Making

The Magic of Autumn

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Happy first day of fall! Every season has its wonders. The first soft snowfall of winter, the emerging colors and flowers of spring, lazy summer afternoons by the lake as the sun sets, and then… there is fall. Or, as I prefer to call it, Autumn. Autumn casts a quiet magic that tells us to stop and take a break. Breathe in the crisp air. Let the foggy mornings wrap around you. The deep golds, faded reds and muted shades of brown calm your soul. While spring is expectant, autumn is contemplative. I like contemplative. Autumn has a touch of magic to it.

Top 10 things I love about autumn:

Making soup again. Sure, you can make it in the summer, but that is just wrong. Soup is a fall/winter comfort food. The best thing about soup is that it can simmer for hours, releasing aromas that make your house feel warm and cozy. Bonus if you have warm homemade bread to go with it.

Fall festivals and markets. Celebrate the change of season with others by attending a fall market or Oktoberfest. Think pumpkins, hay bales, corn stalks, fresh squeezed apple juice, and festive music to go with it. Just last night we attended a fall party at a favorite local brewery. Great music, beer and company.

Fall music party at a favorite brewery last night (left). Mr. U in Gatlinburg last fall (right).

Pumpkin everything (to borrow an overused cliche). I know that you can buy canned pumpkin any time of the year, but there is just something about warm pumpkin bread in the fall. Every autumn we try to make a trip to a group of family-owned farms and get pumpkin doughnuts hot off the press. Sooo good! I am anxious to try a new recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodles. Pumpkins and snickerdoodles sound like a pretty decadent combo to me.

Football. I did not grow up loving football, but I learned to enjoy it through osmosis. With a spouse that loves sports and four sons that all played football, I had no choice but to join in or be left behind. Now I have a decent understanding of the game and can appreciate what it contributes to the feeling of fall. It is especially fun when your grandson is playing, and his sister is one of the cheerleaders.

Being outdoors in the crisp sunshine collecting autumn Roadsidea. Take a walk and kick up some leaves. Breathe in the scents of autumn. Bring the vibrant colors and textures inside by gathering acorns, chestnuts, pinecones and colorful leaves to create a fall tablescape. One of my favorite rituals for fall is to gather these items to decorate for autumn inside and out.

A few items harvested from the garden and acorns gathered as “roadsidea” to decorate the entry table. I made “Simon #1” years ago.
Fall decorating. I made the upcycled pumpkins from old sweaters. Post here.

The autumn garden. Gardens are fabulous most of the year, but there is nothing better than the garden in the fall. The colors are vibrant and there is a quiet, calm in the shadows that tells you the work of watering and weeding is over. It is time to reap the last of the harvest. Pumpkins, gourds, sunflowers and corn stalks waiting to be gathered for the porch.

Pictures compliments of Mr. U’s garden.

Fires and candlelight. Who doesn’t love pulling up to a cozy warm fire on a chilly day. We have a wood burning fireplace in our living room, which is one of the delights of winter. (Fortunately, we have an easy source for wood because son #2 co-owns a business that has wood trim ends as a by-product.) And then there are the fall slash fires outside. Nothing beats the sound of a crackling fire, but when we don’t have several hours to enjoy a real fire, we will light our gas fire pit outside. It begs you to sit and enjoy the last dregs of summer. It whispers of quiet fall evenings before the snow starts to fly. It is literally, the calm before the storm of winter sets in. September also commences the “bring on the candles” months.

A gas fire is a great way to spend a few autumn hours when it is still too dry for an outdoor fire.

Sweata Weatha. Personally, I could stay in shorts, t-shirts and flip flops all year long. It feels suffocating when I put on that first pair of long pants. But once I succumb, it is fun to bring out all of the comfy fall clothes. It is like meeting up with old friends again. One of my favorite clothing items are my beautiful, comfy wool socks that my dear friend makes for me. They are like wrapping your feet in a warm blanket of love.

Autumn travel. As much as I love being home to experience autumn, traveling this time of year feels mystical. It is also much less crowded after Labor Day and prices are more reasonable. When we travel in the fall, we try to choose places that are an autumn experience. Our top favorites have been leaf peeping in Vermont, the Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee, and most recently, the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. All three of these lovely places were named in Country Living as the Best Fall Towns in the US for Foliage — Fall Foliage in the US (countryliving.com)

One of the many covered bridges we got to see on our trip to Vermont several years ago.

