Sprinkles/Hundreds and Thousands, another quilting store and on a hunt for a family doctor....

So on Tuesday I was looking in my fridge and discovered I had a carton of whipping cream that needed to be used up, so I made a trifle. I have a photo, but as I am writing this on Tuesday, I can't upload photos, AGAIN :0(
(Wednesday morning and it took seconds to upload this photo??)


Now the classic way of making a trifle in this house, is sponge cake, then jello, and fruit if I have it, on a special occasion I soak the sponge in sherry. Then custard on top of that, using Bird's custard powder, then whipped cream on top of that. No trifle is complete without sprinkles/hundreds and thousands sprinkled on the top of the whipped cream. However that is the only way I will eat sprinkles. When I go to the donut shop, a donut with sprinkles on would be the last one I would buy, however I always buy them for the kids as they are their favourite donut.

I know in Britain they call them hundred's and thousands, in Canada and probably the States we call them sprinkles. How do you make your trifle?

I had to go into town this morning to Shopper's Drug Mart they had a promo on when you spend $50 you get a $10 certificate to spend later at Shopper's so I stocked up on a couple of things. While in the store I got talking to a lady while I was looking at some of the quilting magazines and she told me about a quilting store, which was just around the corner. It's called Lilac Lane Quilts and is run by a super lady called Liz. She was so helpful and although I didn't have a good look around as I had a headache, I can see me going to that store on a regular basis. Plus Liz is a wealth of information on local things, which is always helpful!!

In the same plaza there were two doctors offices, so I figured I'd call in and see about registering. Went to the first office and managed to talk to a very helpful lady, and she said one lady doctor would be willing to see us in January 2010, but she only worked Monday to Thursday mornings, and Thursday afternoon, her last appointment being 4:45pm. She doesn't have hospital privileges though, and would only take us on if we had no major medical problems. Left there very unsure about all of that, and said I would get back to her. However she also gave me a phone number for the hospital where you can be put on the waiting list.

I then called in at the other office in the plaza and basically all she said was no they weren't taking anyone on. There was a third office on the main street on my way home, so I called in there and she gave me another number to call and register. The number is for Health Care Connect and is 1-800-445-1822. However this is for people who have NO FAMILY DOCTOR at all. You can't be registered with any doctor.

We are still registered with our family doctor in our old city, and don't want to give up that doctor until we get another one in the closest town to us. The only reason we want to change doctors is that it is a 45 minute drive from where we live, and he is constantly running an hour behind, so a visit to the doctor's office is a three hour experience!! Anyhow, I ended up leaving our name and number on the hot line with the local hospital, and when any doctor takes on new patients we will be notified. No idea when that will happen, but at least our names are now on the list.

As with many areas, family doctors are in such short supply in this area.

Update on the mice and a recipe.......

oh and it is meatless, just in case you're thinking I have found a good way to use up all the dead mice...LOL

Anyhow, the mice situation is that I only caught two mice on Sunday/Monday, BUT I have managed to lose one of the traps???? I mean it's gone, both me and dh have looked and we can't see it? It's the strangest thing ever. We know where they are coming in though, so that's good; we just have to get on with blocking up the holes!!

I tried a new recipe on Monday called Jumbled Pasta Bake from this website I didn't have any Carnation Milk, so just used regular milk. I had some zucchini that needed to be used up, so this was a good recipe to use it in. I split it into two casseroles and each one will feed three people. I will freeze the second one, and I used a combination of breadcrumbs, parsley and grated cheese as a topping, as I didn't have mozzarella or Parmesan cheese for a topping.



By the way for those of you who look for a post first thing in a morning, the Internet was so slow last night it was crazy. I attempted to upload a photo a gave up there was no way it was going to be doing that. The sooner dh sorts out something else the better it will be!!!

I should have mentioned this yesterday but this is my 701 post!!

Alrighty, got a few things to talk about today for a change....

