Lagopus Member

Evelyn - I make sourdough bread and "almost rotten" doesn't sound right to me. When I intend to bake, I leave my starter overnight in the bathroom (the warmest room in the house). If I walk in there in the dark I can tell how the sourdough is doing from the smell. I'd describe it as more yeasty, fresh and yeasty, not…

Heather - :heart: :heart: :heart: Congratulations Grandma Margaret! I envy you your zinnias. I love zinnias but haven't been able to grow them this far north. I guess it's the price I pay for my fantabulous raspberries. /Penny

Yes, Katla, the stoat is a weasel. We've got several of that family here on the island. We've seen otters and minks and stoats and their even smaller cousin the least weasel. Female least weasels are only 4 inches long, though males can be twice that. Stoats change to their white fur jackets in the winter and call…

Sharon, I agree that they look lush and fragrant, but still, I couldn't believe the scents that permeated the house when I made jam out of those raspberries. Incredible! And I think I AM a sinkhole! I'm perfectly willing to blather on and pontificate but rarely ask questions. Let me just say, in my defense, that what may…

Barbara - I've got a GPS-heartrate device (a Garmin Forerunner 235) which does all that for me. It calculates my oxygen uptake based on how my heartrate changes moment to moment when I exercise. I'm sure it doesn't give as accurate results as running hooked up to a face mask and measurement equipment, but running with just…

Oh Karen, I LOVE it! I've always been a total word-nerd. I read dictionaries for fun. /Penny

Sharon - I should explain better. I live in Svalbard, which is an archipelago halfway between the northern tip of Norway and the North Pole. You're more likely to know it as Spitsbergen. But we also have a house on an island not far from Tromsø, the biggest city in northern Norway. That's where I am now. Both places are…

I'm also INTJ! :lol: I just did the test again because I can never remember what letters apply to me. But on all four scales (Introvert-Extrovert, Intuition-Sensing, Thinking-Feeling, Judging-Perceiving) I'm only moderately or slightly to one side, not emphatically anything. Little miss milquetoast. Not surprising if we…

Yes, it's mostly true, Michele. We don't usually walk around with shotguns in the center of town, but a 10-minute walk can put me outside my comfort zone. The grocery store has two weapons safes near the entrance. Same thing at the town office, the church (!), and most of the hotels. In the building that houses the post…

Hi all! Yes, I'm alive. I'm doing brilliantly on the exercise but abysmally on the eating. There's just been too much chaos and unpredictability and eating on my own. I struggle to cook properly when it's "just me" and so far this year, my husband and I have only been in the same place about two thirds of the time. (He…

Trucker - (sorry I forgot your real name, though I know you've told us). I'm laughing about your Fitbit data :laugh: but crying :cry: with you about your working conditions. To be honest, I'm also angry :angry: - obviously not at you, but at the system. What's with the lack of benefits for "women's" jobs??? Allie - I…

Holding you in my heart, Allie dear! :heart: Penny

I see now that link I provided shows very few images from inside the boat. Most of them were taken outside the museum, not to mention outside the boat, and there are NONE showing the crew's cramped quarters. I'll try to find time to post some of my own. Penny

Machka - This image went straight to my heart. :heart: Wonderful to read - after all you've both been through! Did your husband recognize his old friend spontaneously? I picked up my son and the grandkids at the airport yesterday. We had a lot of extra time on our hands because the ferry schedule is rather meagre on…

Machka - Thanks a lot for posting this. As the daughter of a geographer, I always appreciate visuals that put sizes and distances into perspective and make them comprehensible to people from other places. Map projections can really fool you! One of my family's greatest "in jokes" was a rice paper lampshade where the map…

Exactly, Heather! A privilege! I was thinking about that as I came down the home stretch on my 5 km today. An elderly neighbor who always used to cheer me on, but who has been absent for health reasons - he was here today, so I stopped at 4.62 km and talked to him. He'd had six gallstones removed and was feeling the…

Cathy - An epidemiologist in cancer research? I'm all for it! I've seen far too many sensationalized claims about factor X "causing" cancer Y when there's really only a correlation in some study or other. More power to ya' girl! I also sympathize with the early morning workout, recognizing that thing about not being "awake…

I realized when I posted I'd forgotten to append it so I went back and edited. It's there now. B)

Barbie - You are the very model of calm in the face of circumstances beyond your control. :heart: Time and again you demonstrate the serenity part of the serenity prayer. While that's admirable, I hope you live by the other parts of it as well. :heart: I've skimmed through the old posts - I was way behind, having missed…

On Sunday my village organized a café to raise money to maintain the old one-room schoolhouse so many of my neighbors went to when they were kids. In addition to coffee and soda we sold sandwiches and various kinds of cake. We prepared a MOUNTAIN of sandwiches and I was worried we would end up with leftovers. (200…

Hello lovely ladies! Not to worry: I'm fine. The summer has been full of fun but time-consuming activities. For several week I didn't even open MFP, much less read the thread. That was when I was in New Hampshire with family - 17 of us sleeping in the same house and eating at the same table. Most of the food planning,…

Nice wedding pics, Allie and Janetr. Allie - I first saw your post on my cell phone where the photo was so small I thought the bride was carrying a bundle of birch switches! :noway: When I looked again on my computer I realized her bouquet was made of lavender. That makes much more sense. :wink: Janetr - I don't know if…

Kelly - Great summary! It inspired me to go prep my daily veggies - which I didn't do at breakfast time. Welcome Sheila! Stick with us and eventually that weight will come off. It may not all be gone before you turn 53, and you may find that the struggle doesn't end when you reach your goal, but you'll find lots of support…

Where are you now, Heather? Seems to me you haven't had time to get far enough north for surströmming. The paintings in the chapel also look vaguely Hanseatic. Never mind. I've located you with ETA Örnsköldsvik yesterday at 5 am. (https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=8000214) That's way far north in prime surströmming…

Snowflake and Heather - When I packed up and closed down my microapartment in Stockholm last week, I made sure to keep slips from my totally indestructible hoya plant. For the past twelve years it has survived the most shocking neglect on my part. I watered it every 3-6 months but that was the extent of my TLC. I took lots…

Yay, it stopped snowing, stopped raining and there was even a hint of sun, so I dashed out and dug through most of the potato patch. The temperature is still only 40F but for doing hard physical labor, it was perfect! :innocent: My GPS watch says I burned 300 kcal. :lol: /Penny, once again delighted to be living at the

Oh Rye, how awful! I'd second what Machka said about channeling your frustruation into a "worst customer of the day contest" but it appears you often work alone. Just remember you can always complain to us. If it comes to a competition, you're way ahead of me, as I didn't have the misfortune to meet a single jerk all last…

Awwww... Sweet! Thanks for posting that Kelly.

Bags just arrived! The delivery person called to double-check my address and that I was at home. I told him yes, and I was on the top floor. When he called half an hour later to tell me he'd arrived, he asked me if I was sure I was right up at the top, as if hoping I'd only been teasing. I confirmed, but said I'd come down…

Thanks Barbie! Yay JanetR! I've been flying entirely under the radar for a couple weeks. As I mentioned a while ago, I've decided to stop commuting to Stockholm to teach. That meant I was also moving out of the pied-à-terre I've been renting for the past eight years, ever since we sold the big apartment we lived in when…