Thor arrives at my house

Thor (from Old Norse: Þórr) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, and fertility.

Wikipedia, 5/31/23

As you may know, we recently moved to a new house. Rather, it’s new to us, but it was built in 1968, and the couple who built it were the only other people besides us to live in it. Yes. You heard that right.

So, the structure of the house is good, but the interior is…1968. All the way down to the kitchen appliances. We are doing a lot of replacement and renovations, and one of these activities included removing the original Caloric range and putting in a new one.

Since we have decided not to remove the cabinets but to have them painted (they are in super shape) we needed to replace the oven with a 36″ rather than a standard 30″ in order to fit the space where the old one was. The one we picked is a Thor, or in our case, just Thor, as we are already calling him.

It was installed yesterday.

The product manual has me a bit intimidated. I like cooking, but I cook like an average person, nowhere near the work of a god(dess). I’m willing to up my game if my teammate can be patient with me. I am not sure my cooking can do a lot with the other responsibilities Thor has (see the definition above) so I’ll just stick to making breakfast, lunch, and dinner here in this one home.

The inside of the oven is blue, like the roasting pan that came with it. I really like it. Maybe I will try harder to keep the oven cleaner than I did my last one. (One time, a friend looked inside my previous oven as I was cooking and shrieked, “What is that thing erupting from the bottom?”)

I decided that the first thing I would bake in my new house and in my new oven was a pound cake. My grandmother was a wonderful cook and this was one of her specialties. She always had one on hand. My grandfather loved them (especially when they were a little dried out). I have always loved them too. I felt that baking a pound cake would bring good feelings into my kitchen and set me on a good course for future meals.

A Short Trip Through a Carwash

I am afraid of carwashes but sometimes it is necessary to take the plunge. To soothe myself I like to take photos. On this occasion I just snapped away. Come with me!

May 2023, Wilmington, DE

Communal Living

You may or may not already know this, but my husband and I are moving to Wilmington, Delaware. Our house is sold, we have our new home, and we will be moving in a couple of days.

Earlier this week we were at the new house making some preparations. I had some time to take a walk to our new library. It’s the Brandywine Hundred branch. I thought I’d check things out before I check books out…I’ll get my card in a week or two once we start to get settled.

The sidewalk took me up against the building where you see the sign. As I approached I heard such a racket of bird talk! It seemed to be coming from above my head. When I looked up I saw the letters of the sign were festooned with grass.

Looking closer, I realized the grass clumps were actually an array of bird nests built along the sign.

I could see parent birds standing here and there among the letters. I could hear not only their voices but the tiny cheeping of baby birds. I was enchanted! I stood and watched and listened for some time. It was delightful to think of the serendipity of birds and nests and letters all coming together to make a bird apartment house. At the library!

Cat Antics

I took these photos in January 2023. My knitting somehow landed on the floor near my chair where I was working at my desk. My cat Martok made himself comfortable with it. Over an hour or so, I snapped pictures as he shifted position. Never did he try to play with it or tangle it up – he just seemed to want to be cozy near the yarn.

Another (!) Addition to the Collection

Well, what do we have here? Yes. I’ve encountered another lost brake pad out in the wild, April 7, 2023, Glenside, PA. And I picked it up and brought it home to be with the rest of my collection.

If I find a moment I will take a photo of the whole collection. But for now, this little guy wants to show off. I took a picture of each side.

Addition to the Collection

A couple of days ago I went out for a walk, starting out from my house. About a block away, I waited at a traffic light, and I thought about how my husband had found a specimen for my small but mighty lost brake pad collection here some time back.

No idea why this thought came to mind. But I looked around the intersection anyway, because I had the feeling I was going to find one today.

Not there, I didn’t. But…about a mile later, along the edge of a parking lot, guess what.

Yes. A lost brake pad.

