This Week in the News!

I hope you all have had a great week! It's Friday for me, week's nearly done. And it's been a pretty typical one. Ups and downs, ins and outs, highs and lows - zoom another week gone in my life in the blink of an eye.
It started with the most gorgeous Thanksgiving weekend ever. We drove the kids back to their respective schools....the other side of Toronto...on the holiday Monday. Needless to say, I would not recommend that little, I mean long, bumper-to-bumper drive. Why weren't all these people snug in their Grandma's farmhouse eating turkey in the backwoods somewhere???
We got home late but Tuesday was back to work so with sleepy limbs and fuzzy eyes I headed into the office. "What....I have to do the Minutes for 2 meetings back to back all afternoon?"...."And what are we talking about??" I magooed my way throught that and somehow produced two coherent sets of Minutes. Came home to find cheques in the mail from the government!!! Yeah!! None for me however, two for Adrian, one for Randi. But, it all pans out for the whole family in the end, believe me.
Did Laundry
Made Cookies
Made Lentil and Sweet potatoe soup
All those other everyday things we women do. Blah blah blah
I had dance last night and survived yet again!
So here we are on Friday, my day off. I paid the bills via the internet (I love internet banking). And find that this week, we have no money so we will be on a tight budget.
I will be getting groceries today, working out and maybe, if I'm lucky, will get in that 3:00 nap!
This weekend will include yardwork and prep for winter, who keeps hinting he's coming for a visit soon. I have a lovely backyard

And here is our deck - 5 years and counting. Maybe next year we can actually use it! Sheldon has made steady progress this year so I'm hopeful.

Hope you all have a great Friday a great weekend and enjoy the everyday things of life.

Prince Edward County

If I hop into my car and drive around the corner, down the block, take one more corner and then a right over the bridge, I find myself in Prince Edward County.

"The County" is a place I spent a fair bit of my childhood (Grades Kindergarten to 6) in a variety of houses as my parents rented what was available/affordable. The County was a farming region, a little island with a great beach, where we got apples, potatoes and fresh corn.

But "The County" is grown up. Suddenly, it has become a mecca for artists and gourmets, not to mention the biggest thing growing there now are wineries! I still love to visit as it is filled with childhood memories, beautiful landscape and now that is all grown up, really great food and wine!

Last weekend we went with friends to "Taste" a culinary celebration so to speak. For a pretty penny you can nibble on all sorts of gourmet goodies made from local ingredients and sip the lastest fruits of the vine. If you ever get a chance to go, it is a nice albeit pricey, way to spend a day. So there I am on the Picton Fairgrounds, the same place that as a child I would go every Tuesday night for skating lessons, the same place I would ride the scrambler at the Picton Fair, the same place where I hung out with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the grandstand watching the horse show (true story). Now, I'm walking about with all the other adults looking pretty pleased with the assortment of goodies to choose from and enjoying live jazz. My, how life changes!

After nibbling and sipping, we travelled about a bit and landed in the middle of a party at the Sandbanks Winery. Seems they had a harvest party earlier in the day and everyone was, well, celebrating the harvest, in a big way.

The trees are pulling out their very best colours, the air is crisp and fresh, the food is good - you should come visit!

Taking Stock

I've taken on a new project lately. No, it's nothing living and in need of shelter. It's my old recipe collection.

I have written favourite and family classics into an old binder for years, but, like me, that binder is beginning to show it's age. For that matter, so are my cookbooks. There is one I bought at work when some fella showed up at the office selling cookbooks. It was a big lug and in fact, has a starring role in the Santa Clause (at the beginning, when he is making dinner). I dont know what possessed me to buy it cause that would mean I would have had to carry it home as I did not drive back then, there is no public transporation in Trenton (still) and it was a good 40 minute walk home. But, I did buy it and I have, some 25 years later, taken the cover right off of it. I have another I scooped at up at a house we were renting when Randi was just a newborn. Still has the address written in the front of it.


So I've decided to start to retype all of these so they are legible, print them off, and put them in page protectors so they don't start colonies of their own for all the butter, sugar and flour I have spilled on them. Then I will keep them in a nice heavy-duty binder. Also, as more often then not, when I'm looking for a recipe I often check the internet, I can then print these ones off and slip them into a nice little page protector as well.


Now I have the original "cyndi's chocolite chip cookies" recipe, Grandma Hall's chocolate cake, my mom's amazing macaroni and cheese, which I can never get right, that yummy butter tart recipe from one book and the Pumpkin Thai soup I tore out of a magazine and made my own. All in one place, and ready for the next generation.


I could just be getting sentimental - and practical - but probably more sentimental. Note the picture I found at the back of my old binder.

I believe Randi would have created this masterpiece before she was even into double digits. Note the joy and happiness, not the sleeping brother up in the house, note that everyone is thinking about a ballerina, which is strange because it wasn't until many years later when we moved into town that we started taking in stray ballerinas.....


And now she is in her last year of University.


Sigh......I'm getting sentimental, and taking stock of my family history of cooking at the same time.

Turn the Page

It's been a big week for me; a new chapter, a turning of the page so to speak.

I dropped my baby off at University. That's right, my baby.

Child number one is starting her fifth year. We are old hat with her.
Child number two is starting his first year. And, he's my baby.

