3 generations

 The mercury in the villetta registered at 15C Wednesday morning. Piles of blankets covered Spike and Adia were burrowed into a thick comforter, I was snug under my dounduna… but throwing back the covers to go outside was a feat of immense bravery. 

The sun barely peeked from behind thick clouds and an icy wind blew all day. The second last day of September threw a taste of the winter at us. Yuck. Meanwhile, Mom and Kirsten worked hard at weeding and trimming, I pulled the odd bit of grass, but honestly I was useless. I don’t know why but I felt sick, perhaps from a night of insomnia? 

I’m useless in the garden but I could at least put a few meals in front of people - yah, that’s my excuse for slipping away! And then there was the 2 hour nap that I took...

It has been 2 years since Mom and I had our last Mother Daughter night and forever since we’ve had one with Kirsten. Luckily Shenna was also able to be with us so we had 3 generations connecting over an aperol spritz. Love.

After another cold but cosy night I am home. 

Dogs are happy to have the extra room although they did seem to enjoy stretching out in front of the ‘fireplace’. They were pretty well behaved overall but I’ve got to work on getting out of the camper one dog at a time. I can get Adia to stay for several seconds but it’s hard. She has to wait while I lift out Spike and put him down. On the first day Spike got ahead of me at the door and tumbled down the stairs to the ground. My heart was in my throat but he got up and carried on. He’s a brave little dog.

Sometimes you do things that you quickly regret… that was me a few days ago when I asked Spike to find my socks. It was so sad to see him walk around without a glimmer of a memory of bringing them to me everyday for years. Not a glimmer. There was however a glint of tears in my eyes watching him struggle. Well, not struggle, he had no idea that he was supposed to do anything.

The same thing has happened when Mom or Jo Ellen are around. In the past he would go CRAZY to see them… now… nothing. At least he’s gotten over his intense dislike of being picked up. He seems happy enough overall so we’ll just continue to support him as best we can. 

Thank goodness he has Adia.

Awesome!

“arriving at my destination”

“girls night in the trailer”

“Spike sleeping in”

“purple asters in the field”

“Adia zooming past me at full speed”

outside in

 Leafy greens from the deck are now lining the window seat in the livingroom… almost 24 feet of green brings the essence of summer into the house. A bit sad now but it will be wonderful in the depth of a snowy winter. With a south face the herbs might continue to produce.

We also brought in a horde of creepy earwigs.

I ran out of motivation this week - oh sure, I peeled 30 more apples, but Carm took over with the tomatoes and made 4 containers of diced for the freezer. Tomatoes will feature heavily in this winter’s menu. Thankfully the last of the tomatoes were gleaned from the dying plants.

I have been slowly harvesting herb… it’s a lot of work to trim but hopefully it will be worth it.

It’s raining today, a sure way to drag down my energy. Carm’s out golfing though! I expected him home ages ago. He’ll need a hot bath to warm up and a fluffy towel to dry himself off. 

I’ve been seeing more blue jays lately and have been hearing geese overhead at times. Winter is coming… What is this winter going to bring? Will we be isolated or will we finally get over the fear and bring people into the house? I don’t know. We are fully vaccinated but so many places are going to hell that it’s easy to stay scared.

Awesome!

“a jungle of plants in the living room”

“watching a program on my tablet while on the treadmill - the screen rocks”

“beef, potatoes, and olives”

pathetic playlist

 I stepped off the treadmill as close to tears as one can get without actually wetting one’s cheeks… today’s playlist ganged up on me, playing emotional song after emotional song.

It started with ‘Roam’, the song I played every morning on our amazing Alberta trip 8 years ago. I was so excited on that adventure to my birthplace that I could barely contain myself at times. This song was written to be a tourist advertisement for the province and by gosh, it hit many notes of the highlights. I really did see the sun jumping into a stream - I can remember the exact moment as if it had just happened. What a trip! 

https://youtu.be/ThFCg0tBDck

Right after that it inflicted ‘Photographs and Memories’ by Jim Croce… this was the song with my first serious boyfriend. I remember many times sitting in his room singing the lyrics to each other. We had a tumultuous breakup 4 years later and I suffered greatly. I suppose there is a corner of my heart that is still broken. 

https://youtu.be/nucJtTPqSxg

And still the playlist continued to taunt. ‘Farewell to Jamaica’ by Harry Belafone played next. I always associate this song with my dear Uncle Graham who was like a beloved older brother to me. I rarely see him now as he lives several provinces away. 

https://youtu.be/KFFlWtlDRqk

Normally I’d be half listening to music so these songs would play and I might sing, but I’d be doing something else so no time to really think. And not 3 in a row!

But! I did spend a few minutes on the treadmill. It’s the third day after a 2 year hiatus… I am shockingly out of shape and that’s no way to pass my last year in my 50s!

