End of August already?

Where on earth did the month go to?  Have to admit I am not a fan of  July and August as I am drained with the heat and humidity. 

Mind you August was a great month for us personally as we paid off our mortgage.  We'll start to see the benefits of that in a month or so time, when things settle down.

Meanwhile I am so looking forward to the cooler Fall weather.  I am REALLY looking forward to the first frost; in the hopes I can stop taking bloody allergy pills!!!  Never had a summer like this one before for bad allergies.
I had an appointment for another lot of nerve testing on my hands and the conclusion is I need to see a specialist who deals with arthritis.  As we all know there is very little you can do with arthritis but live with it and keep moving the affected part (s) of you body to stop them seizing up.

September is going to be a good and busy month.  We have our vacation, the baby shower, sorting and tidying ready for the winter and of course we hope cooler temperatures.  It's also the start of Fall Fair season:

Do you look forward to September?

Home of the week

This week's "Home of the Week," is actually very nice, but at $1.25 million a tad expensive as well.  I can see where the money has been spent though, but do wish they had left a few more of the Victorian details.  It is very bright and airy though and the garden is a delight.  I would figure there is no off street parking, it's not mentioned?  Overall though very nice.

If I won the lottery I would buy "The Cottage of the Week," at $3.3 million and live there all the time.  It's way over the top for an actual weekend visiting cottage, but I would love to have that house as a main home.  However as the chances of me winning the lottery are slim to nil. I can only dream.

The "Condo of the Week," is a $940,000 townhouse/loft/condo.  Hands up anyone who wants to live in a place where all you have are concrete walls and ceilings?  The marketing person who first thought this up is probably a saint in a builders world, as think of all the work the builder doesn't have to do and the money they saved by not having to drywall/plasterboard walls, finish and paint them.  I don't mind the open plan just don't like the whole concept.  For me to move into that place all the walls and ceilings would have to be finished.

Not bad this week, I actually liked two out of the three, things are looking up.

It always amazes me how much money can flow through my fingers in a short time

On Wednesday I decided to run some errands in town.  I try and bunch a number of things together so not to waste gas and time. 

The first order of business was the bank; had a cheque to deposit and get the cash out for the week.  Next popped into the corner store to pick up dh's Lotto Max ticket for him.  He gets one every week and this past week won a huge, whopping $2, so that "only" cost me $4.

Next went to the Post Office, as I wanted them to hold our mail while we are on vacation.  That cost me $22.50 (or there abouts) plus I decided to buy a 6 pack of international stamps, which came to around $12.50.  So, so far I have spent $39.

I call in at the gas station and fill up the 25 litre gas tank for the lawn tractor and put gas in my car.  Got gas at $1.263 a litre and spent $50 there.  Now up to $89.

Call into the grocery store to pick up a couple of things, including ice cream, as dh loves his ice cream.  Ended up spending $35 there???

On the way home I called into the coffee shop as I needed something sweet and picked up an orange cruller (click link for recipe) so that cost $1.

So all in all in less than an hour I ended up spending $125 just like that and have very little to show for it (SIGH)

By the time I give dh some money for the week and put my money in the jars, I am left with $65 to last me until a week on Friday ((SIGH))  Guess I am going to have to try and be thrifty this week!!

Foolproof recipe that is super simple as well

 Crustless Quiche or Baked Omelet

I made mine broccoli and cheese but you can use anything you want.

Grease a quiche or pie dish.  I find a glass or ceramic dish works the best here.

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 cup milk/half and half or cream
salt and pepper
1 cup grated cheese

Suggested add on's: 
broccoli or cauliflower cut into florets and steamed/cooked
cooked bacon cut up into chunks
mushrooms and/or mushrooms sliced and softened in a little oil or butter
Anything you want to add.

Place "add on's" in the prepared dish, whisk eggs, milk and seasonings in a jug and pour into dish.  Sprinkle the cheese over everything.

Place in a pre-heated 350 oF oven, I use my toaster oven for around 40 minutes or until set.  Let rest for 10 minutes.

