The Outlier

 This morning I was thinking about my fondest Irish Christmas memories. These memories are not of spectacular moments or bucket list activities. No. These memories are about remembering the peace and joy I experienced as Bill and I walked around at twilight or in the dark, in mizzle/light rain, on or just before Christmas Eve. It was quiet. Lights were sparkling. The rain fell softly or misted down. It was beautiful.

Interestingly, but possibly not surprisingly, these memories do not include people, other than Bill. Indeed, one of the things that stands out in my mind about all of these moments is the fact that there were no people around. All except one moment, that is.

It was our second Christmas in Ireland and our first in a terraced cottage with neighbors that had quickly become friends. We were having Christmas dinner together in the home of one, who I'll call Jack, although we were all in and out of our own cottages throughout the day. Joining us was Jack's brother-in-law, who I'll call Clarence. Clarence was in his 70s, had some mental health issues, and had been through a great deal. He lived in an assisted living facility and really liked his routine. He liked to be out and about, but only for a short period of time. He got anxious once he'd gone beyond his limit. Bill and I had met him and interacted with him before--he even came to our cottage for afternoon tea once by then--so he knew us and was comfortable around us. We were the newbies and he'd known the others for years. We were having a nice time, eating a delicious dinner and enjoying each other's company. After dinner, there were crackers to pull. I'd read about this tradition, but hadn't experienced it, so I was already interested. We weren't a large group--there were 6 of us--and Clarence was sitting across the table and one seat over from me, so I wasn't pulling the crackers with him, but I heard laughter and looked over at him. His face was lit up with pure joy as he laughed and laughed. He placed the paper crown on his head. He was enjoying himself so very much. His anxiety about going home was nowhere to be found. He was in the moment, delighted with it, and expressing the joy he was feeling. It was a beautiful thing to see. Clarence passed away a few years after that Christmas, but I will always remember him with his paper crown reveling in pure joy.

Oddly enough, a couple of hours after I took my trip down Festive Memory Lane, I got a message from Jack who was on his way home on a bus. He sent me a picture of a place in the town he was riding through and said it used to be a favorite of himself and Clarence. I told him I'd just been thinking about Clarence and shared the memory. His reply was simple. 'Thank you,' he said.

May we all remember that the most joy might just be found in the simplest moments and in things like a silly Christmas cracker with a funny paper crown inside. Or on a quiet walk in the mizzly dark. Or whatever it is that brings you peace and contentment. Look for them. Experience them. Embrace them. I wish for you an abundance of those moments and the happy memories they create.

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Happy Thanksgiving (or Thursday)

 Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate today and happy Thursday if you don't. Of course, every day is a good day to remember all we have to be thankful for.

I'm taking a break from the kitchen at the moment. A friend is coming to join us today. I'll have leftovers for the weekend. It smells wonderful in here. It's raining and my friends the clouds have kept the sun hidden from my view. May your day be equally lovely, in whatever way that looks to you.

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Stupidity, Philosophy, Unexpected Activism

 Before we left for Donegal town yesterday morning, I knew I had a couple of books in. I was hoping that my request that was in transit would arrive before I did and I lucked out--it did. Here's what I brought home yesterday:

I discovered this book when I was looking up information about another book by the same author. I requested both at the same time, but this one took longer to arrive. The other book was excellent and I have no reason to doubt that this one will be too. Bill is reading it first, so I will pick up one of the others.

I'm thinking I might start here:

This one was also found in the course of getting information about another book. I was scrolling through the e-audiobooks on the library Borrow Box site when I came across one called The Psychology of Stupidity. I wanted to know more about it before I put it on reserve, since we get 5 at a time (which includes both those borrowed and those on reserve) and I don't like to waste a slot if I can help it. In the course of looking that up, I discovered this title. I ended up requesting both and the audiobook should be available for me to download next week. I'll read this one before I download that.

Finally, I have this little book, which I read about in a book blog quite recently, although I can't remember which one. The blogger quite liked the book and others in the series, so I looked up this book specifically and looked up the author on the Borrow Box page, where I found his little book on the Stoics. That should be available for me in a week or two.

I feel the urge to read some classics coming on, so I will be picking up some Victorian literature soon, either after I read these or alongside them. 

What are you reading? Hope it's great, whatever it is!

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Respectable, Sensible, Aging Hippies and Bert

 Inside: 

two respectable, sensible, aging hippies*

sit in quiet well-matured companionship,

reading.

Outside:

rippling rivulets of rain race

to the bottom of the window

while wind whistles and whines.

Storm Bert likes it well enough here

to stay.