Apple harvest. It is so disappointing to bite into a soft apple. They need to be crisp, fresh and flavorful. Sure, you can get waxy apples all year long, but they are the absolute best in the fall picked right off of the tree. It is part of living by the seasons. Apples grow abundantly in our neck of the woods. My dad has a couple of apple trees on his property, so it is always an event to gather together to pick apples.

Mr. U with a robust apple harvest (left). The picture on the right is from DIL #2 and their beautiful apple harvest this year.

Happy fall y’all

The full on colorful, lovely crisp autumn days do not last long. In a blink of an eye, the frost settles over the garden and the weatherman forecasts snow. So, take time to revel in the beauty and wonders of this season made for the senses. Indulge yourself fully in the magic of autumn.

A moody autumn sunset.

Thrifting on Steroids

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Everyone loves a bargain. There is something satisfying about getting a good deal. Or better yet, getting a good deal on something discarded and ugly and then upcycling it into something useful and beautiful. My friend, who upcycles quality used clothing into beautiful bags, was on a search for new sources of material. She discovered “the bins” and wanted to take an afternoon road trip there but she needed an accomplice to join her… that would be me. I did not have a clue what “the bins” were but I am always game for a new adventure, so why not? I should have been concerned when she told me she brought along plastic gloves and hand sanitizer for us. It turns out that “the bins” are like thrifting on steroids.

“The bins” is actually an outlet store for Goodwill. Yes, you heard that right. Now, even Goodwill has an outlet store. There are 16 Goodwill stores in the area, and they ship unsold merchandise to the Goodwill Outlet store (aka – “the bins”). The reason that it is called “the bins” is because all of these items are literally thrown into large rolling bins and brought out to the selling floor. Customers grab a shopping cart and sift through the bins, searching for hidden treasures. But, just like the princess that had to kiss a lot of toads to find her prince, you have to shovel through a lot of junk to find the treasures. It is not for the faint of heart.

Customers plow through the bins quickly in search of overlooked treasures.

But there is a twist to it. Every hour, customers are told to step back behind the yellow lines as they wheel the bins off of the warehouse floor and back into the storage room. A few minutes later, new bins are rolled out with different items. The items are covered in old blankets or sheets when they are wheeled out so that the waiting customers do not see the items ahead of time and all mob to the same bin. It kind of reminds me of a morgue as they roll out the new bins covered in blankets. (Sorry – it is the nurse in me. You look at life a little differently after spending your career in healthcare.) I was informed that the unsold items are then shipped to third world countries.

Removing the bins that have been rummaged through (left). Customers have to wait behind the yellow line for the changing of the bins (center). The new covered bins coming out (right).

I took a little time away from the hunt to visit with the security guard. Yes, they need a security guard there. He told me that people will get in scuffles over some of the more prized bins. There is also quite a bit of theft. People will leave their cart by the door in preparation for a quick exit without paying. He said that they are typically stealing things that are easy to trade or sell for drugs. While stealing is never acceptable, there is something just inherently wrong about stealing from Goodwill. And a Goodwill outlet store no less.

The security guard was so nice and explained the code of ethics and what people were shopping for here.

The majority of people were there looking for good deals for themselves or items for creative projects. However, there were several young people, typically males, who stood against the wall with their phones. Some were even playing games while they waited for the next group of bins to emerge. This piqued my interest, so I asked the security guard what they were doing. He said they have either online, or resale stores and they hang out there all day waiting to search the bins for new merchandise that they can sell. They are fairly astute in knowing what they are looking for and can go through the bins quickly. They have carts with their names on them where they put their finds. If they are not sure of an item’s worth for resale, they will look it up on their phone. At the end of the day, they wheel their carts to the check-out stand to pay.

Some of the young men playing dice while they wait for the new bins (left). Shopping carts with people’s names on them to hold their merchandise until the end of the day (right).