You can add more eggs and milk and as much of the "add on's" that you have.  It's cheap and easy to make.

I would also like to thank everyone for their prayers.  Our friend came through the surgery.  He had most of his stomach removed, and another mass removed as well.  After he has recovered he will have to go through chemo.  Long way to go yet, but he has at least got through this first stage.  Will have the test results back within a week.  Please keep him in your prayers.

A recipe and a prayer request............

I have featured this recipe back here but I think it's worth revisiting again as it fulfills a few requirements.

1. It's all cooked in the microwave, that not only saves energy, but stops you heating up the house.

2. Uses cheap ingredients, including zucchini/courgettes, which are always plentiful this time of the year.

3. It freezes well.

4. It's adaptable.

5. Most importantly, it tastes flipping good!!!

So here we go: Sausage Risotto.

1lb Sausage (I use English Bangers)
8 slices bacon
1 onion, chopped
2 sticks celery, thinly sliced
2 zucchini, sliced
12 oz (350g) long-grain rice (2 cups)
2 tbsp. tomato puree
2 cups (600 ml) boiling chicken stock
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Place the sausages on a plate and prick thoroughly with a fork.  Cook on high power for 5 - 6 minutes, turning and re-arranging the sausages once.

Place the chopped bacon in a large bowl and cook for 3 minutes, stirring once.  Add the onion and celery.  Cook on high for 4 minutes, stirring once.

Add the zucchini, rice, tomato puree, chicken stock, oregano and salt and pepper to taste, blending well.  Cover and cook on high for 13 minutes, stirring twice. 

Leave to stand, covered, for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, cut the sausages into bite size pieces. 

Stir sausages and parsley into rice mixture.  Serve at once.

This dish is excellent to freeze for another day.  If you want a vegetarian meal, leave out the sausages and bacon and add more veggies.  Oh and use veggie stock instead of the chicken stock.

I copied and pasted the above info from my prior post, and this is what it looked like when I made it on Monday.  I used Sausages with Black Pepper and Sea Salt this time, never had them before.

Finally if you are so inclined a dear friend of ours is having surgery for stomach cancer today at 10 am.  Any prayers and positive vibes would be greatly appreciated.

Missisng our little Princess

so I thought I'd share some photos I took of her before she went on her vacation.........

Here she is thinking, yes I'm cute, I wonder what Nana will want me to do now?

 Oh I know Nana, you want me to smile, right?

Here she is saying: "But I didn't do anything wrong, why do I have to sit in the corner on the kitchen countertop?"

Toothbrush, toothpaste and mouth wash......

Every now and then I qualify to test and review things through BZZ Agent  Just recently I was contacted to try and review the Crest Pro Health range of products.

They sent me a package of toothpaste, a toothbrush and some mouthwash (more than what is in the photograph.)

I have been trying these for a couple of weeks now and these are my thoughts.

LOVE, LOVE the toothbrush.  It has some white plastic things on the side of the brush that sort of massage and help clean the gums.  They are so soft and comfortable and it makes me want to clean my teeth longer.  I know strange eh?  I will be buying this type of toothbrush exclusively from now on.  The handle is also chunky which makes it a lot easier to hold when you have stiff fingers in the morning from arthritis.

The toothpaste is good, lovely fresh minty taste and not at all pasty.  I am very lucky that I don't suffer from bad breath, or at least no one has ever told me I have bad breath, but my mouth feels fresh for a while after brushing.  I haven't really noticed if my teeth are any whiter but as I am a big tea drinker the whitening aspect of the toothpaste is probably fighting a loosing battle with the tea anyhow.

I did test the mouthwash but as I am not a fan of mouthwash anyway, so it wasn't going to score big with me.  But in all fairness it tasted fine and did the trick, but I won't be using it again as all that gargling isn't me.

So out of the three products, the toothbrush gets a 10 out of 10 and I am converted.  The toothpaste gets an 8 out of 10 as that was fine.  The mouthwash I am not going to score even though I did try it, dh did use it and he gave it a 10 out of 10 for the freshness and how fresh his mouth felt afterwards.

