Friday, December 26, 2014

My old favorite brand of tea was the only one tested with 0% pesticide residue!!! I'm baaaack.


Good old Red Rose was the tea my beautiful Grandmother drank every day. She would make us cups of sweet creamy tea. I must have been about 7 when we started drinking tea together. I drank Red Rose until my forties then switched to herbal teas for the health benefits. After two decades of drinking Celestial Seasonings {organic and fair trade} they were sited by the FDA for having over the legal limits of pesticides. REALLY!! So I started making my own organic herbal teas. Then I saw a report that when teas were tested in Canada, the only one that contained 0% pesticides was....that's right, Red Rose Tea. So I'm back. Yummmm. I've missed it. 

I just love this old masher.

I don't remember who originally gave me this wonderful old potato masher. I love it. I confess I used to put it in the dishwasher before I realised how evil they are for precious old Pyrex, so now I always hand wash it. This is the masher drying out after mashing a Stock Pot of mashed potatoes Christmas Day.



How do we fit in 12 for Christmas Dinner?

We have a small house. But the one thing we have is lots of....chairs.....oh and wine glasses. Look, we had sunshine on Christmas Day.


We used our everyday table. Then we set up two more six foot tables. It was so fun. The tables went through our little dining room and right into the living room. Which meant we had to scootch the couch right up to our front window. We were actually laughing at it. 


Here is Allan on the couch in our three foot living room. 


Lit up the Shaw Fireplace channel. Turned on the music. 




David Winter cottages. Love them. 


And Ivy enjoying the new cat toys with catnip. Thank you grandma and auntie. 

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Look what my mother gave me for an 'open early' present.

When I was a kid in the late 50's and 60's...it seemed every house had these at Christmas. 


It is called a bottle brush wreath. I cannot believe my mom found this. Both my sister and I have been keeping our eyes open for them. My mom has a gift...that gift is finding things at thrift shops that us mere mortals never find. Thank you Mom. 


Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Making the cranberry sauce tonight.

 
Measuring cranberries, OJ, cane sugar and Grand Marnier.
 
 
Heating OJ and sugar.
 
 
Add cranberries and cook.
 
 
It smelled just like jam making in the kitchen tonight.
 
 
Buzz it up real good!!
 
 
Cooling in the fridge. Yummmmm.

 

Monday, December 22, 2014

A VERY cool thrift shop find!


Sidney, where I live, is a thrift shop town. I don't even know how many there are. Anyway, there is one that I like and go into now and again to peruse. Today I spotted this casserole dish(?) soufflé dish in the window. I loved the stripes. I thought it would look really cool with buns in it!!



I flipped it over and almost fell over. T.G. Green. IT'S T.G. GREEN. Remember my beloved Gripstand Bowl story....no?....here's a link. And that is why I was so excited to find it. My sister said it looked like a farmhouse dish. Thank you Jess!!



Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Silver polishing can be therapeutic...and has nothing to do with gardening

Of course at this time of year there is no gardening going on here. So, just to keep things interesting for you, I may do some totally random posts during garden downtime. Tonight I made soy tealights for the store but last night I polished silver. Hadn't done it for years. It felt really good to be polishing off black tarnish and seeing it shine. I found it very relaxing. Enjoy.






This little dish and silverware set belong to my son Noel. He is 33 now so it was especially nostalgic to be polishing his little baby sized pieces. I had completely forgotten that I had his initials engraved into the end of each. If you look close you can see the NG. We had a wonderful silver company in Victoria called Jefferies. They did it for me. 

The evil squirrel is back

I have no idea why it is so hard to photograph a hole dug in wood chips and manure. I got up today to see the full side of my strawberry bed dug down about eight inches deep. Little bugger.

Hole under the plum.

Another angle of the trough dug by the strawberries. Can't see it in this picture either. Oh well, I tried. 

I have taken down the bird feeder and will be moving it up to the house. He will no doubt figure it out eventually...but until then. Mwa ha ha ha.

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

The most beautiful bee hive/box I've ever seen.


I am just stunned by the beauty of this bee hive. I mean...you would almost want to keep it in the house as a piece of art. See what they do at Eco Bee Box. Amazing. 

Monday, December 08, 2014

Annnnnd, this must be why people don't like squirrels in the garden

I never understood why people don't love squirrels. They are so cute...so adorable...so destructive? Our first grey squirrel has been loving the sunflower seeds I put out for the bigger birds. He is pudgy and happy. Until today. I went out and found this:

There are holes all around my greenhouse, about 6" apart.

Close up. They are quite deep and stirring up my Back to Eden layers.

This is part of the new garden. The garden I've wrecked my shoulder smoothing out these layers to perfection. {it is on the mend but taking forever} These holes are all over both back yards but worse next door. 

So, for now, the feeder is sitting on the counter. 

Am I wrong to blame the squirrel? I have not seen him doing this. It would NOT hold up in court as it's purely circumstantial. Can anyone confirm that it is indeed squirrel mayhem?

PS...he will not be harmed, I'm just removing his food and hoping he moves on before he finds my bulbs. 

Thursday, December 04, 2014

Now that is a vegetable garden!!

Every now and then you see a garden that just...well...takes your breath away. I just love the pumpkins curing. This is at the Chateau de Villandry.


Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Decorating day 2. The tree is done and most of the decorating done.

Getting myself fuelled up for a tough day decorating. Hahaha.
 
 
My grandmothers sideboard. Snowbabies and Mercury glass.
 
The tree
 
My David Winter cottages. They are from the Dickens series.
 
Close up of some of the ornaments.
 
Ornaments. The Wedgwood ornament is the newest on the tree. I have been collecting ornaments for over 40 years.
 
It is a bit hard to see, but to the right is Allan's rocking horse. He calls it Dobbin. It's from 1978.

 

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Day one of two. The tree is partially decorated...about half done.

Five Rubbermaid's hold my ornaments. One not pictured is a HUGE red and green one. Perfect hey?!

Everything is wrapped in tissue. I pile it up on the couch and this is where I found Cassie. Awwww.

Joined shortly after by her daughters Emma and Elie.

This very special German glass ornament was my parents from the 50's.

So was this one.

And this one.

This is a crazy whimsical glass zebra.

My 33 year old son Noel's, Baby's First Christmas ornament. 

Tree about half done. Just ornaments at this point. This is a picture with the flash.

And no flash. Looks a little better I think. I will take some lovely pictures tomorrow when I'm finished.