A WALK WITH THE LAMBS!

Friday evening Gary and I were invited out to our friend's sheep farm for a relaxing evening.

It was a beautiful evening, a little on the cool side, but we didn't really feel the cool until the sun went down.

Because I really wanted to have a photo shoot with the lambs, I was a little concerned that the lighting might not be the best at that time of day.  How wrong I was!  Turned out the lighting was spectacular.  The sun was golden and low and it complimented the fluffy white lambs, and even the multi-coloured ones just perfect.

They have a lot of sheep and lambs, and one black cow that lives and eats with the flock.  To watch the cow in action, it is pretty obvious he or she ( I forgot to look) thinks it's one of the flock.  It is quite hilarious.  When the sheep call - so does the cow.  When the sheep go to feed - so does the cow! 

Along with the sheep, lambs and one cow are three dogs.  Melody, Levi and Khazix ( I might have spelled that wrong - sorry Kaz).  The dogs are the sheep and lamb's guardians from predators such as  wolves, coyotes, or anything that might harm the sheep.  Levi stays in the woods just outside of the pen area, and the other two are right in with the sheep.  Levi, is not people friendly, but the other two love humans who love sheep.  But -  they are not pets by any means.

I shot close to 200 photos, and it will take me awhile to get through them all, but here is a few of what I have processed so far.

A relaxing evening it was - and so much fun as well.

Thank You Terry, Diana, Katie and Adam for sharing your flock with us.

My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me.  (John 10:27)

We started with this little lamb.  He is quite sick, has a bone infection and is being treated with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories.  He couldn't move his back legs, but still managed to run a bit by  hopping like a rabbit.  He is so sweet - I really hope he survives his illness...

Speaking of rabbits!  Here are a set of twins that they have named the rabbit lambs...  will you look at those ears!

This Regal fellow is one of the Rams (Dad's)for the flock.

And then there are just so many adorable little ones:

And the very youngest - just a day or so old...

I could have watched them running and playing all night long, they were so cute and entertaining!  

But watching them is Melody's job, and she does it so very well...

More later...

AN ANNIVERSARY OF SORTS!

This week has been a bit of an Anniversary for me.  It was eight years ago that I wrote my first ever blog post.

I have put a label on it, so if you want to read it you can find it under,  My First Blog Post Ever.

I can't really remember why I decided to start my own blog, but it all started with a planned trip to Chicago.

Eight years ago, Gary was pretty much blind.  His Mother was in a nursing home, failing quite quickly, so it was decided that we should go and see her.  I took vacation, we packed the van, and headed off down to Chicago from Winnipeg, with me as the only driver and Gary pretty much unable to help me with any aspect of navigation at all.

We had gorgeous weather all the way there and back, except for one little rain shower in Wisconsin on the way down.  We stayed several days in Chicago visiting Mom and the rest of our family, and then stopped in Janesville Wisconsin and stayed a few days more with Aunt Margaret.

It was a trip I will never forget for many reasons.  It was the last time we would ever see Mom again, and as it turned out, it was to be the last time I ever saw Aunt Margaret as well.

When we got home, I penned this poem as my way of de-stressing a very long drive -  and writing this last sentence makes me realize why I started my blog in the first place. 

Writing has always been my outlet for so many things.  I write to de-stress, I write when I'm happy, I write when I'm sad.
I have always been comfortable writing my thoughts, more so than speaking them.

Writing is like music to me - it takes me on a journey where I get to choose the outcome. 

And so I write...

Thank You all for reading my journey!

I hope you enjoy!

Ode to a Freeway

I’m heading down the road today,

On my way to parts unknown.

A couple of days of driving south,

Perhaps I should have flown?

Wide open Dakota prairie,

Sure gives me false bravo.

Can I handle big city freeways?

Well; only God can know!

Before I know it’s on me.

Two lanes; now turned to five.

Oh cripes, the traffic’s horrid;

It’s scaring me alive!

Oh peace the hills of cheese land,

For green is all I see.

Bovine, and grass and silo’s tall,

A quick stop for some Brie.

The tension builds as signs appear,

Announcing Chi town’s state.

The speed is on, while traffic swells,

Our safety now is fate.

Tolls to the right, merge to the left;

I cut how many off?

Construction, semi’s, fools and such,

This drivers’ had enough!

Anger soon transpires to tears,

Add on a cuss or two.

I firmly vow to park my rig,

Yes, that’s just what I’ll do!

“Calm yourself,” Dear hubby states;

“You know we’re almost there!”

