A Basket of Pears

Well, it is not "daylight in the swamp" as my dad used to say when he woke us up in the morning; it is too early for that at this time in the year. I awoke at 4:30 and it seemed like sleep would continue to be elusive, so I thought I might as well take advantage and get the day started.

A couple of days ago the lifelong mate and I sat down to crunch some numbers and see what we could do to pull ourselves out of debt. We must adopt a much more frugal lifestyle in order to achieve this, particularly taking into consideration that I am looking at making about a third of what I was previously making. If only we had decided to do the whole get out of debt thing last year, but there is no sense in dwelling on that.

Funnily enough though, since my brain isn't completely addled by my job and the politics of an office, I seem to have more energy that can be put to use making the household run. It is really not surprising that things like finances and household maintenance get neglected when both of you are working your tails off. When you do have time to yourself the last thing you want to do is more bloody paperwork.

I've always been an admirer of people who can live beautiful lives while being sensible and thrifty. They are clever indeed. One of the ways to have a beautiful life is to eat well with the ones that you love and I am looking forward to that challenge because, as you may have guessed, eating out is out. This is where the pears come in.

Yesterday I bought a basket of Ontario pears (not sure of the varietal) and they are, get this, actually ripe! We likely can't eat them all before they turn to mush so I'm going to be making a blue cheese and pear tart as well as a pear and ginger upside down cake. Photos to follow.