Lessons on the Lake and Elsewhere

We went to a wonderful tapas party last night with dear friends and family--more details and photos of delicious concoctions in the next post--and lay in bed this morning later than I can remember doing for years: 9am. And it was ok! We're having a fine day despite starting it out so radically differently from normal.

Remember the chilling, visceral, physiologically sapping dread that I described from driving on icy roads after our ditch-diving episode? It's very hard to talk yourself out of an emotion like fear when it's so entrenched in your body. As Phil put it, I needed to 'teach my meat' how to react to conditions and to know that it knows what to do. And so we've been loading 'my meat' up in the truck and spending some time on frozen Beluga Lake downtown, getting the feel for ice-driving in both two- and four-wheel drive; especially, getting the truck to go out of control and then (hopefully) recovering. Phil is such a trooper and a great coach: he considers the hour or two of motion sickness that he gains from this totally worthwhile. 

Probably everyone knows that hitting the brakes in a spin is bad news, whether you're in two- or four-wheel drive. (Fortunately, that's never been something I've tended to do.)  But I didn't realize how different the coping techniques are otherwise, depending on whether you're in two- or four-wheel drive. Four-wheel drive is so much more stable that hopefully I'd just be in it for ice-driving anyway. Countersteering is important to get out of the skid, and actually accelerating, slowly, smoothly but firmly, pulls you back into line quite readily. So, get that down and then the next day, in two-wheel drive (rear-wheel drive; it would be ok if it was front-wheel) you learn that accelerating simply accelerates the skid! We did some quite balletic pirouettes out there on that lake yesterday and turned Phil green quickly. Countersteering is really the only crucial fix in two-wheel drive, and easing off the gas (which is what I tend to do instinctively) can help too. In two-wheel drive, it's much easier to get into a skid and harder to get out of it. Fortunately, two-wheel and four-wheel drive feel and handle so differently that I think 'my meat' is learning how to respond in one mode versus the other: at this stage, I'm not too concerned that I'd mix them up in a crisis.

My body has learned a lot from these practices and I've been far less anxious driving in general. But it's irresistible to try and tease a metaphorical significance from this too: driving on thin ice and all...

How can one be metaphorically in 'four-wheel drive' on icy roads? Unfortunately, for me it often takes more forward planning than a simple shift of the stick.

Being well-fed, well-rested and generally in good working order is pretty essential. But deep, slow, full breathing is a pretty good instantaneous downshift.

It isn't too hard to balance on the tip of an iceberg....

...so long as you choose a small iceberg!

One of the hardest things for me was just to let go and allow the spin to happen. As you get used to the feel of being out of control, 'control' becomes less the issue and it becomes easier just to respond to the different forces that are being exerted on the vehicle. On the lake, a spin that would get you in the ditch on the highway does no harm, is merely an opportunity to experience flowing with the spin, and then diverting and choosing the flow of the spin.

This ice-sculpture was spinning and it took some flowing with the spin to get this photo...

 So as I go through my days and find my head getting into a spin, or events taking me over and things getting out of control (and boy, it's been a hectic week!) it's been a good thing to remember that control may not be the issue and that once I get comfortable with the spin, I can have a say in choosing its direction!

One last lesson of the day: I had this post almost written, and took a break to vacuum. I ran the vacuum brush over the keyboard and just like that, my post was reduced to a few nonsensical letters! So I had to start over and really? It wasn't so bad... But next time I'll save my writing and put the computer to sleep before vacuuming!

Do you have any learning experiences for driving on ice, metaphorical or literal?

Is control the key thing for you?

much love

Snapshots from the Road and Green Smoothie Recipe

Just wanted to share a few snapshots from the road and an accidentally amazing smoothie that made the journey 'up' very easy for me.

Although it hasn't snowed since last week's rain, it's frozen hard and tight again, which means that every drop of moisture in the atmosphere has frozen on to any available surface. The result is so beautiful that I don't know why I persist in trying to describe the ineffable.

It was like that all the way up and all the way back. Many hours of beauty backlit by the sun. And good company! Phil's daughter and her fiance and a big, comfy car: it was a very different experience than the last couple of escapade.

Not to forget the two dogs. Buddy, who is 'super-good' and very ready to relax (when he's not on snowshoe hare hunt alert, which is what he loves most, of course) blended in perfectly with his camo blanket.

