Click on image for larger image or to purchase.

Thistle flowers are very pretty, their light purple flowers contrasting with the bold, textured green of the leaves and branches of the plant. Unfortunately, the garden beds on the south side of the house, thick clay no matter how much I have mulched and dug in composted material, are rife with thistle plants, soon after the tulips have died back at the end of spring. I let the thistles grow for long enough that I can take photographs, and long enough that the bees can enjoy them while they wait for the hollyhocks to bloom.

My thistles don’t look like the thistles of Scotland that I see in photographs on the Internet. Mine are much more tame, less threatening.

I don’t recall from where in Scotland my ancestors immigrated to the United States, or when. I don’t think that’s a major part of my heritage, unless we’re thinking Celt, in which case the Irish and Welsh, as well as the Scottish ancestries are grouped together. I’ve Irish ancestry on both sides of the family. Berry, my mother’s side of the family, is Scottish and northern Irish, but it’s also a French name, and I do have people from France in my family tree. On my father’s side? His mother was Mary Elizabeth Murphy. Can’t get much more Irish than that!

My father and mother used to sing, we children joining in as soon as we were able, popular songs when we went on car trips, including “Who Threw the Overalls in Mistress Murphy’s Chowder”, “Danny Boy”, “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”, and others. One of my favorites is Wearin’ of the Green (MP3 and lyrics). Another, a popular round, was “White Coral Bells.” I very much enjoyed singing…listening to our singing. The way the various voices wove together, the complexity of the intertwining melody and words layering over the phrase before and under the one that followed. The beauty was arresting.

I wanted to try out cuts in various expenses before they become necessary, so that by the time we retire, we already will be living within our expected income. My first change is to trade in my business telephone for a residential listing, my landline for a cell phone. That change cuts our telephone numbers from four to three, but it also eliminates my free business listing in the yellow pages section of the telephone book. That means, people cannot find me easily, once I make that change. It also means that I have a reason to contact all of my previous customers to let them know of the change and provide them with my contact information.

Another factor, one that I could not have taken into consideration, is that the change is being made during a downturn in the economy, which is, contrary to statements by the press, affecting North Dakota. Small businesses are hit particularly hard. In part, I imagine, it’s because when there are not sufficient numbers of good-paying jobs, a number of folks decide to start their own businesses rather than take what jobs are available, and so you have an increased number of individuals competing for an even more limited pool of projects. I have mixed feelings about that. Small businesses and freelancers may not have the resources to survive the downturns.

The next change, which I had projected for a year and a half from now, would be to eliminate paid Internet presence where I cannot occasionally promote my commercial products and services. Without an upturn in the economy before the end of this year, that change may come more quickly than I originally thought it would.

One last thing fascinates me about all of this, and that is that I rather enjoy the analysis and planning processes. I hope to discover that I am good at determination and implementation of change.

Scrambled an egg with white pepper, sea salt, and onion powder, and poured about half of it into the egg ring. Next, I took spoonfuls of rice and packed it into the egg ring until it was nearly full, and then poured in the rest of the scrambled egg, mixing it slightly, so it would soak in.

When it looked as though it had cooked and firmed up a bit, I got a spatula under the egg ring and flipped it over, so the other side would cook. When the rice cake was done cooking, I turned it out of its ring and then onto the plate. Tasted really good!

Next time, I think I want to add some milk to the egg in hopes that it will do a bit more in the way of holding the rice cake together. I think that adding a chopped bunching onion would add more to the flavor than the onion powder. A touch of freshly chopped chives might be good, also. Maybe paprika, coarse ground pepper, or both? Worth experimenting with, at any rate.

For the meat, we had leftover rotisserie chicken breast. Al ate some of the potato salad, but did taste the rice cake. I ate most of the rice cake, but did take just a smidgen of potato salad.

Anyway, I would appreciate your taking a look at my business page on FB and possibly becoming a fan. It seems to me a good place to start sharing some of the things I’ve learned about job search over the past 25 years, if anyone’s interested in reading about it.

Doing Business As The Written Word

The Chocolate Depression Cake recipe is adapted from one I received from Ellie Knickman. It is a good recipe for beginning cooks (pre-school or early grades), because the cake is baked in the same pan in which it is mixed, which helps to confine the inevitable mess. Made without the optional egg, the cake can be eaten by those on a vegan diet.

Ruth Ulvog gave me her peanut butter cookie recipe, and they too are gluten-free if you use the right baking powder. It works equally well with smooth and with chunky peanut butter. They will crumble, if they are not allowed to cool long enough.

I cannot remember where I got the egg custard recipe originally, but it is one of the recipes I know by heart. I do not make it very often, anymore, because I have found that I tend to eat all ten servings before the custards even have a chance to cool properly.

Enjoy!

Liz

Not very good at moving from one activity to the next. Perhaps that is something to be worked on during this vacation, when I have EOY accounts to do, tons of cleaning, transition of meeting Web activities to free services, and so forth. More to the point, I am perhaps not so good at relaxing as I had thought.

So, what is to be done about that? First, I have to get through the Christmas activities without chemical exposures. Second, I have to leave client work alone until after the first of the year, no matter how delightful the next manuscript promises to be. Third, I must treat the necessary computer work as a side activity, rather than as a major focus. Things to do:

• Financial records
• Housecleaning
• Exercise (stationary bike, weights, and flexibility)
• Rhythm workouts (dance routines…learn a new one!)
• Watch a movie or a television episode each day (that’s what the Netflix is for)
• Get between 8 and 10 hours of sleep—no less than 8, but also no more than 10
• DO NOT READ ANY FICTION!

The most important point of all this, I think, is to remember not to feel guilty about taking the time off that I need. I must not take work telephone calls, because if I do, I will end up working during my vacation…and I am not so good at switching gears.