This and That

 

 We did the weekly grocery shopping this morning.  Eldest daughter came at lunch. She made us a living wreath for the front door.

 DH brought out the old sled and propped it up outside and hung some greenery on it. Later I hung some old skates on it as well. 

 Eldest collects miniatures and this fridge is quite something. The attention to detail amazes me.
The little drawers all open, in fact the fridge comes with an assortment of tiny food.  ( If I'm not mistaken the fridge is about 10  inches high.)

 

 

We went downtown yesterday to look for something not all that important and the traffic was terrible. 
We decided to turn around and go back home. We'll get what we need after Christmas. ( The grocery store at 7:30 AM was not busy though.) Do you have all those last minute things?

 

 

Thanks for visiting

 

 

 

 

Update on Flooding and Christmas around the House

 

Thank you for all the concern for us during this "rain event". There was a brief lull in the rain yesterday and today so far rain has been light. However, 50 to 75mm are forecast for tomorrow and another 15-20 on Wednesday.  Here in town there are some streets closed due to deep puddles but the main problems are out of town and in the industrial areas.  Rural properties and many farms are flooded. We have not been affected so far. The power was out for an hour this morning but I don't know what caused it.

We celebrated DH's 83rd birthday yesterday.  Eldest daughter took him out for breakfast. The other 4 dropped by in the afternoon. Eldest son came to show us his new car!  I didn't get a picture where he parked it but this is exactly what he was driving.

 Preparations for Christmas continue. Here are a few pictures so far.

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

 

 

 

Flooding and a Question

 We have had a great deal of rain these past days and many low lying areas have been affected. Some of our streets are closed and even the U.S. border crossing is closed ( flooding extends to that area as well.)  Fortunately so far our street has not been affected but I know that some of the farms, like the one below, have hardly recovered from the last flood.

 

 

 On to another subject....I bought some wool dryer balls and am looking forward to seeing what difference, if any, they make.

I'm always trying to use up half boxes of this or that and this morning I used a partial bag of marshmallows and a box of instant Butterscotch pudding to make  Rice Krispy squares ( I had a half a box of the red & green ones from last Christmas!! ( Please don't judge me lolol).  I can't see why that wouldn't work.

Yet another subject, on which I'd be interested in knowing your opinion.  We were with a group yesterday and a couple of folks gave out Christmas cards to everyone. In my opinion if you are going to wish a person a Merry Christmas in person why also give a card?  

I've rambled on long enough.  Both my girls are coming over shortly. I better put the kettle on for tea. 

 

Thanks for coming by! 

 

 

 

 

Monday Laundry

 Monday again. I discovered this on the internet and I liked the illustration so much. Then I read the words and I thought I might share them also.

 

 Something else I'm thinking this morning while laundry is on my mind and that is sheets that get all twisted together in the dryer.  I found these tips on Real Simple site....

• Shake out your sheets and pause the dryer cycle halfway to keep them from clumping and to ensure they dry thoroughly.

• Toss in dryer balls, tennis balls, or a clean towel to help prevent your sheets from tangling and reduce dry time.

• Limit how many sheets you wash and dry at once, or invest in a detangling product to avoid twisted and clumped-up sheets.

After reading these I have decided to buy some wool dryer balls.  For those of you who use a dryer, do you have any tips to share?

It's a wet and windy morning. Fortunately we got our walk in before it got wild outside. 

Thanks for visiting  

Thrift Store and A Fudge Recipe

 

 On my latest trip to a thrift store I took a few pictures. This is the biggest of all our local thrift stores and is roomy and well organized.   Lots of furniture and dishes as well as the usual books and pretty ornaments. Lots of Christmas decorations too.

 

This time there was a most unusual item....a small car that someone had donated.  We had a hard time believing that was true but we asked and they said it was. The price was $9000.

The Easy Chocolate Fudge recipe was so popular that I thought I'd include this Peanut Butter recipe too.  I made a half recipe just to see how my guys would like it. They loved it and now I made it again. This time I made sure to put some away in the freezer for Christmas although it's so easy and quick to make that I can easily make more.  For PB lovers this is a treat!!

3 Minute Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter(or margarine)
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar) 

Instructions

1. Line 8x8 dish with parchment paper.
2. Microwave butter and peanut butter in a bowl until it is soft enough to stir together.
3. Stir in powdered sugar.
4. Spread into lined dish and refrigerate for 2 hours.

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.

 

 

Pruning my Cactus

 We're having a wet week. 6C this morning.  I carried an umbrella when we walked by the lake. At Willband we often see dozens of swans but here on our little lake in the middle of town they're seen less often but this morning there were two!! That was a nice start to my day. 

