Friday, December 31, 2010

Cold… brrrrrrrrrr

When we got up this morning it was only -9C/16F outside under a clear sky.
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That was COLD for us here on the Westcoast.  It was only 14C/57F inside but it did not take long for Cliff to start the fire upstairs and downstairs. It always amazes me how quickly the upstairs gets warm. So far we have only used the electric heaters in our bedrooms for overnight. Just the same, I hate to see the next electricity bill. It only got to 0C/32F outside today. It was a good time do do some baking and as we were out of goodies (that will never do) I made some oatmeal-raisin cookies.
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By the time they were done I was nice and warm.
This afternoon I took out my knitting again and cozied up to the fire downstairs.
That is how I spent the last day of 2010. We will sleep into the New Year.
I wish everybody a Happy and Prosperous 2011.
Good night everybody ☺

serviette 2 001

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

A Shopping Afternoon

We are having really nice weather at the moment. After some rainy days the sun has been out for 2 days now. It is cool though. Cliff has been cutting wood all afternoon and I went shopping with our niece Mylisa. Normally I don’t have very much stamina for shopping but at the Shoe Warehouse the time just flew. The shoes were so low priced that I felt like a kid in a candy store. I ended up buying 2 pairs of boots a pair of leather sandals and some brown Hush Puppies. To top it off I also bought a pair of jeans and a pair of dress pants. That should last me for quite some time. I prefer to spend my time and money at Staples or Future Shop Smile 
When we were finished shopping we walked over to Tim Horton's for a donut and coffee even though I don’t like their coffee.
We had a very good Christmas. Unfortunately the Young turkey I bought at Country Grocer was young about 10 years ago. It was quite a disaster but we ate it regardless. The soup is not bad though.
In the evening on Christmas day we had company and I was happy to give away 4 pairs of the socks I knitted during the year. I enjoy knitting socks but I also enjoy getting some that Nicki knits.
Watching the News I heard that we are in for some cold nights but the days should be sunny, so all is good.
Life goes by on an even keel, so there is not much to talk about.
Good night everybody ☺
stocking

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve 2010

I want to wish everybody a joyful Christmas and hope you all have a wonderful time.
Our Christmas will be wet but at least driving will not be too stressful.
For you people in the desert I hope Santa will find you. For the people at home I am sure he will come.
Merry Christmas from Vera and Cliff
one stocking

Monday, December 20, 2010

A dusting of snow

That’s what we saw when we got up this morning. By noon it was all gone. It looks like we’ll have a green Christmas and that’s the way I like it. It’s nice to see a bit of snow but it gets old quickly.
I had a lazy day today. Doing the laundry was the only job on my agenda, that and of course cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I still don’t care very much for my front loading washing machine. It takes so long to do a load. I always give each load another complete rinse. Maybe that is overkill but I hate to have soap residue on my clothes.
Looking at my flannelette sheets I find that they are getting pretty threadbare. I am waiting for Sear’s white sale after Christmas to get new sheet sets for our beds. I hope there will be some colourful ones.  
Nothing else new at our house so I will say
good night everybody ☺

Xmas 1

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Dreary day

We had two very nice days but this morning it started to rain. Thankfully it is more like a drizzle. Good thing Cliff went out early this morning to replenish the wood supply for the house. He was just finished when the rain started. I am so pleased it is rain and not snow. I don’t miss a white Christmas at all.
Today is supposed to be the busiest shopping day of the Season. I am sure glad I don’t need to go out and mingle with the crowds.
We just finished lunch. I cooked some of our squash together with cabbage. That is a great combination. Since we only have 2 small burners on the stove I like to combine the veggies. Sometime that turns out great and other times not so great.
In the summer I bought a few solar lights for the flower baskets. They were now starting to burn very dim and not for long since the days are not bright enough for a charge. When I had a closer look at them I found that they run on one rechargeable AA battery. I took the batteries out and recharged them on our 110 charger and now they shine bright again. I will probably have to do that again soon but that is OK.

