Barney Towels

This week I convinced my boss that he could give me Friday off from accumulated overtime without the business coming to a complete standstill so I’ve been enjoying a beautiful long weekend. We took a trip across to the far distant land and had a great day of shopping and eating. We had breakfast at a truck stop on the way over and they gave us so much food that we could have easily shared one plate. We both kind of waddled back to the truck when we were done. Thankfully we had an hour or so to digest on the drive in before the serious work of shopping began.


We started off at the building centre where Hubby went hunting for a finial for the top of the king-post in the gazebo. He hadn’t been able to find one of the right size at home but he came up with the perfect one right away, so he was happy. Then it was off to Costco where I got some new t-shirts for myself and a few other things. After that we went to Homesense where I bought some new towels in a bright purple colour. The salesclerk who was ringing in the purchase said something about the colour looking like Barney the dinosaur and Hubby quipped back that he would never be able to look at the towels again without thinking about what she had said. The poor girl, she took him seriously and got all worried that she had insulted us. We spent 5 minutes trying to convince her that he had been joking with her but I’m not sure she believed us. Anyway, my new towels are much more “aubergine” than “Barney”.




After that I went to the Value Village while Hubby toured around the Future shop. I got myself a great pair of denim shorts but he came back empty-handed. Princess Auto and the pawn shop were next but there was nothing we wanted there. So it was off to the big mall where we sped around all 130+ stores in about half an hour. The only reason that I was in there any longer was that Hubby convinced me that I should take the opportunity to get my hair cut. Mastercuts had an opening so I took it and $50 and 20 minutes later I had a new ‘do. On my way out of the mall I bought a new quilted wall hanging to replace the snowman one that has been on the wall in the family room for the last 8 months and then went to collect Hubby from Chapters where he had been waiting out the make-over.


At that point it was time for supper at my favourite Chinese restaurant where we had our favourite dinner; the Schezuan Combo. Mmmm... My mouth is watering just remembering; I didn’t slobber on your monitor just now, did I? At the end of supper, as I was reading my fortune cookie message which said that I should be open to new ideas, Hubby said that he would like us to go to the new casino before going home. Well, what could I say but okay. We agreed that we would spend up to $20 and then quit. We actually spent $25 but we had a great time buzzing from one machine to another and we were there for over an hour and a half. We both agreed that that was enough and if we were to stay any longer it would likely become boring. It was fun while we were there, though!

On Saturday, Hubby worked away most of the day on the gazebo. He spent hours redesigning the secondary roof because he thought the first design looked too much like a space ship had landed on top. I’m glad too because I was thinking this all along but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings by saying so. I spent my day going from nursery to nursery looking for some last minute bargains to fill out the few bare spots left in the veggie garden. I’m glad I went too because I found some awesome yard sales that I didn’t know were on. I got a great old enamelware pot for cooking mussels or clams that will double as a witch’s cauldron at Halowe’en, some beach glass earrings and a few other baubles. I had to go around one place three times before I was sure I had seen it all! Did I mention that I love yard sales? We had BBQ’d hamburgers and fresh beets and carrots for supper. The garden is doing great this year and this may be the earliest we have ever harvested beets. They were very tasty and I had a big helping of greens to go with them. The tomatoes, cucumbers and the gourds are doing great, too as you can see in the pictures. We ended the day with a huge fire in my outdoor fireplace and toasted up a few marshmallows before going inside.







On Sunday we declared a moratorium on the usual housework because it was going be just a scorching day. Hubby cut the grass while the temperature was still relatively cool and I made a nice lunch and did a bit of laundry and then it was off to the beach! It was a perfect day at the shore; the water was warm and clear (although there were a few too many jelly fish) and we found a nice secluded section of sand to lie out under the umbrella. Hubby got to swim on and off all afternoon and he even convinced me to wade in a couple of times. Of course, as soon as I got in up to my waist I noticed two crabs edging over on the sandy bottom to get my toes so my swim only lasted a few minutes. It was refreshing while I was in there though. Dinner was BBQ’d spareribs with more of those beets and carrots. The weekend finished up with a glass of wine out on the front porch looking at the moon and stars.
I can see more long weekends coming up soon.

