Happy early Birthday Queen V

This weekend is a long weekend in Canada.

We celebrate Queen Victoria's Birthday

To most Canadians this weekend is known as The May Long Weekend 

To others its known as Victoria Day.

When my niece moved to Houston Texas they all wanted to know what a Maylon weekend was.

Ha! (and she thinks the Texans don't enunciate!)

She  (Queen Victoria, not my niece)  would have been 193 years old on the 24th of May - had she lived.

People say she didn't smile as she ate too much sugar and her teeth paid the price. 

I don't know that to be true.

I do know that I have never seen a picture of her where she is smiling.

Here are some of the things she said throughout her life.

yikes.

Her thoughts on marriage

• When I think of a merry, happy, free young girl -- and look at the ailing, aching state a young wife generally is doomed to -- which you can't deny is the penalty of marriage.

• I feel sure that no girl would go to the altar if she knew all.

Her thoughts on children (maybe I should have posted these on Mothers Day!) 

• An ugly baby is a very nasty object, and the prettiest is frightful when undressed.

• I don't dislike babies, though I think very young ones rather disgusting.

Anyway it is she we are celebrating this weekend.

This weekend at our house  there will be no birthday cake, or fireworks or probably even one thought of her but hey, it's an extra day off.

So to all you Canadians out there Have a Great Victoria Day!

and to the rest of you .....

... feel free to gloat when you get a holiday day and we don't.

She Who Hesitates....

....loses her baby fish

I bought this.

It's the fine net umbrella type thing you put over your food to keep the wasps away when dining al fresco.

My plan was to set it in the pond upside down and place the pottery with the developing fish in it and when they hatched they could swim freely, chow down on the microorganisms floating by, and stay protected from the evils lurking in the pond.

I enlisted the help of Son #1 because two brains are always better than one.

I should have read up on hatching fish.

I would have read that they hatch in four to five days.

I think I showed up with the protective netting  on day six or seven.

When I turned over the broken pottery all I saw was empty egg sacs.

It sucks being a procrastinator!

Somewhere in the pond are some really new, very tiny, baby fish trying to avoid the dangers of the deep   -    the big fish looking for lunch, the pump trying to suck them through the filter, the too cold water in the deep part of the pond and the frogs, toads and salamanders.

Its a cruel, cruel world little fishes - good luck.

Keeper of the Fish

Several years ago Son #2 and I dug a deep hole where the greenhouse used to be and turned it into a pond.

It has a small waterfall, rocks and moss and - even though I didn't want it to be - it's round.

It also had mosquito larvae.

To combat the mosquito problem we stocked it with gold fish.

(I guess I will have to live with the round)

The blue herons love the goldfish.

I hate the herons

With their big flappy wings and long sharp beaks they just swoop in and eat my fish!

I know -   nature, food chain, blah blah - that rationalization doesn't make me feel better when I see there are fewer orange flashes in my pond.

Another issue with the pond fish was our really cold winters, the water would freeze and the fish would die if I didn't take them into the house and care for them in an aquarium.  

So I took them inside. Or should I say 'we' did.
The aquarium was not cheap......
....and I dropped it on the garage floor so it is done.

Two years ago The Husband bought a floating heater.
He said it was for me but as he was the one who had to dip net the fish out  (they can be really fast and wiley having learned to dodge the heron) and it was a big job.

The heater worked like magic and the fish survived the winters.

We also provided them with hiding spots so that they could dart away from the herons and that (touch wood) has been working too!

http://somethingfishy84.hubpages.com

This spring when cleaning the debris out of the water we came across what I thought were tadpoles -  tiny jelly like balls with a black dots..

A few minutes later I remembered that frog/toad egg sacs float freely in a clump and these had attached themselves to a piece of broken pottery.

Yesterday I checked the eggs again and I can see the definite shape of a fish!
I hope its a fish and not something nasty.

Now how do I keep the pond fish from eating whatever these things are when they finally break out to freely swim around the pond?

Perhaps "we" could make a box to set in to the water. 
A box that has very fine mesh so that these babies can't get out and the big guys can't get in.

Maybe I could put them in a fish tank, but we've wandered down that expensive road before.

I just know that The Husband will mutter something about survival of the fittest.
And the fact that feeder fish are only 59 cents each  retail may come in to the conversation.

The Husband is not going to be happy with the extra work or money involved.