*When we first moved to Ireland, I was at a neighbor's birthday party and in conversation with another neighbor, who told me that she'd seen us walking around with our backpacks and was glad to see respectable people moving in. She was pretty toasted by then, so I didn't bother to ask her about the connection between backpacks and respectability and what exactly made her think we were respectable. The following year, we were in the process of moving (via bus, so going back and forth between dwellings for a few weeks) and we met our new near neighbors (I'll call them Jack and Jill), albeit at different times. Later, Jill said that Jack told her we seemed nice and very sensible. She asked him what he meant by that and said that we seemed like aging hippies to her. I continue to find this very funny and have referred to myself as a respectable, sensible, aging hippie many times. Once another friend called me a respectable aging hippy, but I quickly corrected her. 'I am a respectable, SENSIBLE, aging hippy. I like to claim all the titles that have been bestowed upon me.' And we had a laugh.

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No Hesitation!

 Woke up this morning to a power cut due to Storm Bert. It lasted 9 1/2 hours. Power was restored at about 1:15. As soon as it came back on, I fairly flew over to the coffee maker, turned on the outlet and the machine itself and hoped for the best. Drip, drip, drip until we had a full pot. We had a cup. We lost power again. We had some more and I gave thanks that I didn't hesitate, but got that coffee going as soon as I could. Whew! Power came back on an hour or two later. Some around here are still without power and they have a water outage to boot! I hope they got their coffee somewhere.

More wind is expected tomorrow and we've been told that more power cuts are possible (as they always are, I suppose), especially tomorrow night. I have an audiobook on my mp3 player and a charged up e-reader, which does not require any other lighting. I hope the power stays on, but at least I can occupy myself if it doesn't. We have rechargeable desk lamps and headlamps, but if the power goes out, it's probably not a good idea to use up all the charge for reading.

Earlier today, I took advantage of the daylight--what there was of it--to read this short story collection:

Sometimes strange stories, quite open-ended, but quite good. I like the cover art, too.

Hope you didn't have to wait for your morning beverage and that your day is delightful!

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Think Carefully, Gift Givers

 Bill just got an email from his dentist informing him that their Black Friday sale begins on Monday. One can apparently 'give the gift of a sparkling smile' or something like that. Is this really a good idea?  Maybe if Santa sparkles up his smile it'll be so dazzling that Rudolph can take this year off. But I can see this going horribly wrong. Imagine the happy moment on Christmas morning when someone opens an eagerly awaited gift from someone special only to discover a teeth whitening kit or a voucher for dental work and wondering if they're trying to send a message. That could end the festive mood in a hurry. I'm not a Black Friday fan anyway, but I think some businesses are less suited to it than others. 

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More Muffins

 Yesterday I updated my post to include a link to the recipe I use for cranberry orange muffins. This is one of several adaptations I've come up with based on a plain muffin recipe I found in The New Laurel's Kitchen Cookbook almost 40 years ago! How can it be that I've been riffing on this for almost 4 decades!?  I like the original recipe, but I usually make one of my adaptations. When I make muffins, it's almost always one of these. I thought it might be useful to put links to the various adaptations in one place. We love all of them and since they're pretty healthy, they're good to have around for breakfast, snacks, or even dessert. When I was in grad school, I often took one for lunch. I'd split it open, top with yogurt, and add fresh fruit. I'll link again to the cranberry orange muffins, just so they're all in one place. I'm sure there are many, many other variations that others can come up with--the recipe is easily adapted to suit your taste. I should say that these are not the kind of muffins that one gets in supermarkets, warehouse stores, and bakeries. They're not extremely sweet, although you can add more sugar if you want; they're not greasy, and they're not overly fluffy. 

Several years ago, a friend who ate a plant based diet, made these vegan by leaving out the egg and using plant milk. I wasn't able to try these as we didn't live near one another, but she loved them and made them a lot, she said.

All links will open in a new window.

Muffins

Cranberry Orange I'll add that for these, adding a teaspoon or so of vanilla or almond extract is nice. Also, you can use blueberries, fresh or frozen, instead of cranberries.

It appears that when I originally posted this, I just linked back to the recipe above and mentioned adjustments and substitutions. To save clicks, I'll just put the entire recipe here:

Chocolate Chunk Raspberry Muffins

Place two cups of jumbo porridge oats/old fashioned rolled oats into a container and cover with 1 1/2 cups of milk. Place in fridge for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 180 C (fan oven)/400 F. Place soaked oats in a bowl and add 1 to 3 tablespoons of (granulated, brown, or demerera) sugar (according to your taste) and one egg. Add a teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract, if desired. Mix in.

Add 1 cup of wholemeal/whole wheat flour and 1 teaspoon each bread/baking soda and salt. Stir in until incorporated.

Fold in about a cup of raspberries (fresh or frozen) and some chocolate chips, or a mix of chocolate chips and nuts.

Spoon into greased or lined muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown--timing depends a lot on the oven, so I just keep an eye on them.

Chocolate Mocha Muffins

Orange Banana Walnut

Chai Fruit Muffins 

Lemon Poppyseed

Banana Muffins 

As you can tell, in cooking as in life, I'm very much an improv kind of gal, creating out of whatever I have around. Sometimes I'm happy with the result and sometimes I'm not, but it's worked for me so far. Hope your day is filled with good things.

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