I started addressing Christmas cards and will continue later. My hand gets tired when writing. 

Thanksgiving Cactus are finished blooming now and this is the time to prune them back. They were too wide to fit on our widest window sills so I got at them with the scissors and here's one of them with the cuttings. I am going to take those and see if the ladies at the thrift store are interested in starting some little plants for themselves.  When I took my extra Summer Savory they were happy to have that so maybe they'll want these. 

We've often used this recipe for fudge and it's simple and very good.  Today I tried making it with 2 cups of chocolate chips instead of 3 in order to make a chocolate sauce. It worked very well so that will be what I make in the future.   One thing I noticed is that my can of condensed milk was not the size mentioned. Mine was 10 ounces but since that's the size of all available condensed milk brands obviously it's what I'll use.   
 

That's it for today.  Thanks for coming by.

 

 

Browsing with Sheila

 5C and a light rain was falling when we walked. I think it was Catherine that asked if it was still dark when we walked at 7. Yes, it is getting darker every morning and  I think we will have to carry a flashlight soon. 
Daughter Sheila is on holidays and yesterday she picked me up and we went browsing in our local stores. The stores that have all the pretties💗.  Here are some pictures. We had a friendly sales person take a picture of both of us then Sheila took a few of yours truly.

 

 

 

I found some old fashioned Advent Calendars at the thrift store. The kind that are almost impossible to find.... not with chocolate, coffee samples or any other such. The ones I used to get for my children, the ones that have either a picture of the nativity or a Bible verse behind each little door. Mine has both. 
Sorry for the awful picture :(   but you get the picture (pun intended).

 Because of our gallivanting yesterday I got nothing done in the way of housework. Luckily there were even leftovers in the fridge for supper. Today I will be doing useful things which I better start doing soon!!

Thanks for visiting.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Chit Chat

 

  The past few days have been busy with various things like daughter Sheila's birthday on Friday and our wedding anniversary on Sunday.  We have been married for 62 years.  All 3 sons came by ( well, one lives right here so he technically just came through the connecting door).  The weather was cold but clear with the morning starting out at just 1C. 
Granddaughter Kate came by too. She came to visit and also to cut my hair which was getting just too long. 

It's Monday and for those of us who do our laundry on this day I have some information that I gleaned from the internet....It answers a question that I've wondered about, and that is whether it's better to wash clothes inside out or does it even matter?

• You can extend the life of your clothes, preserve colors, and prevent damage to delicate fabrics by washing clothes inside out.
• Most clothes benefit from being washed inside out. This includes activewear, jeans, shirts, and pieces with embellishments or special detailing.
• If you have stains on your clothes, you’ll need to pre-treat the stains and clean the items right side out for the most effective stain removal.

.   Thanks for visiting.

 

 

 

Cherry Pie

 

 

Good  Friday morning!!  The sun is shining but there's a bitterly cold wind. In my kitchen it's lovely and warm because I'm baking.  Today it's a Cherry Pie. Before you think I worked very hard to make it I must confess that I used a bought crust which I thawed, then added a can of Cherry Pie Filling to which I added some of our frozen cherries to make the pie a little fuller. I topped it with a crumb topping. 

 While the oven was on I thought of using some bread that was languishing in the freezer. I wanted to refill my container of  Veiled Farmer's Daughter. This is a recipe that I got from  Darren McGrady's site on You Tube.  (He was the Queen's cook for many years and now posts his recipes ( and a bit of gossip about the Queen).  This particular recipe became one of her favourites although initially she was suspicious of the title.  No doubt you can look it up but it's so simple I can tell you in 2 minutes.

You need fine bread crumbs ( prefer WW), Brown sugar ( prefer the dark kind but regular will do), and cinnamon.  Mix all together and spread on a cookie sheet. Bake about 8 minutes,I think he said,  but keep an eye on it.  I like this kind of recipe that isn't complicated and I can't remember if he specifies quantities but really, what can go wrong?  DH enjoys this on ice cream.

Have you heard of Crust Dust?   From King Arthur's Baking site....

 Crust dust is a 1:1 mix of flour and sugar. Flour creates a barrier, and sugar prevents clumping and holds liquid, preventing a soggy bottom.

Well, since I was making this pie I wanted to see how sprinkling this Crust Dust lightly on the bottom before adding the filling would work. I'll let you know.

 

If yesterday you celebrated Thanksgiving you might be busy decorating for Christmas today. Here's the little wild ones doing just that.

