My Year in Books

OK, I read a lot this year! I actually had a goal to read slightly less this year than last, but here it is, more than 200 books, versus my goal of 150. Last year was 185, and 2020 was 180. The reason I set a lower goal is because I believeI spend way too much time on the couch reading. I do some listening to books which allows multi-tasking, but more than 2/3 of these books were read, not listened to. And, most evenings end up with me on the couch playing idle nonverbal games on my ipad while listening, so not so much multi-tasking going on. I've got to get some new hobbies, or sign up for additional volunteering!

I read most of these books on the kindle (70%) and when I finish it, it posts automatically to GoodReads, simplifying the keeping track. I manually enter hard copy and audio books, though I'm not so accurate in getting that right. Still, I think this is pretty good. (Actually, I just found a half dozen Audible books I hadn't added but I just did; not reflected in these totals!) And, of course, GoodReads makes the graphic, and also allows exporting to excel to make your own statistics. 

Folks, I only acquired and read less than twenty books on my own this year - all the rest were library books or audio books! Let's hear it for the library! Especially because my habit is to find an author I like, and then read my way through the entire oeuvre. The digital service my library uses tends to have all-or-none of authors I stumble across. With ten spots for checking out books, and another 10 to join waitlists, I keep them coming. 

I grade on a curve, and I think that makes me a harder grader than many others. In fact, a quick scan shows my score is higher than average for only six books this year. I assume a book will have three out of five stars, and it needs to be very good or very bad to deviate from that. So the graphic above shows the only three five-star books of the year. Here is a quick recap of them:

The absolute BEST indoor plant book! And Christopher Griffin, the Plant Kween, is the cutest guy I know - I found him on Instagram before I bought the book. So this book is luscious in its photography, but serious in its plant information. Latin names, proper botanical terminology, very precise notes about care. But luscious! (Bonus for Brooklyn readers: It contains portraits of the best plant shops to be found in the borough.)

Written entirely in the first person, this is a sprawling and moving book. VERY faithful to David Copperfield, which I read as a child. I had to get a plot synopsis of the original, which was fun then to figure out the modern characters, though it did result in hints of spoilers. Most of the books I read this year, the typical mystery, takes maybe five hours to read. This was more like fifteen! But worth it!

The story of a woman enslaved by her father, and how her life evolves as her circumstances change. Very moving depictions of the compromises made to survive. There is an historical note at the end, showing how this is closely based in reality. Not so very far from here, in place or time. It really gripped me.

 

 

 I rated just two books at two stars. One was really a short story; it seemed to me to be just exploiting the popularity of a series and squeezing some extra and unnecessary and not very entertaining mileage out of it by tossing in this story. The other was an historical mystery set in England in the early nineteenth century, the first of a series. I didn't even finish it - very rare for me - because I couldn't handle the historical anachronisms and inaccuracies, right down to rich people routinely drinking water. (Water wasn't safe to drink.) When I checked reviews on GoodReads, it turns out many others also noted these problems.

 My book count is up this year partly because I read more books written for children and teens. They go quickly, and can be very engaging. The bulk of these were fantasy novels. I raced through a series, The Ranger's Apprentice, that basically eschewed magic for craft and skill to create fantasy adventures in a imaginary medieval world (with a million anachronisms). With two offshoot series (new characters, same world, some overlap) there were a total of 25 of them! 

I whiled away much of my Covid isolation by re-reading a fantasy series by Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen's Thief. The big idea is a world much like Greece in the sixteenth century, but with different geography and a different pantheon of gods. I had read all six books a while back (written from 1996 to 2020), but downloaded them to the kindle to take along with me to Greece. There are conflicts ranging from families to nations to international dynamics, as the "Medes" (think Ottoman Empire) continually try to take over the Greek pennisula, with the (European analogue) "Great Powers" on the other side maybe or maybe not helping out the three squabbling Greek kingdoms. Nothing is as it seems in any of these books, told from different points of view. I hadn't read the last book, and the others had been read so long ago I had forgotten a lot. (Hey! In double checking the dates, I just discovered a new book out this year! A collection of related short stories and trivia to supplement the series. Happy Christmas to me!)

Nearly half the books I read this year were mystery novels, many of those in series. (I don't distinguish between mystery, thriller, suspense, spy, and related concepts, just lump them all as "mystery"). There was a charming and lighthearted series by Rhys Bowen called "Her Royal Spyness". Our heroine, when we meet her, is 25th in line for the British throne, but penniless and having to survive by her wits. Downton Abbey meets Dorothy Sayers in the 1920s, with fifteen books in the series so far. The author is prolific beyond this series, but I've not really sampled her other stuff. A more hardboiled series I'm nearly caught up with is the Walt Longmire set, by Craig Johnson. He is a sheriff in the least populated county in Wyoming. The descriptions of the physical landscape are gripping, and many of the characters are Native Americans, as there are a lot of tribal lands around. There is a TV series out, Longmire, inspired by these books but not at all a literal translation to the screen. I watched just the very first episode, and put it on my ever growing "to watch when I have time" list. My favorite mystery writer ever, Louise Penny, had a new volume out from her Inspector Gamache series which I devoured in previous years. The latest is one of the best ever. There is also a brand new television series, Gamache, out as of early December, again inspired by the books but not a literal translation. I've watched the first two episodes, and will watch the rest of the 8-episode season soon. 

