Photo-a-Day Challenge

Sun, Rain, Birds, Madeleines and Honey Cake

My week in photos

Since we shopped Saturday, our Sunday was free. I wrote, did laundry, raked fallen leaves in our front garden, and trimmed the azaleas, which are already blooming, and the Golden Thryallis, which has no flowers yet but was very leggy and wild. I planned to bake, but gardening stole all my energy, even though I spent less than an hour doing it. Obviously, I’m not completely over Covid fatigue. I have energy, but it gets depleted quickly and isn’t replenished by resting.

No matter what the calendar says, spring has arrived. Today’s high was 84F/29C. I was grateful for cloud cover when I was gardening and grateful for sunshine when Syau and I walked in the evening, but 84F is too warm for February.

My bird for the day is an American White Ibis who was attempting to stir up crayfish in the mud. By the way, crayfish, crawdads, and crawfish refer to the same freshwater crustacean related to lobsters.

When Syau and I walked along Rainbows Pond on Monday morning, the trees were full of Palm Warblers. Interestingly, there are 35 different Warblers in Florida. I mostly see Palm, Yellow-Rumped, and Prairie Warblers. They are such cheerful little songbirds.

Storms were predicted for the afternoon and evening, plus we were under a tornado watch. The storms went further north, and we only received a fast shower in the evening.

Ben’s dialysis center notified us Friday that his chair time would be changing this week. I was not happy and wrote about the problem and its resolution here:

While Ben was at dialysis, I walked Syau, did a few household chores, and had a 45-minute phone conversation with my daughter. After bringing Ben home, I baked Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (I’ve shared that recipe before) and worked in the evening.

Tuesday morning was crisp — 54F/12C with a steady wind, sometimes gusting over 20 mph. The sky was magnificent — cobalt blue with tangerine clouds near the rising sun and soft, puffy, pink clouds fanning out across the heavens.

Ben had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon, but the rest of the day was spent at home. I was feeling very tired — probably from Covid fatigue — so I kept my activities to a minimum. I walked Syau in the morning, but Ben covered her other three walks, and he washed the dishes. I read, wrote, and commented on Medium, cleaned and organized my purse, and did some minor chores.

Early morning on Unicorn Lake.

My largest group of Ibises yet.

The gold of dawn drenched the treetops across the lake.

The air was cold — 41F, but no wind. Still, Syau had to wear her pink jacket. She wasn’t happy and continuously shook her body until one set of straps came loose. By the time we arrived home, her jacket had slid down until it mostly covered her butt.

I had a chiropractor appointment in the morning, followed by a few errands.

Sunday was my friend Gina’s birthday. Overwhelmed with problems concerning her mother, she’s been surprisingly quiet. She deals with stress by becoming incommunicado and withdrawing into her shell. I knew she needed space, so I only texted her a birthday GIF Sunday morning. Her response was minimal, confirming that she didn’t want much interaction. When a mutual friend expressed concern about Gina yesterday, I knew it was time to reach out.

First, I baked lemon and chocolate Madeleines. I wrote about them here:

Gina loves them, and so does Ben. I texted her that I had a birthday gift for her. She lives on 40 acres 15 miles northeast of us but was working for a client northwest of us. She came to town when she finished work to do some shopping, so I met her in a parking lot.

She was thrilled with the Madeleines, and we sat in her truck talking for 45 minutes. She needed to vent, and I updated her on my recent health issues. We hadn’t had an in-depth conversation since before Christmas, which is extremely unusual. We had much catching up to do. Then, we planned a birding day for next Thursday. We both need to get out of our lives and out of our heads and do something different.

Thursday morning was slightly warmer but still cool enough for Syau to don her jacket. We took our regular route that goes south from our townhome circle, east to the walking trail, north on the trail, west through the Rainbows neighborhood, and once again south to our townhome.

I was thrilled to find a flock of Cedar Waxwings in a tree. I only see Waxwings in the winter. They typically disappear in March.

As excited as I was to see the fairly uncommon Waxwings, I was equally excited to see several very common Eastern Bluebirds. Bluebirds of Happiness is an apt description of these charming songbirds.

Ben and I both had appointments Thursday morning, and a nurse from his insurance company came in the afternoon to confirm that he’s still alive and kicking. She asked the same long list of questions the nurses ask each time they come. Another nurse will visit next month.

This was about all we saw of the sun all day. It struggled to get above the morning clouds and spent the day behind a blanket of gray.

While Ben was at dialysis, I worked longer than usual because there was so much to accomplish before leaving to pick him up. I also worked in the evening.

Despite the protestations of myself and Ben’s nephrologist, his chair time was changed from 11:30 to 10:45, which is better than the originally proposed time of 10 am. I wrote about it here:

At 5 am Sunday, I awoke to find Syau and Tango sleeping next to one another, with Tango using Syau’s neck as a pillow.

Rain fell nearly every minute on Saturday. I wasn’t able to walk Syau before going to work. Ben walked her at noon in between rain showers. When I came home from work in the late afternoon, it was raining. When we went to bed, it was raining. Never heavy rain, but persistent drizzling showers.

I took the photo above when I arrived at my client’s office. It’s a Crinum Lily, also known as a Spider Lily. We have several species and varieties of Crinums in Florida. This one is native to parts of Asia, the Indian and Pacific Ocean islands, and Australia and has become naturalized in Florida, Louisiana, Suriname, Mexico, and Madagascar.

They are a favorite landscaping plant because they grow with little attention or care and are known to survive droughts and floods.

Although this type of Crinum is not native to Florida, we have one called Crinum americanum, commonly known as Swamp Lily. They thrive near freshwater streams and ponds.

I was chilled all day, so I took a hot shower when I got home from work. Then, I did a load of laundry and baked a Honey Cake:

Ben usually cooks the meat he eats, saving this vegetarian from handling dead animals, but since I was in the kitchen baking, I prepared his pork chops and made yellow rice.

I generously coated the pork chops with olive oil. Then, rubbed one tablespoon of brown sugar on both sides of each chop. Then, sprinkled the chops with seasonings: a garlic herb mixture Ben likes and a bit of salt and pepper, but you can use any combination of seasonings you prefer. I baked the chops at 425 degrees for 25 minutes or until the pork chops were 145 degrees in the center.

The rest of the day was spent writing and reading. And I ended this week feeling much better than I have in a very long time.

© Dennett 2024

If you don’t already participate in the Weeds & Wildflowers Photo-a-Day Challenge, I hope you will join us. This is our third year sharing our lives, neighborhoods, activities, travels, and experiences through photos and short narratives.

Here is a list of our Photo-a-Day storytellers:

Erika Burkhalter / Eileen Vorbach Collins / Anne Bonfert / Sasha Meyer / Tracy Aston/ Lisa Bolin / Juan O. Aguilera / David Wade Chambers / June Nguyen / Mia Verita / Susan Alison / LensAfield / Barbara Radisavljevic / Diana Lotti / Barbara Dalton / Kim Zuch / K. Barrett / Sandra Barrett / Shruthi Sundaram / Gustavo Mendez / Olive Wilson / Jane Frost (Jane Grows Garden Rooms) / Jillian Amatt / Scott Younkin / Penny Grubb / Shell Parsons /Ivy Shepherd / Lynne Nardizzi / Ken Martin / Amethyst Qu / Beth Bruno / Julia A. Keirns / Krasi Shapkarova

Please let me know if you’ve participated in the Photo-a-Day Challenge and don’t see your name here.