Gearing Up

Hello Friends, I hope you’re doing exceptionally well under the circumstances. This is an update on my progress in learning German and music. According to the test, it recommends that I start studying at the A2 level. I took the A2 equivalency test and got a 40%, so it’s early days in that regard. However, I’m determined to master that skill level as well as all the others to become fluent in this language. At present, I am practicing German with six applications on average. That’s not counting my reading my German to English Dictionary and listening to language tapes, watching Easy German, listening to podcasts, etc.

The Maternal Parental is also going as hard as I can recall her going for anything for this language. She really wants to learn this. We’ve been practicing multiple times a week. She doesn’t have my stamina or drive but she is in there, giving it her all in an effort to learn.

The applications I’m using are:

1. Mango Languages (though my public Library)
2. Duolingo
3. German Linduo HD
4. Der Die Das – German Articles by Diogo Bernadino
5. DW Learn German
6. Google Translate
7. AntennaPod (for podcasts)
8. Nouns German Dictionary

In addition to language learning, I have been learning music. However, I have canceled my subscription to Yousician due to dwindling financial resources. Rather than pay Yousician, I am gleaning the knowledge from YouTube videos for free. Quite a few self-taught friends of mine said it was possible. So, I have a Guitar, a Recorder, and my natural voice, and I fully intend to utilize all three for the purposes of performance. I was doing pretty good on Yousician and had almost finished the singing part with silver and gold stars but, sadly, time marched on too quickly and I need a more flexible schedule.

If anyone out there knows of a good Singing Instructional YouTube, could you please recommend it to me? I’ve found the Guitar and Recorder YouTube/Amazon Prime courses I’d like to learn from but not the Singing course yet.

I’m not looking to go to Los Angeles or Nashville or some-such place. I’m just looking to fill the deficits left in my education by a lack of attention on the part of the curriculum I was raised in. It was heavy on Gym (in excess of forty-five minutes a day) and light on Arts (Half a semester of Art/Half a semester of Music) (maybe 30 minutes a day). Still, we made the most of it by learning as much as we could in the time allotted. A friend of mine was actually shocked that I remembered as much as I did about whole notes, half notes, etc. from music class. It’s just rote memorization really but it is in my brain, rattling around somewhere. Information without context.

Aside from this, a lot has been happening here. The Maternal Parental and I have been learning so many new things. I have, thanks to Tin Can Knits, picked up Lace Knitting, They put out a Lace knitting tutorial a few days ago and I jumped at the opportunity. I still can’t believe I’m knitting lace. Up until now, I’ve only ever crocheted lace. My horizons have broadened. I can see a whole stunning vista of projects I want to do now that were inaccessible to me before this moment.

My first lace project will be the often given up on Villimarjatar. It makes sense to me now. It didn’t before.

Thank you, Tin Can Knits!

I am also doing NaNoWriMo this month. I am going to be a Pantser. I have nothing planned, no notes, no nothing. I’m just going to wing it and see what I come up with. See if the writing muscles are still there. Though, if this blog entry is any indication, I’m guessing that they are…

Fifty-thousand words in thirty days. I can do this. Not panicking at all.

Legion of Cards

On the agenda for today. I am easing off of Twitter and onto Mastodon. Obviously, their policy is as such now that even the mention of this on their format would lead to an account suspension. I am still in the process of saying my goodbyes and/or giving my updated contact details to people with whom I’d like to remain in contact.

/looks up at name

Yeah, same as in most places.

I’m also in the process of de-twitterfying my profiles on the Internet as I find them. Some are quite obscure. I’m well and truly done with that site this time.

Mastodon seems okay. I need to explore it further before I am fully familiar with the systems there but I’ve followed a few people already and been followed in return. Special shout out to my long time friend for recommending Mastodon to me all this time.

In other news, I let people monopolize my time too much. No surprise there. The realization of this came about when I was able to knit up the majority of the feet of socks for myself within three hours that took me weeks to get from cuff to gusset. My feet are not small either. As it stands, in my 42nd year coming up, I am heavily re-evaluating just who gets to monopolize my carefully curated time, if at all.

It is currently the time of the Cardpocalypse in my humble abode. The first three have been given out and I just got the stamps to mail the rest off that aren’t being given out in the neighborhood. I’m going to do the multitudinous number of cards as soon as I finish knitting the toes in my socks. ‘Cause ‘me time’.