There isn't a clear line always between fantasy and science fiction, but I do try to break them apart. I'm drawn to these genres because, as long as you are making things up, you can create a really appealing world, one I might like to visit. Many of my science fiction reads come from John Scalzi's blog, where he devotes space to allow authors to promote their books by talking about what they were trying to convey in the book ("The Big Idea"). An author I stumbled onto from the blog, Becky Chambers, is fabulous. The first book of hers I read is set in a universe she uses for several other books, but she focuses on different characters in wildly different settings. My favorite of this year (4 stars!!!!) is The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. The story takes place in a hospitality rest stop for interstellar travel, where a half dozen characters from different species from different planets are stuck together during an unexpected delay of undetermined length. Complex tensions and interactions ensue, but they all pull together in the end to save an endangered child.

An unusual book I read (also tipped off by Scalzi's blog) might be in the mystery genre or in the fantasy genre. The Peacekeeper, by B.L. Blanchard. It is set in an alternate world where the Americas were never colonized, and the Ojibwe nation surrounds the Great Lakes. There are crimes and mysteries, but "justice" is different in a society where restoring harmony is the main role of peace keepers. The physical description of an Objibwe Shikaakwa (Chicago) reminded me of the Afro-futurist vision of Wakanda, but with a Native American orientation. Refreshing! And a very good contemporary novel, Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley, is also set in Ojibwe culture, but in our world. Another hat tip to Scalzi's author's platform.

I read four books by Connie Willis, which share a common plot device - time travel is possible and Oxford University sends back scholars and historians to view historic events. Two are WWII in England books, one mixes WWII with a lighthearted take on Victorian England based on the Victorian book Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, and one takes us to the Black Death. They are entertaining in different ways, and transporting a contemporary observer to these settings makes for interesting situations. Recommended.

OK. Time to investigate new hobbies, other ways to spend my time.

The Twist

 So about a week into my trip, I got Covid. Ugh.

It came on me like a freight train, moving from afternoon fatigue requiring a nap, to shivering and putting on extra layers as I went to bed, then waking up in the middle of the night drenched with sweat, throwing off the covers and lying on top. My throat had been getting steadily more and more sore, and in that middle of the night session I felt like there was a knife down it, and a hammer hitting my head on top and in the back. I had been taking my temperature throughout, and it went one time just above 100, barely a fever. So I thought, maybe it's allergies. Maybe the headache is a migraine. But at first light, I dug out the test kit I'd brought along, and was frankly terrified when it turned positive. How many times in the past three years have I felt poorly, and tested, only to have it be negative? But here it was, and likely true. 

The fear wasn't for how sick I was going to get, it was the implications of being sick while on a ship in a foreign country. What was going to happen to me? How would I lose control of what would happen to me?

When, according to my daily schedule in my room, the medical office was supposed to be open, I masked up and went down. There was a Greek doctor and a Philipino nurse on duty. I told them my symptoms, but not about my self-test. At that point I had no more fever. They gave me a release to sign before giving me another test, and I hesitated several minutes before going ahead with the official ship's test. Again, the issue was, what will happen to me? How will I lose control over what will happen to me, once I'm in some system as being positive? But I went ahead, because I'm so much of follow-the-rules person. Of course, their test was also positive.

They told me I should isolate in my cabin. They gave me some kind of decongestant, to be taken at night. They gave me so tablets for a cough. They gave me some vitamin C. I asked what was in the decongestant, the cough tablets the ingredients, but I didn't understand the answer, and they seemed to think being told when to take it should be enough. They assured me the progression would probably be no worse than a bad cold, and they had no access to antivirals, but I shouldn't need them anyway.

So back to my tiny but cozy ship's cabin. They brought me menus, and took my meal orders over the phone, and delivered them by tray into my room. I took my Extra Strength Tylenol, religiously every 7-8 hours (no more than 3 doses per day) and took my temperature just before renewing each dose. Never again did I have even the tiniest fever. I did not take the nasal decongestant or cough medicine, never needing it. The nose dripped but wasn't plugged. My throat was sore, and I had brought a long a large collection of cough drops / throat soothers, which I partook of liberally. I had loaded up my kindle with books and my iphone with recorded books and my ipad with TV shows and movies before leaving home as I knew there wouldn't be internet available on the ship. The first day, I slept more than half the time away. I woke up the next day feeling almost normal, so time passed as I devoured some books, marched ten steps up and down my room, did a few desultory body weight exercises and stretches, sat on my tiny little veranda to get a glimpse of Greek scenery going by.

And I worried. I mentioned no internet. What I had was my cellphone with an international data plan. So when we were cozied up to the land, and I had connectivity on the phone, I had slow and small internet access. Generally at night we were at sea and there was no coverage. So I tried to look up international regulations about traveling with Covid, any regulations on the airline site, hotels in Athens, etc., and was more frustrated than satisfied. The first couple of days it was more formless worrying in between feeling bad and choosing to drown in some books rather than actually figure out any plan of action. I realized how having money makes everything easier - if I needed to stay in Athens for some days, it wouldn't ruin me. But I had done absolutely no research on Athens, since the only time I would have spent there would have been while staying on the ship. Hotels.com had 967 hotels available in Athens, and I had no notion about neighborhoods, properties, etc.. I felt I couldn't cope and just went back into my books.

