Blue skies smiling at me

 Another lovely day, bright sunshine and the bluest of blue skies.  Not too awfully warm yet, but it is early in the day.

Yesterday Hubby drove me to pick up my quilts, again it was a lovely day, so the convertible came out of the garage.  In fact it was so nice, when the errand was done, we just kept on driving, nowhere in particular just went.   When we could feel the sun was losing its heat,  we headed for home, arriving in the driveway the clock read 5:45 p.m.  Late dinner, but that was OK, we had a lovely afternoon.

One of my readers asked me about freezing things.   There is only the two of us, so when I bake I freeze a lot of it, so our waist line does not get big and we don't get tired of the same thing.  Currently in my freezer there is carrot cake and lemon cake,  of which, two pieces are put in individual containers.   Peanut butter cookies are in a tin.  I also buy lemon meringue pies when they are on special,  obviously they are not as good as homemade but, I can't make them for the price they sell them for.  I cut them im serving size portions in the containers in which I bought them and take out what I need when required.  Also, have bread, buns, butter and of course meat and fish, all in additional wrapping to prevent freezer burn.  I also make cupcakes and place them in containers, the paper wrappers keep them separated for easy removal for quick dessert or snack.  There is also ice cream to go with all of these goodies.  I freeze stews, no potatoes because I do not like the texture of them when they thaw.   Homemade soups and if there is any left stuffing from the turkey, I nuke it with a couple of teaspoons of  chicken stock to keep it moist.  These things work for me, but you should make your own decisions regarding what you do or do not freeze.

I also try to have recipes on hand or some that are on the web, which only serve two or four portions, ie: crumbles and crisps 

Tuesday, so that means it chicken day and I may just pull something out of the freezer for dessert.

Chat tomorrow

 

Better day all around

Yes, today is Monday and it is a better day, me and the weather are feeling and looking better.  

We had a very lazy Sunday, they seem to be getting more frequent these days, hate to think what it is going to be like during the miserable Winter months.  Will need to consciously make ourselves do more.  So what did we do that made us lazy, we watched the Ryder Cup golf and then some football.  Maybe I needed that to get me back on track .

Late last week I contacted one of my granddaughters "D" as one of my great granddaughters "M" is having a birthday on Oct 5th. and needed to know the size of clothes she is now wearing and what is she in need of.  Today I received her reply, and along with it she wrote----" Cian, (this is his first year in Sr Kindergarten) has been climbing the fence to come home, and the teacher chases after him, but he is not doing that any more.  That teacher has quit already".   It cannot be easy for the children or the teachers as the school year has not been "normal" for a year and a half.   Feel sorry for all of them, teaching is not a job to do and the best of times, let alone now.    Hubby was a teacher in a elementary school, and even then he said it was not easy.

The quilt show was a success and I understand from one of the guild members, my Cardinal received a lot of favourable comments.  That makes all the work worthwhile, having someone appreciate all the work that goes into a piece.   I pick them up this afternoon.   

Dinner tonight, salmon, mushrooms, not sure what else.  That's a good start, I have lemon cake, carrot cake, peanut butter cookies, fruit and numerous other dessert options, so no need to make anything more until some of the things in the freezer are getting low.

So that is for me today, have a wonderful day, no matter what you are or are not doing.

No up to par

 Yesterday, I did  not feel like myself.   Ear ache,  neck pain which is caused by muscles that won't relax, upset tummy and just feeling Blah.  Better today but, still not going to do much, taking it easy for one more day should fix everything up a little more.   I suspect the tight muscles are from Friday, as I know I was a bit tense that day.  

We have another beautiful sunny day, but cool, Autumn weather for sure.   Next week it is supposed  to be nice  every day, so I will be doing the final clean up of all the gardens, getting rid of annuals, pulling the weeds----again, and trimming back the perennials.  I would like to get a few more daffodil bulbs to plant also.  

The occasional tree is starting to show some colour as the leaves are starting to change into their Autumn period.  It is a beautiful time of the year, for sure.   But once they have changed, they fall and that means additional work on the estate for us.   I usually drive the garden tractor with the bagger on the back, make a trip up and back down the lawn, by that time the bagger is full.  I stop where Hubby is standing by the trailer, he empties the bags and I go and do the same again.   We end up with about four or five loads of leaves, in a trailer that is as wide as a car, four feet high, and is eight feet in length, a lot of leaves.  We then take them to the recycle depot for composting.   There are too many to go in mine.

Our home phone is going to be repaired tomorrow.   Every since we had the heavy rains last week, there is so much noise on the line you cannot hear anyone speak.

