Friday!!

On Fridays the craft night that used to happen before Covid is happening again. I don’t tend to go often but I did tonight. Keziah and I left early to get some food from across the street and bring it to friends. After Keziah ordered, I realized I didn’t have my phone so I walked across the street to get it. As I waited for my turn through the cars to go back to the restaurant there was a large bird flying over the street. It was not high, maybe just above the treeline. It was a bald eagle. I was stunned momentarily and then realized my phone was in my hand. By the time the camera was up the eagle was down the street but I took the picture anyway. It is not identifiable from the picture, but I am so thrilled to have seen this giant bird fly over my head.

It is hard to see in this picture so...

I blew it up.
Still hard to identify, but it is a bald eagle!

Other things that I am happy for today:

• I allowed myself to become totally distracted and drawn in by the Google Doodle game. 
• Seeing friends at craft night.
• When taking a walk I noticed there were some flowers being polinated.

Purple Coneflower.

• Tf and I brought a little bit of whimsy into our Minecraft game.                                                           

  

  A face.

  
  

☮

Currently reading: Backpacking A Hedonist’s Guide, by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn.

    This is the book I started yesterday. 

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

What is Sleep?

Disclaimer:  I am writing this without sleep for over 24 hours.  I tried to nap and failed.  Please forgive ramblings and mistakes.

At work the goal to reach is moving 300 packages an hour. I have been hovering just below there and today during the first hour I reached that goal. I wasn't able to maintain that through the work day, but I reached it. Other happy things from today:

• It was so good to watch the fighting tonight. So many people showed up. Being unable to be together for about a year and a half is a long time. Last weekend was the Crown Tournament finals where the next SCA royalty were decided with a heavy combat tourney. The winner becomes the next Prince and Princess and eventually King and Queen (they may choose alternate honorific or titles depending on their time period or with same sex couples). The time as Monarchs usually lasts about six months with time as prince/princess about five months. The pandemic has messed with our calendar but normally there is a crown tourney about every six months. Anyhow, we had two fighters from Stonemarche and one that used to live here competing. They didn't win, but one of them earned the right to hold the Shield of Chivalry by being, you know, chivalrous and chosen by a large group of people. This same person also received a token from one of the former Queens (a Rose) that was there. All this is to say that Keziah and I went to fighter practice to present the shield to them officially because they had to leave the event early due to a scheduling conflict. A member of the Rose came up to pass the token on to him. We surprised him.

• After I ducked out for a few minutes with a friend to find a geocache. It was a micro cache so it took a little time to find the small capsule.

Photo by Dan, the guy I geocache with.

• It was really great to see so many people out having fun.

• There is a lot of beauty in the world.

☮

I started a book today that I am not sure if it will be my next read or not.  It is about backpacking.  I left it downstairs so I don't have the title and all handy.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Moon

One of the things I am having a hard time coming to terms with concerning working in a warehouse is how completely exhausted I am when I get home.  Some days it is easier to find more energy than others.  Today was a low energy day.  Thankfully Keziah had SCA news to share with me so I didn't fall asleep right when I got home.  When I fall asleep too early, I have a hard time sleeping when I should.  Happy things for today:

• Leaving for work this morning the moon was in the western sky.  It is strikingly orange because of wildfires out west. 

Waxing Gibbous phase.
The camera didn't pick up the orange color well.

• Towards the end of the workday today I was given a quick lesson on stowing that I think they called crashes.  Learning new things is good.
• Speaking of learning new things, I was told today that I can start learning other parts of the job at work.  I'm going to try to reach the goal of 300 an hour stowing before I learn too much more.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Blueberries

 Yesterday afternoon I didn't sleep well.  I went to bed a little later than I wanted but could have had almost seven hours of sleep.  I had about two, maybe a little more.  I went to work and gave myself a pep talk on the way into the building.  Telling myself that I have often been able to at least function with little sleep and that I have had to act, on a stage, during times much more stressful and made it through.  Thirty minutes or so into the night when they were offering voluntary time off, I went home.  I was doing okay, but I felt like the lack of sleep would become a problem early into the work day.  Apparently they were overstaffed by a few people.  On the way home, I played some Pokemon Go and Harry Potter Wizards Unite.  I wanted to ensure that I would be able to sleep today.  Other happy things:

• I took a nap after getting home, just under two hours.  As I was hitting the snooze on the alarm Keziah knocked and asked if I wanted to go blueberry picking.  I had forgotten about this outing, I wasn't going to be able to go.  I went.  We picked up my aunt and went picking at Turkey Hill Farm.  Keziah and I together picked over eleven pounds from two bushes.  YUM!  I totally forgot to take pictures.
• After lunch at home I mowed a little bit of the yard.  Just enough to finish getting my steps in and a little more.  The lawn mower was broken for a bit and then we had rain.  The grass and weeds are taking over.
• A bright pop of red caught my eye in one of the flower gardens.  According to Lens it is scarlet beebalm.

