Weekly Recap; 8/11/25-8/17/25

Jordan DiVirgilio
Aug 18
4 min read

A pretty exciting week! With time in Nature and on the Water with some great people.

Dinner Monday night was simple, easy and delicious. It made enough for two meals. Here is the recipe;

Sweet Potato- diced (1)

Apple- diced (1/2)

Sausages- diced (4)

Avocado- mashed (1)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil- ?

Butter- ?

Hemp Hearts- ?

Preheat oven to 350°

Place Sausages on foil and add a few apples slices around them.

Microwave Sweet Potato until soft. Cut off the ends, slice in half and let it cool.

Heat pan coated with a healthy amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Peel off the potato skin. Then dice up.

Along with that dice up half the apple. (I cut up the rest to have with my lunch the next day)

Season in the pan with paprika, salt, curry spice and five spice powder.

Cook at medium heat for the potatoes. (Towards the end I turned the heat up slightly.)

Cut and mash Avocado in a bowl and season how you desire. This time I used Al Pastor Seasoning.

Once the sausages start to brown on top, I flip them. Cooking approximately 5-7 minutes per side. All while the potatoes are browning.

After sausages are cooked, I take them out and let them cool. Still browning the potatoes.

Once cool, dice up the meat. Add some butter to the pan right before you add the meat, turn up the heat slightly on the pan.

Mix all together and cook for a few minutes longer. Remove from heat. Add to a bowl with avocado and hemp hearts and boom.

Delicious dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day.

I put in three great days worth of work on some art pieces. Very happy with their progress!

8/12/25

Guided Meditation Class at Aura Juicery;

The class went well. As with anything, practice makes perfect. This was the third class I’ve held and it felt like by far the best one. There were three people attending the class. After we wrapped up the mediation I asked them all to pick one word to describe their experience. The answers were; Worthy, Possible, Calming, and Delightful was the word I chose.

It is highly rewarding to teach others how to meditate and then to see the calm and clarity that comes from them. There will be more dates available soon! Please stop by and give meditation a try.

8/14/25

Wonderful Walk in Nature;

Plant Species;

Blue Vervain
New York Ironweed
Swamp Rose Mallow
Swamp Milkweed
Spotted Joe-Pye Weed
Wild Bergamot
Russian Olive

Other Species;

Monarch Butterfly
Honey Bee
Snails

Very neat finds with some good plant medicines in there as well. Monarch butterflies were everywhere dancing around the plant life. Along with that many bees, caterpillars and snails. Such tiny creatures that play a big role in the ecosystem.

8/16/25 August

Upper Niagara River

Fun fishing with Dad

Air temp: 73°-84°

Water temp: 77°

Wind: NE 3MPH-> NNE 2MPH

Conditions: Sunny

Depth fished: 5’-17’

Time fished: 8:45am-12pm

Water clarity: 2’ + (GRASSY)

Pattern: Summer

Best Zone: ?

Total caught: 1 Smallmouth Bass, 1 Largemouth Bass

Dad caught the first fish of the day, a Smallmouth on the drop shot. As he was fighting the fish, it started digging under the boat and actually jumped on the other side of the boat which was funny to see.

Shortly after I dropped a smallmouth right by the boat. The bites were super light and beyond that, there were floating weeds galore. The light drop shot setup helps to minimize that; small line, small hook, small weight, small bait.

We decided to change things up. My Dad recommended a spot and I wasn’t thrilled. Then I changed my mind and we went and fished it. Then I landed my first of the day. A Largemouth! It has been a while since I’ve caught an Upper River Largemouth. Same drop shot setup.

Sadly the last fish of the day. It got hot out as the sun came up. Hindsight we needed to get out earlier. Regardless, the combination of the heat, boat traffic and slow bite, I voted to call it early.

Dog days of Summer. I don’t go out expecting to catch a lot. That does not mean I don’t get disappointed or frustrated still. That was also our first time out on the river since… hmmm let me go scroll back through the journals… ohh yeah… June 1st. Over two months ago and what a difference.

8/17/25

Another beautiful walk in Nature;

Plant Species;