Reality Stress..

Oh... my eyes hurt from strain. Strain from what? I can only conclude it's stress related. My bad news from blood work reveals a 'hypothyroid' but I have no symptoms. Or do I? Now, I question everything in relation to some stress issues regarding work, aging and other more personal things. Were these things contributing factors? Will I ever know? At the end of it... I'm having to take a pill everyday for the rest of my life. Perhaps I'll find out that I feel better and didn't even realize I was having symptoms till after the fact. That would be a bonus. I could use that.. a bonus.

I'm still very thankful for every good thing in my life. My blessings far outweigh my trials. Trials are like bad odours that take over the perfumed scents of life's beauty. Ever notice how that works?

Milk & Wine.... and Tomatoes

Milk & Wine Lillies, that is. Hubs came home the other day with some gorgeous flowers in hand. One of our neighbours used to own a florist shop and grew them to sell at his shop (for a tidy price of about $8 per stem, I'm told). A google search tells me they're called Milk & Wine Lillies (maybe). He's recently retired and has a nice bounty of these fragrant gems so when hubs was stopping by to say hello, our kind neighbour hand him these beauties.

See all those wonderful tomatoes in the background of the second shot? I'm a tomato junky and they are a MUST in our garden. This year, hubs planted several yellow pear tomatoes from seed. We normally buy plants but hubs is keen to learn as much about successful gardening from seed and only one way to do that... just do it. If it fails, try again. We had such a poor start to summer, too much rain and certain our tomato crop would flop. Not quite. Initiallly, the plants grew like they were on steroids (we're strictly organic) but no flowers on the plants. Then came rains and hurricanes along with some flowers but the leaves started to wilt and turn to brown shriveled clumps. Amazingly, we got tomatoes, lots of them. One patch in the garden didn't get staked so the tomatoes grew along the ground and didn't seem to mind one bit. Our beefsteak tomatoes didn't thrive but our pear tomatoes, paste tomatoes and lemon boys did pretty good. My freezer will house our bounty and we'll enjoy some spicy spaghetti sauce during the upcoming cold months.

When hubs makes an awesome meal that looks great on the plate, I run for my camera. This was SO delicious, I just had to take a picture of it so I can run across it and remind hubs to make it again. The beef ribs are from the local butcher and their meat is growth hormone and antibiotic free.

Summer's Perfect Ending

Normally I get a bit overwhelmed when my hubs family members come to visit from the 'city'. I'm never organized; I can't function in that state, nor do I want to. I just want to play and chat and laugh, but yesterday they came (even gave a day's notice!) and I was prepared, organized and determined to relax and enjoy the day.

We were six adults in all. I pondered over the eating arrangements which were to be in our screened 'house' that I'm not supposed to call a 'room'. I moved the 'lounging' chairs to the lawn, added a couple more, and dragged the bench swing over to create a nice little gathering spot. The location allowed for full sun, dappled shade or full shade and with the winds being on the warm side, this made for a perfect spot to hang out.

Inside, I put two tables together and dragged out of storage some additional patio chairs. Twas perfect! Everyone was relaxed, with no place to rush off to. The menu was simple enough that we didn't have to labour in the kitchen - a big mess of pork back ribs were pre-cooked and ready to be finished off on the BBQ, steaks which take little prep time, cooked lobster (tons of it) purchased locally, tomatoes in garlic, mint, balsamic vinegar and olive oil and hubs whipped up an awesome caesar salad. What an awesome feast we had!

Afterwards, we moved our chairs to the 'fire pit' and continued to enjoy what was left of the day. There was absolutely no stress on me as I watched my sink fill with mountain of dishes. I had everything rinsed and ready for doing in the morning, all food put away and that was enough. It was such a perfect day.

Every so often throughout the day, I took stock of my surroundings and was satisfied with where we've landed. It's the very thing many city folk long to have but the good paying jobs aren't in the country so necessity/debt keeps them bound. Of course, some folk love city life... been there, done that. But after years of planning, we own what we have and I rather like it.

Sometimes, I put too much focus on the many things that need doing and fixing, the challenge of living on much less than we were so accustomed to and, this is pure silliness... thoughts ending up old, alone and surviving on a diet of cat/dog food. (yes... this has been a secret fear that I'm exposing and uprooting, lol) When the rubber meets the road, I'd much rather have good company, comfortable surroundings, a messy kitchen and a rather daunting to-do list and to heck with worry or stress. Do these things enrich one's life? I think not.