Made a meat loaf for dinner last night, and Hubby picked up some corn on the cob, and we had some cauliflower that needed to be used up, so that was our dinner.   Guess what meat loaf, corn on the cob and baked potato for dinner tonight.   Along with a piece of lemon cake from the freezer.   Easy peasy, just the way I like it some days.   

I will get myself in the sewing room today for awhile and decide what to do next.  I have organized all of my patterns that interested me, so will get busy and look through those.    I also need to contact a guild member to see when I can pick up the quilts that were in a local show this past weekend.

Thats it for me, hope you have a great day, no matter what you plan to do.

It did not last long

 Woke to a mix of sun and cloud, and we are forecast rain again this afternoon and during the night.   It is that time of the year, so we should not be surprised we are getting these damp days.

Laundry on, one load in the dryer and another in the washer. 

I need to sort out all of my Summer clothes, check the seams, hems and see if they need to be laundered, as our warm weather has come to an abrupt halt over the past  couple of days,  We will, of course, have some lovely days , however, they have a different warmth to them.   I should buy a new pair of black slacks and possibly some other colour for the Winter months  as the ones currently in my closet have lost their shape so they will be  relegated to pants worn in the house.  

I mentioned a coupe days ago I had made an Autumn arrangement of silk flowers for the front of our living room fireplace, we don't use this one, only the one in the rec. room.  So here it is, the blue flowers are not really as bright as they show in the photo.

 Making a meat loaf for our dinner tonight, cauliflower, baked potato and  not sure what is for dessert.

Have a great Saturday.

Almost forgot

 There is a ball of fire in the sky, I wonder what it is,.......sun!!!! almost forgot what it looked like as we have had so much rain this past few days.   A dry day to help the ground absorb all the rain and dry out a little bit.   

At 11:30 a.m. today we attended the scattering of ashes of Hubby's sister in law, she passed a year ago, so her sister and brother decided now the covid restrictions are easing, it was time.   The lunch Hubby and I  provided was good, fresh buns with cold cuts and all of the accompaniments, relish tray and cheeses.    Carrot cake, shortbread cookies and peanut butter cookies.  Tea, coffee, juice and water to drink.  There were only 12 people so our living/dining room accommodated us all quite easily.  The last of the folks left around 2:45 p.m. so it was a nice visit for everyone.    Honestly, I was quite nervous to have the family of Hubby's late wife here, as this was the first time they had all been here since I have lived in this house.  Everything turned out well, so I feel good about that.

Have not done much else today, but I guess all that work preparing and cleaning up was enough.  So that is why I am sitting here chatting to you.

The quilting guild I belong to had a Zoom meeting last night,  it was supposed to be an in person meeting outside in one of the members back garden, however, it was much too cold and wet.  We are hoping to be able to source a room in a local church for our October meeting, so hoping that will work out, as I am not a fan of the Zoom meetings.  

It is now time to get some dinner, dinner!!! we have decided to have the left overs from lunch, which is perfectly fine with me, so if you re-read the above paragraph you will know what we will be having for our dinner.  

Time to go, chat tomorrow.

Rain, rain and more rain

 Yesterday, I noted it was wet, it got worse as the day wore on.   Checking the rain gauge last night at 8:30 p.m. we had 5 FIVE inches of rain, in less than 24 hours.   Today, Thursday it is still raining but, thank goodness it is just showers.   There has been flooding on low lying city streets, local roads have been closed and the river through the city is in the flood stage.   When all of the water from the streams and surrounding land funnels down to the river it will become worse.   We live at the top of an incline, so it will have to be a 40 day and 40 night rain before we get flooded.   Feel so sorry for those who have water in their basements.

I have had an enquiry about my quilt, I will have to wait to take a photo when it gets back from the quilt show.  

Gave Hubby a haircut this morning, it was getting a bit too long for his liking.  I have been doing his hair for the last 4 or 5 years and if I do say so myself, I do a pretty good job.  At least he can go out in public with out wearing a hat to cover some Oops !! .  I use to do my sons, but then the style change and he refused to let me do it.  Also did my Dad's, and late husbands too.   When we were locked down last year I tackled my own hair, it looked OK, but then we were not going anywhere so it really didn't matter what it looked like.  

Did housework and made a carrot cake yesterday, need to put the cream cheese icing on it today, ready for tomorrow's lunch after the scattering of Hubby's late sister in law.   She passed away a year ago and her sister is now scattering her ashes.  

Made an Autumn artificial flower arrangement a couple of days ago, to replace the Summer one which sits on the fireplace hearth in the living room.   It  looks good with some grapes and a couple of apples at the base of it.  All artificial.  I will take a photo and show it on the weekend.  Not a fan of silk flowers but, our living room does not have enough light to be able to keep real flowers blooming.  