I just know there will be grumbling.

Happy Mothers Day to Me!

 

I lay there so long waiting for breakfast in bed I thought I was going to get bed sores.

I can't eat eggs yet, when I came downstairs,  there were three breakfast egg sandwiches.

I made my own coffee.

And waffles.

No one wanted to come to the gardening shops with me and after some serious guilt rants they acquiesced.

 

One stood with his arms folded, the other two with their hands pushed deep into their pockets.  

There were no smiles until I told them to go and get an ice cream.

Thank goodness Swan Lake Nurseryland sells ice cream.

I made them fill the back of the truck with another order of mulch.

I made them shovel it onto the garden beds.

I made them lunch.

I planted the vegetable garden.

I ran out of carrot seeds and went to Coldstream Willows Nursery which is just around the corner.

The Husband came with me to guard the bank card.

My children stayed home - they'd had enough fun..

They took me out for dinner.








 I ate too much.

When we pass in the hallway "I love you mommy"

Good enough!

As long as they love me everyday, I don't need a special day.

Memories of Gramma

Recently a friend posted about letting go of an item he had been hanging on to since his sisters passing and I started thinking about things and memories and love and heritage.

I understand the need to hold on to and feel the items left behind by someone we loved.  Being near them makes their existence more tangible (and their absence more bearable) and maybe we feel as if part of their spirit lives within the item.  

And who am I to say? perhaps it does.

My sister is a hanger on of things.  She'll pull out a book and say,  'this was one of moms books, I remember her reading it'.  

Or her husbands Nana's big enamel bowl - the one she soaked her feet in.

Items of that nature -useless things really other than being 'memory triggers'.

I didn't end up with things from family members who have passed on.  

Except for this.

My Gramma's coffee cup.

This cup never gets used.  It is too small and has the worst handle ever.
I don't think anyone else wanted it.

There was only one of these cups, too plain and ugly to have been a gift I think.
This is why I surmise that she pocketed it when she was in the Bridge Cafe on one of her monthly outings with the other women from the farming area where we lived.  

She would go out with freshly combed hair that had never been curled, wearing a very sensible and  plain hat pulled down on her head and her not so stylish dark cataract glasses. 

 Her skirts were hand sewn. 

Technology scared her so consequently no electricity, telephones or plumbing.

Her life as a farmers wife was, like so many prairie women, filled with hard work.

She had nine children and two husbands - she had these husbands at different times -  not at the same time (just needed to clarify that). 

She always found some time to spend with the large hoard of grandchildren who, every year for Christmas, got the same thing (but in different sizes) from the Army Navy Surplus catalogue.

 In the summers after swimming in the river we would run to gramma's house where fresh baked, and still too warm, brown bread was waiting on the table with a big jar of honey for us to wolf down.  Rice pudding, creamy, sweet and made everyday would be sitting on the back of the wood stove just in case the loaf of bread hadn't filled us up.

Winters had us sitting by the wood stove, warming our feet after tobogganing down the river bank, eating apple pie.

In  the spring, when the ice on the river had melted,  we would fish from the river banks. She would come out with her big cast iron frying pan, a jam can full of lard and some sliced potatoes.  She taught us how to clean and gut the fish  while the potatoes were frying in the pan over the fire she had shown us how to make. When the potatoes were crispy and tender the fish was then fried to a flaky, white slab of deliciousness, topped with a hearty shake of salt, and eaten like we had been denied food for days.
All of us thinking that this was the best food we had ever eaten and giving not one thought to the slime and fish scales on our icy cold hands.

Memories of her are triggered each time I see or smell a food she made for us, or taught us how to make.

Christmas Eve - vinetarta (we are a family of Icelandic immigrants)
Birthdays - fried steak and new potatoes from the garden with sweet corn on the cob.
First snow storm of the season - bacon and eggs cooked on her wood stove.
Hot Summer days -  potato salad and cold sliced ham with the just-canned vinegary smell of dill pickles and sweet relish glistening in shiny jars ready for winter meals.

There were always kids playing hide and seek in the corn rows, aunts and older cousins in the kitchen gossiping and making food,  uncles and older boys off in the corner planning next years crops and talking about the newest farm equipment.

And dogs and cats everywhere.

The smell in the air? One of delicious food and nearby cattle.

Last Sunday morning in my quiet house Son #2 asked if we could make bannock.

