Tiny Tuesday!

After a bad night’s sleep that’s absolutely not Anime’s fault, though she is the reason (she’s fine! no worries!), I was mostly a slug when I woke up. Debby had bought a store-made quiche from Whole Foods and brought over a couple of slices for Tom and me to have as breakfast today. It was delicious noonish with a salad I had left over from last night. But it wasn’t a lot of food, and about four, I got peckish. It wasn’t a picnic kind of day (writing schedule, state of outdoors, etc.), but I decided I wanted to create a sense of “treat yourself” using a picnic for one.

Right to left, those are some delicious seedless grapes, pita crackers, Old Wisconsin turkey sausage bites, and a chocolate-covered cherry. After I shot this photo and began to eat, I realized it wasn’t a picnic for one at all.

I used a small wooden board that was either part of some gift basket received in the past or an employee gift exchange package at one of my former workplaces. As I filled it, I thought of work friends from Christmases past.

I put the board on a cotton Ekelund Weavers mat which was a gift from Sweden sent by my friend/sister of the heart/college roommate Debbie sometime in the 1990s. Beautifully woven and titled “Long Dogs,” it’s been tucked away in a cabinet for years. I wonder why we put cherished items away to save for a special occasion and then forget them. Today, I reminded myself that every day is a special occasion, especially when things conjure up people you love who love you, too.

The grapes and pita crackers came from Sprouts, where Debby had asked me a couple of months ago to take her the next time I went (she’d never shopped there). She loves fresh produce, as do I, and theirs is organic and aesthetically pleasing, so we made a trip there this week.

The turkey sausage bites came from a gift pack that included several meats and cheeses sent to Tom by one of his sisters for his birthday. The chocolate-covered cherry means I finally opened the box of them that Tom gave me at Christmas, a yearly offering he took over from my mother after she died.

My “solo” picnic was filled with other people and lots of memories. Tiny moments, tiny treats, can loom large in adding happiness to our days.