Busy, busy, busy.

School's back, the undergrads are crazy, and the work days are getting drearier again. Where the heck did the sun go in the mornings?

The deck is mostly done - the under-structure and top boards are done. Still have to sand a few imperfections out and seal it. It's beautiful. :)

Leif doesn't care that Neil is almost done the last board, he just wants Neil to throw the ball.



It's beautiful, that deck, but it did try to kill me. There was that evil board that insisted on being where my head wanted to be on the way down to crawl under it. And what it has done to my shoulders has had me whimpering for a few days.

Menfolk! After I recovered from the evil board collision with head, I mentioned to the hubby that some little display of empathy might have been nice.... he said that he was watching me closely for signs of concussion. Hmmm.

Just how does one go about being gratefully stunned by the sheer practical attentiveness to my health, and yet still pout because one didn't get that shoulder pat and murmering noises of comfort?

Ah well, of the two reactions, I suppose I'd rather have the practical one.



Apple pie, anyone?



We went to Chudleigh's briefly to visit with the inlaws and watch the nieces and nephews run around the field while we picked apples. I forgot the camera - darned but those kids get cuter all the time.

We've still got some garden chores to do. There's a big pile of mulch in the driveway that has to get into the garden before the snow flies, herbs to harvest, tomatoes and green peppers to play with, pies to bake, bulbs to plant.



Tomatoes.....I've been saucing them up and freezing the sauce batches for weeks now. I'm going to be so sad when the season's done and I have no more pasta sauce to make.
I'll have to move on to other things to brew.... stews and chowders and soups, oh my.



Karen

B is for Blog, C is for Christmas

B is for Blog -

Yeah, I'm still here. Life just kinda got away from me for a bit.

I started the blog in April 2005 and in that first year (April to December), I made 83 posts. In the entire year 2006, I've only made 65 posts. My urge to blog has decreased significantly.

And yet, I've gathered more comments, switched to the new Blogger, and installed a site meter just so I can see how few hits I'm getting.

I'm conflicted. And I don't really know what category I fit in as a blogger. If I knew that, I could join a few rings and get more hits that way.

Of course, posting more often might get me more hits too....


Mother of Invention asked what the big present pictured in a previous post was - and it turns out that it's a mini-greenhouse! I can get started with new seedlings earlier in the year without clogging up the mudroom.

I also got (from the hubby) several new books and cds and dvds - on gardening, viking scotland, womyns' music, and the Animaniacs!

Mom and I made contributions to each other's wardrobe - both from Northern Reflections! While it's sometimes been difficult for Mom to buy clothing for me that I appreciate....she was right on the money this time!

Christmas up at the hubby's family home was fun in a whole different way. His brother and two sisters and their respective spouses are bound and determined to reproduce so there is a lot of kids to up the energy level. Running around the yard with the Nerf rockets, and watching them open the presents was just wonderful.

And there have been plenty of turkey sandwiches for me. The best part of holiday season food. :)

Random Thursday

This is random burblings day.

The yard is still a mess - piles of dirt waiting to be shoved back into a flat state of being. Theoretically, that happens tomorrow. And once it's flat again, we can seed the lawn. I'm eager to get those seeds in.

We've bought bulbs and some new perennials half off in the end of season sale - waiting for a day that's warm enough, in which we have sufficient energy to plant them. We had friends over last weekend who took away some of the things we needed to split.

This weekend is the annual Bogenschuetzenfest. It's one of the first events of the largest Oktoberfest celebration held outside of Germany. Now generally, I can't much stomach this annual celebration of drinking, bad music, bad food, and eye-bleedingly bad costumes, but Bogenschuetzenfest is a silly fun archery contest that generally avoids ... well, at least the rabid drinking.

Now, that's the part of the weekend that I'm most looking forward to - there's also pies, various and sundry family gatherings and a bit of Canada's history suggested for the rest of the weekend. I'm just not sure I feel like waking up for sunday or monday.... at all.

And speaking of sleeping..... I finally got to the store that keeps very-short-hours-during-my-workday and bought this light alarm. So far, so good. But I think the devil's in the settings and there are quite a few of them to choose from.

Also on the sleep frontier - we're still considering moving off the waterbed and onto a Tempurpedic mattress. We slept on Tempurpedic mattresses for two nights during the recent vacation and have mixed feelings about them. They weren't as soft as expected and I still woke up with some soreness - just in different spots. Now, there are different models and the ones in the hotels are on the lower end of the spectrum. They can get cushier, and more expensive. Any forewarnings? comments? recommendations? If you have a Tempurpedic, which model do you have?

Karen

'Twas the day before Christmas...