 Ahh Gramma, there you are again.

Happy Mothers Day everyone!

Day One ...

Today I was cleaning the trailer in anticipation of camping season when I came across this note written on a napkin by Son #2 several years ago.

I'm not sure you can read this but it says.

'Day One

today I got stuck in the camp trailer its just like the time when i got trapped in the bathroom of grandpas motor home.  the door is jamed, i dont know how but it did.  it kind of feels like the hangover (but im not drunk) you know when everybody leaves Doug on the roof.  But in in a camper beside my house.'

I remember him getting stuck and letting him out about three hours later.  He was a bit cranky. 

 I'll have to remind him that he didn't have to write a Day Two note.....

or Day Three...Four...Five....six... seven.....

Just Call Me Sherlock

After some serious sleuthing I have discovered the reason for my sore neck/back.

http://www.neckinjuryattorney.net
THIS IS NOT ME! (sadly)

It was sore earlier in the year - eased off a bit and now has been sore for the past month.

So painful I considered acupuncture.

I blamed stress from having Son #1 driving a motorcycle down the highway

and, I was blaming age -I think my doctor was too.

I didn't go for acupuncture and stayed with physiotherapy.

My physiotherapist seems to be about 19 years old but I do have confidence in him, and he hasn't asked me to get naked, or shirtless, so that's a good thing.

The pain is interfering with gardening a bit, I dig for 15 minutes then sit down and whine for 20.

Last night the big hammer of  ah ha! hit me and I now know the reason for my pain.

A standard transmission vehicle paired with a 16 year old pretty new driver.

Here's how it goes from stop to first on an incline:

http://www.chiro.org

When he backed over the bridge last night, at the end of our lesson, he could feel me tense up and said "mom, maybe you should have a drink before we go driving"

Such a wise 16 year old....

Size Matters

http://fromcalvarytocarthage.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/three-billy-goats-gruff/

 There was some concern about the size of our bridge when I shared the mini flood incident.  

It scares me when I drive over it.

Even after 18 years of doing so.

That same rubber knee feeling the three goats must have felt knowing there was a troll under their bridge.

The Husband does not share my concerns about this bridge.

"It's fine!" he insists

 Son #1 was just a few weeks old when the Hydro man backed over the edge of the bridge.
His truck was hanging off the side by its drivers side wheels.
I watched the events unfold from my family room window.
I knew disaster was imminent.
He was backing up too fast and at an odd angle.

He wasn't injured - neither was his truck.

  He was a bit embarrassed. 

Mostly because he had to call his office for the tow truck and he got a ribbing from his co-workers.

The tow truck couldn't pull his truck out of the creek so had to lift it out.

I also mentioned in my post on the mini flood was the loss of newly spread cedar bark mulch.

This weekend The Husband filled this monstrosity with more mulch, backed it over our tiny bridge and then spent way too much time strutting around, like a bit of a peacock, quite pleased with his bridge and his driving skills.

I still think that bridge could use some rails and he thinks I'm being a bit of a troll.

Suz, For you - Because I Am a Sharer

From the recipe files of "good lord! how did her thighs end up like that!"

Chocolate Cake

 1 1/2 cups AP Flour

1 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Cocoa

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

 Mix these ingredients together in a large bowl or even the 8" pan that you will be cooking in - (really, it is that easy.)

Combine together the following

1/2 cup melted Butter (I have used oil and it works just fine)

1 tbsp White Vinegar 

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp Instant Coffee (this is optional but it does add a deeper chocolate flavor somehow)

1 cup Hot Water

Pour this into the dry mixture and with a fork or a whisk (or any manual utensil) mix everything together

You will initially get some bubbling up like the volcanos your kids made in science class.
This will go away.

Keep stirring until everything is well blended.

If you haven't mixed it in an 8" pan pour the batter into that now.  

No need to butter or flour the pan.

Bake in a preheated 350 deg oven for 35 - 40 minutes or until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean.  

Cool before diving in. Sometimes I put icing on this and sometimes we just eat as is. 

I use this recipe to make 12 cupcakes (350 - 25 min)  that the boys have been known to sell to the highest bidder during lunch hour at school.  

If you want to make the atrocity that I sent with Son #1 on Friday, double the recipe and use two 8" springform pans, cut each cake in half when cool.  Fill with the chocolate mousse that is used in Black Forest Cake recipes, drizzle ganache and pretty it up with cream cheese filled strawberries.

