The Weekend

Rose: Front and Center!

Oh, my!  The days are passing by faster than I can record them!  LOL.  We've had several sunny warm days, with the daytime highs in the upper 70s and mid 80s.  I'm glad I photographed the roses when I did because, by Friday, they were wilted and M removed them.

On Friday, I sat outside in the morning to say my prayers, but, by the time I finished saying them, it was already too sunny and hot to walk.  I thought I'll walk in the evening when it would be cooler (that's what I did on Thursday), but, when evening came, my hips were hurting and I thought it would be better to give my body a day of rest from walking.  Friday, I ordered and picked up the groceries in the early afternoon and M was here to tend to the garden in the evening.  He thinned out more peaches from the upper branches and we planted five potatoes that had started to sprout.  

Berkeley Botanical Gardens

On Saturday, my daughter visited the Berkeley Botanical Gardens.  I told her to take some pictures and she did!  She sent me a bunch of them, but, I have included only a few of them, here.

Redwood Stand and Other Plants

Saturday was another warm day.  I did my walking in the evening and this time, I walked at a slow pace and was able to walk for 20 minutes without any pain.  Neighbor S was also walking in her driveway (at a much faster pace) and we waved at each other.    

On Saturday, I picked more snow peas (which I froze) and I finally cooked the broccoli I had picked on Wednesday.  Some of the buds were already turning yellow, but, they had not opened, yet.  I would have still cooked the broccoli, even if it was flowering.  First, the florets were stir fried with a little soy sauce: 

Stir-Fried Broccoli Florets

Next, the broccoli stalk and smaller stems were sliced and cooked in the same saute pan as the florets, with just a little bit of water added; then, they were bagged up to be frozen to add to stir fries and/or soups, later: 

Cooked Broccoli Stems for the Freezer

Finally, the leaves were finely cut as one would to make a chiffonade and cooked with grated coconut, turmeric, green chilies, etc., to make broccoli leaf mallung:

Broccoli Leaf Mallung

I'm going to call this my "Zero Waste" broccoli cooking!  Every part of the broccoli that was picked on Wednesday was cooked, except for a slice of the stem end that had discolored a bit; it was added to the compost bin.

I also made a batch of yogurt and left it in the pre-warmed oven, overnight.  It had set when I checked, this morning (Sunday).

Sunday morning, when I woke up, I found that the power had gone down, again.  No lights, no internet, no house phone.  Fortunately, it came back on again, in about an hour or so.  It was another sunny and warm day, although slightly cooler than yesterday.  I spent a relaxed morning, replying to blog comments (thank you, everyone, for your kind comments about the sweater), reading a few other blogs and commenting on them, posting on the online organizing group of which I am a member, writing a couple of emails, etc.  

Later, I sat down at the sewing machine to do some 'mindless sewing' - piecing all the tiny scraps of fabric I had accumulated after repairing the triangles quilt.  I will eventually make crumb blocks with them.

In the evening, at 7:30 p.m., I went for my walk.  The renters in the house on the other side of neighbor T's house were having a party (neighbor T is doing well, by the way; I called and spoke with her on Saturday).  I could hear their music (not as loud as when the neighbors on the other side of me have their parties; at least, not yet!) and there were people still arriving.

I was doing my usual walk, up and down my drive way and on the side walk in front of my house and neighbor T's house.  I was walking along the side walk in front of my house, facing away from neighbor T's house, when I heard someone, a male voice, say, "Put down the window, stay in the car and put down the window".

At first, I thought it was one of the party goers, perhaps trying to get something like a gift out of a car, and telling the person in the car to stay in the car, he'll get the item through the window.  But, then, there was another, rather forceful instruction of, "No, don't get down, stay in the car and put down the window".  I turned my head to see what was going on and there were police officers with their guns drawn, standing behind one of the cars parked in the party house driveway!  And a person was trying to get out of the car and the officer reissued the instructions in Spanish, this time.

I had been walking for only about 10 minutes or so, but, I thought it would be prudent of me to get back into the house and close my door!  Which is what I did!  I didn't want to be outside in the way of any stray bullets if there were any shots fired!

The party music stopped around that time and I don't know quite what happened, but, I didn't hear any gun shots.  This is not the first time there has been police activity in my neighborhood, although things have been rather quiet recently.  I think I shall go back to walking in the morning and try to do so before it gets too hot!  

Afterwards, I had my dinner (leftovers - rice, broccoli, ground beef/vegetable mixture; freshly made yogurt and palm treacle for dessert) and cooked the package of ground turkey I had kept in the fridge.  

After dinner, I chatted with friend R and, of course, video chatted with my daughter.

This weekend, I was grateful for:

- The sunny, warm weather

- Flowers and garden harvests

- Electricity and having the power restored fairly quickly

- Emails, phone calls, and texts with family and friends

- Being safe inside my house!

This weekend's joyful activities have included harvesting snow peas and lettuce from the garden, finishing my new sweater, and some mindless sewing.

Plans for Monday include some housekeeping tasks (it's the All House Cleaning branch, this week) and maybe more mindless sewing.

How was your weekend?  What are your plans for Monday?