There is a saying in our family that you might know by now; Step Step Peck. When faced with a mammoth challenge be a chook. Step Step (Scratch a Bit) Peck. They just keep on going. One foot and one beak after the other. Step Step Peck. A chicken does not see the enormity of feeding herself every day she just Steps, Steps Pecks.
I have flown right across the United States of America in Step Step Peck fashion and am in California now. Down the road from the airport. Catching my breath – catching up on writing and disengaging.
I travel just one step after the other with my head swivelling from side to side looking for treasures. One flight cancelled, the next one booked, getting in late to LAX (which frankly is a shambles). Getting to the hotel was bonkers – I may as well have just walked.
Three times last night the fire alarm went off here at the hotel all false alarms and all incredibly loud the shriek of the alarm in every room. I was so sound asleep the first time it felt like hot dirty hands had reached down a well where I was floating in the clear water and hauled me out, shrieking. I called the desk each time – I was not going to take the stairs and the lift in a fire is stupid but I could not smell any smoke, There were no shouts from below – the woman on the phone said False alarm someone must be smoking on your floor. (How do you know that – I thought – I did not see you in the hallway). Each time alarm went off I would go out into the hallway and inform all the people who were peeking out their doors, with no intention of exiting the building at all – that it was a false alarm, said the lady at the desk – and they all pulled their heads back into their shells, quietly shut the shutters on their eyes and retreated back into sleep.
It is hard to leave the farm and all its souls so I try to take a few hours in a strange place with no distractions to just breathe and disengage my America self and prepare to engage y New Zealand self.
Tonight I fly out to NZ at 10pm. It is literally my favourite flight in the world. Every time I see that big Air New Zealand plane I take a photo for you through tears of joy.
I am going to remain writing here with you until the .ORG page is absolutely correct. We may need to wait another few days though as I know that many of you were able to subscribe now, (which was brilliant) but the test post I sent out did not land (the saga continues and yes I am keeping you totally informed). I am also getting no notifications yet. I am guessing that little blog on .ORG did not land in your email inbox. I am getting apprehensive every time I have to report an error to Duane. Poor fellow has toiled over this website for months and still it will not run.
If it were a motor we can assume he is still under the bonnet.
But thats ok! You and I are still here all bright eyed and bushy tailed and I simply refuse to get worried.
It will work out. It is all in the Lap of the Gods now and Duane.
It is sad though – I made a lovely little post this morning on the new site but then my pictures would not load!! I just laughed!! Thank goodness for Old Trusty. (here) You can pop over if you like thekitchensgarden.org. It is a very short read. I am not making the big announcement yet – things are still rendering down (I was going to announce it today) but if you would like to try sign in it might help us see what is or is not happening. Report back!
Love Love
Have an awesome day wherever you are.
I have all day here in CA so comment – I enjoy chatting with you all as I go.
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
28 responses to “Super Slow But Moving with Purpose”
Cecilia, hope you have had a sleep-in this a.m. I must have missed all the talk about why you have switched from .com. to .org. I have no idea what the reasons were for the switch.
This theme was not designed for this much content – this many photos and this many comments.
I am expanding and introducing new stuff so I need a faster and more robust site. Let’s hope I can pull it off!!
I was able to get to the new site and subscribe! Yay! I know how happy you must be to go home..I finally returned home to the state I grew up in after 30 years although I wasn’t as far away as you are.
It must be a strange feeling going back after 30 years!
How I would find all these dreadful step steps along the chook’s progress, I simply cannot comment. But then I am no longer able to manage it & have very few kinfolks to visit & no one abroad, so I’m much better off out of the way here at home on my porch with George Eliot, & Mr. Trollope & Mrs. Gaskell. I will peck in here though while You Go Girl! Step stepping peck. Like the chooks.
Lucky you can come along for the the ride with me! What are you reading today, Judith?
Yeah…we had issues with our California hotel too! But safe journeys and would you happen to have any recipes/ideas for what to do with many pints of freshly picked raspberries? Miss t….
Morning Miss T- I guess you have made a ton of jam already/😂😂
You could make a raspberry jus and freeze it. It is divine drizzled into a salad dressing, on duck or pork ( plus ice cream) don’t forget a squeeze of lemon.
Or just freeze the raspberries whole and dry and pull them out by the handful for your morning muesli.
I’ve frozen 6 pints, will start on the jam soon but what is a raspberry jus and how to make it? Sounds yummy!
You are right, Celi. I am lucky to be able to hitch on with you to NZ – again! Today I am reading Middlemarch & also Wives & Daughters by Mrs. Gaskell with an online reading group Trollope & His Contemporaries. I have been reading along with them for 5 or 6 years & enjoy it immensely, catching up with the 19thc novelists & some up into the 1920s. We vote on & read the novels, watch the films & comment on them & other books we might read & movies we see. Wonderful people from here & abroad. Big heavy tomes that are great reads. Wives & Daughters just keeps the pages turning. Highly recommend. And believe it or not George Eliot has made me laugh out loud, chuckle or smile numerous times. So I’ll keep on reading here while you go rolling along.
That sounds like a great club! I am so glad!
It’s a good job you’re not a Chook!
I think I was able to sign up to the .org, but didn’t get an email confirmation, which I would normally expect…
Yes. Something is still wrong. I am not getting the notifications either. I am leaving Duane to it. He will sort it out. Hopefully while I am in the air!
I hope you have a good flight and sueños con los angeles!
Thank you!!
I always say , baby steps. Same idea and it works for me)
Hello Miss C ….wherever you are at this moment….just to let you know, I signed up (for what it’s worth), and await your arrival in NZ, where the skies are huge & gorgeous & I can’t wait to see the pics ! Happy Trails
I hope you are verging on giddy with joy as you anticipate that flight tonight and waking up “at home” in NZ 🙂
I find long-haul so difficult nowadays. Every bone, joint and muscle just shrieks. Do you cope okay with it?
A few years ago, I was walking around a mall when the fire alarms went off. Screeching alarms, flashing lights, and not one single person moved toward the door. It was a precursor to the pandemic when people walked happily into the arms of danger, even with all the warnings. My co-shopper and I left the mall because an alarm is an alarm.
I was able to subscribe, too!
In my single trip to the U.S I felt the same vis a vis LA vs SF airport… how can they be so different. Also lived 4+ years in an apartment building with fire alarm issues. Only good thing if we ever needed to we would’ve been able to jump to safety from our balcony on first floor, oh and the firemen were very nice if a little frustrated at the inefficiency of our fire system.
Btw I also managed to sign up for new TKG.
I’ve had that alarm in a hotel situation, and it is really unnerving. Did I look at the emergency exit chart? No. Do I know where the stairwell is? No. Can I find my shoes…
Right! And we are not going to be going out there in a nightie!!
have a wonderful trip! Spending the day in LAX is not the most restful, but I imagine that the flight will be awesome heading to NZ. The only hotels I enjoy are the little motels that you don’t pay a lot nor do you expect a lot. Yet airports are not known for these gems (though we did find one near the Belfast, UK airport).
Hurray, I could subscribe! And commented over there successfully too. But the test post doesn’t appear in my Reader, which may or may not be intentional… I don’t mind lurking around in airports for hours, it’s better than being trapped in one (painful, uncomfortable) position for too long. I can’t sit in any kind of seat for longer than 2 hours max before my back starts screaming, so opportunities to walk, stretch, lie flat, etc. are vital. It’s also why I don’t do long haul flights.