hard to believe almost a year has gone by since i moved to the waiting room, ohio.  this will be my first high holy days here.  next year in TN!

meanwhile, we’re dying here!

and some holiday flowers:

back to the kitchen…

well, we finally did it:  the full circuit of clifton gorge and john bryan, consisting of 4 1/2 to 5 miles RT and several hours worth of rugged trails along a deep water gorge between huge cliffs, waterfalls, streams, and forest, left by ancient glaciers.  E. used to hike it alone as a kid, as her only refuge, and will miss it as if it were her family.  so it’s like a first and a last.

there are so many beautiful scenes to try to capture this time of year, as the first breath of autumn starts to move in.  here are just a few.

my brain is so boggled with printing, signing, scanning, and sending millions of real estate papers, i can’t  think, so here are some lemon-berry muffins and stuff.  our souls are signed, sealed, and sold.  what else could possibly go wrong…

we’ve had quite a few firsts, but now we’re moving into ‘lasts’—possibly the last time we’ll see places like john bryan park, or the ice cream place, etc.  (or in other words, we’d better get some hiking in to justify the ice cream we’re going to eat, it possibly being ‘the last time’).

here are some ‘last’ (?) scenes of john bryan.

here are some farm animals at the ice cream place.

here is some fall produce at the farm market.

here is a historical house in yellow springs that was a stop on the underground railroad.  it’s hard to tell from the photo, but it’s a round house.

and now, back to the waiting room, while all the moving parts attempt to align.

while anxiously awaiting a house verdict, we took time out in yellow springs to unwind a little and window-shop.  here we are at our favorite tavern, at a new (for us) café (fair trade organic coffees, etc.), checking out a wine/beer shop (also new for us), and hanging out on the street.

hey, we’re not getting any thinner lying around like this!  let’s get a move on!

i love how, because of the internet, many countries are falling all over themselves to act more humanitarian than the next one, because you can no longer get away with committing genocide, violence, and human rights violations in a dark corner, unscrutinized by the world.  meanwhile, the great USA, once considered (mostly by itself, in denial of the genocide and slavery it was built upon) a role model of freedom and sanctuary, by contrast is looking more and more like a white supremacist fascist fortress, as conservative morons mystifyingly increase their popularity and power over mindless sheep.  hmm, sounds familiar.  one hopes international pressure to act more humanitarian and less medieval will expose us for what we are becoming, before history repeats itself, and we ourselves become the refugees desperately seeking a sane place to live.

here is a typical peasant dinner:  thai stir fry with cashews, peanuts, almonds, salmon,  broccoli, spinach, ginger, sesame seed, thai seasoning and sauce, etc., and thai rice noodles.