Clump #106:  Clear off second shelf in pantry.

I was too much in a hurry when I took this photo, clearing the pantry one shelf-clump at a time:

I stood, peering at this tea box for too long trying to read the expiration date before opening it up to find it was empty!  D’oh!

It’s been an education in how wasteful a disorganized food closet can be.  So often we’ve bought multiples of the same item because we haven’t known, or have been able to see, what’s there.

Okay, time to get out of the closet, so to speak!  I needed to buy a birthday present, and felt like I was honoring the spirit of Giving Tuesday by shopping at Ten Thousand Villages, a Fair Trade Retailer, “Gifts That Give Twice.”  Fifteen percent of all sales today were going to a local charity that had set up a table in the store.

Feeling a bit color-starved when outdoors, I’ve been appreciating berries: one of the last swatches of bright color in the landscape. The other day I was thinking about the fact that I’m like a bird seeking out color, when a bright red cardinal flew right in front of me.