flowerpots at xmas (Medium)

Tomorrow is the 4th of Advent and Christmas is fast approaching. I hope everyone has a healthy and happy time. 
In case you are interested in some good food have a look here:

Christmas Island

Good bye everybody ☺

mechanic

Thursday, December 16, 2010

No rain

I am very happy to report that. Yesterday I had an appointment with my doctor and today I had my hair cut. Glad both of those appointments are over with and I did not have to worry about driving on snow or ice or both.
Most of the time now Cliff drives and I love that but it sure does not help my own driving. When he first retired I would have rather gone to town by myself because I was used to it but now I would rather go together. Time sure changes one’s outlook.
A few days ago I noticed that one of my outdoor solar lights was not working. I had a closer look and saw that it worked with one AA rechargeable battery. I opened the light, removed the battery and charged it up in our battery charger. Then I put everything back together and tonight it burns bright. I wonder if it will work tomorrow at least a little bit because all the other ones only work for a short while since there is hardly any sun to charge them up.
On Tuesday I got a book from the library that I had been waiting for. When I first ordered it more than 400 people were ahead of me. When I brought it home it only took me about one hour before I knew that I would not have the patience to read it. It was No. 2 book of a trilogy. I had a hard time getting through the first one: “The girl with the dragon tattoo” but I thought I would try the next one, “The girl who played with fire” but it was a no go. The books are supposed to be such big hits, but not for me.
One of our baseboard heaters did not work so Cliff fixed it today. It sure is nice to have a handyman around the house. We hardly ever use the heaters but sometimes it is good to have them on a cold night after the fireplace dies down.
Now I am off to do a bit more knitting and listening to a book at the same time. I just love my new little MP3 player.
Good night everybody ☺

Maxineperfectbra

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Too busy to write

too busy reading that is. I really like my new MP3 player, Sansa clip plus. It is easy to use and I have never lost my place in a book yet. I sure like that. I can do lots of housework and cooking listening to interesting novels. I also have a regular book from the library which has to go back by the 14th.
Yesterday  we had another few hours of sign waving. It was raining hard though so it was not so pleasant. The end of our driveway is full of water which does not happen very often. I am only glad this did not come down as snow.
This afternoon we had a nice visit with Tom and Joyce again. We usually walk to their place and today we were lucky that it did not rain both ways.
Joyce bakes the best buttermilk biscuits. She gave me the recipe but for some reason mine never turn out as well. Makes me mad but I guess we all have our strengths and weaknesses.
Today is the 3rd Advent and it will not be long until Christmas. Too bad Christmas falls on Saturday and Boxing day on Sunday that means less free time for the working people.
Time to get back to my book.
Good night everybody ☺

i

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Gadget update

I really like my new iPod Touch but the Sansa Fuze + went back to Future Shop. It has a touch pad and the sensitivity was too great. I had it locked and it often unlocked just by moving the gadget and when it did it skipped a few chapters. It was very frustrating and I could not see dealing with that for a long time. I returned it and bought the Sansa Clip + instead. It is so tiny that it would fit in a matchbox, has 4 GB and not a touch pad but a clickable pad. So far I have no problem with bookmarking which is very important when listening to an audiobook. I really think that this is a keeper. I have never taken stuff back this much in my lifetime. Normally when I buy something I hang on for dear life.
I hope this is the end of the gadget chapter.
We spent another 2 hours yesterday waving our signs. This time it was by Country Grocer and it was not too cold and the sun was shining. We had quite a few people with us so we even had a good time socialising.

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After that I had time to play on the computer and read all the Blogs I follow. In the evening we had friends over for tea and cake. It was very enjoyable. We stayed up until after 11 PM which is very rare for us. Usually we get sleepy around 9 PM.
Now I better start our Sunday pork roast.
Good bye everybody ☺
h

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

iPod again

This morning I had to be in the hospital by 8.15 AM for a CT scan that had been booked about 2 months ago. Cliff drove and stayed in the parking lot doing some of his paper work. By 10.15 I was finished and we went to Superstore for some gas and a few groceries. When we finished we were on our way back when I remembered that Walmart had a good deal on toilet paper this week. Of course right next to Walmart is our new Future shop!!! which was the big attraction. I bit the bullet and bought another iPod Touch. I really enjoyed the one I had but took back because I could not download some audiobooks from the library. I am keeping the Sansa Fuze + so now I have both players. Hopefully that are all the toys for a long while. Smile
We got home too late to cook so we just had a few snacks and I made a good meal tonight. I prefer having my big meal at lunch time.
We still have a fair bit of snow on our property but not far from here the fields were free of snow. It is supposed to be sunny for a few days although it will be colder too. Just as long as the snow stays away I don’t care if it is cold.
Cliff is at another meeting and I will sit by the fire and read my book for awhile.

Good night everybody ☺

figure 2

Sunday, November 28, 2010

1. Advent

Today is the first day of Advent. When I was a child my brother and I as well as our friends used to go carolling on this day starting at 6AM. We would go around  an area assigned to us by our pastor. Quite often we heard not so nice comments from the people who would have liked to sleep a little longer on a Sunday morning Smile but most people enjoyed listening to us. After we finished we would all go to the church hall for coffee and donuts. I always like this time of year even though sometimes it was really hard to get out of bed at around 5 AM.
Yesterday was a super day around here. It was sunny and not too cold. Cliff and I went again to wave our signs at the motorists.

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It was amazing how many people gave us the thumbs up and honked their horns. We had a lot of fun doing it. Again I took a bunch of cookies and now Cliff and I are called “The cookie lady and her gentleman”.
Cliff went today also but I stayed home because we were going to have company and I had to prepare for that. 
As usual we had a great time with our friends.
Tonight will be an early bedtime.
Good night everybody ☺  

Friday, November 26, 2010

Not so cold

I am happy to say that the snow is melting. It rained quite a bit which helped to clear the streets. Unfortunately it will probably freeze later on tonight which makes the streets slippery and unsafe. I hope people take heed and stay home.
That’s what I did today: Stayed home Smile
I finally backed my computer up to an external hard drive. I had not done that for some time and this morning the thought hit. I would hate to lose all my documents, pictures etc. Tomorrow I will back up Cliff’s computer.
I also read a bit and finished my latest book: “The girl with the dragon tattoo”. Now I am waiting for the second book in the trilogy “The girl who played with fire”; I am no. 17 on the waiting list and I also wait for the third book “The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest” My number for that is a distant 439. It will take awhile before that arrives. The first book was a bit long-winded with lots of names to remember.
I fried some Coho salmon for lunch. Our friend Donna vacuum packed that for us when we were in Sointula. It sure is better than just wrapping it in freezer paper for freezing. The filets tasted fresh. I don’t normally like fried salmon but I am changing my mind, it was delicious.
Tonight we had chicken soup with lots of veggies and quinoa. I use quinoa for every soup I cook lately. I really like it.
Now to go and sit by the fire and read some more.

Good night everybody ☺

figure

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving

thanksgiving_09_213


I hope everybody has a great time.

Happy Thanksgiving to all !

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Here yesterday and gone today

I liked my new iPod Touch but I took it back today. I could not download the type of audiobooks I wanted. The rest of the features are great and I miss them already Smile
I now bought a “SanDisk sansa fuze+” 8 GB and already downloaded 2 books and am listening to one of them. I hope that it will give me lots of pleasure.


