Sunnier days

My usual spot for lunch at St. Andrew's; these pictures were taken a few weeks ago when it was actually sunny even though I have had lunch in the gazebo a couple of times when the grey clouds moved in. Rain or shine, this is a great place for lunch.

Day and night

Flea market deals

A vintage jewelry box encrusted with shells and mother-of-pearl buttons; that is what I am working on now and even though I have hundreds of said buttons I could not pass up the collection that was offered to me by my one-time button supplier who used to visit me at my workplace with one ounce baggies full of shiny white pearlies, the tiny iridescent orbs hard to resist. My name is Anna and I am a button junkie.
Legwarmers for my chairs - aren't these a great idea? Granny was selling these at the flea market so I bought some to try out and I must say they are much better then those sticky pads. These are washable and at only a loonie each, a great deal.

Sunday collage

This is the best soup (yes, we are still making soup because it's cold) I have ever tasted! Mr. Cowboy followed the recipe in the Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics Cookbook and it is a winner. I'm not sure what I enjoyed most about this soup; the three cups of arugula or the crispy shallots garnish.
I know it's the wrong time of year to be baking with peaches but I had a craving for this delectable dessert- Peach Kuchen- so I made it for the potluck at work. It was nice but the store-bought canned peaches were not that good.

I tried out these hand carved chairs at the flea market. It was a set of 7 - 6 chairs and a table for $900. Tomorrow I will post pictures of what I actually bought.


A pair of robins have set up their nest under our deck. They have built multiple nests all along the beam. My duties as Nanny right now are to make sure the bird bath is always filled with fresh water.

Marvelous muffins

At work I see hundreds of cookbooks; sometimes the cover alone will entice me to take a look inside. If there are no pictures I don't even waste my time. But my favourite have a combination of great recipes, stories about the recipes, and big, beautiful, colour pictures. Sarabeth's Bakery by Sarabeth Levine is one such treasure-filled cookbook. There are quite a few recipes in this particular book that I would like to try. The Maple Muffins caught my eye because I love maple syrup and walnuts. These are so good that they are going to become a Sunday tradition. Move over pancakes.

What's in my garden?

Not much.

Hockey and risotto

First game between the Sharks and Canucks but I still made asparagus risotto for dinner. Yes, I missed the first period because risotto does not like to be left alone, not for one minute. It needs constant stirring, lots of liquid love, and heat adjustment for the rice to cook to a creamy goodness. I know we shouldn't have but we enjoyed our risotto while watching the game. It was fantastic, both the game and the risotto.