Snow

 This is what we woke up to today. It snowed all day yesterday and in the evening it stopped.  It must have started up again at some point because we were quite surprised by the depth of the snow when we first saw it this morning.

The snow may have created a Winter wonderland outside but in my sun room I have a little spot of Spring!!

I hope you have a pleasant weekend.


Thanks for coming by,


         Granny Marigold

More Books

I was so disappointed in the books I bought at the thrift store last week that I made up my mind to choose more wisely this week... and I think I did. These look so interesting!

I'm not sure why I can't make this picture appear the right way.  This C.S. Lewis book is one I haven't read : The Story of his life with Joy Davidman.

This book was highly recommended to me. This is what the back of the book says: Determined to escape to freedom, Simon and Wesley faced danger and hardship fleeing from Romania to Italy.  But their nightmare began in earnest when they crawled into a container of ceramic tiles that was headed across the ocean. Baking in the heat for days in a shipyard, surviving a tremendous storm at sea, suffering from lack of oxygen, and then the agony of thirst, Simon and Wesley both came close to death.

               I picked up this Betsy Byars just because I enjoy her books for kids.

                            My stack of books-to-read ( guarded by a couple of teddy bears)

And one last picture. I can't post pics that show my youngest grands' faces,  but here M is showing his new T-shirt. ( He's in French Immersion) 

I'm off to put up my feet and begin reading.  Hmmm. I think I'll start with the exciting escape one.
Thanks for coming by,



     Granny Marigold

Banana Bread and Spring Decorating

I made banana bread today, using 6 of the bananas mentioned in my last post. DH did the mashing of them and he mashed another 4 smallish ones and froze those for future use. Ever since I started making a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, and coconut to put in the middle and also on the top of my regular old recipe my family has raved about how tasty it is. Since I took this picture middle son took 4 more bananas down to his kitchen to become banana bread or maybe muffins, He bakes good things!!
I had not yet tried baking in my 'new' 3 X 5 inch ceramic loaf pans but they work just fine and make perfect gift loaves!

I put away the Valentine's stuff and gave the sideboard a good dusting and a fresh look for Spring.

               Put out some early Easter things on Mom's old sewing machine.

And so the day passed. . The last full week in February. It may be chilly and there's a skiff of snow on the ground but I'm thinking Spring!!

Thanks for coming by.


Granny Marigold

Books and Bananas

          Two  more books for youngest son...

Friday morning we do the grocery shopping for the week.  The fellow in the produce dept. was just putting aside all the "singles" and was nice enough to put them into 2 bags and mark them 30% off. I see lots of Banana loaves in my family's future!

That's my not-so-interesting post for today.
Have a pleasant weekend!!



Granny Marigold

Valentine's Day Surprise

          The surprise was not particularly welcome.  Luckily it's already melting.

                      We walked in the park and enjoyed the unsullied snow.

It's not only Valentine's Day for our family, it's also middle son's birthday. Yes, he was my Valentine's baby.
I made these cupcakes and after I iced them I put half a Pirouette cookie in each.

I also made a cheesecake ( in an 8 by 12 pan) and a Magic Cookie Bar also in the same size pan.
I'm going to make a dozen or so of these "sampler" plates before anyone arrives. That way I can sit and enjoy the visit instead of being stuck doing the serving. That piece of cheesecake was the first one I took out of the pan. It seems that is always a slightly broken piece.

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my Teddy bear party. I hesitated to post about it thinking you all would think I was a little crazy. Instead you were so kind and even thought it was a great idea!
I just appreciate each one of you. You are a fantastic group of friends.

Thanks for visiting,

         Granny Marigold

A Valentine's Tea Party ( for Teddy Bears)

        New dresses were found at the thrift store for these two teddy bears.

                     Now they're ready for their tea party!!

                The boy bears had a much humbler party.

               What can I say?  Must be in my second childhood!!

                   Granny Marigold

Visit to a Mosque

Today our local Mosque was having an open house so DH and I went. We found it very interesting and the people there were so friendly.  There is a very small minority ( is that redundant?) of locals that are rude and offensive to anyone  'different' and I am guessing this open house was a step towards more understanding.

I didn't take any pictures of people but a few of the interior.

 Here's me wearing a hijab...I wish I'd chosen a brighter coloured one but this matched my coat.

       It's a cold and clear day so we made the most of it and picked up a load of compost.....

...which middle son kindly unloaded and stockpiled for me. Now I can take my time distributing it where it is most needed.

That's my Saturday. A little different than most but a good one. I hope yours was as well.


                          Granny Marigold

This and That

My Amaryllis has four blooms now and more buds on the other stalk I'm so pleased with how well it's done. The Daffodils I brought in to bloom didn't do so well, in fact, there were only 3 pathetic little flowers which I cut and put in a vase since the foliage was all bent down.anyway..