The day before we were due to leave, I went back to Medical and asked them about leaving. The doctor and nurse worked for the ship, and they said folks from the tour company that chartered the ship would be contacting me. They said guidelines recommended isolating for five days, but there was no ban on flying, and in their experience most people just went home. So I reached out (not for the first time) to the program people on the ship, and they finally got back to me. Their main question was, "do you feel well enough to fly?" and for me, clearly, the answer was "yes". Except for a mild sore throat, a slightly dripping nose, I had no symptoms except tiredness. I wanted home, in my own house, in my own bed! So they made arrangements for me (and, it turns out, a few other covid-positive passengers) to be transported to the airport separately from the other passengers. I was able to check in for my flight on my phone, and there was a moment of trepidation about what questions I would be asked. But the airline asked many questions about documentation and paperwork, most of which did not apply to US citizens, and never about symptoms or test results. 

We had been divided into small groups for the trip, and on the last day one of the women from my group came by to ask how I was doing and if I needed anything. She had NOT been told I was Covid-positive, and I was ... embarrassed to tell her. As if it was my fault, and I worried that I might have infected the others.  We spoke through the open door of my cabin, distanced, and she didn't run away from me when I told her. 

The same sense of shame pervaded me at the airport. It's very inefficient to get from Athens to the US east coast. Basically, you have to fly to central Europe and then catch a US bound flight from there. In order to make the connections, you have to be on the first flights out of Athens in the morning (mine was 7 am). Because it was recommended being at the airport three hours ahead, and it took up to an hour to get to the airport from the ship, it meant leaving the ship at 3 am. The airport was crowded with many of the other 200 passengers from the ship all doing approximately the same thing. I was double-masked - surgical mask inside KN95 - put on headphones, stuck my nose in my kindle, and avoided any eye contact or acknowledgement. I *really* didn't want to have an out-loud conversation in the airport gate room about my flying with Covid. I also was not happy with the idea I was typhoid Mary spreading germs intercontinentally. I rationally thought the risk to others was low - Day 5, double masked - but I still feel like deciding to fly home was one of the more selfish things I've ever done. 

It was a tough trip on my virus-battered body. It might have been better for me, as well as everyone else, if I'd gone to a hotel for a couple of days. But that's behind me now, no longer an option. It took me several days after I got home to recover simply from the fatigue of the trip: up in the middle of the local night after 2 1/2 hours sleep, then 22 hours before I reached the front door of my house. I was masked all but about half an hour of those 22 hours which added to the discomfort. I switched out masks, going with a really good N95 with behind-the-head elastic straps on the long flight. During what turned into five hours in Frankfurt airport, I bought a sandwich and found a deserted section of the terminal with no-one around me for a big distance, and took off the mask and ate slowly. My nose was never so congested I couldn't equalize my ears on the flights, hooray, but still it was a slight drag to be breathing through the mask all the time. I ubered home, and the trip from the airport was double the normal time. I was so happy to get home and just fall into my very own bed.

I missed a big family wedding on Saturday to my great regret. Thanksgiving dinner is up in the air (so happy again to be a perpetual guest, not on the hook for hosting or cooking). I am likely to show up masked to chat for a while, and then take a doggy bag home to eat alone, unless I get negative tests by then. (Not yet). Still the little dripping nose and slightly sore throat, no fever.

As I assess my condition, I'm not sure what is fatigue, what is boredom, what is laziness. This is a perpetual battle for me. I've been for short walks, done small amounts of raking, worked out slowly, body weight exercises, with my trusted trainer over video. My big boy is living in my basement, did some grocery shopping for my empty refrigerator, leaves on Saturday. We've only talked in passing, me masked and keeping my distance. He turns THIRTY tomorrow, and we're going to have a partially outdoor celebration for him. 

So that's me. Poking along. Not terribly ambitious. But so happy to be in my sun-drenched room, in my favorite chair, not feeling too bad, puttering every now and then with my plants. Excelsior!

Greece

Syros

I went to Greece! This has been on my travel wish list since I was a teenager, but this particular trip was a bit of an impulse. I decided to experiment with taking a trip with a tour company all by myself, without knowing anyone at all on the tour. The company is Road Scholar, once upon a time known as "Elder Hostel". Their thing is old Americans that have intellectual curiosity, so their programs include an educational element, not just gawking and shopping. 

My cabin had a small balcony!
Also a very comfortable bed.

Road Scholar has chartered a small(ish) cruise ship for the next few years, and in line with their approach, they refer to it as their "floating campus". So there were about 200 passengers aboard, larger than the ship I took to Iceland but orders of magnitude smaller than regular cruise ships. They divided us in advance into groups of about 25, based on one of two activity levels we could select in advance, with a Greek guide. It was all old people, and I was surprised (but shouldn't have been) that I was on the young end of age distribution. Thanks to my conditioning work, I was also at the more fit end, though not at all alone in my abilities.

The first night, we had a welcome aboard talk in the lounge. We learned that contrary to plans, instead of staying in Athens and touring the Acropolis the next day, we were instead setting sail to the island of Syros, which had been scheduled for our last day aboard. They swapped out the two days because of a planned general strike in the country - much of what we wanted to see in Athens wouldn't be available. I was happy at their flexibility and responsiveness!