I rant and rave some more, poor guy,

Then fix him with a glare.

A few sharp turns, a stop or two;

Arrival now is near.

Relief, euphoria, joy unknown,

And finally we are there.

Don’t think about this drive again,

Says I, to only me.

Relax, enjoy and rest a bit,

Yes lady, that’s the key.

Well now I know just what I’ll do,

Next trip I plan to take.

A simple booking on a plane,

For everybody’s sake!

2010

Dale Graumann

ANOTHER GREAT RECIPE!

It's Thursday, that means its recipe day here on my blog.

This week's recipe is probably not one that some of you might like - I can think of a few people on that list - but I would challenge those people to try this anytime - you might be very surprised at how much you DO like it.

My inspiration for this post came earlier in the week when I was building my toad pond.

I was walking around a small area of the garden and had to be so careful not to step on these little plants that were just starting to pop through the ground.

Just a couple of days have passed and look how much they have grown!  The weeds as well!

Rhubarb!

Good for you Rhubarb - loaded with essential vitamins and also iron.  

Rhubarb season is just around the corner.   I already have several rhubarb recipes on my blog - my Aunt Hilda's Rhubarb Custard Pie; Rhubarb Crisp and Rhubarb Muffins - you can find them all under the "LABEL" section.

Here's one that you can eat all year long - and believe me - you will want to, once you taste this.  I only have one jar left from last year - I'm making much more this year!

RHUBARB MARMALADE.

5 cups diced rhubarb

6 cups sugar

1 cup drained crushed pineapple

3 oz strawberry jello

Place rhubarb and sugar in a large pot, bring to a boil and cook 10 minutes.  Add pineapple and jello, bring to a rolling boil, remove from stove - skim off foam.  Pour into sterilized jars and seal immediately.

Notes:

There is nothing at all wrong with this marmalade the way it is - Gary loved it, and so did I.  But I think for myself, I would like it a bit less sweet, so this year I am going to cut back on the sugar somewhat.  But that's just a personal preference...

Try it - you will love it!

THE NEW DOLL ROOM!

It occurred to me that I have not yet done a post on my new doll room.  It has been finished for over a month already, and I did do one short video with my iPhone, but I have this crazy habit of turning cameras while shooting video - I guess because I do it all the time when I am shooting stills - it's just a habit.  Anyway the video was going pretty great and then I started flipping the camera around - and well... to put it mildly - it was a real mess.

So I decided to try again.  My new phone takes great video - only I need to keep my mouth shut, as I yammer on and on - and before I know it the video is too large.

So I will try one more time.  Excuse this video for being not too chatty...

https://youtu.be/wY_KsmPzt4A


I hope you can view this,  but in case you can't here are a few stills to go with the video...



The old pine TV cabinet I painted .  Dolls in the cabinet, and doll clothes in the drawers.

The dolls inside the cabinet.  On the top self, are most of my 1940's/50's rubber /vinyl dolls.  Bottom shelf is most of my Chatty collection.

My other cabinet, has mostly vintage and a few antique dolls as well.

Some of my collection of children's books and vintage childhood books.

and

The Three Bears and Goldilocks - made and given to me as an infant by Aunt Margaret Vick.

And the canopy over the bed that I created with some sheer curtains and a couple of straight curtain rods attached to the ceiling is at the top of this post.  I have one side tied back, but it can be lowered to make a nice cozy little tent as well.

Missing is my Marx Tin doll house - but you can see that on the video.

I am so happy with the way this room turned out.  It is a doll room, but it also is a room where children can sleep and play.  The valuable dolls are in the locked cabinet, but all the other things in the room are just waiting for a child to love them.

What is the sense in having child's toys, if not to play with them?  All I ask is that the room is tidied before the children leave it...

It's what was always expected of me as a child, and it's what I expect as well.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

A TOAD TALE

We had a gorgeous warm weekend here this past weekend.  I spent as much of it outside as I could.

Saturday I decided to take a break from the tea garden plot and move to the very back of our back yard to an area that has been really ignored by me, pretty much since we moved into this house.

It is another of those areas that was left to run wild, and though I have managed to tame it a bit every spring, I have not worked it enough through the summer months to really make it a productive area.
Last year I moved 5 rhubarb cuttings from the front yard to this space, but the plants were quickly dwarfed by weeds, and I never did anything about it.

That's gonna change this year.  I want a good rhubarb harvest for one thing, and for another there is still an area there that could be planted with some other vegetable I have yet to try.  I'm thinking garlic.

I will have to check and see if rhubarb and garlic are companions... it they can stand growing close to one another, or not!  If they are, then I am going to attempt garlic.

Everyone tells me that garlic should be planted in fall, but I was reading the back of a package of garlic sets in the store on Friday and it said it could be planted early spring as soon as the soil is able to be worked - so that means this week!

Strange as it seems though - I was not working in this remote back area of my yard for either the rhubarb or the garlic.  It was toads that I was interested in harvesting.

This back area is where I have found a lot of toads - mostly buried in the soil in spring.  They seem to like the area right at the back where I compost my grass cuttings.  It is sunny but also offers some shade at different times of the day.  My idea was that I should build a toad pond to encourage them to help me control insects in my garden and yard.

I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on this endeavour - but having said that - if they come to this small pond - I will build them a better one in the future.

So first I edged the whole area (the grass had grown into the garden part at least a foot since we moved here).  I cut down some old Hollyhocks, weeded the rest,  cleaned the area around where the rhubarb is growing and decided on a place to dig a hole for my toad pond.

I got my spade out and made a nice deep cut in the soil - and decapitated an adult toad on my first spadeful of dirt.

I was so upset.  I knew that area was their favourite winter resting spot, but I guess I thought perhaps they might have been awake already - apparently not - poor guy didn't know what hit him.  So I buried him where he lay...

I already had a big hole dug, so I kept going, and thankfully I was able to make the hole I needed to put the round plastic kitchen wash basin in the ground without any further causalities.

Phew - such stress!

Here is my very small toad pond.  I still need to gather some more rocks for around the perimeter of the pond, but I did plant some day lilies close to the pond to provide shade and shelter for my little friends.

The large piece of tree bark can be used for shelter, but I am also going to put a toad house nearby for more shelter from the sun and from natural predators.

Did you know that toads consume close to 30,000 insects during one summer season?  They love slugs and snails, and of course mosquitoes.  It is advised to put a garden light close to their area to attract mosquitoes at night when the toads are out searching for food.

I am hoping once they wake up from their winter nap, that they find this little pond, and maybe lay some eggs here - if not, then at least they have a place for some water during the hot summer months.

At the back where the white is, is where I compost my grass clippings ( the white is newspapers I have put down between the layers of scrap sod I have trimmed).  The pond is that other bit towards the front, and the area between the two sticks is where my rhubarb is planted.

Hopefully it will all look much better when things are actually up and growing...

We really need a good soaking rain... and soon!

SHAWNEE USA 75!

 A week or so ago I decided to spring clean my kitchen.  I don't think I had washed my kitchen cupboards inside since we moved into the house almost 3 yrs ago.

So I grabbed the ladder climbed up to the top of it and started emptying everything out of my cupboards.

I found all kinds of treasures, especially way up in the highest cupboards - I had stashed things I seldom use way up there when we moved in, and because I need a ladder to open those - had never bothered with them since.

One of the things I hauled down from a top cupboard was this corn teapot.

My Mother had a cornice over her kitchen window, and this teapot sat up on that cornice, for as long as I can remember.  When my Mother passed away and Dad was selling his home, he asked me if I wanted it, and I said yes.

The teapot had belonged to his Grandmother - my Great Grandmother Effie Owens. 

Effie lived in a second story apartment in downtown Cedar Rapids Iowa, when I knew her as a very young child.  I remember going to visit her with my family when I was about 5 or 6 years old.  I can see her in my mind... a real elderly grey-haired lady, who wore black leather shoes - you know the old-fashioned ones that look like army boots that old ladies used to wear.  She wore heavy cotton stockings, a house dress and an apron. 

She was quite the character - very comical and very kind.

  She wasn't the "real" Great-grandmother, but the second wife (former housekeeper) of my Great-grandfather after his first wife passed away.  Back in a time, when those things mattered - it made no difference to our family at all.  Everyone loved "Grandma Owens" and she returned that love in spades.

I still have cards and letters that she sent to me as a child - me a little Canadian Great-grandchild that she might have seen twice in her lifetime, but still she wrote to me several times a year!

When I pulled the teapot out of the cupboard, I took a good look at it, and like I have now learned to do from my friend Lou - I turned it over and looked at the bottom of it.  

And I took a picture and messaged it to Lou!

I am pretty sure that this teapot would have been purchased in the 30's or 40's at the "Five and Dime"... American term I heard my Aunt Margaret say so many times, for department stores like Ben Franklin or other variety department stores, that carried just about anything you could ever hope to own.  It most likely was very inexpensive as well.