All The Many Things

I did promise myself at the ending of the last blog that this wouldn’t be a sporadic blog. Yet, here we are. My last posting was in May and here we are in mid-November, with a lot of things having happened and without my having started that darn video podcast. Hahaha.

Let me first apprise you of what’s happened over the past six months.

After the housing insecurity issue, I needed a rest. Big time. That was a lot to handle and I am not in the best of health. Outside of a few functions, I did not go out. Which led to a relapse in the Agoraphobia. Yay, not. Thankfully, (or not? I guess…) we’re in the middle of a pandemic and the systems are in place to accommodate someone such as myself. Which is much better than it was when I first became agoraphobic in 2010/2011. Back then, while there was shopping online and grocery delivery service, there was no Telehealth. If you needed medical services and you were agoraphobic, you were SOL. This time around, I was able to get therapy in time to combat the growing panic in my brain and lessen it to a more quiet riot.

So, to combat the sense of anxiety and dread I felt, I did what I always did in times of crisis. I delved into Arts. I continued with Knitting, Crocheting, etc. However, I also picked up Painting, Drawing, and Coloring for the first time in a very long time. We’re talking DECADES here. I have to say, it really helped me relieve a lot of stress.

As I was working my way out of the hole, someone I love dearly was falling into it and couldn’t find a way out. I recognized the symptoms immediately and gave them a heads up to talk with their provider. I give them a lot of love and a lot of understanding and we’re currently working through their agoraphobia/anxiety journey together.

During the Summer, I did manage to just make it to a family reunion of sorts. My uncle had a cookout and a lot of my cousins showed up. Cousins I remembered from when they were little as well as cousins I’d never met before. I was initially nervous about going, and almost canceled but decided to feel the fear and do it anyway in that instance. I’m glad I did.

It was a bittersweet reunion as it was also the last time we all saw my aunt. She was the eldest in the family and the glue that held everyone and thing together. When she was struck down so suddenly, it was like a nuclear bomb had gone off and everyone was still in too much grief and shock to avoid the Shockwave.

Now we come to the more recent stuff.

First, my Mom, the Maternal Parental quit smoking after sixty-four years of doing so as of 5^th October 2022. She is currently, as of a few days ago, on the second tier of patches, using only 14mg of nicotine trans-dermal patches per day. Since she’s stopped smoking, she’s become more engaged in live and feels better about herself in general. She doesn’t feel as depressed as she used to as far as I know. She’s more cognizant of things happening around her. She’s breathing better and moving around better. It’s wonderful. For the first time in my life, I have my Mom here.

For my part, as an asthmatic, I can finally breathe free. I’m not stuck in my room all the time trying to avoid the smoke. The smoke doesn’t permeate all aspects of all things anymore. I’m incredibly happy that my mom finally has her freedom.

Another thing that has gone by recently was the one year anniversary of my becoming a Plant-Based Human. I say Plant-Based because I am not Vegan. I don’t adhere to the Vegan Lifestyle even though I respect and admire many Vegans. I became Plant-Based on 5^th November 2021 and I’m a little over a year past that now. I have not had any animal products to eat since around mid-October 2021. That’s just the day I chose to be consciously strict about it.

Last but certainly not least, I finally may be making a breakthrough with my German proficiency. I had been faithful to Duolingo for years but became weary of it and switched to Mango Languages. Within a few short weeks, I’m more proficient in the language than years of keeping out of the Demotion Zone and in the Diamond League. I don’t know how official it is but there is an application called Learn German with DW. I test myself with that every so often to see whether or not I’m making any progress linguistically.

I changed my name on Duolingo to TomateDidWhat to align with my handle everywhere else.

Last night, I tested 70% in the A1 Language Proficiency category. To say that I was stoked, would be an understatement. I was turning somersaults, cartwheels, back flips. You name it, I was doing it….in my mind. Heh.

I am either in the process of or will soon be making several items in the realm of crafting. However, I will put this in a separate post to reduce the length of this one and give me more filler for this blog.

Okay, I think that’s everything from my life.

Thank you for your time in reading this.

Please, enjoy your day.

The Learning Never Stops

Good Morning,

I’ve been away for some time due to a Housing and Economics Insecurity issue that I hope is now resolved.

Now, onto the fun.

I have picked up a new language learning application. Thanks to the Baltimore County Public Library, I have been utilizing Mango Languages to further my knowledge of the German Language. It is a wholly comprehensive and robust app and I like it very much. I still do Duolingo, LinDuo, DerDieDas, and other apps on my phone, as well as the other methods but I really love Mango Languages due to how much information it gives in between each lesson. It answers a lot of the questions I had for years but could never get an answer to without annoying the heck out of my German Speaking Friends.

