Indulge

I am sure you all get so busy with a moment, or with living, or being so absorbed in an interest that you forget to record it in a journal or take pictures. The same is with us, although Mr. S. will often say, "Get a picture of that" to remind me.

This week we were on our rounds of therapists, wound care, podiatrist, etc. (I counted 8 people invested in Mr. S.'s left foot) and we were able to stop at a nearby Tea Room for lunch.

Mr. S. ordered chowder and sourdough bread.

Of course they had their famous salted caramel vanilla crunch cake*, which a friend had ordered when we we took tea together last year. I summoned up the courage to ask for the recipe. The owner and all the waiters are men who behave like proper butlers, I tell ya! They can't do enough for the customers and they are so helpful. This man told us he had tried to make that cake there in the kitchen but had not mastered it yet. He said he was pretty sure the filling was a sauce containing oats!  He told us they sure were not letting out the recipe anywhere, which is quite a feat, since you can usually find any recipe for anything on the web, and most recipes codes have been cracked.

The waiter talked a long while to Mr. S. about his hat.  We were having lunch there around 2 p.m. when there was a lull in business and they acted glad to see us ;-)

While on the subject of tea, I can't resist mentioning that in the office at that very grand hospital, they were extremely short handed due to one of the staff being called elsewhere, and we sat in the room for an hour....so an office assistant came in and invited me to the nurses station to fix Mr. S. a cup of tea to make him more comfortable. I'm thinking its his hat. He gets a lot of admiration and attention when his Australian hat, and that day he was wearing his beige one and looked so distinguished. 

Above: Mr. S.'s Australian hats and all-weather jackets. It was too dark to get a picture of him outside when we got home. We were gone most of the day.  I'm not liking that very much at all but I do get a lot of amusement being seen with Mr. S. where people always talk to him (and barely take notice me--they think I'm some kind of care giver).

Back to the tea room, which is called "Indulge" there are a number of private sellers that set up little vignettes and booths all around the establishment, so that you may browse before, during or after tea.  I came across this chiffon scarf. Does anyone remember wearing them? They came in all colors and were quite cheap at the time, and we wore them loosely on our heads to protect our hair arrangement.  I had not seen one in awhile.  The cost of this one was $12.  I think they used to be a dollar or less, back in the day.

Above and below: some of the colorful art in the physicians lobby. All the art in this huge facility is Northwest scenery--rivers, oceans, mountains, forests, flowers of the area.

In this reception room they provided hot and cold drinks and hot water to make our own.

Above and below: the view out the window of this room: remember I told you my son, with his crew, built the entrance area. He likes to talk to us about all the intricate details of this place, down to the rebar. (reinforcing bar).

Our life is a constant stream of foot check ups and so on the way home we always have to stop to pay bills, do business, etc.  Hopefully as Mr. S. wound gets smaller (as it is doing) we will not be out so much and be able to settle down and do all the things we have plans for. Gradually the appointments will cease until there will be a once a year check up. 

Each trip is 60 miles or more, and we are out nearly every day, so I'm really looking forward to slowing down and less travel expense. Hopefully one day there will be branches of this hospital nearer to the small towns and rural areas. 

 By the way, this hospital is called Riverbend and is in Springfield, Oregon, if you want to look it up.

In the physician's office, Mr. S. was asked if we had "in-home health care" which is a service you can get where a wound care team will come in and change the bandages. Mr. S. introduced me as his in-home health care person, which he said he never leaves home without, but I'm not sure they actually thought we were together. One of the nurses asked what group I was from! There are several of these services available. I couldn't think of a witty reply.  I know I have extra weight to lose, but never thought of myself as a group.

We also walked around quite a bit, since the therapist suggests Mr. S. use his foot, and that is really nice for people like us who enjoy looking at the interesting things in Hobby Lobby. We found a lot of Route 66 items, and I was sure disappointed when Mr. S. told me we had been through a part of that highway on our trip to Mexico, and I was not aware of it. It was not marked anywhere that I could see, but if I had known, I would have wanted to get a picture of him there. 

 These are all pictures I took during our walkabout in Hobby Lobby. Mr. S. likes all the signs and car pictures. 

In a future post I hope to include pictures of Mr. S.'s model car collection and hat collection. Like his ties, we have kept everything he has ever owned from childhood. That's why we keep talking about building bigger barns. ;-)

I have an etiquette talk forming in my mind, for children. It seems today they are more accustomed to bouncing around in a padded room instead of being able to identify what chairs and tables and plates and spoons are for. I've seen so many of them acting as though they don't know the difference between a toy and a tool, and nothing is off limits to them, as the parents admire the imagination and exploration abilities of the children. We don't want to scare little children with too much "no" but we also need to train and teach them to behave orderly in life, so that they are constructive and not destructive.  If you have anything you want me to include in this video (if I EVER do it) please leave a comment.

Fan at Hobby Lobby. I remember when we had some of these back in the day and no one wanted them when we tried to get rid of them. Now they are a hot item.

By using this recipe at Victoria.com and dividing it small enough for one or two people, I was able to make the vanilla cake. As I do not use sugar (I prefer maple sugar or honey), the texture was a lot softer.  

To make the salted caramel filling, you have to find a salted caramel recipe and reduce it to a small amount also if you are just making it for one or two people.  Mine worked well as a filling for the cake, and I added finely chopped walnuts.

The topping works well as is, in the Victoria mag. recipe, substituting the things you wish.  Top that with something crunchy, such as Maple sugar, and you have something similar, if not, better, to the salted caramel vanilla crunch cake.