I'm so glad you could stop by. This is my personal blog of daily life and my journey through life. You will find a strong emphasis on family and friends as well as finding my ancestors through genealogy. Unlike my other blogs this blog is more of a catch-all so any topic is fair game.
This is the time of year that I'm extremely busy processing tomatoes. Along with canning excess tomatoes from the garden I also process an average of 10 hampers (6¼ bushels) of commercially grown tomatoes from a relative. Pictured is one of the first tomato based sauces I made this year. I will be blogging about it on my cooking blog along with the other tomato based products I stock my pantry with. I thought you might be interested in seeing what I'm up to this time of year. The gold lids are standard Bernardin single use metal canning lids. Once used they are not to be reused for canning. The white lids are Tattler reusable lids that I'm testing out in the hopes of eliminating the disposable ones. Doesn't that sauce look yummy?
Those who have been following this blog will know exactly what the significance of the donkey is. For those not aware of the significance of the donkey please check the archives. Here's a cute little video of a donkey apparently not happy with things not going her way that I find just a bit on the funny side. In some respects this rings rather close to home for a certain donkey but without going into further detail enjoy the chuckle and have a great Monday :)
Tomatoes started this past week. While I grow lot of tomatoes most of them are fresh eating. I don't grow any specifically for canning although some of my home grown tomatoes end up in the canning pot. Most of the tomatoes I grow come from a relative who grows commercially. I usually process somewhere around 10 hampers of tomatoes when in season. Last week I processed 2 hampers into roasted tomato and basil sauce, smooth Italian sauce, marinara sauce and tomato stock. It is a lot of work but the tomatoes are free so and it is a great blessing to replenish the pantry. This is the time of year the pantry begins to burst at the seams. What a wonderful blessing!
My husband and I have decided to commit to at least one daily 30 minute walk for the next 30 days. There are a lot of health benefits to simply walk daily and it doesn't cost anything. Today will be Day 4. I've managed to get a couple of 30 minute walks in two of those days and 30 minutes the first day. My husband has done his as well so this is a step in the right direction. This should be an interesting challenge. Won't you join us on our challenge to walk 30 minutes daily for the next 30 days?
I can't recall the first time that I was diagnosed with allergies but there is no doubt that I am highly allergic to a large number of allergens. The problem is and I do understand the immunology as I age I get more allergenic to things that when younger I could tolerate but no longer can. The science behind this is allergies work on the threshold principle. This means you can be exposed to a certain allergen up to a certain level without reacting but if you go over that level you will react and then each exposure will result in stronger reactions. I think I experienced my first outbreak of hives about 15 years ago. Well apparently hives is now a part of my almost daily life. I would have added a picture but that would just gross you out. Anyway, the last few days have been a bit on the brutal side with respect to hives. If you haven't had hives imagine a mosquito bite the 10X the reaction. I react bad to mosquitos as well but hives are seriously so much worse!
A few days ago I went out to the garden to do a bit of picking. I know I was not bit by anything and yet in less than 10 minutes I had an outbreak of hives. I broke out with hives while canning tomatoes and again on the boat a couple of nights ago. I refuse to take anti-histamines due to the side effects but my gosh I might have to given this recent round of allergic reactions. I am certainly not impressed but I'm not going to let it get me down! I think I will start increasing my daily dose of Vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases. Quite often supplementing with Vitamin D will alleviate the symptoms so it is worth a try. At the same time I am will be working on getting outdoors a bit more daily to stimulate natural Vitamin D synthesis. Unless it is raining out I'm back to my daily walks. This should help boost my natural Vitamin D synthesis while getting me a bit more in shape and that's not a bad thing. Besides if boosting the Vitamin D levels in my body eliminates the hives I will certainly be a happy camper!
I read with great dismay that one of my favourite bloggers, Maitri is stepping away from most of her online life. She has said she will continue writing one blog but she has let the other blogs, Facebook and Twitter go in favour of living more in the real life. I'm saddened by this because Maitri's blogs are one of the first I visited on a regular basis back when I started blogging a little over 4 years ago. The thing is I really do understand where Maitri is coming from. I know it has been a rough year for her especially with the loss of one of her beloved pugs.
There are days that I honestly think walking away from my online life would just make things so much simpler. There would be no pressure to try an get posts out on schedule and no dealing with any online nonsense. In many ways I have cut back on my online activities especially when it comes to forums and groups but I'm considerably more active on social networks. At the same time blogging fills a need for me so I have no intentions of cutting back on that any time soon.