As of Sunday night I have managed to trap 6 mice over Saturday and Sunday. I know you're all jealous of my catching mice prowess and the fact we have so many of them roaming freely in the house...........NOT!!! I went out and bought six more mouse traps today, so have 9 of them set in and around the house. How much do you want to bet I will have caught 9 mice by the time you read this on Monday morning!!! We think they are coming in at the old basement, but not sure where.

Now we decided to give Molly a bath/shower on Sunday afternoon. So I go to the pet store to make sure I get shampoo that will maybe help with Molly's allergies. I also picked up a kong for her, and a couple of treats. As we were talking to the lady she was saying that chicken, beef, wheat and corn are the main cause of allergies and if it doesn't get any better, to try her on vegetarian dog food.

Did you hear a groan? It was my dad and he's saying, "only she would make her dog into a vegetarian." As I am writing this, a mouse trap went off, so up to number 7 now!!! So I will have to go and investigate and likely reset it.

Anyhow, back to Molly, so we may try her on a vegetarian diet if she doesn't get any better. Meanwhile dh is whining in the pet store, that I look after the dog better than I do him!!! :0) As we don't have a bath in this house, I strip off in the shower and bath Molly in there. She was really good, and stood still the whole time. However for the rest of the day she has looked depressed, which isn't hard when you are a hound!!! Dh even took her for a walk to try and cheer her up!!! She doesn't smell much better but her coat is just so soft and lovely.

She sort of liked the kong, I stuffed it with her biscuits and peanut butter, so it kept her out of mischief for a couple of minutes while she got the peanut butter out.

It didn't rain like it was supposed to so I was able to get a bit of grass cut on Sunday, and am over half way through the field. I am hoping I won't have to cut it again this year. Its such a difference from when we moved in, as the grass was knee high then. Now its a regular length and a lot easier to take care of.

We spent Sunday morning working around the house doing some odds of jobs, nothing overly exciting, but stuff that needed to be done. It was a bit warmer than it was on Saturday and we didn't need to have a fire on or anything, which is good for this time of the year. However it's supposed to get colder as the week progresses.

Today (Monday) dh goes back to work after being on vacation for the past three weeks. I know it will be strange not having him around. I don't think we achieved as much as we wanted to while he was off, and I know we didn't get away as much as we had hoped, but I do enjoy having him home. Just wish he wasn't in so much pain with his shoulder and his elbows.

Have a super week.......

Today's Flower

My friend gave me some Begonia bulbs back in March of 2008 for my birthday. I planted them in the garden last year and they didn't do much. This year I stuck the couple that were left in a pot and stuck them on the outside deck and they have flourished. I may leave them in the pot over winter and just bring them in the house before the first frost. Should I cut the flowers off them, when I bring them in?

Has anyone had success with doing this, and do you have any tips? Sorry about the quality of the photos, they are not too clear.

For more Today's Flowers photos, please click on this link

Great Northern Exhibition..

So on Saturday afternoon we went to the Great Northern Exhibition which is a fall fair. We have never been before and we had a good time.



I particularly wanted to go as the ladies knitting group I joined had entered a few things and I wanted to see how well they did. They are had a few placings in the second place and one lady had a first with a needle pointed bell pull, it was lovely. The quilts were stunning and I took a few photos.


This first photo features on the left the best in show. This is the first time this woman has entered a quilt in the show and she was stunned to win; I was standing next to her as she was telling another woman this!! You may have to click on the photo to enlarge it to see more detail. She is a beautiful hand quilter, her stitches were so even. The one on the right won as well and the detail on that quilt was also stunning.

Here are some more of the quilts that I liked:

I was very inspired by this and many other classes, so I am hoping to enter some items for next year's show. The photography section was good, and I am sure I have a couple of photos I could have entered.

We stood and watched pairs of horses pulling concrete blocks as part of a competition. Would you believe this beautiful pair of horses pulled 8,000 lbs for fifteen feet and won the competition. Its the first time I have seen this.

(if you click on this photo to enlarge it, you will see more detail)

I have some more photos, that I will post another day. We watched the fiddlers and step dancers for a while, it seems to be a big thing in the country? It was an enjoyable afternoon out and I am so glad we went and the rain held off until we got home!!