Meanwhile, Roxy, who means so well and is as good as she can be, needed to get down and explore often, although she did spend a good chunk of the trip on my lap, some of it licking all over the windows!

We stopped at a cute little mercantile for lunch on the way up on Monday: one of theses little general stores with a cafe attached and a surprisingly extensive inventory, from kitschy souvenirs to not-so-kitschy souvenirs to produce to dry goods to hardware to tools to a cafe on the side! We watched ravens and eagles performing acrobatics (didn't get the camera out in time to capture, alas) and I ate my apple and drank some tea while everyone else ate, and then dug out my green smoothie when we got back on the road.

It looks just like any old green smoothie, but not only was it delicious, it kept me full for about as long as anything can without making me feel sick! A good three and a half hours!

What was in it? Well, I had made coconut milk from that beautiful brown coconut I pictured in this post--chunks of it plus water, lecithin, a little xylitol and salt, blend and then strain. A wonderfully thick, creamy milk, unlike the colored waters I usually tend to make (I've mentioned before how weak I tend to make my nut milks: am thinking I may need to change that).

This smoothie had about a quarter cup of that coconut milk, a half cup of coconut kefir whey and a couple tablespoons coconut kefir, a couple tablespoons irish moss gel, a pinch of stevia, some lecithin, a handful of cilantro leaves, a big handful of spinach leaves, a tablespoon of spirulina, and three drops of pineapple flavor extract from Medicine Flower. I had just thrown it together before we left and was totally unprepared for how delicious, creamy, filling and generally wonderful it turned out to be. I love the taste of green, but really it didn't even taste green. It tasted like a decadent but nourishing pina colada.

I make smoothies all the time and rarely do more than mention them, but this was worth recording for posterity.

Do you love the taste of green? Or do you prefer your greens disguised?
much love

Celebrations-Restaurant Review and Goodies, and Some Fun Stuff

Happy New Week! We're up in Anchorage again after a much less stressful day on the road. Our anniversary, and it's been very social, in a happy kind of way. I hope you enjoyed my review of Tropical Traditions coconut oil and Hawaii stories. It's turned cold here again today and I sure enjoyed my coconut oil today. Later this week, I will talk about fats some more.

We went to Cafe Cups a few days ago to celebrate our anniversary together early. I've eaten out very little in Homer and this was a fun experience.

It was so pleasant to eat out in such a mellow, peaceful atmosphere. We were not rushed at any point, the two waitresses were friendly and fun, and enthusiastic.

I felt grateful for my easygoing cooked-vs-raw dynamic at the moment, as they were easily able to make their veggie curry gluten-and-dairy free for me.

And it was so beautiful!

Very interesting presentation: having the rice (which I didn't eat) in the middle with the curry in a moat around it. Lots of very interesting textures, where a lot of curries tend to have all the veggies in cubes. I appreciated that a lot of the veggies were almost raw, just barely steamed, including the carrots and mung bean sprouts (a great touch), although the eggplant pieces were a little underdone. There were even some olive pieces in there! It wasn't a 'traditional Indian' curry, but it was so delicious: lots of cardamom in the spice mix, which I love most, and lots of heat, which I also adore! I was surprised how much of it I ate, how good it tasted and how happy my tummy was afterward.

Phil was very pleased with his fish special. And I wasn't so pleased with the picture I snapped! Beautiful red kale garnish though...

A few other things to share: I took advantage of The Raw Food World's 17.5% off everything offer over the holidays and was once again delighted with how quickly my goodies arrived.

I got more Irish moss, my new favorite food, and some yacon syrup to try (man, that stuff is expensive! But a little goes a long way, I'm told). And a whole gallon of coconut nectar! It's low glycemic enough that I feel ok about using a little in dessert recipes, and it's so expensive in the 12oz bottles, as well as shelf-stable,  that this seemed by far the most sensible way to get it. That's probably going to last me at least a year.

I love to get things in bulk and know that I have a supply for long enough to make plenty of variations or experiments on a single theme, or just have a staple readily available. I think living far from the source might be part of why.

How about you?

My other splurge: some recipe books and some poetry books!

That pile of paper made me so very happy. The Poet's Companion is one that I've enjoyed using quite a bit before, and had borrowed and wanted to own. On Speaking Terms is a poetry collection that I'm reading to broaden my experience: and am so far loving. And the three raw recipe books--what can I say? I miss being part of that world 'in the flesh,' I owned no raw recipe books at this point, and I will use these lovingly until I have learned all I can from them, and then consider them beautiful things to share more widely.