Have you tried any of these products?  

Oh and I should add I DO NOT FLOSS either, that is just plain icky, icky, icky.  I do go to the dentist every six months though and for my age my teeth are fine.

What do you do the day after you pay off the mortgage?

Well you go shopping of course...LOL

Don't panic I didn't go crazy.  I needed a couple of things for our vacation.  I called in at Northern Reflections and picked up two t-shirts. The burgundy one was $7.99 and the yellow one was $5.99, so with 13% tax added on that came to $15.80.

We went to Sears also where I searched the sale rack and got the black and white capri's, which I think are Tanjay and paid after a further 40% discount $20.39 for.  The black ruffled top is also Tanjay, and again after the extra 40% discount came to $13.79.  The black and blue 3/4 sleeve t-shirts were under $15 each.  I cashed in $10 worth of Sears points (didn't know I had them?) and ds gave me a $10 discount coupon when you spend $25.  So all in all I paid $48.93 after including the 13% taxes.

It's not often I buy clothes so this is a splurge for me. Plus I got five tops and a pair of capri's for under $65.

We went to Herb n Sage in Barrie for lunch and had a breakfast for lunch.  Dh had the same except he has sausage.  It is so good and only $6.99 each.  If you are in Barrie at all this is well worth the visit. The bread is organic, the jam home made, and they fry their potatoes with a mix of herbs including rosemary that makes all the difference.

Finally I took this photo of when the sun was setting the other night.

Thanks also for all your good wishes re: paying off our mortgage I really appreciate them all.

Well we have done it.........

Yes we have done it we have a zero balance on our mortgage.

Did we go out and celebrate?

Heck no, it was going to be a good episode of Flashpoint, plus couldn't miss Coronation Street (which on a side note, if anyone else leaves, there will be no people left on the street) so this is what we did.

Gosh we are wild.......either that or getting old!!!

Cronut Burger anyone?

Not sure what it is, here is a photo:

It's the newest food item at the CNE this year.  It's also being blamed for an outbreak of suspected food poisoning.  You can read more about that here.

Personally I would give it a miss as the whole idea of having  a croissant-doughnut hybrid pastry with a burger in the middle of it doesn't excite me.

They call this week's "Home of the Week," quirky, have to agree with that.  At $1.1 million I'll pass, but did have a couple of questions/observations.  What is "that" hanging behind the toilet in the master bedroom?  With a room that size (master bedroom) why push the bed against the wall like that?  Isn't ivy clinging to your house walls bad for the mortar?  As I said I'll pass.

This week's "Cottage of the Week," is a glorified shed, but at least it's more like a cottage than an over the top mansion; which is reflected in the price at only $110,000.  It would be perfect for a couple as long as you can climb the stairs/ladder (not sure which) to go to bed in the loft.  Again I'll pass, not too keen on staying in mosquito infested woods like that.

The "Condo of the Week," isn't bad at $520,000 and is very centrally located.  I am not a fan of concrete walls though, they seem so cold to me.  Also the second bedroom has no window, it will be like sleeping in a box.  Overall this place is okay, don't hate it but don't really like it either.

I looked a right mess........

I spent an hour and a half whipper snipping/grass trimming/edging on Wednesday morning and barely made a dint in our property.  We have a super duper professional trimmer that you can see here. I can only do a couple hours of trimming at a time as it kills my back and makes my hands vibrate for an hour or so after I finish.  Anyway whenever I do the trimming I end up covered in grass.  It ends up in my bra and my underwear, everywhere.  

As it was hot again on Wednesday I was only outside until just after 10am.  Did get some more grass cut as well.  I then decided to get a bit more done on the baby's quilt and got the quilt top put together.  I am also making a crib skirt and a valence for the window.  Plus a couple of cushions.

I ended up covered from head to foot in bit's from the minky fabric.  It's a messy fabric when cut.  The backing will also be minky and I think I will do the binding with one of the pink fabrics.

Canada's Most Iconic Book Cover............