You all probably think I’m crazy with talk of sequins and other glitzy stuff… I’ve always loved a bit of bling, which is funny since I’m usually in jeans or leggings and t-shirts, surely the two don’t go together… but yes! Bling is quirky and a bit funny, like a sparkly joke, a bit of a mock. It glitters as if little bits of the sun have been trapped in them. I love the sun! I love jokes! I love sparkle.

With Carm’s help I made 4 more containers of ragu - 1 for last night with Jo Ellen and Don, and 3 for the freezer. Carm’s happy to have all this sauce - it means we’ll be having pasta on a regular basis, a bit of a touch to his youth. And I’ll get practice making meatballs :-)

Awesome!

“finding riblets at the grocery store for the ragu”

“3 containers of ragu tomato sauce added to the freezer”

“adding the meals to our calendar - we’ll be having ragu every 3 weeks through the winter!”

“the rain holding off so we could have Jo Ellen and Don for an outside supper”

“a stack of bags holding apples for the freezer”

“wearing the pearl necklace that Carm got me for my birthday”

sparkle and shine

 This is going to be a painfully long post as I wrote the first several paragraphs on Saturday morning before the festivities began.

Friday, the day of my year transition, I quickly moved past feeling sorry for myself and came to the realization that YES, we would have a party without Olaf, smaller, but almost as good. So I finished the cooking, dyed my hair pink and loaded the car with food and sequins. We arrived at the trailer mid afternoon with lots of time to do our chores before supper.

Kirsten treated us to burritos from ‘Fat Bastards’ - I had a Thai one that I loved! My new favorite fast food joint :-) 

The forecast for Saturday was sun and more sun (with a bit of cloud thrown in to make it interesting.) Mom, Dad, Graham, and Erik came around 1pm for an afternoon of visiting and then a slightly early supper. Later cousins from Alberta dropped by for a few hours. I don’t know them very well so it was nice to touch base.

Our plan was to sparkle and shine for our dance party after supper, but alas, we were all too tired from the long day. We did muster up the energy to switch over to sequins! 

While I was writing the first version of this post Carm played Mozart ‘Sonata for two pianos in D’ which is supposed to be good for people with epilepsy but I’m thinking it’s also good for bipolar as I felt a wash of euphoria while it was playing. Lots of notes, but powerful ones!

Or maybe it was writing about all the joy in my life :-)

We came home on Sunday, but not before our morning coffee gathering. I made egg bites, bacon, and cheddar thyme cookies at home so I could serve up a mini breakfast with no fuss. The eggs and bacon pop into the microwave for a few seconds, I pop a few of the cookies (no sugar!) onto the plate and voila! mini breakfast.

Yesterday I also did a bit of harvesting of my green crop… so much work… will it be worth it?

Awesome!

“packing the cooler with loads of food”

“water pump starting with no problems”

“sweet and spicy Thai sauce”

“birthday gifts!”

“sequins”

“family”

“Spike peeing and pooping first thing in the morning”

“virtually adding Steph and Olaf to the gathering”

“a beautiful September day - are there any more treasured days than the last warmth before a long winter?”

“songs that make me get up and dance”

is it over yet

 I am well and truly fed up with COVID ruining plans. Months ago Olaf and I planned a ‘party’ to celebrate his birthday and my last year before I turn 60 birthday… we started out with lots of people on our invite list but as time passed and the Delta variant got carried away, we scratched the idea of anyone other than family. A sibling night was in the cards!

Skip to today… one of the children that would be attending got a letter from her school about a case in her school, not in her class mind you. Poor girl sounded overwhelmed and anxious about the news. It’s a lot to put on a kid.

So, with an abundance of caution we’ve cancelled. So I’m sitting here with a scowl on my face, glum. I’ve been getting food ready all week, luckily most can be frozen for next time. But GOSH! Flibberty flabber (not my exact words)! My pink and sequin outfit sits dejected on the shelf waiting for our next try.

I can’t seem to move forward knowing we are vaccinated. Have you felt the freedom or are you still being cautious?

So… remember I mentioned getting cordless clippers? Well, they arrived yesterday and were charged by this morning. I wanted to clip the top of Spike’s head so got them out, along with the plastic guide. Turned them on… super loud. Got Spike in my lap and started trying to get through his long hair. He was uncomfortable and then totally freaked out, pooping in my lap and screaming. He ran around the room screaming and pooping. I have never heard him make a sound like that. What an IDIOT I am. I feel terrible that I scared him so badly, poor little guy.

I was afraid that I’d totally ruined him but after half an hour of conditioning and several handfuls of treats, I was able to do a bit of a job on his head, and even carefully around his eyes. It’s amazing that he forgave me so quickly.

A flock of geese passed overhead yesterday morning.