A couple of final silly little things:

Check out our 'pant-tree'--we freeze-dried our laundry strung up right on the edge of the bluff. We agreed that some clothes-pins would be a good investment. Yes, we wheelbarrowed our laundry down from the truck! The bedsheet in the wheelbarrow looks quite stylish, no?

Check out that sunset reflected in the outhouse window!

And I personalized one of my notebooks!

I covered it with Yogi Teabag tags! Been meaning to do that for ages, and finally got around to it. I love how some of them are naturally dyed/teastained.

It's the perfect decoration for my notebook: lots of inspiring words, which often speak more to me than pictures. Given the size of my handwriting, it's especially fitting--here's a random page from inside the notebook!

Product Review Time: Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil

I was so excited to be sent a jar of Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil to review from Tropical Traditions! And their generosity extends to you too: read on to find out how.

I think I could rightly claim the title of coconut connoisseur.

Aside from being an avid gatherer of mature brown coconuts and maker of coconut cream when I lived in Hawaii, I also used to climb and trim coconut trees (with equipment, I share some of the story in this post). Aside from the fact that I have noticed that I feel better when I eat coconuts, they make me happy: the palms, the nuts, the water, and ooh, the oil!


Even though coconuts are ubiquitous and freely available in Hawaii, it was while I was living there that I really tuned in to the benefits of the oil. It is a wonderful component of smoothies and desserts and it's so good for the skin! Reputed to have antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties, it was surely soothing on the sunburns and staph infections that most people experience at some point while living on the Big Island in the jungle.


Naturally, I've had all kinds of coconut preparations, and prepared many myself, but what makes me feel especially qualified as coconut oil connoisseur is that I made some myself in Hawaii! I just left some coconut cream (hard coconut meat run through a wheatgrass juicer: labor intensive but worth it) to stand, covered, in the warm ambient temperature for some weeks.  The liquid portion fermented, yielding a delectable cheesey substance, and the oil settled on the top. It was an amazing experience to be present as the oil simply 'made itself' in response to the environment: it felt like true alchemy. The cheesy substrate and the oil itself had an earthy and yet ethereal taste: full of life, full of vigor.


This is why I was particularly excited to try Tropical Traditions' Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil, since it is produced by a fermentation process. Plant-derived oils are typically either centrifuge-extracted (spun at high speeds so that the oil is thrown off and collected) or expeller-pressed, both of which processes can generate some heat mechanically. Of course, fermentation can create some heat too, but it's the heat of living organisms doing their thing rather than of cogs spinning. It may be illogical, but I love fermentation and its products, and feel more drawn to this. (As a side note, coconut and its oil are very heat-stable, so I am not especially concerned about how absolutely low the temperatures remain for its production.)

You can see more on the specifics of  Tropical Traditions' oil in this short youtube video: "How We Discovered Virgin Coconut Oil - An Interview with Brian Shilhavy, CEO Tropical Traditions” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h6eycjf29M

Coconut oil is even more important to me now that I live in Alaska. Young coconut is an occasional luxury: as ubiquitous as it is in raw food cuisine, I virtually always substitute it with something else. Although I was excited to find it frozen in an Asian market in Anchorage...

...it does have some added sugar, that I'm less thrilled about. And although we do love to get mature coconuts for snacks and recipes, a young white coconut is an occasional splurge: they cost over $4 each! I used to be able to get them for less than a dollar in Oakland, and in Hawaii someone just had to climb for them, sometimes me.

Incidentally, that mature coconut held more than a quart of water--an amazing gift!


But for everyday eating, coconut oil is an important staple for me. Aside from the culinary and gustatory delight that it offers, I find that it helps with my digestion and general sense of wellbeing. I have thyroid problems, gut problems and yeast problems, and the 'medium-chain triglycerides' that form the bulk of coconut's fat molecules are said to be very beneficial for all of those. When I started working with my naturopath last April, he said that I needed to be 'pounding' the coconut oil, up to a half cup a day! I don't think I've ever managed to have quite that much, but since then it has definitely become an important staple of my diet. Phil often comments that my skin has become gorgeously soft and smooth since I've been eating so much of it.