Chocolate Mousse Filling
Whip one cup whipping cream and 2 tbsp sugar to stiff peaks and set aside.
Combine 3 oz. semi sweet chocolate and 2 tbsp amaretto (optional) and melt.  I use a microwave on power 5.  When melted whisk in 1 well beaten egg.  When this is well blended fold into the whipped cream and set this sit in the fridge for at least two hours before using as a cake filling.
Sometimes when you layer cakes on something this soft and delicate the weight compresses the filling and the cake tips and slides to the floor and you might say a few choice words and abandon the project. (I speak from experience) so follow these steps.
Place one of the sliced cakes back into the springform pan, spread on the mousse and then top with another layer of the cake, top this layer with mousse.  This is the bottom half of the cake
Take another springform pan ring, set it on a cooling rack, place one split layer of the cake in , spread with mousse and top with the other split layer cake. No more mousse - this is the top of the cake and you will drizzle with ganache, or dust with icing sugar or chocolate icing or whatever you like.
  Put these in the fridge to cool and firm up.

Ganache
1/3 cup whipping cream
5 oz. semi sweet chocolate
Heat the cream to just below boiling.  Add the chocolate and stir till melted and creamy.

Drizzle this over the top of the cooled, assembled cake.

Cream Cheese Filled Strawberries

Strawberries, ripe and juicy and as many as you like.
Cut off the tops and hollow out the core

Mix together:
1/2 pkg cream cheese (4 oz)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 tbsp orange juice

 table cream to soften (about 1/2 cup maybe less)
add a little at a time to get the right consistency

Once you have a not too soft  texture fill a disposable piping bag - no tip - and fill the hollowed out berries.  Dip the other end of the berry into melted chocolate, roll in crushed pistachios or cashews and place on the cake or just eat them like this because they are delicious!!

Run 1/2 mile, do 20 sit ups, and hope that bathing suit season doesn't come!


Side Note:   it took long to type out these recipes than it does to make the cake.

Cake Friday

So many bloggers I read have a day where they post on specific topics.

Eco Friday,

Crafting Wednesday,

Kiddos Monday,

You get the gist.

I have Fridays off and spend a good portion of the day baking.

I love baking and I love eating even more.

So I thought of "Foodie Fridays" or" Fat Fridays" or "This is why I can't comfortably wear a bathing suit Fridays"

But then I changed my mind and will stick to "Free as a Bird Fridays'  where I will post, or not, about anything I like.

This Friday I am posting a picture of a cake I made for Son #1 to take to his friends birthday party which is tonight.

He usually takes Tex-Mex style pinwheels but they were so popular that everyone is making and taking them so we needed a switch up.  I've had moms call Sean !!!  for the recipe.
Maybe they thought I wouldn't share.
I'm sure I posted it on this blog earlier.

Focus! Get back on topic!

The cake.

It is decorated with cream cheese stuffed strawberries set on top of chocolate ganache and has chocolate mousse between four layers of dense moist chocolate cake.

The cake recipe doesn't have milk or eggs in it and is one of the best,  no fail cake recipes I have ever used.

So I guess it is a bit of a Food Friday but, oh well.

Just wait till next Friday!
Hope I can come up with a topic other than food.....

To Go, please.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/33606464/ill-have-a-cafe-mocha-vodka-valium-latte

Noah! Build me an Ark

We had a mini flood this week.

It only lasted the one day.

The water in the creek that runs through our front yard (the one the tax man wanted to charge me more taxes for) breached its banks and flooded our neighbrhood.

The reason for the flood was two fold. The first being a torrential rain storm which followed several days of really hot weather and the second was snow melt caused by that previous really hot weather.

The water that flows in the creek comes from the mountain snow melt and that water was slowed halted by a fallen tree and forest debris which caused  the back up.


These things (floods) never happen during the day - always at night when its difficult to see if you've lost a kid in the current.

This was the first time in 18 years that the water went over our bridge as well as under.
That's not snow that you see but a foam created from the currents mixing up the debris.
It's like the frappe setting on your blender.

There's a bridge under that icy cold water.

Dilemma.
Drive across or walk across? 

There is no other access and there is no way in hell I am missing Ladies Night!

