Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Stuff gets done here

recent posts

  • Delicious new

    Dancer in red and black in a bow stance dancing Butterfly
    Nia trainer Orit Weichselbaum dancing Butterfly

    My 10 days of road-trip visit to my mom, lacked sufficient dancing. There were five days of no-dancing at all, which, checking my got-done calendar, revealed that the last time I went that long without some Nia was back in July. Addicted? Possibly.

    Getting back to routine now, I’m using the 30-minute sessions Nia on Demand offers.

    This morning the routine “Butterfly” gave me that great combination of newness and familiarity, providing a fine brain-chemistry pleasure hit.

    Taking a break may be good. Getting back into it? Also good.

  • Frost on roses and swan

    A small grocery store (of the variety you see in New York City neighborhoods, or in Paris for that matter) is six blocks from our house and it has a full complement of the foods we buy. It drew us out this morning, on the hunt for shallots, garlic, onions and green beans. Despite the nippy 30F morning air, we saw these roses, tinged with frost, which have lost all sense of season. I’ve written about roses blooming midwinter here, but they keep astounding me. I remain amazed and gratified.

    Then, of course, on the whimsy side…a little plastic swan.

    Daily walking, eyes open. So good for body and soul. I hope I keep getting to do this for a long long time.

  • Moments of ahhhh

    A yellow kayak and fellow paddler on blue green waters of Eklutna Lake in Alaska
    blue water of Dorena Lake with Cascade Mountaings in the background and red kayak with paddler on the water glimmering water.

    I have been trying, since winter closed in around me, to find the beauty in this grayer season. But yesterday and today, I’m pulling up images of warmer more colorful places and times.

    Today’s pleasure — places I’ve kayaked (clockwise from top left): Cameron Lake, Waterton National Park, in September; Eklutna Lake, Alaska in June; Dorena Lake, Oregon in July; Ardeche River in France in September. I highly recommend going back to bright photos when the lowering sky feels heavy.

    Sometimes vicarious travel is sufficient to the day.