Leaf Peeping

Every fall when I am out walking in the woods, enjoying the gorgeous fall colours, I am reminded of my favorite scene from one of my favorite shows. West Wing was a political show featuring Martin Sheen as the President of the United States. In taping for an upcoming broadcast, the president gets hung up on the term “Leaf Peeping.” (Here is a YouTube clip of the scene). Well, it turns out, leaf peeping is a thing. Wikipedia defines it as an activity in which people travel to view and photograph the fall foliage during autumn, when leaves change colors. 

Fall colour is one of the main reasons I choose to travel the Pacific Northwest in the fall. It is beautiful, plain and simple. And in the fall, there are fewer tourists so the trails and roads are not crowded. It is the perfect time to be a tourist. Each day I try to find forests and woodlands in which to walk, and even if I do not find any mushrooms – my main goal – I enjoy seeing and smelling the leaves. I love the sound they make when I walk on them, and I love the way they reflect the morning light. I love the smell they emit as they slowly decompose and feed the forest. I am, by all accounts, a leaf peeper.

Sadly my leaf peeping may have come to an abrupt halt in the past 24 hours as a bomb cyclone off the coast of Vancouver Island sent extremely strong, hurricane force winds to the coast of Washington, Oregon and California – effectively stripping most of the eaves off the trees. And what the wind didn’t get – the snow and rain did.

As I write this many of the major highways – including the ones I need to use next weekend to get to my next sit – are closed due to huge volumes of snow that the atmospheric river dumped in the higher elevations – and no matter which route I take. I always travel prepared: I have winter tires; I have winter boots and coats in my car: I have an emergency pack with candles and flares. BUT, I am a leaf peeper not a snow skier! I HATE SNOW! I grew up in snow. I know how to drive in it. I just don't want to.

So, as of now, I have determined that the biggest disadvantage to house sitting is that I have commitments to be in certain places at certain times, which requires me now to travel when I do not want to travel. 

Something for me to consider for future leaf peeping trips.

Remember the Alternative!

A few years ago, I sat down with a glass of wine, put my feet up on the ottoman, and picked up my book. I flipped open to the dog-eared page and started to read. After a few minutes, I laid down my book and said,“You know, I just cannot get into this book. It seems a lot like the last one I read. They are so similar I keep getting the characters all mixed up.” My husband raised his eyebrows and replied, “Corrie, that IS the last book you read, YOUR book is over there – I am reading that one now.”

If you are aging, you can probably relate. It gets worse…

Another time my husband and I were sitting by the pool playing Anagrams, and he put down the word lacey.  “Hey, that was my last name from my first marriage, I said. "Or maybe that was the street I lived on… I cannot remember." 

But if Lacey was the street I lived on, then what the heck was my last name? Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I try to forget about that marriage anyway.

On yet another occassion while my husband and I were travelling, one night I went to the resort office to sign out some DVDs. I picked out a couple of romantic comedies and when I got home, my hubby looked through them and said, “Corrie, we watched this one three days ago!” I looked at the cover, read the back panel, and said, “Seriously? I have no recollection whatsoever of having viewed this movie.”

Forgetting things is normal as we age, but I wanted to be certain that my memory issues were not the sign of something more sinister, so I signed up for an Alzheimer’s clinical trial. Before being accepted into the drug trial, they do DNA testing on you to see if you have the genetic predisposition, so this was a free way to get the very expensive genetic testing done. I did not have the gene, so I withdrew from the trial, satisfied in the knowledge that I was no more likely to get Altzheimer's than the next guy. 

 I also recently saw a neurologist to follow up on a small brain tumour that was discovered last fall. He said, “Corrie, for a 62-year-old woman, you have a pristine brain.” (The tumour was apparently a non issue - something he said I have likely has since birth.) 

Woohoo! A pristine brain...so what explains my propensity to putting clothes on backwards? One time I put my one-piece bathing suit on backwards and stood there in front of the mirror wondering why my boobs kept falling out!

The truth is aging sucks – but as I am constantly telling myself and those around me – the alternative to getting old is getting dead. We can look at the goofy and annoying things that start happening to us as we age, and giggle, or we can be humiliated and complain. I choose to embrace my aging, and all it's humiliating nuances because aging is a privelege many do not get to experience. 

By the way, I eventually remembered my old last name…it was not Lacey – Lacey was the street I lived on. My last name was Lindsay. Or was it Lindsey? 

I can’t remember.

Genius or too many martinis?

I had a sleep study done many years ago. It showed that I had more than triple the normal amount of sleep awakenings. The average person, depending on age, will wake up 80 to 130 times a night. This is normal, and for the most part, most people do not really notice it. They roll over, scratch their heads, adjust their pillows, and carry on sleeping. Others, like me, hover in a no man’s land of sleep and thought – often unable to tell what is dreaming and what is thinking.

The sleep therapist told me that it is very common for highly intelligent people to have an above average number of awakenings. He asked me, already knowing the answer, “Do you solve problems in your sleep, often waking up to the answer?” Of course, the answer was yes – it happens all the time. I used to design house renovations in my sleep, solve riddles, and invent recipes. (Too bad I couldn't figure out how to save my marriage while getting my beauty sleep!) These days, I do not seem to have too many problems to solve – so my hundreds of awakenings each night just merge into one big AWAKE!