Going to do an errand for my daughter in law this afternoon.  She has a cousin that lives not too far from us and DIL needs a framed picture picked up, as the cousin is moving.  DIL lives a couple of hundred miles away, so not an easy trip for her just to pick up a picture.   Eventually, she will come and pick it up when next in the area visiting her son, DIL and granddaughter and us, of course.  

Well, I should sort out dinner, so have a good day.

Wet is an understatement

Rain started as we were going to bed and the rain gauge this morning indicated we had rain all night, as there was almost 1 3/4 inches in it when I checked it this morning.    It is still coming down in buckets, would not be surprised if we had two inches or more before its all over with.    T'is the season.

Did some gardening yesterday, glad I did as would not be doing it today or even tomorrow.   Moved some small paving stones to make a pathway into a small bench in the back garden, looks nice if I do say so myself.  

What am I up to today,  it is an indoor day, so some housework, carrot cake making and some sewing.    Sewing  !!   I am working on a quilt which is the third time of trying to decided what to do with the blocks,  yesterday, I packed it back into a plastic container......again.   Just not liking it.....again.  So will start on something new and re-visit it again later.   

Had to leave for a while......Hubby wanted to get his convertible from the garage, he was having an issue with getting it started, its repaired, so will drive him to pick it up.   Dropped him off and headed back for home,  phone rang, garage calling....Hubby back at the shop, can I come and get him.    He started for home and still had issues with it......not running as it should even being in the shop for five days.   He forgot to take his cell with him, so had to hail someone down to make the call to the garage for a pick up and then they would send a tow truck to get the car.    Hubby is hoping it is not an expensive fix, as obviously, what they thought was the issue was not.    \Could be the end of a convertible if it is pricey, as it is getting old,  this is not the 1971 convertible,  it is a newer one.  They don't make them as they use to.

Dinner tonight, I do not have any idea, could be pizza and a salad.    Yep that sounds good, and I have llemon cake I can take out of the freezer.    Dinner sorted.

Entertainment for today

 As we were preparing our breakfast we saw an  ATV racing around the field across the road from us.  This was very unusual, but thought nothing of  it until a bit later the doorbell rang and there was a young man, asking for a tow as his ATV was stuck.   He looked very grubby as if he had been riding the vehicle in the rain, but he had no shoes on.  Ummm?  usually anyone owning and riding an ATV is dressed appropriately are they not.  Suspicious.   Hubby advised him he was not going to damage his car pulling him nor was he going to use his tractor.   So he left and laid down on the wet ground.  Suspicious.

As we returned from grocery shopping  a short time later, the University Campus Police, followed us to the area where the ATV was.   They had apprehended the young man, we assume because he had only the basic undergarments on, as his track pants and shirt were just outside our driveway.   Yep, you guessed it the ATV was stolen, and the young man is known to the police.   As the vehicle is not on University property the city police are now involved.   Hubby answered a number of questions asked by the police and they are still sitting on the road securing the area.   It is going to be a big job to get the ATV out of the area where it is, so we could see more activity later in the day.

Had my hair cut yesterday, and did a bit of shopping for some odds and ends I needed.

Rain overnight and it still does not look too promising out there right now.  The forecast is a wet week, with it becoming a lot cooler tomorrow, I think our Summer might be done for this year.   

My quilting guild was to have a meeting on Thursday, outside, due to the forecasted weather it has been cancelled and we are back to a Zoom meeting for this month.   Hopefully next month, we will be able to rent a facility to hold our meeting inside.   

Not much else to write about today,  dinner as it is on Tuesday, chicken, fried rice, veg and I made vanilla mousse yesterday, so we have two portions left for tonight.   Dinner sorted.

On the road again

As the days are going to be wet this coming week we decided to take advantage of a beautiful sunny, warm Saturday and go for a drive to Niagara Falls.   I have been there many times, too many to count, as every time family or friends came to visit from the UK the Falls was always on their agenda. 

We packed a picnic lunch, ham and cheese sandwiches, an assortment of veggies to nibble on, grapes and apples.  This lunch meant we did  not have to expose ourselves to a lot of people in a restaurant.   We are fully vaccinated, but these days we just cannot be too careful.

Arriving at the Falls we were very much surprised by the number of people, we are in the midst of a pandemic folks.  We had plans to walk along the Falls area, but decided it was not a very good idea.  We found a nice shady tree and ate our lunch.   Unfortunately, I received a sting from a wasp, when not looking is landed on my ankle and when I moved my foot it stung me.   It is still burning this morning.

