Tuesday 9 April 2024

April 9, 2024

 Today was lovely and mild and warm. I baked cookies, something I haven’t done since Christmas preparations. I did my walk through the village ( made myself a promise to get back into daily walking). I cut back my limelight hydrangeas by the pool fence. 

Then later the rain came and it started to hail. It wasn’t significantly large hail, but hail nonetheless. It has cleared now after supper. I made pork chops in the air fryer and they turned out great. Have you tried smoked paprika? It’s fabulous on chops or chicken pieces ( with garlic and onion powder).

Yesterday was eclipse day. I was stuck in the city where I have to go for follow up oncology appointments. I made it home in time to see husband and son on the back porch with welding face shields, watching the last of it. It did not become dark here, but certainly dimmer. I might be one of few people who didn’t get particularly excited about the eclipse. It was overcast earlier in the day, but cleared up in time to witness most of it.

Right now I’m sitting composing this on my phone and husband is on the other couch watching a YouTube video about the making of The Great Escape. It might be his favourite movie, or one of them. ( If you aren’t familiar, the movie is based on the real experiences of prisoners of war who dug tunnels and devised other ways of escaping. Later, the tv show Hogan’s Heros was based on it as well).

Do you have a person in your life who is a movie buff? What are their favourite movies? Did you watch the eclipse? Did you care? That’s all for now - thanks for reading my little blog!

29 comments:

  1. We only got a partial eclipse here in Edmonton. I didn't bother to take it in. I was running errands instead at the time. In 1979 when I lived in Winnipeg, I experienced a total eclipse. Now THAT was awesome! But it ruined me for partial eclipses -- so ho-hum now, lol!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We didn’t get the full eclipse either, but still a decent show.

      Delete
  2. thecontemplativecat here. We are near San Diego, and we might have had bit of the eclipse. We watched it on different channels.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, we didn't have an eclipse here and we didn't watch yours on TV. I love natural sights, but mainly oceans, forests, beaches and even deserts. Things that lie on the ground.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked that expression: things that lie on the ground.

      Delete
  4. No eclipse in Greece but beautiful fine nights where we are . Still just a tad chilly though

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our nights are quite cool as well, but another good day ahead today!

      Delete
  5. The clouds rolled in after a fairly clear morning on Eclipse day. We did get glimpses every so often when the clouds thinned. Kind of wish we'd made the effort to go further S and E, where it was a total. We have seen a few eclipses, but never experienced a total.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it wasn't total here, either. I honestly didn't think we'd see it at all, with the clouds we had leading up to it.

      Delete
  6. We had complete darkness. We were directly in the path, and watched it from our backyard. We just had pork chops, but I made ours in the crock pot, so I could use the oven for roasted veggies. Have a nice week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, well that's neat, total darkness. Did your animals seem to care? There were all sorts of silly predictions that animals would "freak out" during the eclipse, but I doubted they'd notice a whole lot.

      Delete
  7. We had 99.5% but as I could not find any glasses I just sat in backyard where there was no sun and took it in.. it got dark, colder, the birds stopped chirping and it got very quiet. All I heard was a woodpecker pecking and all the dogs that were out started barking just as it started to get dark the squirrels started chattering too.. My dog was confused. She comes to me for her dinner at 4:00 every day, but she forgot after the eclipse. I finally called her for dinner at 4:30. It was such a weird experience. I did see, with those paper glasses some kind of eclipse when I was young and I remember that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh dear, I just got finished typing my response to the comment ahead of yours, wondering about her animals, figuring they wouldn't be all that bothered, and now I'm reading yours! Interesting!

      Delete
  8. Count me among the few who really didn't care. We were supposed to have 50%, which according to the news meant we really wouldn't see any darkness. I guess, no more than we would if a heavy cloud covered part of the sun. I'm sure it was an experience for those in the totality zone.
    Enjoy your walks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. We had total darkness in Montreal. It was the birds starting to chrip after the darkness that was weird . Like it was 4 a.m. side note. The Great Escape was a great movie. My sister had every Steve McQueen line and movement perfect , as we saw it so many times. My husband's Uncle was called Lucky because he actually escaped from one of the prisoner of war camps just before the end of the war. He never talked about it , he just said he did.
    Barb

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm a bit like that with some Monty Python movies (quoting lines and probably being obnoxious to other people trying to watch, haha). I'm not surprised his uncle didn't talk about it. My mother-in-law had experiences of encampment as a young child and other war experiences and she never talked about it either.

      Delete
  10. I first tried smoked paprika last year when I tried a new recipe that required it. It has now become a store cupboard staple, as the whole family likes the taste.

    ReplyDelete
  11. We saw the eclipse; the clouds parted in time to give us a viewing. We got 82%, which was good but not as spectacular as 2017, when we got 100%.

    We watch a lot of movies too, mostly from the library because we don't have a television service. Mostly like something with a good story line and character development. Not too interested in the video game or multi-player game movies. Just not of that generation.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Over the years I have seen lots of of partial eclipses and even one full eclipse when very much younger. Not too interested any more. I live in the same province as Maebeme and really did not see much of anything due to cloudy conditions.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It sounds like you had a nice day. One of those nothing special but very satisfying days. I didn't think I cared about the eclipse until just a bit before it happened. I realized that we might never see one as nearly complete as this was in the rest of our lifetime. You see things a little different when you know there is a lot less time ahead than there is behind .

    ReplyDelete
  14. No views of the eclipse here but I wasn't bothered. I remember seeing it as a small child in the fifties, yes I am that old. But sounds like you had a lovely day anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yes, we watched the eclipse and although I wasn't excited about it before... was very impressed with this totality... and the darkness... something I will always remember. Your days sound relaxing and enjoyable (except maybe for the oncology appt - those always made me a little anxious).

    ReplyDelete
  16. That sounds like a pretty terrific day(s). Good food, good walk, and I hope good appointment. We watched the eclipse (just posted). I was as interested in the environment around it as I was the phenomena. I'm probably the movie fan in our house. Rick likes them but not like I do!

    ReplyDelete
  17. We are both movie buffs here. Film noirs and psychological thrillers are favorites! I saw the eclipse, well, not directly, but out my window I watched my land get really dark then quickly light again, it was really something!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'm glad you had a good time, that you did your chores, that you cooked steaks, smoked paprika was a local product in my area in the past and I love it especially goes with pork or vegetable dishes. The eclipse was not visible from Greece.I really like cinema. Have a nice weekend🌷!

    ReplyDelete
  19. what sort of cookies?
    There was no real perceived sense of eclipse in my neck of the woods, but I watched in on line.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh yeah on the smoked Paprika! I grew up eating Paprika and it's always been in my kitchen and life, since childhood. Love it. Love it. Love it. I did get to see it from home. It was cool to see the total. I loved it. Found it peaceful.

    ReplyDelete