Happy Easter

Happy and Blessed Easter to each one who comes to visit here.  May this special season be a time of
peace and joy and hopefully lovely weather.
 

I baked Paska (Easter bread).  My Mom always made hers in traditional round pans just like in this picture.  It would be iced and topped with pretty sprinkles.  My family prefers more icing so I ice the flat side of each slice and omit the sprinkles ( which no one is fond of).
 

 

 

 

I'll be back next week....can you believe it's going to be APRIL ?    GM

Flowers for Easter

 Daffodils from a roadside stand

Cymbidium Orchid .....  I had to look this one up. I have never seen one before.

 

 At first I thought this tiny Kalanchoe was fake but it's real!   Eldest daughter did the watercolour.

 

Thanks for visiting,  GM

Swedish Apple Pie and Tiny Cakes

 

 Our weather has gone back to cool and cloudy. Besides the usual Monday laundry I thought I'd try a recipe for Swedish Apple Pie.  The first picture is the one from Pinterest, where I first saw it.

 This is what mine looks like :(    There wasn't enough topping to cover the entire top and what there was was quite thick and hard to spread over the sliced apples.  I'm sure it will taste fine but I do wish my baking would look better.

 Someone who has a talent for making food that is both tasty and looks wonderful is my DIL "B" .
Her latest creations are these tiny Pistachio-flavoured cakes decorated with icing "succulents".  The time and painstaking effort to create these little (4 inch) masterpieces astonishes me. Incidentally, they taste as good as they look.

 

How has your Monday been?  Hard to believe this is the last week of March!  I'm ready for April and hopefully warm and sunny days.

Thanks for coming by,  GM
 

Birds and Pantry Moths

 It is a beautiful spring day and our walk around Willband Creek was such a pleasure.  We saw an otter and loads of small birds but one that we didn't see was the pileated woodpecker.  We met a fellow walker and she told us where she had seen one but when we walked there we neither saw nor heard it.
Years ago when we lived in the country we had pileated woodpeckers make their nest in a hollow tree along our long driveway. When the young ones were a certain age we'd see them hanging out of the hole as they waited for the parents to bring food.

picture from the internet

 

 When we came back I planted my onion sets. I chose red ones this year. 80 in a bag which is too many for us so I'll be looking for someone who wants some.

again the picture is from the internet

 

My house smells like lavender. We've been noticing small brownish moths mostly in the kitchen. I'm fairly sure they are Pantry Moths also known as Meal Moths. They look for cereal or other dry food  and lay their eggs. The larva are destructive and foul the foods that they hatch in so we're trying to get rid of them. I read that they don't like the scent of lavender so that's why I have been putting drops of lavender essential oils in various places.   Anyone else had a problem with them? Any advice is welcome.

That's it for today. I think I'll go sit on the porch now.

Thanks for visiting,  GM

Plant Shop

 We went to the Plant Shop today and I had a great time browsing all the plants I don't have room for.
I did find a lovely Hellebore "Pink Frost" to replace one of my hellebores that didn't come through the winter. Pink Frost has flowers that face upwards which is such an improvement over the older varieties that look downward.

 I couldn't resist the Heucheras with their pretty red leaves. Several of mine rotted during the winter in spite of being protected from most of the rain.  I hope these do well.

I couldn't resist this Amaryllis either. The bulb is huge and the leaves look so healthy. It has the beginning of what I hope will be a flower stalk ( I have no idea what colour it will be).

 In case my last year's nasturtiums don't self seed I bought more. I thought these 2 kinds looked interesting. The Scarlet Gleam Doubles grow up to 72" which sounds amazing. I may find they need  to be pruned back IF they do that well.

I want to try growing Blue Lake variety of Pole beans and compare them with the usual Kentucky Wonder.  I'll see which we like more. I know we can't even think of sowing beans yet but finding the seeds you want in a month or so isn't as easy as now when the selection is better. As it was, that packet of Kentucky Wonder was the last one on the rack.

 Besides shopping for plants (chatting all the while with Eldest Daughter who found more plants than I did!!) it was a quiet and lovely day.  Have a lovely weekend.

Thanks for visiting,  GM

Spring

 

Happy first day of Spring. This year apparently the equinox is earlier than usual. This from the internet...

The vernal equinox has arrived, giving us equal day and night. There's something special about this one, too — it's the earliest we've seen in North America in over a century!

At exactly 11:06 p.m. EDT on March 19, 2024, the Sun crosses the celestial equator from south to north. This will signify the start of spring for the northern hemisphere!

The day itself is similar to every other vernal equinox, with nearly equal day and night for the planet. However, it's also remarkable, as it is the earliest vernal equinox in 128 years.

Thanks for coming by,  GM

Monday Chit Chat

 Happy Monday!  I hope you had a lovely weekend

Eldest Daughter dropped by and brought pretty tulips.

My Crocuses are finally blooming. They're a bit sparse but at least they're blooming.

We had beautiful weather. Willband was perfect.

The Swallows are back and already claiming their nest boxes.

So it's laundry for me today. Tomorrow is the last in our little stretch of sunny days so I'll be outside as much as possible.  

Thanks for visiting, 

Construction and a Pie

 

 Months ago I blogged about a large medical office building that was being built behind the 2 or 3 houses next to us. From the sun room I got a couple of pictures that are not very good at all but give a small idea of what's going on.  That big green boom is part of the pump pumping endless amounts of concrete into the forms that have been erected over months  In the second picture you can see the hospital which is very nearby. The spot chosen for the medical offices couldn't be better but for us it will block our sunshine and any view we had..

 

I cheated and baked a frozen (bought) pie for Pi day. It was not very good. The pastry was too thick and there wasn't enough filling. I don't often buy pies but this one was bought as a fund raiser for Gleaners.

We enjoyed the sunshine yesterday and today is also a lovely mostly clear day. The forecast is for 19C.
I think that would be around 66F.

Have a lovely weekend.  GM

This and That

 I don't seem to be very faithful in posting lately. Not much is happening. The weather, which has been very rainy, is forecast to improve.  Maybe once I can putter outside I'll have more to write about.

I had a lovely unexpected visit from Eldest Daughter and Youngest Son today. They brought me beautiful flowers. After coffee and cookies they left and I had a nice nap.

My Thanksgiving Cactus is showing signs of slowing down as the blooms wither and no new ones appear. It did very well this year, better than the white one.

 

Once again I had milk to use up and also happened to have 2 cups of pumpkin puree in the fridge....
the result?  Impossible Pumpkin Pie.  On the weekend I made a Chiffon cake.  When we kept a few hens I had lots of eggs and would make this cake often. Now with the price of eggs I think twice ( it takes 7 eggs). However Walmart had eggs for $2.66 a dozen so I made sure to stock up. I checked the best before date and it's May.

 That's it for today. I hope your week is going along nicely. Just a reminder that Thursday, the 14th,
is Pi day. In case you wanted reminding. *smile*

  

GRANNY M

Bags

 Do you have a collection of bags that you take when you go shopping?   I certainly have many, maybe even too many, but I like them all.  I keep some in the vacuum cleaner closet ( along with  a cast iron pan LOL )  and I have some hanging just outside the door into the garage where I can quickly grab one as I leave.

 

Recently I saw some very pretty bags on Pinterest.  Do you have a favourite?
My first choice would be the first bag,with the adorable blue checks.

 Whatever your day holds I hope it's a good one. Thanks for visiting.

Diane in Wis.    For now we'll keep Kitty's cat tree  in a corner near the freezer (outside)..It's under roof and she likes to hang around that area ( close to the back door so she can beg for food when anyone comes out).

Miss Kitty's Cat Tree

 

A friend of Kate's was going to throw away her old cat tree and Kate  'rescued' it for Miss Kitty who was a little suspicious at first but she got over that.  There was another picture, one where Kitty was in that top bed but I can't find that one right now. 

It was a nice day that started out cold but warmed up a bit. No rain. I kept busy with all the usual house work, had a nap, also baked a Pumpkin pie. I don't think I've ever made a pumpkin pie in March before but why not?   

Thanks for visiting

 

Snow and Baby Goats

 

Once again we had snow overnight and into the morning. Not many people were out walking; no doubt they were afraid that the paths would be slippery but they weren't.

from the internet

Our weekend was quiet. Youngest son and granddaughter Kate came to play Dominoes on Sunday afternoon ( I won!)   Kate had been to visit a friend who raises goats. She's an animal lover and who can resist cute kids!!
 

 Now it's on to all the usual Monday routine.  In addition to laundry I will make Rice Pudding in order to use up milk that is about to "turn".  Do you have a favourite way to avoid having to waste milk that's been in the fridge too long?

THANKS FOR VISITING,