THE STRONG ARM OF THE STRAWBERRY

There's a few things permanently imprinted on me that say "SUMMER". 

Like the lazy dusty smell the house gets. 

The song "The Boys are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy, which I forever have memorized word for word. Just ask me - I'll start rhyming it off. 

And of course, strawberries. 

When those ruby reds start popping up in fields it's like they are saying "move off winter, your time is done! The strong arm of the strawberry has arrived and snow, sleet and cold are muscled out the door.

I headed out to a local patch last Tuesday. The weather was perfect; not too hot with a sun/cloud mix and gentle breeze. The Killdeer sang her song as she zoomed by our hunched over bodies as myself and other berry hunters rifled through greenery and snapped off our finds with a satisfying pop. After about two hours I had enough for what I needed and my sciatica was starting to warn me of trouble brewing. 

Now this berry patch involved parking your car and taking a 5 minute stroll down a farm path, passed the fields and over a little wooden bridge with a bubbling brook. Now how was I to get my berries back to the car?

No problem! I was provided a little red wagon to fill up and toddle back up the farm path!

As I'm strolling along, I come across Sam, one of the locals. Isn't he a handsome fella.

Back home, the work of cleaning and prepping berries begins. Now the strong arm of the strawberry begins to flex. 

I have fresh strawberries in my yogurt with homemade granola for lunch

Take that Winter!

Who can resist chocolate-dipped strawberries!

A strawberry-rhubarb crisp will send all thoughts of snow shovelling to a distant memory.

Finally, if you are still not feeling the summer groove yet, head to a local Strawberry Social. They are everywhere and all you got to do is show up, enjoy the berries and well, be social. 

The strawberries are on stage and they've just dropped the mike! Winter, you're done!

THE MUSIC MAN

This post is a day late and I apologize to you all but I worked the weekend so it was not until this morning that I had time to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard as it were. 

Happy belated Father's Day! To all you Dads out there doing the best you can, loving, giving, sacrificing for your families, especially my hubby Sheldon and my own Dad, the intrepid Jack.

Now Jack is passionate about music. Has been since I've known him and as children we were immersed in nearly every musical genre there was on the planet except for Country, and I think you for that! 

One of my Dad's passions is musicals. If there was a musical brewing, he was signing up to be on stage. I've seen Jack perform in numerous ones:
Oklahoma
Pirate of Penzance
The Mikado
South Pacific to name a few
Most recently, it was The Music Man.

Now you all know once you go and see these shows the songs stick in your head for a long time. At 15, I helped hand out programs for Oklahoma. All summer I was humming Oh What a Beautiful Mornin', or singing "Ooooooklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plan!" I don't think my 15-year-old friends were too impressed.

This past week, we went to see Dad in The Music Man at a local theatre. 

There's Jack, now past 81 and still up there singing' and dancin' with the rest of the cast. Seriously, I could not keep up with all those rehearsals and performances night after night. 

It was a great show and the cast gave it all they got. But my hat is off to Jack. Kudos to you Dad and to your tenacity!

This will likely be the last musical Jack will perform in and it is fitting for it to be The Music Man. For that is truly what he is. 

Happy Father's Day Dad!

WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM MY GARDEN

I've yet to meet anyone who has it all figured out. We all stumble along;  sometimes with a confident step, sometimes groping like blind men. Just trying to figure out how to live this life we've been given and how to live it well. 

There is a scripture in James 1:5 "if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." It doesn't say, He will give to some, but to ALL. 

The kicker is, you have to: 

a) ask 

and 

     b) listen!

It's seems there is insight all around us. My garden, is full of it. 

For example, things are going to change. 

If your situation is bad, hang in there and if your situation is good, be prepared!

When we first moved into our house we had this lovely pond in the back yard with a little fountain

It was a lovely feature and I loved the sound of the water. But it was a stinker (literally) to clean each year and I can't tell you how many dead little birds or moles I had to fish out that had slipped in to their demise. 

So eventually we filled in the pond and inserted a fountain instead.

The birds can now safely stop in for a quick shower and I still have a water feature. 

You will lose things that you love and you will gain things that you love. 

Last year I had a bumper crop of Bee balm

I only have a few stragglers coming up this year but that gave me room invite some new comers.

This is Chad:

Chad the Cherub sat propped up on the side of my pond faithfully pouring water from his little barrel. But the birds thought Chad had a great head to land on and poor Chad often found himself floating face first in the pond. Eventually he took one too many dives and he was injured beyond repair. I really liked Chad!

There are people who I miss a lot. Like my sister Heidi, or Greg, both who never saw the age of 30. There are people who have moved on or moved away. I miss them too. Loss is a part of life, but so is new Life.

Pruning is necessary! Nature is always pushing, pushing, pushing to take over and I'm always pruning, pruning, pruning to take it back. You will be pruned, and it will hurt but the rewards are worth it.

Life is full of seasons, not just the sunny summer but winter:

And Fall

And in each one there are new moments of joy, growth and insight. 

If you are trying to understand something, like how to raise that strong willed child or to let go or hang on, or whatever, don't be afraid to ask for wisdom. It is there for the taking, probably right in your own back yard. 

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON MY WAY TO GET COFFEE

I want to tell you a story - a true story that happened to me and started when I went on a coffee break. So settle in and read on!

About a month ago I was at work. Morning coffee break was upon me so I rounded up my mate Shirley and as it was a lovely day in May we went for a walk-a-bout to pick up coffee.

As we were coming around the corner of the Mall where I work, there was the car of my dreams!

"Shirley!" I said "I Love this car. This is exactly the kind I've wanted."
"It's pretty nice!" comments Shirley.

As we are coming over for a closer look a fella suddenly jumps out of the car. Unbeknownst to us he had been sitting in said car and had overheard our conversation. 

