Day 165: SIL Zoom. Also Baking

I spent about an hour this morning talking with my sisters-in-law. We are rarely ever together at the same time. Fifteen years ago we took a Caribbean cruise together. They are all quite delightful.


After the Zoom session I baked. I made a pullman loaf because I wanted a sandwich and a cake because I needed to use up some lemon curd.

The bread looked delightful, but I am not happy with the taste. The cake looked a mess, but it was delightfully delicious.

Day 10: The New Camera (mostly)

Still struggling with odd feelings of not-quite-rightness. Possibly with a little ennui tossed in. For instance, there are things I normally do on weekends — feed the sourdough starter is one, make bread is another, however I have no desire to do either, even though they must be done if I want to keep the starter alive and if we are to have homemade sourdough bread in the house.


The camera is turning out to be a true delight. Today I tried out the long lens (I am sure it has a better name — telephoto lens perhaps) and it took some decent photos. I’m still learning. Dean even gave it a go and remarked on how light it was. He was still not very enthusiastic about it, but at least didn’t complain about it.

Other delights today:

  • Reading and commenting on Lali’s blog again. I’d missed the entries from the beginning of the pandemic. Her writing is soothing.
  • A phone call from my SIL asking about my first (true) day and a half of retirement
  • More backyard birds (blue jays, northern cardinals, Carolina wrens, hairy woodpeckers, ruby-throated hummingbird, fish crows)
  • The return of the spider — it seems it likes the kitchen door in the late afternoons — I’d already taken out my contact lenses so didn’t try to take a photo this time.
  • The walk around the elementary school with Dean at lunchtime
Dean’s photo of a squirrel