The Road Less Taken

Wanderlust can be satisfied by taking a road less traveled. The other day, I went downtown to have lunch with my dear friend, Annette. On my way home, I cut through the South Park neighborhood and saw a sign for SPUG, aka South Park Urban Garden. I'm all for community gardens. It's one way of bringing neighbors together...digging in the dirt, watching the fruits (or vegetables) of labor growing, looking out for each other's gardens, trading vegetables..."I'll give you this bunch of chard for 3 of your tomatoes."

Those spur-of-the moment decisions are what satisfies wanderlust. If I had not decided to turn off of Warren Street onto a side street, I never would have come across SPUG. Gotta listen to that little voice!

This is the sign that caught my eye and made me pull a U-turn to go back and investigate

The fall garden plantings

A garden guardian ~ 

Zentangle

I have a friend who is turning 49 in a few days. For the last few months, he has been compiling a LOL (Live Out Loud) List that has 49 things on it that he wants to do before he hits the big 5-0.

On Monday, I celebrated #56 and I am going to LOL like my friend, just not in the organized manner as he is doing. Don't get me wrong, I am a list queen when organization is the priority. I am also a go-by-the-seat-of-my-pants girl; when something looks fun or interesting, it is worth investigating, and a lot of times it is right at that moment.

Through the UDLLI (University of Dayton Lifelong Learning Institute), I am taking a Zentangle class. I love art and I try to do artistic things, but my talents are limited. 

So what is Zentangle? It's a meditative artistic experience using simple, deliberate and repetitive strokes. The patterns look complicated but they are easy to draw and they are built "one stroke at a time." Zentangles are unplanned, but deliberate. The supplies are minimal: paper, pen and pencil...NO ERASER. There are no mistakes in Zentangle. An line that goes errant evolves into a new design. 

Zentangle has many benefits: it reduces stress, improves focus, increases dexterity, promotes better concentration, it's an intuitive art and an experience that you can share with others.

My first Zentangle tile...we created four different tangles on one tile. We used four patterns: crescent moon, floorz, printemps and meer.

Although everyone in the class used the same patterns, each tile turned out differently. It's an art form that mirrors life.

House Dust

This week I had a visitor, a BIG visitor...Ted!

And yes, this is typical of how the week went! Ted is a big bundle of puppy love energy. Between Ted and my dog, Hunter, there were 200 pounds of dog craziness in the house: teasing each other with toys, chasing each other, vying for my attention. Hair flew and dust bunnies grew! 

When Ted left, out came the Dyson, the Shark and furniture polish for an attack on the doggy dust. I emptied the Dyson canister three times, sneezed a lot as I dusted, and did a move-the-furniture-and area-rugs floor washing. Serious dust removal...

The area rug in the front hallway is pretty big and I wrestled around with it to center it and to settle it over the non-skid pad. But there's always that last little piece that wants to be difficult...

Not in the mood to negotiate that little bit hanging out, so yep, got the scissors out and evened things out with a couple of snips! Done deal. 

Since my kitchen floor sparkled, the counter tops needed to as well. A "recipe" for an easy, effective, and inexpensive granite counter top cleaner...

1/4 c. rubbing alcohol  

1/4 t. of Dawn dish washing soap

2 c. water. 

Put in a spray bottle and use as needed. 

Kills the germs and leaves no streaks. 

Woodman Fen {Five Rivers MetroParks}

It's amazing what a person can find out when walking a dog...a dog is a "chat magnet"; people want to know his name, breed, how old, "he looks like my dog," how much does he weigh...

So when Hunter and I were at Delco Park, a woman inquired about him and soon our conversation evolved into how an area at Delco should be planted with flowers to attract butterflies. There's a small butterfly garden in the park but this spot could be a butterfly meadow. Anyway, she asked me if I had been to Woodman Fen. I had not so when I got home, I looked it up and put it on my list of places to explore.

Woodman Fen is a 33-acre wetland ecosystem located in Dayton's Belmont neighborhood.   Many years ago, this area had been converted into a vegetable farm. In 2003, Five Rivers MetroParks bought the land and restored it back to its natural state. You'll see prairie and wetland plant species as you walk along the boardwalk. There is also a trail that circles the perimeter of the fen, but I didn't walk that because this time of year the bees are very busy gathering the last of the pollen. I sure didn't want to have them mad at me for disturbing their work!

This is a magical place in the middle of a city..."fen-nominal!"

Delco Park

Walking my dog is a daily event. There are times when walking around the neighborhood gets old so recently I've been changing up our routine.

On a gorgeous, sunny September afternoon, Hunter and I took off for Delco Park. Just briefly, Delco holds a big place in the city of Kettering's history: Charles F. Kettering was one of the founders of Delco, which stood for Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. The company was sold to United Motors Corp in 1916 and eventually sold, under the new name of Delco Light, to General Motors in 1918 after United Motors Corp. and Chevrolet Motor Co. merged into General Motors. In 1995, Virginia Kettering convinced GM to donate the land to the city.

For Hunter, this trip to Delco was a walk in the park and for me, a walk down memory lane. Hubs and I spent quite a few years at the Delco soccer fields in the blistering heat or the freezing cold, varying degrees of rain showers/storms, and also plenty of gorgeous days cheering for our favorite soccer players! There were the early morning games when a walk across the road to Krispy Kreme for donuts and coffee was the course of action and well-timed phone calls to bring the thermos of Bloody Marys were known to happen, too. Grandparents sat on the sideline to cheer for their grandkids, family dogs came along, the siblings of the soccer players became buddies. Good times, good friends, good memories!

Zucchini, Bean and Tuna Salad {Zucchini-palooza}

It was a clean-out-the pantry day and a summertime salad fits so nicely into a day like this. 

What to do with a can of pinto beans, a couple cans of tuna, and a red onion...toss them together, add some garden bounty and voila! 

Quick, easy, delicious and light...a perfect summer meal ~

Zucchini, Bean and Tuna Salad

1 can beans, drained (I used pinto beans)
2 cans tuna in olive oil
Red onion diced
Handful of parsley chopped
Small zucchini chopped
Salt and black pepper
Olive oli

Drain beans and put in a big bowl.

Add tuna...DO NOT drain...lots of good flavor in that oil. Add to the beans.

Add onion, parsley and zucchini. Stir gently. 

Taste and add salt, pepper and olive oil as needed.

This salad is so versatile. My brother dropped off some tomatoes and cucumbers, so in the spirit of Tomato-mania, adjust the ingredients, and voila! Another salad equally as good!