Tuesday 29 January 2019

Tuesday's Thrifty Treasures


It  was a frosty morning and I had to sit and wait for the car windows to clear before I headed off to the thrift store.  I almost didn't go thinking I'd stay home and get more scrapbooking done. I had quite a few photos waiting to be dealt with. I'm glad I went though because I found 6 lovely Royal Albert plates, 6" size, in Sweet Violets pattern.  Back in July 2017 my son brought me 7 tea cups and nine coffee cups in this pattern after a woman in the complex he manages asked him if he knew anyone who might want them.  For some unknown reason there were no saucers. I can't imagine why not. Anyway, now I also have plates to match.



Here I put one of the coffee cups or maybe they're called mugs beside the plates. Sorry about the shadows. I'm not much of a photographer.


I couldn't leave this pretty display plate there. It was only fifty cents. I looked up Griotte and they are a kind of slightly sour cherry.


                         Children's books were all .50 so I added this one to my collection.


I read cook books and food magazines looking for inspiration.  I always look for interesting ones at thrift stores preferring to pay .25 each instead of new price.  Taste of Home rarely disappoints me.


After I came back from my little shopping trip I got busy and finished my scrapbooking. After lunch it was so sunny out that I went to clean up leaves and twigs that had blown on the concrete behind the house. I checked the flowerbeds and saw that the ground was frozen but some hardy bulbs are coming up. A sure sign of Spring!!

Thanks for visiting,

         Granny Marigold


Monday 28 January 2019

Red Sky in the Morning...




The sky looked so pretty this morning. My DIL took these pictures on her way to take M to school.
The temperature was 7C (44F) and there was a light breeze.  We had a great walk!



The last of the neighbour's very tall trees were cut down over the weekend. Today a roofing crew is fixing the hole in his roof where one of the trees went down one windy day maybe 2 weeks ago or so.
I suppose there was no use fixing the hole until the last of the trees was gone.
Our yard should get a lot more sunshine now.



I hope your week is off to a great start!

Thanks for visiting,

G.M.

Friday 25 January 2019

A Primrose




I'm very late in posting today. It seems the day went by in a blur. We went to do the usual Friday grocery shopping. Came home and put things away. Had a quick cup of tea before heading out for our walk around the lake. We were rewarded by another good look at the Cape May Warbler which seems to hang around in a certain area of shrubbery.

While shopping I did look for inexpensive flowers and chose a very simple little Primrose. There seem to be stands of Primroses in front of every store these days.  I keep my eyes open for double ones but so far haven't seen any.


Thanks for popping by,


Granny M.

Wednesday 23 January 2019

This and That


Thank you, Mary (visits with Mary is her blog) for letting me know that January 23 is pie day. Real pie, not the 3.14 something kind of pi.  All I had for a filling was cherry so cherry pie it is.


We were running out of jam so DH made 3 little jars of nectarine and orange  with a good tablespoon of freshly grated ginger. That should be great on toast.


My tall son reached down all 18 cups and saucers from a high shelf in the dining room so I could wash them. He even wiped the shelf while he was at it. It really needed it as did the cups and saucers. Now they're all back up where they belong.



Two little treasures from the thrift store today. ( I had many boxes to drop off ).  A cute little pitcher...


     ....    and a pretty saucer for my collection. I did also buy a blanket for Bracken because they had a   good selection of "dog blankets" today. And a book and some magazines.


That was my day.  I feel like it was a productive one. Tomorrow I think I'll devote a couple of hours to putting my feet up and reading.

Thanks for visiting,

G.M.

Monday 21 January 2019

Morning Walk and Lunar Eclipse


             Overcast this morning and 0 C (32F.)  Chilly but with no wind we had a pleasant walk..



                                         That's the nest that the Eagles reuse every spring.


My DIL took amazing photos of last evening's lunar eclipse. She and the grands wrapped up warmly and sat outside. I made frequent trips to check on the progress but mostly watched from indoors.




Did you go out and take a peek at what was being called a "super blood wolf moon" ?

Thanks for coming by,   G.M.

Friday 18 January 2019

Friday's Flowers and a Poem


       I added some greenery to last week's Gerbera Daisies. As you can see they still look fine.


The Tulips and Hyacinth in the mixed Spring container are blooming now. The Daffodils grew too tall and spindly. Underneath are some purple Crocus but they're not very visible. The white Primrose is also still doing okay. I think I'll pop this entire pot into an empty flowerpot outside once it's all done.



Friday is my grocery shopping day and this is the little bouquet I chose at the store. When I first saw those green Chrysanthemums a few years back I didn't like them at all. Now I've changed my mind.



                              Enough about flowers. How about a wintery poem?



                                   Thanks for visiting. Have a great weekend.





Thursday 17 January 2019

Mary Oliver



Mary Oliver died today.   I have read and enjoyed several of her poems through the years and I thought I'd include one here, today.



