one of the gifts I received for my retirement was a gift certificate to Black Market Provisions…
a few days ago I ordered one of their Care Packages… it arrived right at supper time the next day and included the most delicious salad with beets, goat cheese, chicken, and greens… I also enjoyed some garlicky bagel crisps…
there were a few frozen items, more crackers and some delicious looking cookies…
our BS group met for dinner in the garden to celebrate a birthday…
I spent a good portion of the day ensuring that there were enough chairs available and physically distanced… it was very warm and the sun was shining in most of the garden…
in the end, we ate on the deck as it was shaded, lol… had dinner and dessert delivered and it was tasty…
after dinner we moved to the garden and carried on our visit…
took a very distanced photo as we usually commemorate special times together and I used my phone as the remote to take the shot…
although we video call each Monday night it was lovely to be together again in person…
for five days I have been fed by others… what a wonderful treat… the majority of time I am fine with cooking, but some days I particularly miss my beloved, because he would often take a turn preparing our food…
the variety and complexity of meals was amazing… we had crepes, with freshly made blueberry sauce; spatchcock chicken with potato salad, pan stuffing and green beans; sausages and toast; hot dogs with onions; steak, baked potatoes and salad; bacon, eggs and toast; pork tenderloin, rice and roasted cauliflower; homemade enchiladas with guacamole and homemade sour cream; and the most tasty almond bars and Rice Krispie squares… plus many snacks…
my friends are both excellent cooks and they had nearly as much fun preparing the food as we had eating it…
my contribution was dishwashing, lol… and they use Dawn, which makes bubbles if you squeeze it;-), which I did, numerous times… I may have to switch to Dawn because the bubbles bring me such happiness…
I am glad to do dishes because it doesn’t involve any complicated activity and saves the cooks from cleanup after all their work to produce a meal;-)…
spent most of the day in the garden, watching squirrels, chickadees, butterflies and goldfish…
watched a little red squirrel make hundreds of trips across the upper deck to collect sunflowers for its stash… saw the frog and a purple house finch, read and napped in the garden…
brought out some of the flowers I received yesterday to enjoy…
so happy to have this space to entertain and was pleased to have visitors from out of town… enjoyed steak and lobster for dinner and some quiet late night star gazing…
we were quite late in eating and I giggled a bit when I realized that I didn’t remember to take a picture of my supper…
my youngest grandson and I spent a few days together… it was lovely as we don’t get to spend the amount of one-on-one time that I have with the other boys…
we did a few chores around the garden and spent a great amount of time with the monarch butterflies…
we planned meals, watched the fish, birds and squirrels, and talked about life… he was even happy to take a selfie with me;-)…
we made stuffing muffins (chicken stuffing put into muffin pans), one of his favourites, lol… we had chicken and mashed potatoes for our supper to go along with the muffins… we made twice stuffed potatoes for our second supper and he reminded me to put in green onions as he likes the flavour they add to food now…
we watched the space station fly over from the hot tub…
we slept out on the decks… he thought it was a very funny thing to do, but got right into it, bringing out his comforter, a blanket and pillows;-)… I slept in the gravity chair, which wasn’t as comfortable as the lounger I normally use…
he played games with his friends on his phone and watched tv shows when it was too hot (and maybe boring) for him outside…
how wonderful it was for me to have these special moments with this young man;-)…
I’ve been talking with the squirrels a lot lately… I’ve put a small table under the bird feeder and have been putting seed out every morning and explaining to whichever one comes around that the food on the table is for them and the feeder is for the birds…
sometimes it takes quite a few conversations… other times it feels like they get it, lol…
as I’ve mentioned previously there are many squirrels that come into the garden… I haven’t decided whether the gray squirrels or the red squirrels understand better…
my middle grandson was dropped off to mow the grass and do a few other pieces of work for me…
he mowed, whipper snipped, pulled weeds, moved furniture and the new umbrella, filled bird/squirrel feeders, and cleaned up patio stones…
it was a hot day for digging around the stones, but it looks so much better… still have more to do the next time he is here… he is a lovely young man and I enjoy the time we have together;-)…
the front yard and garden look tidy and fresh… I sat out for a while after he left but then came in as rain appeared to be on the way and arrived with thunder and lightning…
a most amazing woman brought Captain’s Table fish and chips over (one of my favourites) for supper and we ate inside… the downpour had finally stopped, but it was cool outside… eventually we were able to take a tour of the garden and visit on the deck…
I am so blessed with all the special people who are, and have been, in my life…
yesterday I finally got around to making rhubarb scones…
I’ve had the recipe for a few weeks but it has been too hot to make them…
I was especially interested as the recipe used canola oil instead of butter… I wondered if they would end up being dense and heavy, but they turned out light and fluffy and very tasty…
they may have been the best scones I’ve made;-)…
and were delicious warm with pro-activ on them… I think they would also be great with warm cheese on them;-)…
as I still had to plant the last few alyssum and couldn’t find a container I liked, I decided to brave the shed and choose something from in there… it is a mess and needs someone to clean and tidy it up and that would have been something he would have done, likely tossing things I thought we should keep and keeping things I thought were junk, lol…
anyway, I moved the recycling bin and opened the door… it seemed to catch on the Virginia creeper, which needs to be trimmed, and I was waving the vines away from my head when I heard lots of buzzing… and as I looked up I spotted many wasps flying around my head… I stepped back and saw a softball sized nest on the inside of the door…
lucky for me, I wasn’t stung… yikes…
my beloved would have sorted that nest out no problem… I found spray in the house, consulted with my son-in-law on the best time to use it, but can’t yet as it is too windy… guess that door is going to stay open until tomorrow, lol…
I moved away and found a container in the garage and finished the last bit of planting…
for my lunch I had leftover pork and beans and because it was so hot, ate them cold… he often ate them that way… the other way he liked them was warmed up with a fried egg on top, euuuwwww…
three things caused problems on Saturday… the sink leaked, the internet stopped working, and my tv lost its signal…
made me rather grumpy, particularly as I was trying to help someone with something online…
today my son-in-law and grandsons came over for supper and for the middle one to mow my grass… he also moved and filled all the bird feeders…
while they were here my son-in-law fixed three things, which made me very happy…
he installed a new pump and got the waterfall running… he fixed the small pump in the garage pond and it is running beautifully… and he figured out the problem with my sink and got it working… what a treat…