After a couple of hours my back ached, my feet were sore, and my friend had a shopping cart full of treasures to upcycle. We maneuvered our cart towards the checkout line. And guess what? You do not pay per item; you pay buy the pound. That means that the unopened glitter craft paper I found was practically free! And my friend got a whole cart load of well-chosen items for only $25.00.

Once you are done shopping, you roll your cart on to the scale and pay by the pound.

It was such a fascinating afternoon. I walked away with a new knowledge and awareness of life. Isn’t that one of the great things about retirement? We get to take time during the week for new adventures.

Living Organically: Part II

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

I continue to seek out healthier, fresher, more organic choices in my everyday life. Not just with my diet, but also my home environment and how I manage stress. Last week I wrote about making more organic food choices. This week I have some suggestions on how to live more organically in our environment and how that affects the level of stress on our bodies (both physical and emotional).

Stress

Our modern world, with busy traffic, too many choices and constant connection through social media, leaves our nerves on edge. Of course, we have to live in our current world, and there are so many aspects of it that I appreciate. (Thank you, Alexa.) But it helps to step away from it frequently. It puts life back in perspective.

Everyone’s idea of how to decrease stress is different. For some it is reading, while others prefer yoga or a heart pumping workout at the gym. However, I think we can all agree that slowing down and being in nature are salves to the scars of modern living. Being outside, growing things, walking barefoot in the grass or sand. Just being out in nature is calming to our fractured lives. It doesn’t have to be driving an hour to go for a long hike, it can be as simple as taking a walk through your city park.

Cortisol is the hormone that is produced when we are under stress. It came in very handy for our ancestors who needed it for the “fight or flight” response when faced with acute threats, such as running from a tiger. Unfortunately, our modern way of living puts unnecessary, chronic stress on our minds and in response, we produce excessive amounts of cortisol. Among other things, cortisol raises our blood pressure, increases our pulse rate and triggers our bodies to release sugar. These are all responses that are helpful for the occasional “fight or flight” response but are unhealthy when we experience them over long periods of time. Chronic, underlying stress is like beating our body up with a bat internally.

We can counteract this stress by spending more time in nature. According to a study by Harvard Medical School, just 20 to 30 minutes immersed in a nature setting caused significant drops in the participant’s cortisol levels. After that time, additional stress-reduction benefit accrued more slowly. Hey, any of us can do 20-30 minutes outside, especially now that we are retired!

This is a picture of our city park in the spring. Doesn’t it help you relax just looking at it?

Environment

The environment we surround ourselves with inside of our homes can be relaxing or stressful to us. A cluttered, disorganized home leaves me with an underlying stress. While a clean, fresh home calms me. I am trying to reduce and reuse when possible and I am doing a few things to use less chemicals in my home. For example, I have been burning only soy candles. Antique Candle Co.® is a great online source for these. (And no, this is not a paid sponsorship, I just really like their products.) I am also trying to reduce my use of plastics, replacing them with things that can be reused over and over again.

Last week I tried my hand at making some of my own cleaning products with essential oils. I was surprised how simple it was to do. They smell fresh and are much less harmful to me and my environment. No more coughing and sputtering while I clean the shower. And I can reuse the containers instead of throwing them out or in the recycling bin when they are empty.

I ordered the brown glass bottles from Amazon, and I made the labels for them with my Cricut machine.

Another way we can live more organically is to upcycle things in our environment. Not only does this mean less junk in our landfills but it creates a more interesting and unique lifestyle. When you upcycle something, it is highly unlikely that anyone else will have the exact same thing. In a previous post, The Upcycled Life, I shared some items that I upcycled and have used for years.

Our tap water comes from a well, so it is high in minerals, which is good for you but doesn’t taste great. Instead of drinking so much bottled water or canned bubbly water, I have been creating my own flavored waters. It is simple to make and tastes refreshing. I just use a carafe and fill it with filtered tap water, add some herbs, fruit or vegetables and store it in the frig. My favorite combination right now is cucumber and lemon. I want to try strawberry and basil next. But the options are endless, so experiment a little.

Making my own flavored waters is better for the environment and cheaper than buying bottled waters.