So, I have all kinds of occasion to appreciate coconut oil both from the culinary and from the general wellbeing perspectives. And I was so excited to have some of this virgin coconut oil produced by 'live fermentation,' as I like to think of it. The taste is just as I hoped it would be: the epitome of coconut, with a slightly smoky note just like I remember from my fermented coconut cream's oil. There's nothing rough about this smokiness, though: it's like a really good single malt whisky.


I always have some of it in my smoothies (my number one favorite meal)

...and of course, 'bark,' (my number one favorite snack) is totally based on coconut oil!

I share several 'bark' recipes on this blog: here's a fairly compendious offering. I'm planning on submitting a bark recipe to add to Tropical Traditions' wonderfully rich and varied, kitchen tested site of recipes:
http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com


I've been roasting some veggies recently and enjoying that wintertime fare. As I mentioned above, coconut oil is very heat-stable, so I feel really good about putting some of this oil on the roasted veggies. The flavor combination is just exquisite.


I like to stock up on things that I use a lot of, and my final seal of approval of this Virgin Coconut Oil is that I ordered a 5 gallon bucket of it! I also ordered a bucket of the expeller-pressed oil, for the times when I want the oil without the strong coconut flavor. I was impressed with how quickly this was shipped up to me, and even more impressed to receive a personal phone call from the company's CEO right after I made the order, just to verify that I had indeed placed such a large order! Wonderful, personal customer service, and I'm looking forward to interacting with them more.


I hope that you might consider supporting them too: to me, it feels like a win-win. You can acquire your own complimentary copy of their Virgin Coconut Oil book as part of their referral program. 


Choose “Referred by a Friend” when you place an order with them, and enter My User ID: 6758186 on your first online order. The book will be automatically added to their order. If you need any help with this, their customer service page is helpful and responsive.


Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review in return for the free product.



Enjoy!!

Driving on Ice--Fear! Accident Prone?

In a dangerous situation, if you had to choose between an able-bodied novice and a slightly crippled expert to be your pilot, which would you pick?

I think most people would choose the expert, right? It was that thinking that helped me not to feel too humiliated on the way home from Anchorage, when I had to pull the truck over in the dark and pouring rain, on the icy road, and let temporarily-one-eyed Phil take over the wheel. He's been driving on ice since before I was born, and this is only my second year of doing so. Even though there was little traffic on the road, everyone else was driving fast (part of the reason why there were so many wrecks on the road?) and I simply couldn't make myself go more than about 45mph. Even though my eyes are working fine and my night-vision is better than Phil's even on a good day, it was better to have him take over.

I was so scared! All the way to Anchorage on Sunday, driving on ice most of the way, I was so afraid, I felt sick to my stomach. There had been a couple inches of snow on the road, so with the recent warmer weather, the rain turned to ice as it hit the surface snow, and then got warmed and churned up by vehicles' wheels, and there was glare ice everywhere and constant little bumps and eminences and off-center ice-blobs to take just one wheel somewhere you didn't want it to go.  And I already mentioned the fast driving and the several badly mangled wrecks we saw en route.

How do you handle the kind of fear that is constant, persistent, impervious to reasoning and constantly being reinforced by the little slips and bumps and reminders that you're driving on a sheet of ice? Deep breathing helps a little bit.  Getting out onto the frozen lake and practicing getting the truck out of a spin helps a bit. I guess, like Averie mentioned recently, it's important to take on a learning curve. I always seem to be learning new things, and am living up here in a place that offers lots of new learning experiences. That's what mistakes are, right? As with most 'physical' things, I'm not a superstar as a driver, but on ordinary surfaces I'm perfectly good. Probably B+ rather than grade A, though. On ice, I'm not so hot. But if I can get to be a decent driver on ice, maybe it'll make my overall driving so much the better.

Any scary stories to share or any advice on how to do better besides practice-practice-practice? Or on how to overcome the fear?

Accident Prone?

I have to pay attention here, as we work through the winter and I continue to tweak diet and self-experiment. I used to be so very accident-prone, probably due to chronic undereating and then fruitarianism. When I started eating raw eggs, the problem went away blindingly quickly. Now, having been vegan once again for a year or so, I seem to be sliding toward accident prone a little this past few weeks.

It's not all my fault! These coffee beans all over the floor (yes, I can't stand coffee but I make it for Phil every day) were in the freezer compartment in a non-tempered jar and as soon as I grabbed the jar out, it broke everywhere!