About halfway up the steps in Syros

There were two restaurants on board, one a sit down dining room and the other a buffet. (It turns out they served the same food in both.) That first night, I walked myself down to the fancy dining room, where there was a line and a person doing the seating. I told him, "I'm on my own, but would love to be joined to a table with others." He sent me to a round table for eight, where there ended up one couple and the rest single people on their own like me. Good conversation! People are really interesting! 

The ship cast off some time during dinner, and arrived at the island of Syros very early the next morning. We met with our groups for the first time, and were issued "whisper devices". These are a very good idea, especially with old people. They are basically low-power radio receivers that fit over one ear, with the group leader having the only transmitter and microphone. It made it much easier to hear what Antonis was saying, while maybe wandering a few feet away and looking at something else. 

So we went around the port town of Syros, which was actually built in the nineteenth century by refugees from other Greek islands who were displaced by the fighting against the Ottoman Empire as Greece emerged as an independent country. We only went a couple of miles total, with a few hills. Everything was interesting! After lunch, I returned to the town alone with my camera and toiled up the hill into the oldest part of town and to the church on top. There were warrens of streets and narrow alleys with stairs the only way to reach many destinations. I lost myself in the picture taking, loving the shapes and textures of light. 

Iconic Mykonos

Before dinner that night and almost every night, there was a session in the lounge, recapping the current day and previewing the next. I joined a group of single women in the lounge, and we ended up eating dinner together. More interesting stories!

The next day was Mykonos! My parents had been to Greece in 1967 and my mother had raved about Mykonos. That's when it went on my wishlist. She said the light was like no other place on earth. 

Iconic Windmills

The light was certainly great. This place has the classic whitewashed stucco with brightly painted wood trim that is iconic of the Greek islands. But according to our guide, nobody goes to Mykonos anymore because it's too crowded. We were the off season, and that meant we could make our way through the tiny twisted alleys of the old town just fine, but nearly everything, from restaurants to boutiques, were closed. I was enthralled with the romantic images. But the high end names on the various closed-for-the-season shops indicates how high end the season must be. But beaches! We didn't see them, they were on the far side of the island, but that would be my suggestion for an in-season visit, rather than the crowded town and shopping.

Me learning from the trip photographer

When our tour was over, we had the rest of the day and night to explore the town on our own. I fell in with another group of women to eat lunch in one of the few open restaurants, and somehow the conversation turned to death. Widows all, they each had gripping and heartbreaking stories of lost family members, children and siblings and spouses. At one point, they turned to me. "Do you have a traumatic death story you want to share?". "Not that I want to share" I said. 

After lunch, I had another solo session with my camera and scenery, very content. Dinner that night was with the same people from lunch, with a much more lighthearted conversation. The ship stayed put for the night.

Ruins on Delos

The next morning, very early we took a small local ferry boat to the nearby island of Delos. No-one lives on Delos, except for the watch cats, and a few rotating guards. The island was a sacred place in ancient times, and now the whole island is reserved as an archeological site. Our guide made the piles of rubble very relevant, describing the temples, the marketplaces, the life in the houses. Returning to Mykonos, we had another afternoon of photography before another dinner with the widows. 

A note on the cats: nobody claims to own cats, but they are well taken care of. People feed and water them everywhere, at least partially in acknowledgement of their important vermin control role. When our boat, the first of the day, pulled into Delos, a parade of cats, maybe twenty of them, came trotting down to the dock to greet us. They all had their tail sticking straight up in the air, very cute!

Mary's House?

The next day was Turkey! We put into a port city, and boarded buses to Ephesus, another ancient city partially excavated. Our first stop was a house that legend says Mary the mother of Jesus lived in, though documentation is sketchy and the most of the actual house is newer than her time. But John the Evangelist was definitely in Ephesus, and supposedly he would have been taking care of Mary. I think our guide made a good point when he said, "So many people are praying here, it must have power whatever the historical truth is."

Ephesus

Then we were off to the huge city of Ephesus, where there is a partially excavated site stretching for more than a mile along a hillside. Again, our guide made things come alive in a way that would have been hard to get on our own. One of the highlights is a collection of houses they have excavated and preserved by putting a roof over it, and putting ramps and skywalks to allow you to see things without damaging them. As an inveterate reader of historical fiction and fantasy based in the various vaguely Greek settings, I loved picturing life in these fairly large, several story high, houses.

The Houses at Ephesus

Dinner that night was with our small group, with our leader. We closed the restaurant down and I was exhausted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Italian architecture - Synagogue, Kos

The next day was the city of Kos, close to the mainland of Turkey. Our guide has a lot to say about the various occupations of the Greek islands throughout the tour. Kos was occupied by the Italians in the 1920s through World War II, and because an earthquake leveled much of the town during that time, the architecture of the rebuilt city clearly reflects their influence. The tour was to an ancient site dedicated to healing, and then a walking tour of the town. We had time to eat in a cafe and do a little low key shopping in this not-very-tourist oriented place.  Losing energy and with no date for supper, I ate alone in the buffet restaurant, much more quickly than the sit-down place would have been. Very early to bed.