(FYI - I drove over it)

Neighbors , from the top of the street to the bottom, were out sandbagging; those on the down side getting hit around the ankles with my newly purchased mulch that was being washed away.

In its place was debris coming from all houses upstream.
I'm sure this year instead of clown poppies I will be getting burdocks and other equally nasty weeds.

Also being washed away from our yard was about six quite large piles of gardening waste that I had not yet loaded into the back of the pick up truck.

Someone will be annoyed to have that left on their lawn.

This is the scene the next morning.
Yes, that's my car.  The water had receded enough that I could drive down the road when I came home at 1:00 in the AM.
Part of the driveway had washed away so I walked across the bridge.
I could see the planks so I knew it was safe to walk.

See on the right?  No mulch  - just a lot of silt.
Still a bit of water trickling down the road but the district crews, firemen and neighbors did a great job of removing the blockages and sandbagging the low spots.

I spoke highly of them while warm and dry at Ladies Night.

This is the day after the following morning.  The water is off the lawn and the bridge is still there and safe to drive on.  No one was injured and no one suffered any real property damage.

All in all it was just an exciting adventure!
We were very lucky.

Early Onset or Self Induced Chaos?

http://newyork.cbslocal.com

Every morning is a flurry of activity at our house.

Feed the dog

Feed the fish

Feed the boys

Make coffee

Check the lunches that The Husband has made before he left for work at 5AM (what a nasty time of day to go to work) to be sure there is fruit or veggies.

You know the routine - I'm sure it's the same in your household.

This morning was no different.

Did you pack your homework?

Did you brush your teeth?

Close the bedroom windows it looks like it might rain.

Lunches - pack them up - don't crush them with text books.

Are you coming home after school?

Your keys! Adam are yours in your backpack?  Sean, do you know where your keys are - I don't want to have to come back!

Where's the dogs red thing? (Kong - for a treat)

Has the dog been out?

Take some money - you never know when something might come up.

Does everyone have their homework?

Eye rolling abounds.

They are on the edge of cracking me over the head and burying me in the back yard.

One kid in the car and  the other preparing his motorcycle for the ride in.

(He loves his new found freedom)

We're off - and on time!

Three blocks down the road and the cell phone rings.

Son #2 answers.  "okay I'll tell her"

"What did he lose?" I say, dejectedly. 

"Nothing.  You forgot your lunch."

E-Mails - Putting Terror into the Hearts of the Gullible

This email came from my cousin - I wish she had sent me recipes instead. She's a great cook.

It read:

I want to thank all of you for your educational emails over the past year. I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery. 

I no longer open a bathroom door without using a paper towel, nor do I have the waitress put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel. 

I cannot use the remote in a hotel room because I don’t know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels. 

I can’t sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed..hmmmm 

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking one’s nose. 

Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years. 

I can’t touch any woman’s purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom. 

Special thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat crap in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing. 

I now have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. 

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die for the 1,387,258th time. 

I no longer have any money, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program. 

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s Novena has granted my every wish. 

I can’t have a drink in a bar because I’ll wake up in a bathtub full of ice with my kidneys gone. 

I can’t eat at KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes, feet or feathers. 

I can’t use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a farm animal on a hot day. 

I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. 

Because of your concern, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains. 

I no longer buy gas without taking someone along to watch the car in case a serial killer crawls in to my back seat when I’m filling up. 

I no longer drink Pepsi or Fanta since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put ‘Under God’ on their cans. 

I no longer use Cling Wrap in the microwave because it causes seven different types of cancer. 

Thanks to you I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big black snake could be lurking under the seat and cause me instant death when it bites my butt. 

And from great advice shared I can’t ever pick up a penny dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a Sex molester waiting to grab me as I bend over. 

I no longer drive my car because buying gas from some companies supports Al Qaeda, and buying gas from all the others supports South American dictators. 

I now keep my toothbrush in the living room, because I was told by e-mail that water splashes over 6 feet out of the toilet. 

I can’t do any gardening because I’m afraid I’ll get bitten by the Violin Spider and my hand will fall off. 

If you do not forward this to everyone on your email list bad luck will follow you for the rest of your life ;-) 

A German scientist from Argentina , after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail (and blogs) with their hand on the mouse. ;>) 

Don’t bother taking it off now, it’s too late. 

Is it any wonder I'm so ነዑሮትች?