Posts

Spring Garden Delights

Image
I have been busy in the garden making hanging plants for the deck and planters around the deck.Dave and Odelia bought me plants from the Annual IGA mother's day plant sale. Well I bought them but it was a mothers day gift. I am always up to weeding the buttercups, actually  I hate weeding the buttercups. Dave made a new bench for the garden and it looks great! I had to move plants around and re plant. I think it looks great now. I wanted something to break up the garden and add a feature. He also fixed the garden shed deck and now wow it is fantastic!                                                                      Planter with new soil.                                               ...

martha moments......

Image
Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate chip cookies... Has a great sleep last night and felt a "martha day" was in store to feed my family and nurture them ..got to go with  the inspiration. Tomorrow is going to be a cooking day maybe a Sheperd's pie and beet soup... yummy and healthy..added..applesauce Oatbran Blackberry Muffins.... Breakfast  for sunday morning! making homemade bread...hope it rises!!!

Dried Plums...

Image
So our plum tree produced alot of plums this year wchich is very exciting. Especially since last year we only got 6 plums. The issue became what to do with them all. We gave some to my inlaws, some to staff, some to school volley ball team and then we eat them daily. Well at my book club the idea of drying them was introduced and I decided to venture into this project not realizing the work and well the smell.Yuck! First you pick the plums from the tree.... Next wash the plums. Cut the plums in half. Try not to cut your finger like I did. Place plums on the dehydrating racks. Turn dehydrator on. The Plums are drying...look pretty. Plums dried and boy do they smell...not my favorite. I ended up putting them inthe oven because I thought the dehydrator was smelly but it was the plums. It took about 8-12 hours or so. I turned things off and on again. After the have dehydrated  and cooled down you put them in a jar. I did put some in the freezer in...

Garden delights.... and yummy treats

Image
It was a challenging gardening year. Cook temperatures, slugs and snails.... but still I persevered and look I grew beans and peas and well tons of blackberries....   OH ! I even grew a yellow pepper!!!                                          We picked so many blackberries that I made pies, jam and a yummy blackberry coffee cake....     I also made a peach pie with okanagan pesches which was melt in your mouth. we did have a peach tree but it died....booo hooo. We had a lot of raspberries that we just ate. I grew lots of lettuce, tomatoes and brocoli. I have moved some tomatoes inside as the weather is cooler so hopefully they will ripen or it will be fried green tomatoes..... I think I need some help in this area? If anyone knws some ...

sailing this summer

Image
Well it has been a busy spring and summer and I have not been doing the blog thing. One activity we have been in to is sailing. So I thought I would post some photos from a few of our experiences. I really need to take lessons and hope to do so this summer or fall. It is a lot to learn and to get used to but I am enjoying being our on the water and seeing so much. One thing Dave and I  did was to make a sail cover and it is a pretty red. I also made covers for the kitchen cushions. Still need to make the berth cushions. Well more blogging updates soon.

Felt Tea Cozy

Image
My first Felt Project! Heart appliques... Tea pot cozy in action! Well, I finally made my tea cozy from a sweater I felted in the fall. I added some heart appliques to make it a bit more interesting.... and voila. I do have to say the felting process was a lot more work than I anticipated. As well, I am not sure if it is worth it financially. I bought the sweater at Value Village for  around 9 dollars and then it took about three or so washes to get a felt result. I think it can be hard to find a 100% wool seater that is cheap. But if you do or someone gives you one then I think it is worth it for the experience. I would do it again but I need to have something in mind that I would make. I would like to make slippers and a bowl. So perhaps I will do it if I find a cheap wool sweater I like. This looks like fun too!  I also would like to learn some other felting techniques so hopefully I can find a class and learn more about felting.Th...

A pretty Blue Bell Yahoo ! I Grew you!

Image
The exciting part of gardening is seeing things you planted a year ago come up again. Well last year my obsession was the blue bell. Every where I went I saw them and wanted them in my garden. The sweet little blue bell who knew you were so desirable. I guess the feeling of nostalgia over came me. In the house I grew up on Fulton in West Van we had plenty of blue bells all in the front left part of the garden. As a child, I remember seeing them when I was playing or helping my mom in the garden. So last year when I was reunited with the blue bell; I knew I had to have some in my garden. Luckily, I was able to buy one lonely blue bell at the Hospital thrift store plant sale last year. So this spring, I was thinking where are you blue bell?  Well out of the ground and to my great surpise there popped out my Blue Bell. Pretty Blue Bell the one and only! White Bleeding hearts...oh so unique! Tulips happy colour! Wild bleeding hearts Graden blooming- ...