Category: Day-to-Day

  • The technology I miss most

    After six weeks on the road, I anticipated being tired of having to fetch water. As it happens, when my children were so pleased to discover flush toilets yesterday, I had just thought, “Yes! No boil water advisory! Let’s hear it for drinking water!” I left home with a high end water filter, but in…

  • I hear there are these phone things

    I just would like to announce that my 5 weeks of being offline have led me to purchase a smart phone.  This is where I am: Technology is quite mad, you know. I don’t know how to stand the picture up, yet.

  • Catching Up (1)

    I have reached the “avoiding the heat in southern Ontario” stage of the trip. It’s not yet nine o’clock, and it is already too hot to do anything outside. The trailer is fairly cool, but the house we are visiting is not air conditioned, so we are sitting in front of the fan and wilting.…

  • Taking Myself Shopping

    Warning: contains the word “breast.” Twice, now. I’m taking this course, you see. And as part of the course, to tap into the parts of ourselves which were trying to be expressed, we were to spend some time with our future selves. Try dressing as her, ask her for some advice on a challenging situation,…

  • Spring Comes, Eventually, With Birds

    We’re just going to pretend May didn’t exist, ‘k? I might talk about it sometime, but suffice it to say that it was a month of profound imbalance, lived largely in vehicles and including an astonishing number of grabbed meals on-the-run, and the gaining of 10 pounds. I’m cranky, irritable, and generally not much fun…

  • Closets, Comma, Organizing Of

    Of course, whenever I say that I have nothing to say on a subject, I immediately think of something to say. I’m like that. (I was going to add an “organizing” tag, but it made me laugh too hard. Let’s not go there, right?) Regarding closets, organizing of (as opposed to closets, getting out of,…

  • The Mouths of Babes

    It has been a strange week in the world of The Dilettante, and my writing has suffered as a result. On the other hand, I had a chance to reconnect with old friends, eat fabulous restaurant food, and revel in one of the great luxuries of our day, a weekend in the city. Upon returning…

  • Eat Those Dandelions

    Tonight we foraged in our yard. At least partly. The menu this evening was quiche made with dandelion greens, fresh basil that has been growing in a pot in our living room since February, and eggs from our chickens. Thanks are due to one of my friends, who recommended blanching the leaves. Last time I…

  • PostADay is 1/3 done

    They tell me over at PostADay that we are 1/3 of the way there. Well, I’m 1/3 minus 2, or something. I think that there were a couple of days there with bonus posts, so it will all even out in the end. Also, if you’ve been with me for the long haul, you’ve probably…

  • Ice Cream Dreaming

    Today’s Daily Prompt was: “Describe the unhealthiest meal you’ve ever eaten. How did you feel afterwards?” I probably can’t dredge up the True Answer to this question, being the one that could be verified by friends and family. It probably includes nachos, though. I will, nonetheless, tell you about my favourite unhealthy meal, because it…

  • A Grand Scheme

    After ten straight hours of bingeing on chocolate eggs, what eventually hatched was a scheme. Lacking a phaeton-and-four, it was a simple plan. (The author has just finished a Jane Austen book, and is thinking of seasides, horse-drawn carriages, and misadventures that result in stays of se’ennight, ending in marriage.) It began as a casual…

  • Boring Old Weekends – Nothing But Life

    I missed my posts last weekend. I also missed yesterday’s post. It turns out that weekends are much, much busier than weekdays. I must not be the only person that is true for, since the blog stats go down on weekends. Presumably, you all are out living your lives, rather than reading about other people’s?…