That means I'm done....my role as a mother is basically over. I know it is NEVER really over but the brunt of the job, once a full time role, is now moving to part time. I don't like it, I'm fighting against it, but eventually I will have to accept it.

I hate the part when you leave your off spring in some unknown and foreign land, far from home and you give them a hug and drive off. It's a terrible sink or swim feeling. Of course, they are more than ready to swim, you have been teaching them all the moves for the last 20 years and they are usually itching to go it alone.

but still....it is hard.

So, we are moving on to the "Empty Nest" syndrome which is making me feel rather old.
But I have an ace up my sleeve....a back up plan.

What if we could simply produce another child - still have one under the roof and remind me to keep in tune with the rhythms of school life?

Voila - we take in Kelly, a ballerina at the Quinte Ballet school. She is a mere 17 years old. Just going into Grade 11. That gives me at least two years to adapt into "Empty Nest".

Kelly is my "transition" child, my "ease me into it" girl. She's sweet, quiet and busy and indepedent enough to help me from over-mothering but just enough to allow me to keep my hand in this parenting career.

Some people are more than ready to have their kids out from underneath them. Some people are not. Give me some time. I'll get the hang of it. I was never a quick learner.

Puppy Love

This is Jack....

Jack is a chocolate lab puppy and I think I love him. I'm pretty sure he loves me too. In fact, Jack loves everybody. My daughter's boyfriend said, while playing with Jack, "whoever said you can't buy me love never had a puppy." And he was right!

Jack, sadly, was only visiting our house for a few days while his owners were off on a camping trip. Believe me, I could have kept him! While he was visiting I called him a number of things:

Jack,

Jackie

Jackson Browne

Jack Bowser,

Wiggleworm

Chubby-wob

Baby

Honey

Pudgy

Rolo (cause he's so chocolatey sweet and probably is made of caramel on the inside) ....

Petting Jack is like petting a live, warm, velveteen brown sweater. I loved his little tail, his all pink mouth, the way he would lean heavily up against me and look up. Sigh.....

He played a lot with Amelia and he peed on my rug several times. He had every dog toy that we owned scattered across the back yard and living room.

I miss him.

"Come back Jack.....come back!!"

Swimming

We recently returned from a week's holidays at a cottage. Had a lovely time- lots of do nothing stuff and a completely different change of pace. I would get up around 8:00 as opposed to 6:00, read and read and read, eat a fair bit, and the evenings consisted of a good family game and a movie. I also did a lot of swimming, something you can only do for a few short months of the year in Canada.
I've decided I love to swim in the northern lakes, cossetted by trees and rocks rather than the great lakes, an endless expanse of water. I love the silky feel of the water up north. It seems to gently wrap around you and is not that interested in bashing you with mountainous waves and white caps.
It usually takes me a while to get into the water. At the Sand Banks in the County you just keep on walking and slowly, the water creeps up a little higher and I waste more time just trying to acclimatize. But up north there is no choice. There's no walking in - you just jump off the dock and away you go. It's a quick, surprising, refreshing, awakening moment and then I'm there, ready to dog paddle away!
I flip over on my back and take the stance of Jesus on the cross - arms out to the side, feet together. And I just float away, looking up at the clouds watching them scuttle past. There is that somewhat uncomfortable popping feeling in my ears as the water seeps through and then - nothing. I'm weightless with only the sound of my breathing, the water holding me up and blue sky and clouds above. I check out the tree tops waving away and though I can't hear it I know the wind is rustling the leaves.
Then, after a few good laps to work off that extra snack, I climb out onto the warm rocks and wrap up in a towel.
These are the times that make up for cold, cold winters, ice and snow and endless night.

Poor Puttytat

I have a bored cat on my hands. I feel terrible about it but I'm not sure what to do about it...

Frodo is mopy, losing hair like crazy and giving me a number of signals.

One that says I'm bored

One that says I'm ticked off

One that says I'm hopeful you will let me out!

Frodo was born outside from a feral mother. Friends of ours allowed the mom to have her babies under their porch and we watched these little ones nose about and grow. I knew which one I wanted to take home and when the day came to get Frodo we discovered momma cat had hidden them into crevaces of an old rock pile! We literally had to pull him out from the ground!

So Frodo is an outside cat - he lives for the outdoors and to chase birds and mice. He loves to roll on the warm pavement and snooze under the bushes.

But sadly, Frodo has received a life sentence. It seems the neighbours do not appreciate Frodo using their rose garden for outside purposes and after a number of complaints it is clear Frodo will have to stay inside. We tried a leash, a good one too, that I was hopeful he would get used to and we could then tie him up for some outside roaming time but he was out of that in a matter of minutes. Our next option is a cage....a sorry option indeed.

Basically he sits inside now and mopes about with those sad, bored, hopeful eyes watching me.

I'm open to suggestions.....his age works both for and against him. As he is now 10 he is slowing down a little and does not mind sleeping more than playing. On the other hand, trying to switch a 10 years old cat from always going outside to not is like trying to teach an old dog new tricks.

In the meantime, on occasion, Frodo does sneak outside at times. Early in the morning, when I'm walking Amelia, Frodo has learned if he is quick he can zip out the door when I'm busy trying to keep hold of Ami. I don't blame him - who could?