Fall vibes

I started this post prior to the election and have sat on it since, trying to figure out if I should post it. I realized I should with some additions. Day to day life is ongoing and prior to November 5 I’d had a good fall, celebrating with G on a trip and figuring out how to cook some really good food without meat. Hiding away the good isn’t going to change what happened or what’s going to happen.

Monterey

We went down to Monterey for our 20th anniversary and it was a great trip. The weather cooperated and was perfect. We stayed at an old motel that’s right on the beach and the views and the room were both fantastic.

Sunset view from our hotel room.

We went to the aquarium, which I highly recommend, and on a Monday it wasn’t very busy. I spent a lot of time out on the back deck areas and spotted the otters in the ocean amongst the kelp and the birds. It’s amazing to see them floating away and hanging out. I also really enjoyed all the displays of the jelly fish and shot some video of the ones that change colors as they move around. G has a post with some great shots from the aquarium and the jelly fish in particular.

The only disappointment of the trip was the hotel restaurant, it looked like it would be good but wasn’t. It’s always funny how some random restaurant we go to on the last night of trips usually ends up being the best meal we eat and this trip was no different.

Making

I sewed one project bag at the beginning of the month and then didn’t sew again for the rest of the month. I’ve since cut out a few things, but still have yet to sew them up. I’ve been having issues with my back and I don’t have a great cutting station so I do it on the floor and I couldn’t do that for much of the last several weeks, so I knit.

I did finish a sweater and worked on a pair of socks. I find when I’m making a sweater that I can get a little obsessive when I get towards the end and it was no different with this one. I got it done in time to take on the trip and wore it quite a bit. I love it. I also don’t knit when traveling, unlike most of the knitting world, since we’re out doing things and I can’t knit while riding in the car (makes me sick).

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about making, what I’m making, how much I’m making, how much I’m spending and consuming to make things. I’ll most likely post about it, but suffice it to say, I’m having a hard time with the larger sewing and knitting communities right now and how much emphasis is put on making all the time and always having a lot of yarn or fabric to hand.

Cooking

Fall is always when the cooking vibe hits me hard. I’ve been making beans and freezing them, making stock and freezing it. I love Rancho Gordo beans and have been experimenting with ones I’ve not made before. For health reasons, we need more fiber in our diets and I’m also cutting back on how much meat we eat, so beans have been the route I’ve gone. It’s been a good challenge to think differently about what I cook and what we eat and how to make sure we’re eating well. In good news: it’s working according to my latest health tests.

For those interested I’ve also found Jenny Rosentrach’s Weekday Vegetarians along with the second book that just came out, Weekday Vegetarians Get Simple really helpful as I figure out how to think differently about the evening meal. I especially like how she points out some ready to go things in the store that are good and worth having on hand. The puff pastry tomato tart is so good and it’s not enough for a meal for us but it was a great side with some other things.

A not great picture of a squash tart that I recently made that is quite good.

November 5

I don’t know what to say about what happened but I do know that for many people things could get very bad after January 20, 2025. I think about the functions of government that are important and are taken for granted—food and drug safety, the social safety net such as it is in this country, and so much more—and I wonder if people realize how much could change for the worse.

What I am doing is making some changes to my daily routine. I’m done with national news media and have cancelled the one subscription I had. I’m still thinking through how I want to get news going forward, but I do know the firehose that is most media now is not good for me. I’m thinking about a magazine subscription or something similar, that isn’t quite so reactive to the day-to-day events, but I’m still unsure. I’ve also been very offline with brief forays onto the secretary of state site to check Oregon results and reading my feeds. My sketchbook/journal, poetry, fiction, and comfort TV have been the order of the day while I figure out what I can do locally and offline that can help folks in my community. I’ll be here, sharing my making and reading and thoughts and the patches of light I find.