Le Tour Meets the Alps and a Day of Housework Accomplishment

For those of you who love the mountains in Le Tour de France, today and tomorrow are the days for you to watch. We're in the Alps, and the scenery and roads will be spectacular. Just look at the two profiles! Monday is a "Rest Day" and the riders will certainly need it. It's going to be a fun two days watching the boys try to pull their way over and through these massive mountains. 

I just love it when I see a stage profile like this! Lots of 
high mountains with an HC as the last peak of the day. 
The Alps - there's nothing quite like them. 

This might be the stage when Tadej Pogacar might finally take the Yellow Jersey. I do suspect he'll be wearing yellow by the end of Sunday's stage, if not today. He's been strong, and he's been very strategic - allowing Vingegaard to be in Yellow, while he lurks behind - breathing down his neck. He's been riding a strategic and very careful race, but he's also one of the most talented riders of his generation, and it's always a pleasure to watch him on a bicycle. 

Take a look at Sunday's stage!!! With a summit finish, 
and the way the Alps can kick any rider, this should be 
a super fun stage to watch. I'll be glued to my phone 
while sitting out in the garden. 

I worked very hard in the kitchen yesterday, making a meatloaf for a few meals, baking a pound of bacon to a beautiful crisp for my salads, cutting up fruit, and generally being very busy. I spent more than an hour at the shredder chomping through old financial records and paperwork. I ended up with three bags for my recycling bin, so I had a real feeling of accomplishment. 

We have two shredders at home and one at the shop;. The best 
one is at the shop, but the one in the kitchen area is a close 
second. I made it work hard yesterday, shredding a bunch of 
old documents and check registers and duplicates from the early 
2000's. I ended up with three full bags of shredded material 
for my recycling bin. 

I had hoped to work on my beadwork project late in the afternoon, but I just didn't have the tine. I did, however, pull down a second loom from my loom stash and get it strung up. I'll take this one to the shop so that I can do a panel in the early mornings before I unlock the store. Eventually I won't be able to spend the time with that - I'll be working on the embossing instead, but right now, an extra hour to spend beading will be a lovely thing. 

I actually own a Mirrix Loom - a metal loom 
made for beading and tapestry weaving. I still 
have it in its' box (bad me). It was a very 
expensive item, but I'm still happy I own it. 
I'm looking forward to playing with it after 
I retire. It was a gift I bought myself with my 
inheritance money from the sale of my Mom's 
condo. I'm using a board loom that I built 
myself for the project I'm currently working 
on, though. Looms don't have to be expensive 
to be functional. 

I dropped by my orthodontist early in the morning, hoping they could envelope me in. Fridays are odd days for them - they catch up on paperwork and deal with emergencies. I had one hook that I needed that had broken off, so I needed a replacement. Unfortunately they weren't open yet when I got there, so I phoned and left a message. They got back to me and we scheduled for 10:30 am. I showed up early, and got right in. Fifteen minutes later, my tooth was back in business and I was back on schedule. 

Our raspberry plants are wild and grow between the house and 
our neighbor's house on the West side where they get a lot 
of sun. We don't ever do anything with them - just harvest them 
when we start getting ripe berries. I've gotten more than three 
pints of fresh raspberries over the past week. I do love them. 

I spent quite a bit of the afternoon in the kitchen making a meat loaf for my next few meals, and then my batch of Ogre Juice for the coming week. I also baked a batch of crispy bacon for my salads. Yummy! To end the kitchen time, I cut up the melon I had bought on Wednesday. Now that's ready to eat, and it smelled lovely! 

My canteloupe is absolutely lovely, and very 
sweet. I picked a good one - LOL. I got that all 
cut up and in a bowl, ready to eat. Summer fruit - 
there's nothing much better. 

So that's about all I have right now. I'm looking at a busy weekend, I'll go out and harvest raspberries again, probably on Sunday. We're at peak season for our raspberry patch right now, and I've already harvested several pints from it. SO GOOD! I'll be enjoying those in the early mornings - I do eat fruit when fruit is in season, and now's the best time for so much of it! Have an excellent weekend, I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini.