Looking Forward to 2015

I can't believe it is 2015!  I've heard so many folks say they are so glad that 2014 is over but for me, 2014 was a year of personal growth and discovery.  It was rather rocky going yet anchored in the firm belief that I was on the right path.  So here I am, ready to embrace the new year in all it's promise of what is yet to come.  Welcome 2015!

And So the New Year Begins

This is the time of year that many make or start their New Year's Resolutions.  I do not.  The past year (2013) was one in which I made three major life changing decisions that I diligently worked on throughout the year and look forward to expanding on them in 2014.  So I have no resolutions to break within the first week or so of the new year then feel guilty about it.  I have all the hopes and dreams for a beautiful, memorable new year filled with family and friends, love and laughter, and good times. 

It was a cold, blustery, snowy winter start to the New Year here.  My husband went to the Winter Classic (Maple Leafs vs Redwings)  in Ann Arbor, Michigan yesterday so the house was quiet.  I puttered around the house and made a few annual updates to my blogs while watching the game, looking for him in the crowd.  I spotted him three times!  One of our kids paused their TV and took a picture of him.  It was snowing and cold so I kept an eye on the weather knowing the roads were going to be horrible for him and his friend both ways.  He arrived home safe and sound, happy but tired.

And so the New Year begins...

Bringing Back Wordless Wednesday

I have been in a blogging funk since the end of 2012.  As a result, I have not been blogging as much as I once was.  It's time to change that!  I am going to bring back Wordless Wednesday posting.  As per my previous style for these posts, they generally consist of a photo that has some meaning to me along with a short caption and date the photo was taken.  Sometimes I use a cartoon but not very often.  So, look for those posts starting tomorrow...

Busy Days

My gosh, 2012 has started off quite chaotic so I haven't been blogging as much.  I hope to get back to my normal daily schedule within the next day or two.  I have so much to blog about starting with our winter vacation (Dec 4 - 22), a minor mishap at the airport coming home, our wonderful Christmas, volunteering for the local school's breakfast program and starting my major indoor winter project of painting every room in the house.  So there is a lot going on right now but in a good way.  Tomorrow I will post the first in a series of posts about our winter vacation to bring you up to date.  In meantime I hope you have a very enjoyable, blessing filled day :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Oh My!

The month or so has been rather out of sorts.  There's the leg injury that is still ongoing and the disruption of the house being on the market.  There's blogger's block and yet plenty of blog fodder.  There's getting the private blog up and running for renting out our vacation home.  Then there is the itch of spring fever setting in to be squashed by snow spells.  And now on top of everything there is political unrest in Canada.  And so it goes...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

The Sound of Silence

Technology is a wonderful thing! Little did Alexander Graham Bell realize when he invented the telephone that it would become an insidious pest in our lives. He did not envision the fact that a phone company would charge us outrageous prices for their service then turn around and list our phone number in a directory in addition to selling our phone numbers so that every telemarketer for miles around can call us. Nor did he envision the governing party aka CRTC above this phone company aka Bell Canada would set the ground rules that basically telemarketers can call you on the phone you pay for so basically at your expense from the hours of 8 AM to 9 PM basically 7 days per week. When the populus finally had enough to complain the CRTC set us this nice concept called the National Do Not Call List for you to add your phone number to. In essence this really became a Do Call List of which those numbers were harvested as anyone dumb enough (including us) who signed up quickly found out. If you add your name to this list the telemarketers have 31 days to purge your phone number from their system which in theory sounds fine but in practice gave them carte blanche 31 days to pester the snot out of you on a daily basis. To add insult to injury anyone you had dealt with in the past or as in Bell themselves have a current account or any charity was not governed under the new rulings so they could pester the snot out of you any time they wanted but sure shooting it was usually just as you sat down to eat.

Bell Canada offers this nice little service that you do have to pay for called call display. This allows you to see who is calling you which is great unless they choose not to identify themselves then the number comes up as long distance/long distance or private number. In reality this wouldn't be necessary if Bell did not put your name and phone number in a public directory then sell this information to telemarketers. Apparently they don't get the concept that I want communication services for those I want to communicate with not telemarketers, charities and other scammers. After the Do Not Call List major fiasco we took to only answering calls that identified themselves and we took advantage of another one of Bell's paid services called call block that allowed us to stop up to 12 calls from getting through. I turned off the answering machine portion of our phone allowing unidentified calls to ring until they gave up. The end result was not dealing with these calls but a lot of telephone ringing some days. Onto the scene came our new phone system, nice and shiny silver and white like a white knight and it has been a white knight.