Odds and ends from Friday..........

Me and dh spent the morning in the house. He was finishing off installing some shims in the attic, while I was tidying up downstairs. I had a look at the attic to take some photos, but honestly I don't think you will see much of a difference, as all the jobs he has done are "behind the scenes jobs." However if you want I will take photos, just let me know.

I washed out the hummingbird feeder and packed that away for Winter. I haven't seen any hummingbirds now for a couple of weeks, so I am guessing they are heading south? The Canada Geese are very active at the moment, so not sure if they are getting ready to head south also?

In the afternoon we headed to Orangeville as we had a couple of errands to run and dh wanted to pick up something in Canadian Tire. I wish I had, had my camera with me, it was the funniest/strangest sight we have ever seen, there must have been between 75 and 100 snowblowers lined up in rows of five down this middle aisle in the store. I have never seen as many snowblowers. So of course a manager was passing so I got talking to her about them. She said they were sold out of snowblowers by the middle of September last year and expect to sell all of these within the two weeks.....WOW

An associate of hers was standing next to her and said, "we are in Orangeville and one things for sure, we're guaranteed snow up here." We already have a snowblower, and the neighbour called me the other day to say he would pop over for a visit to discuss how much he was going to charge us to plow us out. Fingers, toes and everything else crossed that we have a mild winter.

When we got back dh put the light fixture up in the family room. As you can see we are going with a "Tiffany type shade theme."


I have matching wall lights as well, but there is an electrical issue with the sockets, so dh needs to look into that.

Finally here is a photo of Molly. She is driving us crazy eating her paws and generally scratching herself, from 2am until 6am. I put her one "human" allergy pills, but she had a bad stomach yesterday, so only gave her the one. I am going to dope her up today in the hopes she sleeps through the night, as both me and dh are getting sleep deprived with her scratching.

Friday am; are you a light sleeper or a heavy sleeper........

I tend to prepare my posts the night before and have them publish at 1am in the morning. That system works for me and people who follow the blog, know when to pop by and have a read.

However last night I drew a total complete blank as to what to write about, so I figured I would sleep on it and do a post first thing this morning. Didn't come up with much but figured you may be sort of interested in the following.

Yesterday my dad came over to help dh some more in the attic and they accomplished a lot. (I will try and take some photos today) Meanwhile I had two men playing the drums very loudly in my head all day. By 1pm I was about past myself, and to cut a long story short I ended up going to bed just before 2pm.

I told the guys just to get on with things I would sleep through it all. Outside our bedroom door, dh's compressor is plugged in, and if you have a compressor you know what sort of racket it makes when charging, I slept through that. The guys were working directly above me, with the nailing gun, a chop saw and other tools and I slept through it all. I woke up at 3pm, feeling slightly better and they couldn't believe I had been to sleep.

Now on some nights the slightest noise wakes me up and I can't get back to sleep, so how I managed to sleep through that is really surprising, but when I have one of my headaches, I seem to be able to sleep through anything.

Are you a light sleeper or a heavy sleeper? Once you are awake in a morning, can you go back to sleep again? I can't and have to get up.

Skywatch Friday

This was taken at Blue Mountain in Collingwood last week. Lovely big clouds that day.


For more Skywatch Friday photos, please click on this link

Some very talented ladies.....

I have been attending the knitting club on a Wednesday, and the more I go the more I enjoy it. They are a bunch of very talented ladies and they have been busy knitting mittens for the mitten tree at the Great Northern Exhibition. Some of the other ladies are also submitting other items, including photos, other knitted items, various food items, quilts etc. I think I may attempt to submit some things next year when I have had more time to prepare for it. I am not sure if we are going to go to the Great Northern Exhibition, but if we have time we will as it will be fun.

Eileen from Lofjes brought in the most stunning angel doll she had made. She was wonderful. I see she doesn't have any in her online store, I'll have to ask her if she is going to stock them on there, as they were just lovely.

