Sunday Sketches - Owl

Welcome to Sunday Sketches, hosted as always by Alexandra!  I did an owl in my (9" x 12") sketchbook today, in watercolour crayon. I was inspired by a photo of a pearl spotted owl but gave up on the feather details.  Aren't the eyes stunning though, eerie how human they look.

Wow, it's already going to be February tomorrow.

Sauteed Beet Greens

I made these sauteed beet greens from a recipe I had saved. It is a keeper.  You know when you buy beets it always seems a waste to toss the leaves and stems, so this is a pretty handy recipe to have.

I adapted my recipe from Simply Recipes Beet Greens

I really just don't use the bacon it calls for.

Paint Party Friday - Red Fox

This is a quick sketch of a red fox (9" x 12") done in my sketchbook in watercolour crayon from a photo I saw.  Happy Paint Party Friday and thanks to Kristin and Eva for always hosting!

Some Mature Humour

At the gym the other day I decided to ask a friend how old she was, I didn't think she would mind.  She said she was 69.  I told her she would be my inspiration (now that I am 56) to keep going.  She said there are a lot of people her age at the gym.  She will just keep on going and of course limit things to what she can reasonably do. 

In my exercise class the same day, this lady was talking to a friend and turned away to reclaim her spot.  'Oops, I just tripped on a flat floor' she observed incredulously.  I thought that was funny, middle-aged humour if you will.  Then afterward I was on the treadmill doing a bit of a cool down, and spoke to another friend in her sixties.  I told her she was lucky she decided not to attend the aerobics class that morning.  It was a particularly brutal session with all these 'burpee' jumping movements.  She said 'I think they are trying to get rid of us older people'...and I had to laugh.  They always give us options we can take on the harder moves and of course you just do what you can.

Kale Chips and Beet Salad

Kale Chips

As I mentioned yesterday I did a lot of cooking this past Saturday. The kale chips are from a recipe I had saved awhile back. It turned out perfectly. The beet salad tasted like a pickle, and was suggested to me by Wanda. It was delicious.  Grate raw beets, add olive oil, apple cider vinegar and a little sugar.  I also added salt, pepper and some Italian seasoning. 

Beet Salad

Chicken Marscapone

I did a lot of cooking this past Saturday. We had this leftover marscapone cheese in the fridge for months and I was about to toss it when I opened it and saw there was still quite a bit left and it appeared to be just fine. I found this wonderful recipe for chicken marscapone and it turned out very successfully:

On the Social Impact of Technology

Son K was at the video game store on the weekend.  He had the idea to sell some of his old video games to clear the clutter and maybe make some money.  It turns out they just give a store credit and he ended up using it to get a new video game, but for a lot less money.  Well at least he used up the store credit.

He waited in line for a long time as there was only one employee working.  There was a mom in front of him buying a video game set for her 9 year old son.  She had a lot of questions.  K started talking to the guy behind him and ended up getting a new online gaming partner.  They remarked on how young the kids were, that are starting to play video games.  K told the guy that he was outside playing tennis at that age.  The guy remarked on how he saw toddlers playing on Ipads in the restaurants these days.  They both felt they should be relating and talking to the people around them instead of having themselves immersed in technology all the time.  K remembered a school trip he took to Europe in 2014.  He thought it was so nice there, that people seemed to talk to each other more, as there were less people on their phones all the time.

Well I thought these were interesting observations coming from twenty year olds.