This system has virtually all of the extras Bell offers built in with the exception of call display, the only service we must subscribe to through Bell but stripping our line of all the extras saved us $30 per month! Now the beauty of this system is with one click of a button all unidentified calls are automatically blocked. Period! The phone doesn't ring at all. Any call that comes in as a number only can be checked online then if desired saved to the call block list meaning if they call again the number rings once then is disconnected. The phone does log these attempts and what I've noticed is especially with one persistent telemarketer it went from 10 calls the first day to 4 the next day to 1 the next day and surprisingling a break of 2 weeks then one call and nothing since. We have effectively taken back our phone lines and I have to tell you the sound of silence is golden!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Visitors

Chicago Cardinal Red
July 15, 2009

My garden despite a late start is growing nicely. We still haven't added the other raised beds which will likely be a fall project now. The past couple of years we have been dealing with mice, voles, centipedes, pill bugs and earwigs indoors. This is the year of the earwigs! So far the battle has been going rather good as we drive these critters further from the house. The massive sealing and removing any debris from around the house has been an ongoing project since we moved here as is ripping out idea rodent hiding spots near the house. On a larger scale of critters we have a family of swans that visit regularly. The mother Mallard and her seven little ducklings visited last night. The rabbits visit daily. We didn't see the skunk but knew he was there! We hear the raccoons chit chatting at night but have seen them yet and the possum that frequents the area hasn't been spotted either.

The first year we were here, it never dawned on me to treat the lower level as if we were camping. Four of the lower level windows are pretty much at ground level including the large kitchen window. The patio door in the kitchen in on ground level for the back of the property but well below ground level for the front of the property. The kitchen is tucked into one corner completely open to the family room. There is no way to get to either the patio door or window without going through the kitchen. I was watching television on the couch when I smelled the presence of a skunk. Now the kitchen window and patio doors were both opened and it doesn't take much for a hungry critter to get through the screens. The fresh apple pie I had baked for my husband was sitting on the counter cooling while the skunk more or less wandered between one screen and the next. The problem was there was no way for me to get to either to shut them without triggering the skunk. I used a broom handle to flick on the patio lights. Sure enough there was the skunk! Then I remembered a trick from our camping days. If you shine a light directly at their eyes they will mosey along. So I quietly got the big Mag flashlight and prayed that trick would work. Thank goodness the skunk headed towards the edge of the water. I could still seem him as I quickly shut the patio door. Had it been a raccoon instead of a skunk it would have been in the house after the pie! Come evening in the warm weather if the windows are open the patio door and kitchen window are shut to leave only an inch or two opening for air to get through but not the critters.

Yesterday I heard a bit of scratching in one of the upstairs rooms and discovered signs of something in the pantry. Nothing had been gnawed on that I could see. More than 90% of all the food is in glass, heavy plastic or metal containers but there are a few things a hungry mouse could get into. I did a walk-around and discovered a bit of wood coming out from under the eaves directly corresponding to where the noise is coming from in the house. So my husband is currently poking around in the attic to see if he can see anything. He'll put out more bait then get up on the ladder to see if he can get the hole plugged if there is one. What we think happened is we discovered a mouse free-for-all run under the side entrance. Three bags of cement later that problem was solved. What it looks like we did was trap a mouse in the house and the mouse is trying to chew its way out. In the meantime it looks like I will be spending a bit of quality time in the pantry organizing and doing more rodent proofing.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

The Log Cabin

Hunt Cabin
November 10, 2008

In the past couple of entries I spoke of my husband going to hunt camp. This really isn't a camp as in Boy Scouts with tents and roughing it but it is more rustic than home life. The group of guys that go all all good friends with one of the guys from the group owning the log cabin. A couple in the group including my husband do not hunt and have no desire to do so but go along for the camaraderie. My husband and another good friend tend to act as the hunt camp cooks.

The cabin is a log cabin heated with a wood stove. That means the main small room is warm or even hot when the fire is stoked up but mornings can see the cabin quite chilly if the fire dies out through the night. Log cabins tend to be rather leaky letting in both cold air and rodents especially when they are used seasonally. This cottage is no different in that it would need some serious winterizing to use it during the cold winter months in Northern Ontario. It was considerably colder there than at home and they did get snow overnight the first night there. Extra warm clothes and blankets were a must even though it was early in the cold season.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

updating blogs

Sorry, no picture today. I have been quite busy most of the day updating my cooking blog. It is still a work in progress that likely won't see completion before morning but it is getting close. I've learned a lot today with all the tweaking so that's a good thing. In celebration I even made a new 125x125 ad for the cooking blog! If you have the chance to stop by, please let me know what you think. This blog and my homemaking blog are next on the adgenda but I will make announcements when I start the updates.

Updating is always difficult especially for someone like me who really likes to stay with the tried and true. All four blogs while they have distinctive features can benefit from a little pizzaz. There's frustration when you try a background and it works one way but if you try it another way it does. There is the tediousness of creating graphics, testing and then retesting, tweaking and retesting before you get just the right look. There's annoyance at checking the links in the sidebar to make sure they are still working. There's the hard look at elements as to whether they are doing what you want or not. There is sadness at finding out a program like BlogRush that you participated in and gave up part of your blog real estate to has up and shut down. It is equally frustration when you have widgets that are designed to bring traffic and or advertising to your blog only to find out they serve inappropriate ads or they are being run by extremely anal control freaks dictating to you what you can and cannot do on your own blog despite the fact that they are where they are today because of us bloggers. You have to decide whether or not to remove the widget or not and that is not always an easy choice but some are making it easier. Then there are the advertisers but for the most part as long as you are not doing anything illegal they don't dictate what you can and can't blog about. At the same time you do have to stay on top of them so that the advertising fits in with the theme of the blog. Well all of this is part of blogging and that means the blog by default is constantly evolving. And that is where I'm at this week.

I'm a blogger :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

my new game plan

Blossoms
April 27, 2008

Any one who has been following this blog will know I have had some recent and ongoing health problems. Unfortunately they are continuing and we seem to be no closer to the root of the problems. Since I know my diet is quite healthy I decided to look at a couple of other aspects of my lifestyle. My physiotherapist said bodies are designed for movement and one of the best things you can do for your heart is to walk briskly for 30 minutes daily. So I focused in on that. I'm really a fairly active person by nature but to dedicate 30 minutes daily to walking, well now, I can seriously come up with a lot of excuses. It's either too cold or there is some type of precipitation, neither of which my lungs tolerate well. Then there are the things like canning, cooking, housecleaning, blogging and if I really need a shallow excuse, I can use online poker. Besides, I don't want to miss Corrie or Law & Order and we all know the latter is on 24/7! You get the idea. I love being outdoors, working in the garden and enjoying nature but walking just for walking, I don't think so! Ok, so I had to have a nice friendly little chit chat with myself reminding me of how much I enjoyed hiking at one time and how good this would make me feel and how much my body would benefit from this new game plan.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am now onto day five of my new plan. I wrap a jacket around my waist, put on my walking shoes and clamp the iPod tightly onto my ears, tuck the cell phone and digital camera into pockets then head off. There's no point backing out once I'm all packed :) Day 1 was novel and Day 2 showed me I really needed this. Day 3 my buns were tender. Day 4 I actually was able to push it a bit longer than 30 minutes. Off to do my 30 minutes...

Garden Gnome
©2007

Things

Taking a Ride
February 23, 2008

The past couple of days I've been dealing with things. I am by nature a bit of a clutterer even though I like the neat and tidy, clutter free look. This past week I've spent time and energy gathering up things that took time, energy and money to get in here in the first place. In fairness some of the things migrated with us during our last move but have not found a home here. Funny thing about homes, some things fit while others do not from one home to the next. So I'm going through the things that simply do not fit here. That means lots of things are making their way out the door. I briefly toyed with the idea of holding a yard sale in the spring but that would mean the things would sit in the garage giving the temptation to sneak them back into the house. So I've decided to do a clean sweep by donating whatever I can eliminating any temptation.

Why is it so hard to part with things? For me there is always the "this might come in handy sometime" and in some cases the memories attached. Even though the thing has long out lived its usefulness and even though it might be pretty tatty looking, I will still hang onto it for one or both of the two reasons mentioned. What I've started doing with some of these things is to take a couple of digital pictures then let go of the actual thing. Using Photoshop I then create a scrapbook page using the picture along with journalling as the memories attached to the thing. This way I can clear a bit of clutter while still hanging onto the memories.

Garden Gnome
©2007

Nature's Eye Candy

Ocean View
Hallandale, Florida
January 23, 2008

Nature provides all the eye candy you would ever need! Last night's lunar eclipse was amazing! It was bitter cold here forcing me to put my winter jacket on for picture taking. Now, I've been avoiding my winter jacket all winter preferring instead to take advantage of layering for ease of removal as needed when Mother Nature reminds me I'm not a spring chicken anymore. My winter jacket is just too heavy and confining! I managed a few good shots but not as good as the last lunar eclipse. The sight was worth braving the cold!

Bizarre Power Outage

Road Trip to Pick up Beef
February 16, 2008

Saturday we were on the road to pick up our beef. The weather was very cold despite the sun and the sky was a brilliant blue. I took several pictures along the way while enjoying idle chit chat with my husband in the beauty of the day. It was a busy but very enjoyable day. On the way home the sky turned cloudy hinting at the incoming storm.

We had the most bizarre power outage last night. It had been a very busy Sunday with a social event even though my husband was not feeling well. So when we got home we decided an early bedtime was in order. About 2 am one of our kids who is staying with us temporarily awoke us because the electricity was doing rather strange things. Some fixtures didn't work at all while a few worked but the light output was greatly reduced. The display panels on the stove and microwave were on but very dim. Having dealt with electrical problems just after moving in my first concern was a tree branch had hit our incoming lines. My husband decided to get dressed and to outside to see if he could see a problem where he met up with our neighbour who was also outside because of the electrical problem. He had already called HydroOne who told him to flip the main breaker because the existing problem coupled with when the power was restored could cause some appliances to be damaged. So we flipped the main breaker then waited for HydroOne to restore the power.

We live on a small secluded, dead end street off the main road. The entire road was out and then some in both directions. Apparently some 1,500 homes were without power for reasons that weren't disclosed. We heated with wood for a number of years spanning two homes. When we finally bought a house with a natural gas furnace it seemed a treat. There was no hauling wood, chopping wood or stacking wood. Wood does warm in so many ways besides the flames! Then we moved to our previous house also heated with natural gas but the electricity was so finicky it would go out if there was a cloud in the sky. Honestly, the power was out on average three times a month while we lived there bringing the problem of how to stay warm when the power was out because the furnace wouldn't work. Onto this home where we also have a natural gas furnace but the electricity is considerably more stable. Again I was concerned about a secondary heat source for power outages during the winter months. We have a lovely natural gas fireplace that was a retrofit for the existing wood fireplace. I really want to turn the fireplace back to wood. This power outage showed that the natural gas fireplace will work without electricity so we have secondary heat. This is pretty cool :)

At any rate, it was the most bizarre power outage we have ever experienced!

Ghosts

Hanging Tree
Captain Tony's Saloon
January 15, 2008

We had pre-arranged a Jimmy Buffet walking tour before we left home. We met our tour guides at Captain Tony's Saloon on Greene Street, Key West. We arrived before they did so had a chance to look around the saloon. The first thing that strikes you about the bar is the decor. Almost every conceivable surface is covered with business cards! My husband promptly added his to the collection. The second notable is a pirate skeleton behind the bar, eerily greeting patrons. The third notable is the tree trunk but this is easy to pass by as part of the decor as it could easily be camouflage for building support. This bar was so rustic looking I just had to check it out. The main floor bar has a rough paved stone flooring. It opens onto Greene Street. To the left of the main floor is a smaller room sporting rock walls, a brick fireplace with glass bottle ends showing, a pool table and a tombstone laid in the floor are the features. Next to it furthest away from the road is another small room about two feet lower than the main level, rimmed with rock walls and housing a pool table.

This bar has a rich history including being the oldest bar in Key West, the first morgue, the original Sloppy Joe's for Ernest Hemingway. Apparently because of a rent increase dispute the bar owner at that time (Josie Russell) moved the entire bar and fixtures to it's third and final location of the current Sloppy Joe's. There are still graves (16 bodies) under the floors. What is more interesting is the hanging tree that was the city's hanging tree for criminals and pirates. Captain Tony's Saloon is built around the old hanging and on top of the old morgue! Seventy-five people were hanged from the tree that. The saloon is reported to be haunted by . Captain Tony (Captain Tony Tarracino) placed bottles filled with holy water to bring peace to the haunting spirits. Rumour quotes him as saying he often stayed by himself in the saloon but was never alone. Orbs and apparitions mysteriously appear in photos taken in and around the saloon. I took nine photos inside the saloon and unfortunately did not capture any orbs however there is what could be a ghostly apparition in one photo. It looks surprising similar to a photo that reports to show the ghost of lady in the blue dress.