Santorini ahead: note white clifftop cities

Recovered frescoes - Santorini

But I was up before sunrise the next morning to watch us coming into Santorini! I saw sheer cliffs capped with white, and it took a moment to shift from Iceland spotting of glaciers to understanding these were whitewashed stucco towns clustered on the edges of the cliffs. This time, we had to anchor out in the big bay and get on a small boat to a small dock on the island. We boarded buses and were off to another ruin and museum. The town of Akrotiri at the southern end of Santorini was covered by volcanic ash (just like Pompei) in an eruption in 1627 BCE, and so it is an exceptional snapshot and well preserved. A small portion has been excavated, and all of that has been covered over by a roof with walkways. The best and most fragile furnishings and decorations have been relocated to the museum, but again, it is fairly easy to picture the town the way it must have been. If there is only one archeological site you visit in Greece, this would be it. 

Clifftop views!

After the tour we had an opportunity to wander the cliff top town. Again, a lot was closed because of the season, but me with my camera was content. But I was tired, my head hurt, my nose was stuffed, my throat was sore, and I rode the cable car down to the boat landing to go back to the ship and lie down.

Next: An unexpected twist to the story!

I am hanging on for dear life here - scared of heights!
Also too tired to stand up straight.

Air Frying

Brussels Sprouts

My vegan girl got an air fryer a couple of years ago, and has raved non-stop about how wonderful it is. I was interested (I've eaten some good stuff she has cooked) but I can't add any appliances to my small kitchen unless I get rid of something to make room. I know that anything I store in the basement won't get used (except if it's once a year, such as the cookie press). I can't abide the thought of cluttering my already busy countertops with more things.

I finally figured out that Cuisinart (and probably other brands) make combined toaster ovens / air fryers. The section of counter I use for the toaster oven is small, with an overhanging cupboard. I saw something at Costco a few weeks ago I thought might fit, and a second visit with a tape measure made it clear. In the interim, I did some research on-line. The exact Costco model wasn't available elsewhere, in a typical move for them. But the nearest equivalent on Amazon was about $100 more expensive - not always the case, but knowing that made me feel good. I got it, and found a good home for my perfectly good old toaster oven with my boy.

Zucchini

Yes, guys, air frying really is wonderful. It is, actually, convection cooking. Convection ovens had a moment back in the 1980s, and in fact I had one. But they were considered tools primarily for cooking roast meats a little faster than in the oven - mine had no broiler type element for browning and really was a dud. I didn't use it much.

But now, in my mind, air frying is for vegetables! And right now is the season for roasted vegetables! I've made brussels sprouts, mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, butternut squash, vidalia onions.... The basic technique is the same for each. Cut into chunks (about an inch is good, things shrink dramatically as the air blows the moisture out). Put into a bowl, toss with olive oil and salt, perhaps some herbs or spices, then spread in the fryer basket. Cook for some variation of 400 to 450 degrees for eight to twenty minutes, stirring them up from time to time. Zucchini and eggplant each got extra steps of being salted in a colander for a few minutes before tossing with oil and cooking - it pulled moisture out.

I had to laugh at one recipe that was extremely precise on the temperature: 390 degrees!, but then said to cook for 8 to 12 minutes, requiring you to keep an eye on it. I'm from time to time checking recipes online to get an idea on timing, but mostly I'm winging it since recipes vary so much. My girl often steams the veggies in the microwave before crisping them up in the air fryer. I would do that for a special recipe, but so far I've been quite successful without that extra step. I think I might do that with potatoes - potatoes and sweet potatoes are my girl's standard breakfast.

Cauliflower

I recently roasted some butternut squash in the oven, with shallots, and it was quite a bit squishier than the air fryer makes it. The characteristic of air frying is less moisture, nicely browned, and less oil used in cooking them. The zucchini really had a nice nutty flavor, both better flavor and way better texture than recent sauteed dishes I've had. I did the cauliflower tossed with zaatar as well as olive oil - it was great! But I had to do the big head in two batches, a little too much for my small oven. I often buy cut up butternut squash at the store because I find handling the whole big hard squash to be enough of a barrier to keep me from cooking it. So now, I toss the already-cooked chunks into a bowl to toss with oil, and then toss into the basket and I have cooked winter squash in about 15 minutes from opening the fridge. I bought cut up portobello mushrooms and did the same thing. They were dry when done, and I put them in an omelet with onions and cheese and I liked them enormously. Brushed with liquid smoke portobello mushrooms are a form of vegan "bacon", adding umami and smokiness to dishes. I have some liquid smoke, and I'll give that a try. But just the shrooms without the smoke were quite tasty, with a somewhat firmer texture than when sauteed.

So I'm very happy with my new kitchen appliance. One word of warning - most air fryers, including mine, don't have a great deal of capacity. It wouldn't work for big family meals, not to make a big dish, unless it was possible to do things in shifts. But it might be interesting to use it to do something as an ingredient in a bigger dish - mushrooms, for example. But because mostly I'm cooking for myself, a meal featuring one really great vegetable with perhaps a little meat on the side is just fine for me.

My next experiment, probably tonight, will be air frying an apple (as an alternative to microwave "baking"). Toss with neutral oil and cinnamon, serve with a little butter and sugar.