I am presently on Chapter 3, Lesson 4 of the course. Thus far, it has been fun, informative, and very fulfilling. I’m learning a lot.

With Duolingo….er, the same cannot be said. I seem to have reached another point of disinterest. I’m not going to quit this time, rather, I am going to do the Stories to fulfill the XP obligations for my daily points. Then, when I feel more like going into the main part again, I’ll advance. I have obtained six crowns as far as Languages. From Leisure to Shopping, I only need to obtain the final crown before Legendary Status. I am presently in process on Travel. In past stints with Duolingo, I’ve gotten much farther but it’s been erased since the restructuring of the game.

I am still in the Diamond League but why? I don’t know. I can only surmise that some part of me gets a thrill from being in the top league while the majority of my being is like…meh.

There are other things happening in my life both from an academic standpoint and from a life standpoint but I’ll save it for a different day so as to have something else to post here. Stay tuned.

This is Tomate, signing off.

Linguistic Progress – Slow

When I am not doing all the things, I am learning the German language as best I can and then I learn other things after that. That’s pretty much how my educational schedule goes. It’s even the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, according to my calendar entry. I’ve been a member of Duolingo since October 2013 and I have been studying German since the 9th of April 2018. I’ve picked up a few words and phrases without realizing it despite the Auditory Processing Disorder, Learning this much in spite of the condition is a good thing in my view.

I am focused almost exclusively on German now. Though I do help my mother work through her French words and phrases. Not the actual lessons but her practicing time. Goodness knows how that managed to stay in my brain all these years but I figured I might as well utilize it for some good if it is there.

Here is the full listing of languages I have some working knowledge of even if only one word:

Dutch was a come from behind shocker. Truly. It was amazing to me to see how many words I understood when going over the lexicon. I had to stop, not because of difficulty but because I was getting hooked on it.

Back to German: I utilize multiple applications to help me learn the language as well as language CDs, a journal, and a translation dictionary. Also ever present is Google Translate and on rare occasions so not to annoy them, my friends who are German by birth from differing areas of the country. I am tremendously grateful for their help in aiding me in my language acquisition.

In future posts, on this day, I will likely put more posts up about this topic. However, right now, I am exhausted after a long hard day cooking.

That’s enough rambling from me. Take care and have a fantastic day.

This is Tomate, signing off.

The Education of Tomate

Now that I am finally slinking out of the depression I’ve been in, I’m itching to get back into my old self-educational schedule. Either I will try to follow the old one or, if it doesn’t work, I’ll make a new one to match my life now.

Some things, like German, I’ve never really stopped doing. It offered me a grip on some semblance of sanity while I was going through some tumultuous stuff. Even if I only did two categories on Duolingo a day, I still did it and I’m currently up to a 1440 Day Streak as a result of this action. Not much in the way of progress linguistically but I have stuck it out. Lately, I’ve been itching more more though. So, I have been using the LinDuo app for extra German words. I also use a few Die/Der/Das apps so I can learn that as well. I also watch Easy German on YouTube for conversational German examples.

Aside from linguistics, I have so much I want to study. I have some books that are (I hope!) passage of time proof and still relevant. My English books should be okay. As should my Mathematics books also be okay. For Science, I bought a book called Gravitation so I could study it. However, between the things I have going on on my life and the depression combined to temporarily interfere in my ability to read it through. Not giving up on that one. I really love what I’ve read thus far. In addition to this, I have been watching several educational communication channels on YouTube which feature these topics.

For the Arts, I have taken to learning the Baroque Soprano Recorder and have an Art pencil kit as well as a Watercolor paint kit. This is in addition to the Knitting, Crocheting, etc. that I do to keep calm.

Here’s a few things I’ve painted.

I first got interested in these things during my school years. However, for some reason, it was decided that we didn’t need Arts, Earth Sciences/Biology, and Music and we got replacements for those classes.

It wasn’t until July 2021 that I took an interest in Art when the local Library offered an Art for Health and Wellness class and we were able to free-form paint Mandalas. Participating in the Art class unlocked something inside me that wanted to paint more and wanted to explore more things artistically. It honestly felt good being able to create something and express myself on paper. It then dawned on me that, until the Art class, I hadn’t really done any painting, drawing or coloring to relax and express myself since school prior to 1999.

