random thoughts – Day 1,187 – (Saturday) – on and off

The rain was light and steady when it fell, which was on and off most of the day. All the events I marked as “Interested” in Facebook were abandoned by me early in the day. With the 10:00 National Park Service walk (Lowell) and the 2:00 Strawberry Festival at Hollis Hills (Fitchburg) removed from my schedule, that left a lot more time for drinking coffee and preparing for the Epilepsy Foundation donation pickup scheduled for Tuesday.

The donation preparation involved trying on a lot of clothes I haven’t worn in ages and deciding whether to keep them or donate them. Some decisions were easy. Others were deferred until after the summer, knowing that I am weird with clothes, and something I ignore for years becomes the favorite item a few years later.

Korppuus!

The rain inspired kitchen activity. As a broccoli, cheese, mushroom quiche baked in the oven, I scrolled Facebook, where I saw a recipe for korppuus, a Finnish toasted bread thing that I love. I’ve bought it several times, but didn’t know how easy it is to make until today. It uses leftover bread, which I have a ton of, due to my hoarding of bread bits for a chocolate bread pudding recipe which I've thought I’d make, but never have the heavy cream to actually do. 

While the quiche baked at 350 degrees, I sliced some thin bagel slices and pulled out some bread ends from the freezer. These were buttered and topped with cinnamon sugar. Then they were baked at 300 degrees until the bottoms were browned. After that, the oven is turned off and they stay there for “several hours.” I chose three hours as the mark for “several.” It’s so good! I ate way too much korppuus.

After the donation gathering, quiche baking, and korppuus making, activity skidded to a halt. Like the day's rain, I have two speeds – On and Off – and the timer timed out for On around 1:30. After that, it was Netflix, Woodoku, Facebook, and the first sighting of the groundhog emerging from under the shed. 

The groundhog from under the shed.

The shed is disintegrating, and one of the things that dances through my head is wondering what the groundhog habitat looks like under the current shed, and if a shed replacement will disturb them. Then I wonder if I need a permit to replace a shed, and how many plantings will be destroyed in the process and how hard it is to relocate a lilac tree, and now we know why I’ve been thinking about this shed thing for a solid four years. So, yeah. It’s a miracle anything gets done at The BungaLowell.