Like Sunday morning

Seeing all of the unmasked, coughing people in the airport is gross. 😷

They’re not yet in season, of course, but the supermarket strawberries looked good this weekend. Macerated with lemon and splash of gin and served over gluten-free sponge.

Baking is one of my preferred escapes from events over which I have no control. This gluten-free parkin loaded with both oatmeal and dried & stem ginger is a lightly tweaked version of Felicity Cloake’s recipe/guide in The Guardian. 🧑‍🍳

Window shopping in Staunton, Virginia

Night walk in Salem

(iPhone night mode shot)

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Visiting Longhopes Donkey Shelter in Bennett, Colorado.

I can sew when I must, but it isn’t a hobby. However, I am endlessly fascinated by mid-19th century tech.

(At the Cherry Hill Farmhouse museum in Falls Church)

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#ThirstyThursday : it’s nearly Friday

It’s quite a relief to return to dining on the deck again.

Chilly weather requires soup for dinner.

Riverby Books, Fredericksburg, Virginia

This year has been tiring, with far too little joy. I guess that’s why I thought I’d assemble the Christmas tree 2 weeks too early. #mbnov 🎄

Peated bourbon from Kings County Distillery is puzzling. Does it taste like scotch-y bourbon or bourbon-y scotch? So I thought a Rob Roy/Manhattan cocktail made perfect sense for Friday cocktails. #mbnov

Stoop seems like an excellent word for 2020. I still have hope that things will start looking up, but… #mbnov

I’ve always been a cranky old man in a less-old (?—less true each year) body. But nature still manages to astonish. Autumn sunlight is my favorite light, and the light streaming into our library on this clear afternoon was gorgeous. #mbnov

I’ve signed out of my (other) social media accounts in preparation for what I expect to be a wild Tuesday. I have done my part — Please vote 🗳 if you’re an eligible US voter — and I want to concentrate on my work and what I can control. #mbnov

I’ve long objected to the nonsensical habit of “daylight saving” time. This rainy and dreary Sunday hasn’t changed my mind, but I did spend part of the day reading in front of the fireplace, after finishing the weekend errands an hour early. It was a nice escape from 2020. #mbnov

My 2020 distraction: vintage Christmas ornament shopping 🎄

And Then There Were None 2020-10-13 22:30 EDT (UTC-4) Old Town North, Alexandria, Virginia, USA

A walk along the Potomac in Leesylvania State Park

I’m enjoying the quick AirPods hand-off between iPad and iPhone in iOS 14… until I accidently scroll past an autoplaying video on my iPad while listening to a podcast on my iPhone and the podcast drops. 😠

Now that the annoying screen takeover for incoming phone calls is resolved — hooray! (wish #1) — adding the option to disable media autoplay in Safari on iOS/iPadOS would be greatly appreciated. I have yet to encounter any page on which an autoplaying video or audio is something that improves my reading experience.