Yesterday we had lots of snow flurries but all told there was hardly any new snow on the ground. It was very cold today again but it was sunny and driving was OK.
When we came home I made lunch and then I plugged the MP3player in to charge it up. It sure was hard to wait about 3 hours for a full charge before I could play with it. In the meantime I downloaded the User Guide for it to familiarize myself with the features of it. There is a lot to learn, not like my other 2 players which did not have so many features. While I waited for the battery to charge fully I baked a batch of oatmeal cookies with raisins and chocolate chips.
That’s about all I did today.
Hopefully the weather will warm up soon but before that we are supposed to get another dump of snow. Not good Confused smile

Good night everybody ☺
ageing down

Sunday, November 21, 2010

First Snow and a Toy

Friday night it started to snow and when we got up Saturday morning it looked like a winter wonderland.

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Our driveway is very long and Cliff went out to shovel it when I got a phone call from our friend Tom telling us he would be over with this tractor to give us a hand. What a relief that was.
Here he is,

A friend in need is a friend indeed

After the driveway was cleared of snow we had a quick lunch and then went to support a sign rally against the proposed ECO Depot that the CVRD wants to ram down our throats.
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Finding the roads in good condition we decided to drive to town to do a bit more shopping. We went to Canadian Tire and after that stopped at Future Shop where I bought my new toy, an iPod Touch. The service there was excellent. A young lady by the name of Jenelle showed us the iPod and could tell us a lot about it.
When we got home I tried the new toy out. It took awhile to be able to get to my email but I finally figured it out after finding a PDF Users Guide on the internet. Because I had been working on that until nearly 11 last night I was so wound up that I hardly had any sleep at all. It is an affliction of mine, when I have something on my mind I cannot sleep.
This morning I finally got around to transferring some audiobooks from the library to the iPod but unfortunately it did not work. According to the instructions I need iTunes 7.4 version which is one that is already 3 years old. The one that I had to download for the iPod is the latest version.
Since being able to listen to audiobooks on the iPod was the first priority for me I think I will return the iPod Touch to the store and buy some other MP3 player. I am really very disappointed.
That is my sad story for today.
Good night everybody ☺

Thursday, November 18, 2010

An unsuccessful shopping trip

This afternoon Cliff and I went to town. Cliff had an appointment and I wanted to look for an iPod. He dropped me off at London Drugs where I eagerly looked for the right department. I found the iPods and could even turn one on but something was wrong with it so I was waiting for a sales person to help. One was busy with another customer but then the customer left and so did the sales person. I waited for another few minutes but nobody came so I turned around and while I walked to the entrance I met up with a clerk and told him they just lost a sale because nobody came to serve me.
Off I went to Staples not far from London Drugs. There I found all kinds of paraphernalia for an iPod but no iPod. I asked at the front desk where the iPods were and they told me “in front of isle 10.” I went there but all I could see were pictures of an iPod Touch, no iPod. Back I went to the desk and the fellow told me that the iPods were locked up but none were ready. Hmmm don’t know what he meant by that. He also said they were too easily stolen and made no move to help me further so that was the second store I left unsatisfied.
I guess the only other place around here is Future Shop. I was there a couple of weeks ago and they had them on display tied with a wire to the shelf and I could even handle them. At that time I had not made up my mind which MP3 player to get so I left.
The stores want to make sales to beef up the bottom line and then they treat their customers in above manner. I just don’t get it.
That was my beef today but the rest of the day was great. The weather held on but it sure looks and smells like snow.
Time to have a bran muffin and a cup of coffee.
Good bye everybody ☺

Cow-a-sock-ee

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Preparing for possible snow

The weather forecast is not very good for our area so I decided to make sure I have all the groceries in the house that I could possibly use for awhile. I also went to the library for more books plus I have quite a few on my MP3 player to listen to. Wood for the fireplaces is close at hand and 12 gallons of drinking water in the bathtub so I think we are prepared for the first snow fall. Our bathtub is the best place to keep the water since once a gallon bottle leaked and most of the water soaked into a rug.
Tomorrow we have to go to Duncan for an appointment so I hope the weather will hold. After that we should be OK.
I played at the computer ( or is it on the computer?) for quite some time today. I found a new free program to create vision boards. I used it to tweak my header picture. It was fun but I have to learn how to use it better.
My day was very enjoyable.
Good night everybody ☺