The last word

I am not a purist when it comes to recycling, eating clean, or living sustainably. For instance, I still throw away empty cans when I am having guests over and am in too big of a hurry to clean them out for recycling. Some days I don’t even take a step outside to be in nature. And I still enjoy a slice of greasy pizza, it is just a rare treat instead of the go-to for a quick, easy dinner. Just keeping it real here. I am trying to take small steps, most days, to live a healthier, more organic lifestyle.

Living Organically

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Cardiac disease, type II diabetes, irritable bowel, inflammatory disease, anxiety and some cancers. What do they all have in common? They are often a result of living in our modern world: food choices, stress and the environment we live in. By the time we are retired, we have lived long enough to expose ourselves to numerous toxins in our food and environment. I know that I have eaten way too many slices of greasy pizza and McDonald’s hamburgers in my lifetime. I don’t know about you, but as I get older, these types of foods do not settle as well with me. I feel sluggish when I eat them. So, I am seeking out healthier, fresher, more organic choices in my everyday life. Not just with my diet, but also my home environment and how I manage stress. We can’t change how we lived in the past, but we can make improvements now. Small changes add up.

At the beginning of 2024, I chose “the upcycled life” as my word(s) of the year (WOTY). I chose it, not just for the traditional sense, but also because the very essence of upcycling is creating something that is of higher quality and a better version than the original one. So, this year I am seeking out ways to create a higher quality of life and a better version of myself. Not only am I trying to eat more organically, but I want to live a healthier, more organic lifestyle.

A more organic diet

It is about eating fresh with less processed, sugary foods. I have come a long way from those years of eating salads with iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing. Matter of fact, I have become the queen of salads. They are not necessarily low calorie, but they are fresh and packed with nutrients. I love poppy seed or ranch dressing, but they are loaded with unhealthy fats and calories. Now I use a simple olive oil dressing that I can throw together quickly. I have modified a few recipes to come up with my own version. I thought I would share it with you since I get asked for the recipe a lot.

Salad Dressing Recipe

2 Tbs. good quality olive oil

1 Tbs. white peach balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. honey

cracked black pepper

You can change this recipe in several ways.  A lot of times I will use regular balsamic vinegar and add 1 tsp. Dijon mustard.  Or use lemon juice instead of vinegar, which makes a great salad with fish.  Try using real maple syrup instead of honey.  I like to add fresh fruits, nuts and avocados to my salads, but the options are endless. Experiment and enjoy a healthy and delicious salad!

The Blue Zones

I am not a big believer in fad diets. They are not usually sustainable. The one diet that most physicians recommend and that has withstood the test of time is the Mediterranean diet. It focuses on eating mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and healthy fats that come from nuts, seeds, olive oil and fish. The recommended foods in this diet are high in antioxidants and help prevent inflammation and obesity. Bonus that it includes red wine in moderation. Three of the five Blue Zone areas eat similar to the Mediterranean diet.

The Blue Zones, first identified in 2000, are areas in the world that have a much lower incidence of our modern maladies such as heart disease, diabetes, depression and cancer. Consequently, people live healthier and much longer in these areas. The five Blue Zone communities are Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Cost Rica; Icaria, Greece and Loma Linda, California. While diet is a known common denominator among the Blue Zones, there are other characteristics that these areas have in common, such as a strong social network, a sense of purpose, and being physically active throughout their entire lives. There has been a plethora of research into these communities and their secrets to longevity. Their diet and lifestyle are a great example of living a long, heathy, organic life that we can learn from and incorporate into our own lives.

Eating local

Local farmer’s markets are a wonderful way to get fresh off the vine foods and they have the benefit of providing a delightful aesthetic experience. Walking along the rows of colorful vegetables while listening to someone strumming their guitar is a feast for the senses. Of course, the very best option for organic food is to forage from nature or eat from your own garden. It doesn’t get any fresher than that.

Mr. U grows a beautiful garden every year and I get to enjoy going out and picking fresh vegetables and colorful flowers from it. There isn’t anything better than stepping outside in the morning, still in your robe, to pick some bright red raspberries for breakfast. Or stepping out your door to gather a few vine-ripened tomatoes and fresh basil for dinner. I use the abundance of basil in the garden to make homemade pesto.

Mr. U’s greenhouse (he built) and garden. I love the weathered wood and rusty corrugated metal he used to give it a time worn appearance. We have to keep a six-foot fence around the garden to keep the deer out.