If I could turn back time...I really think I would be right here where I am right now. I'm content and happy so that's all that matters. It's funny thinking back how our first computer, an Amstrad 88 has taken me to here. Well actually our very first computer was an Atari but one of our kids used it all the time, spending hours typing in code just to get a little ball bounce across the screen. The Amstrad was different. Our first internet set up was Internet in the Box and I learned Gopher, Pine and Linux. It was unbelievable that I could easily talk to others half way around the would. Those really were good days for going online. They weren't as pretty but there were no worries about trojans, viruses and spam was almost unheard of. There were great ICQ and bulletin boards. I got to know the newsgroups. It when I learned by trial and error how to create a homepage using a funny language called HTML. My favourite operating system was Windows 3.1 and back then I was a die hard PC (Windows) user. I got into internet security and privacy so learned a lot about that something that still helps today. One of our kids got me into Mac for home use although I was quite familiar with Apple through academia. I made the move to Mac at home about 7 years ago and have never looked back although my current iMac is dual core so partitioned to use both Windows and Mac opperating systems.
In terms of online activities at some times it would be nice to turn back time to a quieter, less intrusive time of being onlin; a time when trolls were dealt with accordingly with a few well placed LARRTs. People respected online privacy and online stalking was a non-issue. It was a time where people just wanted to connect and really it was the first form of online social networking. I do miss those days! But I enjoy these days too so won't be walking away from the internet.
There have been a lot of storms in our area recently. The hot and very humid weather has created the conditions for pop up thunderstorms, some rather violent. The resulting clouds have helped to create some incredibly vibrant sunsets. They are just absolutely amazing! Pictured is the sunset from a couple of nights ago. It was stunning to say the least, just gorgeous! True to the say a red sky at night, sailors delight the following day was rain free.
We haven't had the boat out much this year. There have been a lot of storms in the area, all around us but few actually hitting us. This had made it rather iffy for taking the boat out. Last week we took advantage of a clear evening to do a bit of boating. After we got back from an wonderful ride I sat on the dock enjoying the darkness as it fell upon the water. The moon was rather bright making a lovely twinkling path across the water. It was a perfect ending to a gorgeous day!
My gosh we have had quite a spell of very hot and very high humidity weather over the past few weeks. I was hoping the weather would break before I started into my busiest time of the year for canning. I really don't like running the canners when the AC is on if I can help it. Canning generates a lot of heat and moisture in the kitchen something I don't mind doing during the heating season but prefer not to when the AC is on because it makes the AC work harder which in turn costs us more money. Late Monday afternoon I got my wish just in time for the almost 19 lb of peaches my husband brought home for my canning pleasure. With the garden producing nicely and local produce quite abundant, I was so happy that I could get the peaches put up with a nice breeze coming in the open windows! What a lovely blessing :)
I took this picture from the boat the other night. The water was smooth and the sun shining brightly gave a lot of photo opportunities. Obviously the lens reacted to the glare of the sun in this image resulting in this rather interesting artifact. I like getting shots like this not only for learning purposes but because the the effects. Quite often the image is just a delete and forget but sometimes I like the effect.
The swans visit at least twice daily. This is the same couple that has visited us since we moved here over three years ago. I never tire of photographing these majestic birds! The picture was taken from the kitchen patio doors just a few feet away from the water's edge. It was early morning and the water was just a bare ripple, still quite grey from the cloud cover. The water constantly changes colour or appears to depending on the time of day and sky conditions.
These are Mute swans that winter here as well. We get visits from the Trumpet and Whistler swans occasionally during their migration. Mute swans mate for life and care for their signets for two years. This year the couple have no signets which is unusual so they likely had them but something happened. The swans can be quite territorial and despite their graceful, serene appearance when agitated one hit from their powerful wings is enough to break an adult's arm!
The swans have become quite friendly with us. They know they get fed! Just the sound of the patio door opening is enough to bring them to the dock where they wait for the bread we toss them. They are rather spoiled as this isn't the cheap store bought white bread but rather most times homemade multigrain bread or occasionally my husband's store bought Italiano splurge. Everyone along here feeds them. Our neighbours a few doors down have a seadoo. Last year the swans were near their dock and would not let them into the dock. It was quite the sight to see! Each time they tried to dock the seadoo the drake went right after them. The poor neighbours were stuck out on their seadoo for a good hour not being able to dock because of the swans. Finally the swans mosied on and they were able to dock the seadoo. It was very interesting to see a very different side of the swans.
As a foodie I am always taking pictures of the great food we are so lucky to enjoy. I think the only food I have not taken pictures of is funeral food which is a shame sometimes because it can be quite impressive but somehow it just doesn't seem appropriate to whip out the camera. The buffet style wedding dinner was roast beef, garlic butter chicken, potatoes, corn, and green beans. There were two kinds of leaf salads, a vegetable tray, and dinner rolls. Gravy, horseradish sauce and a variety of salad dressings accompanied the meal.
