Frosty Shadow Shot Sunday

 

Frosty weather this weekend. Yesterday the roofs and lawns stayed powdered with frost all day, and the sun also seemed to go to bed unusually early, so I ended up just staying in. Today was a bit sunnier, and after lunch I decided to at least venture out as far as the dustbins (at the corner of my building) - and take it from there. I stayed out for about 20 minutes walking (slowly) along sunny parts of the street + nearby paved footpaths. The bridge leading over to the old cemetery is always a tricky spot as soon as frost hits, though, and that turned out to be true today as well. So I decided not to cross that. 

 After all the rain lately, some of the nearby lawns have sprouted (if that's the word?) lots of brown mushrooms, of unknown kind to me. When I was out on Friday, I first mistook them for wet leaves - until I realised that some of them really were too thick!

Nov 14, 2025

Today I noted that some mushrooms had been "frosted"! Not sure I've ever seen that before!

Nov 16, 2025

 

 PS. I don't think there is a "Shadow Shot Sunday" linking site any more; it just popped up in my memory when snapping a couple of shadows on a Sunday...

Knee Sleeves and Algorithms

 

When I emptied my postbox yesterday, I was happy to find a speedy delivery of a pair of bamboo knee compression sleeves that I had ordered; hoping that they might be a softer alternative to the synthetic ones I've been using so far (not around the clock, but when for example out walking). I've not wanted to wear those directly on my skin though, so have either worn them with a thin tube bandage underneath, or on top of cotton leggings. 

I've also experimented with using the cut off upper parts of a pair of super elastic 'diabetic' bamboo knee-highs (saved from an old pair where the feet got worn out) over a piece of tube bandage on the knee; as a lighter kind of support (at home and in the night). 

The bamboo sleeves I ordered now turned out to be thicker and far from as elastic as the diabetic socks. But I tried keeping them on over night, and they did remain surprisingly comfortable. 24/7 use may not be recommended with these either, but I think they'll be a useful "middle" alternative to the others. 

As soon as you start searching for anything like this online, though (and even more as soon as you actually order something) - it seems to trigger like half a million internet algorithms (for example on Facebook) to say to themselves: "Oh, look, she's interested in bamboo knee bandages! Hooray! Surely she'll not just want one pair! She'll want at least half a dozen - no, make that a full dozen... And all from different companies..."

And the thing with these bamboo knee bandages sems to be that no matter what company or distributor I check out, and whether they claim that the bandages are available in sizes from XS to XXL, or boldly state that "one size fits all"; and whether the sleeves are kept in stock somewhere locally (and may land in your postbox in a couple of days), or shipped directly to customer from China (in which case delivery is more likely to take two weeks) - I notice that every image of them looks the same. They all seem to be in grey and white, with almost exactly the same pattern. Just possibly marked with different labels.

Which makes me imagine one gigantic bamboo-knitting factory somewhere in China, producing billions and billions of these, and shipping them out to an endless number of retailers all over the world, who in turn do their best to sell them on to billions of people with knee problems... (Some of us possibly ordering some from different companies to compare - only to find them all the same??) 

   

   

Fog and Frost

 

Friday ~ 10 a.m.

Yesterday (Friday) was a very grey, dampt and foggy day here, even if the rain had stopped pouring down. Sunnier weather was forecasted for today - but also risk of frost and ice. 

Having given my knee and feet plenty of indoors rest for a couple of days, I decided to try my (in "normal" life) habitual Friday afternoon "recycling" walk. (It's often a good time to go, because then the bins have usually been recently emptied.) It went well, so no regrets.

Saturday ~ 10:15 a.m.

This morning, I woke up to sun and blue skies - but also frost-covered ground. Past noon, it's still frosty in shadowy places. I'm not sure if we're ready for that yet ("we" as in me and my knee!) Not sure yet if I'll be going out at all - but if I do, it won't be far, and I'll try to keep in the sun...

 

Extras

 

Today was Delivery Day for me - as in my usual every-other-week delivery from the supermarket. Having unpacked everying I had ordered, I found myself myseriously left with an extra bag, containing a strange mix of things which I had not ordered... 

 

Had it just been one or two of the smaller items, I'd just have taken them for what Janice of the blog Jabblog the other day called "free gifts". (Actually I was amused to note that the pink "goodies" bar seemed kind of similar to the sweets she blogged about - claiming to be "95% fruit"...) 

 

However, since the bag also contained... 

• a normal size bag of rye bread
• a 3-pack of Taco spice mix
• a weird narrow stick labeled "ölkorv"( = Swedish name for German Bierwurst  = "beer sausuge" in English) (something I've never tasted)
• a small roll of wine gums 
• a mascara
• a small jar of skin cream 
• a small bag of instant coffee
• a small bag of some weird porridge powder (baby food??) 

... I found myself puzzled by the strange variety of stuff, and assumed I must have received someone else's bag by mistake...  

 

So I called the store to ask. But it turned out that they were indeed having some kind of "campaign week"; and as I had been one of the first 150 people to put in an online order this week, I had received all these various "gifts". (The campain thing had totally passed me by when I put in my order, I just went by my list of things I wanted/needed...)

 

I have received free stuff before on a few occasions, but never this many different things all at once. And the only things among them that I might have considered buying myself, on special offer, is the bread and the Taco spices (although I prefer a different brand). 

Conversing with my Knee

 

Photo from last week

Raining today, and I'm not feeling at all tempted to go outside. Which today is probably in my best interest anyway, as I think I managed to be "on my feet" a bit too much on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday another short walk to/in the cemetery; and yesterday was laundry day, and even if I tried to mostly just rest in between my turns down to the basement laundry room, my knee seemed to be complaining. I still can't claim to be 100% fluent in knee language, but it does tend to use a mix of increased heat, swelling and and pain to express displeasure... So today I decided to mostly keep my feet "up" + take Ibuprofen to keep down inflammation. (Kept to Paracetamol the first weeks because of the bruises, but Ibuprofen more effective against inflammation.) And I won't make this post any longer, because sitting at the computer means "feet down", even if not putting weight on the knee...