The unique decor of the saloon originated by folks trying to get messages to Captain Tony while he was out on his boat so they hung the messages on the door. When he arrived back he would get in touch with those folk. The practice was seen as being unsightly and a fire hazard so Captain Tony told them to hang the notices inside the saloon instead of on the door. It caught on so now the decor is business cards galore along with anything else that can be pinned to the walls or ceiling including feminine garments. This really is a must visit saloon in Key West!

Scenic Tour

Southernmost Point Marker
January 16, 2008

The total number of pictures taken during our entire vacation was 640 so I have plenty for scapbooking. We loaded up on sunscreen, doned on our hats then took a scenic tour of Key West on the scooter stopping to take many pictures and check out the many interesting shops. The sun was bright sending warm kisses over our bare skin. What a treat for us to be wearing shorts and sandals this time of year! Just to give you a visual, my husband has this classic summer look of Hawaiian shirt paired with short that sometimes don't match the shirt, Birkenstock sandals and straw hat. This is the way he looks from the time the snow melts until the snow flies with the exception of special events like weddings or funerals or when golfing where the sandals are replaced by golf shoes. He has a closet full of these kind of shirts and well over a couple of dozen straw hats in various shapes and colours. His straw hat of choice for the trip was similar to this one but turned up at the back. I was dressed in striped capri, a sleeveless shell topped with a 3/4 sleeve blouse, sandals and sun visor. We likely looked rather funny on the bright red scooter as my husband is quite tall so there wasn't a lot of room on the scooter for me. And I don't think anyone thought we were tourists either with the camera constantly ready to snap a shot ;)

We toured the entire perimeter of the island which is about 2 miles by 4 miles. There was a light breeze that grew stronger as we neared the southernmost point of the continental United States. It's only 90 miles from Cuba closer that I thought. By the time we reached the point my husband hat had to be held in place then finally removed. The wind was quite strong! To the right of the fence, not show is the Naval Air Station Key West (NASKW). The air base is located within a National Marine Sanctuary and as such a large component is integration with the environmental concerns of the Florida Keys eco-system. We arrived back at Captain Tony's Saloon in time to meet with our tour guides for a walking tour highlighting Jimmy Buffet.

Captain Tony's Saloon is a rather interesting place, one to be expanded up on in tomorrow's entry so please check back.

Lazy Thoughts

This is a photo of the second story veranda of Cypress House in Key West. If you look towards the far end of the second photo you will see the two wicker rocking chairs and chest outside our room. The swing porch and more wicker furniture is outside of the other room that shares the veranda. Sitting swinging lazily on the porch swing, lazy thoughts wafted in and out of my mind. It was very, very relaxing! I am now effectively hooked on porch swings so will be trying to fit one in at home. It won't be on a porch but it will be very similar.The long end of the veranda fronts onto Caroline Street while the short end fronts onto Simonton Street. Now both of these are very busy streets so I do have to mention that you will hear sounds from the streets however we heard nothing from Duval Street a short block away.

The Key West chickens will wake you early in the morning but we only heard them once at the inn so there aren't many nearby. These are protected birds in Key West that folks like us (tourists) find very interesting and novel yet folks that live in Key West view the birds as pests. I'll post a picture of them tomorrow. We heard several novel ways of ridding one's property of these birds without leaving any incriminating evidence. The ice cube in a sling shot was quite a good one that according to the source works quite well. Another comment was that when the next hurricane hit the chickens would be left to their own devices. All kidding aside these birds are a protected species so as much as I understand that the locals aren't fond of them there are fines for harming them or their nesting sites. The birds do add a certain uniqueness to the island that can't be disputed.

Back Homeside

Flying Over the Mountains
January 15, 2008

We are back safe and sound no thanks to last night's weather from our winter vacation. I didn't say much about it because there were a lot of things going on and my recent health problems threatened to cancel the trip. We were scheduled to fly out January 15^th but only got the clear to travel for me with restrictions on the 11^th. So I best let you know what we've been doing for the last ten days.

