Shopping Lists

This is the list that I took to the grocery store yesterday. There is nothing to see here: the point is that it was a list.

I expect that we of this somewhat senior blog circle take paper lists to the grocery store because we are of an age when this was the only way to do it, for we had no handy dandy portable electronic devices. Apparently, we are thus doing a good thing for our brains, or at least this VegOut article so says. I post a little of the article below, but you now have the link to the whole post, which isn't terribly long, should you wish to click and read a bit more.

When writing by hand, brain connectivity patterns were far more elaborate than when typing. The researchers found widespread theta and alpha connectivity coherence between network hubs and nodes in parietal and central brain regions. These are the same frequency bands and brain areas that existing literature identifies as crucial for memory formation and encoding new information.

When participants typed, those connectivity patterns largely disappeared. As lead researcher Audrey van der Meer explained, the simple movement of hitting a key with the same finger repeatedly is less stimulating for the brain than the intricate, precisely controlled hand movements involved in forming letters.

This is not just an academic distinction. It means that when you write "eggs, bread, olive oil" on a piece of paper, your brain is doing fundamentally different work than when you tap those same words into a phone app. The handwritten version engages visual processing, motor planning, proprioceptive feedback, and spatial awareness simultaneously. The typed version engages mostly repetitive motor sequences and visual confirmation.

We have three Alexas in the house (don't ask), so when we realize that we need to add an item to our shopping list, we simply hail Alexa. "Alexa put X on the shopping list." When I am ready to shop, I grab the back of an envelope and write out the list more or less in the order that I will find the items in the store. I guess I make the best of both worlds: the convenience of compiling a list from wherever I might be in the house but then doing my brain a favour by writing it out.

How Sweet It Is

May we talk about peppers today?.

For years, we've often had one in the house, usually red. I often consume a few strips during lunch.

I have noticed that we could purchase small bags of peppers, perhaps with 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 orange.

But at the rate that I consume them, what would I possibly want with three peppers?

One day, Sue noticed that she could purchase one of these bags quite cheaply and get 3 for 1 as it were.

So, she did just that.

The sweetness was remarkable: so much better than the single peppers from the bin.

I wasn't mistaken, for the next single pepper that I purchased tasted less sweet once again. Following that, we purchased another bag of three, and it was also much sweeter, just like the first.

Photo by Alamy

What is up with that? Has anyone else noticed this? Whatever the case, I shall forevermore purchase peppers in the bag if I am given the option.

Whitewater and Lavender

We were pleased with our warm day and even cracked open a window for the first time in months. Our walk was reasonably pleasant although there was still a stiff breeze.

We strolled amongst the back bridges where we cross the river more than once. It is whitewater time, but I think the melting of the snow has been gradual this year, so the river is not running as high as it has in other years. I took this picture looking down from the trail bridge.

We walked around to Gillies Bridge from the trail bridge where I captured water flowing through one of the conduits made by the bridge supports.

As we passed by the crocus patch, we poked our noses in and were surprised to find that a few crocuses had opened. I tried taking a few photos but only liked this one. That said, I really do like this one.

We'll keep checking, but if the freezing rain that they are threatening does eventuate, it will be hard on the poor dears. We will return periodically and keep you posted, for the crocus season is fleeting.

Timmies and Tires

That was better. Sleepwatch tells me that I slept for 5:25 last night, which is close to 2 hours better than the previous night.Geting to sleep at 11:10 was also a bonus. As I wrote yesterday, I would rather go to sleep early and wake up early rather than vice versa.

It's already after 9am, and i have just returned from a Tmmies run. I had already consumed my mug (1/2 mug 2X) and Sue her usual big mug. But the lady awoke with a headache and was about to brew a second mug when I offered to venture forth a get her a "good coffee" from Timmies. She was quite enthusiastic about this.

While I usually say Tims and not Timmies, I read an article this morning by a Brit now residing in Toronto, and Timmies is one of the strange Canadian slang words that she mentioned. Of course, it refers to the ubiquitous Tim Hortons. It is not an abbreviation for coffee, however, just for the place that is Tim Hortons. We do not call coffee from other establishments, Tims or Timmies.

