning me. I said, "Who did you think you were calling?" He said, "Ha ha, I was just joking--this is your oldest nephew." Now, I do have a nephew, but I haven't talked to him for several years. "Is this Billy?" I said. "Yes, it's Billy. You wouldn't recognize the number," he said, "because I'm in -- City. One of my buddies is getting married, and I had some time off, so I thought, why not go."

You don't need to know personal details about my nephew, but basically I doubted very much that he would have travelled that far at his age and alone to go to a "buddy's" wedding. Or that he'd even have any "buddies" who were getting married yet.

"Look," I said, "I just need to make sure that I'm really talking to the person you say I'm talking to. Where do you live when you're not in -- City?"

Silence. Bzzzzzzz. I guess he figured, "Oops--busted by Billy's Aunt."

I've had those scam emails before ("This is your friend Mary. I'm travelling and I need gift cards"), but that's the first time someone's been bold enough to try it over the phone. So, whoever you are, stop schooling around with me. You might think some of us are old enough to get taken in by fake grandchildren and nephews, but it's the opposite: we're old enough not to get conned by this nonsense, so stop wasting all of our time.

3. Three words to describe your current mood.

Besides having a few words I'd like to say to people who try to prey on grandmas and aunties?

"Slow down, summer." Good weather is too short here. I do like fall, but it's not summer.

4. A summer food you've eaten too much of/are tired of? A summer food you haven't had enough of?

I haven't had much summer fruit, for various reasons, and that does make me feel like I've missed something. Summer feels like it should be peaches that squish, cherries that endanger your clothes, and too much messy watermelon.

We had one, maybe two good tomatoes and a couple of peppers from our back-deck plants, but that's all. We also have a yellow bean plant in a pot, but the beans we've had from it are tough no matter which way we cook them.

Also, the corn on the cob that we've bought has been disappointing.. 

So no, I can't think of anything we've o.d.'d on.

However, on the subject of things growing on the back deck, we have a surprise Peace Lily that suddenly popped up. It belongs to a couple of plants from a gift basket given to us last winter, that we moved to an outside pot when the weather warmed up. I didn't know what the plant was--it had shiny leaves, but no flowers. Apparently it likes the climate on our deck so much that it decided to send up a blossom. Someone told me that it's technically not a blossom, but you know what I mean. It's very pretty, anyway, and it seems to be doing much better than the tomato plants.

5. What small stuff do you sweat that you know you shouldn't?

If I wrote about it, I'd start sweating about it, so I won't.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Did you know it's National Thrift Shop/Store Day? Here's a mostly-thrifted outfit (except for the boots). The jacket (found yesterday) was a dollar, and the jeans were a dollar. You can see more of my thrifted stuff on the fall clothes post, here.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Designated (Clothes for Fall)

 Here's some colour inspiration for this fall. Yes, you've seen it here before.

Sonatina Per Due, by Rosina Wachtmeister, poster found at a flea market

And there's this:

Vintage scarf and beads, same flea market

And one more:

An orchid which happens to be in full bloom right now.

First Round: Thinking it Through

She blew the clothes budget on one pair of pants. Which she needed, truly. And she decided to buy something Canadian-made and sustainable, that would go with all kinds of things.

Duffield Design Stovepipe Pants in Charcoal

But she won't be buying much else this season! So what's already in the closet? An immediate strikeout: the fleece cardigan that she thought she would match the pants. It's dark, it's heavy, it's got a lot of  ribbing on the collar and cuffs. She might feel differently about it come snow and January, but for now, nope. 

But all is not lost. 

Read the rest here.

If You're Feeling Fried, Read the Wednesday Hodgepodge

 

1. July 6th is National Fried Chicken Day...are you a fan? Do you make your own or have a favorite place to buy from? Do you own chickens? If not chicken what's your favorite fried food?

No to most of that. Sorry, Mitfordians.

Alternative fried food? The easiest answer: French fries.

2.  What's something you're too chicken to try?

Most of the recipes in the Nigella Lawson how-to-cook-everything cookbook I thrifted yesterday. (Most of which aren't chicken.)

3. When did you last find yourself running around like a 'chicken with its head cut off'?

I mostly prefer to keep my head attached.

4. Something you've done recently that makes you think 'I'm no spring chicken'?

Realizing that some of the wedding presents that we've been using for 30+ years are finally wearing out.

