Claudia — Page 741

Limiting

November 11, 2018 at 10:17 am by Claudia

I forgot to share this paperweight I found in Paris – it’s from the Musée d’Orsay. Monet and waterlilies. I love it.

On the past two more mornings, I haven’t turned on my phone to check email or scroll through Instagram, but have, instead, sipped coffee while reading a novel. Now, this isn’t breaking news and it may indeed be what many of you do every morning. As a matter of fact, pre-cell phones, that’s exactly what I did every morning. I made coffee, sat down in my chair, and read for a few hours.

This year I went through a period of being unable to concentrate long enough to read any fiction. I read some non-fiction, but very little fiction, which has always been my first love. I found it alarming, though I’ve been through it before. I’m pretty sure it was the result of a couple of things: the ongoing stress I have felt since the election which has made me unable to concentrate for long on anything and the amount of time that I spent on the computer and phone checking twitter and the news and then trying to distract myself with pretty pictures on Instagram.

Fortunately, I got through the worst of that period and came out on the other side and now I’m reading fiction again. I read a big chunk of my current book yesterday afternoon, as well.

But I noticed a couple of things while on our trip. I felt much less eye strain because I wasn’t constantly looking at a backlit screen. And I was much happier when I wasn’t concentrating on either of those devices. (Not to mention the fact that I was much, much happier when I wasn’t concentrating on the news.)

I’m going to make some changes. I’m not going to leave my laptop on all day. I’ll write the blog post, check emails and sign off. Later in the day, I’ll sign on again to respond to comments. I’m also going to try to limit the time I spend on IG. Once in the morning, maybe a quick post or two during the day. The rest of the time? Puttering around the house, doing chores, listening to music, going somewhere that’s visually stimulating, and reading.

Reading has always been of the utmost importance to me. So I must ensure that I allow time for that. My current reading selection is Michael Connelly’s latest. He’s such an excellent writer that I have had no trouble losing myself in the story and that helps.

I love Instagram because I love the photos people share and I’m very visual. But I also don’t want to be one of those people who constantly checks her phone. Life’s too short.

A couple of questions: Have you struggled with limiting screen time? Since I publish a blog post daily and also post on IG, screen time can be problematic. Have you struggled with reading this year? And – finally – what are you reading right now?

That’s a lot of questions, I know, but I think it might be helpful for us to have a dialogue about these things.

Happy Sunday.

Saturday Thoughts

November 10, 2018 at 10:07 am by Claudia

I took this photo earlier this week and now, due to rain and winds, those leaves are on the ground. Both Don and I felt a bit blue yesterday because it got much colder and we had a strong sense that the temps had officially moved to ‘winter’ mode.

And we’re not big fans of winter, to put it mildly.

It’s windy today, but sunny.

I’m remembering a couple of questions that were raised during my travel posts.

One reader asked if it was hard to find vegetarian food while traveling. The answer is that is was surprisingly easy. The French and the English love their meat, that’s for sure, but we could always find a vegetarian option on the menu, and quite often, a vegan option. Even on the first night we arrived in Paris, jet lagged and exhausted, we wandered into a bistro down the street and the lovely man behind the bar said he could whip up a salad for us with hard boiled eggs and nuts and other sources of protein. And he did. It was quite tasty.

The world is changing. Vegetarian and vegan options are becoming mainstream. Don thinks that eventually, maybe not in our lifetime, but at some point, meat will be a thing of the past. Raising animals for meat is not all good in terms of the environment, and for both us, it’s not at all a good thing morally. We could never go back to eating meat. Nor do we have to, when there are so many wonderful options out there, so many more than there were when I first became a vegetarian over 30 years ago. I pray for the day when we no longer kill our fellow innocent beings for food. When I don’t have to see cute pictures of cows on the kitchen walls of those who think nothing of turning around and eating them. Or when millions of turkeys are no longer slaughtered so humans can celebrate “Thanksgiving.”

I also pray to do better myself, because though I am consistently vegetarian, I am not consistently vegan. And I still wear leather shoes.

Another reader asked what I meant about the trip being transformational. Well, it was transformational in a few ways. Moving beyond the borders of this country and visiting another country, another culture, is always transformative. We escape the bubble in which we live. We see the world with fresh eyes. We meet people, talk to them, get different ideas and points of view. We see a world that exists quite nicely apart from ours. We also learn about issues that are important to those who live in whichever country we are visiting.

My awareness expands. My world expands.

Also, traveling involves constant visual stimulation and a constant flow of information. Seeing the Seine at all times of day, learning about the history of Notre Dame, or the Tower of London, or the ancient and now gone theaters in London that were once gathering places for live theater. Talking to a cab driver about Brexit: “Well, we’re a democracy and we voted for it, so that’s what’s happening.” Talking to another cab driver about being born in the East End and being a true Cockney. Grappling with the fact that Paris was occupied by the Germans in WWII. That London was bombed repeatedly during the Blitz and seeing the evidence left on the walls of buildings, on the walls of the Tower of London.