After weeks of voting, our search for Canada's most iconic book cover is over! You've chosen Robert Munsch's Love You Forever as the winner, edging out Anne of Green Gables in a very close vote. Love You Forever claimed the title of Canada's Most Iconic Book Cover with 52 per cent of the final vote. 

For more of the CBC interview click here.

We have this book and it always brings tears to my eyes.  It's a keeper...........

Hate not being in total control............

I do my banking mainly online.  Despite seeing everything online I also complete my own cheque register with all the deposits and withdrawals as well; just to be doubly sure, I know total control freak.

I know when money is being taken out and when money goes into our accounts and I like it that way.  I have however got two withdrawals coming out of our account that I don't know exactly when and I have only a vague idea of how much and it's annoying the *rap out of me.

One is the discharge fee for when our mortgage finishes this week, I know it's around $320-ish but neither know when or exactly how much.  The other is our updated life insurance which is also in the $300+ mark but again I have no idea when?  That's between $650 to $700 I need to have available in our chequing account and I do not know when it will be taken out of our account.

I try to keep the bare minimum in there as if I know its there I am tempted to spend it.  Plus as I keep telling everyone we may be "house rich," but we are money poor so money is budgeted to wherever at every point of the month. (SIGH) things should get back to normal in the next couple of weeks, until then though, I am not in total control and it sucks...........

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Cookies

First let me say these are a bar not a cookie, but if you want a quick to make treat that doesn't require you  putting the oven on in this heat this is the way to go.

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Cookies

1  Cup corn syrup (for other countries I am guessing golden syrup)
1 Cup Sugar (white)
1 Cup Peanut Butter, either smooth or crunchy
6 Cups Rice Krispies
6 oz chocolate chips
6 oz butterscotch chips ( I subbed chocolate for the butterscotch)

In a large pot cook corn syrup and sugar until mixture comes to a boil, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and add peanut butter.  (OR if you're me, put first three ingredients in a pot and bring to boil)

Stir well and then mix in Rice Krispies.  Press into a buttered 9" x 13" pan.

Melt chocolate chips, in my case I use a double boiler, then spread melted chips over cereal mixture.

Pop in refrigerator for 15 minutes and then cut and eat!!!

As I said before it's a bar not a cookie.  If you like peanut butter and chocolate this is for you.  Not as chewy as a regular rice krispie bar, but really good and sweet.  I also only had 4 cups of rice krispies, so I reduced all the ingredients to accommodate that and put my bars in an 8" x 8" pan.

Do you want to live until you are 90?

When we first started meeting with a financial planner back in 2010 we talked about a number of things.  When she presented us with our "Investment and Wealth Strategies," folder one of the things she had said was that we will live until we are 90 and that is the age they use to prepare our forecast.

I was aghast to think I would live until I was 90.  Everyone I know that is in their 80's or 90's don't seem to be happy.  They are at best "surviving," waiting until it's their time to go.  Now don't get me wrong I would assume there are plenty of people out there that have happy and full filled lives at that age, but I don't know any of them.

The one woman I do know in her 90's is in a nursing home, nearly blind, nearly deaf, other wise as healthy as a horse.  She has no family, and sits there day and night.  She was saying to my mother the other day that she hasn't been out of the home in over a year. Now will say that is mostly her doing as my mam has asked her to go out on a number of occasions only to be met with excuses on why she can't.

Yes I agree people do live longer nowadays and as recently as last week we were sorting out our life insurances to make sure they DO NOT stop when we are 70, as we feel we will live to be older than 70, or at least hope we last longer than that.  However, I always figured, that as my grandmother's passed away in their 70's I would last about that long too.

Bit of a morbid subject for a Monday morning, sorry.

Good Morning, a lovely sight to see on a morning............

Have a lovely Sunday.

True story, what would you do?

A elderly man in his late 70's was in town and was passing a flower shop.  He decided to go inside and buy his wife some flowers.  She liked yellow flowers and he saw some yellow freesia's.  He thought they would be perfect but had one concern.

Man:  We are going away for five days next week, will they last longer than a week.

