Mud

I had a great day as a grandmother today. When Matthew wanted to have some soil to plant his artificial plant in ...I did it.....I had oreo crumbs in the freezer...And when Connor came along...I had enough for him too. ..And when they wanted a picture of a flower...I found the Vesey Seed Catalogue in ten seconds. Hmm Life is good.

Saturday

I have the house to myself today..everyone's away on a Forestry course. Seeing the snow again after our warm stretch made me somehow think that Christmas was next on the list...just for a minute.
So I've been making decisions all day.".what hobby did I want to work on.?"I'm still straightening out the details of my keyboard. I have advanced to playing for Garry which seems to be a plus except he sings along with me..no words..just..well...you can picture it.The jig saw puzzle's still in the corner of the sunroom so he can do the two things at once.
Remember when we left Betty Adams behind on our night out...I almost let it happen again.I was confidently making plans to visit at the funeral home tomorrow night...maybe with supper out. Then, thankfully it came to my mind that I'm committed to play for a hymn sing at the Seniors' in town tomorrow night (like I've had it marked on my calendar for a month) Scary how close I came to messing up. Hmm

Guns

Maya came to visit today. Playing in the basement, she found a plastic gun. Interestingly enough she didn't know what it was.....sort of treated it like a straw to suck through. We are definitely blessed to live in this part of the world.
No other wise words tonight.

Sugar woods

This is better than walking to the sugarwoods...like we had to do when we were kids :)) Sunday afternoon the Springhill Baptist Church was invited to Kevin's woods. Colin's driving Garry's red tractor and hauling the big wagon. I guess, as kids, we could wait for Dad to bring the tractor and trailor out at the end of the day and then we'd sit on the open back of the trailer and dangle our feet as the road rushed by underneath. hmmm

I started another painting class tonight. It is water colors and runs for eight weeks. We'll see how that goes. Thankfully the instructor stressed not buying any expensive brushes or paints.
Here's an interesting point...if you're using tubes and don't plan to paint for a season...Throw the tubes into a bottle of water ..keeps the top from seizing up .And if you do have old paints that you can't get the cover off....just cut the side out of the tube and get the paint out that way.I think she'll be an interesting teacher. And as long as they don't have a shiny surface you can buy something in the kids section...She said her best colors come from a Superman set of paints. I give you this info in case you're on the verge of being inspired.

A new Yamaha keyboard...that was my big purchase in Halifax. There's something very magical about it...I don't know if it's gearing up and playing with me or whether I'm playing with it.I've only used earphones so far. More fun that way. So with my 63 year old brain I'm working my way through the instruction book.

I think I have a video for Jill. Thought you'd like to see the candy being poured out. Maria had a great party ...all outside and in the garage. No mess inside the house.

Socks

Do you think maybe I've had a long winter ...putting on a pic of my worn out socks? I just think it's a shame to throw out perfectly good socks...why don't they make heels stronger.Anyway shopping in the city gave me a chance to refill my sock drawer. And Jim found a bargain on vests.($2 each) I think they're increasing their stash of costumes they use when performing.Wait'll I get a pic of the big thing I bought..Hmmm

Some of you haven't seen this. This is Edie and Jim in costume for their latest musical production. They were a young Irish couple in the company of neighbors and guests. After an Irish sing song the ceremony took place...no vows...just that Irish blessing about the wind on your back.

There is talk of it being taken "on the road" to a couple of Nova Scotia towns. They did a great job.

Would you believe that's Edie on the left. She's in costume for an Irish concert. That wig she has on is mine!..I wore it in 1970.I didn't need an extra head of hair but everbody was doing it. You know how that goes.

We had a great weekend in the city. Eating out and shopping.

Sugar making time

This is for Jill. Bob n Shannon, Mark n Julie, Craig n family, n Ruppie make up this group of people. Apparently there was nothing going on in the woods so Colin brought a pan of syrup to his house, cooked it and poured it out on the snow. It was a gorgeous mild day..
We're off to the city tomorrow to see Edie in her concert.....