It was getting late in the day so time to make the trip home again.  The sun was starting to set, it was a pity there were not some clouds as it was going down as it would have been a beautiful sunset.  There was a lovely red and orange sky though.   We had the sun setting in front of us and the moon rising behind us and clear skies above.   Then, as it does these night, darkness fell in a hurry, and so did the temperature.  A stop for sweaters was called for, and miles down the road it became quite cold, so unfortunately, we put the top up.   All in all it was a lovely day.

Today, Sunday, is suppose to be even better, so another ride could be in the offing.

So gotta go.  talk to you tomorrow.

 

I can hear Frank

Yes, I can hear Frank singing.....A foggy day in London town,  Had me low and had me down. I viewed the morning with alarm.  

It was foggy this morning, however, it is starting to lift, but no sunshine as promised, warm but quite damp.   We can only hope we can see it brighten up later this morning. The sun hasn't made an appearance for a few days, I need sunshine. 

As the plants start to die back, there is the smell of Autumn, plants that have finished blooming for the year and rotting leaves that have fallen already, a fair number from one of our Maple tree I might add, due to a black tar blight.  It happens every year when it has been a very humid Summer.  Ours is not as badly affected as some we have seen in the area.   My hanging baskets are getting leggy but still full of flowers, 

A few days ago I asked my grand daughter in Ottawa, how her school year is going.  Her reply, good, busy answering questions from students in the lab and also marking lab reports..  Sound like she is busy, but she likes busy.   

My youngest daughter and her Hubby have a wedding anniversary coming up soon, 31 years???? how is that possible.   Those years have just flown by.  I remember the photographer who took the pictures of their wedding.  Not with pleasure but with horror.  He was a coworker of my late husband and I had seen a lot of his work and he did a wonderful job, so we hired him to do their wedding.  You have to remember this was before digital cameras.   Husband brought all of the prints home, and said there is a slight problem......slight!!!! ???    Apparently, coworker used a new piece of equipment that he had never used before.......very few of the photos were usable.   I cried and refused to pay him    Eventually I was persuaded to pay him some, but not the full amount he was asking.   I am so glad that I had my camera and took some photos of the day, so not all was lost.   Another lesson learned, the hard way.  

Dinner tonight, not sure if it will be burgers on the BBQ or salmon.  I made chocolate mousse for dessert last night and have two portions left, so that is all taken care of.

Well must get moving. 

Don't know what I will be up to today

 Finally, at 10:00 a.m. the sun has started to shine, it was very cloudy when we got up and expected another cloudy and cool day, just the opposite of what the forecast was on the news last night.  There is a very heavy dew again this morning which takes a long time to dry when there is no sun.  

Hubby's newer convertible would not start, so a call to the towing company to take it to our garage man to see what the problem is.   The tow truck arrived at the time indicated in the phone call, he was here for over an hour getting the car hooked up.  Very through driver, and now wonder how many pickup he does during a day, if he takes this long for a simple tow.   Can't fault him though, he did everything right.

Now that convertible is out of the garage I will give it a good sweep to get rid of those nuts and leaves that always blow into the open doors.  

I got all of the entries ready to take tomorrow for the quilt show, so happy that is done.  Now need to make one more block for our meeting next week.  There is also blocks laid out on the spare bed, just waiting for me to sew them together.  I should at least get the row done, label them, and move it to my sewing room.   The bed and floor are the only spaces big enough for me to lay the blocks out in the design I want to do.  I do not have a wall big enough for a design wall, so this is the next best thing.

Update

Well I guess I did know what I was going to do, I vacuumed the two car garage floor and tidied it up a bit and then cleaned the windows at the front door and also washed the porch floor, the chair and fluffed up the pillow.    

Very disappointed with dinner,  meat balls, mushrooms in mushroom soup with fettuccine noodles, not impressed with myself with this one.  Even Hubby said it was not like the others I had cooked the same way.  In the other meals I had used alfredo sauce, so lesson learned.

 Sitting down for a few minutes outside on the balcony, the breeze is cool but at least there are no wasps.  We have had a lot of those this month.

Well going to browse the internet, talk to you tomorrow.

Taking it easy

Yesterday I worked in the garden all afternoon (when will I learn), so today was a take it easy day, some muscles are not very happy with the jobs they did yesterday.   I  needed to get the binding sewn on my latest quilt by Friday as it will be going into a local quilt show put on by a library in a nearby town  so did that.  It is finished  and also did a short description for the three quilted projects I am entering.  So that is all ready for later this week.  

The video chat did not go as well as we had hoped, just a bit of a hiccup in the UK, however, we did see G and wished him a very happy 90th birthday.  He is very hard of hearing so with all of the chatter and noise in the background he found it difficult to hear everything we said, so we will have another video visit at Christmas time, when it will be only his daughter and him.   The gift that my sister and I sent was very well received and he was pleased with it, so we are happy about that.