This was a lovely, home cooked style of meal that very much reflected the bride and groom as well as their guests. Pictured is my plate filled with delicious food. I can certainly attest that the meal tasted as good as it looks!
The colour scheme for our nephew's wedding was black and white with pink accents. It was quite pretty! My husband won one of the centerpieces to bring home. The centerpiece originally sat on a black table runner over a white tablecloth bordered by three white votive candles. I was surprised that there were no silver sparkle confetti to give just a bit more glitter but it could be the hall wouldn't let them. I know they were talking about the sparkle confetti at the bridal shower. Many halls and most churches don't allow the confetti because it does make such a mess and it really isn't very eco-friendly but it is a tradition that is going by the wayside.
Weddings are always such joyful events. This past weekend we shared in the celebration of our nephew's marriage. All of our kids with spouses and significant others attended with the exception of one who couldn't make it due to the distance. As we watched them exchange their vows I couldn't help but think how young they looked! I'm sure the same was said about us when we got married as well, but then we were young.
The beaming bride and groom made a really cute couple. Pictured is their wedding cake. Apparently the bride did not want a wedding cake but the groom did. They compromised with him making all the arrangements for the wedding cake. I think he made a nice choice. They are both foodies who love to cook. In fact she told me at the bridal shower that she would have to fight him for the Joy of Cooking cookbook I gifted her with. It ended up being her first cookbook so I am so glad to hear they both love cooking.
I think everyone enjoyed the celebration. All of the invitations (bridal, wedding), RSVPs and thank-you cards were handmade using scrapbooking techniques. That theme was carried over to the party favours that were four large chocolates in a small box embellished with scrapbooked tags. The meal was excellent and the DJ kept the dance floor crowded. The late night snack was pizza which is something I've never seen at a wedding reception. I noticed that they did not offer coffee or tea with the snack though which is rather odd.
We had a wonderful time! It was late when we arrived home but the camera was filled with lost of great pictures and we had lots of great things to talk about on the ride home. We sincerely hope the bride and groom have a very blessed life as they start this journey together!
August is always one of the busiest months of the year for us. It is a time when the garden and local produce becomes readily available so the canners are going full tilt. I put up maple blueberry conserves, peach lavender jam, peach chutney and peaches with peach snapps. I love watching my pantry fill us with home canned goodness. It was a peachy week of blessings!
Living on the Great Lakes waterway we have the wonderful opportunity to see a wide range of vessels ranging from fishing, pleasure, homeland security, commercial and research. Smaller research vessels are a rather common sight but we only see the Lake Guardian a couple of times a year if we are lucky. The Lake Guardian is the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) largest Great Lakes' research and monitoring vessel operated by the Great Lakes National program Office (GLNPO). This vessel is the only self-contained, non-polluting research vessel on the Great Lakes. It conducts monitoring programs sampling the water, aquatic life, sediments, and air to assess the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Data collection lasts for about 7 months of the year. Scientists interested in using the Lake Guardian for research purposes can apply to the GLNPO for one of the twenty-seven available space allotments for scientists.
Following the trend of cute babies and toddlers I found another cute video of a little one arguing with her Mom. Apparently she did not eat her food but puts up a rather good case for not doing so. The end result is rather priceless! Enjoy :)
My husband surprised me with two gorgeous bouquets of flowers a few days ago. He does this from time to time for no special reason, just because. It is always such a treat when he does this. Flowers always make me smile even on the worst of days. Aren't they pretty? Carnations are so pretty! I need to plant some of them for next year's garden.
Babies and toddlers can be downright hilarious sometimes. It's funny how after raising our own kids some of those priceless memories are now being repeated in slightly different versions by our grandbabies. It's interesting to see how they try to figure things out while their different personalities come into play. The problem is sometimes all you can do is laugh at their antics! I found this cute video of a toddler after being told by his parents not to go up the stairs wrestling somewhat with self control. Arguing with himself in the mirror seemed to be the solution to his problem. Enjoy :)
As a night owl I tend to flick channels on the television to watch in the background while multi-tasking. I tend to like documentaries and dramas. Well the other night I flicked onto The Baby Borrowers. This a real life show where teenagers who want to be parents are set up in houses with real life responsibilities then are put through the tests like simulated pregnancy and trial periods of looking after children at various ages starting at infancy.
