Hodge Podges

A Nova Scotian hodge podge is a wonderful dish filled with the earliest sweetest veggies ... cooked with milk or cream ...

A blog hodge podge is not as easily defined. They often end up as simply messy. This one is really simply a stream-of-consciousness attempt to make up for yesterday's awkward offering.

Yesterday was a busy day, but since I am on this crazy prednisone regimen, I can fit far more into a day. Nothing is as conscious. Nothing is done very well because I am spaced out at the same time as I am revved up.

What did I do?

In Ottawa: I picked up the keyboards, bought gas at Ottawa prices, visited Wabi Sabi where I bought hand-dyed variegated wool and needles to make heavy socks, and was given a pattern as well, stopped at the SAQ warehouse for wine and had a quick visit with Tamarack.

In Wakefield, I stopped at the post office to pick up a parcel ... three new books and three DVDs.

When I got home and offloaded the sled, I discovered a phone message asking if I would like to go with a friend to a free movie at the Black Sheep after supper. We went and, although at times, I disliked the self indulgent whining of the main character and at others as if I were watching paint dry, it turned out to have been worth the patience required to see it. I can't remember the title but it was about a young man who discarded the life and family he had no use for to wander in Alaska with nothing but a back pack, a small kayak and a rifle. Before he died he realized that happiness has value only if it is shared. Sad that he came to terms with his life too late to make anything of the wisdom acquired. Great nature photography throughout.

By the end of the film my throat was closing up and I was glad to head back and make my way the last half kilometre on foot by flashlight.

I have been dealing with a new side effect of the prednisone ... a mouth and throat problem ... I think it is thrush. The advice is to gargle often with salt water, but one of the precautions for prednisone is to avoid salt, so I am gargling with antiseptic mouthwash instead. If it is not better soon I will have to see someone, I guess.

I got into the snuggly warm red pyjamas my friend had tucked into a bag of sweaters and things for me to try out. These were from Frenchies. She and her sister who still lives in Nova Scotia are Frenchies addicts too.

I put another log on the fire, thought about how I was going to replenish my wood supply which is diminishing rapidly in this ultra cold winter. Rona in Quebec has seniors' discount days the first Tuesday of the month, so I will buy my extra large logs then.

This morning at 5:30 I checked out other discounts for seniors ... did you know that there are lots of them ... the Bay ... Sears ... Herb and Spice ... all insurers ... Brown's Cleaners ... Herongate Mall ... the Natural Food Pantry ... the Bulk Barn ... the Sally Ann at Altabank Plaza. Algonquin College even has some courses available to seniors for $20!

I made plans for today ...

* I decided to check the web for solutions to two other problems I have ... a need for extra potassium and an infestation of tiny black ants that couldn't care less about the ant traps I have set out. Anyone have an answer to the ant problem?

* I would fix the paragraph spacing on the novel posted on the website ... ugh ... what a chore!

* And I would start a pair of socks on my new needles with my new wool. Every time I have started socks so far I have ripped them out as not living up to the wool I am using. If these ones ever get to be a completed pair I will photograph them and give them away as a gift!

* and I will do the last of the stitching on Tamarack's tea cozy.

* I will also try to go for a ski on the lake and bring the snowshoes and skiis back up to the house before it snows.

Right now the idea of curling up with the novel I am reading ... Origin of Species ... is very appealing!