                 Christmas tea pot I found on Tuesday.

             Sort of matches the Christmas tea cups.

Dianna, on her blog Forgiven, showed how she made bagels using dough she made in her breadmaker. Today I thought I'd try to do what she did but my poor bagels looked pretty awful. I wonder what I did wrong. The good news is that although they look lumpy and deformed they taste
good. Even DH who doesn't usually like bagels liked them. I only used part of the dough for the bagels and used the rest for the little cheese breads  ( also slightly deformed) we like to have with soup.  ( I did make more then 3 bagels but by the time we had supper these were left.)

Thanks for visiting!


                       What they should have looked like!!!
 

Thrifty Finds

Tuesday is my day to go to the thrift store and see if I find anything I like. Well, today I found several items, the first being a magazine holder. It's very sturdy  ( metal, and it folds) and will hold my gardening magazines when I sit on the porch. Last year I had them stacked on the floor but the stack  kept getting kicked as we went by. ( I keep my old magazines and reread them  since age doesn't matter when it comes to gardening magazines, or cooking ones either.)

Remember I was saying how M and I had no playing pieces for Parcheesi? I found this cute little Chinese checkers game made of metal with magnetic pieces.  We have an antique Chinese Checkers board so we won't need this little one but the pieces will be great to have. I wonder if M will be sorry we aren't still using chocolate chips as markers since he was inclined to eat them when the game was over.

Spring is coming and that means flies. This  plastic dish with cover was a few cents and will get a lot of use I'm sure when we're having snacks outside.

I already had my basket full but I made a quick stop in Children's books. This book, copyright 1970, has  " the most beguiling highlights  of books that have stood the test of time not only as literary classics but as favorites with the children themselves."
Some of the  selections are from Robinson Crusoe, Heidi, Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, and many many more, Many of the books mentioned I have not read and probably never will ( like Gulliver's Travels for instance) but I will read the short bits in this book. The book, although old, is in excellent shape. It's definitely a keeper.

              This cute jacket  ( TanJay brand) was half price ( $2.50) and fits me perfectly.

 I did find a lovely Christmas tea pot but forgot to take a picture. Next time.

Just in case you wondered if my house was getting too full I will show some of the boxes ready to be dropped off next visit.

Oh yes, I found  something else, I mean someone else, at the thrift store, Karen, from Wyndson Farm blog, was doing a little thrifting too. It was nice to chat a bit with her.

Thanks for visiting again today. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment!!

Granny Marigold

Busy Day

It's been a busy day. First thing we did was to do our weekly grocery shopping. It's nice to go first thing in the morning before the stores get too busy. We came home, had a quick cuppa then left for our walk. By the time we came back it was time to leave for my appointment with the ophthalmologist's office to have some more tests done apparently to measure my eyes in preparation for cataract surgery. I'm not sure why now since the surgery isn't scheduled until July!!  Oh well, got that done.
After lunch I felt like baking and made Orange/Date Muffins as well as a Banana Loaf. ( Over ripe bananas were cheap).  Now I have a pot of pea soup simmering and I'm looking forward to a quiet relaxing evening.
I hope you had a great day too, no matter what it was you were doing.

Thanks for coming by. I love the comments you leave.


                     Granny Marigold

Books and Flowers

I went to drop off my box of things at the thrift store and stayed to browse for a while mainly in the book section. I found several books for myself and 2 that my youngest son will want. Those are the Solzenitsyn books. I have trouble with his name let alone reading his books but son3 is a fan so I look for them for him.
I had made up my mind not to go anywhere near the toy area of the store lest I see any of the many Teddy bears I donated last week. What I hadn't figured on was that Teddy bears would be a feature of all the Valentine's displays in various areas of the store.  I didn't like to see them there. Crazy, isn't it?

One of my Amaryllis has buds just starting to open.. This is one of the bulbs I bought marked down after Christmas.  So far the stem seems strong enough to support the flowers but last year's plants needed help so they wouldn't fall over. I'll keep an eye on this one as more flowers open.

 My Snowdrops are beginning to bloom. These are NOT  mine, just a pic off the internet. It's raining and I don't feel like going out to take a picture of mine.

I made a new square yesterday. Pineapple and Coconut. It turned out very well and it's a recipe I'll use again for sure.   I had every intention of posting the recipe but I can't find it in English.  The cooking show was in French as was, of course,  the recipe..  IF anyone really wants it I will do my best to translate and post it here. Basically it consists of a base that you prebake and a cooked topping of  crushed pineapple, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch that you pour on the partially baked base and bake again.

Thanks for coming by; I hope you'll leave a comment so I know you were here.



                                              Granny Marigold