Other peculiar Canadian slang that she mentioned were toque, washroom, Loonie/Twonie, runners and two-four. You already know about toque, but you can read about the others here if you like. Briefly however, loonie/twonie are our one and two-dollar coins that have replaced paper currency because an image of a loon graced the first Loonie. Runners are what we call running shoes that you may call trainers or sneakers. A two-four is a case of beer and also our May 24th holiday (Queen Victoria's birthday). Many a two-four is consumed on May two-four.

Driving though for coffee, I had to insert my credit card rather than simply tap because it is a new one, by which I mean an updated version of an old one. This will involve much updating on various sites such as Timmies and Amazon, for example. It's a bit of a pain, but once done, it will save time for 6 years.

Next, I shall get back in the car to visit the tire shop where they will change Hermione the Honda over from winter to summer tires. I look forward to the nice, less noisy ride of the summer tires, but I don't look forward to the changeover expense. The storage fee plus the change-over fee will amount to more than $100, and I have to do this twice a year.

Fortunately, the weather is nice today and will rise to a positively balmy 14C/57F. Unfortunately, it won't last, and we shall suffer through an ice storm tomorrow and into Wednesday, during which the car and its summer tires shall remain parked in the garage.

Now to do some more credit card updating an inputting before I head out again.

Pieless and Almost Sleepless Too

We returned to the putative crocuses patch; alas, there was no change with just two slender shoots once again striving to live. We both tried a shot, but we weren’t successful with our results being on the blurry side. It’s a tough task for seniors to get down and get the shot. 

I realized that my sleep was over at 5:30 yesterday morning after only 4:40 of sleep, so I rose up. It was better than the 4:10 of the previous night and also better because I went to sleep earlier and got up earlier, which is preferrable to late and late. On the previous night, it had taken me hours to fall asleep, and that grinds my gears. (Last night, I got a whopping 3:40. This is unusual, even for me.)

Shortly after 9, I found myself at the grocery store. A little later I was off to Ashton Church to pick up apple pies for Easter only to find the door shuttered. Apparently pickup will be next Saturday. It's okay; it is only a 10-minute drive.

Closed or not, I am posting a photo of the church. You’ve seen it before if you’ve been visiting me for a few years, but I don’t think I posted anything last year. Maybe I'll take ann inside photo next week.

It was brightening up by the time that I got to Ashton, but on the way there, it had been snowy and blowy, so I stopped for this ↓ shot. I didn't even notice the geese when I took the photo. I was hurrying to get back to the car in the awful March 28th weather.

Here's another photo of the shed on the same farm. I brightened the photo a little in this case to try to make the scene a little more appealing.

 

Slovenly AC

I didn't know that I looked quite this ragged in the morning, specifically that my shirt hung down at the back like this. It's one of the shirts that I use for sleeping.

Until I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I had no idea. Sue notices such things but hardly ever mentions them, for she is never one to nag at me about how I look, whether it is my beard being unkempt or my hair being too long. On rare occasions, she might opine that garment x doesn't go with garment y when we go out but not very often.

You may also wonder about my socks with my pants tucked in. It's an accommodation for sleeping in the chair. With blankets not properly under me, cold air can seep up from the bottom, so I tuck my pants in. Sorry to the Brits who employ the word 'pants' differently. 

BTW, as seen above, the sweater is my constant companion during winter because we keep the house on the cool side in deference to my very hot wife.

As you are about to see, I do look a tad more put together once I dress for the day. 

It's the angle. I am definitely not taller than the door. Not even close.

The Actual Birthday Day

As planned, we walked to the cafe at 11 o'clock for coffee and breakfast sandwiches. We enjoyed the S'Mores coffee blend as we waited for our breakfast to appear. Meanwhile, I did my standard thing and took a quick portrait of my lady friend.