I got a greater understanding of history, of the patterns that keep recurring, of the past and how it is echoed by our present. And that there’s nothing new under the sun.

The trip took us far away from the States and into completely different worlds. How could that not be transformational? Also, with all the stress and insanity of the past two years here in the U.S., it was an enormous gift to leave it behind for 2½ weeks and just be. I cannot tell you how much that meant to us, how much we desperately needed it.

We were with each other 24 hours a day, every day, and we loved it. We travel well together. We miss that sense of being away from everything, just the two of us, completely and utterly engrossed in new sights, new sounds, new things, new people. To be honest, we’re still having a hard time adjusting to being back and, if we had unlimited funds, we’d be heading back there shortly.

I felt more free there than I have in years. I felt as if I had wings.

Anyway, I hope this answers those two questions. If you have more, feel free to ask.

One last picture of a sunny porch filled with potted plants. It’s going to get very cold at night this week, so these lovelies will soon be no more. That always makes me sad, but at the same time, I’m grateful that they’ve lasted this long. I fully expected to come home and find them gone due to some freak hard frost, which often happens in October.

Currently reading Michael Connelly’s newest, Dark Sacred Night. Excellent, as always. Lee Child’s newest just came out a few days ago. Susan Hill’s newest Simon Serailler mystery comes out on November 20th. And the great Louise Penny’s newest will be published on November 27th. I’m excited about all of them. The positive side of colder temps? Tucking into some hot cocoa and a good book.

Happy Saturday.

In the Meantime…

November 9, 2018 at 10:08 am by Claudia

Since all of my posts have been about our trip to France and the British Isles of late, I thought I’d do a little catching up today. Some of these photos have been on Instagram, so if you follow me there, you’ve most likely already seen them.

I did some antiquing and treasure hunting over the past couple of weeks.

I was hoping to find one of these well-known marmalade crocks in England, but I never had the time to do any antique shopping. Darn! I had a feeling that the same woman I purchased the cubby cabinet from would have some in at least one of her locations. I gambled on my pick of the locations and it paid off, as she had several. This is the one I chose. It’s old, has lovely crazing and makes me happy. I also got a round ironstone butter pat as well as a set of six Noritake butter pats.

Yes. Another collection. I like them. And they’re small, which is now a necessity in this tiny house, already jam-packed with collections.

The other day, I stopped at a local antique shop and found these:

Another Fiesta/Harlequin egg cup in a dusty rose.

And a tiny little pitcher/creamer from England.

It’s been warm enough this week that I was able to open the front door and let the sun shine into the living room. But that’s changed as of last night. A hard freeze, with all the catalpa leaves on the ground. My porch plants look like they’re hanging in there so far, but it’s only a matter of time.

Sigh. Both Don and I remarked this morning that it seems like a big change happened last night and we’re heading into winter. This is always a hard transition for me and it gets harder every year.

The bush that I wish was elsewhere always wins me over at this time of year. This is a shot of our burning bush taken from upstairs in our bedroom.

I cleaned up my desk the other day, which had become completely covered with paperwork and things I gathered on our trip. Then I sat in my chair, did some work on my laptop and listened to some bossa nova music. Occasionally, I would turn the chair toward the dollhouse and eventually, I found myself looking for my rubber mallet. The result:

I demoed the staircase and the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen. I cut some dowels to hold the ceiling up until I come up with some pillars, perhaps flanking a kitchen island.

It looks a lot roomier, which is what I wanted.

Here it is with some furniture so you can get an idea of where I’m headed.

The island would probably be right behind that chair. I’m thinking of beams on the ceiling. We’ll see.

Finally, I was sitting here in the den on election night with my back to the window, which faces west. It had rained hard all day long. Don wasn’t here, he was headed home on the bus from NYC. Suddenly, the room turned orange and I turned and looked out the window, grabbed my phone and ran outside. The entire sky was this color:

I’ve never seen anything like it. As I turned back to the house, I gasped.

A rainbow spanning the sky behind our house.

A double rainbow:

On one horizon was a glorious sunset. On the other was a huge rainbow.

Then the sunset turned to this:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so spectacular in our 13 years here. Yes, great sunsets. Yes, the occasional rainbow. But both at the same time? Never. It was incredible. I called Don, who was on the bus, and told him to look out the window and he managed to see the rainbow and the orange sky.

I took it as a good omen. Turns out it was.

Happy Friday.

Saturday Thoughts

In the Meantime…

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives