I’ll See Your Chickpea Pasta . . .

Posted on 10 October 2025 by Isabel Gibson

You may remember the near-disaster a year ago last spring when I received six packages of Organic Chickpea Pasta from Amazon instead of six cartons of the health-food I had ordered:

SUGAR FREE DOUBLE DUTCH DARK CHOCOLATE
premium hot chocolate
Dairy Free/Plant Based/Vegan/Gluten Free/High in Fibre
(all use of capitals and non-use of hyphens as per the label)

Or you may not remember. Not because your memory is going, but because mine is. I was sure I had written memorably, compellingly even, about receiving pasta in place of hot-chocolate mix. I certainly told everyone I knew, but apparently I did not write about it.

If I had written about it, I surely would have started with the horror of the moment I realized that I couldn’t use the online form to return this mis-shipment because although it was clearly their error it was also (nominally) food. Now what?

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Posted in Laughing Frequently | Tagged | 10 Comments

Wonton Disregard

Posted on 10 October 2025 by Isabel Gibson

It could be a cute title for a restaurant review.

In recommending this dining establishment,
I disregard the gluey wontons
and urge you to as well:
the rest of the menu is stellar.

It could be part of an official Proclamation of Pasta Preferences.

We hold all soup dumplings to be inferior;
we hold wontons in particular disregard.

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Posted in Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently | Tagged | 4 Comments

Whew

Posted on 04 October 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Do I expect to be gardening hard enough to generate sweat on my forehead? Alternatively, do I foresee going through a stressful patch? Both would be uncharacteristic, but they’re all I can think of as I stand in the Home Depot looking at a bin full of work gloves, reviewing the selling points on the label.

Let’s take them one at a time. (Punctuation not as found in the original.)

Light-duty, high-dexterity. That sounds good, I guess. Better than the reverse, for sure.

Touchscreen-compatible design. That sounds even better. I actually have experienced the need for such a feature on a damnably cold January day, trying to get a photo of a bridge.

Non-slip grip. Sure. I mean, who wants a slippy grip?

Terrycloth for wiping brow. This is what has stumped me. I’m standing beside the bin trying to remember the last time I had to wipe my brow. Indeed, I’m trying to remember whether I have *ever* had to wipe my brow.

I can say with some confidence that these gloves are not targeted primarily to my demographic. I bought them anyway. They might be useful when taking phone photos in the cold, and buying them makes me feel that I am striking a blow against smart-aleck marketers who can predict my moves with far too much confidence. I will be an inexplicable blip a few standard deviations out from the average age of customers. Hah!

Of course, maybe this was their plan all along . . .

Posted in Laughing Frequently | Tagged , | 6 Comments

What’s the Problem?

Posted on 04 October 2025 by Isabel Gibson

We talked a while back (OK, OK, it was 12 years ago – Post: 2013) about the necessary/sufficient construct: an elegant mathematical principle that can bring some order to a muddled world or a muddled head:

The ‘necessary but not sufficient’ construct, in which we distinguish between conditions that are surely required, yet not by themselves enough, to bring about a desired outcome. How much argumentation about social problems and solutions could be avoided by adopting this simple phrase and, by extension, admitting that complex problems often do not have single solutions? 

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Posted in Thinking Broadly | Tagged | 2 Comments

One Last “Ah . . .”

Posted on 04 October 2025 by Isabel Gibson

As we bask in a surprise Second Summer, the leaves are carrying on just as if it were an Actual Autumn. The temperature be damned, they seem to say: This is no False Fall. I expect they’re right. There are rumours of an early start to winter in these parts.

The leaves seem to be turning colour just a hair earlier than their long-term average. Could that be related to an early winter? Dunno. Is it even true? Dunno. Does anyone measure the onset, progress, and completion of leaf-peeping season with any rigour? You guessed it: Dunno. I do know that it would not be a trivial task and that I’m happy to have a general impression of timing and to enjoy the leaves, however and whenever they appear. After all, what choice do I have?

A weekend at the lake gave me more opportunities to enjoy taking too many leaf pictures. Most were as-found. Candid. Au naturel.

A few were staged, but brilliantly.

This visit also allowed our car to practice its camouflage skills. I think it’s getting quite a knack for it.