We had a  mixed bag of weather today, sun and cloud, it could not make up its mind what it wanted to do.  In any event there was no rain, we have had enough for a while.  It was cool, struggling to get over 22 *C, tomorrow the forecast is looking a bit better.  Not ready for cool weather yet, or never come to that.

Hubby has been repairing a couple of windows and painting them today, he hates painting, so this job has been put down to the bottom of the "to do list" many times,  So today was the day to get it done.

Dinner tonight was the remaining slices of ham, corn on the cob, baked potato, and caesar salad.   We did not have the cupcakes last night, so we had them today.

 Evening post today, so hope you had a great day.

Brighter...for the time being

 Woke to a sky that really did not know wether to clear for some sunshine or rain, apparently it opted for the first, however, there must still be some high clouds as it is not a very blue sky and the sun is not too bright.  Warmer today, with the forecast indicating thunder storms later in the day.  

Early grocery day to avoid the crowds, it worked out well as we got to the store shortly after it opened.  There seemed to be a lot of new faces working in the store, only two, one in the veg department and another at the cash were faces we have seen many times.

The gift for my second cousins 90th birthday is to be delivered today, his birthday.   I purchased it on line, so hoping it is as nice as it looked on the web site.  We will find out, when we chat with him today via FB.   His family is having a birthday lunch for him with all the trimmings I am sure, (UK's lunch is more like a dinner).  We have arranged a time due to the difference of five hours in time,  so they are calling at 6:30 p.m. their time, 1:30p.m. my time.

 Need to finish sewing the binding on the quilt today, got a lot of it done yesterday when it was too wet to do anything outside.

Sept 20th is voting day here, but we decided to vote last night at the early voting location, due to the expected crowds on the 20th.   We walked right in, no lineups and out within minutes.  Now we wait to see who is elected.  So much mud slinging is happening, but that is par for the course.

Being Tuesday, it's chicken night, asparagus and a salad, with take out some cupcakes I have in the freezer for dessert.  Dinner all sorted.

 

Thunder and lightening

The grey skies we had yesterday produced a thunderstorm last night around 10:00 p.m.  and it was still going on two hours later.   When looking at the rain gauge this morning we had more than a 1/2 inch of rain.  The forecast for today and tomorrow is more of the same.   Later in the week we will have sunshine and warmer temps.

Yesterday, was a lazy day, did some sewing and we watched the tennis, which lasted quite a long time, so that meant we had a late dinner, which was OK as we were not going anywhere.  Now  as I write it has started to rain again, so it is an indoor day, which is fine with me lots to do in the house.  The garden will wait until we have a drier day.  This rain should make it easier for me to do the moving of plants later in the week.  We did take a few bags of garden waste to the recycle depot yesterday.   While we are depositing our waste I always look for plants other people have thrown away, most of the plants in my garden are either from friends, family or the depot.  They get some loving care from me and survive,  I save them from becoming compost and I enjoy them in my garden for many years.   One day they will more than likely end up as compost but for now they are at my house.

I asked granddaughters and great grands how their first week of school was, GD said it went well and she has a lot of work to do.  GG's, two of them are in Jr. and Sr. Kindergarten and didn't like the separation from Mum on the first couple of days but as the week ended they were getting better.  The two eldest were excited to see their friends and so far have had no homework.  I am sure the teachers are assessing what the children learnt  or did not learn during last year's at home school, once that is done they will start doing some catch up.   Other GD is likely too busy to reply as I have not heard from her yet.

Tomorrow I have a Facetime visit with relatives in the UK, looking forward to that as I will meet some family members I have never met before and renew meeting some I have had the opportunity to meet several times.

Dinner tonight, some of the ham which is still left, corn on the cop and salad.  Will retrieve some lemon cake out of the freezer for dessert.

What is on the menu at your house today?

Grey Day

 No sun for us today, looks very much like rain, the forecast if it is correct, is predicting showers until Wednesday.  Sure can tell Autumn is slowly creeping up on us.   Love the colours and smells of Autumn.

Yesterday I worked in one flower bed all afternoon, dug out plants that were getting too big for the space, and transplanted others, still more work to be done on the hillside garden (that is what I call it, it is on a sloppy area), working here is hard on the legs and feet as they are always on an angle never flat on the ground.  A good workout for sure, must remember to do this garden in short spurts.  