Scarlet Beebalm.

• I picked the blueberries on our bush in the afternoon.  That this bush is producing anything this summer is huge.  Last year it dried out.
  
  

• Gideon chose a dark green for his hair color.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Happy Monday!

 It has been a few weeks since I have walked out back on the property.  I came in from the road out back and through to get home from my walk today and retrieve the SD card from the wildlife cam.  The growth is such that finding ones footing is difficult.  Sloshing home I put the SD card in the computer and there were only fifteen files.  I'm wondering if the camera isn't picking up as much because of the growth in that area.  I'm going to consider repositioning the camera.  It was really good to get out there, even with the sodden ground.  Other happy things:

• Along the sidewalk there is a sunflower.  Like it escaped and is making the best life where it can.

The sunflower seems to be facing East.

• The wintergreen is flowering.  I feel like I usually miss this phase of the plant.

American wintergreen.

• The witch tree seems to be doing alright.

• Peaches on Marjorie seem a little more colorful today.

• Gideon is a little less colorful?

Gideon will be more colorful tomorrow.
😉

☮

Completed reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.
    The final chapter was about making maple syrup.  My favorite sugar!

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Where is the rain?

There was supposed to be rain.  I mean, there were torrential downpours last night, but it was supposed to rain today.  There were some sprinkles, but not the rain I expected.  Not the rain that brought me home from the mountains last night instead of today.  I'm glad I wasn't out in the rain last night or in the tent, but I may have been more motivated to walk if I had been in the mountains today.

It has been a long day with lack of motivation and fighting with depression. I'm very thankful for the long conversation with TF today after we did our weekly goal setting. Part of our conversation was about electrolyte drinks and how they may help give me a boost at work.  Here is a website with a medieval recipe for mint sekanjabin.  Adding a little of this to water will add some flavor and electrolytes for when a person is really active to help maintain hydration.  I've had other flavors as well.  My favorite is a cinnamon/nutmeg/clove flavor.  Other happy things for today:

• It took a while to pull myself up enough to take a walk today, but I did.  It has been a little over eleven months now that I have managed to reach my 10,000 steps a day goal.  Just a few more weeks and it will be a year.
• For some reason this year I am noticing that daylilies come in many different colors.  I'm liking this and may find some other colors to add to what we have.  The following pictures are daylilies from a house down the street that I saw on my walk.  

• Gideon got a haircut.  He has had shoulder length hair with an undercut for quite a long time.  He decided that it is time for a change.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Walking

 This afternoon I made the decision to head home tonight rather than try to find a place to camp.  I ended up sleeping in a rest area last night and it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  It was supposed to rain today too, but all we had was an occasional sprinkle.  That is, until I was about ten minutes from home.  The rain came down hard making it hard to see the roads with all the water on it.  I only felt one small moment of hydroplaning and I was very glad that I wasn't trying to sleep in a tent tonight.  Other happy things for today:

• There was a pay phone at the rest area.  I don't see those very often anymore.

There used to be two payphones here.

• The reason I chose this weekend to go north was to be with some other SCA folk to tour some fair grounds for an event next year.  I didn't have to be there until 11:30 though and I was awake and ready to do other things by eight or so.  Instead I used the Alltrails app and found a short trail nearby.  

The view overlooking Littleton, NH.

• It was great to see people I haven't seen in over a year.  The site the event will be at was pretty cool too.

These little footprints were not very big,
I think they might be squirrel prints.

• After all the business was done I headed for the Mount Prospect Fire Tower.  This is a beautiful stone structure like one might see as part of a castle.

Spectacular views of the mountains.

The house is now a museum commemorating the life
and achievements of John Wingate Weeks.
I learned a lot today.

• There are a few different trails at the State Park and I chose to do the Around the Mountain Trail.

The map.

Lens says that these are flowering raspberries.

Also according to Lens, this is brown knapweed.

The smudge in the top left of this picture is 
a raindrop on the windshield.

☮

I tried starting a different book today, but fell asleep.  

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.