Not the greatest start to the morning, and I'm glad that I quickly realized that the jar broke spontaneously, rather than beating up on myself for dropping it! I was left with the lid in my hand and shards of glass all over the inside of the fridge.

And then I busted my beloved paring knife that I've had since HI days breaking off some chocolate to melt...

Seriously busted--even the handle! Phil said even he has never broken one of those knives, and he's a notorious toolbuster. That's also not an 'accident-prone' thing, though: maybe just a little overzealous!

Now, the chocolate indulgence of the holiday season is one of my prime suspects for my current less-than-optimal coordination. I didn't eat much--as I shared here, I didn't have appetite for it. But I did eat a little chocolate every day for a good week or two, and that is too much and too often for me. So what was I doing busting my knife with chocolate?

Well, I was making another enormous batch of the chocolate fruit and nut bars from Sweet Gratitude, winging it and using slightly different ingredients as well as low-sugarizing it, for Phil's daughter.

I used dried blueberries instead of gojis, and oats and hazelnuts instead of almonds, and tweaked the ratio of other seeds a bit too. Part of the reason for the oats is just to balance the macronutrients a bit, and honestly part of the reason was so that I can't eat them! I can't do oats.

Do you ever purposely make a yummy treat that you can't have? (I loved these too much first time through in the Ela-friendly version).

Oh, but don't they look good? It's a gift that I know will be appreciated, and I'll probably save a few for Phil too, because he said they tasted great!

For myself, I'll see if laying off the chocolate and upping the algae helps with my general coordination. After many months of eating lots of spirulina and chlorella every day, I haven't been eating quite so much of them recently. I'll also continue to monitor how I feel with cutting way back on PUFAs (post to come about that soon) and eating more starch.
Any other suggestions?
Stay tuned for a product review!

Intentions for Life, Blogging and Everything 2011

As I underlined in my Eighty Percent Raw article that I shared a couple days ago, I believe that it's very important to acknowledge that the New Year is a continuation of what went before, not a clean slate; and that 'new years' begin every minute of every day, so that while January1st is a good time to set intentions, it should not be considered the only possible time and disproportionately loaded down with unrealistic demands on oneself.

My major intention and resolution this year is to be an excellent reviewer, payer-of-attention and stayer-on-track (also returner-to-track). I am aiming to sharpen my focus in several areas that I already work on, rather than planning to branch out in unwonted directions. 

I'll be going into my third full year in Alaska, and living here is a challenge all of its own that demands its own respect. Learning how to read the weather, drive on ice better, cope with bugs in summer and fall, do a better job with root vegetables in this year's garden, and many more things, all fall under the 'reviewer' intention here, as do things like cleaning, going to the laundromat and hauling water in timely manner.

water runs out fast, but the Vitamix and the home internet have been amazing additions this year

Phil and I will be going into our third year of marriage: our wedding anniversary is coming up on January 10th. Continuing to cherish our love and to build our relationship together, to support one another in our continued changes, to go on adventures together and chill out at home together, be solitary and social together and apart: these are up there at the top of the intentions list for both of us.

2010 was a year of great consolidation and resultant progress for me. Living in one place, in a stable relationship with someone extremely supportive, gave me the opportunity to really pursue my writerly vocation. Other things fell in to support that, like the book clubs and writers group in town, the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference in June, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in July, the translating and editing jobs, getting internet at home, as well as working at the used bookstore in town occasionally. More recently, I've connected with another poet in town and we're starting to meet regularly to read and discuss poetic works.

Most exciting of all was the news, just before Christmas, that I've been accepted into the Rainier Writing Workshop. Going through an MFA program will help me steer my craft and remain on track. In structural terms, that's what I'm looking forward to most of all in this new year. Having creative writing be at the center of my life is what I've always either most wanted or assumed would inevitably, naturally happen when I finally got things together. May this be the year!

The stability also created potential for healing. At the beginning of 2010, I found myself firmly back in the 'Raw Foods' camp but with a much lower-glycemic and superfood-heavier emphasis than previously, and without the craziness of insisting on being '100%,' whatever that even means. And I started working with a Naturopath and a therapist to address some of the serious longterm physical and other issues resulting from a long eating-disorder history. I begin 2011 so much healthier, happier and more energetic than I did 2010: surely far more important than any size-measurement. And while I have been creative in culinary ways all along, toward the end of 2010 I've really been reconnecting with the joys of raw gourmet cuisine, aided in this by a very appreciative audience of friends.