.....and all through the house, wafted the smell of freshly baked pies.

I volunteered myself into baking pies for both of the upcoming family dinners. I have three pumpkin pies and two apple pies cooling, and one more planned. By special request, I'm going to attempt one of Neil's family recipes for something called "Flapper Pie".

The tarts I made a few days ago turned out quite well, by the way. This dough that I'm using can last for quite awhile in the fridge. Good to know.

Presents are all wrapped, and under the tree. Neil says if I'm good, he'll let me open one tonight. :)

Merry Christmas,

Karen

Love at first bite :)

Made a pumpkin pie - crust commercial, filling straight from the raw pumpkin - for Thanksgiving dinner with my parents yesterday.

As you can see, we all loved it. :)

Karen

my hubby :)

Neil passed his exam with flying colours, and is now a certified Project Management Professional.

It's kinda like a lawyer passing the bar, for the vast majority of folks who won't have heard of the profession. I hadn't heard of it until I met and married the man.

I'm very proud of my hubby. :)

Karen

A is for Achievement

Woohoo! I have finally, in mid-July, planted the last plant I have any intention to plant. I have achieved a goal.

The little babies from the alkanet and dyer's broom are finally in the ground instead of their seed pots.

I feel so proud.

I can clean up the back patio, such as it can yet be called a patio. But that's a different kind of project, yet to be achieved.

Now, those plants that I may just happen upon ...that's another story. :) But I am running out of room until next year.

Did I mention the folks visited on sunday? Well, they did and my mom mentioned that my peppers are quite a bit bigger then hers at the moment. And we bought them in the same place back in May. That made me feel good because I had been worried about the progress of my veggie garden.

My folks also seem to have this strange way of socializing. They seem to believe that the family that weeds together, stays together. I was hard pressed to protest. :)

Karen

the Girl card

Spent the holiday (that's Canada Day, on July 1, for the non-Canadians out there) quite pleasantly. Where else? In my garden. :) I was in an incredibly zen place with the weeds and spent hours pulling them without the least bit of frustration. I filled up a rather large size plastic tub with weeds. We really need to get a composter going.

Saturday on the other hand, wasn't exactly what I'd call pleasant. But I am left with a feeling of achievement and dozens of sore muscles to prove it.

The hubby and I went up to his mother's place to help re-shingle the roof. My advice for all the middle-aged out there? If anyone asks you to volunteer to re-shingle a roof - just say no.

Unless of course, you actually enjoy hard physical labour in the sun for hours on end. If so, then it's right up your alley.

All in all, I think I spent 6-7 hours on the roof. And for the most part, I was the only girl and probably the oldest person up there.

At supper-time, I changed into real clothes* and played the Girl card. You know, the one that lets you off of hard physical labour on account of being a Girl.

Then again, Neil** and I spent the next hour or so chainsawing up some broken limbs in the mother's yard, which is in and of itself physical labour, although not quite so demanding as roofing. But it was on the ground. And safe. Relatively speaking.

On sunday, I spent most of the day on the couch having a sinus reaction to something - either dripping, doing that whole body sneezing thing, or napping (because sleeping is the only time my sinuses would go anywhere near clearing). Fun, Wow. I figure it was a reaction to a combination of altitude change, hard labour, heat exhaustion, and the septic tank that overflowed the morning before we went to do the roofing.

* Real clothes being defined as clean and Girl-like.

**Neil played the Bad Knees card to avoid going back up on the roof again after supper.

Tired now.

Glass bead-making, being a puppy 'mum', thinking about being a real mum, reading, gardening, and of course, blogging. The other hobbies I mentioned yesterday, in case anyone cares, or is actually reading this blog.

I'm tired right now. It's a saturday and we woke up to the alarm. Which is in itself an Evil Thing. But it was for a good cause. We met my parents, and wandered around this nearby town that turns itself into one gigantic yard sale for the day. Many new plants were bought. Much wandering around looking at junk occurred.

And then there was this brand spanking new and gigantic greenhouse that had it's grand opening on the same day, in the same town.

Exhausting.

But then I took my parents off to a new (to them) store that specializes in airplane paraphenalia. My dad worked on the Avro Arrow project. He was in heaven, but all he bought was a baseball cap with the Arrow logo on it.

Then we wandered off to the Surplus store next door. Mind numbing amounts of more junk.

And then they wanted to help me weed! Not that I'm complaining much, but at this point, I just wanted to sit down for awhile. Still we got some of it done, and I learned the difference between a violet and creeping charlie.

I've been in heavy vegetable mode ever since they left. Funny how two 60+ year olds can have more energy then their daughter. I miss them.

Karen