Big Feet

I did another Marie Kondo event, this time on my shoes. It was partly prompted by buying new hiking boots. The ones I had worked ok, except after a couple of hours my feet hurt in them. I was nervous about buying new boots because you can't tell about that "after a couple of hours" in a shoe store, much less on line. So I went to REI and got measured. I was shocked to hear the sales guy recommending a full size up in length from what I thought I needed! (BTW, new hiking boots working great, have worn for hours and miles. Still glad to take them off afterwards, but no pain.)

It was also partly prompted by what I went through getting shoes for the fancy wedding I went to this summer. I don't wear heels, and I won't, but I did feel the need to make an effort in the flats. I realized NOTHING I had in my closet would work for several hours mostly on my feet in a dress, so I mail ordered three pairs of sort-of-fancy but flat and wide shoes, and ending up keeping two pairs. I may have been the only woman at the wedding that never changed her shoes on board. How crazy is it that women can't have shoes that both feel good and make us happy that they look good? I find the tradeoff unacceptable, and I refuse to compromise on a basic level of comfort. [End of Shoe Rant]

Since I retired, I haven't needed to dress up hardly at all. I just wear my sneakers or sandals almost everywhere. That doubled down with the pandemic, where many days I never ventured farther than around-the-block with the dog, and flip flops or slippers actually sufficed. So maybe the lack of structured shoes led to my feet spreading out in all directions? Also, I've gained weight, and perhaps that has had an affect. And, I have a huge bunion on my right foot, making it quite misshapen, distorting all the toes on that foot. I recently regarded my left foot, and noted how attractive it is, just a normal foot with straight toes. Maybe some day I'll consult a doctor about the right foot distortion, but for now, if my shoes fit, my foot doesn't hurt, so why pursue a medical surgical solution?  It just makes it harder to get shoes that fit.

So I retrieved all my shoes from three different spots in the house, and laid them all out. The picture shows just leather shoes, "work shoes". I had different arrays of sneakers and sandals. First went away any too worn, or that I never liked anyway. Then I tried on some favorites, and was distressed that some of the ones I liked a lot really didn't fit. So I finally got down to a much smaller shoe collection. In fact, I may end up buying some shoes to fill holes in the uses. I remain on a search for casual shoes as comfortable as sneakers but that look nicer. Obviously, I will size up any new shoes I buy.

When I retired, I decided all my work clothes would stay in my closet for at least a year, until I saw what my life was going to be like. Again, the pandemic changed all that, and so I have literally a closet full of clothes where I haven't touched maybe 90% of them since 2019. I'll get around to them, probably this winter as I move more activities inside. But next up on the clothes pruning list is hats, gloves, and scarves. I've spread the storage over two different places, (plus pockets of coats) and it's time to consolidate and prune. I got through last winter without having to buy new gloves, hooray! I was pretty sure I own a warm wool beanie from Norway, so I didn't buy another for myself from the constant opportunities to shop in Iceland, but now I can't find the one I'm looking for. Time to dig deeper.

Doing my Best to Move

Tuesday's hike was filled with wildlife!

My knees still feel better, but it's not perfect. There is some pain, especially up hill, and my muscles definitely are weak and also I'm stiff and inflexible. The more I read about Greece (coming up in November) the more steps I hear about... so I'm trying. In addition to my twice-a-week hour with my trainer, I'm doing 45 minutes once a week in physical therapy, and I have a 75 minute tap dance class once a week. But I'm still trying to walk every day, and run through the basic knee exercises on days without either form of PT (personal training or physical therapy). I'm not quite making that goal, but I'm doing much much better than I was a month ago.

I've found joy in the walking again! And that helps me to get out there!

Taking a page from both K's blogging and also from my earlier years, I'm posting a quick update every day in a special blog for that purpose. The link is on the right side of this blog, but here it is as well:

Nan's Quick Log

I'm using the automatic posting from different devices and apps I have that keep track. So far, I've only posted when I do a deliberate exercise walk, run, (or in one case) kayak, not my incidental movement. I'm still experimenting with what works. I was looking for something I can do from my phone, because the apps that make the record are on my phone, and I don't boot up the computer every day. Because it's not a complete habit yet, sometimes I'm posting a day late.

I don't expect anyone to comment there, but knowing that maybe someone will see it is part of the motivation to do it.

I used that blog years ago - the last previous post before I started using it again was 2014!

Then and Now, London edition

 It’s a family thing, the then and now shots. But back in 2013 a certain young lady was sad and sullen and hated everything. She composed the current shot to match, but said she couldn’t stop giggling so it took several tries! Yay, how time will often help our kids turn back into reasonable people!

Knees Are SO MUCH Better!

Today I took what I want to be my "normal" morning walk - out the door, down into the park, back up through the neighborhood, about a mile and half, with some significantly steep but short hills down and up to the park. I've been doing this off and on for years, but recently I've fallen way off. The fact that it hurts before I even start, and will hurt more once I get going, has been one of many barriers. (Other barriers include my reactive barky dog, any weather less than optimal, having to get dressed, and sheer inertia.)

But this week, I've had to head out first thing, just as the sun comes up, to do a daily vacation backfill on a citizen science project, hyper-local network of national precipitation reporting, CoCoRahs.  It's on the "normal" route, so some days this week I've kept on going to complete the loop. Today was the first pain-free day in months! 