I thought I'd show you how I am getting on with my hexagons. It's quite addictive and I love how I can do it while I am watching tv:


We are going to have to find a new Internet provider as this Bell stick is getting slow and more expensive. I can't upload photos anymore onto Blogger on a night, I have to do that in a morning. Bell reckons its Blogger's fault, I have no idea? I have to look into the situation and see what's what. It will cost us at least $100 to get out of the contract, but I think it would be worth while, and less of a headache. One option for us is Zing Networks, it's a local supplier and seems to be popular with people who live around here.

For those of you who asked yes we have screens on our windows, but that isn't helping, as its actually better without the screens on. Once we get the attic all sealed up again, I am hoping it will be a bit better, but not this year..........

Be warned - a whining post coming up!!

So today while I was hoovering up the 7,000 flies and sweating like a silly thing, a thought floated through my mind briefly - why had we moved out of our air conditioned brand new house to this????

I have to hoover every single day at the moment, as walking to the bathroom on a night in our bare feet to have a pee, we don't want that crunchy feeling under foot of walking on dead flies, now do we?

I mean it feels like a building site as soon as you go upstairs. Everything is covered in dust and dead flies. I do try and clean up, but honestly I am wasting my time. Where these rotten flies are coming from goodness knows? Now lady bugs have started to move in as well. I can't see the welcome sign flashing outside, but obviously all the insect world can. All I need now is the mice to start moving in by the dozen and that will be the finishing touch!!!

I have resorted to also spraying them with fly killer to make them die faster. Which in turn leaves murky marks on the windows, along with all the fly poop. So now all the windows look icky {{{SIGH, SIGH, SIGH}}}

Then the humidity had hit with a vengeance, which isn't helping me one little bit. I was sweating like a silly thing just hoovering up the flies. However that could also be me having one of my hot flashes, AGAIN!!! It was much too humid to work around the house, or in the attic.

I think next week when dh goes back to work I am going to scrub the house top to bottom to see if I can add some sparkle and polish to the look of it..........mind you I think I am wasting my time......as it will be as bad again a few days later!!

So on Tuesday as it was so hot and humid, we headed to the mall to do some shopping. It was our first time going to Georgian Mall in Barrie and have to say it was lovely, they have a contest on their website, so if you're in Ontario you should enter it. Its so bright and clean, even the bathrooms were spotless........I am incredibly fussy about public washrooms.

I picked up some Christmas presents, but can't say what they are, as certain people read this blog!! I will be going back there are there were plenty of stores that I like, and the Homesense there has a great variety of stock, the best one I have been into yet. I must take dd one day, as she would enjoy it as well. Normally shopping cheers me up, but it didn't hit the spot on Tuesday..........

What is going on with this weather and other odds and ends.

A couple of morning's last week we had a touch of frost on the ground, now today its to get to 30 oC with thunderstorms? Its the first day of Fall today, and it feels more like the middle of summer?

People say there isn't such a thing as Global Warming, but I don't believe them. The weather is all over the place and it never used to be like that.

The one good thing with having a mild September though is that we haven't had to put the furnace on. I checked our oil tank gauge the other day and its closer to half full than three quarters full, which isn't bad. So we're hoping not to have it filled until the end of October, which means it has gone six months without being filled.

Molly killed her first mouse on Sunday afternoon. We (me and Molly) went down the old basement and the mouse was sitting in the middle of the floor, so she went for it. I must say I was kind of surprised as I didn't know she would actually kill it, but she did. So I have put a couple of traps down there, just have to make sure Molly doesn't get amongst them, otherwise she'll have a sore nose when one of them goes off!! I caught one under the sink the other day, not sure how long it had been dead for as I hadn't checked the traps for a few days.

We are still plagued with cluster/bluebottle flies, its driving us crazy. I bought some sticky fly paper that you stick to the windows and some spray. I think as long as we have the attic in bits its not going to help the situation. Talking of the attic, my dad was up on Monday to help dh out in the attic. They took the ceiling joists down (not all at once, one at a time....LOL) and re-aligned them and shimmed them where possible. They also made a start on the knee walls shimming them. We're hoping my dad has time to pop up later in the week to finish that job off with dh. Our goal is to get the insulation and the plastic up before it gets really cold.