Time elapsed with no breakfast appearing, so after just about draining our coffees, I sauntered over to the counter to ask the young lady if she might possibly have forgotten the breakfast sandwiches. Yes indeedy, she had forgotten our order in the busyness, especially having been left on her own for a spell. About 10 minutes later, she delivered them — to the wrong table! Said table was within my view, so I was able to call out as the server began to walk away as the temporary recipients sat in bewilderment before also beginning to call out.

Once again, there were apologies. Once again, it was okay. 

After a lazy afternoon, we made our way over to the kids' for the usual family get-together for gifts, pizza and cake.

Slender Shoots

The birthday is done, and while there may soon be pictures appearing on this old guy's blog site, for now I just want to take you back to Tuesday's photo excursion. Sue decided that we should look for crocuses for her photo prompt. The last time we drove by the wild crocus patch, it was covered with snow, so I wasn't hopeful but was game to try.

But the first stop was the neighbourhood park where a few crocuses will eventually appear by the big boulder. But as I expected, they were still hiding underground. Who can blame them?

The pond is still frozen, but there was birdsong. I thought the juxtaposition or spring song and pond-ice interesting, so I took a short clip. I think they now call such video clips, reels. It is cheering to hear the avian calls, but it can't be easy for them to find sufficient provender in this weather, speaking of which, it snowed last night.

We drove to the other possible location for croci. The main patch hadn't bloomed yet, but we found a couple of very slender, tightly furled, shoots off in the far corner. The macro photo makes them look quite a bit bigger than they really were.

Very sadly, there were a couple of crocuses that had opened or tried to open, but they had succumbed to the brutal weather and were lying forlornly and withering on the ground. Such a pity. Nevertheless, finding these few shoots was encouraging. Now, we must hope for slightly better weather and many more croci.

This was another photo from that day in yet another garden that we checked out, but nothing was stirring there. I thought it worthy of a quick snap.

79

As of today, I am married to a 79-year-old woman. I don't know how that can be since I am only a kid — or at least occasionally feel like one . . . until I look in the mirror.

I take a photo of Sue when she is across the table from me when we go out to eat. They have accumulated over time even though we are not exactly frequent diner-outers. I took this ↓ photo last September on our autumn trip to see the changing colours of the sugar bush.

I used to create standard folding greeting cards, but after about three decades of that, I now just make a one-sided, postcard type of greeting.

It has been birthweek, but we haven't been overdoing the celebrations. On Monday, we took a coffee to the water after the wall photo excursion that I posted about yesterday. On that day we also indulged in a pretty yummy maple butter donut, but we resisted after Tuesday's photo excursion (to be posted about on another day) and settled for just coffee.

On both days as we sat near the water, the geese were foraging on the bits of grass that were sticking out of the snow. I took this on Monday.

Standing protective guard while his missus foraged.

On Tuesday, we did succumb to the lure of a car-coffee selfie. It is birthweek after all.

But, today, is the actual, genuine, honest-to-goodness birthday, so we plan to visit the nearby Dark & Deadly cafe for coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Much later, we'll head to the kids' for a birthday supper.

Wall-Eyed

Sue's photo prompt for yesterday involved walls, so we went downtown where there is known to be a wall or two. I thought that I would do something similar to Sue and look for walls with doorways or windows that might emphasize simple shapes and textures. I envisaged converting them to contrasty b&w and really enhancing the gritty texture of walls in edit. I thought that I would render all of the photos in similar fashion. However, when it came down to it, I didn't do anything like that once I had the photos in front of me on the computer  

This wall is a soft, muted green. I made the wall longer that it really was on the right to place the door off-centre in a pano-style photo. I rather like the simplicity, but I do realize that many viewers would see nothing in this or the other photos.

I photographed the door in the wall of a craft brewery in town, keeping it soft and actually de-emphasizing texture, and I deliberately employed some extra warping in post enhancing the fact that it was somewhat warped already, or it looked a bit that way in the original photo.

This is an almost unused door in townhall. This photo is, in fact, b&w but with some tonality as well.