When I had small kids and a career, I used to fight insomnia; unsuccessful at willing myself back to sleep, I would work myself into a bad case of sleep anxiety. The more I worried about not being able to sleep, the harder it was to get back to sleep. 

The beauty of retirement is that now, instead of fighting it, I can embrace it.

There is something empowering about being awake in the middle of the night when the rest of the world sleeps. Right now, for instance, it is 2:36 a.m. I am enjoying a cup of herbal tea while listening to the howling of the wind. An atmospheric river hit the Oregon coast about two hours ago and with the rain there are some very strong wind gusts. The hotel I am in is whistling and howling as the fast-moving air finds cracks and corridors to blow through. It is eerie and ominous. Before getting up, I listened to a very interesting audio book by an American journalist. I then ate a bowl of cereal, figured out where to go hiking tomorrow, and am now writing my blog.

 How many times have I said, “If only there were more hours in the day?” Well….

The normal number of nighttime awakenings naturally increases as we age. Sore joints, having to pee, restless legs, snoring, etc., all play a role in affecting how well and how long we slumber. I no longer have a partner to snort beside me, but man can some scary noise come out of my mouth - I sound like a generator! (It is probably a good thing I now sleep alone… with the eye patches to block out light, the nose strips to help me breath, and splayed position to open up my hips, and the turkey sandwich beside the bed…I am not exactly a thing of desire.)

I recently started growing a medicinal garden and one of the tinctures I make is a wonderful treatment for insomnia. I have given it to a few friends, who then phoned me after using it and said, "OMG, I need more of this stuff!" I started feeling like a drug dealer, and decided I better do a little more reseach on the herb I was using to make sure I was not getting my friends addicted.

Prickly lettuce/Sow thistle secretes a milky white substance which contains lactucarium and hyoscyamine, among other things. It has been used for centuries as a nervine. Much like the drug gabapentin it is a gamma aminobutryic acid (GABA) analogue. GABA reduces the excitability of neurons in the brain. This can have a sedative and analgesic effect. And it is not addictive. (Phew)!

Ideally, getting better sleep without the use of substances (natural or otherwise) is preferred. Doctors will tell you the greatest cause of poor sleep is poor sleep hygiene. That is, too much stimulation before bed, too much screen time before bed, and too much alcohol.

So, if you struggle to stay asleep, try eliminating Netflix and martinis before assuming you are a genius.

Pet Sitting - a Two Star Strategy

This summer as I was interviewing pet sitters for my own home, it occurred to me that maybe I should do the same thing – house and pet sit my way down the west coast – thus saving money on accommodations, with the bonus of having some company on the trails and a warm body to snuggle with at night. So, I applied for some house-sitting opportunities and almost everyone I applied for I got. Lucky me! So, while someone is at my house feeding the chickens and snuggling with my cats, I am doing the same during my travels. I just completed my second pet sitting gig – in Kent, Washington – a suburb of Seattle. 

People often ask me how it is I manage to travel so much – and this is one of the ways. Normally I rent out my house for the winter and the rent coming in basically pays my accommodations while travelling, but house-sitting works too – either way, I limit the money going out.

My first sit was in Bellingham – three dogs – not particularly well trained – so my ability to mushroom forage on walks was nil. It was all I could do to keep my shoulders in their sockets! My second pet sit was awesome. Gurney – a full-sized schnauzer who has been very well trained-was a pleasure to mushroom hunt with. His owner is currently working on scent training with him. He can find hidden vials of clove oil. While that may not seem very useful, next year they start working on Truffles!

Gurney and I covered about 15 kms a day and I found baskets of delicious mushrooms – and so far, no bear encounters 😉I am not too worried about bears – it is the creepy people lurking in the forest I worry about. My first hike in Bellingham was at the popular Whatcom Falls – an urban forest in town. It was beautiful – except for the crazy lady who followed me, shouting and mumbling at me the whole time.

Speaking of urban forest – yesterday I hiked 17 km in Auburn’s University campus forest and never came close to doing all the trails. It was spectacular! Old growth Douglas fir, Maple and Cedar. I love foraging in these types of settings as they are generally ignored by professional pickers, and I always find lots of mushrooms. Additionally, I never have to worry about getting lost.

I have the next two days off before starting my next sit in Bremerton, WA, so today I am meeting up with a girl I grew up with. Her mother and my mother were best friends for many years, and so Sherry and I spent a lot of time together as youngsters, and although they moved away for a time, they returned some years later and Sherry and I went to high school together. The last time I saw here was in our early twenties – so this should be fun.

Tomorrow, I plan on doing some wine tasting on Bainbridge Island and then I will watch the US election coverage from a cozy, overpriced hotel (I am shocked at the price of accommodations in this area). It is unlikely there will be final results tomorrow as it is sure to be a nail biter. I worry about where this country is headed and agonize over how my own country is becoming equally polarized. I know if we would just take a moment to step outside our own spere of opinion where we are daily inculcated in confirmation bias – that is, we seek out information that supports that which we already believe – and step into the shoes of those other we disparage – I know we could find shared values.

Here's to hoping Americans choose unity over division, peace over chaos.