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

 

Birds and Yams

 Tuesday morning, the last Tuesday of the month. Only 4C but no wind made for a lovely walk. Hardly anyone out at 7 A.M.  After we came back DH went to Gleaners and I poured myself a second cup of coffee and went to sit and watch the birds at the feeders in our back yard. Yesterday we had a Downy Woodpecker at the suet that hangs close to the window in the sunroom. He seemed not to care that we were so close by. Did he realize that the glass kept him safe from us? 

from the internet

 

 

 

 

 Gretchen Joanna over at Gladsome Lights posted something about orange Yams and that sent me on a search to see what exactly an Orange Yam was and would I find it around here.  So I'm going to post a bit of what I discovered. Feel free to skip if you are not interested.

 Do you ever find yourself loitering in the produce aisle, internally debating the merits of yams versus sweet potatoes? At many grocery stores, they often look identical, but I’ve found that “yams” can be as low as 79 cents per pound, while “sweet potatoes” cost $2.49 per pound. So, what’s the difference between a sweet potato and a yam? At most markets: absolutely nothing. It’s all a facade! 

 The reason for the name mix-up is because Louisiana sweet potato growers in the 1930s marketed a new breed of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes as “yams” to distinguish their crop from other states’ produce—and it stuck.

 True yams are part of an entirely different genus (Dioscorea; sweet potatoes belong to Ipomoea in the morning glory family) and are more akin to yuca in texture and flavor. Yams are commonly used in Caribbean and West African cooking and can grow as long and thick as an adult arm. They have bumpy, tough gray-brown skin (that looks almost like the bark of a tree and must be peeled away with a knife as it’s far too tough for a vegetable peeler). 

 

I wonder what exactly we get at the grocery store. Whatever they are we really enjoy them and find them at the reasonable price around this time of the year.

That's it for today. Thanks for coming by.

 

 

Latest News

 Before I tell you the latest news I want to wish each one of you who celebrate Thanksgiving this week a Blessed one.

 Now this.......The latest member of Middle Son's family is this adorable kitten which he rescued from the underground parking where he is manager. Poor baby was obviously abandoned and frightened. Also very hungry which meant that he couldn't resist going right into a convenient cat carrier where
  J had put a handful of cat kibble. J made a rather halfhearted effort to find a home for the kitten but was quite happy to bring him home. So far he has not been introduced to his 2 big sisters.  Oh yes, his name is Glen.  All our animals have names like Meadow & Marsh. Our dog was called Bracken and Miss Kitty's real name is Teasel ( but no one calls her that).

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

 

 

 

Swans, Cinnamon Buns, and Flowers

We had a good walk at Willband again this morning. There were swans on the water and also flying overhead.  Do you know that a group of swans on the water are called a bevy?  In the air they are called a wedge ( probably because they fly in a V but really so do geese!)   We were surprised that so few people were out walking but maybe they were put off by the forecast which was for rain and wind. That didn't start until nearly noon by which time we were back home.

DH cut down a large  rug that was given to us (5X8'). We replaced the one inside the side door.  this new one needed cutting down to size and he removed the baseboards so he could tuck the carpet underneath. It looks so nice now.  While he was doing that I made cinnamon buns. They are not nearly as uniform in size as the ones below but they are good anyway.  I always have trouble rolling out my dough. I roll and it springs back again. Any tips?

 

 A new bouquet of flowers for the table.  I was planning on making strawberry/rhubarb jam and had taken out the jars that you can see in the background. ( Of course I was using fruit from the freezer.)

 That was my day.  Thanks for coming by.

 

 

 

Baking

 I have two sisters both much younger than I.  Both are talented women ( I'm tempted to call them girls because that's how I think of them).  My youngest sister has begun her Christmas baking and shared her pictures of some of the results.  With her permission I'll share those.  

The first picture is a pretty arrangement  she made from thrift store finds.  

 

 ...and her lovely cookies!!!

 

 

 This sister has 8 young grandchildren for whom she bakes several times a week.  Bread, buns and cookies are quickly eaten and much enjoyed.

 

Thanks for visiting

 

Tablecloths for Christmas

 It may be just a bit early to be thinking of Christmas and decorating our tables but I came upon these pretty tablecloths while browsing Pinterest once again.  They're all so pretty  but the first one is my favourite. Do you have a preference?

When we walked over at Willband on the weekend we saw all the usual waterfowl and also some swans. They come back every winter and our first sighting of them is special.

I've been having problems with my camera and for the time being I hope to find pictures that others have taken, as these were, by a fellow Willband walker who had the good fortune to see an Eagle grabbing a Canada Goose right out of the water and taking it over to a nearby tree to eat it. It actually looks like the Eagle just caught the goose with one of its talons.  I've enlarged the pictures to  make that more clear.

 

That's it for today. I hope your week is off to a good start.

 

Thanks for taking time to visit.