Community

 

https://northhelpline.org/

 

About a year ago I switched to volunteering at the food bank in the above photo which is just a mile from my home. It’s a pleasant walk (except during an atmospheric river) and it gives me a closer view of my neighbors and community.

Through coworkers at the food bank, I learned of a local community group and was able to join a Zoom presentation on the construction of a new community center. Six stories of the new community center will be for low income housing. The new housing is about a half mile away from the food bank where many low income customers come to pick up food weekly. 

https://www.lovestruckinseattle.com/

I've been discovering other places in my neighborhood, all within 2.5 miles (walking distance in good weather and when I’m up to a big hill challenge). A new romance bookstore, Lovestruck in Seattle, opened a few months ago and they host multiple book clubs monthly. The first book clubs sold out within hours and my hesitation cost me the opportunity to give it a try—next month I’ll jump right on it!

The 8 limbs of yoga

I tried a Hatha yoga studio two miles away and loved it. Though I found the gentle class much more to my liking than the challenging yoga flow class.

 

This month's blanket drop off

In another community Zoom presentation I learned of more opportunities for senior volunteers. The group "Knit It Alls" definitely appealed to me since I already knit so many cat blankets, I'm embarrassed every time I drop off a big armload of blankets. Now I can knit some hats for donations.

Finally, my husband and I tried a bakery 2.5 miles down the street from us and we now make it our Saturday morning breakfast stop. The bakery, Grateful Bread, uses organic local flour and makes wonderful bagels, muffins, soups and sandwiches. Even better, a neighbor just two houses down from us owns and operates the bakery!

 

Chai Time

 

Chai supplies

I love a warm, spicy beverage on cold, wet winter nights, and chai is my favorite. Because I’m sensitive to caffeine, I make my own chai. While Stash has a decaf vanilla chai which is handy when I’m short on time, making my own chai lets me adjust the spices to my preference. I’ll share a couple of recipes and the ingredients I keep on hand.

The first recipe I use is here. I make a double-strength batch so I have enough for a few days. When I want a mug, I add milk or milk and water when re-heating. Cloves, vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, star anise and the other ingredients also make my spice cabinet smell wonderful.

I'll share two other recipes. One can be made with black tea or rooibos for a decaf version, and the other with carob and coconut. Both linked in this paragraph are from the site GrowForageCookFerment.

Chaga. It's not the prettiest fungus.

Another chai that I love which is also caffeine free incorporates a medicinal fungus, chaga. Chaga is reported to be a nutrient-dense,
antioxidant-rich, and adaptogenic fungus. This Masala chai blend from Euphoria Botanica is delicious, but does need to simmer for 20 minutes in order to gain the benefits of chaga.

Since Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow earlier this month, it looks like there will be plenty more time to enjoy some hot chai.

Source: https://www.groundhog.org/

 

 

 

 

What's New?

Photo by Esther Verdú on Unsplash

 I hope 2026 has been good to everyone so far. Instead of making resolutions in January, I set intentions. This year I want to be more internally and externally aware, listening to my inner voice and exploring new topics.

To start this awareness, I first had my chakras balanced. Yes, this may be a little woo-woo for many, but I’d never had this experience and it was very affordable. To my great surprise, I learned that my root (first) chakra needed the most work. This surprised me as I garden a lot, nurturing plants from the root up. That my creative (third) chakra was weak didn't surprise me as my creativity has been dull since late November.

Just before New Year’s Eve, I then had a chakra massage which was divine. The massage therapist used a different oil for each chakra and gave me a mantra to focus on while she worked. The mantras, in order from the first chakra (sacral area) to the crown (top of head) chakra are:

I am.  I am creative. I am powerful. I am loved. I am heard. I am connected. I am divine.

The massage was extremely relaxing and I hope to be able to do this

Photo by Uday Mittal on Unsplash

on each solstice and equinox. How about exploring new topics? Well—and I won’t go far on this one—early this year I read about an experiment scientists did where they measured 37 dimensions! What? How? Curiosity led me to watch a few videos on quantum mechanics. There is so much at least theoretically possible, but our human brains aren’t able to contemplate these dimensions. Thank goodness. 

There’s so much out there we don’t understand, don’t even know how to comprehend or measure. I have plenty to explore and learn this year. Here’s a dimensional brain-twister that I’ll close with: the tesseract. Wild!!

 

 

Another tesseract resource for those wanting to know more:  

https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/what-exactly-is-a-tesseract-real-life-geometry-4-dimensional.html

 

 

For the Birds

 

Like many people stuck at home during the big lock down in early 2020, we took greater interest in our feathered friends around the yard. We learned their calls and feeding habits—some are ground feeders, others prefer suet, and most enjoy the bird seed.

Our first attempts with seed feeders resulted in many squirrels in addition to birds. Too many squirrels! After an initial attempt to place the seed feeder on a shepherd’s hook, we found that squirrels could even climb the pole to get to the seed.

Yankee Flipper

Then we came upon the Yankee Flipper. It is motorized and weight activated. Birds can sit on it with no trouble, but squirrels go for a nice spin, which is highly entertaining. It has never harmed a squirrel, but I doubt they could pass astronaut training. 😀

 

 

 

Flicker feeder

Juncos, the predominant birds we have, are ground feeders and clean up seed dropped from the Yankee Flipper. In the backyard, we have a Steller’s  jay who regularly comes for a tossed peanut. And flickers love the special suet feeder that lets them rest their tails while they eat. 



 

Recently I discovered Bark Butter from Wild Birds Unlimited (WBU) and purchased the type that is spicy. This variety is supposed to be avoided by squirrels, but I’ve found they like it much more than the birds do.

WBU gave us a small packet of seed (top of page) to toss on our front doorstep at Christmas for good luck in the new year. I’m looking forward to watching as birds and squirrels alike gobble it up.

Transcription

Smithsonian Magazine

No, I haven't taken up medical transcription, though it might be easier to decipher than what I have started working on. With gardening done for the season, except for leaf raking which will go on the rest of this month, I needed something to fill that outdoor time. I’m still knitting kitty blankets for a local cat rescue, volunteering at a nearby food bank, and working on my third book. 

I looked around for another "project" to work on, and recalled an article in Smithsonian magazine about the National Archives needing people who can read cursive to help translate documents. (Article linked at the top of this page.)

Citizen Archivist 

This article describes the Citizen Archivist program. The dashboard page has several videos to help volunteers get started and I watched those before signing up. I quickly learned that being able to read cursive isn’t enough—one especially needs to be able to read some really bad handwriting and often on faded documents. 

Starting with the shortest, most legible pages I could find, I worked on a situation just after the emancipation in Georgia. Other documents were about deporting Chinese laborers who were in the country illegally in the early 1900s. These latter papers were a sad reminder of the state of affairs today, but also led me to learn more about the history at these times.

Then I discovered typewritten documents that also need transcription in order to help researchers who use these archives. Not only is this work giving me a way to contribute to the National Archives mission, but I’m learning intimate details about history.

This hurts my eyes and brain!

I’m still unable to help with the spidery, faded documents and tagging the photos and drawings is more advanced than I care to do yet. Tagging involves describing what is in a photo, such as names of people, places, and description of an activity depicted. 

I'm happy to contribute a page or two every few days, and delighted that cursive penmanship classes decades ago are proving useful.

Source