"Do ya like this car? It's for sale! You want to buy it?"

"Well...."I started to stutter....

"Here! Hop in! I'll hold your coffee!" Next thing I know, I'm sitting in this beautiful Mini Cooper. He gives me all the details: 2012 Countryman Manual (perfect), heated seats (perfect X2), two sunroofs (perfect), comes with snow tires (whaaattt?) etc. etc. He is a born salesman. 

"Want to take it for a drive?"

"No, thanks, I really got to get back to work but it is a beauty!"

"Well let me give you my number and if you want you can take it out later!" 

He scratches out his number on an old receipt I had and off Shirley and I go. 

Later I'm telling my husband about this little surprise meeting. I also mention between my investments I have enough saved to pay for half of the car. This could be a reality!

"We should give him a call and take it for a test drive." says Sheldon. No complaints from me!

Eventually, I fish out the old receipt and call. Turns out the chatty fella in the car is a friend of the owner and he was borrowing it that day. He directs me onto Steve, the actual owner. The Plot thickens.....Steve does not have the Mini for sale, he was considering trading it in, but he's willing to let us take it for a spin. 

Now Steve is the most amiable Canadian you will find on this side of the border. You just want to take him home to meet your Mom. No, scratch that; meet your Grandma! We discuss details and bippity-boppity-boo, along with the complete draining of my investments, I'm now the owner of the car of my dreams.

I decided to call it "MiCi" cause when I hop in I just want to sing "Oh Mickie you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind Hey Mickie!  Hey Mickie!"

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. And it just goes to show you, you never know what can happen. You may be going for a Mc-coffee and end up with Mc-MiCi!

IN SEARCH OF THE AMAZING

Do you remember when you under the age of 10, how amazing things were? I mean everything? 
The first time you mastered riding a two wheeler?
Tadpoles?
Snow?
When all the letters on the pages turned into words and suddenly you were reading and you discovered you could read anything?

Sometimes we are reminded of the wonder around us like when we experience something new. But mostly our lives seem mundane.  

So for the last couple of weeks I wanted to jump start my sense of wonder. "Lord, I said as I sipped my coffee (which was amazing, all perfectly frothy and sprinkled with cinnamon, but I have it everyday, so I didn't notice), help me see the amazing things all around me. 

I'm out on a walk during a break at work. A car goes by with two retrievers in it; one with his head hanging out the window and the other with his head popped up out of the sunroof. Their tongues are hanging out and they are the epitome of joy - Amazing.

Every single sunset and every single sunrise is Amazing.

The  technology mankind has come up with like Skype for FaceTime where one can talk to someone else and visually see them. For anyone over 40, that is Amazing.

I came across this tree in my neighbourhood. It's Amazing!

I planted Lupins about two years ago and this decided to show up:

Old man Frodo has the biggest, fluffiest feet ever - Amazing

I ran into this dog with a mohawk at a Macs Milk Store. His name is Brady.

Tomorrow when you get up, try looking with your 8-year-old eyes instead of 48-year-old (or whatever) and you will discover you still live in an amazing world and there are wonders right under your nose. In fact you, yourself, are an incredible creation. 

Enjoy that Amazing Coffee!

EVERYBODY LOVES A CAMPFIRE (AND MARSHMALLOWS)

We are finishing up the long May weekend aka, Victoria Day weekend or 2-4 weekend, or the official kick-off to summer and it was a glorious one! Warm and sunny with a touch of rain. Many crazy Canadians will go camping, but as much as I like camping the black flies up here at this time of the year are big and bad and hungry....very very hungry. 

That doesn't mean I still can't enjoy a good campfire! Thanks to our friends Tom and Jolie we were treated to a good one complete with treats, s'mores and an Elvis Presley karaoke sing-song. 

One of the big bonuses for me are roasted marshmallows...Mmmm...mmmmmm...Mmmm! 

I'm capturing Celeste's technique here and recording for all posterity. 

Had to try it myself. This is an automatic roasting fork that slowly rotates when you push a button. How cool is that! However, I still managed to charcoal them!

Look at those babies browning up

These were coming along nicely!

Want one?? 

Tomorrow it's back to the office and my little windowless pod. But the campfire smell is lingering in my hair and on my pants reminding me of this sticky sweet treats. Here's to a great summer ahead with lots of campfires and perfectly roasted marshmallows. 

LIFE OF A PARTY GIRL

I wake up with the alarm at 5:30 am. This is not unusual; my alarm goes off every morning at 5:30! But today is a busy day and this party girl has lots to do.

You see, I'm not your typical party girl. I'm your behind-the-scenes type. The one making sure the party is planned and fun. So all the REAL Party girls can enjoy it. 

Today I pulled off a Bogo Bridal shower - one for my son's fiancé Carolyn and one for my daughter Randi. I realize Randi has been married nearly two years but we never really threw her a bridal shower so I bogoed her into this one. 

There is always lots of prep and I'm grateful for those who came and helped including my good friend Denise, my kids, my hubby and those who brought flowers and trays of fruit and veggies. 

I started the morning off baking molasses cookies and prepping for mushroom spinach quiche. 

I had prepped the stuffed mushrooms the day before so they were oven ready!

Then it was time to set up the spread!

There was melon and prosciutto

And a good friend brought these beauties

I had made lots of sweets like these luscious lemon squares

And gooey brownies

I set up a Mimosa bar where guests could make their own!

And there was also a "make your own cupcake" set up!

Nice work!

All in all, it was a good time and the girls were blessed with lots of best wishes and gifts. Even Sasha, my Russian Blue, had the time of her life in the tissue paper and bags!

I may not be the life of the party, but I'm the party girl who can make it happen!