dishes

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Helping out

My daughter Sonja is the volunteer coordinator at the Kelowna Gospel Mission. They look after the homeless of Kelowna. At times I have volunteered there too when I visited with Sonja. The Mission has a free dental office for the homeless and are trying to raise funds for 2 more chairs to facilitate dental services. Pepsi Cola has a project on-line to give away $ 100 000.00 for a good cause. The public is invited to vote for the cause they think is best. Sonja asked me to vote, vote, vote, which I have been doing a lot. I was wondering if some of you would also like to help out. Each vote could mean the difference between success or defeat. Here is the website:
http://www.refresheverything.ca/expandourfreedentalclinic
I usually vote and then sign out at the bottom of the page and then I can sign in again to carry on.
Right now the Mission project is number 17, so quite far away from no. 1 but the voting goes until December 31. of this year. It would be nice to see 2 more dental chairs in the Mission dentist’s office. I am sure the homeless would appreciate it.
I have not been doing too much today but I made chicken a la king for lunch and also made a chicken soup that will last for 2 evening.
My iriver MP3 player has been giving me some grief and I tried to get it going properly which took quite some time. I still don’t know exactly what I did but it works again after a fashion. I would love to buy a touch iPod in the near future thinking that I could use it for my audio books plus I could get my email at some Wi-Fi spot if
I am travelling. What do you think Rick about using it for my audio books? I would appreciate your thoughts on that.
Now I will do a bit of reading.
Good afternoon everybody ☺

e

Saturday, November 13, 2010

The verdict is in !

Like I said in my previous entry, I started the “Cincinati Skyline Chili” We ate it the day after served over spaghetti with lots of cheddar cheese and soft assiago  added. It sure was different from our normal chili but both of us liked it. So the recipe is a keeper. Today we had a meeting at our place this morning so not much time to cook. I had frozen lots of the chili because using 2 pounds ground beef made a large amount. I quickly defrosted one of the frozen tubs and we had it over potatoes, also with lots of cheese. That tasted even better than over spaghetti, so it’s a double keeper Smile  
We had another sunny day yesterday but needed the fire going inside. In the morning a friend and I went shopping in Mill Bay and had a coffee afterwards at a little coffee shop in  Shawnigan Lake. That was a disappointment because they had changed to a different coffee type. They used to make each coffee separately but now ours came from a large thermos sitting in the back. It was not very good and we will have to find a new haunt for our coffee breaks. In the afternoon I baked 2 kinds of cookies and one pan of bran muffins for our meeting this morning. That took care of the afternoon.
Right now I see it is raining and the rest of the day will be very lazy for me.

Good bye everybody ☺

d

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Trial and Error

I have just spent a few hours fooling around with a trial Blog. Rick got me going on that with today’s post. First I opened a YouTube account which took me ages to do (I’m not too bright at times) I had to find a video but unfortunately I did not have one to post so I used my webcam to make one. It turned out way too long because I did not figure out how to turn it off in time. Grrrrrrrrr (Did I tell you I’m not too bright at times????)
I added it to my trial Blog anyhow, and now I have a Blog with an embedded video. All things considered I did not do too badly.
We had a bit of sunshine today after yesterday’s rainy day. I did not take advantage of it though since I stayed indoors all day.
A few days ago Pidge mentioned “Skyline Chili” and it sounded real interesting to me so I googled a recipe and prepared  the meat part today. Tomorrow I shall finish it and see if we like it. I know Cliff will be surprised when I serve it over spaghetti because until now we only know chili made with beans. In our younger years I used to try out all kinds of new recipes. It was hit or miss but mostly hits.
We are enjoying the last of this years flowers but not for much longer.