It’s kind of funny too because I actually worked at an Art college during the Summer of 1999 but didn’t have much opportunity to really explore the artistic aspect of where I worked. Nor was I even equipped to ask the right kinds of questions for any interests I might have had.

Fast forward to today and I want to learn all of the things I possibly can. I will endeavor to answer my own questions through autodidactic learning.

That’s enough rambling from me. Take care and have a fantastic day.

This is Tomate, signing off.

Read Aloud, Read Out Proud

I am still reading the book I checked out of the Library, Stitch ‘N Bitch by Debbie Stoller, Given my issues with eye problems and lack of consistent practice in reading recently, I have taken to reading through it out loud. This marks a change from when I was a kid. I would hoover forty books into my eyes and brain bi-weekly and then go back long before they were due for more books, having read them all. I find myself wondering what happened between then and now. Am I so busy with day to day life that I have shelved something as enjoyable and fulfilling as reading? I sincerely hope not.

I really want to get back into reading as I used to or at least somewhere in the general area of what I used to do. I want to mentally hoover books again.

Writing, while not as difficult to do, is also something that has been in a downward spiral in my day to day life. Specifically Creative Writing is escaping me at the moment. Where once I used to write stories, now, I can barely bring myself to write the marketing list. I am putting my foot down about this in my life. I want to get back to what I used to achieve or even achieve even better and brighter things in my future.

I’m making a concerted effort to get more active with regard to both reading and writing. This is likely going to be somewhat mentally painful after so long but I’m determined.

I suppose this blog could be considered a step in the right direction. I have a few old books and one website which has advice for writers but, other than that, I am actively seeking writing and reading skills/advice/etc.

My goal with regard to reading is to complete my GoodReads reading goal.

My goal with regard to writing is to complete a story I’ve been working on.

That’s enough rambling from me. Take care and have a fantastic day.

This is Tomate, signing off.

Green Thumb Enthusiasm

After much studying on the matter (Read: Googling), I have determined that my Schlumbergera truncata is an epiphyte and is subject to the rules of watering less and misting more. Now that I know this, I am hoping that this thing will thrive and bloom where before it merely existed. I’ve had it since late Match of 2021 and it has only grown a little in that time. Were it a more water loving plant, it would be quite happy right now but…as such… I have given it rather soggy roots. I’m just glad to have caught on about this before I did irreparable damage to the plant.

Most of my plants are doing quite well for being locked in an East/West living unit with blackout curtains. With the exception of one, I’m going to try to make room in my room for them. There’s a good deal more light in my room than in the downstairs area. Hopefully, they’ll grow in the moderate Southern/Western sunlight.

I am still looking for a Gardening Plot or ten. My immediate plans for growing things are to buy a number of large plant pots and try growing things on the east facing patio over the summer. At the very least, we’ll get something out of it. I have some potato eyes saved and I have plans to get some sweet potatoes when next I buy some food. I have a minuscule amount of experience growing those. I just hope the management doesn’t clear it away. I’ll try to make it look as pretty as I can but beauty isn’t my goal. Surviving and providing at least some edible food is.

In addition to this, I am going to spend the last of my money on as wide a variety of container loving seeds as possible. I’m going to attempt companion planting with the plants I grow and the potatoes/sweet potatoes. Really, it’s about saving space and getting a maximum yield out of a small space. I’ve only done something like this once before when I planted the sweet potatoes in a pot and put them in my South facing windowsill. I co-mingled Basil with them to get a bumper crop of Basil, followed by a bumper yield (for a moderate plant pot) of sweet potatoes. YMMV

I am looking at three sites:

1. Territorial Seed Company
2. Burpee Seeds
3. Park Seed Company

I have experience with two of the companies and the third (Territorial Seed) is a wild card for me. They come highly recommended but I’m on a very tight budget. I just want this to work so we can spend less money on food.

Aside from this, I’ve been eating up the videos on YouTube. I subscribed to A LOT of gardening channels at some point in my past. I have really been getting into a couple of channels. Here is the listing in no particular order:

1. The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni
2. The Veggie Boys
3. Epic Gardening/Epic Homesteading
4. Those Vegan Guys (allotment vlogs)
5. Growing a Greener World

There are loads more but those are the ones I’ve been gravitating towards recently.

I am also planning on getting back into the forums on GardenStew. I love chatting there but have been so involved in non-internet things over the past three years that I haven’t been able to go on there as much as I would like.

Lots to do before mid-May. Hopefully, I can achieve my goals in record time.

That’s enough rambling from me. Take care and have a fantastic day.

