Thoughts for a Thursday

Valentine's Day is almost here. Do you do anything to mark the day?  Since one of my sons was born on Feb. 14, around here it's been more of a birthday celebration with a nod to all things heart-ish.  Like heart shaped cakes or the heart shaped cookies that I used to bake. Notice I say USED to because I don't bother with rolled out cookies any more.

I went on my walk this morning and carried an umbrella because the clouds looked ominous. As it was I got a few sprinkles but didn't even open my umbrella.  The two best bird sightings were of an Eagle flying quite close to the lake and of a Hummingbird. Probably an Anna's because they are the ones most apt to stick around in spite of the chilly weather. Oh yes, and I heard the first Red-Winged Blackbird singing his Oh-ka-lee song. A sure sign of Spring.

Thanks for visiting.         Granny Marigold

Wordless Wednesday

         I hope you've enjoyed these old photos.

                  Granny Marigold

This and That

I had a lovely walk this morning. Although I carried an umbrella just in case I didn't open it. In fact later in the day the sun even came out for a while. Earlier this week while on my walk I saw a Raccoon hurrying home. Don't see them during the day very often. Wonder what delayed this one.

While I was out walking I was wondering what I should do today and I decided I'd bake a pie or two when I got back home. I had some  pie dough in the freezer that I wanted to use up. For some reason it was very hard to roll out. DH is the pie dough maker around here and this time he used the food processor instead of the old pastry cutter to work in the Tenderflake. Could that be the reason?
Anyway, I managed to get one deep dish pie plate crust made and a small 8" one. Got out the last can of Pumpkin ( bought on sale around last October) and whipped up one deep dish Pumpkin and two of the "Impossible Pumpkin pies" that are crustless.  The little 8" one I filled with Cherry Pie filling and made a crumb topping.

   Since Valentine's Day is fast approaching I hung my little wreath on the storm door.

Time to go decide what's for supper. Dessert is going to be pie, obviously.

Thanks for visiting.     Granny Marigold

Garden Shed

I haven't been posting often lately mainly because I have been feeling less than great. Nevertheless, life goes on, and my DH has been working on re-doing my garden shed. It will be smaller than before but the big garden 'tools' like the hedge clipper, even spades and rakes etc.. will not be inside any more. They will hang on the outside, under the overhang on the right of the picture. The door will now be where the small window was before.

And the door was found just today at Habitat for Humanity. They had a lot of glass doors and they were priced at $75.  Not in MY budget. I noticed some had small cracks and encouraged DH to go see if they would sell one for cheap. Yes, this one went for $25.   The fact that it is an interior door doesn't matter because it won't get rained on and the crack doesn't matter to me either.

Next on the list was trying to find a mistint paint in a turquoise or aqua colour. I had my heart set on painting the inside a nice bright aqua. I thought we'd have to wait a long time to find it but no... found it at the lumber yard today and instead of costing $42  it cost me a mere nine dollars.  On this pic the colour looks more green than aqua but it really is more to the aqua or even turquoise.

This is what my garden shed looked like last year... obviously it must have been Spring because that Clematis blooms in Spring.  Having the door on this side will be a lot handier because the door was near the part of the building that is DH's workshop and he tends to have piles of wood there.
The metal gate on the left was also a pain because I had to make sure I closed it every time I went through because of a certain Black Lab that would sneak into the flower beds. Probably looking for Slug bait which he would cheerfully eat. and get very sick.

I can hardly wait until the yard looks like this again. It's plus 7 C. today ( 44 F.) so perennials are starting to grow and also Daffodils and Crocus.  I have several small clumps of Snowdrops. They haven't spread as much as I would want but they appear each year so that's good.

Thanks for coming by. I love comments so don't hesitate to leave one. Although I don't answer each one like some faithful bloggers do, I read and enjoy each one that is left.


Granny Marigold

Wordless Wednesday... old houses

Thanks for visiting.     Granny Marigold

My Love of Old Houses

Robin, over at A Bird's Life posted some photos today of lovely old homes in her town. It got me thinking how I have always loved old houses and wished to live in one.  Since this was not to be I have tried to make changes in our house that make me think I do indeed live in my dream house.
 38 years ago we moved into this house which my husband built. It was a small 2 bedroom house with a finished basement with 2 more bedrooms ( we had 5 children under 12 ). There  was nothing charming about it I'm afraid. A very basic house that was close to all schools, an arena, and a park.

Through the years the house as grown, and also been changed quite a bit. Fortunately my DH is a great carpenter and could do all these changes with very little help. One of the first things he did
 ( when we had lived here about 10 years) was to add on a small ( 7' by 8') room which I call my Buttery. ( I already had a pantry in the kitchen so it had to have a different name). We have our freezer, a second fridge, and lots of storage here. I even have an old wood window, the kind you have to push up to open ( pretty sure that window was found on someone's free pile).

I really wanted a fancy glass door for this special little room and we found this one for $5 at a garage sale.  The flooring is fir that my DH was able to get very cheap because there was so little of it ( but enough for our small room).

On the wall opposite the tall built in cupboards, over the freezer , my talented husband built  these upper cupboards. ( The clipboard hanging on a nail over the freezer is my freezer inventory.)

About ten years ago we needed more space. A teenage granddaughter was moving in with us, we still had one son at home, and we had decided to make the basement into a 2 bedroom suite and have another son and his family join forces with us. The addition consisted of 2 bedrooms and one-and-a-half baths. This hallway was ground level ( the rest of the house is up 5 steps) and the door at the end of the hallway leads to the suite. I LOVE how the corner of the door had to be cut off!! The door on the left is a bathroom and the one on the right goes into my Christmas closet.

These stairs go up a ways then there's a landing that leads to the kitchen and the rest of the main floor. Continue up these stairs and there's another bedroom and half bath. Planning how this was all going to go was both scary and thrilling .So many ideas and options.

 Another thing we've done is change as many door knobs as we can to the old glass ones. We used to be able to find them for a reasonable price but now they've become too costly.

This has turned out to be a very long post. If you're still reading you are amazing. Thanks for visiting me today.

      Granny Marigold

Odds and Ends

I paid a quick visit to the thrift store and found some lovely things. This ceramic Christmas birdhouse has been put away in the Christmas cupboard awaiting next December. I must remember to be careful when I pick it up because the base isn't attached.

A number of pretty things were .50, among them this very heavy tray or maybe it's a dish for appetizers. I tried to find an easel to hold it at an angle but it's so heavy it tipped them all.

So I leaned it under the window, behind the sink where it can't fall over. I rather like it there.

         Here it is from a little farther away.

These cute bowls are very different from what I ordinarily would pick but I love red and black and they were .25.
The orange is only there to show how small  the bowls are.

That's enough treasures. Here is my latest arrangement on my old sewing machine. Sort of moving towards a Valentine theme, I guess.

In the living room I have had three candles on a green runner on the coffee table for ages. It was time to change it a bit. I  think this looks like Spring, don't you?  The ceramic birdhouse was a gift from my daughter.

I am so not into doing crafts ( mainly because they never turn out) but I did try making these hearts from discarded book pages. They were meant to hang but I prefer them flat.

It's my turn to cook tonight. There's a ham in the oven for the carnivores. I know how the grands look forward to fresh cheese buns.  I ran out of cheese so in the back there's a long French bread  made of the same dough. One bun got rather long too as you can see. More like a mini loaf.

That was my day. I wonder what everyone else did?  Whatever it was I hope it went well.

Thanks for visiting,    Granny M.