I'm sorry but I just don't get this show. These teenagers are thrown into grown-up situations without having the coping skills and don't forget teenagers are still children. They have no support system especially from their families and then from the get go are given an out in that a nanny will step in if the borrowed baby is at risk. In addition to that the biological parents of the borrowed baby step in rather judgmentally when in fact they should not be putting their child in that situation to begin with. Of course an infant is going to cry non-stop in a different environment away from the main care giver the baby is used to. So the show is very flawed right from the start even though it does have the good intentions of showing the teenage want-a-be parents that being a parent is not as easy as it appears.
We were young when we got married, too young by some opinions. There was no chance to practice being parents or anything else but we loved each other and that's all that mattered. Our focus has always been family first. We welcomed our kids into our loving arms and learned from them while they learned from us. We flew by the seat of our pants and now that we are grandparents we still quite often fly by the seat of our pants. Regardless of how old your children are they are always your babies but now we have the added responsibilities of guiding, teaching and supporting the grandbabies once again relying on the tried and true values of love and respect that have never, ever let us down. We make the best decisions possible always with love and respect, a value we set from our dating years. Now you can't go wrong if you have love and respect as guiding values.
This past week has been one of exploration. Canning plays a huge role in our lives so anytime I change anything with respect to canning it becomes quite stressful because one of our values is not wasting food. Changing a simple technique in canning can lead to food spoilage through seal failures. So changing from the tried and true canning methods is very, very stressful for me. We this past week I started trial runs testing out Tattle reusable canning lids. The nice thing about these lids is they are reusable so eco-friendly and unlike the regular canning lids are BPA free. Both of these factors are very important to me. The Tattler lids are made using FDA and USDA approved materials but the lids themselves are technically not approved for canning by the USDA. The bottom line is I really don't agree with the USDA for some things when it comes to canning especially when a ruling is a quality issue not a safety issue. My opinion is the Tattler lids are every bit as safe as the 2-piece snap lids so my only concern is getting the seal that means the food is safe.
You should have seen me in the kitchen doing the first trial run using these lids. My stomach was in knots! I did 7 L and 24 - 500 ml jars of green beans. Eleven of the jars used the new Tattler lids. I had one failure but I'm sure that was due to not tightening the ring properly. So the preliminary test using the Tattler lids was a great success meaning I can now introduce a new level of eco-friendliness into canning while eliminating a suspecting carcinogen since there is BPA in the coating on regular canning lids. What a blessing it is to find a frugal eco-friendly substitute that is also healthier for you. I am seriously thrilled with this bit of exploration!
I'm a serious foodie and my husband well gosh he is right up there when it comes to being a foodie. We eat good on a daily basis. Actually we eat a lot better than most on a daily basis - good, old fashioned, home cooke, and preservative free foods. I can a copious amount of food each year so we don't have to rely on commercially canned, preservative laden foods. Given our food choices and diet the whole concept of dieting to lose weight is rather foreign.
I seriously have never watched my weight and definitely do not fit into the calorie counting crowd! I eat what I want, when I want. The thing is by nature I am not a big eater and actually border on under eating side even though I am a foodie. Making sure I get enough eat enough in a day is more of a concern. At any rate I figure as long as I am eating healthy foods free of pesticides, preservatives and other nasties I'm doing a good thing. I'm doing a bit of a change of pace adding in a few extra anti-oxidants and eating a bit more plain yogurt with active bacteria to help with my internal flora. Oh and I'm experimenting with apple cider vinegar (ACV) that seems to be going well.
What the heck! At my age I have to try a few anti-aging tactics don't I and from my perspective it all starts with what I put in my body to begin with. So I'm being a bit more conscious to make sure I get my 8 c of water daily and for the most part I've given up on on the three vices of AAC (alcohol, aspirin, caffeine) and never was a fan of candy or carbonated drinks. Well, I'm still battling with the caffeine but have it restricted for most days to 1 cup of coffee/cappuccino or green tea in the morning. I'm not a fan of chocolate especially milk chocolate but I'm finding dark chocolate in very small amounts to be tolerable while giving me a health benefit. So I'm having a bit of change in pace, hopefully for the good :)
My apologies for a late post today. I was up until after 3 AM canning a beautiful batch of organic green beans. Much of the morning was spent finding my kitchen again. It was a bit more tedious canning session than normal because I am testing Tattler reusable canning lids so I was quite concerned over seal failures. At any rate I ended up with 7 L jars and 24 - 500 ml jars of gorgeous canned green beans. The canner made three runs in order to process all the beans and if you know anything about canning is the processing times and cooling times can't be rushed. It was a productive evening and early morning that has left me doing a bit of catch-up but during the busier canning season that is to be expected. Oh and while waiting on the canner I did check for the Northern Lights several times but did not see them :( It would have been a nice sight!