5. 'Winner winner chicken dinner'...tell us about something good that's happened in your life lately. 

We had a wedding anniversary recently, and decided to take a little day trip somewhere we'd never been before. Where should we go?. Our place of choice, that we'd never seen much of up close, was Dundas.

What is Dundas? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dundas,_Ontario

Dundas was, originally, an important town in Upper Canada, sort of a transportation hub, and many other towns in Ontario still have a Dundas Street (as in, this is the road you take to get to Dundas). Now it's just a small place on the edge of the city of Hamilton (on Lake Ontario): a funky, artsy little place, with eco stores, bike shops, and even an olive oil boutique. 

The look of the original downtown is much like the place where I grew up, and other Ontario towns too--they all seem to have been designed by the same person, and probably some of them were. The old Carnegie Library (didn't every town have one?) is now quite a good small art gallery, and we spent some time in there. Amazingly, even the children's art they were exhibiting seemed to be above average--something in the water maybe? The town also has a local museum, which has one corner dedicated to something I've never seen in a town museum: a Chinese restaurant that apparently was a local favourite place in the mid 20th century, and then when the husband died, the wife closed the restaurant and continued living upstairs, but kept things in the restaurant just as they were, for years--so when she eventually passed away, they discovered this amazing little time capsule and decided to preserve one booth's worth of it in the museum. (I won't even get into the really good used book store we found on the main street.)

Having the time to wander somewhere like that brought back memories of trips we used to take, like our honeymoon. Maybe we're still spring chickens at heart.

Linked from the Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Squeezing in on the Wednesday Hodgepodge

 

1. Something you learned from your father? 

* that neighbours matter

* that flea markets rock

* that you can never plant too many daffodils (if you do, but I don't)

* that you can never have too many Christmas decorations (if you do, but I don't)

* that Lawrence Welk is the man

* the genealogy of the British royal family

* how to be punny

2. Do you like onions? Raw or cooked? How about onion rings? What's something you love to eat that calls for onions? 

Well, not my dad's favourite liver and onions, sorry.

Onion rings, a rare thing, but I do like them. The flea market we used to go to as children (following my dad around looking for royalty teacups) had a food booth that perfumed the whole place with the smell of frying onion rings.

Onions in potato soup: definitely.

3. It's officially summer (in the Northern hemisphere)...your favorite and least favorite things about the season?

The heat and the heat.

4. When you think about the summers of your childhood what are two or three things that come to mind? 

The heat and the heat.

5.  A hot mess, the heat of the moment, beat the heat, if you can't stand the heat, catch heat, in a dead heat...choose a 'hot 'phrase and tell us how it applies to your life right now.

Probably not the most apt phrase, but prices here (and everywhere) are heating up and we're trying to beat them, especially foodwise. Or at least not get apoplexy every time we go to the supermarket. We have a favourite slow cooker beef recipe that combines soy sauce, ketchup, garlic, and honey...but the price of honey has shot way up, so I'm probably going to adulterate the next batch with (cheaper) brown sugar.

We're also experimenting with growing a few veggies on the back deck. Our hamster particularly likes the parsley.

Linked from the Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

It Could Be Here or it Might Be There (Summer Travels)

Over the next day or two or three, she and her spouse might be going to a bigger city to take care of a couple of errands, and if so, they'll use the chance to visit the big art gallery, or do something else fun while they're there.

However, if that trip turns out not to be necessary, they're going to head the other way and spend a day or two in one of their favourite beach towns.

Or maybe they'll figure out a way to do both.

But how should she pack? Just for a short urban road trip? Or a shorts-and-sandals overnighter? Should she worry about which clothes are clean, or just take what's there? What if it turns cold or rainy? She's trying not to get jarred by too much uncertainty.

So she goes back to her Age of Aquarium page, which started with an imaginary road trip. And she looks at some of the Six Pack archives on the Vivienne Files. (That means, generally, three pieces of clothing to wear, and six in the bag.)

The original plan of a white linen pullover, sleeveless white top, and navy shorts is still fine. 

She decides to leave out the blue jeans, though, and add in a navy top and pants. They don't technically match, but they both have the same sort of embroidery, and in a pinch they could pass for a jumpsuit.

Read the rest of the page here.