I'm a dufus, goof ball and my Mama loves me...

I got skunked! At first, I was so excited and drawn to this 'scent'. It didn't help that my Papa let me loose to investigate whatever it was that Mikey was 'niffin.... his nickname being Niffer (short for Sniffer) and what with MY nose being somewhat superior to his. I didn't know what would happen, how could I be to blame? All I know is my senses were sent reeling with an incredible blow dealt by a little stinky animal. Who knew?

The commotion to follow was too much for me. They thought it was Mikey that got skunked and I just had to wipe my face on my couch. That didn't help much so, in my agitated state, I ran upstairs...my owners were too 'yellie' trying to figure out what was going on, so I sought relief on my Mommy's bed. She got me out of there though, outside where Papa washed my face. I was so upset I ran away and I could hear my Mommy calling my name and whistling really loud. My Papa was on his scooter, I could hear him but I was scared and the smell bothered me so much. My Mommy was crying and so I came home to comfort her. Her and Papa were so happy to see me and they kissed me, especially Mommy, even though I smelled really bad.

After a couple days, Mommy seemed really happy about something and then some men in a big truck brought new doggie beds to our house that smell new. They call those beds a couch and chair... but they're much nicer than that old stinky stuff and fluffier too. I'm a happy camper cause they let me go on the new 'doggie beds' sometimes and the stinky stuff on my nose ain't so bad now except if I get wet from swimming in river or running in the wet grass smellin' the good things in there. I like things my Mama finds disgusting.

Look Ma... No Bruises!

Having a strong, high energy blind dog means enduring pain. He gives me his paw with great enthusiasm and, having no depth perception, frequently misses the mark. He might scrape those strong doggies nails (black and really hard to trim) down my leg/thigh, inner arm, stomach, etc. etc. and I'm frequently heard saying, "ouch... that's a bruise."

He's sweet and he tries so hard. I'm actually bruise free at the moment and that's great for the heat wave we're having cause I can actually wear short sleeves and shorts without looking speckled.

Life's good.

I'm a little teapot...

I just adore this little teapot that was hiding in my favorite little antique shop by the ocean. I had to have it. This is the second one that I have purchased from that lovely place... another collection in the works? Heavens!

Summer... a time for

I love summer and those 'lazy, hazy, crazy days' but they seem to have escaped me this year. I've fallen behind on so many things and feel that if I were to do all that needs doing on a daily basis, I would never stop. So, I get some things done but mostly I go in circles, feeling overwhelmed and when that happens, I retreat to my computer and get lost surfing wonderful blogs and such.

I have accomplished a few things, though and our screened 'house' is shaping up quite nicely. I'm in the habit of calling it the screened room but it's a separate structure and 'room' implies that it's part of the main house. Hubby is very sensitive to this so I comply. I think I should come up with a name for this structure... have been asked but my only response is a shrug of the shoulders. I got the bench seat completed, a task that was harder than I thought... measure twice, cut once rule had to be strictly enforced. I had just enough fabric to work with.

New seat covers for these chairs...next year's project or maybe a winter project. These look nice with the chairs but don't suit the other colours and they're getting rather worn now, especially since our gentle dog, Mike likes to curl up in them.

I did manage to do some jams and jellies! Our 1 yr old red currant bush gave us two small jars of jelly. I'm quite thrilled and it's incredibly good. I also managed some wild sour cherry jelly and a nice batch of wild blueberry freezer jam. Hubby took me to a private stash of blueberries that nobody around here seems to be aware of so we're keeping it our little secret. It was discovered when hubby was out in the back field with the dogs and came across a beautiful (and huge) wasp's nest. They didn't seem bothered by our presence so we weren't concerned.

Right beside where we were picking the berries is a huge field of soy bean (edamame - yummmm). Potatoes would be typically grown in these parts and this field has been dormant for as long as we've lived here. I guess soy is a good cash crop and it will add nitrates to the soil. Funny thing, we decided to try and grow our own this year because we've been missing this tasty treat. Temptations abound... I wonder if they'd missing a few or more beans. hmmmm.. Well, we DO have our own and no chemicals. I can certainly live with that.