Gladiolus cropped


I never thought it would open up when it was still in the garden but as soon as I brought it in the house it started to bloom.
Time to do something constructive.
Good night everybody ☺

cry

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Visit over

We had a great time together. As usual it was way too short.
I always like it when one of my girls is visiting. We go shopping together and I finally get some clothes that are not years out of date Winking smile This time it was only a top and I really like it. Tomorrow I will wear it when we have company in the afternoon.
We were also able to get the Christmas gifts for our grandchildren. It is so much better when the Mom is with me since I have no idea what young ladies and gents like these days. (other than cars and such.Open-mouthed smile) The kids live too far away from us to find  out easily.
We left very early this morning to take Sonja to the airport just in case there was a delay on the Malahat but the traffic was very light and we got there too early. We are still from the old school when 5 minutes before the time was the right time. We got home before the flight even left Victoria and I was able to track it all the way to Kelowna. We hope Nicki will come for a visit some time too. (ya hear, Nicki!!!)
Before Sonja came I bought some Moosetracks ice-cream but we did not eat very much of it so now we have to finish it ourselves. What a calamity Winking smile
I better go and suffer through some of it!
Hope everybody has a great time ☺
chickens

Thursday, November 4, 2010

A beautiful day

The weather yesterday was beautiful. Sunny all day long.
Last Monday was Sonja’s (our daughter) birthday and on Tuesday we picked her up at the airport. It was so great to see her. Yesterday we went shopping for her birthday gift. We stopped at the Shoe Warehouse first and both tried on several pair of shoes for me and boots for Sonja. Neither of us bought any. Sonja could not make up her mind and I could not find anything that I could not live without. Off we went to Mark’s Work Warehouse. The first pair I tried on had the “It’ factor and I bought. On the way home Sonja thought about the boots she did not buy and after a bit of back and forth we stopped back there and bought those for her.
When we got home I made a birthday dinner. We had invited Sonja’s girlfriend.
The day before Sonja came I made our family’s favourite cake, a “Prinzregententorte”. It takes at least 2 hours of constant work to build that. 7 cake layers with chocolate butter cream in-between. Each layer is individually baked; cleaning, buttering and flouring the pan between baking. It is a sweet-lover’s dream.
Prinzregententorte 4 

Sonja will be here until Saturday morning when we will have to be at the airport by 8 AM, no later.
I hope everybody will have a great day ☺

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Bedtime for the Garden

Cliff has been working hard in the garden and even I have gotten into it but only for a little bit.
It was time to dig the dahlia bulbs. I was totally amazed by how many corms (is this what they are called?) there were under each dahlia.Dahlia tubers (3)
I think I look like a real gardener??
Dahlia tubers (6)

I had to rinse the corms because there was too much dirt hanging on. I dried them in the sun for awhile and now they are in the family room drying a bit more. After that I will dust them with Wilson Bulb and Soil Dust, a combination of Insecticide and Fungicide, put each lot in a paper bag and all of them in an orange net bag and hang them up to wait for the Spring. I will check them often to see if none of them rot.
If anybody knows of a better way to store them please let me know since I am just a novice gardener. My “normal garden job” is weeding. I am good at that ☺
Today is supposed to be the last day with some sun; tonight the rain is supposed to start with some wind thrown into the mix.

For the first time in years I did not buy any Halloween candy! How horrible is that!!! In the last few years nobody came to our neighbourhood for trick or treating and I used to eat all the candy by myself, hardly waiting for 7 PM when I figured nobody would come. Sometimes I could not even wait that long. So this year I fooled myself and I am already sorry, so if somebody should come I have a stash of quarters ready.
Now it is time to eat my Bran muffin.
Good by everybody ☺
happy-halloween

