Eating the living room decorations

Another morning, more baked squash for breakfast. It's become a habit for me lately. Although a visit to the neighboring state's farmer's market is in order for tomorrow because I had to look around to find a squash of the day this morning. The chosen one was a beautiful Buttercup squash that had been a decoration in the living room. How I hated to cut into it, so gorgeous. The little striped squashes were so pretty too, but I already ate them. Sometimes it's hard to eat such gorgeous decorations, wish they would last forever but they would not. Not around here with a daily squash-eater!

Had a momentary panic when the shaker of black pepper ran out and I could not immediately find more. Nooooooooo! Black pepper is a necessary item on baked vegetables along with olive oil and sea salt, love it, crave it.

In fact a couple of days ago a group I belong to on Facebook had information on dosha, or ayurveda mind & body type. I took the quiz and ended up a Vata type which was surprising to me as that type has a light frame and are agile. When I was done laughing, I tried another dosha quiz--same result. Hmmmm, the mystery cleared up when I read the lists of foods recommended for Vata types, black pepper being a prominent one (and you were wondering how black pepper related to this...) also squash and sweet vegetables. Olive oil is recommended, as are cumin, and cinnamon, spices I crave too.

A few years ago I found that having cinnamon daily has taken away the soreness and stiffness from my joints. The Dosha list says that beans, uncooked vegetables and sprouts are not so good for Vatas--very true even though I kept trying them. The raw food diet I was on made my inner core so chilled that I could not get warm no matter how many blankets, sweaters or jackets I wore. And that's why ultimately cooked food returned to my diet. The Vata designation explains that, as raw foods don't work well for Vatas, they need warm and warming foods. Wish I'd known all this before, but at least I know it now!

There's a book titled "What's Your Dosha, Baby?" and there is a quiz at if you're curious. (have tried several times and cannot get the link to show up on the blog, it shows up fine in editing, guess you will have to Google it, sigh)

So, I just gotta ask; what's your Dosha, baby?

Restless Feet Syndrome

Ah yes, life is very comfortable here in my new apartment. And it's not really so new anymore, I've been living here for going on six months already--nearly half a year!

Tomatoes, garlic, chives, lettuce and herbs all grew on the wide windowsills. The herbs had a drastic decline but are re-rallying back again. The Farmer's Market is across the street and all summer I went there for fresh produce. In fact squash, thinly sliced with sea salt, black pepper and olive oil is baking in the oven right now.

Life is good, almost too good in that it has become too predictable, too easy. I like a challenge. Nothing horrendous, you understand. There are many challenges, like health problems, family difficulties, work horrors, that I would not like to have or to revisit. I'd like a worthy and interesting challenge.

In that vein, I drove out to the country to look at a cabin. It was a cabin in the woods, very scenic, quite lovely. It also has no running water or indoor plumbing and has wood heat. Now that would be quite the challenge and maybe would be a little too much roughing it for me, like the experiment of trying to sleep on a yoga mat!


So the question(s) for today are:

--Are YOU the type of person who enjoys a challenge?

--What sort(s) of challenges do you enjoy accepting and handling?