A trip outside with Adia tonight revealed that an apple tree that suddenly grew more than apples :-) A pretty balloon and a wonderful birthday gift was hung in the branches by Trudie and Leo :-) Just what I needed on this rather glum day.

Awesome!

“morning sun lighting up a foggy field”

it’s a short list today cause really...

fur was flying

 Not much on the playbook today… just the onerous task of getting the hair off Spike. We tried a new drug today but I only gave him a half dose - he put up such a fight that there was no way I was going to get his face done so I gave him the other half and we crossed our fingers. 

It takes a good hour or more to take effect but for fun (ha ha) I gave the rest of his body a go. Itˋs a rough job, especially his legs and feet, but with Carm holding him with one hand and a kong with peanut butter in the other we got it done.

Next dog will have short hair like Adia.

When Spike was coming to work with me Iˋd touch him up every two weeks with no help needed. Now it’s a rodeo but I canˋt really blame him as even when I’m being careful I nick his little owies and make them bleed 😥 I’m going to try some operant conditioning so weˋve ordered a pair of cordless clippers which will help with this. They should make little jobs easier too.

The apples are still sitting in their trug breeding fruit flies.

I’ve been drinking apple juice that I made in the instant pot - it’s good so I may get out the machine tomorrow.

Awesome!

“sunshine glinting across the field at 7am”

“Adia’s eyes are the exact same colour as her fur”

“the juice from a bacon and tomato sandwich dripping onto my plate”

“gourmet food doesn’t hold a candle to a sandwich smothered in mayo and stacked with tomatoes fresh from the garden and topped with crispy bacon”

“one day delivery for the new clippers”

its tough

 Music is playing and the tempo has managed to move me from a sitting position (of course Iˋm sitting now ha ha) to one less recumbent. I was lamenting to Mom about all the ˋstuffˋI have to do today, telling her that all motivation was gone… She reminded me how much music helped and of course mothers are always right ;-)

Iˋve gotten the vacuuming done, a huge pile of laundry folded and put away, a bit of the fridge cleaned out, presents wrapped… but still that giant trug of apples sits on the floor taunting me with its bounty. Its bleeping blooping bounty. I suppose Iˋll get the apple wizzard installed on the cutting board so I can do at least a pieˋs worth for the freezer. Although the freezer is stupid full.

And still tomatoes need picking.

Carm has escaped all the angst by playing golf (with John W today!) at Upper Canada Golf course. Heˋll be home in time to sit down to supper - what a life eh!

You may be wondering how the pie crust turned out… it was as I feared: tough. I should have stuck with Momˋs recipe for crust as I had that mastered a decade ago. Next time!

Sometime during the day… Iˋve decided that I donˋt really like apples all that much, probably not enough to go through all the effort of getting them into the freezer. So that was me, suddenly off the hook. Just in time for a few hours of mindless reading. Nothing too intellectually stimulating… no, just some mindless drivel.

Awesome!

“the slivered garlic in my ramen soup”

“biting into a big mouthful of perfectly cooked ramen noodles”

“a shiny red apple”

“cherry tomato plant tumbling onto the deck like ˋday of the triffidsˋ”

“sleeping dogs - they looks so peaceful”

“my little speaker”

“Adiaˋs eyes are the exact colour as her fur”

“the soundtrack from Guardians of the Galaxy… Brandy a fine old song”

johnny appleseed

 Itˋs 10:45 am and Iˋm still sitting nursing a (cold) coffee, willing myself to get busy. Yesterday was a marathon day in the kitchen… 2 giant loaves of bread, 2 big batches of tomato sauce (making 8 containers!), and a double batch of meatballs. The freezer is groaning at the seams - I honestly think that the rest of the garden produce will have to rot on the vines/trees. Whew! All squeezed in before a 4pm haircut.

Luckily Carm took over the broom and made the house a little more presentable. It was Patˋs birthday so we were risking an indoor visit to help her celebrate.

Which leaves me to today… Iˋd like to make some apple pies and a batch of apple cider. Maybe a few skillets of caramelized onions as well. But my back is still a little sore. Plus I canˋt propel myself off the sofa!

Itˋs a beautiful day, cool but mostly sunny. The pool was at 68F yesterday - way too cold for a swim. I may slightly resemble a beluga whale but I donˋt have their tolerance for icy waters!

The pink pants that I mentioned last time - HA HA HA! They were perhaps a foot, maybe two feet, too long. Trudie looked at them and declared that they were impossible to hem unless we took the pants apart and made some major modifications. Luckily I had ensured that they were a free return to Amazon.

Itˋs 2:45pm… I did get off my butt this morning. Some rocking music powered me through several hours of cooking but my back is KILLING me. Iˋve got an apple pie in the oven, a batch of apple cider in the fridge, cheese sticks in my tummy (leftover pie dough bits rolled out with cheese), and 2 batches of caramelized onions in the freezer for next weekend. The kitchen is still hugely in disarray but I have to rest my back for a few minutes (I donˋt see the person standing behind me jabbing me between my shoulder blades with a molten hot spear but I know they are there). 

