It's always the way.......

Tuesday I wasn't feeling the best, so I didn't do much. I did a load of laundry and as it was such a miserable day, I ended up putting them on the clothes horse to dry in the family room. The house was cold, but I didn't put the fire on until 1pm. The house was reasonably clean but not as clean as I would like. Then just after 1pm, there was a knock on the door, and my dad and a British couple who are staying at my dad's and step-mum's house stroll in.

Of course the fire wasn't co-operating, I haven't been shopping for two weeks, so didn't even have a cookie to offer them. I mean isn't it always the way when things aren't looking their best in the house, visitors arrive?

Fast forward to Wednesday by 12 noon the house was tidy the fire was on; infact the fire lit itself!! How did it do that you ask; well it was so windy that I decided not to clean out the ashes in the fireplace. However I laid the fire, by putting in newspaper and sticks ready to start the fire later in the day. By around 11am I heard crackling from the fireplace, and it was burning. There must have been some hot embers in the fireplace and they set fire. Oh and by the way never saw a soul all day, other than the UPS guy, who was wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt, in this weather!!!

Next time the house looks a mess, I will no doubt get a pile of visitors!!

Look what arrived today:




I only ordered it on Sunday (see this post) and thought it would take a month. I haven't tried it yet, but will try it on Thursday. Nothing has gone to waste either in the packaging, as I will re-use the bubble wrap and brown paper. The UPS box it came in I am using as a box to put Molly's toys in. Which is turning out to be a game for me and Molly; as I put her toys in there and she takes her toys out, and back and forward it goes...LOL By the way dh and Molly have made up and are best of friends again!!

I just couldn't be bothered.........

to write a post like I normally do on a night. That's sad really when you think about it. However when I went for a shower last night, I couldn't be bothered to do that either and ended up just washing my hands and face. Which for anyone who knows me that is more unusual, as I religiously have two showers per day, one in a morning and one on a night. I am fussy that way.

Not sure what's wrong, I think I am tired with this knee. I have given up taking the anti-inflammatory, as it is killing my stomach. I spent part of Monday night, around midnight, vomiting, and I have had a bad stomach since I have started taking them. Which I have to say is unusual for me, as I like to say I have an iron clad stomach. So we'll see if I feel any better with not taking them. They are called MELOXICAM 15mg if anyone is interested.

Then we have dh and Molly, one is in the dog house with the other, and its all my fault. As you all know Molly is a beagle, infact she is a Lemon Beagle, only discovered that yesterday. Well beagles have a lot of energy and it is a well know fact you shouldn't let beagles off leash as once they smell something that's it, they take no notice what so ever of you.

However, I have had a little bit of success with letting her off leash and have always got her back.....well until last night. Now I know I am supposed to rest up this leg, but I thought I'd have a wander down the field with her, as she had been cooped up for most of the day; she never normally goes far, however this time she discovered a hole in the fence, and off she went into the woods. Now I could hear her as she has a collar on with a lot of tags that jingle, but she wouldn't come back.

Dh could here me calling her, as he was getting some logs, and by the tone in my voice he knew she had gone. So he came marching down the field not happy, and to cut a long story short, which included us climbing over the fence, and me finally catching Molly in next door's horse barn (no horses in it), we got her back home. Dh very, very unhappy with Molly, Molly not happy with the way dh is speaking to her, and me saying all the time, well it was my own fault for letting her off leash!!

Molly did however sleep through the night........well I never heard her............which made a change, and she never got up until 6am..........YEAH!!! Her scratching is a little better, she still does it, but I am not spraying her as much. So its either the colder weather, or the change in the food? I just wonder how long dh and Molly are going to be mad at one another?

An extra: Liz asked me to check out this blog, she's a girl after my own heart.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that......

Well it only took me five months, but I finally got some pictures hung up around the house on Monday. Not all of them, but enough to make a little difference in the house.

Dh got the last basement window sealed up, so fingers crossed that stops the mice from getting in the house. I haven't caught a mouse since last Friday, would love to think that's it, but honestly I know better!!!! Still inundated with cluster flies; I figured we would be so over those by now, but no such luck.

While dh was outside doing the last window, I had Molly out having a good run around. Luckily her nose gets her in such a frenzy, that she wears herself out. So a good 45 minutes of running around the raspberry bushes and the trees, was great exercise for her. I just watched her, as I don't want her heading towards the road. Her allergies are no better; she started her scratching and chewing her paws at 2am, and she had me up at 4am Monday morning. I made her go back to sleep and ended up not getting up to close to 7am.

I am still hobbling around. My knee though does feel as though it is getting better, slowly but surely. It's still taking me a lot longer to do things; and I don't know what the scoop is but ever since I have hurt my knee, everything I need is down the basement stairs. I seem to spend half my life struggling to get up and down the stairs.............

