Tag: home

Lockdown Italia: Day 10

I am experiencing my own renaissance here in lockdown. Oddly enough, I am now an early riser.

At 5:30 a.m. I open the shades and the sliding glass door to the balcony to hear the 30-minute, a capella concert of every bird in Rome. It is so loud that it fills the neighborhood with chirping, trilling, throaty warbling, caw-ing, and that sound that seagulls make, the one that mimics sea lions only 3 octaves higher.

During this gentle half-hour, the traffic cannot be heard, and now at 6:06 a.m. I can hear the cars and trucks off on the main thoroughfare drifting up over the hill. The riotous cacophony has moved to another street.

While the concert is performed, sunrise slowly displays the perfect ombres that inspire every artist and textile designer in the world. This lighting plan is delicate and nuanced. The blues being gently overcome by pale blue, then there is almost no discernable color that moves towards the palest nude that moves to buff. The sun is coming. Soon.

This slower pace is good for me. This slower pace makes it easy to think, to heal. It is as the Psalmist wrote:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.

I have often noticed that when I need to rest, to slow down, and I don’t pay attention to that need– let’s say I discount that need as lazy, or listen to bad advice to “push through” or “move on” — I get sick or injured or experience one of my many migraines. I am then forced to meditate on Psalm 23, made to lie down, and in my life, it is green pastures.

Day 10 and I am accepting this new normal. I wonder if I will be changed, long-term by this slower pace. Will I start a commune or become a hermit? Or will I push forward and forget the lessons I am learning?

Best Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

In the same vein as a second semester home-ec class in 1977, here is a genuine muffin. Not cake batter in the shape of a muffin, but a not-too-sweet muffin with the coarser crumb that defines old school homemade muffins.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees-this is always the first step.

List of ingredients-get them gathered with the proper cooking utensils second.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 TBS powdered buttermilk

2 TBS Poppy seeds

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

1 lemon

1/4 cup powdered sugar plus more for glaze

Ingredients for Lemon Poppyseed muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
About 1 cup granulated sugar (adjust to how sweet you want the muffins to be)
2-1/2 Tablespoons powdered buttermilk.
2 teaspoons baking powder.
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (to activate the buttermilk).
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds.
Mix dry ingredients.
1/2 cup oil in a 2 cup measuring cup (this is canola oil).
1/2 cup milk (this is non-fat).
Add 2 eggs to wet ingredients.
Microplane the entire lemon zest into the dry or wet ingredients (this time into the dry, with a quick stir).
Cut lemon in half. Juice.
Remove seeds from the juice. Reserve the juices lemon halves. Add juice to wet ingredients.
Mix wet ingredients well.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Gently fold and stir just until all dry ingredients are incorporated.
Spray muffin pan with oil. Make sure your oven is preheated to 400 degrees.
Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
Set timer to 20 minutes.
Stir up the lemon glaze, start with 1/4 cup powdered sugar.
Squeeze juice out of the reserved lemon halves.
Add a little milk. The glazers is adjusted by adding a little powdered sugar and a little milk or fresh lemon juice and lemon pulp and lemon zest left on the microplane until it looks right.
Stir glaze.
Stir glaze.
Add the lemon zest!
Remove from the oven. They should be deep golden brown and spring back when touched. Don’t burn your fingers!
Put just a little glaze on top!
According to my home economics teacher, never use a knife on muffins. Just pull open gently and place a pat of butter inside.

Travel: One Suitcase – 5 Weeks, Pt. 2

Goal: two cities, five weeks, one suitcase (must weigh less than 50 lbs to win)

So, added to last week’s styles are sturdy clothes for winter in Johannesburg, with excursions to see lions, leopards, Victoria Falls (on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe), and I hope to see some elephants, rhinos, giraffes, and zebras as well as all manner of springbok and other deer. I will still be working and trying to find some great candid photos of some of the life in South Africa.

Fully Packed

It all fits! And I weighed the bag on my digital scale — 24 lbs! Of course, that is before beauty products. This exercise is helping me with my packing anxiety. At least for the short term.

So, for my trip to Frankfurt, and then the next four weeks in Joburg, I have added layers. Here’s the bullet list:

  • Cargo pants, heavy weight and ready to be destroyed
  • Camouflage print pants
  • African wax print skirt
  • Vintage yellow polo sweater
  • Yellow cardigan
  • Olive lightweight wool sweater
  • White T-shirt
  • White thin cotton turtleneck
  • Black T-shirt
  • Mauve T-shirt
  • Metallic tank sweater
  • White rain shell
  • Hiking boots
  • Birkenstocks
  • Black flip flops
  • Olive drab jacket with “flair”
  • Three scarves, one cotton gingham, one rayon, one polyester (all white background, with black and a hint of accent color)

I think that I might be doing at least one more adjustment…

Travel: One Suitcase-5 Weeks, pt. 1

White 'IT' Suitcase
This is the suitcase — not too big, but definitely a checked bag.

Goal: 1 suitcase for two cities, 5 weeks

Week 1 Frankfurt, Germany: Build around Brooks, Ltd. LoDo Shirt

This is the second blog planning my packing list for travel to Frankfurt, then on to Johannesburg, South Africa. I am using my inspiration shirt, named after Denver’s Lower Downtown, hence the ‘LoDo’ part of the shirt description. LoDo is where Brooks, Ltd. atelier is located and is also the part of town you see college students, out-of-towners, and business folks mingling together at restaurants and venues.

I might have mentioned that I have “packing anxiety” and that has driven me to plan this trip well in advance. So, I am testing out my one-suitcase bullet wardrobe plan, beginning with five ways to wear the LoDo shirt while working, drinking kaffee, and shopping in Frankfurt, Germany. Oh, and I should tell you, I am going to be eating like a German foodie.

Here’s the bullet list for 5 choices for the first week of five weeks on the road:

  • Lilac cotton zip-front LoDo shirt, that doubles as a lightweight jacket
  • Navy slim-legged pants (J. Crew)
  • Black leggings
  • Jeans
  • Silk floral shell — vintage from the 80s
  • White lightweight cotton turtleneck (think of the movie ‘Something’s Gotta Give’)
  • Black vintage Chanel Logo T-shirt (best all around T-shirt ever)
  • Black ballet neck tea-length dress
  • Black waterproof loafers (Hunter)
  • Black logo tennis shoes (Coach)
  • Silk print scarf
  • Black scarf
  • Rhinestone necklace (J. Crew)

These five choices easily fit into the suitcase with plenty of room for next week’s challenge– 4 weeks in Johannesburg!

LoDoShirt Week 1_04172018

10 Reasons to Stop

  1. Because self-discipline feels good–eventually
  2. Because there are better reasons to buy shoes
  3. To avoid blisters and hoarding
  4. To stop and smell the roses (literally–find a rose bush in bloom and smell the scent–it won’t be around long)
  5. To let others go (figuratively–let them leave, grow, explore, move on)
  6. So that you can go in another direction without crashing
  7. Because it’s for your safety (figuratively again; when we really listen to our internal stop signs we protect ourselves from all kinds of bad things)
  8. Because it’s for your safety (don’t be that person who is walking and reading email and falls into an open manhole)
  9. Because crashing your car is expensive
  10. Because cops are around, cameras are around, and people will tattle on you