Tag: practice

Writing again

It wasn’t an uneventful walk for me and Lydia this morning as we saw several dogs and a horse from a distance, all with owners – or, in the case of the horse, with its rider.

I thought at one point the horse and rider were going to be heading our way, which would have meant me seeking a quick diversion from their path, down into a ditch, then up and out the other side.  Thankfully, they turned in a different direction, perhaps after having heard Lydia’s initial reaction of barking on sight of them.

Lydia still struggles on sight of dogs as well as horses and I still struggle to find a way of reassuring her.  She gets the principle of not reacting but just finds it hard to put it into practice. I think this is something that many or most of us struggle with, one way or another.

Putting Buddhism into practice was a key theme of the weekend course I’ve just been on.  So, I’ll just keep doing what I can, reflecting and hopefully learning.

As it’s Tuesday I went to visit my friend who used to live in the village but now lives in a care home. As usual, she greeted me with a warm smile, leading me to feel very welcome.

Coming home, I do a few things that I need to do in the kitchen, give Lydia her tea, then start preparing ours.

I’ve made up a sauce based on a pasta dish that I enjoyed when I visited Rome quite a few years ago.  I remember it had mushrooms, ground pistachios and, I think, bacon.  I’ve also included garlic and onion.

I used a food processor to chop the mushrooms up very very finely so that they are almost ground like the pistachios.  I’ve seasoned with lots of freshly ground black pepper, a good splash of Worcestershire sauce, some soy sauce and half a stock cube.

It’s tasty and I’m hungry so time, I think, to start boiling some water for the pasta.

I don’t think we have enough spaghetti so I’ll use fusilli which should also help to absorb the sauce and flavour.