The students had a small (only 15 people)  get together yesterday in their back garden.  Before it started one of the students came over to us and wanted to give us his telephone number so we could text him to tell him to keep the noise down if it got too loud.    It was just a couple of hours in the afternoon, they played a couple of games and had a drink or two, no problems at all.   It sounded as if they were having a great time.    In fact, it was great to see young adults having a good time without getting sloshed with booze.   We did not have to contact them, there was no loud music ???  you know the kind with the  thump, thump of the base drums, in fact no music at all.    I think we are on a good relationship with these students, it's best to start right from the beginning letting them know what is expected from them as neighbours in a residential area, as they will be living in the house for three years.   In the past, in other houses on the street, the noise level and rowdy behaviour has had to be quieted by visits from police.  

While watching the tennis this afternoon I will be sewing down some of the binding on a quilt, other than that, it will be a quiet day.

Dinner last night was a clean out of the fridge, some leftover roast beef and gravy, I added some mushrooms and more onions to the rice pilaf which made it more tasty.  A coleslaw salad with cherry tomatoes and peach crisp for dessert.  It was all quite tasty for being leftovers.

Today's dinner, steak, baked potato, broccoli,  caesar salad and the remaining two portions of peach crisp.   Hubby just told me tennis starts at 4:00 p.m., so it will be a late dinner, so instead of steak it will be ham, which cam be made ahead of time.

Have a great Sunday no matter what you plan on doing.

Everything done....no....

The vacuuming, dusting, one bathroom, a  half an hour walk, peach crisp and a rice pilaf all done yesterday.  Disappointed in the pilaf not much flavour so I am going to add some mushrooms for the rest of it for dinner tonight.  Ran out of energy for the remainder of the jobs on the list.  Today I am doing some cleaning up in the garden as it is a beautiful day and the forecast is calling for four days of showers, I can get the rest of the inside cleaning done then.  Laundry on at the present time.

Hubby is repairing a grease leak in the lawn tractor after cutting all of the grass yesterday.  We have two bags of garden waste to go to the recycle depot.  I put a lot of  veg and fruit  peelings etc in my compost, but do not use any of the garden waste.  Too many weed seeds in it and I have more than enough weeds at the present time, don't need any more.

The first week of school finished, I must contact all of the grands and great grands to see  how they all made out.   

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the passing of my late husband, it has been eleven years now, how that time has flown by is hard to believe.  I made it through the first five years on my own and now very happy with my life and my Hubby.  My sister has been on her own for three years now as she has lost her husband also, however, she has become  very much like a hermit.  She lives in the country, and only goes out to get her groceries and essentials, has no hobbies and only one woman friend that visits her.  I have suggest we go for lunch, but have not had a positive reply.   I tried.

Not sure what we will have for dinner tonight, I know some more of the pilaf, and peach crisp.  Should close this post and rummage through the freezer to see what strikes my fancy.

What will I be doing today?

First thing on the agenda is to get my arse moving, but here I am writing to all of you instead.   Then...I need to do some housework not real heavy stuff, just the vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms etc.   I should go for my walk this afternoon, did not get to do that yesterday or the day before. So decided I would walk for two days then have two days off until I get myself built up a bit to walk every day.   Do not want to over do it at first and have a sore hip again.    

I write lists as I like to be organized and prepared, so  on the list not necessarily in the order of jobs to be done.   Weeding and moving some plants to other locations, plus I want to move some small pavers to relocate a path through the lower flower bed in the back garden.   Hose down the front porch as the nuts are falling from the copper beech tree and blowing on the porch, there are also some spider webs to wash away too.   Finish hand sewing the binding on the quilt  I am currently doing.     

On Tuesday next week I have a Facetime scheduled with a second cousin in the UK, he will be 90 years old and on that day his family is having a "bash" for him. He came to Canada for my Mother's 100th a few years ago, I would have liked to be there for his birthday, but can't do that.  I have sent him a gift basket of goodies.....thank you internet.  It is great to sit in my arm chair, order a gift and have it delivered on the day of my choosing.   Then look  in horror, at the Visa bill when in comes in.   Ha Ha.

On the 23rd of this month my quilting guild is having an outside meeting, just hoping it is not too cold.  We have decided to have it an hour earlier than we normally do as the nights are drawing in quickly.   Then we need to decided how we will conduct future monthly meetings.

Hubby's sister in law passed away a few months ago and on the 24th of this month the family is going to scatter her ashes.  Hubby volunteered to host the lunch afterwards, (Hubby's  do that). I need to make a list of the things needed for that.   Thinking rolls with a variety of meats and cheeses, pickles etc. and I am making a carrot cake and peanut butter cookies, I checked to see if anyone has an allergy to nuts, the answer was no so that is all taken care of.  Tea, coffee, juice and water for beverages.  Simple with not much preparation.

I am tired already haven't even started  my day.

Being Friday it's fish day, with the usual veg etc.  must think about dessert.

Have a great day, no matter what you do or do not do.