There are still a lot of small fiddly jobs to do though, that are time consuming, including wiring for the electrics, some plumbing pipes are to move, the under floor is to sort out and a pile of other little things. All I do know at the end of it all we will have a super room, and it should add value to the house. Also when its hot and humid you can only work up there until lunch time as it gets so hot, so for the next couple of days we won't be doing much up there.

I think I mentioned the other day we exchanged our whipper snipper at Rona for another one. Well by Saturday the engine had gone on it, so we took it back and got our money back on it, which I must say I was sort of surprised they took it back??? So we're going to get a professional one from Elmira Farm Supply, as we need an industrial strength one we have decided, as we have industrial strength weeds!!! The only down side to that is its $450 for the whipper snipper, $33 for the conversion kit so we can use a blade and another $30 for a blade. We've gone through two whipper snipper's from the big box stores, so its no good buying a cheap one. We're looking at a Stihl FS85R that's why it is so expensive. HOWEVER, if any of you have a better idea I am all ears, as we don't have the $600 its going to cost (including the taxes) to purchase this one.

A post all to do with electricity.....

So on Sunday we went on a car ride and headed towards Mount Forest which turned out to be a pretty town, but we didn't find anything to do there. Being Sunday of course most things were closed, but I am guessing its a lovely place.

On the way there along Highway 89 we passed by lots and lots of Wind Turbines. As per this document there are 153 wind turbines operating over a 14 km site. Its an interesting site to see that's for sure, but for the people living close to the turbines, it has made their lives a misery, see this document, and this one.

However my question is how comes it costs us twice as much to get our electricity "delivered" to this house, when I have this wind farm just down the road from us, a 20 minute drive tops to the first turbine??? I got my hydro bill in last week and it breaks down like this:

We used 730 kWh, which they x by 1.092 = 797 kWh

600 kWH @ 5.7000 cents = $34.20
197 kWh @ 6.6000 cents = $13.00

DELIVERY $55.19
Regulatory Charges $5.43
DEBT RETIREMENT CHARGE (????) $5.11
GST $5.65

Bill Total: $118.58

As you can see it costs more for delivery than the actual electricity we used. Isn't that crazy??? Also why should I pay their DEBT RETIREMENT CHARGES, when it was the old Ontario Hydro's debt, its not mine, if I were in debt, I would be on the hook for that no one else, another crazy thing if you ask me!!

Finally we got the new light fitting put up in the living room, isn't it nice?



It has taken us forever to get this hung up as we have ran into one problem after another with the whole situation. The idiots we bought the house from, made the hole much too big in the ceiling for the box, so "hid" it with the ceiling rose. We just don't have the time to start and fix the ceiling, so had to put the ceiling rose back up, so that caused all sorts of problems with the light fixtures we bought. The first one we bought, just didn't work out at all.

This is the second one, and when dh got it up, he put the light bulbs in (3 of them) went to put on the shade and it wouldn't fit? So we had to go to Home Depot, get them to take the shade off the one hanging up only to discover they had used different bulbs, not the same ones as the instructions said to use and they had not used all the parts given in the box. We did the same and the light looks lovely.

I have picked up some similar ones for the family room, but as the hydro is all to whack in this house, dh has to figure out if we can install them first. Hopefully it won't be a problem as these other lights are really nice and I got them for a steal!!

I also need to call Bell Canada AGAIN, as the Internet is going to have me in an early grave, I am having a heck of a job uploading photos, and the best time to do it is first thing in a morning, which is silly, so I need to find out what on earth is going on!!

Today's Flower

This little flower garden was outside of the Mill Cafe in Thornbury and was very pretty. Notice how red the Sedum is getting, must be getting colder as it gets redder the colder it becomes.


For more Today's Flower photos, please click on this link

Sunday morning......

