Fruit

 

The temperature is dropping again, and winter officially starts tomorrow. There's another winter storm forecast -for later this week, due to peak by Christmas Eve-the plot of almost every cartoon or movie, in which Santa's trip/ holiday trip is imperilled. I've got no travel plans, so we should be safe, warm and cozy. Jerry has been bouncing from one lap to another, looking for cuddles. He climbed into my lap this afternoon, cuddled me then stole my cookie. He's trying now to steal an orange from Don, who is trying to watch a game and keep his fruit!

I watched some YouTube videos this morning. They were broadcast versions of some Muppet and Sesame Street shows, from the late 1 970's. One was A Muppet Family Christmas, which was edited for length in its DVD release and streaming. I'd seen the original, and I miss the parts that were cut. They were some dreadful puns, but I love that about them. Then I found Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas, which I'd only seen once-it was charming. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again. I really didn't know that I could find full-length shows on YouTube-that was a pleasant surprise! I spent the morning, until just after noon, making pastelles and listening to Jim Henson's The Storyteller, which was a short-lived series combining live action, animation and fantasy creature puppets retelling fairy tales, especially less popular ones. I regressed happily into my early childhood today and soaked up the nostalgia. Don't worry, I won't stay there and become a Miss Haversham.

There's an ad running now for seasonal donuts-right now it's gingerbread flavour. I don't really enjoy gingerbread much, nor am I a fan of pumpkin spice, nor apple-cinnamon, nor eggnog when these are used in coffees and pastries. I do like ginger cookies, ginger tea and ginger beer when they're freshly made and preferably homemade. I like cinnamon cooked in apple pastries, but not in artificially flavoured commercial packages. My curmudgeonly old woman grumbles centre around the overuse of artifice to flavour foods, really. Added to that is a growing realization that fruits and vegetables especially don't taste like they used to. I don't know if it's aging, infirmity or memory tricks, but I find that many foods have lost their distinctiveness. Part of it is due to our supply chain, where fruits are picked very young, and forcibly ripened, so they lose a lot of flavour. Freezing them helps, but that also affects taste. As I do not buy out-of-season, shipped long distances fruits if I can avoid it, in summer, fall and on my trips home I gorge on fresh fruit. Does anyone else notice the fading taste of fruits? I'd love it if we could have vine or tree- ripened fruit available on demand. That Star Trek transporter and replicator technology can't be developed soon enough! BTW, did you see the awesome news of ignition? The development of cold fusion is a bit closer!

OK, Jerry is hyperactive and in zoomies mode, so to protect myself I've got to go play tug o 'war! Good night!