Post #3204: In-Between Week

This week feels in-between because we just had a provincial election on Saturday (with a favourable outcome from my perspective) but we are still waiting for the big scary election down south on Tuesday. Also, virus numbers continue to climb which makes every activity feel like a big question. But even so, over here at Birdsong, working from home, my schedule continues pretty much as it always does: work, gym/walk, dinner, studio. Yesterday I threw in a trip to the grocery store just to make things really exciting.

Food: As you can see from the above stack of books, I am thinking a lot about food-related things right now as is my autumn habit. I just got the Koji book on top and I plan to experiment with both koji and indoor mushroom growing a part of my late fall/winter fun. In addition to learning all about miso, I plan to grow oyster mushrooms and a reishi mushroom (from a kit) in the guest room that is largely going unused these days. Both of these projects have a potential to turn into inedible mould so we’ll see how it goes.

Last weekend I went for the last mushroom forage of the season with my friend Jenn (who is obsessed which was great encouragement to hunt), and found a few lobster mushrooms and some huge white chanterelles. The lobsters are now dehydrated, and the chanterelles were turned into risotto which I paired with some salmon fillets with a bit of coulis made from evergreen huckleberries that I pocketed in the same foraging session.

Textiles: This week I threw away the blouse I was working on. Just threw it in the garbage! Not only was the fabric turning out to be something I wouldn’t wear (a vintage rayon that was a bit too scratchy and floral for my liking), but I made a couple of major errors, and the fact of it on my sewing project pile was blocking me from starting anything else. I almost never garbage things I’m sewing without finishing them (even if I don’t wear something it can go to thrift) but this was becoming a misery to work on.

Once that was out of the way I pulled out some wide-wale corduroy that I’ve had in the stash for two years and made myself a new York Pinafore which I finished last night and am wearing today. I’ve made the York previously, in a stiff denim. I still wear it, but it’s a bit big for me now and I needed something a bit closer to my size. I decided to go with the kangaroo pocket in front, even though I wasn’t sure if it would be flattering or not, and I’m really happy I did! Between that and the corduroy, this feels like a make right out of my seventies childhood.

Work: Work has been very work-y this week. I screened fifty resumes for two different job application streams, filled out the requisite reports, had a bunch of meetings, and am now finishing up work writing the tests for the job competition. There is nothing exciting about any of this, but I was very productive!

Fitness: This week was solid on the fitness front except the part where I made myself so dehydrated on Tuesday (between running 4.25 km and walking 7 km) that I felt like I was coming down with the flu on Wednesday. I also think I might be running up against my B12 deficiency again because I’ve been fighting insane exhaustion and brain fog some days. More water and supplements for me! This week I’ve run three times (4.7 km, 4.25 km, 4.5 km); I’m hoping that this weekend I can push myself to 5 km but we’ll see. On the weight-lifting front, I’m still in a maintenance phase which I think I’ll stay in for the next few weeks – I’m feeling strong but I have to really re-set my brain in order to start pushing upwards again.

Notable: I got new glasses this week! Mine were more than two years old, and scratched all to hell – so I got myself an eye exam early in the month and ordered some glasses last week. This was my first time ordering from Clearly.ca which I decided on because my prescription for progressive lenses is so expensive (two years ago I paid just over $600 at my local eyewear shop) – I figured even saving $50 would be worth it. As it is, my new eyewear came in at $500 so I saved at least $100. Now that my prescription is in the system, I can easily order prescription sunglasses when it comes to be the season. I hate to admit how much I buy everything (that I can’t get secondhand) online these days, but given that I live on a small island with limited retail and no selection, and the virus (which makes me nervous to shop in the larger community close by), that’s where I’m at.