Didn't get around to preparing a post last night like I normally do. Had a busy day on Saturday. The kids came over and worked around the place in the morning. We then went out for lunch to celebrate future son-in-law's (no they're not engaged yet, but if I call him that often enough maybe they'll get the hint!!) and dh's birthdays. Future son-in-law's was this past Tuesday and dh's is today.

We went to the Mono Cliff's Inn and it was really nice, especially the desserts. Also the kids paid, which was super nice of them and totally unexpected. As ds pointed out, they are working now, so it was their treat!!! When we got back home we were so stuffed we just sat about and let dh open his gifts from them. Ds got him gift cards for Home Depot and Tim Hortons. Dd and future son-in-law got him gift cards for Tim Hortons and Mark's Work Wearhouse. So all useful gifts. Me and the kids them played the "Worst Case Scenario, Game of Surviving Life Game," for a while, which was interesting.

Then me and the kids took Molly for a walk down the back field, which was really nice. Molly bounded down the field (on a leash) on the way down, but was just strolling like we all were on the way up!!

I started the fire and according to dd smothered it, so ds showed us how to start a fire correctly. It's a case of feeling old when the kids know more than you do, isn't it!! By this time it was close to 6:30pm, so we all felt a bit peckish but couldn't decide what we wanted to eat, so we ended up going to a Tim Hortons/Wendy's restaurant, where the two boys managed to eat a full burger and fries meal, washed down with a huge pop, I have no idea where they put it!! Dd had a salad, and me and dh had a snack wrap from Tim Hortons each, as we weren't that hungry.

The kids went straight home from the restaurant as did we. Overall it was a wonderful day with great company.

As it's dh's birthday today we are going out for the day, not sure where to. Do know we have to call in at Home Depot and Rona though at some point, as dh got a light for the living room there, its really nice, but the lamp shade won't fit on with light bulbs in it????? Also the whipper snipper we got at Rona last week, is leaking oil and is had it?????

More photos from Thornbury..........

Here are some more photos from Thornbury from the other day.

Here is the marina:

Looking down to the lake:
Looking towards the dam:
The trestle bridge we walked over:
Another of the trestle bridge.

Photos from Meaford....and another new to me quilting store

Now I will say the only reason we headed to Meaford on Tuesday was that there was a quilting store there and I wanted to take a look. One of the first things we saw when entering the town was all these scarecrows hanging from the lamp posts which was different. It turns out on October 2nd though 4th, its the annual Meaford Scarecrow Invasion. Here is another link about Meaford

I did ask the lady in the quilting store about what else to see in Meaford and all she could think of was that event? Not very helpful if you ask me!!




This mural was painted on the side of this wall and it was quite neat I thought?

On Thursday afternoon we had to run a couple of errands in Shelburne, so we decided to eat out at lunch time. The owner of the No Frills in Shelburne, who is the nicest guy ever, recommended The Junction Family Restaurant in Dundalk for really good fish and chips. As we were going that way, we decided to go there. We have had better, and have had worse. If we're passing there we will pop in again.

We then headed to a small "village," called Maxwell, as one of the ladies at the knitting club mentioned they'd been there and liked it. Its called Threads That Bind and its a lovely little store. I of course HAD to buy a couple metres of material, like I need MORE material. Its a bit far for me travel too, but I see they are going to have an online store. They did have some really nice jigsaw puzzles, with a quilting theme that I would love to own. It was a nice drive and there are a number of Mennonites that have moved in the area. I of course forgot my camera, so didn't get any photos.....

Skywatch Friday

I took these photos of Tuesday when we were in Thornbury, something different for me, looking way, way up.

For more Skywatch Friday photos, please click on this link

Photos from Thornbury.........

We went to Thornbury on Tuesday and had a lovely day. They have a dam and fish way/fish ladder there which was quite informative. Here is a link and another link to more info on it.

This was taken from the bridge, looking up past the dam:


This is the dam:


This is the fish ladder which was quite interesting:


Looking the opposite way towards the lake. The condo building on the right of the photo, a local was telling us they sell for $369,000 CDN which we thought was pricey for the area. As the main industry is tourism, and not a lot else, according to the local guy.