This is Tomate, signing off.

Monogamous Crafting

I have been knitting on the second tiniest sweater I’ve ever knit on since 2 February. Admittedly, I cast on and started the collar some time in January but I put it down to work on other projects that were more pressing.

Here are pictures with and without the flash to give you some idea of the color of this sweater.

The yarn is Knit Picks Swish Worsted in the colorway Throne and the actual color is kind of a purply pink.

Normally, I knit and crochet (and other things) all of the things but, this year, I’d like to do something different. I am tasking my time with projects and knitting on them monogamously. That is to say, one project at a time with no trips to other patterns. It appears to be having the desired result too because this is the furthest I’ve gotten with a sweater pattern in quite some time.

I do have other projects waiting in the wings as it were but it is relaxing and much less stress-inducing to do crafting this way.

I have been doing a lot of other non-crafting-related things. At the forefront of these is my attempt to learn more Plant-Based cooking techniques and recipes on automatic so I don’t have to carry a recipe sheet wherever I go.

About the only thing I’m actively reading lately is related to crafting. I am reading ‘Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook: Instructions, Patterns, and Advice for a New Generation of Knitters by Debbie Stoller’ I am loving the wit and humor displayed in the book. I, personally, didn’t learn to knit from books. Rather, I learned from a Knitting Class at the Catonsville Library in 2006 and a ton of online tutorials/videos since. I also used to watch Knitting Daily and Knit and Crochet Today Now. So, it is quite a shift to read something talking about the things I’ve come to learn about over the years in differing terms. I think it is a great resource to learn from. It’s very comprehensive.

Another skill I’ve been meaning to acquire is Spinning fiber into yarn. At the present, I have a nice Drop Spindle and the full intention of getting to the task of learning more about this topic. Prior to a few days ago, I would load the website and videos of Jillian Eve almost daily in the hopes that I could guilt trip myself into learning. However, my time hasn’t been my own lately and so it languished. I am putting it here on the blog so I can be held accountable. Once I finish the sweater and the nearly completed shawl for my friend, I will throw myself into the learning process of Drop Spindle spinning.

Aside from that, my main current interest is Golden Earring (Wikipedia entry). Like everyone in existence, I’ve been a fan of the two songs I heard on the radio without knowing who the band was. Heck, Twilight Zone defines the 80’s for me in my mind. While listening to songs at random on YouTube, I came across their video for Radar Love first. Absolutely blown away by the powerful talent displayed there. Once I went down that rabbit hole there was no going back. Total fan now.

Okay, that’s enough rambling. I have to go now. I have dinner to prepare and lots of Plant-based components to make.

This is Tomate, signing off.

A Shift in My Usual Way of Thinking

(Originally written 16 January 2022)

Let’s hope that this sudden burst of creativity lasts. I’ve been having a recurring dream for quite a while now. I haven’t said anything until now because I didn’t believe in my abilities to effectively get this done in the way it needs to be done. To be honest, I’m still on the fence about whether I can or cannot do this but there’s a passionate fire burning inside me to do it, so here we are.

In my dreams, a network of garden plots was set up and utilized by the surrounding communities to alleviate the food insecurity issues that plague these regions. I don’t have all the details ironed out (because it was a series of dreams) but I saw it as growing outward. I also saw it improving the health conditions and quality of life of the people receiving the food/participating in the network.

So, I put a mark of intention on my Gardenstew blog:

Several years ago, I put in for a community garden plot close to my home. Just when I was on the cusp of having the hope of getting accepted into that garden community, it was snatched away and postponed until I’m fifty or older. So I’ve now got a little over a nine-year wait. It cannot be helped.

This year, while I will still play nice because that’s just how I operate, I will be less self-sacrificing in the face of adversity. If there is a garden plot out there, my ambition is to get to it.

Given that I have no car and will be dependent upon either the transit system or rides, this will take more than a bit of planning. Baltimore is a big place for a pedestrian and some people here have great difficulties driving with accuracy.

I am also agoraphobic, with a host of other issues along with that one. However, in the furtherance of my goal to grow gardens and help others, I think I can push it aside long enough to get several hours of gardening in before getting back to the protection of my room.

With Food Insecurity so high right now, I could be an asset to the people I know in that I could grow a few gardens, give away the food, and hopefully, encourage others to grow gardens themselves. This would have the effect of encouraging people to not only eat healthier and wholesome diets but would also encourage more physical activity and improved health conditions overall.