Girl: Yes they should last a couple of weeks no problem.

So he buys them, but he was a bit concerned how she just shoved them into his bag, but he got them out to make sure they weren't broken.

Got home and his wife was in the kitchen busy doing something.  He told her what he had done and she thanked him and asked him to put them down on the counter and she would put them in water when she had finished what she was doing.

As she was finishing up she looked over at the flowers and thought the leaves looked funny.  On closer inspection, the leaves were artificial as were the flowers.  He had bought her a bunch of artificial flowers.  He had no idea they were artificial and went on to tell his wife the conversation he had with the girl in the shop and how she had told him they would last no problem.

So my question to you is, if you were the person serving this man would you had told him the flowers were artificial?

I personally would have and think it was very dishonest of the girl not to mention they were artificial to the man, after he questioned how long they would last.

Our little Princess and other things.........

So our little Princess was seven months old, can you believe that, seems like only yesterday she came into this world.

I am going to see her today, as they are all going to India this coming weekend and I won't be seeing her mom or Nitara again until November........it's a perfect time for her mom and Nitara to spend an extended time in India while her mom is on maternity leave.  I am so going to miss them all.  It could be a tearful goodbye today, as I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it.

On a brighter note, I went into one of the drawers last night to see if I had any American money from our last trip.  I found a couple of dollars in change which will be handy for the toll roads and $108 in notes...........YEAH!!!  That was a bonus as I had forgotten about it.  I also found a Best Western Hotel gift card that has over $30 on it.  I just have to call the number on the card to make sure it is still okay to use. If so we will stay at the Best Western Hotel in Florence, Kentucky on our way down.

Thanks for all your comments yesterday.  I was super busy all day as ds came over to help me in the garden.  I got him to whipper snip all the ditch for me as its a steep job and kills my hips and back.  In case you're wondering why I wanted that done, I am fed up to the back teeth of folk throwing garbage on our property on their way back from the cottages.  So I hope they will be discouraged if I keep the grass cut low.  Probably not but the shorter grass also makes it easier for me to pick up the garbage.

Most things I pick up are beer cans, Tim Hortons cups and water bottles..........plus last week two big bags of Styrofoam and a large magnetic sign which said "Bacherlorette Party this way," which you put on your car!!!

So excited, we're going on vacation..........

We have booked a few days away to our beloved Tennessee.  Can we afford to do this......probably not but can't afford not to go.  Dh is really tired and stressed with work and has worked none stop on this house since we moved here over four years ago.  So I think he more than deserves this break and I get to go along too!!

We are staying in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and we are renting a cabin from Cabin Fever Vacations.  We got a great deal as when you book five nights, you qualify for a 25% discount; plus as we have stayed with these guys before we qualified also for an extra 10% off.  So we are paying only 65% of the posted rate.

So now all the planning begins as we go in a month's time.  Of course there will be an outing to Cades Cove, one of my most favourite places ever.  Plus we'll stop into Sugarlands, prior to going there to see what else is going on.  We haven't been to Clingman's Dome, so need to go there as well.  Mind you it's a half mile walk to the Dome, so that could be a challenge, knowing how I am allergic to any sort of exercise!!!!

I of course need to do a little shopping while down there, so I'll take one for the team and do that; and yes I know that involves walking which is exercise........

There is an interesting wine tour called Rocky Top Wine Trail, which should be fun and we will get to see some more parts of the area we haven't seen.

Want to do the Gatlinburg Arts and Craft Tour. Done that before and we really enjoyed it.

We are giving Dollywood a miss as we have been there twice and although we enjoy the shows we don't go on the rides.  One place we will be going is the The Old Mill I enjoy the corn fritters and butter there, so yummy.  Plus the stores are always good to wander around.

We set off on the Saturday and stay overnight in Kentucky, then travel to Pigeon Forge on the Sunday.  We leave Pigeon Forge on the Friday and again stay overnight in a hotel and arrive home on the Saturday.  It's around a 14 hour trip , so we split it up so we don't spend an awful long time on the road. So overall we are away for a week.