I have a lot more photos but I am having a heck of a time loading them onto blogger, not sure if it is a blogger problem, or just my Internet?

Went to the knitting club again on Wednesday, I DON'T KNIT, I sew when I go and I feel a lot more comfortable with the group. Still feel like an outsider, and of course I should I am new to the area, but I am warming to all the ladies, and I hope they are warming to me? I got another project finished while I was there. Going makes me sit for two hours doing my sewing, so its a good thing, and there is good conversation. Maybe next week I should bake some cookies and take them in with me?

Late in posting......

only because I picked up my laptop, finally yesterday and dh had to do "stuff" with it to get it up and running and that involved using the stick for the Internet. So now I have my laptop back, lets hope that is the end of that chapter!!

Anyhow, on Tuesday we went for a day out to Collingwood, Thornbury and Meaford. We are only around 45 km south of Collingwood, then Thornbury is a ten minute drive from Collingwood and Meaford about another 10 minutes from Thornbury.

We had never been to Collingwood before, although I had been to Blue Mountain when we came on vacation here as a child. I don't remember visiting Collingwood itself though.

The main street is very pleasant and full of touristy style of shops. They have music coming out of speakers on the lamp posts which is really neat, and everything is very clean. However there was a guy begging on the street, which I thought was rather strange. See plenty of them in downtown Toronto, but didn't think I would see one there.

Here is a display of outside the council offices, I thought it was very attractive:

(click on the photos for more detail)

This display was one the main street beside Loblaws, there is a large one there.



Finally here is one of the lake as we were driving to Thornbury.



I have a lot more photos of Thornbury, as I liked that town a whole lot better. Collingwood is over developed for my liking. I will post photos of Thornbury tomorrow.

Monday was a busy day, although it felt as though I wasn't doing much.

My dad came over and both him and dh spent the day in the attic, doing something with the ceiling joists. Don't know much about it, other than its a two person job and very, very tedious. I was joking with my dad that he must have shrunk a few inches the amount of time he was up and down the two flights of stairs.

Oh and one of those it could only happen to us things. We put a big skylight in the attic to let in ventilation and light. I went up into the attic yesterday and there was an awful smell by the window. Of course immediately blamed the dog, but couldn't find any poop. So today it was no better. Dad and dh discovered the sewer stack is around the same height as the window, and if the wind is blowing in the right direction, it blows into the open attic window. Are we lucky or what!!!

He brought me two big bags of pears to can. Unfortunately they were a little hard, so I did manage to sort through them and the ones that were over ripe or had bad bits on them, I made Ginger Pear Muffins using this recipe They were actually pretty good and I will use this recipe again. I made my own buttermilk, by putting 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into a measuring jug and adding the milk to make it up to one cup.


I am taking part in an apron swap on another site, so I made that today, and I am in the middle of making something else to go with it. Can't say much until the other person receives it. However I am pleased with how much I got sewn today so that was good.

It was a lovely day again and I spent it inside all day, typical!!

New to me quilting technique and a deal alert......

Now I know I don't need anything else to do, but I was intrigued by this and Catherine is always doing such lovely work, so I wanted to give it a try, plus I can do this on a night when I watch tv.

It's called English Paper Piecing and I decided to use 3/4 inch hexangonals. This is what I have done so far. I have not removed the freezer paper yet.



I found the tutorial on how to do this over at Sew Many Ways and it was super simple to follow.

This week at No Frills they have pork loin pieces on for 99 cents a pound. I picked up a piece for $5, and cut two pieces off and stuffed them with a packet of Stove Top stuffing and cooked one and put one in the freezer. It was so good. I also cut up four chops and put them in the freezer.

This is how it looked when cooked. I had some leftover cauliflower with cheese sauce from earlier in the week. I made the apple sauce and roasted the potatoes with herbs, garlic, olive oil and red onions. I am looking forward to stuffed roast pork and apple sauce sandwiches with the leftovers.

