February

Wishing you a month of peace and joy!!



                Granny Marigold

Pets

Well, I suppose a pigeon comes under the heading of pets, right?  Son2 brought her home from the complex a few years ago,  after finding her dazed on the ground, no doubt after hitting a window. She has a band around one foot but my DIL tried unsuccessfully to find where she came from so we just kept her.
Now that the weather is milder she isn't confined to her cage.  She likes to be close to wherever DH is working and if he leaves his workshop door open she's in there with him.

Naughty Cinnamon insists on chewing on her plastic litter box. Hopefully it isn't toxic. We have given her sticks to chew but apparently plastic has more appeal.
She also loves to chew paper. This was taken right after I cleaned her cage and put down clean paper.

Besides spending time with those two I have baked cookies and also put a casserole in the oven for supper. That's my Monday. Now I get to sit and read.


Thanks for visiting today .



Granny Marigold

A Little Boy and a Doll House

The little guy came home from school on Friday with a rooster mask he'd made because apparently it's Chinese New Year and the year of the Rooster.

He was a big help to me today when I decided to do a good cleaning of my Doll House. My hands are not steady enough to deal with the miniatures but his are!  Together we wiped floors, dusted tables, even cleaned the bathtub ( with a few wet Q-tips).

Only the bathroom doesn't have a working light. The kitchen one is plain to see but the livingroom one is on the Newel post. Outside the front door is also a light.

Yes, that's a tiny plunger beside the toilet. There's just no way I could have put the tiny jars on the shelves etc.. I sure appreciated his helpfulness.

As I've mentioned before, my oldest daughter made this house from a kit many years ago. It got many extras added through the years, including the kitchen which she and my DH added on. After all, what kind of a house has no kitchen!!


Thanks for visiting today.



Granny Marigold

This and That

A quick trip to the thrift store resulted in 2 nice finds. The cutting board is made of some wood that even DH doesn't recognize ( bamboo, maybe?) it even has non-slip feet under.  The old Watkins vanilla bottle is now being used for vanilla in my kitchen ( after a good washing).

On the subject of washing, I have had this lamb skin, fleece, whatever its proper name is, by the side of the bed so I don't have to step on to the cold wood floor in the morning. It needed a good wash but I was afraid I'd ruin it.   It turned out so clean and fluffy. I'll not hesitate to wash it in the future. I did dry it on the little rack though, away from any heat source, just in case.
In the corner of the laundry room there are drying dowels over a heater.  You can even see my very short "wash line" under the cupboard.

 We were given a bag of shallots today. I can't remember if I've ever used  shallots before. I used 2 in a soup I made for supper and they were so pungent they made my eyes water.

That's my post for today. I hope you had a good day.  Thanks for popping by.

 Granny Marigold

Happy Monday

This space is where the dishwasher-that-often-failed-to rinse-dishes was.  I hadn't used it for many months because of its unpredictability so DH took it out and will be building a cupboard to fit the space. I've requested it be on casters, have 3 drawers, and if possible, a butcher block top. 

The whole idea got me going organizing my cutlery drawer and getting rid of the excess. I really will never need 3 dozen forks, knives, etc.. So I had some fun stuff to do this Monday as well as the usual laundry. 

Look at this unusual orange I got when I bought fruit and veggies for the week. . ( I'm easily impressed I guess.)
 

Thanks for visiting. Have a great week. 


          Granny Marigold

Primroses

After days of heavy rain we're enjoying a sunny one. Amazing how sunshine can raise one's spirits, isn't it?  I did my grocery shopping as per usual on a Friday morning and was happy to see that Primroses are out. I know it's too chilly to put them outside but I want them to cheer up the inside of my house! I will put them out on the porch for night and hopefully then they will keep blooming a long time.

I had intended to buy 6 but they were cheaper if you bought 10 so I did. Six fit nicely on my kitchen windowsill and they others are in the sunroom.
 

This has nothing to do with Primroses but I found this cute picture on the internet. I do not think my Cinnamon would like wearing a sweater at all!

Thanks for visiting today.  Please leave a comment so I know you were here.



                        Granny Marigold

Amaryllis and Fruit Cake

I'm thrilled that my first Amaryllis is blooming!   Two flowers and another bud is forming. My sister sent me info on what to do after it finishes blooming and I'm going to see if I can get it to stay healthy and maybe even bloom next year again.

My DIL passed on a bag of dried apricots and half a bag of light raisins, both were a year past their best-before date. I have no qualms about using something like dried fruit that is old. None of it was even a bit shrivelled.  I soaked them briefly in some Rum left over from eggnog season, added some glaced fruit that I had stocked up on before Christmas and this fruit cake is the result. Both my DH and I are very fond of fruit cake.  Never have understood all the jokes that people make about it.