Back at home, our other car did its best to participate in the Reflections Games. Here’s a case where a little staging–just wiping the dust off the sun roof–would have been entirely in order. Maybe next year.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Flora, Photos of Landscapes | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Sunny-Day Vistas

Posted on 26 September 2025 by Isabel Gibson

It rained here last week. Here are a few views from the sunny days, of which there were many.

I love the turning leaves. My favourite time is when we have a range: green, yellow, and orange/red all at once. Sadly, a fourth category is soon added: gone. But in the meantime, it’s a lovely view.

Reflected leaves aren’t as stunning–we lose some of their IRL colour–but they compensate by being unexpected. Fun, even. Mind you, it was the bright-green-truck backdrop that gave a double dose of unexpectedness this time. Also fun? I decided to wait for the photo-bombing truck to move on so I could try again. Now you can be the judge.

Sometimes I find an inadvertent study-in-colour. I’m not sure how long the yellow leaves were in the well of the wiper blades before I noticed them, but I was lucky enough to finally see them while I was in a parking lot with reasonably current line markings.

Finally, I find that sometimes I don’t see background clutter on the first try, which is when I’m very grateful to be working in pixels rather than in film. Of course, one photographer’s *clutter* can be another’s *interesting context*, but not this time I think. This time, I was also grateful for knees that still work well enough to allow me to crouch a little bit and long enough to change the frame.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Flora | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Rainy-Day Problems

Posted on 26 September 2025 by Isabel Gibson

My feet are wet. (I know it’s not your fault; I’m not asking you to fix it. I’m just saying.)

“How did they get wet?” you ask. (I know you didn’t really ask; it’s just a rhetorical device. In another sense, I am again just saying.)

Thank you for asking. (Yes, yes, this is another rhetorical device. I remember what I was just saying just two sentences ago.) I was standing in a monster puddle on the street, doing an inadequate job of clearing out the gutter in heavy rain.

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Posted in Thinking Broadly | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

One Last Degree of Freedom?

Posted on 20 September 2025 by Isabel Gibson

We don’t all age the same. The evidence is all around us: some struggle while others soar and it isn’t always easy to explain exactly why.

Of course the genetic lottery matters: through no fault of our own we can be saddled with creaky and cranky bodies at any age; through no virtue of our own we can enjoy robust good health from start to finish.

Of course the situational lottery matters: some get parental neglect, societal disadvantages, geopolitical turmoil; some get loving albeit imperfect parents, healthy communities, peaceful times.

Of course our choices matter: we can waste our lottery winnings, whatever they are, or we can make the most of them. We can do both at different times.

But at this time, for me at least, the lotteries have been played, the choices made. It’s too late to make big changes in my circumstances. What I have is one remaining degree of freedom: how I go out. Not that I’m getting ready for anything imminent, you understand, but as I always knew but now know-in-my-bones, we’re not guaranteed tomorrow and even today can be uncertain.

At a shopping centre near my home, all green growing things have been subject to roughly the same growing conditions. This fall, some are fading away. Leaves that in other years would have been a bright orange/red, this year are bronze at best.

But some are going out with a bang.

I don’t blame the faders-away, but I take some inspiration from the out-with-a-bangers. Do they have any input into their last action for this season? I don’t think so.

Do I? I hope so.

Posted in Feeling Clearly, Photos of Flora, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , | 16 Comments

Two Yards

Posted on 13 September 2025 by Isabel Gibson

This is a tale of two yards in my neighbourhood.

One yard is a showcase. Green grass? Check. Edged and weeded flowerbeds? Check. Trimmed bushes? Check. Thoughtful plantings for visual interest in every season? Check.

One yard is a mess. Gravel ground-cover peeping out from under matted-down dandelion leaves? Check. Overgrown bushes? Check. Foot-high weeds in the gutter? Check.

These two yards are across the street from each other. The meticulous owners look out on the mess; the hapless owners look out on the showcase.

It’s such a glaring disparity in effort and standards that it makes me wonder whether I owe it to my neighbours to match their landscaping, exterior home maintenance, or holiday decoration. Meh. It’s not a great way to frame the question: Obligation doesn’t feel motivational. I have an opportunity, maybe, to give pleasure to my neighbours, just as they do for me.

This is not just a tale of two yards in my neighbourhood.

Posted in New Perspectives, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , | 6 Comments