It took no time before I got a reply back from Louise telling me that for years she had looked for corn objects like the teapot - unsuccessfully!  She checked out my teapot and determined a value of 75.00 on it based on similar pieces for sale online.

That's not a ton of money, but it's not bad either, for something that was probably purchased for very little money and has sat around on cornices and in cupboards for years and years.

I reckon, it's time to leave it out for all to see and admire.

So here it sits, on my pretty old cabinet in my kitchen.  I can look at it hundreds of times a day - and I can remember Effie Owens, each and every time I do so.

BATH TUB BRILLIANCE!

So you want to know what my bathtub brain wave was, do you?

It has to do with this ugly little spot.

This little garden area has been a burr in my butt since we moved into this house.  When we moved in it was an over run and tangled mess of roses, and all kinds of miserable weeds and things, that we have been cleaning out pretty much since we moved here.   I fought with the mess for the first year, and then last year thanks to the help of Gary and the tractor, we pulled all the rose bushes out -  correction, still one more rose bush to go - but mostly the area has sat empty now for a year.

See the patch on the wall to the left?  That is the east-facing wall of our dining room.  Apparently there used to be a fairly large window in the dining room, and I can certainly understand why it was removed.  Already that room gets so much sun ( and heat) from a south facing picture window and a -west-facing window and front door.

Gary was going to complete the job that was not finished here, and stucco over the patch - until I came up with idea that it would be a great spot to put a garden door, if we could turn this patch of garden/grass into a small patio area just large enough for our little Bistro set... a place we could go for morning coffee, a salad at lunch or a cup of tea in the evening.

We are going to do that someday, but that project is in line behind replacing two large picture windows, which is behind removing the back step and redoing the driveway - which is behind...

So - while in the bathtub it came to me that it would be a really great place to make my herb/ tea garden.

And so I started my work...

I started squaring the area off with my trusty board and edger, and now will dig the whole area up, get rid of the grass, and the last almost dead rose bush.  I am going to make it a complete square all the way to where that old rose still is.  That way when the time comes to make this area a patio, we are half done.

Brilliant!

Day 1

Day 2 

Not quite half done - still lots of back-breaking digging - but I am determined to finish this bed, before doing any other yard work.

BUT.....

I'm taking the day off from this project today, but will back at it over the weekend.

Today we are getting out for a drive in the beautiful spring weather and checking out our surroundings.

Have a great weekend everyone! If you get the chance, get outdoors and enjoy the arrival of Spring! 

THE BEST CLASSIC CHOPPED SALAD!

I promised you a recipe every Thursday for the foreseeable future.

This one is a new one I tried this week for the first time.

We were invited to our neighbours last evening for dinner.  I offered to bring something, and was asked to bring a salad.

At first I thought I would just bring a regular tossed salad, or a Caesar Salad - but that is same old, same old - so to Pinterest I went.

I choose a salad called  "The Best Classic Chopped Salad"  posted by Melanie F. of nutritiouseats.com .

It's a bit more time consuming to make than a regular salad - but well worth the time and effort that goes into making it.  If you have to take a salad to a Pot Luck or just want a nice dinner salad, that you could use as an entry itself - here's the one to try.

2 Romaine ( 8-10 cups finely shredded/chopped)
3/4 cup diced tomatoes (or 1 cup grape tomatoes)
1/2 cup finely diced red onion ( or 1/4 of a medium onion)
2 avocados, small dice
3 hard boiled eggs, fine chopped
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

5 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
a few tablespoons of Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing


Combine all ingredients in a large bowl ( Romaine through blue cheese).  When ready to serve, stir in Bacon and toss with dressing.  You will have left over dressing.


Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing:

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 teaspoon honey or Agave
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

In a jar combine balsamic vinegar, honey, garlic, salt and pepper.  Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking with a small whisk.  Place on lid and shake well until combined.  Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.

Shake well before using.

NOTES:
I couldn't find any Blue cheese in the smaller country stores out here, so I substituted Herbed Garlic Feta cheese, and I did buy an avocado, even chopped it up, but made the mistake of popping it in my mouth to try it - and the rest went in the trash... for some reason I really don't like them.  I find them tasteless and mushy...

I made the Balsamic vinegar dressing but found it a bit strong, and because this salad was intended for a family including 4 little boys ages 3-8, I did not toss the salad ahead of time.

Instead I took along a some Creamy Poppyseed ( for the boys) and some Greek with feta, for the adults.