Besides baking I cleaned the pantry where I keep casseroles and pots and pans. Decided which I would put in the thrift store box and now my cupboard is very neat.
 That was my Thursday.  Hope you had a productive day too.

Thanks for coming by,



       Granny Marigold

This and That

Happy first day of the week!!  The sun rose today at 8:01. I've been watching and waiting for it to rise before 8 but it seems the days get longer at the other end. I'll keep watching though.

I found this cute wooden sign at the Dollar store;  don't know exactly where I'm going to hang it but for $1.25 I was not going to pass it up.

 With the Christmas decorations put away I needed to set something out on this table. I decided pink would look nice and cheery.

Nice and cheery is what these colourful peppers are!  They will become hot pepper jelly.  I have hot peppers that I froze last summer .

Lacking anything to do I got out my pot holder collection and chose a couple to be used this year. I will throw away the grungy ones with the slightly burnt edges. ( Don't ask!).

Now I'm off to the kitchen to make Tomato/lentil soup for supper.
Perfect for a winter's evening.

Take care, dear friends,


         Granny Marigold

Amaryllis

I have never grown an Amaryllis but have wanted to. They always seem to be quite expensive, especially since most people don't have luck getting them to rebloom.  Today I was browsing in Walmart when I saw that the Amaryllis were marked down to $4. I checked the boxes ( there were a number of them) and found one where the bulb had just begun to grow. So I bought it.  Walked over to Home Depot afterwards and lo and behold they had theirs marked down to a dollar but they had long stems already. Bought one anyway. For a dollar I'll take the chance/ There was also a little pink Cyclamen in a 4" pot for a dollar. It came home with me too.  I hope all will thrive providing some much needed blooms while I wait for Spring.

              In the picture below you can see what my back yard looks like at this point.

Besides gallivanting around Walmart and Home Depot I did manage to get both Christmas trees un-decorated and everything in boxes. I'll deal with those tomorrow.

Thanks for popping by,



   Granny Marigold

Thrifting

I have no pics of my thrifty purchases so instead I will show you what our cold and  frozen lake looks like!!   My DIL took this picture. She takes better ones than I and besides, I haven't been walking because the paths are still icy and I have no desire to take a tumble.

So I did go to the thrift store and found a nice pair of jeans, a top, 2 potato mashers , a pretty marmalade jar, a scarf and 4 magazines all for $4.   Our very old potato masher fell apart and all we could find at the thrift store were plastic (?) ones. At .25 each we took them and will see how they do.
I noticed that there was a serious draft in the book/magazine area where I was browsing then I saw that a very large window was smashed to bits.  When I went to pay I asked the woman behind the counter what had happened. She told me that a woman had accidentally stepped on the gas instead of the brake and jumped the curb, smashing into the window.  Wouldn't that shock the daylights out of you if you were anywhere nearby!!   It had happened quite recently. They hadn't had time to clean up the shards of glass.


I love to read your comments so please don't hesitate to leave one.


Granny Marigold

Tea Cup Tuesday

Two of my loveliest "orphan" tea cups ( no matching saucers)  were broken over the holidays. DH broke one then not 2 days later I did the same.  I will be on the lookout for replacements and will keep these broken bits to remember just what I'm looking for .  

Thanks for visiting  today,

        Granny Marigold

Snowy New Year's Day

It's a rare day when I don't go out of the house at all  but that is exactly what this day is. Unless you count sticking my head out the front door to take pictures of the yard and the street. We had quite a dump of snow and our street is one of the last to be cleared so we are having an enforced stay-at-home kind of day.

Here my DH is clearing away some snow in the back yard. He filled the bird feeder and hung the Hummingbird feeder which we are taking in at night until the weather warms up.
I'm ashamed to admit I haven't even been out to spend time with my bunny. I just sent warm water and some leaves of Romaine with DH when he went out.

One thing I did accomplish this past week was making my new journal using a thick notebook
 ( which had a bright blue cover).  You know I'm not much at crafts;  all I did was find a nice piece of scrapbook paper and glue it on to the cover, stick some number stickers on and looked for an old necklace that had a leather thong which I will use as my 'bookmark'. Haven't figured out how to attach it yet so I just stuck it into the wire ring. As you can see I'm fairly sure it will take me 4 years to fill this journal.

I would love to know if you journal.

Thanks for coming by today. I hope your year is off to a happy start!


                   Granny Marigold