We stayed at a motel with park and fly the night before our flight to Fort Lauderdale. The picture above was one of the very few I could take from the plane window because of cloud cover. It was warm but cloudy when we landed after an uneventful flight. Oh wait a minute, the real funny point was when this guy aka Mr. Important came into the bar where we were eating breakfast. It was a morning flight and since my husband insists on being at the airport three hours before boarding any source of amusement helped to pass the time. Now get this, Mr. Important came in with another guy who seemed quite normal and he very pleasantly listened to Mr. Important talk on his cell phone for the majority of the time they were in the bar. Mr. Important pulls out his cell phone immediately and proceeded to tell everyone within listening distance via his cell phone how security took away his $100 cologne, toothpaste, soap and deodorant. Why? Apparently Mr. Important can't follow airport security rules! Now this just struck my funny bone because the more this guy went on about it, the madder he got to the point he was going to go give security a piece of his mine. Ya right, that would help [get him tossed out of the airport]. I dang near snorted coffee out my nostrils at this one! Guess what [drum roll please] I can mimic him much to the amusement of fellow passengers which means I have a bit more talent than I thought. Anyway, we did see him board and were thankful he wasn't sitting behind us but the humour he left behind will be shared :)

Ok, so back to what I was talking about. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale then took a shuttle to pick up a sweet little red convertible then we headed to Key West. It was a pleasant drive despite what we had heard. This is the first trip that besides the night before flying wasn't a motel trip. We stayed at the historical Cypress House only a couple of blocks from Duval Street. Seriously this is a must stay at bread and breakfast, one I will be expanding upon. Talk about a beautiful area! We even rented a scooter to get around. Now Key West is laid back but it could seriously tire you out. We had a lot of fun there and are already planning our next visit. We learned about the Conch Republic, the endangered Key deer and the lovely Key West chickens. We enjoyed a Jimmy Buffet tour much embellished by our tour guides and enjoyed our share of rum. Then we were off to No Name Key where we visited with my husband's aunt and uncle. They cut us a coconut from their own trees along with some star fruit. I was down right determined to get that coconut home and through Canadian customs AND I did :)

From No Name Key we travelled back to Fort Lauderdale. There we rented a condo which really is a wonderful way to go. It was on the ocean so the view was quite lovely and we could see the inter-coastal view as well. It had laundry and cooking facilities so I took advantage of cooking breakfasts. If you want to read more about what we ate and cooked in Fort Lauderdale check out my cooking blog. We even had a one day in where we lounged in our pj's between the patio and tv in the name of football! Compared to Key West, Fort Lauderdale was really low keyed with little traveling and more homelike. I'll talk more here on this as I really enjoyed going the condo route.

We arrived at the airport for our 3 HR Tour . Hey, I still had a sense of humour and what the heck. Aside from a really nasty [few adjectives added here] waitress at Nathan's Famous at the airport. Now apparently Nathan's Famous does not take responsibility for there employees and their nastiness towards paying customers but you can try to contact them here. Not that that will do a lot of good but if I were you I would definitely boycott Nathan's for lack of service, poor quality and failure to respond to complaints. I will be blogging about this issue as it unfolds. But corporate office is already working on that one. Did you know, one negative comment on a blog can really have an huge impact? Blogs have a bit more influence that some think and one negative experience can really get the word out. In the meantime, be sure not to let Sonija serve you. Honestly, she really does not know what food service is all about. So good or bad you will hear me blog about it and really this girl is more than two thumbs down and needs to be fired for poor customer relations and a down right piss poor attitude.

Ok, so I've done my rant, that was the bad. We hooked up with a couple from Australia while waiting. They were really a fun couple waiting for their delayed plane as well. We will keep in touch. The plane was about an hour late boarding but it seemed to be a rather uneventful flight even though the stewardess said it was a rough landing. I was dressed in cold weather clothes because I am always cold but my husband was in his trademark shorts, sandals and Hawaiian shirt. He quickly had to change with the almost 2 inches of snow. Travel home was horrid! It took almost 4 hours to get home something that would normally take us about 2 hours. So there you have it in a nutshell. We had a lovely time and came home to very cold weather so stay tuned for what we did in between.

Reality hits and I'm off for tests tomorrow but in the meantime I'm relaxed and we have sun here today turning the lawn to a thousand diamonds. Life is good!