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Coming to an end

 First I will write about yesterday, Tuesday, it was my baby's birthday, BABY, she was 54 years old.   Her birth day brings back a lot of memories, it was a difficult pregnancy, I was in hospital for the two months prior to her birth, and for three weeks after, all with two children at home.  If it wasn't for family pitching in to help I don't know what we would have done.   She unfortunately, was not able to have children, and I often wonder if the pregnancy issues could be a contributing factor.  Anyway,  she and SIL have two beautiful and smart daughters.  

Grocery day, and we got to the store earlier than last week, however, as Monday was Labour Day, some of the shelves had not been stocked as I am sure some of the suppliers were not working on the Monday.   We got what we needed and Mother Hubbard's cupboard is now full again.   In the afternoon, we took advantage of the beautiful sunny day and went for another drive to a port on the coast of Lake Erie.   The forecast was indicating  a severe  thunderstorm watch, so we kept our eyes on the skies.   Around 4:00 p.m. clouds started to build and we had an hour's ride ahead of us before we would get home, so we made our return trip home.   Nice day,   We did have rain, lightening and thunder during the evening, the rain gauge indicated that we had  more rain over night, as it showed 1 1/4 inches.   We needed it.

Today is nice and sunny with possible rain later this afternoon.  Back to my title, referring to our tomato plants, we have got off all that are edible, so this morning I cut down all of the plants.  We received some delicious meal from them this year.

When the back garden is in the shade this afternoon, I will do some weeding.  Hubby is cutting his daughter's grass at the moment.  He picked up some corn on the cob yesterday, so we had one each last night and there is one for our dinner tonight.

Dinner tonight?   Roast beef, cauliflower,  baked potato, gravy and corn on the cob.  Dessert not sure yet, as we have decided to make smaller portions of everything we eat.

UPDATE:

This post was started yesterday, but did not get sent.....Hubby asked if I wanted to go for another ride, destination his cousin.  Of course, I said yes.   

We had a great visit, which was only going to last a half an hour, but ended up being two hours.  We sat on their porch had coffee and cake.  So nice to do that, for sure.

So because of our impromptu trip, the weeding did not get done, and they are still there today, dinner was not  roast beef etc. as mentioned above.   We were not very hungry after our late afternoon snack, so had a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich around 8:30 p.m.    Tonight will be the roast beef dinner.

Today Thursday is cloudy with some sunny breaks, with the forecast for some rain.   It was a bit nippy when we got up, and is suppose to get even cooler tonight, so we will be switching the lever from cool A/C to heat furnace.  It is that time of the year.  

Bye for now.

Windows open

The windows are open, the first time since mid Summer when the humidity was so thick  you could cut it with a knife.  The house will smell so fresh by this evening, not that it stunk, but it is good to get the air moving again.

We must have had a shower over night, there are a few wet spots on the driveway this morning, now we have blue skies with white clouds moving quite briskly due to the strong breeze.   Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow.

Today is Labour Day stat holiday, nothing is open, no mail or paper.  In "normal" times there would have been parades, an outdoor concert  in the park downtown and a number of functions, unfortunately everything is still not functioning as it did in the past.   We can only hope for better next year.

Tomorrow students head back to school, I have four great grands going to in school classes in grade school, one granddaughter doing her first college ground school semester at  home, and another doing at home and lab studies at university for her Masters.   Hubby has a grandson doing his first year at college studying motor mechanics, some classes at home others in the classroom, another grandson in his last year of high school, taking advanced courses in art and a granddaughter in grad school, both in school classes.  I wish them all the best for the coming school year, as well as the teachers they have a big job ahead of them.

The steak we had for dinner last night was delicious, as was the cauliflower and salad.  Used up the custard on two remaining pieces of the peach pie.  I am going to put a roast of beef in for dinner tonight,  cook the rest of the cauliflower, peas and salad.  Also going to make a lemon cake, we will have some tonight and tomorrow and put the rest of it in the freezer for future desserts.   

Have a great day.

We went anyway

Yesterday, was a day where you didn't know if it was going to be warm or cool, wet or dry, so we hummed and harred about going for the drive we had been planning on doing.  Eventually we decided to go after lunch, the temp was above our minimum of 21*C but the sky looked very cloudy.  We had a lovely day, going to the city of Stratford, Ontario.  Because of the name there are a number of live theatres that show Shakespearean plays, however, none are in the theatres now, only a large tented stage is doing live plays.  Also, because of the name there is a river Avon, with paths all around it, swans, ducks, geese, and a number of canoeist, paddle boaters and a small sightseeing craft.   We took a walk, however, remember above I said it was cloudy.....we felt a few rain drops, so made a hasty retreat to put the top up on the car.   As we walked closer to the car,.......yep  it stopped. so we found a bench and sat to watch the world go by, didn't want to risk going further away from the car. 