I was reading back on my September 2008 posts about our last vacation away in the Isle of Palms.  If you have a look there are some funny posts there, that even had me chuckling.

Some photos of when we were driving home on Saturday night......

We went out for fish and chips and came along a gravel road home.  I took the following from the car using my phone, dh was driving.  It's not your eye sight they are slightly out of focus!!!  We live in a gorgeous part of the country that's for sure.

Our kettle has died............

As we are tea drinkers in this house an electric kettle is a priority.  So imagine my distress when it stopped working on Thursday.  Dh is an electrician so I had him look at it and it was something to do with the connection when we sit it on the stand as it was a cordless kettle, so not repairable. 

Kettles and irons are small appliances I go through on piece.  Over the years I have tried buying cheap ones and expensive ones to no avail.  If I get two years out of them I am doing well.  The one that died was a Cuisinart one so a good brand and probably mid range as far as price goes.  I ordered one from Amazon.ca and it's a Sunbeam one, this one. 

The best thing of all it was FREE.  Yep FREE.  With me doing my Swagbucks I cash them in for Amazon.ca E-Cards.  So I always have money in my Amazon account, so in times of need I cash them in for things we need, in this case a new kettle.  Meanwhile I have had to hunt out our cheap kettle we take on vacation with us to the States. 

All about groceries, deals and food prices.......

Had to go into town and run some errands, plus go to my quilt club.

Called into a couple of places on my travels and picked up some grocery items.  I signed up on the Gay Lea website for their newsletter and I got a $2 off coupon for sour cream and a free product coupon for their squirty cream, so sign up as you may get one also.

I called into Sobeys as they had mushrooms on sale for 99 cents per 8oz package.  The sour cream was on sale for $1.99 a tub, so with the $2 coupon it was free.  Not sure if you can see on the package of cereal but there is a mail in offer for a $5 gas car, and that was on sale for $3.97.  Local new potatoes were on for $2.99 for 10 lbs.  The lunch meat was on for $1.99 for 500 grams.

All in all paid $10.92 for that; had $2 in coupon savings and earned 12 Sobey's points.

When I was in Cookstown I called in at Foodland to pick up a couple of things.  I had the free product coupon for the squirty cream so saved $3.99 there.  The Kraft Romano grated cheese was $6.99, but I had a $1 off coupon for that as well.  The liver was $2.36 and I plan on making liver casserole, that's why I bought the mushrooms.  I am a HUGE fan of black licorice and that was $2.49.  Foodland has a great deal on at the moment.  If you print out this coupon when you spend $10 at Foodland you can get a package of kabobs up to $8 for free.  I spent a total of $11.16, and had coupon savings of $11.86.

This is an interesting article:

Canadian consumers cope with dramatic increase in food prices.

"Inside an east-end No Frills around dinner time, customers are lining up with coupons and grocery carts full of discounted items.

But, these days, discount shopping isn’t necessarily enough to keep grocery bills low.
The price of food in Canada is steadily on the rise. The cost of basic staples such as bread, meat and eggs is increasing at a relatively rapid rate.

A recently-released report by Statistics Canada which looked at Canadian food prices between 2007-2012, found prices rose nearly twice the rate of the Consumer Price Index.

“The report showed that prices have increased at a cumulative rate of 19% over the last five years,” said Mark Brown, from the federal agency’s economic analysis division."

The rest of the article is here.  No wonder we are all struggling.

Home of the week

From the outside I really dislike the look of this weeks, "Home of the Week."  That type of home does not appeal to me, but the colour's used inside of the house do make the house feel like a happy home, though the $4.3 million price tag makes me feel unhappy!!  Overall its much too modern for me, but I don't hate it which makes a change.

This week's "Cottage of the Week," is once again not my definition of a cottage, and it looks so out of place in that setting.  At $720,000 its at least affordable for some people, but it's only that "low" due to the fact it's on a river not a lake.  Didn't realize that made a difference but it does.  I'll pass, once again not my cup of tea.