My knees have steadily deteriorated over the past several years. I tore my meniscus and had it repaired back in 2018. But now, it's a loop. The more the knees hurt, the less I move. I went to physical therapy a year ago, after they were really bad. Symptoms included not only pain, but also restricted mobility - I simply couldn't bend them all the way. The PT really helped with both pain and mobility. I was then motivated to keep moving by active vacations, in March and April. But perhaps from overuse, the knee pain grew enough worse that it grew increasingly easy to blow off the daily walk, despite my fantastic Iceland vacation coming up. After all, I had satisfied myself with what I could do in March and April, Iceland in July would be just as good, no?

Well, no. A couple of months off from active training eroded both the quality of my knees and also my aerobic fitness. I did a whole lot on the Iceland trip, but it was hard. I didn't do as much as I wanted. There were often options for different activities and I backed off the most active ones, hiking up volcanoes for example. I spent a fair amount of time in my nice little cabin, with my feet up and knees bent, popping tylenol and rubbing stinky and persistent but effective voltaren gel into both knees. They never once didn't hurt on the trip, and haven't really stopped hurting since.

When I got back from Iceland, I signed up for a trip to Greece. More about that another time, but everything I've read suggest all the places I'll want to go will involve stairs with no handrails. Time to fix these knees!

(As an aside, I am fully bought in to the mind-body approach to pain management. I can minimize suffering I have from pain, and even reduce and even eliminate some pain, through mindful meditation and somatic practices. It has really helped me avoid catastrophizing about issues, and my back pains and even migraines are less of an issue. These practises also help avert physical symptoms manifesting in response to external or internally generated stress, something I clearly used to do a lot. These practices include breathing, visualization, and self talk approaches that really help keep things on a more even keel. 

The way I think about these practices and my knees is this: my knees have mechanical issues that send messages to the brain. I can interpret these signals as pain, or call them sensations, and I can observe them from a distance with kind curiosity. All this helps, but there is value in also trying physical and mechanical things (exercise, strengthening, pain medications) to reduce the volume and urgency of the messages being sent to my brain.)

My previous sports-medicine doctor retired, and so I found an orthopedic surgeon to consult. My basic questions were, what could be done to help the knees short of replacing them, and was I damaging them them further as I used them? I wanted another prescription for PT because while I know many exercises for the knees, I find the skilled supervision helpful. 

The doctor said no, I couldn't damage the knees with movement, was happy to give a referral for PT, and also suggested cortisone shots in each knee, which he did right then and there. The actual shots were quite painful, but it only lasted for a few minutes until a local anesthetic kicked in. Then, over the past few days, the local anesthetic wore off and the steroid gradually kicked in. 

And hooray, they seem to be having an effect! 

The doctor said, and my independent reading confirms, that the only proven interventions to actually improve the knees (as opposed to alleviate pain) are exercise and weight loss. No supplements have been shown to have more than a placebo effect. So I can do whatever I want in exercise, if done correctly it will help, but the pain will likely be there. If I can bear it, I can do it, and if I keep doing it, I can keep doing it!  As to weight loss, that is a topic for another day.

I celebrated this improvement by putting in for a place on a short overnight sail on my schooner, about a month from now. I had held off, thinking about all the ladders on the ship. But now I'm ready to go for it!

The Nordic Isles

 Herewith a recap post of my trip to the Nordic Isles. 

A settlement from 5,000 years ago in the Orkneys

I traveled with a group of good friends where I was sort of the outsider. These people have known each other well since the 1970s (where a core group of the men worked together) and they live in the same town and see each other all the time and have taken several vacations together. I know two of the people very well, also since the 1970s when we were roommates. As a result, even though I left town forty years ago, I've met all these people before, and even taken a couple of trips with some of them. Counting me, there were twelve of us.

A standing stone circle in the Orkneys

We were on a small 125-passenger ship. Much of the time this was a great advantage over being on a more typical several-thousand passenger cruise ship. We got to know most of the people and the staff. The ship went places that don't have the infrastructure to support the bigger cruise ships, and also had the flexibility to change the itinerary on the fly. For example, we spent a couple of hours one afternoon with the ship basically drifting with a pod of humpback whales, allowing us our fill of ogling these incredible creatures.

A stone broch in the Shetlands, inhabited about 3,000 years ago.
The walls are thick and there are rooms all the way up.

We did climb on buses a few times, and then it pretty much felt like any cruise I'd been on before, with 30-40 of us climbing on and off to gawk for a few minutes at something. (Though we were still in fairly remote places where few cruise ships come, and finding 3-4 buses for us exhausted the local supply.) I make a point about the experience because this whole trip was insanely expensive, and I had to continually justify the expense in my own mind. (Legacy of being raised by frugal people.)

Sheep were everywhere in the Faroes. Mostly, in the countryside,
they roam free and so houses have fenced yards to keep them out

But it was truly awesome, in the literal sense of the world! On these remote islands stuck in a harsh climate, we saw ruins of dwellings that were the age of the pyramids. We saw a wild landscape that is under threat, from climate change and development and tectonic action. In incredibly harsh conditions, we saw abundant and charming wildlife and people. I'm so glad I went!

Drizzle in the Faroes

 

We woke up every morning to an announcement with the plan for the day, and the weather, always the same: "It's a balmy 10 degrees out, and it's likely to rain!". Every day, in the fifties and with a threat of rain. You will find in my pictures, however, a number of blue   skies. It didn't rain non-stop, and there were always "bright intervals". 