The salad was amazing, my huge bowl of salad vanished - everyone loved it.



Special thanks to nutritiouseats.com  for the recipe.

ALLOTMENT ADDICTION, AND A CRAZY IDEA!

Its been a long winter, and a miserable spring so far.  It's very hard to stay focused on the coming of summer, and long days of sunshine and heat.  A local farmer told me we are in for an unusually cold and wet summer.  I hope he's only 50% correct.  We could use the moisture, but cold weather is something we have all had enough of.

How are you coping with this somewhat disappointing spring weather?

I have to say, I am spending an awful lot of time on YouTube of late... particularly watching all the "allotment" videos from the UK.  It started with "Katie's Allotment", and now I am also hooked on  "Jane's Allotment" video series.

Jane is an older version of Katie - and funny beyond funny - but also very knowledgeable about gardening.

My love affair with the "Brits" way of gardening has not just blossomed now.  Long before there was a thing called YouTube, and long before I even had a garden space of my own, I was buying gardening and decorating magazines that featured Typical English Gardens.

In particular, I have always loved the wild hodgepodge look of an English Country garden.  The natural look of them - so like Mother Nature's planting, really appeals to me.

Jane's Allotment, is a typical English Gardener's Garden.  She has vegetables, flowers, herbs, all stuffed together in a small space, which might seem a little over-much to Canadian gardeners - but it all works for her.

It works for me as well - and I want it all - in my garden!

So, as well as choosing to plant my garden according to the phases of the moon - I am also going to change up the arrangement of the garden.

To begin with, I am going to make a relatively small flower garden right in the middle of the vegetable patch - to encourage the bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects to come to my garden.  And I will follow that up with interspersing more flowers throughout the vegetable patch itself.

I am going to section off my vegetables into proper "beds", so I can grow companions together.

I am going to dig up some more lawn and add a Raspberry patch outside and behind my garden where I planted my little cherry tree a couple of years ago.  I love raspberries, I know they can become a pain in the neck, but hopefully giving them their own separate space will give me a chance to keep them under control.

And this morning while I was having a soak in the tub to help my very sore joints and back, I came up with the most brilliant idea!  Yes - she thinks about gardening in the tub!!!

I'll tell you more about that - next time!

PLANTING BY THE PHASES OF THE MOON.

I mentioned in one my last post that I was going to plant my vegetable garden this year according to the Phases of the Moon.

It sounds pretty radical, but in actual fact it makes a whole lot of sense once you figure it all out.

I watched my Dad do this every year, and he always had productive gardens and high yields in his vegetable crops.

If you want to give it a try this year, there are a few things you have to know first - and that's where the Old Farmers Almanac comes in.  You can purchase the book, just about everywhere - the books are specific to each country - so mine is the Canadian Edition - and they are also available online.

The Canadian Version online is Almanac.ca

It is a good idea to first make a list of the crops you want to grow - actually make 2 lists... one for crops grown above ground, and one for below ground crops.

Next you must determine the "Area" you are gardening in.

I am in Area 3.

There are really only 2 rules to follow.

1. ABOVE ground crops (annuals, vegetables) must be planted during the light or waxing of the moon ( from the day the moon is new, until the day it is full).

2. Flowering bulbs, biennial, Perennial and vegetable crops that bear crops BELOW the ground must be planted in the dark or Waning of the moon ( from the day after the moon is full until the day before it is new again).

That's pretty much it - except not quite.

So here's an example for my own planting.  I will be planting my vegetable garden in May.

in May the New moon is the 15th day, and the Full Moon is the 29th day.

Tomatoes (above the ground crop)  can be planted any time between the 15th and 29th of May.
But there is one more thing to consider - frost.
According to the Almanac the last spring frost for our area will be May 22.

So now... I will plant my Tomatoes between the 23rd and the 29th of May.


For May, the New Moon is May 15th, and the Full moon is the 29th.

Carrots (below the ground)  day after full moon is 30 and 31... and the new moon is early in May,

so the only days in May that I should plant my carrots are May 30 and May 31.
Frost will no longer be a consideration.

I have gone through my list of vegetables and determined when the best time to plant every one of them, and marked it down on a calendar.  So we will see how this goes...

Dad, if you are watching from up there.... no laughing!

AN OLD FASHIONED DESSERT

I have decided that Thursday's are going the be Recipe days - at least for a little while...  What is the use of having a garden patch of vegetables, if you don't intend on cooking with the food you grow?

So, I'll start off with this one...