An old wall with windows that I processed with a very soft look despite it being b&w, which I originally intended to make gritty. It looks a bit like a drawing. I liked that at first but not so much now although it looks still looks pretty good when it fills my big computer screen.

I might as well add a few others from the day. They are a little different than the ones above. The first has wide-angle distortion, which I don't mind every now and then.

Lots of everything in this next shot. Something about it appeals to me. Once again, it is not for everyone.

Fresh paint needed on this add-on behind a house.

My Silly Little Life

Just now, in the early morning, I asked Sue if she were cooking something, knowing that, of course, she were not. It was my way of telling her that I was experiencing an episode of phantosmia.

For those who don’t know: “Phantosmia is an olfactory hallucination—the perception of a smell that is not present, often described as foul, burned, or chemical. It is often temporary, lasting a few weeks or months…”

That’s what Google AI says, but I can report that I was hallucinating a pleasant odour in this case: like something pleasant cooking on the stove although I cannot say what. Sue asked if it were like bread baking, but it wasn’t quite that.

My first experience with phnatosmia that I can recall was of gasoline due to the medication that I was taking: medication that I stopped taking promptly, I hasten to add. But occasionally, I sometimes seem to smell other odours. They are not always necessarily pleasant, but it is nice when they are.

These episodes of phantosmia are not frequent, and I do not know what causes them. It’s odd that I would experience something in the early morning, which, of course, has dissipated in the time that is has taken me to type this silly report of something that occurs in my silly little life. 

Saturday Photos on Sunday

Quite unexpectedly, Saturday turned out to be a successful day for photography although it took quite a bit of editing to obtain results that I liked.

I recently posted a quick pic of geese in the field beyond. On Saturday morning, the poor things were back. I put a little more effort into editing this one. For one thing, it was a big crop even after shooting at full telephoto. Then, I used an upscale algorithm in photoshop to make it bigger again.

Later, while walking downtown, we checked out the site where we might find snowdrops in a sheltered spot with a warm south-facing wall behind. Due to their spot, they can bloom pretty early, and we were happy to see that they were out. In the past, I have brought my macro lens, a tripod, and even a stool to sit on to try to get down to their level. This is a mere phone photo with lots of editing to try to minimize the rough and distracting background. It's tough photography, but it has become a rite of spring in the past few years.

Leaving the tiny patch of snowdrops, I took a picture of reflections in the river as we walked past. It's quite abstract.

We walked on to the Blue Spoon Atelier where we purchase the blueberry scones that I go on about. Alas, other people have also discovered them, and they were all gone. Not to be defeated, we bought cheddar cheese with caramelized onion scones, two delicious chocolate chip cookies, and one sourdough loaf. No, those scones were not as good as the blueberry ones, but we didn't suffer too much.

As a lagniappe, I present the fun Canadian Resistance Army - Not Your 51st State. Enjoy.

New and Old Photos

Red asked if this picture of JJ and me were backward. The answer is yes. It happens sometimes on certain selfies. I did notice but not before I posted. I think I may have fixed that from happening again, but we shall see.

But now that it has been mentioned . . .  Ta Da.

============================

Milady and I trend rather heavily toward the British tv that we find on Britbox and Acorn, more Britbox than Acorn. However, we are currently quite into The Pitt. We consumed the first season relatively quickly and are presently galloping our way through the second season. We both approve with definite thumbs up. 

Update: Apparently, we are now caught up with the series and must wait for one drop per week. This is very disappointing. 

By the same token we have lukewarm feelings about Scarpetta. Given the source novels and the star power actors, we were rather disappointed. The show was over-written and over-acted, which made it quite uncomfortable at times. I think that The Brits have perfected the mystery genre. They get on with telling the story, which is interesting enough on its own merit without reverting to hyperbolic acting. It's not that I wouldn't watch a second season of Scarpetta if it were offered, but it wouldn't be at the top of my list.

I recently uncovered in my files a newspaper page that I scanned quite some time ago when it was already yellowed with age, so I removed some of the yellow. Here's how my grad photo appeared in the local newspaper. 

