Today's Flower

Finally I have a hint of colour in the garden, with these two flag irises. The poor things are bruised and battered though, as Friday it poured down all day and on both Friday and Saturday we had gale force winds. I also included the last photo, just to prove to you and myself, that eventually there will be a number of tulips flowering in the front garden........eventually!!!

I have no idea why the first three photo's all have their corners cut of....strange?






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

Saturday, a busy day around here......

As you read this on Sunday, we will be up north celebrating ds birthday. Its a long day for us but enjoyable, as we get to spend some time with ds.

We finally got a lawn tractor purchased, we bought this one. It never goes on sale, but this weekend at Sears they had a save 5% GST (tax) on things, so we ended up getting a 5% discount which is better than nothing. We are having it delivered on May 6th to the new house, so that's good. I know its not the best one, but its what we could afford, and we haven't seen a second hand one that we like.

We spent the morning doing more packing and clearing out. Plus dh did maintenance work on the pressure washer, lawn mower and whipper snipper (cuts edges of grass.)

In the afternoon I popped down to the grocery store to pick up some odds and ends. When I drove into the parking lot there was a police cruiser parked outside the front door, with its door's and trunk (boot) wide open and all the lights flashing. So of course my first thought is, now what!!! Anyhow the closer I got, all I could hear was loud music, it was music from Grease. So figured it couldn't be anything too drastic. What it was they were filling a cruiser with food for the food bank. So I picked up some lentils, cereal and pudding snacks for them. They gave you a list of what they were looking for.

Now one thing they were looking for was baby food and cereal. As you probably know my guys are too old for baby food, so can't say I am familiar with the prices etc. I was shocked though when I walked down the baby food aisles to find that a small jar of baby food was 77 cents, a larger jar was 99 cents. Baby milk powder was $25 a can. That is very expensive, add to that your diapers and all the other things babies need and it all adds up.

I did breast feed ds for around 10 days and gave up. Didn't even bother with dd and she was on solids at six weeks old, as we couldn't keep her full. I did use baby cereal and the odd jar of food, but I remember making my own pureed peas and carrots, or apple sauce etc. I still do make my own apple sauce for dh's lunches. I pick up the reduced apples 6 for 99 cents and cook and puree them myself.

We had cloth diapers for both kids and it didn't do them any harm. I suppose today is all about convenience isn't it?

April Fool's Joke.......

Ds and his co-worker decided to play a practical joke on their co-worker and foiled their office. It took them 2 hours to do this. I didn't find it as amusing as they did, as all I could think of is what a waste of tin foil!! Must admit though it was very ingenious, and I asked ds where he got the idea and he had seen it on the Internet!!

(click on the photos to see more detail of what they wrapped up)

It's our son's birthday today, 25 years old. Makes me feel sort of old having a son that old? He's a joy though, so happy birthday son and we'll see you tomorrow. He is working today (tax time), so we're driving up to see him tomorrow.

(Saturday Morning)

This is what they did to his work station!!

Buddy Friday - Water Barrels.......

Where we live at the moment, we have to pay for all water used. Now when we move to the new house we have a well so won't have to pay for the water. However, regardless of whether you pay for your water or not, using what comes down from the sky for free is a good way to go if you ask me...........

One way of "harvesting" the rain is by having a rain or water barrel attached to your down spout off your house.

There are different ways of going about this, you can buy one like this: http://www.ne-design.net/ or you could make one yourself.

Here are a few links on how to build a rain barrel:

This is a You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGFDlkJOdaM

http://www.naturalrainwater.com/make_rainbarrel.htm

http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/adams/audrey/water_barrel.htm

http://www.townofcary.org/depts/pwdept/water/waterconservation/rainbarrelinstructions.pdf

Personally though I think we are going to buy ours from our local council, as we cannot get the barrels for free, so this is a cheaper alternative.

For more Buddy Friday posts, please visit Margaret's Ramblings

Skywatch Friday........