Remember the days when our Mother's canned fruit grown in their own yard, like Raspberries - or from purchased fruit in season, like Peaches, Pears?

I don't think many women have time to can like that anymore - and kudos to those who still do.

But it got me thinking.  I was raised on home-canned fruit.  It was so good - not near as sweet as the canned fruit you buy in the stores, and you knew that the fruit that was used was as fresh and as perfect for canning as it could possibly be - perhaps that is why it tasted so much better.

We always had dessert after our main meal - but it wasn't always flour based, like cakes or cookies or other baked goods - sometimes it was just a fruit nappy ( now there's an old term) of  Mom's canned peaches.

I was going through a book I found at the recycle shop last year called Herbal Treasures, by Phyllis V. Shaudy's  The book is from the 1990's but it full of wonderful ideas of growing and using herbs in everyday living.  It has really great recipes in it as well for all kinds of things, like Herb dressings and vinegars, herbal teas.  Main courses that accommodate fresh and dried herbs - and even crafts made with natural and herb elements.

I stumbled upon a recipe that the moment I started reading it, had me sitting back in my Mother's kitchen as a child, waiting for supper, so we could get to dessert!

This was a particular favourite dessert of mine - and Oh My Goodness - why did we ever stop making it?

This recipe is not exactly like Mom's but even so - I am going to try this one just as soon as I can get out to the store and get the ingredients.

This is good healthy eating, for sure!

Baked Apple with Fennel

6 apples

2 tablespoons raisins

2 tablespoons walnuts

3/4 teaspoon fennel

Cinnamon

Honey

Butter

1/2 water

Preheat over to 300 F.  Core apples and place them in a baking dish.

Combine the raisins, walnuts, and fennel, and divide the mixture into 6 even portions.  Stuff the mixture into the apples.

Top each apple with a dusting of cinnamon, a drizzle of honey, and a pat of butter. 

Pour water into the pan around the apples.

Bale for 1 hour, or until apples offer no resistance when poked with a fork.

Can you imagine the flavours in this...

Tart apple ( I would use Macintosh apples), sweet raisin, with a hint of Licorice ( fennel), the beautiful spice of cinnamon, made just a bit crunchy from the nuts, honey and butter.

OH MY GOSH....My mouth is watering!

If you make this - let me know how you liked it!

Enjoy!

STILLS OF MY HAPPY PLACE!

I promised you some still photos of my studio and office area upstairs - now minus the dolls and the bed.

I can't tell you how much I am enjoying the extra space.  Since I have finished moving everything around, I have spent hours sitting and working on blogs at my desk, doing some stitching at my table, and just plain enjoying the area the way I used to, before it all became too overwhelmed with "stuff".

So without further babble on my part... here's my tour of sorts!

Staircase to the second story attic... lovely steep stairs that are just plain miserable for hauling dolls and furniture up and down.  I must have made a 100 trips up and down these and the basement stairs the past few weeks, while moving everything around.   Could be why my bones and joints and achy now?

Staircase:

Right at the top of the stairs is a little sitting area and my desk and office space.

 

This end of the room is the north end of the space.  My desk used to be at the other end, under the south facing window, but often times it was so bright I couldn't actually see the computer, so this works much better for me.  I kept just a few of my really large dolls up in my work area for company.

 Two large book cases with pattern books, and patterns I've acquired and saved over the years.

I dragged this chest of drawers up those stairs myself,  I really needed someplace to store fabric... 

My spinning wheel is under that brown cover beside it.

This is looking towards the middle of the room and the other end ( south) where my desk used to be

In the middle of the room I have a large banquet table, that I use for cutting fabric, ironing and stitching.

and on the opposite wall is my sewing machine table

At the south end of the room where my desk used to be located, I have set up another table which will be my potting/seedling table, once my seeds are up.  Right now they are in the dinning room in the hot south sun, but in a week or so, I will move them up here to the smaller south window and florescent lights until they are ready to go outside.

On the wall behind the table, I have a felt wall - which is just an old felt-lined plastic table cloth I have attached to the wall.  I use it to put quilt pieces that I am working on.... right now there is just odds and ends on there.

And then there is the nook.  This is the little room, I once had a single bed in.  I decided it would be a great place to put all my supplies, so now it is the supply nook.  It's really great to have everything in one spot, instead of scattered all over the place.

And finally a shot of the full space from the south end to the north end.

It's not a small space, and now without the dolls and the bed - there is so much more room for me to rumble about in.

So now you know what I have been doing the past few weeks.  

