A busy week!

Socrates:"I'll keep an eye on those birds while you clean the house"

A busy and productive week so far. In addition to piano lessons and rehearsals all week, Wednesday was spent organizing the pantry for the upcoming week long "cookathon" and also doing some Spring cleaning to get the kitchen ready. Thursday was devoted to the gathering of ingredients from "your" Dekalb Farmers market, Trader Joes & Sevananda. I am looking forward to cooking with ingredients like millet flour, quinoa, sorghum flour and chia seeds. Sing with me now: "chi chi chi chiaaaa!".

  

But as chores go, they are always more pleasant if preceded with a hearty breakfast. On Wednesday, we started the day with a "fancified" oatmeal breakfast. I made Irish Steel-Cut Oats with dried Michigan sour cherries(gift from Kathy), cacao nibs and maple syrup.

In addition to the oatmeal we had fresh pineapple and navel oranges and toast with butter.

And to drink, my current favorite tea, mariage freres Earl Grey.

Those cherries are amazing!

 After breakfast, it was pantry organization, houseplant maintainence and dusting followed by piano lessons, Ash Wednesday service, choir practice and meal planning and shopping list writing.

a place for everything and everything in it's place

On Thursday, it was a quick cup of tea and slice of toast and we were off. First stop was Panahar Bagladeshi Lunch buffet for "fuel". Then it was a cart full of food including 3 cases of fruit(mangoes, asian pears and satsumas) from Dekalb farmers Market, another cart full from Trader Joes and more from Sevananda. We managed to beat rush hour leaving the city and I got home in time to unload and organize everything before heading off to Willy Wonka rehearsal, we are one week to opening night! 

I definitely needed some extra "unwinding" after such an exciting day. Luckily I thought ahead and picked up some not too sweet apple tarts from the Farmers market. Also found a new Trader Joes tea to try so it was definitely time for "11pm tea".

Lot's of thin sliced apples, almost as good as "Apple Normandy" from Alon's

Country Living arrived today, perfect end to the day

Apple tart was not too rich and tea was lemony and bright. I am now ready for Friday, beginning with 8am call time for accompanying at a Literary meet followed by piano lessons and later in the evening Willly Wonka flying rehearsal(should be very entertaining). Somewhere in there, I plan to catch a nap.

Pahiopedilum Primulinum(a species orchid from Sumatra) this morning with the next bloom opening. When the newer bloom opens fully, the older bloom drops.  I got this rom the AOS show last year and it has been in bloom ever since.

I am looking forward to attending the the American Orchid Society show and sale this weekend. It starts tomorrow and runs till Sunday. So much excitement for the next few days!