Fourth in second row in case there is any doubt.

You see that were living in Guelph at the time, so I was included in the newspaper, but we only lived there together for s year while I was attending university. From Guelph, we moved to London where I spent a year at Althouse College of Education, University of Western Ontario. Then, we moved to Sarnia where I taught for thirty years and lived for 34 years.

Speaking of Guelph, Sue brought home this photo of Sue from her visit with Heather. We were entering the house where we had a basement apartment. It was the day of our wedding, which took place at 11am. After the ceremony, we had a luncheon reception at the church in Toronto before driving the hour to Guelph. We didn’t take too long to get organized before travelling on to Stratford where we spent our first night. I don't know why we don't seem to have this photo in our own collection, or we haven't until now.

Spring hath not Sprung

It's especially true in this vernal equinox morning.

I had been yearning for blueberry scones at the Blue Spoon Atelier downtown, but we will likely stay home where Sue is attending to her knitting. 

She was counting the stitches. She missed one of 97 in that row.

Meanwhile, the geese hunker down in the field opposite as if quietly resigned their fate.

And I also reluctantly accept my scone-less fate. Dangitall.

Licensed

Before we even left the house, we learned that Jonathan had passed his driver's test. We do have a graduated license plan here, so I don't have his road permissions all straight in my head, but I think he's able to drive around town on his own and on secondary highways as long as he has a fully licensed driver riding shotgun. Later in the process, there will be another test to pass.

The drive into Ottawa was interesting. The highway was clear on a sunny day, but once we hit the city, we had to approach intersections with caution because we could hardly see the snow-blasted traffic lights from Tuesday's big blow. Here's one picture but some lights were even more snowed than this one. 

Once we arrived, the food was good, and my almost-79-year-old wife was looking pretty good too.

The Snow and the Driving Lesson

We had plans to head into Ottawa yesterday, but the likelihood of a fierce wind blowing newly fallen snow onto a rural highway dissuaded us. So, the trip and lunch are on the agenda today. But I must say that it looked pretty yesterday morning when I first looked out.

The bright snow at the bottom was on the window ledge.
I included it deliberately.

But it was not fun to be out there, and we weren’t about to go for walk in the frigid gale.

I keep wondering when the final shovelling session
will occur, but it probably won't be for awhile yet.

The day before, Jonathan had asked if I were available for a driving lesson. Sue requested that I take some photos of the event, so I sent a few back to her to composite for me. She sent many layouts, but I will limit myself to only including four of them here. Some versions are whimsical. Well, maybe they all are whimsical to some degree. 

When we say "driving lesson" we mean that I will mostly just sit there in silent mode while he wanders about the streets and into parking lots to practise parking.

Before I leave, I present a selfie with the boy.

Checking In

As March grinds on, I seem to have less to write about than usual, which, I suppose, many must count as a godsend. While it went up to 13C/55F yesterday, it is presently -6C/25F and bright and white after an overnight snowfall. Unfortunately, it will get even colder as the days goes on. Nevertheless, we shall, possibly, still drive into the city for a pre-birthday lunch.

We have gotten out for little walks but kept to the neighbourhood yesterday. The milder weather, as noted above, was pleasant enough, and we heard some birdsong, particularly a Mr Cardinal who was calling from a treetop up the street. We did the bridge trial walk on Sunday, but it was almost bitterly cold, partly because I underdressed. While photo ops seem few and far between in mid-March, I did take one of Sue shooting a boarded-up window, and I photographed the window too. Fortunately, or otherwise, my shooting did not break any glass.

A few days before that, we did a different sort of selfie in a downtown window. It's all reflection.

On another downtown stroll, I photographed a mural in a narrow alley between two buildings. Even using a wide angle plus a pano sweep, I could not capture it all in that narrow space and missed some of the top. Pano distortion also resulted in a curve although the wall is really straight. Fun stuff.

Since we are here, all together like this, I'll show you the old clocktower once again. It is a mono conversion of the colour version that I posted not too long ago.

I guess that's a wrap for today.