“...I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”


Mary Oliver, poet 
 
 

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver dies at 83


"In my outward appearance and life habits I hardly change — there's never been a day that my friends haven't been able to say, and at a distance, 'There's Oliver, still standing around in the weeds. There she is, still scribbling in her notebook,'" Oliver wrote in "Long Life," a book of essays published in 2004.
"But, at the center: I am shaking; I am flashing like tinsel."
Like her hero Walt Whitman, whom she would call the brother she never had, Oliver didn't only observe mushrooms growing in a rainstorm or an owl calling from a black branch; she longed to know and become one with what she saw. She might be awed by the singing of goldfinches or, as in the poem "White Flowers," overcome by a long nap in a field.
___


Rest in Peace, Mary Oliver


Monday 14 January 2019

Birds

Just a degree above freezing this morning and not a cloud in sight. We've been enjoying a stretch of this weather and DIL and the grands went walking by the lake yesterday taking pictures.
She took some great photos of the Eagles, the female Common Merganser, and a hawk (possibly Redtail?).






We saw the Cape May Warbler again and 2 others that look a lot like it. I wonder if they'll stay around and if they do will they be able to survive the winter. Not many bugs around for them to eat.
                                                  (Picture is from the internet)


It's actually nice enough outside for me to go putter in the garden.
I tell myself January is almost  half gone!
 Soon we'll be able to notice longer daylight.

Thanks for coming by,  GM



Sunday 13 January 2019

The House Next Door and a Recipe


Isn't that a strange combination....a house and a recipe.
 When we left to go shopping on Friday morning the wrecking machine had arrived next door.  By the end of the day nothing remained of the house. Even the concrete basement walls were gone.  Very soon a new house___ a very big new house___will go up.  I am not thrilled about the noise that construction will create nor the shade that the house will cause ( it will block the sunshine from the west).  I wouldn't be surprised if the duplex next to this site also gets demolished in the near future. You can see it to the right of the picture.





 We're still eating pears every day and enjoying them.  I made this dessert and we really enjoyed it. If you're interested you can find it if you look for Betty Crocker Impossibly Easy Pear-Custard Pie.
The only changes I made to this recipe was to increase the number of pears from 3 to 5  and also I added cinnamon to the crumble topping.

I make my own Bisquick by combining 3 cups of flour,  one-and-a-half Tbsp. baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt and 3 Tbsp. oil ( you can use melted butter).  I make a variety of the "Impossible" type pies including savoury ones and I keep a jar of this mix handy in the fridge.

If you do want to try a savoury  recipe using Bisquick a good one is Betty Crocker Impossibly easy Vegetable Pie.


Thanks for visiting today,   I hope you're enjoying the weekend.

                    Granny Marigold

Friday 11 January 2019

Friday's Flowers and a Few Thrifty Finds



My Amaryllis is still blooming. Only one of the 4 current flowers has faded and been cut off so far.


This little bunch of Gerbera Daissies was what I chose at the grocery store this morning.


A visit to the thrift store this week resulted in a couple of small treasures.
This little 'jar' is a Marjolein Bastin product and joins some others that I already have on a small windowsill.



This tea cup by Royal Chelsea looked so pretty and so inexpensive that I had to bring it home.


Wishing you a pleasant weekend!

Thanks for visiting,

G.M.

Tuesday 8 January 2019

Pears and a Chilly Walk


Before Christmas we were given a large box of pears which we have enjoyed both eating and sharing with family.  Today DH came home from his volunteer 'job' with another big box of almost ripe pears.  They are in even better shape than that first box. This bowlful is about a third of what we received today . I love the blush of reddish/orange that develops as they ripen.


The Christmas break is over and the grands are back in school.  On Sunday morning M wanted to come along on our morning walk.  There was a cold wind blowing and M wore three sweaters one on top of another because he didn't want to wear his winter coat!
 I walked behind  them and took some pictures.  




We stopped to look at the different kinds of Ducks and the Canada Geese.  Farther on we stopped to talk to a couple who were  taking pictures of some birds in the shrubs.  They identified those as Cape May Warblers, a kind of Warbler that is not normally seen around here. We've had a lot of wind so I wonder if these little birds were driven off course.
Somewhere I have my "life list"  ( birds I've seen at one time or another). Now if only I could find it I could add this latest sighting.


Thanks for coming to visit today,   GM

Friday 4 January 2019

Friday's Flowers


I posted this picture around the middle of December. The first flower stalk ( or scape) on my Amaryllis "Nymph" was blooming. By now all 4 buds on that stalk were done and I cut it down. Now the second stalk has begun to bloom and the flower is a little different. More open and more streaked.
I'm so pleased with the way it looks.



I was in Walmart this morning and went to check if they had marked down the prices of their Amaryllis. Yes, they were down to $2.74 and $3.74 depending on the variety. Of course I had to buy one of each.







Got them planted up right away. As you can see they had begun to grow in their boxes. If you've never bought one in a box I should tell you that they come with the potting soil and pot complete.


The grocery store had these cute planters on sale. In each pot there are a couple of mini Daffodils, some Crocus, 2 Tulips, a Hyacinth and a Primrose. In mine so far only the Primrose and one Daff are blooming.

I've decided 2019 will be my "year of flowers" so if nothing is blooming in my garden I'll search out inexpensive flowers each week.

Thanks for visiting. If you're not much of a Flower person you'll probably be skipping my blog on Fridays.

I love to read your comments so don't be shy!!    GM