Me Time

Clouds While Boating
August 17, 2007

I'm into the heavier canning season so spent much of the weekend cooking and canning. Keeping the motivation at a high level can sometimes be a problem this time of year at the best of times but I'm still tired from our move and settling in so fighting procrastination is a daily thing. One of the grocery stores have a sale on pork shoulder roasts at $1 per pound so that has been a good motivator. I canned up five test jars on Sunday (picture and method here) after a slow cook. It was a nice break from canning tomatoes. We are taking advantage of this sale so my husband brought home 16.4 lbs for $16.40 regular price of $53.96, a substantial savings. It's in the oven now slow cooking for canning later this evening.

With no tomatoes to process today and having no one home, I've decided on a little "me" time while I wait for the roast to cook. After filling the bird feeders, I'll do a walk-about the gardens, camera in hand. Then I'm going to settle in on the dock for an hour or two flipping through a couple of home improvement and scrapbooking magazines listening to the sounds of the water and pausing to catch the sights. It should be a very relaxing and reflective afternoon.

Enjoy your day!

Fruit Bowl

Perpetual Fruit Bowl
September 13, 2007

I had a dentist's appointment this morning so stopped at the nearby grocery store to pick up a few things. As always a healthy part of the purchase was fruit and vegetables. While most of my produce purchases is from a wonderful little market with locally grown produce, I have to buy things like exotic fruits, citrus and bananas at the grocery store. For some reason today's shopping stop jogged a small memory tucked away.

Food plays a huge part in our family and always has. Everyone who knows us, knows that and they know how insulted I would be to think anyone ever left our home hungry. I always have two large bowls of fruit, one on the kitchen/dining table and the other on the coffee table. I also always has a huge bowl of vegetables on the kitchen counter. Both are repeated in the form of chopped fruits and vegetables in the fridge. The contents vary but they are always there. The rule in our house is any food is fair game meaning even when the kids were toddlers they were free to help themselves. My philosophy was and still is emphasizing good, wholesome foods. Kids will eat what is available and in our house heavily processed, preservative laden foods full of excess salt and sugar was just simply not available. So back to this little memory.

One day our youngest, then a precocious pre-schooler climbed up onto a chair and sat looking very perplexed at the fruit bowl. Thinking he was trying to choose a piece of fruit, I continued about my kitchen activities. Finally he sighed and asked me if the fruit bowl ever got empty. I said, well sure but because we keep eating it the bowl keeps being refilled. Satisfied he grabbed an apple and went off to find his brothers and sister. A few minutes later it was just a bit too quiet so I went to investigate. He was munching on his apple telling them that the bowl was magic so it would never get empty. We heard the night time raids and did find evidence of them trying to empty the fruit bowl by eating one piece at a time but true to his then their belief the bowl was always filled.

Over the years I've added new fruit bowls like the one in the photo but that one bowl is always out. Our kids are now grown with fruit bowls of their own. I have to smile when I see the bowls heaped full available for anyone to snack on. One of our traditions has been passed onto the next generation :)

The Marina

The Marina
Sep 9, 2007

We stayed overnight on the boat Saturday night despite the forecast for rain. The marina we docked at is one we've stayed at several times. It's within walking distance of a few restaurants and grocery store but the marina provides a shuttle service to larger shopping centres. We opted to walk to the near by sports bar for a quiet meal while watching the football game. After dinner we went for a nice walk before settling down on the boat. It's always quite relaxing just sitting on the boat as it rocks gently in the water while taking in the sights and sounds of the marina.

I awoke to the sound of a gentle rain in the early morning hours and of course couldn't get back to sleep. I couldn't go and sit outside because of the rain so finally turned on one of the cabin lights to read through a magazine while my husband slept to the sounds of rain drops increasing in numbers and boat rocked a little stronger. Being rained out when boating much the same as being rained out in a tent when camping but photo opportunities always present themselves.

Not to miss any photo opportunities, the camera was beside me on the cabin's ledge. Looking out one of the port holes, I spotted the lighted palm trees a few feet from our well. I took a few pictures from inside hoping for at least one good one. It's had to tell how good the picture will be from the LED display sometimes. I was rather pleased with what I thought was the best picture from the group. The palm trees sit on each side of the dock ramp. What looks like golden shimmering water is actually the dock beside our boat. The empty well beside us adds to the illusion of shimmering water forming a mirage effect.