Stratford is a lovely place, quient shops that sell everything you could ask for, restaurants serving delicious meals, all I must say are very expensive, store and restaurant owners cashing in on the theatre and sightseer crowds.   The number of people was small,  as we are still restricted somewhat.  We looked at all of the beautiful hanging baskets and beds of flowers, did not go into any of the stores, I don't need anything in them anyway, but I do like to window shop.   By this time it was getting close to six o'clock, so we headed for home, and went for take out.  A lovely day.

We had a shower overnight, but this morning is sunny with cloudy periods and the threat of rain  is in the forecast.

Dinner tonight, steak on the BBQ, cauliflower left over from a couple of nights ago, will make a cheese sauce to put on it, a salad and dessert we will use up the left over custard on something, not sure what yet.

I have plans to get into the sewing studio this afternoon, as our guild meeting is approaching and I need to make two blocks for the kids quilts our group is making and also two blocks for our comfort quilts.  All are not complicated blocks so should make up quite quickly.

I potted up some cuttings from my geraniums yesterday, I want them to be outside for the rain and sun before I bring them into the house for the winter.  I have not purchased any in the past few years, and have been lucky to have the ones I pot up  root and grow into some lovely plants.  The colour of them is a coral pink, I am thinking of buying a white one in the Spring, so I can get cuttings from it too for the Summers to come.   

Well that's me for today,  hope the days left for this Labour day weekend are good ones for you. 

Working outside.

 I keep thinking today is Saturday, have no idea why, I guess that idea will throw me off for several days, as this is the Labour Day holiday weekend.  By the time it's over, I won't know what day it is.

We were going to do another day road trip, but the temp has to be over 21*C when we have the top down, the sun struggled to make the thermometer  to get up to that mark, let alone go warmer.  So we decided we would stay home and do some garden work.  Hoping there may be warmer days ahead, so we can get some more day outings.   It certainly is getting cooler at night, temp was 10*C last night, makes for a burr morning.

After lunch, I went to tidy the gardening box we have on the patio, it was in a really made mess, I could not find anything.  Everything came out and cleaned, and I also consolidated all of my gardening tools, etc in one place, some were in the garage and others in the cold room under the garage.   I found things I had forgotten I even had.  Some of those things needed a bit of oil to get them moving again.  A good job done.  I was hoping to get into the garden also, but the time did not allow, so hope the rain holds off for a day or so, but looking at the weather map a short time ago, it appears as if we might have some showers

Being Friday, it is isn't it? we had salmon, stuffed mushrooms, cauliflower, tomatoes and peach pie with custard.   All very good, if I do say so myself.

They are moving in

I believe I have mentioned previously that we live near a big University, so a great number of the homes in this area are purchased by people either from out of town or in another location in the city.   Some people living here rent out rooms in their homes too.   Hubby used to do that years ago but, not any more.   The house next door to us is going to be occupied by four students studying law. Yes, we do have the owners name and phone number if there are any problems.   As my heading states, this is the weekend the majority of the students arrive, some to the university's residence, others in the homes just as I mentioned.   It is going to be almost back to normal, with students walking or riding their bikes, e-scooters and e-skateboards, going past the house.  There will be orientations  being held this weekend and every day next week.   

My youngest granddaughter will be missing out of all of this fun, as she will be doing her first semester at home via the net.   She cannot go to the campus as it is over 200 miles away.   Hopefully, for the second semester, she will be able to go into residence and in class studies.

Yesterday we had an errand to do out of town and it was a perfect day to take the old convertible.  the errand took most of the afternoon, so before we started to travel home and in the area we decided to visit Hubby's sister who lives close to the shore of Lake Erie, however, she was not at home.  Decided it was time for some dinner so we went to a restaurant which was located on an inner bay of the lake, we sat on the dock side of the patio.   After the signing in etc. at now at our table we were given the menus and a tray which held all of the condiments, cutlery, etc.   Then we were handed a fly swatter, the yellow jackets (wasps) were quite annoying.   We had a nice meal and then decided to see if the sister was home, but no, so we headed for home.  We got a lot accomplished and had a lovely time doing it.

Today I went to the dentist for a cleaning,  at least this time they did not charge me $8.00 for the PPE, however, the invoice was still high.  I am lucky I have all but two of my own teeth and no cavities, plus I have a dental plan that cover 90% of the cost.

Not much done at home today, only dinner, which was meat loaf which I had frozen a couple of weeks ago, brussel sprouts and a salad.   Took the easy way out for dessert and had a pudding cup and a cookie.