Wellness

[Moonchilde]

People ining up to get on a whale-watching boat.

[Moonchilde]

[Moonchilde]

Wildflowers everywhere! Looooow tide, obviously ;-)

[Moonchilde]

@Poodlepet2, I find many flavored coffees (most, in fact) too artificial-tasting. When in the mood I will do pumpkin spice, cinnamon dolce or creme brulee but have stopped trying others. And if I make them 10 oz cups on the "strong" setting they come out more subtly flavored. I know that some of the Starbucks latte & chai pods use sugar so I don't buy those. Bought some once when I didn't realize.

We don't have cold winters here, and we're not nearly as dry as So Cal. I suppose I'l need to get some "wood food" (oil) and do it up once in a while, and my hand-carved Buddhist kitty as well.

When I did my cold brew I used a Toddy. Bought it at Cost Plus.

[Poodlepet2]

These are gorgeous! makes me want an order of fried clams...that sky is gorgeous!

I wonder how many people are live boards....what a life!

Have you ever been out on the glass bottom boat?

Any whales?

Poodlepet2

[Moonchilde]

@Poodlepet2, I haven't been out on the glass-bottomed boat, although I originally wanted to. The ones at Catalina Island in So Cal are famous & fabulous.

This bitty boat often runs weekends only half the year. I've read reviews that say for the price, for 40 minutes max, you see pretty much just kelp most of the time (water not all that clear in the immediate area the boat travels) and very few animals - so I've skipped it so far. Might do it one day.

I haven't gone out whale-watching yet either. As much as I'd love to see whales, I don't love being out in a smallish boat in the open ocean, and I'm always seasick on boats and planes, meds or not. So...one day I probably will, but I chicken out when I think of it ;-(

There is a tour I do want to do, for sure. The Elkhorn Slough Safari. It's a flat-bottomed boat that holds about 12-15 people. They go out into the slough for about 90 min. There are special trips for birders, and ones for otters, and photo trips. The close-up pix I've posted of otters were taken in the slough, but not on that tour, just me standing on shore.

http://www.elkhornslough.org/sloughlife.htm

[Poodlepet2]

@ Moonchilde, aare you hearing anything about power outages in SCal? The news stories are there-one in Manhattan, and I forget the other....

No news headlines on major sites....I heard about this on Community.

Poodlepet2

[Moonchilde]

@Poodlepet2, I'm no longer in SoCal, but a quick check of my LA news app (I check it every week or so as the spirit moves me) says nothing, although I know from googling there were outages.

The other outages have been in San Francisco, caused by a transformer, and in NYC. 

[Poodlepet2]

Good morning everybody! Even though I don't work (well, I do: I just don't get reimbursed monetarily!) Weekends are too short.

We went to the Farmers Market yesterday- I know not to go food shopping when hungry, but I was full.  All of those gorgeous fruits and veggies....and nothing appealed to me. I will regret that later this week.

Later, DH took me to my favorite Chinese restaurant. They have some very healthy food there, but I confess: I went AWOL!

Scallion pancakes, duck sauce, hoisen....duck...eggplant dim sum....I had intentions of eating a light dinner of salad and chicken, then DH pulled all kinds of goodies out of the fridge that positively begged to go into my salad....

Dessert might have been the least of my offenses: two squares of Lindt with almond butter....and I wasn't even hungry!

For all of my indulgences, I had every intention of checking my glucose-and I forgot until about three hours after. I figured with the sugary sauces, I should really know what my number is....Remarkably, it was 106...but G-d knows how high it went at peak time!

And great news: we got rain!!! It's been terrible in Collier County: in 14 years of living in this state, I can't remember when neighborhoods and communities were evacuated and burned the way they have this year.

Those in California battle hot relentless Santa Anna winds during fire season: we had a taste of that-high winds. That really hendered the efforts.

I'm not worried about our primary, but our weekend island place is a tinder box: Pine Island is not Sanibel or Captiva: those are gorgeous-but we have our beauty here that's more for the nature lover and sport fishermen.

Getting here, you go through this adorable little town called Matlacha. It is old Florida: no fast food places or chain stores there! They do a brisk business in renting out little cottages that are old wooden structures (up to code for occupancy)  that were hand built by people in the rope industry who used to supply the fishing industry. Everybody wanted to be close to work, so the cottages are packed together....all wooden. They are all on the water and there are mangroves, but there is a lot of dried brush and grasses: a flame and a little wind...

Well, maybe our luck is changing.

Where and how is everybody?

Poodlepet2

[Poodlepet2]

@ Moonchilde, I really missed my calling. I should have worked in advertising on Madison Ave.

Using your pictures of wild, beautiful landscapes, I came up with an ad for something that stabilizes blood glucose:

"Nature-running wild is a beautiful thing. The highs and lows associated with Diabetes isn't"

That would be a hoot if somebody read that and used the idea!LOL!

Poodlepet2