Boat trip to see rocks and birds from the sea
Faroe Islands

 

A bright interval on the south coast of Iceland

The cruise was supplied with a staff of naturalists and cultural specialists, and so we didn't just see the sights, we learned about the life cycle of puffins, and how the landscape was formed. I was fascinated by the geology of Iceland, which is being literally torn in half (at the rate of about an inch a year) by the North Atlantic ridge separating the North American and European continental plates. We saw volcanoes and lava fields and cinder cones and hot springs and geysers and waterfalls.

Volcanic beach day, Iceland south coast

Once we got out of the ship, some of our group stayed in Reykjavik for a few days. With seven of us, we couldn't rent a car (and nobody wanted to drive a van) so we took a couple of small group tours out of town to see the sights. We did the "golden circle tour" and went into a lava cave. Reykjavik itself is a great little town, and we enjoyed some of its museums. Pretty much the food in Reykjavik is fish and lamb, but one of our party didn't care for those. To our pleasure, most restaurants had a vegan option that could satisfy our contrarian. 

Humpback whale, taken with iphone from ship

Charismatic puffins on the island of Grimsey

Frisbee golf at the edge of the world
(in Grimsey)

Volcanic cinder cone we hiked up,
amid a torrent of midges (see one on my face)
Near Lake Myvatn

Volcanic landscape near Lake Myvatn

Hot springs near Myvatn

One of many waterfalls

Yeah, sheep. Flatey Island

Me and my former housemate,
after a five-mile hike up the valley
Near Isafjordur

Even the cabin had views

A volcanic eruption in 1973 took out a significant part of the houses
in this town. This is the edge where the lava stopped.
These houses are backed right up to it and survived.
Heimany Island

A geysir, right by "The Geysir" that gave them all their name.
Golden Circle tour

A short hike in the national park outside Reykjavik

Entering the lava tube. Apparently, rocks around the tube harden
quickly, underground channels form, and the lava actually drains out
rather than harden in place, leaving caves like this.
Southwest coast

Remembrance of Things Past

When the rare summer sun comes out, so does everyone else!
I ate at the cafe seen on the right.

Flight over in business class was nice. Good food, plenty of space in my own little pod, could make the bed lie flat and turn on my side. Only about 90 minutes sleep, but still. Tight connection in Heathrow turned into five hours, boring but not unpleasant as plenty of places to sit and toilets and restaurants. Sadly, when I finally got to Norway I spent 90 minutes standing in line for immigration. I was never so happy to get to my hotel room and relax! 

 

This development behind me is known as “Barcode”.
 It’s very controversial architecturally, and
Even used as a punchline in the movie 
“The Worst Person in the World”
Which I watched as part of my trip prep

But I was in Norway and I had to go out. The weather was spectacular, and everyone was out. I walked for a bit, and then had fish soup and a beer at an outside cafe. I dipped my bread into the little container of a yellow substance I thought had butter, but it was mayonnaise. In a flash, I was back to being twelve years old and on my first trip to Norway with my family. On my plate next to my fish was served a heap of yellow stuff they told me was mayonnaise. I thought I hated mayonnaise, but my mother (in the voice all parents use) said “just try it”. It was fabulous - rich in a way I had never experienced. And here was the same fabulous, eggy, rich substance! So the bread got dipped in the mayo and then the fish soup and it was terrific! In a similar vein, in the 1990s my brother and I went to Provence together. I don’t remember the year, but I remember it was February. It was always sunny, but often a bit cold. We drove down to a small town on the Mediterranean coast and I ordered fish soup in an outdoor cafe along the harbor. It was served with little toasts, and a tub of something the menu said was “aioli”. I spread it on the toast, dipped it in the soup, and it was the best thing I had ever eaten in my life! The same rich, eggy, substance, but infused with garlic instead of the faint pickle-y vinegar of the Norwegian version. 

Impossible to capture, and fabulous weather!

I left Oslo the next day. I took a spectacular, five hour train trip up and over the mountains of Norway to Bergen. I was glued to the window the whole way, couldn’t tear my eyes away to read my book. Forewarned by online reviews, I stopped in the station before boarding and bought a sandwich for the trip. On impulse, driven by a tantalizing smell at the cash register, I suddenly dredged up my childish Norwegian vocabulary to order a “varme polser” for breakfast. (It’s a Norwegian hotdog-like sausage, ubiquitous.) I surprised myself, as I wished the server “tusand tak”. (Literally, thousand thanks). 

Ice cream!

Bergen also had fabulous weather when I arrived, so I had the afternoon to walk about, eat ice cream, and have incredibly good grilled fish kebabs at the outdoor fish market. So far on the this trip, I’ve pretty much only spoken to the service people. This afternoon my friends arrive and we’ll do a big dinner. My solo time is coming to an end. Tomorrow, we board the ship.

The Brygge 

We’re staying at a hotel chosen by the tour company, and it’s in the greatest location. There is a preserved old wharf along the harbor, dating to the 15th century. My mother’s family originates here in Bergen, so it’s always resonated with me. When I was very small, my mother painted a picture of this wharf, and it now hangs over my dining room table. I have many photos of family members standing here, so of course I did a selfie. But I’ll get a member of our group to take a better one, to become part of the series.