I will have the doll room tour soon - 

INDOOR SEED PLANTING AND VIDEO FRUSTRATION!

Its a new week - it still feels and looks like winter outside, but we are already into the second week of April and up until this past weekend, I still had not started any of my vegetable seeds indoors . 

I was going to put that on my "to do " list for this week, but changed my mind and got it done on Saturday.

I am usually much more excited about spring planting than I am this year, and I think its because the weather is still so much winter - ish!  How can you get excited about being in the yard when it is still covered in snow?  Blah!

So what did I seed on the weekend?

6 (Bush) Manitoba Tomato plants
6 (Staking) Big Beef Tomato plants
6 (Bush) Prairie Pride Tomato plants
6 (Bush) Cherry Supper Sweet 100 Tomato plants.

6 Cool Breeze Cucumber plants
6 English style - Sweeter Yet Cucumber plants

6 Golden California Pepper plants
6 Blazing Banana Hot Pepper plants

3 Pumpkin plants

3 Sunflower plants ( will plant 3 more in the ground in the garden)

3 Acorn Squash Plants
3 Butternut Squash Plants - don't think these will grow as I harvested seeds from a squash, and they don't look very seed-like!

A tray of 12 marigolds
A tray of 12 Cosmos (Sea Shells)

Some of the herbs that I had planted earlier did nothing so I might try them again, or wait and just plant them in pots outdoors when it is warm enough.

Of course if everything comes up and grows well, I will be sharing plants with friends like I did last year.  It's one thing to plant a seed, but needing all the plants that grow might be somewhat of a tricky thing!

I have purchased a Farmers Almanac, and this year I am testing out what was my Dad's chosen spring planting methods  I am going to be planting the whole garden according to the moon cycles.  That means no mass planting on the long weekend of May as I have usually done.  I am beginning to understand why he gardened this way - it actually does make a lot of sense, if you study it enough to understand it.

So wish me luck!


Last week when we were in Winnipeg, we both got new iPhones - it was the end of our contract, so time to upgrade.  I am not attached to my phone what-so-ever.  I do use it more now than I ever have, and I have taught myself to carry it with me so I hear it, but really for me - it's just a phone!

But - this new phone has a real neat camera on it... and I have been playing around with the camera since I got the new phone.  Don't care a scrap about the phone - but love the camera - how typical of me!

I finally completed revamping my studio space, after removing all my dolls and the single bed to one of the basement bedrooms, so last week I decided to make a little video tour of my space.

I am amazed at how much more room I have now that the dolls and bed are gone.

I tried to load the video here so you could all see - but its too large, and I have no idea how to compress it myself ( some sites do it for you, but not this one)

So I will take some stills and post them next time...

Until then...

A LITTLE BOOBIE TALK!

You might have chuckled a bit (Gary did) when you read my post a couple of days ago, that said we had to stop at Walmart for underwear when we were in the city this past week.

While it may have sounded comical - it was actually quite urgent on my part.

This has less to do with underwear and more to do with having only one breast after a total Mastectomy for breast cancer.

If you have had a Mastectomy -  this post is for you.  A God Bless each and every one of you my dear sisters in Cancer.

When you first have a Mastectomy, you are fixated with the loss of the breast... how it feels, how it looks... and very early on you have to totally change your choice of bra's, tops, sweaters etc.

I couldn't wait to get my first free prosthesis from Cancer care - I went and had it fitted and got the right bra that went with it, and I was perfectly content and comfortable.

But then my cancer medication added weight to my body - a lot of weight, and it felt like most of it went directly to my remaining breast.  My breast spilled out of the prosthesis bra, and the prosthesis itself was half the size of my real breast with the weight gain.

Then the real misery began.

I had returned back to work full time - I needed to wear a prosthesis so I found a larger one and adapted a regular bra to hold it.  I bought several prosthesis and I even knit myself one, which strange as it seems was the best one I owned - until I threw it in the washing machine...

When I retired and moved out to the country, I decided I would scrap the idea of wearing the prosthesis - sounds easy, but actually it is not.

Without the weight and fill of another breast or a prosthesis, the torso part of your body is always off.  I tried wearing regular bras, and they were extremely uncomfortable - the weight of one breast completely pulls the bra out of alignment on your chest, and you end up with the side that has no breast all riding up very uncomfortably in your arm pit.

Enter the Fruit of the Loom sports bra's or sport tanks.  They are soft, stretchy and most important I have found they have 2 regular straps, that help to anchor the piece across your chest.  There is minimal pulling into the arm pit, if you get the right size - if it is too small for your breast - it will pull terribly on the side without the breast.

