Life of Wry

Couple things. One, it was a beautiful day, once the gloomy morning gave way to a sparkling blue sky. It felt warm sitting outside at Crepeville having lunch with Jim. I was a visitor to his standing ritual.

I took bunches of photos on my walk home.. I love the confusion of seasons… wintry and springy at the same time. Here’s one:

That flowering blob in front is a “blue bush germander,” and is native to the Mediterranean. It is drought tolerant. So says the sign next to the plant. So pretty.

Two, I made a neat thing tonight… a sweet potato dish. This is what you do: first, bake a couple of sweet potatoes (lightly oiled and salted, wrapped in foil) for about an hour at 450. While they are baking, make two things: first, mix some greek yogurt w/ olive oil and lemon juice to make a base that your sliced, baked potatoes will sit on. Then make a salsa of roasted sesame seeds, olive oil, lemon juice, red onion, garlic, parsley, salt and dried red chili flakes that will go on top. They ask you to bake the potato, then remove foil and char it under the broiler, then cool it, then slice it, then warm it back up. I didn’t do all that and it still came out fine.

Here ’tis… first the salsa and the yogurt base…

And the final.. served with the last of the birthday meat loaf and some steamed spinach… so, so, so GOOD!

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Oh, and I guess I have one more thing to mention. January 30 marked a full year since I’d re-started blogging (this round). In my 12+ years of blogging at Life of Wry (who knew that name would live this long.. man, if I’d known, I’d have been way more thoughtful about it), I’ve had some years where blogging was a daily ritual, some years I took off completely, and some years were hit and miss. Going forward, I’m planning to continue daily writing… but with one change: I’m going to remove my blog from public view (as soon as I figure out how to do that). I think that will free me up to write more genuinely, without concern for how people react (whoever they are… I don’t know who all reads LOW, though I know some… and they are all over the map of family, friends, acquaintances, and total strangers.. not to mention people with a variety of perspectives and political beliefs). I’ve maintained all along that I write this for myself not for anyone else. That said, this will end up in Peter’s possession at some point. While I’m a bit behind, I have every intention of doing blog –> print, for all 12+ years (and forward). Some years are in print already (these are huge volumes). And, with that in mind, I will be just a mite circumspect, since Peter must may read these at some point and I’ll want him to have a fair idea of who his mom is/was, and especially what some portion of his life was like, from my perspective anyway. But I’ve always tried to relax into my blog and just write with honesty, without varnish. My writing has to reflect my heart, my true experience of life, otherwise why bother? Lately, my heart has been pretty scrambled — what with pandemics, politics and a new phase of empty nesting — and my ramblings sometimes quite intemperate. I don’t mind that for me, nor even for the printed versions of these that Peter may eventually read.. but it does give me pause when I think of the various folks reading my blogs here and there. I guess I am uncomfortable with whatever judgment they — whoever they are — might have toward me. And I don’t really want to deal with that concern anymore. Even as I am so delighted knowing certain people I like take the time to read my blog. I’m moved by that. And yet I feel the weirdness of others’ judgment. And the creepiness of strangers who don’t need to know what I think. So I think it will be more relaxing to remove the public option, as it were. So gonna do that. At some point. Perhaps without warning! Though I want Jim to keep reading them… so not sure how to set it up. As I say… when I figure all that out…