Wednesday (April 1st) we woke up to a drizzly damp overcast dull day. By the afternoon the sun was out and it was windy. I took these photos around 2pm. I didn't look directly at the sun to take them. Then I heard, then saw the plane, it's an Air Canada Plane. We live about half an hour from Toronto International Airport.

(as always click on the photos for more detail)

For more Skywatch Friday photos, please click on the link.

Again, a day late but never mind.......

Well I went over in my grocery budget last month by quite a bit. My goal was $325 and I actually spent $370.34. I will say I am pretty stocked up on toiletries and paper products, and the pantry is full, but not too sure what I spent all that money on otherwise??? I did have $324.81 in savings, thanks to me cashing in $200 worth of points at Shopper's Drug Mart. By after Easter I will have enough points for another $100 worth of free product on bonus redemption days.

My goal for this month is the same $325, with $100 in savings. I am hoping to be way under, as the more I buy the more I have to pack!!! And the more boxes we have the more dh will whine ;0)

Also this is the second day of the April daily savings club, and as it is $1 per day, today you will have $2 in your pot. I have been putting $1 away per day in my pot since day one, and that money will come in so handy for when we move, as between April 29th to May 1st, cooking meals will be hard, as I am going to be busy cleaning out the new house and actually moving house. So they will be long days, and I know I won't be wanting to start to cook meals after a long day cleaning and then a 50 minute drive home to our old house. Not sure what else we can do, so suggestions would be greatly appreciated, for money saving ways of providing meals during that time. I can see us living out of Tim Horton's for those three days.

50 + 1 Recipes for Raspberries.......

I love raspberries, which is just as well, as we have a lot of raspberry bushes at the new house. So I know I will be making a lot of these recipes during the summer, as well as eating them fresh off the bushes.

1. Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

2. Raspberry Cheese Pie

3. Raspberry Cream Sorbet

4. Banana Raspberry Bread

5. Raspberry Muffins

6. Raspberry Pie

7. Raspberry Whirl

8. Raspberry Mousse

9. Raspberry Ice Cream

10. Raspberry Tart

11. Raspberry Cobbler

12. Fresh Raspberry Crisp

13. Raspberry Cheesecake

14. Raspberry - Banana Smoothie

15. Old-Fashioned Raspberry Jam

16. Fresh Raspberry Vinaigrette

17. Raspberry Leaf Tea - this sounds pretty interesting

18. Raspberry Lemon Bread Pudding

19. Raspberry Marshmallow Cake

20. Red Raspberry Rice Pudding

21. Raspberry Tapioca

22. Raspberry Eclairs

23. Chocolate Raspberry Cloud Pie

24. Raspberry Yogurt Pie

25. Angelic Raspberry Dessert

26. Impossible Raspberry Cake

27. Almond and Raspberry Cheesecake

28. Raspberry Shortcake

29. Raspberry Crumble

30. Raspberry Salsa

31. Raspberry Cream Crunch

32. Raspberry Napoleon

33. Mini White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecakes

34. Raspberry Beurre Blanc Sauce

35. Pork Tenderloin with Raspberry Sauce

36. Baked Raspberry French Toast

37. Apple - Raspberry Cake

38. Mango - Raspberry Cobbles

39. Strawberry and Raspberry Mousse Cake

40. Raspberry Jam - made with honey

41. Rhubarb - Raspberry Pie

42. Double Raspberry Sorbet

43. Buttermilk Pie with Raspberry Sauce

44. Raspberry Spinach Salad

45. Watermelon - Raspberry Slush

46. Raspberry Cream Muffins

47. Grilled Chicken and Raspberry Salad

48. Raspberry and Blueberry Dumplings

49. Chocolate Raspberry Torte

50. Raspberry and Red Currant Crumble Tart

51. Raspberry Cordial

Nutritional Info.

There are some yummy recipes there, and with me having all these raspberry bushes, I guess I'll be making a lot of these in the summer!!!

Next week its: Grapefruit