If you recall we had two mallard nests this year, one towards the front of our property and one near the water's edge. We have had a nest of Mallards each spring since we moved here. We don't bother them so they reward us with several family visits throughout the summer. Aren't the ducklings adorable?
The following is from my email files. This email has been making the rounds via forwarding as the author asked. This is good food for thought so I'm passing it on. The email is not signed so I added the author unknown. I did not modify the email in any other fashion. The author of the email presents very valid points as to how Premier Dalton McGuinty has greatly increased the cost of living in Ontario. If you have followed this blog you will already know my opinion of Dalton McGuinty and his greedy tax grabs. I will certainly do my part to pass this email along!
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Dalton Mcguinty
27 Billion in debt and he still has a year and a half to go.
Forward this please!
Here is what our premier has done for Ontario in the past seven years !!!!!! and this was a no tax increase election campaign.
He increased all the licensing fees from your car to your boat including fishing and hunting.
He introduced the health care premium (not called a tax) some couples pay as much as $1,500.00 a year.
He doubled the price of most lottery tickets. (Not called a tax).
He has put an ECO tax on many containers such as paint cans and window washer fluid most people still don’t realize it is on your bill. He kept that one real quiet
He has put a disposal tax on all electronics.
He has put the disposal tax back on tires
Now don’t forget that all except the health care premium are subject to the GST and PST (taxes on taxes.)
And now he has passed the HST the largest tax on the province ever, the only other tax in Ontario that ever came close to this in the past was the health care premium.
He passed this bill even though 76% of the people in Ontario were against it
This HST will provide the Province with an additional THREE BILLION dollars a year.
And now we will have our S.M.A.R.T. meters that we will have to pay rent on and do our laundry in the middle of the night and we are going to pay big time for air conditioning from now on because when we need it the most that will be prime time. As if it costs any more to produce hydro at two in the afternoon or ten at night another tax grab.
Let us not forget the E health scandal with one point two billion dollars wasted and paid out to friends and relatives.
What was Mr. McGuinty’s answer to this (well if the people of Ontario don’t like it they can show it in the next election.) Nice attitude. This was after he fired the CEO and gave her a severance package of three hundred thousand dollars not bad for only having the job for seven months.
Then the windmill power plant he awards the contract to KOREA seven BILLION DOLLARS. One would think that there was some place in Canada or North America that could have built these.
He closed the emergency rooms in Port Colburne and Fort Erie because there is not enough money and there has been two deaths since because by the time they got to St.Catharines it was too late.
He awards a hospital in Toronto three million dollars in the riding where there just happens to be a by- election to replace George Smitherman
He has taken the richest most prosperous province in Canada to one of the poorest and has created a deficit of TWENTY SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS and he still has a year and a half to go.
And don’t forget his nice little salary increase of $40,000.00 a year, millions of people in the province don’t earn half that.
All the MPP’S got 14% increases Now that they all got nice increases he comes out with a new budget and freezes all provincial employees wages for two years.
He has increased the hydro by 10% in April of 2010.
He has increased the tax on liquor and wine by 10% in May of 2010
But mister no tax McGuinty will retire with his nice comfortable pension and all his paid benefits.
I hope this gets passed around the province of Ontario and everybody will remember the way we got screwed by mister Mcguinty and the liberal party.
Not one liberal MPP had enough guts to vote against any of the above ! !
There is just something that appeals to me about the Roaring Twenties. This was a phase coined to describe the 1920's in North America, London, Paris and Berlin. The time period was nestled between the end of World War I and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that ushered in The Great Depression. The economy flourished. Several life changing inventions, discoveries and new technologies (automobile, moving pictures, radio) during the Roaring Twenties would change the world forever. Jazz music became quite popular. The mood was lighter and cheerier.
As someone interested very much in genealogy the Roaring Twenties is a fascinating time period. The fashions and hairstyles are quite interesting, reflecting the changing roles of women in society. Here's a great video of the fashions and hairstyles. Enjoy :)
This past week was one of discovery! We found an amazing organic farm within an acceptable driving distance of our house. The owners also have free range laying hens so we have secured another source for farm fresh, organic eggs. We aim to use local produce and foods produced within a 100 km radius of our home. We are very fortunate to live in an area with this is quite possible! Smaller farms especially organic ones are getting few and far between. Finding one especially of this size is quite the blessing! The owners are very friendly, down to earth people with many similar values to us. We've already emailed back and forth a few times. I can see us becoming friends as well!
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
"I have called this principle, by which
each slight variation, if useful, is preserved,
by the term Natural Selection." —Charles Darwin from "The Origin of Species"
