Sunday, 29 October 2023

Basil is an annual plant, so if you want more leaves, you must cut off
the flowers.

All summer, I've been putting basil flowers in my translucent water
bottle, putting the bottle in the freezer, then filling it with ice
cubes and chilled water before my next ride. Shaking the bottle
caused the ice to bruise the basil and release the flavor.

Shortly after ice-in-the-bottle season ended, I noticed that my thyme
was smothering my marjoram, cut it back, stuffed the prunings into the
bottle, and put the bottle in the freezer. This kept the thyme from
spoiling before Saturday, and freezing damages the cells to let out
the oils.

The second time I did this, I had drunk half the bottle when I came
back from the first loop of my three-loop ride, and it was nippy out
so I wanted to re-fill with warm water.

So I boiled a cup of water and very cautiously mixed it into the cold
water. Cautiously, because when we were on the Ghan, I thought I'd
clean one of my water bottles by rinsing it with water from the tea
urn. Luckily, it was a disposable bottle and I had another one.
(Water bottles, the tour guides kept saying, are VERY IMPORTANT in the
Red Center.)

(I want to go back to Australia, but not badly enough to endure
thirty-six consecutive hours on the road and in the air going and
again coming back. I'm not as young as I was then.)

This released a *lot* of flavor, so I did it again before the third
loop.

---------

Ah, that seems like just yesterday!

I wanted to go shopping after visiting the farmer's markets -- the
last meeting of the year for the fairgrounds market, but the
courthouse market will meet in the Pete Thorne Center every other week
all winter. I have no clue about the ice-rink market, but I'll bet
that the venue will cease to be available when they put the ice back
in.

I went to the fairgrounds and bought apples, pears, and kale, stopped
for a few minutes at the ice-rink market, unloaded my produce at home,
and topped off my bottle.

Then off to see the sycamore tree on my way to the courthouse. Jody
was back, and I bought a package each of chocolate-chip cookies and
peanut-butter cookies, which I didn't care to haul to Meijer and back.

Geometry would suggest that making an inspection of the trail under
construction along the shore of Center Lake be next on my route, but
Lowery's closes at three on Saturday, and the craft fair ended at two,
so I crossed the railroad on Buffalo Street. Much to my surprise, it
was convenient to remain in the saddle all the way to Winona Avenue,
and to turn left onto it even though that is the precise point where
SR 25 and SR 15 merge, and it was easy to cross the other railroad.

Took ages to find neutral gray floss at Lowery's; you'd think the
grays would be lined up between the black and the whites, but they are
scattered among the other colors, and is this gray or a muted navy?
I'm not sure the color I bought *is* neutral, but it can't be mistaken
for white like my silver gray inventory mark, and it looks black only
in dim light.

Like the light I'm typing by.

Google Maps suggested turning left onto Winona/SR15/SR25 upon leaving
Lowery's, then take the first right onto Reed Street.

Awk Scrickle this must be an alley that doesn't show on the map; no
street would be blocked by a yard or two of rise so steep that it
might as well be a wall. *Especially* for a turn off a road where
veering to the left so you can take a run at it is totally out of the
question. (I don't think I could have climbed it even if I'd hit it
at speed, and I wouldn't like to try that turn -- in either direction
-- in a car.)

Luckily, I could divert into a parking lot, dismount, go out the back
entrance, and climb the alley to Reed Street. When I calmed down, I
realized that I'd seen this intersection before, from the other side.

The map *was* correct that Reed Street leads directly into the back of
the school where the craft fair was. It turned out that they were
selling hot pulled-pork sandwiches, so I bought two to go, hurried
home, and left the park for another day.

After lunch, I took a nap then verified that it would still be light
at six, and rolled out at three. An hour to Meijer and an hour back
still left an hour to shop. But on the way out of town, I rode
through the congestion caused by Trick or Treat on the Trail, and
remembered that I wanted to see it. Union Street was blocked by
parents waiting their turn, so I diverted to Boy's City Drive (some of
you may have heard of the mountain-bike trails that that street leads
to) and entered Heritage Trail from the other end. Very crowded with
people coming toward me, so I had to walk. After turning at the
bridge across the creek, people were still coming toward me even
though Union Street was now behind me. Many of the parents had parked
at the Grace College athletic field.

When in the crowd around WLCC's booth, I banged a small
trick-or-treater with my starboard pannier, but she was quite nice
about it.

Once across Pierceton Road/King's Highway, I decided to follow the new
branch to its end at Christ's Covenant Church, so I could look at the
end of the shortcut to Sunset that won't be open again until January.
(Supposed to be a deer reduction going on, but I've never heard
gunshots. Are they using archers? Or does the entire "experiment"
consist of putting up the signs?) On the way, a previously-unnoticed
cross-country trail was betrayed by its orange "closed" sign.

I wonder whether I can follow it when there is snow on the ground?
It's hard enough to see under autumn leaves.

I turned around in the church parking lot, returned to the athletic
fields (which were on the other side of a fence most of the way), and
followed the other branch to Grace College, looking for the beaten
trails that lead to the trailer park and to some sort of church thing.
I'd intended to go from Grace to Kroger and buy eggs, but at four I
was tired, so I came home and baked a frozen pizza.

This evening, I put one of our two remaining eggs into a meatloaf.

Stripping the leaves off branching thyme twigs has always been a
chore. Today the dime dropped and I kept on cutting until I had
enough nice straight twigs for the meatloaf, then stuffed the rejects
into my water bottle.

Of course, that won't work when I'm not trying to reduce the size of
the bush.

Monday, 30 October 2023

The weather was unexpectedly pleasant today, so I thought I'd use the
thymed water bottle fetching eggs, and buy them at Aldi so I could buy
Big Dippers to take to next Sunday's chili cook-off. Big Dipper
tortilla chips are tiny bowls, and I've always been frustrated by
twenty chilis and only one bowl.

I put on undertights, readied the bike, and brought the bottle in from
the freezer.

But the overcast had not yet cleared away, and the route to Aldi
crosses an intersection that is always mentioned when people declaim
that SR 30 must become a Cotrolled Access Highway, so I put the water
bottle back into the little freezer and the ice bag in the insulated
pannier into the big freezer, put jeans on instead of another pair of
tights, and went by car.

I bought about twice as much stuff as I could have fitted into two
panniers, but no Fit & Active protein bars. I'm beginning to think
that they have discontinued them.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/

On 2023-11-02, Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
>
> Sunday, 29 October 2023
>
> Basil is an annual plant, so if you want more leaves, you must cut off
> the flowers.
>

Thank-you, Joy. It was a pleasure to read. And of course, when I think of
basil I think of pesto. My wife makes great pesto.

pH in Aptos

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