Busy Sunday

I spent most of the morning in the sewing room - hemming and repairing. Decided to make TG a sewing kit similar to the one I made for Maura a few years ago. Have been cutting apart an old jean shirt that Vaoldya's Mom had embroidered for him.

This is Maura's sewing kit - it has three pockets and lots of buttons and patches.
Tried a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies but as they contain coconut, they were not a hit with everyone.

TG was busy as both Maura and Valodya needed trims. It's great to be able to make the mess outside.
I found some mini squash in the garden so I made risotto for dinner with peas and lots of parsley.

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.

- Gertrude Stein

A little surprise when I came back home - a friend who used to be our neighbour when we lived near the border, visited with the girls and left this bouquet for me. She's married now and they have their own business and they live in one of the most beautiful cities in the province.
My tomato plants are doing really well in this heat - fresh tomatoes every day.
A great movie to see is Julie and Julia. Our mouths were watering and we were hungry at the end of that movie. We tried to re-create one of the recipes that Julie makes to use up some of our tomatoes. In a cast iron pan we browned some garlic in olive oil and butter. Using the fresh bread that my Mom and I made, we toasted the slices adding more oil and butter as it was soaked up rather quickly. I cut up some green, yellow and red tomatoes - added olive oil and lots of garlic, parsley and basil and seasoned with salt. Then everyone piled their bread with the tomato mixture - it was great.

Everywhere a love story

Yesterday I had lunch with Mrs D - Mr D has been in a seniors care facility for a year. Two weeks ago Mr D had a stroke and now he does not recognize Mrs D.
Back at work I asked Mr R how his day was going. He told me that it was not going well - Mrs R has dementia and is now living at the seniors lodge.
I stopped to visit with my neighbour - J is 92 - his wife A is 88. A has had several strokes and is also living at the seniors lodge. She does not remember J anymore but everyday J drives down to the seniors lodge and spends the day with A.
There are love stories everywhere, but we may not recognize them.

Baking day

Even though we were in the middle of a heatwave, we mixed up a batch of bread. I still marvel at the way my Mom will pour flour straight from the bag onto her bread board, expertly make a well in the centre and then sprinkle a handful of salt onto the flour.
There are no measuring cups or spoons and there certainly is no thermometer to tell us when the water is right for the yeast. It's all done by feel.


Kneading this bread dough does not take long - the less flour added the better. When it is shaped nice and smooth it is still soft and the crosses made with the edge of a knife are quite noticeable. In this heat it does not take long for it to double in size.


I shape one of the bread loaves - after the first rising it is still soft and sticky. We make three loaves of bread and there is enough dough to make two pizzas and a plateful of fried bread which we eat hot right out of the frypan.


The pizza looks great - these are tomatoes from my garden and lots of basil, garlic, parsley and olive oil.

This is the best part of baking day - fried bread with a glass of tomato juice leftover from the tomatoes for the pizza. There is nothing better then this.

My Mom's garden

Had a wonderful visit with my Mom. These are just some of the pictures that TG and I took of her garden. And hopefully next year I will pick some of these same flowers from my garden.

Week off

It's the long weekend here in BC - Monday is BC Day. Started off Saturday by going to the Farmers Market and then having breakfast at the RCMP Detachment - their garden out front is spectacular.

Really happy with the way the baby quilt turned out - it's actually bigger then a baby quilt but that is a good thing. Carol did the quilting for me on her long-arm machine. Can't wait to start another quilting project.
The heat wave here continues and this is one of the ways we are trying to keep cool - when TG was in Nigeria a teacher gifted this fan to her and I have tried it and it is the best fan I have ever used.
I will be off for a week - heading North to visit my Mom. Have a good week everyone!