Oh and finally, I don't have an email address that everyone can access via my blog. If you want to talk to me privately, just leave me your email address in a comment, with DO NOT PUBLISH in large letters, and I will send you an email. I moderate all my comments, so comments do not publish right away.

The reason I am telling you all this is that someone was asking why I don't have email access via my blog. I choose not to, as I am terrible at checking my emails, other than my main email address. I do have the usual hotmail, yahoo accounts, but I never check them.........no idea why I have them...LOL I obviously don't want my main email address on my blog, as there are some strange and unusual people out there, that have nothing else better to do but leave weird and nasty comments!!

A little peek at some quilting I am doing......

One good thing about being injured, I have to take it easy so have been busy sewing.

I am taking part in a Christmas swap on another site, so I decided to make a hexagon centre piece for a table using Christmas fabrics. This is how much I have done so far. The hexagons are 1 inch, so its coming together quite fast. I am going to do another floral row, and then a green row, or another red row, at that point I will see how big it is, hopefully big enough, then I will finish it off......no idea how to do that though??? This is for the quilting ladies out there, do I put batting in between the layers? Does anyone have a tutoral of how to finish one of these off?? Any help would be appreciated.

As I am busy with the Christmas one, the floral one has come to a stop, this is how much I have got done so far, it's done with 3/4 inch hexagons.

Also just seen this site called Sew Many Ways she makes such neat things on it........

Also check out Polka Dot Pineapple, she is so creative......

Today's Flower

This week it's echinacea, which can be used for medicinal purposes, see this article. The first one is called Tomato Soup, and it is the colour of tomato soup. Again sorry about the quality, not 100% in focus.

This one is called Coconut Lime, the petals are so small on this flower, aren't they?

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

Laundry........have questions.....

I try not to use the dryer if I can help it, I prefer to either hang my laundry out to dry or hang it on a clothes horse. I have dryer envy as I would just LOVE this ceiling mounted dryer it would be perfect in our kitchen. However it costs over $200 USD, not even Canadian dollars to buy one over here. I can't seem to find a Canadian manufacturer, does anyone know of one?

Here is a link to more indoor clothes drying racks: http://www.tiptheplanet.com/index.php?title=Air_dry_washing

I'm not sure about you but in this house we go through kettles and irons on piece. It doesn't matter how expensive or how cheap they are, we always seem to be buying them? Now it's my irons turn to be replaced. Do any of you have a favourite brand or model. I like a steam iron, and have a Shark one at the moment. I have just "ordered" this one from airmiles, and the cost to me.....FREE!!!! Have to wait 4 weeks for delivery.......but when it's free you don't mind.

I actually enjoy ironing, as I find it therapeutic, how about you?

Update on my knee, although the pain isn't as much, I just can't be on my feet for any length of time as my poor knee aches like mad. So I just pottered around the house and kept sitting down with my leg up. So we didn't go to the wedding, but I didn't think I would be up to it, and don't want to set myself back.

Dh managed to get a little bit of work done in the attic. We are feeling it now with having no insulation in the attic. Its pretty cold upstairs, but we have a fan running and pumping the hot air up the stairs. Our wood burning insert is great and is keeping downstairs toasty warm. We are even managing to keep it going overnight. We are hoping to be at the insulation stage by the middle of the month, fingers crossed.

I have only been catching 1 mouse a night over the last couple of days........I would love to think we only have the odd mouse in the house now, but I don't think so!! I think I caught 17 mice this last week.

Genealogy and couple of updates.......

Friday, I took it easy and didn't do too much, just pottered around the house. I kept sitting down and put my leg up, as it kept aching when I was on my feet too much. The anti-inflammatory pills have kicked in and are working fine.

We had a hard frost also on Friday morning, and I had hoped that would cure Molly, but she still is chewing her paws. I have been spraying her as directed. She loves her new vegetarian food. Dh has a friend who will be going hunting, so I am going to ask him for a little bit of moose or deer meat, as that is a protein she should be able to have.

Now for the genealogy. My cousin Dougie had a co-worker do our family tree on my mother's side. This lady was able to go back to 1810 on my mother's dad's side and back to 1650 on my mother's mother side. It's really quite interesting and there is so much more I want to find out. I am going to a genealogy seminar which is being held at the local library next Thursday. As I really don't have a clue where to start on this.

While talking to my mother on Friday she gave me some web sites to look at. She got these from a book called "Seeking Catherine Cookson's Da," by Kathleen Jones.

http://www.genuki.org.uk/

http://www.pro.gov.uk/

http://www.scotsorigins.com/

http://www.1837online.com/

and the lady who did the family tree so far used: http://www.familysearch.com/

Ginnie also said this site was good: http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Of course these are all British sites, as that is where we came from. I am wanting to do dh's family, as the township we live in some of the founding families came from Scotland with the same last name as dh has. So it would be interesting to see if we are related some where down the road.

Are any of you interested in Genealogy? Any tips?