This one looks like it’s been out in the weather for a while. The parking lot where I found it is used intermittently for overflow vehicles from a nearby car sales lot but is empty right now and has been for a while. I guess this brake pad could date from some earlier use of this lot, even (the site is a former gas station) – just now coming to light.

It called to me. Yes, I think it did. That’s why I was looking and that is why I found it, and you can’t tell me any different!

Here is a photo of the other items in my collection:

New Year

I saw this sign at the YMCA earlier this week. I like it.

Happy New Year 2023 and my best wishes for a good year.

Hello, and Who Are You?

I’ve neglected this aspect of my life for a while, the one in which I write about the everyday things that are really the important details that should be noted. I don’t know why. I admit to feeling a sense of tiredness that won’t go away – the past few years have had its effect on me the same as everyone else. It’s sometimes hard to adjust to the altered state of the larger world and my own smaller world.

On the other hand, those little details just keep on coming. I need to pay attention.

*********

A week or two ago, I was walking along the Green Ribbon Trail. It’s walnut season. They are dropping from the trees and landing in the path (where I take a lot of pleasure in kicking them along).

I was just going along, minding my own business, when I looked down and saw this little guy looking at me:

Yes, a walnut head, with a bit of a questioning look on his face. Hello! I said, took his photo, and left him there to greet others.

Happy Fall!

Another item added

…to my lost brake pad collection.

My husband spotted this one in a parking lot in Bryn Mawr, PA, on July 23.

It’s just a little baby! Here it is on its own:

And here it is with the rest of the gang. It’s the one on the lower left. Now you see how small it is in comparison with the others.

You may wonder how we come across these items. Well, we walk a lot, and over time we have realized there are places where these guys seem to find themselves. Look along the edges of parking lots (that don’t get swept a lot) or along the curb in busy roads where lots of trucks go (because I think trucks seem to lose them more than cars, but I could be wrong).

If you want to know more about this collection (and of course you do)… Look here.

A Refreshing Walk

A couple of days ago I took a walk on the “new” side of the Pennypack Trail, going from the parking lot on Welsh Road north. My goal was to walk 5 miles (out 2.5 miles and return trip) as part of meeting a ten-mile walk goal. I used to do this route in one day but I haven’t walked so far in one go for a couple of years, and so I planned it for two days, this being the first half.

Anyway, I headed out on a hot afternoon. It was a nice walk all right, and the trail was pleasantly busy with people always in sight, but never close enough to intrude. Here are two events from the walk.

Beaver pond

On the way out, I walked up the rail trail, but on the way back I crossed a bridge over the Pennypack Creek to take me to the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust lands on the other side. There is another trail there that parallels the creek; it’s much rougher and more secluded, making a nice change. And…I wanted to see how things looked at the beaver pond.

I turned off the main trail and headed up this one:

The pond is right there on the corner.

The pond was created by a family of beavers who were here a few years ago; there was a spring there but it was the beavers who set up the circumstances to fill up this swampy area and turn it into what you see now. Last fall, the hurricane that caused so much damage in our area severely affected the pond environs and washed out the trail. Things are now repaired and access to the pond restored for trail-goers.

I am not sure if there are any beavers still living here at the moment. They had moved on before the storm. Maybe we’ll get a new family?

I had stopped by here some months ago. Here is the same view slightly skewed to the right (you can see the edge of the sign in the left side of the picture). It’s quite a change from March!. Take a look:

After resting for a bit, I headed back down the trail and crossed back the bridge back to the rail trail.

Bryn Athyn Post Office

This post office is in the former Bryn Athyn train station on the rail trail, from when it was an active line. As I was walking by on the outbound trip, I saw this sign at the former platform area facing the trail:

I thought this was really nice of them to do. On my way back I stopped in and said thank you to the two women working there. Because I felt they needed to know it was appreciated. I went on my way thinking that yes, no matter what a mess the world might be in, there are still people doing good things everywhere we go. It cheered me up.

Well, that is the story of that little journey. It was nice to be out in the good weather and to revisit familiar places that I enjoy.