Itˋs almost 7:30… all that cooking and Iˋd forgotten to consider supper… pizza shop to the rescue :-) We still havenˋt cut into the pie so I have no idea how the crust turned out. I donˋt have high hopes as I used a new recipe and it came together weirdly. I should have used more water so ended up working it too much. This is the first apple pie Iˋve made since 2004.

Awesome!

“a lineup of tomato sauce cooling for the freezer”

“I used the recipe that Kirsten recommended for the sauce and it was fantastic”

“Spike sleeping peacefully on the futon, and later on the loveseat with Adia”

“Adia trying to control her impulse to mob Pat, she was trembling with the effort”

“I always love the sight of 2 beautifully browned loaves of bread emerging from the oven”

“pleasantly surprised by flavour of apple cider”

“hot caramelized onions”

“bright pink/purple sweetlegs”

Labour day already

 Sultry summer has taken a hard right into a hopefully fantastic fall. Itˋs Labour Day today and if there is one day that signifies the end of summer it would be the last day before school starts. Today has been a mix of sun and cloud, not too warm but not freezing cold either, in other words, an early fall day...

I think I left off last Wednesday… so much more of the same… cooking and prepping. We headed to the villetta on Saturday and stayed for 2 nights. While itˋs lovely to have a little get away, itˋs even more awesome to see my little sis. (and everyone else of course!)

I love spending the day puttering around the villetta. The new little vacuum skims off the dirt and debris from the floors, and then armed with a little brush, it scoops up the spider webs from every nook. I didnˋt even have time to read! Or wash the nose prints off the windows...

Both dogs seemed to do much better this weekend. Spike wasnˋt as disoriented and had a normal out schedule (mostly); Adia settled better also. I had put down a larger carpet in front of the fireplace plus another one between living area and kitchen to help with Spikeˋs traction which might have reduced his anxiety a bit. Now if only there wasnˋt something I could do with the high first step going ˋupstairsˋ.

Plans for an upcoming sibling party are underway… it happens to correspond with my ‘last year in my 50s’ birthday which I plan to celebrate with abandon. This will not be a pity party (at least for me), but an Iˋm going to make this the best year ever” party. I want it to be a party where we all celebrate the joy and wonder in our lives and to make a pact to live more mindfully and to see the awesome in everything around us. I donˋt want it to be all about me! It should be all about you!

And maybe about the sequins.

Awesome!

“having people gathered around the table in the villetta”

“Spike putting his legs on my shoulder so I can more easily lift him down”

“seeing a video of Nissaˋs room in res”

“a salty crisp pringle melting on my tongue.”

“finding pink flare leggings to wear for my ˋpartyˋ”

ripe tomatoes

 The water was cold (22C) but I forced myself into the icy waters as it would surely be the last swim of 2021 - September 1st, neither the earliest nor the latest swimmable water. The forecast is grim with days in the low 20s and nights in the low teens - not a drop of heat for the pool. I made sure to enjoy every moment.

Itˋs a big change from the 30+ days of last week!

Weˋve had a busy week of visiting. We dined alfresco with friends several nights in the last week: first Jo Ellen and Don, then Pat Tuesday night, and finally Trudie and Leo on Wednesday. Weˋve taken advantage of the cooler days and been able to keep the visits outside. It was almost like pre-covid days!

Yesterday I forced myself back into the kitchen to do something with some of the tomatoes streaming in from our garden. Itˋs amazing how many tomatoes 6 plants can make! Our oven is totally trashed with splattered oil… but yay, weˋll be able to test the self-clean option once the garden is bare.

The last of the zucchini was grated; some was formed into zucchini fritters while the rest was bagged for the freezer. Apparently the frozen zucc can be used in fritters so Iˋve added them to our menu planner.

The oven was on again this morning: another picking of tomatoes from the garden was transformed to a pinkish red roasted tomato soup. Then I whipped up a batch of banana spice muffins. And during all this I juggled 30 slices of bacon into and out of the microwave! Later a batch of Graceˋs grain mash cooked in the instant pot. Whew!

With all that prep we kept it simple for supper and had totally luscious toasted bacon and tomato sandwiches, heavy on the mayo with lots of fresh basil. Oh yeah baby!

Ontario is finally coming out with a vaccine passport. Maybe weˋll avoid a 4th wave but I have a feeling there will be a lockdown early in the winter.

Awesome!

“the heaviness of a ripe tomato”

“3 packages of grated zucchini stored in the freezer - fritters in the winter”

“friends around the table”

“sitting down for a minute after a day in the kitchen”

“2 more containers of roasted tomatoes plus a gallon of soup!”

“thick mayo mixed with tomato juices dripping out of my sandwich”