Garden Centre Inspiration

It’s been a cold wet week here on the Witch’s Island. Not the best weather to be out digging in the ground but our gardens are crying out for their flowers and veggies so hopefully we’ll get some co-operation from the skies today and get them planted out.

In the mean time we have been looking for inspiration at some of the pictures we took last month at a couple of the local garden centres. We just love going to these places, they are always so beautiful especially at this time of year when they are packed to the rafters with all their brightly coloured flowers. The warmth and the humidity and the possibilities all seem endless. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to afford to fill your tulip beds with as many bulbs as they used in the first couple of pictures?

Enjoy the photos, I’m going to finish my coffee and then go out and start getting dirty!

Wind Chimes and Weekend Work

“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind”

I was thinking about last week’s post and my laundry out on the clothes line blowing in the wind and it made me think about these beauties pictured below.



I have had these chimes for well over 20 years now and, hopefully, they will be around for even longer as they are guaranteed for 101 plus years. I got the first one from Hubby as a Christmas gift and thought “Oh boy, where am I going to hang this so it won’t keep us awake at night?” It hung outside our bedroom window for over 18 years before we moved and it never bothered us at all. The funny thing is that you actually don’t notice it after awhile because the sound is so peaceful. They are hanging from the front of the garage at the new place so we can’t hear them at all from the bedroom unless the wind is blowing at gale force but they chime a nice welcome every time we arrive home.

I just love the sound of them. The one with the blue stained glass pendulum is tuned to the sound of “c” and the one with the copper tubes and the orange stained glass is actually supposed to sound like cow bells. They don’t really make the copper kind anymore because copper tubing is hugely expensive. So I really cherish this one.

We never take them down and, yes, they have withstood some huge snowstorms with 80 km winds. Sometimes, if I know it’s going to be really bad, I have unclipped the stained glass disc but usually I just let them swing. I have had to replace the glass disc once because the first time we hung the chime it was too close to the house and high wind slammed it against the wall and broke the glass. What can I say, we were young and foolish? They now hang from wrought iron rods which extend them about 18 inches away from the house.

We have given these as wedding gifts and they have always been hung outside with pride. You could even have one of the tubes engraved with the couples name and date. I haven’t done this but I don’t think it would be hard for us to do.






Anyway, as usual, it has been a busy weekend. I’ve baked some muffins, done the laundry and cleaned the house. Hubby is STILL painting the front entry, working the land and fertilizing the lawn. It can be very expensive to have all the equipment you need to do all the outside chores so it is a good thing we have great friends who are willing to share their equipment.

This afternoon, we planted six of the nine blue spruce we bought for the front lawn and now we have to make supper, and then it’s back to work tomorrow. Where do the weekends go?

Some thoughts For Saturday

I'm having a lazy Saturday and I'm really enjoying the downtime. I'm using the time to look around at a few new blog sites. Boy, there are some talented people out there in the blogsphere. Sometime soon I'm going to update my side bars to show some new sites, maybe later this week.

I got up nice and early this morning so I did some laundry and then we ran into the little city to visit my Granny and do some shopping. Of course, we went to the farmer's market and bought some salmon for supper tonight. I think that it will be great with some oven-fries and a light salad. I even had time to bake an apple pie for dessert. Easy.

Tomorrow we're going to make a nice beef stew and while the oven is on I will also bake some beans. This kind of comfort food is low effort and will last for a couple of days next week. That'll give us the time to watch some of the Olympics and, yeah, I guess maybe do a little housekeeping, too. It's only Saturday afternoon and I can already see the start of the workweek looming. Why is it the weekends always seem to go so fast?

I've added a joke that I read on "That British Woman"'s blog site. I laughed so hard that I was smiling most of the day over it. Thanks, Gill.

