In Beijing, after we visited the Temple of Heaven,
we went to an official tea house where we enjoyed a remarkable and pleasant experience.
I don’t remember the details, but I do remember that there were a lot of them (details).
Incredible flowers were involved.
Look what this one does when you pour boiling water on it.
May your weekend include ritual and friendship.
I didn’t have a good composition, so I decided to crop this to the leaves. It’s a bit blurred, but the sunlight is so nice. I thought this was the best part of the picture.
This little fellow visited me. He was a fast hopper, but I managed to capture him through the window. They see me move when I go for the camera.
He’s a bit blurred too, but I’m glad I captured him in a photo. I’m trying to learn the names of the birds in my yard. Birding is really hard. I figure the more pictures I get, the more I can figure out what’s what.
I’m so lucky to have an office with windows looking out on a yard. Wildlife comes to me.
Have a great Saturday, or Sunday!
I’m told the spring equinox is tomorrow. It certainly looks like spring around here. More and more flowers are coming into bloom. (Today’s pictures are best viewed in full size. If you click on each picture, it will display in a new tab in full size.)
A friend said that tomorrow is an especially powerful day, so we should get very clear about our intention and write it down. You can do it today. Then you’ll be ready. I have written down my intention.
May today’s door lead you to your most beautiful tomorrow.
You’re going to start to think these are my favorite flowers.
They are so dramatic.
I’m going to the coast today, first time I’ve felt like going somewhere or doing something since I left Tahoe last week.
I’ve been so tired, and I had a sore hand. I think the fatigue was a combination of allergies (and anti-histamines) and needing a little red meat. I had some grass-fed bison last night and did immediately feel better. This has happened to me before. I am an “occasionarian,” which is a tongue-in-cheek description of my dietary habits. I think veganism is awesome, but I am not a perfect person. Far from it! Anyway, I do eat animal protein four times a week–so seldom that I can afford to buy the compassionately raised (and slaughtered, I hope) version, or wild salmon or dolphin-safe tuna. I have been forgetting to eat some red meat sometimes though. I don’t know why my body needs it, but as one goes along in life, one does learn what works for one’s body. That was a lot of “ones!” Sorry about that! As blog reader SquawPeak said yesterday, wheat and grains don’t work for her. We all need protein, carbs and fat, and veggies and fruit, but we are also all a little different.
I do think we can make a difference by simply eating less meat, and as it turns out, this is a strong trend in the USA. People are simply cutting back on the meat.
As for dairy, my solution is to guy organic milk and cage-free eggs. A vegan will think this is pretty lame, and I agree, but again, I have to do what works for me, and I do believe that an effort, no matter how small, can make a huge difference. I do see things changing as people come to terms with the situation and seek ways to improve their diet, which is not really that easy.
Time for a plug for my newsletter. Each month I include an original recipe, always vegetarian. Sometimes it’s a cookie recipe or something else decadent, sometimes something vegetarian. We’ve learned to make a lot of stuff using beans, lentils, tofu, or eggs as the protein basis for dinner. If you are interested in getting the newsletter, you can leave a comment below or click on the link in the left frame of this blog. That will lead you to the sign-up form.
My husband just called me for breakfast…he made his amazing breakfast frittata. That recipe will also be in my newsletter eventually, so please sign up! Meantime, I’m off to eat breakfast, then get some overdue writing done, then go have some fun at the coast and hopefully take some new photos.
Have a happy Tuesday, or Wednesday, as the case may be.
Nicci
Happy giveaway Monday. Here are some free things I enjoyed this week.
First up, 25 Life Hacks for Eating Better from My Fitness Pal:
I’m starting with the first 9 for breaking bad habits. I’m not willing to throw out my box of Peppermint Patty’s though, so I’ll just have to not buy more junk food. I’ll also only use them when I’m traveling, which is why I bought them in the first place. (I always buy a Peppermint Patty at a gas station on the way, so I figured getting a box of them would be a cost savings, but there are downsides to having them in the house.)
Let me know if you are going to try any of these techniques!
Next up, I really enjoyed Amy Rose’s photos of Niagara Falls on her blog, Petals Unfolding:
https://herladypinkrose.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/the-sheer-massiveness-11-images/
I hope you enjoy that visual feast!
Have a great Monday.
Nicci
Happy Sunday evening! Today I was busy talking to people about Love Caters All and Left of the Rising Sun and signing a few copies for people, too.
Tonight, I had to dig into my treasure trove to find a photo before I completely missed the day.
This is a view facing the other direction from Lake Tahoe, from the top of Alpine Meadows. You can see how all the snow I was showing before is only on some of the more north-facing slopes. Point the camera in the other direction, and you see these mountains already looking like summer.
The snow pack in the Sierras is at 18% of normal. The snow pack is the main reservoir for water in California and Reno, Nevada. What are we doing to deal with the lack of rain? There are water-use restrictions in California for households and for agriculture. We’ve rid our property of most of our grass. Some of it came back with the rains, because we haven’t covered that area with mulch yet. The rest is covered by mulch, but the hardy weed grass is coming through. I have been pulling that out by hand. I need to get back to work on that job. Pulling weeds is a lot of work!
All of this discussion has made me thirsty. Time for some water and resuming my relaxing Sunday. I’m reading The Princess of Las Pulgas, an excellent young adult novel by C. Lee McKenzie.
Have a good evening!
Happy Saturday! I hope you are having a nice weekend. I am resting my shoulder today from too much mousing yesterday. But I did spend a bit of time on the ol’ computer anyway. Even if I’m not doing that much work on the computer, when I have some leisure time, I like to read. Blogs and articles, mostly. Here is an interesting article about art and artists. It is a review about an Ethan Hawke documentary:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/ethan-hawkes-life-changing-music-lesson
What I love about the article is the part that talks about continuing to “do” art privately. And that how one’s art is going is how one feels as a person.
I’m excited about something new I learned. A friend talked to me about viewing book covers as blocks, top, middle, and bottom, and to see what is going on with each block. What is there to look at in the block. The middle block should tell the reader what genre the book is. Based on this feedback, John Holland and I are changing the cover for Left of the Rising Sun from this:
to this:
I needed to do a poster board to display at a table where I’ll be selling these books and I had the idea to summarize the book in very few words and some images. This is the result.
I also made this poster, but I found it much more difficult to boil the books down to just a few words.
That’s what I’ve been up to. I hope you have a nice remainder of the weekend!
Nicci
It’s an interesting time of year to get a leaf that looks like this.
We found it on our walk, lying in the street.
I’m back in the Bay Area where Spring is well underway. It rained all night, a wonderful event.
Nicci Carrera 