Today's Flower

Yesterday we went to a local fair, and when walking back to the car park, we went round behind the community centre. From the front it looks like an ordinary building. However around the back we discovered this small patio and it had a lovely little garden in it. Here are some photos taken from this area. I was surprised to see the cactus, they must be lifted for winter, as it is much too cold up here for cactus to grow outside. It must be a suntrap that area.

For more Today's Flower photos please click on this link

More adventures with the brush cutter/whipper snipper.........

I finally got the grass all cut on Saturday......it seems to have taken forever this week, but I did both the field and Kamikaze Hill this week as well. So after supper I decided to do a bit more of the whipper snipping.

This time I wore my wellies and shorts, and sunglasses. The wellies worked a charm, but I have decided to not look for a hockey player anymore, I need a fisherman. They have those hip waders that I have decided will be ever so useful, as they just wipe clean like my wellies. I may also make myself an apron using that plastic material that you use to make table clothes, to cover my front, as once again I was covered in grass.

Then I ran out of whipper snipper line, but it seems that its a bump and feed machine, but no amount of smacking it on the ground seemed to make the rest of the line come out, so I gave that up as a bad job; and will have to get dh to figure it out.

Had a day out on Friday........

shopping!! We had some errands to run in Barrie, so off we go. We had a few things to pick up in Rona, including exchanging our brush cutter for a new one, at no charge........got to like that.

Popped into Home Depot, as I managed to crack the one downstairs......I know big butt!! Have you ever sat on a toilet seat that is cracked, boy it pinches...LOL

We went to Chapters and I got a game called "The Worst-Case Scenario, Game of Surviving Life." with 75% off, so I picked it up and I told dh we should practice it, as when we play with the kids it will help us maybe to win!!!!!!

I even went into the dreaded Wal-Mart to pick a couple of things up, brave or what!!

I called into the even more dreaded Staples to see about my laptop. So my laptop is in the store, the universal chargers of course aren't compatible with my laptop, so basically it is useless until I get the new adaptor. I am not happy, but what do I do? No idea when my adaptor/charger will be here, so I guess I just have to live with it.......

I changed my header and someone told me how to change the font and colour of the text. Didn't know how to do that. Sort of looks Fall like now, don't you think? However the weather up here is anything but like Fall, I mean its pretty summery if you ask me, so nice. Both me and dh were saying that we hope the weather holds, as it would be nice if we could hold off putting the heating on until next month. We'll see.

****CHECK OUT THE POST BELOW, AS I DID TWO POSTS FOR SATURDAY****

My adventures with the new gas brush cutter/whipper snipper....

Well first I managed to start it....YEAH!! That in itself is an achievement, as I have a sore shoulder. So I am in my regular grass cutting clothes. By the time I have finished trying it out, I am covered from head to foot in grass.........bit puzzled by that as I figured the grass would stay on the ground?? Anyhow, ended up stripping off at the mud room door, as there was no way I was heading in the house with grass all over my clothes. Now at this moment if you heard a thump, it's my dad who has just keeled over, on the way down saying," She did what, folk could see her from the road!!" And the problem with that would be?

So I need to find a hockey player, who plays the goalie, as I need all his protective gear to wear when using this machine as its dangerous. Now if I can't find a hockey player, my flowery wellies, safety glasses and gloves will have to do.

Dh mentioned it would be helpful if I read the instruction manual to see what I should or shouldn't be doing. My comment back to him was, why change a habit of a lifetime, I never read instruction manuals, that's his job and a fine job he does of that!!

Mushrooms or Fungi?

We have these growing on one of the trees, they are quite beautiful. Are they mushrooms or fungi? Also are they posionous, not that I was planning on eating them, just interested. Does anyone go out and pick wild mushrooms? I am terrified I will get posioned, so I don't do it.




I took more photos but Blogger is taking forever to load photos at the moment.

I decided to try and upload a couple more photos on Friday morning to see if its faster, as I find our internet is faster in a morning? It obviously gets tired as the day goes on!!


Update on the Laptop.............no update the store manager didn't even call me.....so guess I will be calling him again on Friday!!

Sorry its such a short post.