A man was driving along the highway, and saw a rabbit hoping across the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid hitting the rabbit, but unfortunately the rabbit jumped in front of the car and was hit. The driver, being a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulled over to the side of the road and got out to see what had become of the rabbit.
Much to his dismay, the rabbit was dead. The driver felt so awful be began to cry.
A woman driving down the highway saw the man crying on the side of the road and pulled over. She stepped out of her car and asked the man what was wrong.
"I feel terrible," he explained. "I accidentally hit this rabbit and killed it."
The woman told the man not to worry. She knew what to do. She went to her car trunk and pulled out a spray can. She walked over to the limp, dead rabbit, and sprayed the contents of the can onto the rabbit.
Miraculously, the rabbit came to life, jumped up, waved its paw at the two humans and hopped down the road. Fifty feet away the rabbit stopped, turned around, waved at the two again, hopped down the road another 50 feet, turned, waved, and hoped another 50 feet.
The man was astonished. He couldn't figure out what substance could be in the woman's spray can! He ran over to the woman and demanded, "What was your spray can? What did you spray onto that rabbit?"
The woman turned the can around so that the man could read the label. It said: "Hare Spray Restores Life to Dead Hare. Adds Permanent Wave."

Every time I read it it makes me smile. Enjoy the apple pie pictures.

Saturday Shopping in the Little City

Wow, what did you think of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games? I thought they were short and sweet and of course, our athletes were the best dressed. Brian Adams and Nellie Fertado sang well together. It was awfully late though. By the time we went to bed I was so beat that I slept in really late this morning.

We went to the farmers market in the little city just before lunch. We bought a nice looking eye-of-round roast for our fondue tonight. The only one that was on display was three times what we needed so we asked if the butcher would cut off a portion for us. He said he would but if we took the whole thing he would reduce the price by $4. I guess that he really didn’t want to take it home with him. It was a great deal for us, too. We just cut the roast into three portions when we got home and we’re set for another two fondues. While we were there we also bought some bacon, haddock filets, lobster meat and eggs. We are planning to make seafood chowder for our Valentine’s Day supper so we’ll be using most of this tomorrow. Mmm… seafood chowder.

Next up was a trip to the grocery store where we bought the rest of our supplies for the week. This was a much better experience than in the big city last week. The store was almost empty and we found an open cashier when we were ready to check out. Hubby actually made it out of the store in a good humour.



We found some good deals on produce. We got 4 red peppers and 4 green peppers for $5 so I guess we will be having some stir fries this week. Maybe some quesadillas again, they’re always great. The grapes and the bananas were also on sale. We won’t have to shop now for another week because I have lots of meat in the freezer and there will be leftovers from fondue tonight. The total damage for groceries at the store was $60.04 and $35.25 at the farmer’s market



Stay tuned for some pictures of our fondue. I’m going to go get it ready now and then watch some of the Olympics.

Grocery Shopping For The Week

We had our first big snow storm for the season last week. That is pretty amazing when I think about it. By this time last year we had had snow on the ground for almost three months!

On Friday some stores closed early in the day due to the weather, which made Saturday's grocery shopping an awful chore. The store was so busy that there were no shopping buggies to be had. People were actually lining up to wait for the cart wranglers to bring some in from the parking lot. Hubby cut to the chase and just went out and got his own. The check out lines were crazy, every cashier had at least ten people waiting. Never again will I be shopping on a Saturday after a storm.



I did get some good deals because they were having a B.O.G.O. event (you know, Buy One, Get One) which may have also contributed to the crowds. Anyway I'm all stocked-up for now. The cost for our little adventure was $114.27 and you can see for yourself what that gets you here on The Witch's Island.



I thought I would share a few pictures with you of Hubby blowing out the driveway. He had to do it three times over two days, poor fella. He didn't mind, though. Any reason to play with the power tools is a good one.

Homemade apple pie. Yummy.

Right now there is a delicious apple pie cooling on our kitchen counter just waiting to be served up with a piece of cheddar cheese as a side kick. We're also cooking a nice beef stew as I type. We used carrots and onions from our garden, and well, the potatoes where a free gift of sorts. You don't really want to know the details, but all the farm fields are being harvested around here. The laundry is all done as well as the house cleaning and I'm wondering why we can't have three day weekends every week. Really, it's getting hard to do my household chores and blog. Oh, my! Don't worry I'm not giving up blogging. It has been a great stress relief and I do enjoy visiting other blog sites so much. I'm going to update my sidebars with new sites soon. Hopefully, anyway.