I hope everyone's boosters and flu shots have gone well. This month is my annual physical and a mammogram and a couple of other consultations (post-PMR I have to watch bone density because 18 months on a steroid is a risk factor for osteoporosis).

Yesterday I decided it was time to process the two small pie pumpkins that each year I steam and peel and mash and put in the freezer for pies and bread. It dawned on me that Mom always used her pressure cooker for this, so I dug out mine. It took a close tour of the recipe bookshelves to find the little booklet that goes with it (Mom collected a lot of brand name recipe books - think Kraft, the California Avocado Board, Nestle, McCormick, etc.) that I keep there as conversation starters). I'm reminded of the time our family with to my cousin's house for dinner and she realized she forgot to turn on the oven for the a chicken for dinner. So rather than not have chicken, Mom showed her how to set up her as-yet-unused pressure cooker and have it ready in about 30 minutes.

Soon it's time to start lugging potted plants into the greenhouse and hope we don't have another extended freezing power outage like last winter. Usually plants make it (I set up an electric plug that is sensitive to temperature - when it reaches 37 it turns on whatever is plugged into it and I have an oil heater out there to keep the temperature above freezing.) Garlic chives have popped up everywhere in some of the pots, so I need to weed them out first.