The sports bras with the t-strap back, don't work for me at all - they completely pull under the arm pit and can actually become quite uncomfortable.

I cannot tell you how many years I wish I had had the option for a double mastectomy - I'm still counting those years.  Quite frankly I would rather have none, than one... but at the time of my surgery it was not an option.

Implants were not something I was interested in - much for the same reason as the prosthesis issue of weight gain.  Imagine going through the surgery to have implants and then gaining weight - your chest instantly looks wrong - the implant won't change, but your real breast always will.

So - yes - the trip to Walmart was really urgent for me, as all my sports bras needed replacing, and I absolutely cannot live without them.

It takes a long time to be comfortable after mastectomy, and I'm not talking about pain.  I am talking about the mess in your head and not on your chest.  It's a physical thing for sure, but more than that it's a psychological thing.  If you can find your comfort balance with both aspects of your loss - you are on the right track.

No one way out of this dilemma is correct - you have to find your own comfort - but if my little rant on this post gives you one more option - then I've done my job.

For those of you regular women ( by "regular" I mean two breasted) who don't need the support of a regular bra every minute of your day... try one of these sport options... they come in many levels of support, and if you don't care about perky... you may love them.

I think it's about time we got comfortable - don't you?

A BOY NAMED NATHANIEL!

All this talk of new jobs, brings me to today's post. 

It's very true, I seem to have no trouble landing all kinds of part-time positions out here in the country.  I certainly think that if one wants to make a bit of extra money, the potential is certainly here to do it.

But of all the positions I have tried, I think perhaps I have truly found the one I was born to do, right here in this little community.

I am speaking of teaching piano. 

I did a brief stint of piano teaching years ago, and didn't much care for it - maybe because I needed to make a better income, maybe because I found young children a challenge at the time when I had yet to have my own child, or maybe because at the time, I was more in love with playing the piano, than teaching it.

Whatever the reason I tried it once and never went back to it - even though I thought of it being a path to some extra income a time or two through the years.

I took on a student just after Christmas - 7 yr old Nathaniel.  It was sort of an experiment for both him, and me.

And it has been absolutely a wonderful, eye-opening, fun, experience.

Nathaniel had no prior musical or piano knowledge, and was quite a quiet child.  His mother wasn't sure how or if he would take to learning to play music, and at the start I wasn't sure if I would take to teaching it.

My misgivings came straight from the Piano Course I chose to teach - The Faber Piano course.  It was completely unknown and new to me, and nothing like any course I had seen before.  It is very much "the New way of learning" - something I have always dug my heels in about in the past.

But I have to say, if you have a child who is starting to learn the piano - please make sure they start with this course.

The first lesson had me in fits - for the first 6 weeks, all learning is done on the black keys!  Unheard of in my learning days - in fact children who learned like I did learned to fear the black keys.

Nathaniel has excelled beyond what any of us expected - and I often wonder who the little boy sitting next to me every Monday after school really is - and what did he do with the real Nathaniel... he's just so different.

Three months later, my little student is playing with both hands - sight reading way better than I did in grade 2 piano, and he's all but finished the primer (beginner book) and ready to move on to Grade 1.

It's been a blast, a joy and an activity that I never dreamt I would ever love so much... and if any other position I take on in any way interferes with this one - it will be gone in a flash!

I asked Nathaniel last lesson, if he is enjoying learning to play the piano.  He told me Monday is his favourite day of the week, because he can't wait to come to piano lessons.

Does a teacher need any better answer than that? 

I highly doubt it.

Nathaniel has also taken a huge shine to Chip... and surprisingly Chip to him.  After lessons are over, it's all about the two of them.  Nathaniel is allowed to hand feed Chip, there is giggling, some birdie kisses, lots of treats for a very smart bird who has figured out how to work this new kid in the house...

That one hour in my week, leaves me smiling for the next 7 days!

There are 4 boys in Nathaniel's family, and in September the next oldest sibling will become my second student.  I plan to advertise in the school in May, and hopefully I can get a few more young students to teach.

Every time I sit in my chair off to the left of my student and guide him through his lesson I think of my own piano teacher, Miss Mollet - and I wonder - did she love teaching this much?  She was a great teacher, but I can't actually say that piano lessons were ever really a fun time for me.  I loved learning, but I don't think I got the joy from it that my student does - my joy came when I sat down at my piano and just played...

She shaped my love of music by teaching me so much about it... God willing - I am doing the same for my student.