Ron's touch

This is the touch Ron put on his mom's rosebowl!

Flowers

We all went home from Ladies Group with a colorful little rosebowl that Juanice had taught us how to do. Just a half inch of water in the bottom...a little square of that green stuff....stick your flowers and baby's breath in at angles..and then drop it down in.What really set it off n hid the oasis (?) ..was tiny leaves of ferns stuck in totally horizonal all around the oasis

If you can't remember that...remember this...when you receive cut flower/.roses, put a half teaspoon sugar in 2 cups of water...everybody knows that...and also 3 drops of Javex. That keeps the bacteria from growing that kills the flowers.

Well maybe not quite

Now that I see them side by side I do see quite a difference...oh well...'67 to 2010...that's 43 years...wow.

Titanic

Remember how the builders of the Titanic bragged...hmmm I thought about that when I was making fudge today...well trying to make fudge. First batch was fine...second one had to be cooked over one time and then cooked again a third time with some new ingredients thrown in. Third batch...same thing...had to cook it over . Edie always said that I was good at ..how did she say it....renovating or something...like making something out of an item that was messed up..That's what I did today.

Birthday Party

We had a great party...many beautiful moments with great friends around. We family members worked together well-Edie's soup was a bit hit...and so was my dessert. :)))

(this is a pre party entry)

I write this only to help someone who's as silly as me. Assigned to doing the dessert for Mom's 96th birthday is always the easy part for me. Country Women cookbooks in hand I searched and compared recipes. I checked my own data of past successes but left those behind (first mistake). Looking for a smooth sweet sauce containing "sweetened condensed milk"...was another mistake. It's my all time favorite ingredient in the whole world. By the time I tested, strained, thinned , recooked and tasted ...I was left with only HALF of the amount I started with. Then decided to add a strawberry product to this delectable dessert I was going to present to 13 people. That turned out dull looking and lumpy...had to do the blender thing with that. Still wondering why this was turning out so complicated and wondering where my head was ...a restless night was upon me. About 2 am I decided to make a chocolate sauce instead....so that's my story so far.

Poor tree

Can you see these sad trees all laden down with ice.?The icicles hanging from the roof are curved. I guess you'd say we've been having some wind. I'm thankful I haven't spent any money on landscaping. These trees have been here since the beginning of time...what I'm saying is we didn't plant them.

Redeeming the time

I think that title means doing two things at once. It comes to my mind when I'm on the treadmill. With earphones I can l listen to TV and stimulate my brain and while I'm walking I can also do neck exercises. Those would be the ones the physiotherapist told me to do the rest of my life.
Next week there's a fudge sale. Kim has been advertising my skills so I'll get to whip up batch after batch. That's a lot of "licking out the bowl"They're raising money to get that little basketball team to the Provincials. By the way the basketball game held more excitement for me than the hockey game. And you know how exciting that was..so just imagine something more nerve wrecking. hmm

Hockey Fever

The four grandchildren were here today and they were as "reved up "about the hockey thing as we are. Seemed like the right time to get this heirloom out of the attic.I thought this childhood toy of Garry's must have been right out of the 40's.I was wrong. First he gave the date as the 60's but I reminded him that we were courting since 63. He will say maybe the late 50's. Anybody else have one?

On a more serious note: Seeing how the kids caught the fever makes you remember how easy it is to "get" children....like Jim Jones did.

Expounding on Carole's thoughts

The game is history.and the Olympic talk is winding down on TV. What was so mysterious is the lure that this game had over us all. Those of us who have never watched a hockey game in our life sat motionless. Back to Carole's account...The fact that it was LIVE....Jill had to get up in Hong Kong between 4 n 5 am. Carole in Turkey had to stay up cause it started at 1o.15pm.Kathy watched it in a movie theatre in Edmonton, Michelle watched it cuddled on the couch in Thornhill. And even little housewives in Nova Scotia watched it through the supper hour and the meal preparation was forgotten. What was the ingredient that caused this phenomena?