I am not a big believer in buying “organic” labeled food for a few reasons. First, Mr. U grew up on a farm, so I understand the significance of pest control. Also, I am not convinced that it isn’t just a marketing tactic for many of the foods that are labeled “organic.” (GMO foods and meat may be an exception.) Lastly, my little brother has a master’s degree in biochemistry, and he runs a lab in California that does research on pesticides and chemicals in our environment and foods. He assures me that the amount of chemicals in our fruits and vegetables is minuscule and that it would take much, much more than that to be harmful to us, even over our lifetime. So, I trust him, (even though he is my little bro that used to wear a colander on his head as a helmet), because he is super smart. I still wash my fruits and vegetables really well.

One of the key factors in healthy eating is portion control. As we all know, here in the good ole USA, we have lost our awareness of what a normal portion is. Oversize portions lead to oversize bodies. Once we get in the habit of eating a larger amount of food, we begin to think that is our normal and do not feel satisfied unless we have that amount. Hum…ask me how I know. So, I am working on portion control and being attune with my body and recognizing when it is full and satisfied.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Michael, Pollan

Stay tuned next week for ideas on how to create a more organic, healthy, and less stressful environment.

Retirement Life

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

If you had told me a few years ago, before I retired myself, that retirement life could be so busy that you don’t have enough time, I would have scoffed and mumbled under my breath, “right, you just don’t manage your time well.” Now that I am retired, I realize that the beauty of it is… I don’t have to manage my time well. Such as it has been these past couple weeks. When I started this blog, I committed to publish a post every week. I love to write. It helps me breathe. However, these past couple weeks have left me with little extra time to write a blog post. What could keep this retired person so busy? Well, quite a lot really.

Spring cleaning and decorating

The sunshine shows all of the dust and smudge prints that have accumulated over the long, dark winter, so it was time to do a little spring cleaning. Chores do not go away once you are retired, unless you hire out to have them done, which I have a hard time doing because, well…I am retired after all. Besides, it always feels good to take down the winter decorations and freshen the house up a bit for spring.

I found the beehive last year and decided to it was worth a little roadsidea decorating.

Grandkids

It is wonderful to have relaxed time to be a grandparent. When we were raising our own kids, it felt like I was always rushing or multitasking. Now I can enjoy uninterrupted time with my grands. I have been watching our new grandbaby for a few hours every week while my DIL returns to work. Precious time where I just focus on her.

Just a fun bundle of cuddles and play.

My other granddaughter turned eight last week. We celebrated with a grandma nana date. I took her out for a high tea. We both dressed up and enjoyed tea with cream and sugar, little tea sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and jam. We learned a little bit about the history of high tea. Precious uninterrupted time together.

Of course, we had to try on every hat at the tearoom but settled on the ones we brought with us. We practiced drinking tea with our pinkie finger extended.

We have been able to attend several of my grandson’s wrestling matches, which can be all-day events. I am glad we have the time to do this – we missed too many when we spent the month of February in Florida. It is so fun to watch him enjoy and compete at the same sport his dad excelled at.

He is a beast on the wrestling mat but has a heart of gold and still gives hugs to grandma.

Travel

The weather has been sketchy at home and Scottsdale promised to be sunny and in the 80’s last week. We are retired, so why not make a quick trip down there to enjoy the sunshine? On a last-minute whim we packed up and made the short 2 1/2-hour flight. So glad we did. We have been hiking, riding bikes, enjoying the sunshine and pool all week. I spent a few hours in a bookstore, just nosing around the stacks without an agenda. This is a pretty cheap trip for us because we stayed at my son’s condo, since it was available for the week, and we used our free fly miles to travel back and forth. Our biggest expense was a car rental, which we got for a surprising $18.00/day.

This hike nearly killed us, but it was worth the view.

“Once she stopped rushing through life, she was amazed how much more life she had time for.”

Filling the Jars

So, there you have it. Life has been too chock full of fun stuff to write a real blog post this week. I had to settle for this quick recap of the last few weeks in the life of a retiree. I hope that you are able to NOT manage some of your time this week as well. It opens doors for the fun stuff.