Despite the stability, we also traveled. It was great to spend time at Phil's family farm in Oregon and visit with his mom, and to go to England after so many years, catch up with parents, brothers, old friends and the new niece. Of course, the birth of my niece and becoming an aunt was a major event this year too!

It's just about six weeks until this blog's one-year anniversary as well! I'd kept online journals of one sort or another for years before this, off and on, but this one feels more like an entity of its own. It brings so much into my life, in terms of the great connections that it offers, the smart people that I come into contact with through it, the opportunity to share stories from my life with friends who are far away. It also gives me the opportunity to give of myself and share insights, experiences, recipes, stories and more. Additionally, blogging is currently the main medium in which my writerly vocation and my passion about nutrition and raw foods intersect, which makes it very desirable. 

The 'reviewer' intention has lots to do around the blog: I definitely have the desire to continue to write about food and nutrition, and to deepen and broaden the scope of this writing with more book and product reviews and more in-depth discussions of nutritional research, healing and self-experimentation. I hope to share more about the creative writing process and more non-food-related book reviews also.  My intention is that my blog will grow in many ways this year.

However, I am going to need to monitor my blogging time very acutely. Much as I love to comment on every blog I read and to blog very frequently myself, I have to accept that there will be times when my workload and creative writing demands will have to take precedence over this. I know that everyone who reads blogs, let alone writes them, will understand this, and will also understand how hard it is to tear myself away! I already know that daily blogging is not realistic for me. For 2011, I'm hoping for an average of three posts per week. Some weeks may well bring more and others, especially if we spend much time in the wilderness come spring and summer, less. I'm hoping that this will allow me to put more time and thought into my posts, rather than rapidly firing something off to get it out there (although that style has much to commend it also).

Many thanks and much love to all my readers.

Catching Up--Orange Flan and Phil's Eye: Lasik Warning

Resolutions/intentions post is coming soon, but as it continues to pour with rain here and melt all our beautiful snow, we're heading back up to Anchorage today for the surgeon to check Phil's eye, so I'm accepting the continued discombobulation and working the intentions within the spaces.

When we got home on Friday, I threw together some roasted veggies and something delicious, beautiful, low-glycemic and delectable to take to the low-key new year's party at Phil's daughter's house:

It's based on the 'bitter orange creme caramel' from Everyday Raw Desserts but I low-glycemic-ized it (xylitol syrup) and once I'd put it in that container, it wouldn't pop out again, so I just served it like that, with thinly sliced mangoes and fresh blueberries as accompaniments.

I think I'm in love with irish moss... The texture was to-die-for, as was the taste, of course. It was very well enjoyed. I was delighted with how quickly I could put it together, and it was the perfect therapy for having ended up in the ditch driving home!

Phil's eye underwent a 'trabeculectomy' last week.

The intra-ocular pressure is too high (an effect of glaucoma) and the pressure gradually damages the optic nerve. He has already lost some vision and other methods have not reduced the pressure enough. The trabeculectomy is essentially a notch cut into the eye to allow excess fluid to drain. The success of the operation depends on the notch/hole, which is a wound, not healing. Bodies always want to heal wounds, so it's a tricky thing and they put some chemistry in there too to retard the healing.

Soon, his eye will be looking much better and seeing much better too!

I wanted to share this important piece of information, though: Phil had lasik about twelve years ago and he did not know that having laser surgery gives artificially low eye pressure readings (because the cornea is so thin). He has a family history of glaucoma and checked his pressures regularly, and they always looked good. He'd already lost some vision when he finally saw an eye specialist who said 'You've had lasik? Then your pressure is much higher than the actual reading.' They even have an algorithm to tell them what the 'true' pressure is depending on how it reads as measured.

So, anyone who's had Lasik (as I have, and I think it's a wonderful thing), please be aware (especially if you have family history of glaucoma) that it gives falsely low eye pressure readings and make sure that your optometrist knows that you've had it.

Phil is an intensely visual person...

And his twinkly, beady little eyes are one of his most noticeable and endearing features.

He's been doing wonderfully so far in maintaining a good attitude to convalescence (rainy, yucky weather and no skiing=removal of temptation, thank you, weather gods!) and no doubt will be goofing around again soon,

love to all