Share Your World – Week 35

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….can’t believe that it’s already week 35…check out Cee’s Photography for more great posts of Share Your World or join in

Have your blogging goals changed?

I think they have. I started as an incentive to lose weight and record stories from my childhood. I still do a little of both but now it’s become a venue for sharing my art, photography, and life’s adventures and challenges.

If you were to perform in the circus, what would you do?

I don’t know why this came to my head first but I thought clown. I’m not a big fan of clowns but I do like to make people laugh.

If you could go back and talk to yourself at age 18 what advice would you give yourself? Or if you are younger than 25 what words of wisdom would you like to tell yourself at age 45?

I would tell myself to pursue my interests, take risks. I was very practical and played it pretty safe at 18 but I was also somewhat romantic and probably naive. My biggest piece of advice would be to put aside money for retirement and not touch it. I’ve been lucky to have a job with a great pension plan and to own a house in the city. Not everyone is as fortunate and sometimes I think we could have been better prepared.

What is your favorite comfort snack food?

My favourite comfort foods are ice-cream and cheese. Not at the same time. When I want something sweet it would be ice-cream and for my savoury moments it has to be cheese.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for a wonderful birthday week with family and friends. I spent the day with one of my oldest friends at the spa earlier in the week. My good friend L took me to the nail place and she treated me to a pedicure. My aunt and cousin sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, my sisters sent me gifts through the mail, my son called me long distance from the Netherlands, my daughters and I spent time together at the CNE, my husband cooked a magnificent meal for six of us and my dear friends at the cottage prepared a birthday lunch with cake done in the BBQ and gave me a set of beautiful earrings. WOW!

I’m looking forward to using my new Jawbone Up (a gift from my family) to record my fitness and sleeping patterns and learning some new songs on my ukulele from the ukulele book that my sister sent me. I’m also looking forward to going back to school (believe it or not) to catch up with my colleagues and meet my new students. Getting the library up and running is number one on my priority list. I just hope I get some help doing it.

My broken birthday cake. It didn’t travel well on my husband’s bike.

Things That Can’t Be Carried on a Bike

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….I follow a blog Urban Simplicity that regularly posts Things That Can Be Carried on a Bike

Well last week we discovered something that definitely doesn’t travel well on a bike. As you may know it was my birthday and my husband was in charge of the meal and the birthday cake.

The meal was a fantastic five course Indian spread that K made completely from scratch. It was fabulous and there was enough left over for another meal for two. The only problem was with the cake. My husband is also a good baker but time ran out so he rode his bike to the local Italian bakery to buy a German Black Forest cake. I know….Indian, Italian, German?

Anyway San Remo makes wonderful birthday cakes and it’s always our go to place when we don’t have time to bake. K didn’t think carrying the cake would be problem because he has a flat carrier on the front of his bike and he was able to strap it in place so it wouldn’t slide around.

I guess the ride must have been a little (or a lot) bumpy because when he got home and opened the box this is what he saw:

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As you can see he was a little embarrassed. No need. It was delicious just the same.

Have you experienced anything that CAN’T be carried on a bike?

Girls’ Night Out at the CNE

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….the Canadian National Exhibition is one of the biggest and oldest fairs in Canada

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Last evening my three girls and I paid a visit to the CNE. I’ve been going to this fair since I was a little girl. As a teenager it was one of my favourite events of the summer even if it did mean that school was about to start. The fair runs for 2 1/2 weeks at the end of August through to Labour Day.

The Food Building was always a highlight of our visit but it has changed considerably over the years. There was a time when you could fill up on samples alone and take home great bargains. Now it’s more about the outrageous meals that one can purchase. One of the big draws this year was the Thanksgiving Waffle. If you’re thinking turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberries you’d be right and all wrapped in a waffle made with mashed potatoes and topped with more gravy. Sounds pretty disgusting but it was actually quite tasty. Both G and J each bought one but it was so large that the four of us shared them.

After our somewhat unhealthy dinner we walked along the midway and played a few games of chance. Whack-a-Mole is one of my favourite games but none of us won a prize this year. We also went to the Farm building and took in the butter sculptures and enjoyed learning about farm animals. My favourites were the turkey and the piglets.

After three hours we called it a night and headed back out through the Dufferin gates. Luckily the entrance fee is greatly reduced after 5:00 pm and we found parking on the street so the entire evening was relatively inexpensive. Until this time next year my CNE experience is over.

Cheers!

Mystery of the Fallen Bird Feeder

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….the hummingbird feeders are often empty after I’ve been away for a few days but I’ve never seen them on the ground

When we arrived at the cottage last weekend I found one of the hummingbird feeders lying on the forest floor and of course it was empty. In fact all the feeders were empty but the rest of them were still hanging where I left them.

I quickly filled all the feeders and rehung the fallen feeder. It wasn’t long before I discovered what caused the feeder to fall. I think the following photos are pretty self explanatory. Enjoy!

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Harvesting the Garden – Part 2

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….all summer we’ve been enjoying lettuce, beans and zucchini from the garden

On Sunday we started to harvest our root vegetables from our boxes. We were pleasantly surprised at how well our carrots have grown. We planted red, orange, yellow and white carrots. The red ones we discovered are orange inside so if you scrape them they don’t look any different from the orange variety. IMG_0201

We’ve been pulling the beets for a couple of weeks but we had a few left so out they came along with the the few red onions that we had planted. I’ve been roasting the beets in the skins until they’re tender. Then the skin just pops off when cool enough to handle. I slice them, sprinkle a little vinegar on them to refresh them and when we’re ready to eat them we drizzle olive oil on them and season with a little salt and pepper. Delicious!

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Now we have cabbage, Brussels sprouts and Jerusalem artichokes left in the garden along with a few more carrots. I think the zucchini is done for the year and we uprooted our pea and bean plants. We may throw in a few more bean seeds and see what happens. If we have a warm autumn we might get another bean crop.

Cheers!