"The Condo of the Week," is awful and it's not the $600,000 price tag that makes it awful, it's the ugly building and lack of natural light that makes it awful.  It would feel like you were living in a basement in the living room/dining room/kitchen combination.  Even the roof top deck seems dismal me to.  If anyone can tell me something positive about the place I would love to hear it?

Our Little Princess and another Quilt block

Our little Princess came by for a visit on Wednesday.  She is growing like a weed and drooling like crazy!

This is this month's block of the month, Peach Cobbler.  It is number 11 and today I will be picking up number 12, the last one in the year, before starting another year.

"Stand By Me,"

Take five minutes out of your day to watch this, it's worthwhile:

You can learn more about this video and the musicians here.

But do make sure you listen to this one also before you leave here today:

Long weekend..........

Had a great long weekend. The weather was perfect. Had family over on Sunday. Managed to get some jobs done. Well done to dh for getting some of the logs stacked. I did help a little, but it's too hard on my back and hands.

It was also not too windy today so I managed to get the fire pit cleaned up and did some edging around that area as well.  The tree that looks dead is a transplant from another part of the property.  Fingers crossed it will spring to life in the Spring?

This was on Facebook and thought it was amusing for both parents and grandparents:

 

Perfect Day

Saturday was indeed a perfect day.  The weather was gorgeous in the mid 20's with a nice breeze and the clouds covering the sun every now and then to give you a little time in the shade.

I took advantage of the weather and got nearly all the grass cut, so was pleased about that.  Also managed to get two big loads of laundry washed, hung on the line, dried and even ironed.  I have given up on the ironing fairy ever coming back.

Popped into town to go to Zehrs as they were having a no tax day.  As I needed allergy pills, headache pills and muscle relaxing pills; yes I am a mess at the moment.  Anyhow I ended up saving $5.96 in taxes, so that was better than nothing.

Barbecued kebabs for supper and they were so good.  All in all a perfect day.............

A step back in time

I am not sure if I mentioned what happened to the new clock we got as a wedding anniversary present from my mother and step-father?  Anyhow forgive me if I am repeating myself.  We brought home the clock on the Saturday and on the Thursday evening I was sitting in the family room and I heard a crack.  Didn't know what it was until the following morning when I looked at the clock it had a hole in the middle of the glass front and four fractures spreading out from it.  You would have thought someone had shot it.  Very, very strange.  So we took it back to the clock shop to get a new piece of glass put in.  He had never seen anything like it before.

On Friday I went to pick up the clock and took some photos of inside his store.  Everywhere you look there are clocks; just a feast for the eyes.

Here is a link to his store.  He deals with customers all over the world.

Look what arrived on Thursday:

That is three bush cords of wood, that was cut last winter by Hwy 11 by Webers Burgers, not that you are interested in that unless you live in the area or go to cottage country a lot?  We got them for the same people we always get them from and they were $290 a bush cord.  By the way never stopped and had a burgers there.

Now that we have the island back I could clear off the kitchen table.  Before:

After, gosh that's a lot tidier.

This week's "Home of the Week," is okay and for $700,000 a bargain thinking of prior weeks when they have been in the millions.  I think it is staged wrong though as it's confusing.  I am not sure if its a modern home wanting to look older or an older home with modern touches?  The kitchen although bright is much too white for me.  I mean who on earth will keep that clean?  I actually liked what they did in the basement and that felt more warmer and homely than upstairs felt.  As always I'll pass!

This week's "Cottage of the Week," is a stunner but with a $1.45 million price tag is unreachable for most people.  The views though as just stunning.  You don't even have to leave the living room to appreciate the views.  I would love it if I could afford it..........

The "Condo of the Week," although very nice it's still $900,000.  It has smashing views, but was that the Gardiner Expressway I view from one shot?  One of the comments does mention a lot of traffic and construction in that area.  I'll pass on the purple mirror in the powder room.  Granted it makes a statement, but it does seem out of place in the unit.  I'll pass on this condo, but have seen a lot worse than this one.

Posted another book review here.