I keep having this recurring dream of a network of gardens and gardeners. Each person growing a little but contributing to the greater whole and helping alleviate the sufferance so many have been under in food deserts and food-insecure regions.

This is a lot to take on. More a wishlist than a plan at this point but I think I can do it.

While I’m figuring out how I’m going to manage this, the least I could do is gather the tools I’ll need to actually garden with. I have a granny cart that’ll do to carry stuff in once I’m ready initially. However, it can only carry relatively moderate loads of groceries’ weight without creaking under the pressure. Even so, I’ll need a cart liner too.

It Has Been Some Time Since I Last Posted

A few changes to note in my life. Nothing too spectacular but definitely noteworthy enough to mention here on this blog.

I am Vegetarian/Plant-Based Now

On 5 November 2021, I completely changed my eating habits to plant-based. In truth, it’s been a long time coming. Prior to this date, I was eating a mostly plant-based diet but consumed dairy and eggs. I’ve been slouching towards this for some time and the final nail in the coffin of my consuming animal products as foodstuffs was quite disgusting by most people’s standards. Now that I’ve taken the plunge and adopted a wholly plant-based dietary system of eating, it would take a monumental shift in the foundation of reality to get me to switch back to eating animal products.

I consider myself Vegetarian/Plant-based as far as descriptions are concerned. I do not consume any animal products whatsoever. I do, however, utilize animal fiber such as wool, alpaca, etc., hence my reason for considering myself Vegetarian/Plant-based rather than Vegan.

The Maternal Parental is also on the path to becoming Vegetarian. Her rationale behind continuing to consume animal products is that we have a house half full of food that would potentially go to waste. Why not eat her way through it and then become Vegetarian/Plant-based once she finishes? Even though I took a harder stance early on, my mom actually, in reaction to the nauseating incident, suggested Vegetarianism first.

Just thinking about the precipitating incident is getting me nauseous. Onward and upward!

My Winter Hat In The Making…

I currently have eight official projects in the making as WIPs. I have neither the motivation nor the energy to do any of them. I frogged one in order to add it to my own personal project for a new Winter Hat. The yarn is actually far too rough for the previous intended recipients. So, I’m going to make a Brioche hat with it.

I want it to look stunning.

I want it to pop.

I want it to be magnificent.

I’ve been wearing this same crocheted Red Heart Super Saver – Mexicana hat and scarf since 2010. It is time for a damn change already.

I’m still unsure as to whether I’m going with a bright or a dark color to compliment or contrast the yarn I’m using for the new hat. I’ve got plenty of dye and yarn to figure it out.

Happiness Is…Crafting!

Happiness is discovering that someone you’ve respected all your life is even cooler than you knew. I was talking with someone recently and discovered their talent for crafts. This makes me all sorts of happy and giddy but I don’t want to scare them off with my over-enthusiastic love of crafting and DIY. So, I’m just being ‘cool’ and sending the occasional picture of a completed project. I’ll tell you one thing: this does motivate one to finish a project. Especially when one knows someone actually gives a damn and isn’t just paying lip service out of a sense of obligation.

Where Are The Videos?

I am slowly learning how to edit videos as well as practice making the videos. I am not an expert and I want to make sure my more recent efforts are not as cringe worthy as my previous ones. So, this will take time. Thankfully, I have better capture equipment for the video than last time. I just hope that everything I need to get will be within my budgetary allowance. Please don’t expect a masterpiece of cinema here, ‘cause you won’t get it.

I’ve been really delving deeply into the realm of Vegetarian/Vegan/Plant-Based cookery/baking recently. Thus far, I’ve made pounds of Seitan, Vegan Parmesan, Seitan/TVP “meatballs”, Seitan/TVP burgers, a spreadable “cheese” from the Vegan Parmesan, and Oat milk. Mom’s request.

I think that’s enough rambling.

This is Tomate, signing off.

New Here But Not Everywhere

Hello!

I am no stranger to the world of blogging. However, now I would like to take this a little more seriously. This new blog is connected to my vlog and webpage and is a fledgling attempt at explaining myself to the world at large. I may or mayn’t keep my old blog active. It doesn’t really represent me anymore in personality or in style. One would hope that all things grow and change with time and effort. I’d like to hope that I have too.

On this blog and in my vlogs as well as in my writings, you’ll hopefully see a lot of crafting, writing, reading, thoughtful introspection, self-improvement, educational stuff, gardening, and last but not least, an occasional reference to my health and well-being. There may be other topics posted on any given day.

We’ll just have to see. Now, won’t we?