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Flu Weather

This surely is a Fall day. When we got up this morning it was foggy. We had an appointment to get our Flu shot in Duncan. A few days ago, when I called to find out when the flu clinic would be in our area I was told that it was “yesterday” Grrrr but luckily there was another one not too far from us. Our appointment was at 9 AM so we got up early to have breakfast and a quick look at our computers (can’t start the day without that!!!) and off we went into the foggy world. I was the first person to get stabbed and Cliff was next. Now we are good for another year. While we were there more and more people arrived and I was astonished how many cars were in the parking lot. I was sure glad that I had elected to have an early appointment.
After we left there we dropped off a couple of old tires and old oil at the dump/recycling centre in Duncan. I have never seen so many seagulls in all my life.
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This picture is nothing like I saw a short while after but I was too astounded to grab the camera. Thousands of gulls flew out of those two tall doors in the picture. It reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock's “The Birds”
What really terrifies me is the fact that the “Powers that be” want to build a similar facility about 500 meters from my house! We are fighting this tooth and nail because it’s in an Agriculture zoned area. How dumb is that plus there are houses all around it. One property's well is about 200 feet from the proposed site.
One of the workers at the site today told Cliff they had “non- lethal poison” to get rid of the rats. HUH????????
One nice thing today though: We finally bought a new Radio receiver. We don’t want a home theater just something to listen to FM and AM. Just the same this thing has a remote control with half a million buttons. Our old one is 37 years old but it needed to be retired. The speakers are as good as new and they are nice pieces of furniture so we kept those.
After that I wanted to have a Big Mac but when we got there it was so noisy and crowded that we decided to go home and eat our home cooked meal. We had Hamburger curry on rice with squash and Swiss chard and a salad. Beats a hamburger I think.

So that was my day so far.
Good bye everybody ☺
chickens

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Busy Day

I was busy all day long but cannot show too much for it. Some days are like that. Only thing to show is 6 loaves of bread.
We only have one loaf in the freezer and

Sonja is coming for a visit and I did not want to bake when she was here. It will be the first time for bread in the new range. I also baked bran muffins. Lately that is what we have for a break in the afternoon. I would call it “coffee break” but that might keep me awake at night.
This morning I went to Mill Bay to get some toiletries at Pharmasave. It is Senior Day with 15% off so I took advantage of that. A penny saved is a penny earned (or you might even have to earn more depending on your tax bracket Surprised smile)
Cliff has been busy in the garden plus getting fire wood in for the day. Most of our wood is cut in fireplace lengths but now with the insert it has to be cut shorter. Makes for double the work but sooner or later we run out of the long stuff.
Our flower baskets are still hanging in there but they will have to come down soon.
This is the time when we used to leave for Arizona and I feel a bit sad for not going but it is nice to be able to follow the RVing Blogs. Pretty soon Al and Kelly will be leaving and I will be able to read all about their travel.
I still miss reading Margie and Bruce’s Blog. It was always so interesting.
That’s it for today,
Good bye everybody ☺

c

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Someone is going hungry tonight

squash nibble

Those darn rats!! We pulled the rest of the squash vines from the garden this afternoon. All told we have 26 nice size squash and quite a few little ones that taste great cooked even unpeeled. The harvest is a far cry from the over 70 last year and over 90 the year before but the plants started very late this year. I guess that was because of the wet spring. I am quite happy with the count since it is always difficult to find enough room to keep them all. This way I can look after them better. Every few days I check all of them for bad spots. So far so good.
I also cut all the Dahlias. Maybe they will come back next year but I am not holding my breath. None came back from last year. While I went around pulling everything Cliff ground it all up and we were just finished when it started to rain.
Oct. 2010 (2)
Above is the last of the gladiolus but I don’t think it will still bloom.
Below is the second last one that I have had in the house for a few days.
Oct. 2010

Our one and only rose bush is still blooming but because of the rain the roses don’t look very good so… no pictures.

Oct. 2010 (3)

We have a bunch of these flowers that come up every year. The seeds were given to us many years ago. They are supposed to be edible flowers. I don’t know what they are called. We have never eaten any.
Time for the News,
good bye everybody ☺