a week or so ago, I cleaned all of the various bits and pieces off the front of the fridge…
put the container with the 24 magnets on it ready for Advent… my daughter sent them to me years ago… they covered two muffin tins and each held a tiny treat as they were opened daily during Advent…
then I put them away carefully🤪… and I didn’t find them until last year, lol… I am happy to use them this year, especially as I still knew where they were…
I think I might start with the 24th and then count back until Christmas;-)…
the garden looked so beautiful after the snow on Friday…
of course it always looks beautiful as long as you don’t have to go out into it, lol…
I had taken out the garbage bin on Thursday, even though the pickup day had moved because of Remembrance Day… I didn’t want to struggle with the snow that was coming…
good thing I did that… a lot of snow came down… the pickup ended up being on Saturday, but I didn’t have my grandson bring it in while he was here shovelling…
this morning I went out and shovelled my way to the back gate so I could bring the bin back in…
shovelling was easier and I left the garbage bin just under the cedars so it won’t get too much snow on it… I followed the path that the bunnies had made so that there should be less drifting… except I ended up with my head in the branches…
many in my family have served… both my parents, my father-in-law, uncles and my son-in-law… as I watched the service on Parliament Hill, as I have done for many years, I was remembering the sacrifices made by Canadians to make my life safe…
last year I put my poppy on the door as I didn’t leave the house at all…
this year I’ve worn it a few times when I’ve been outside…
I have been working on the fish condo for weeks now… spent a good portion of a day cleaning the fish tank… lots of scrubbing and emptying…
I researched a second tank and we went out and got the tank and two pumps so that they were on the ends as opposed to the back of the tanks…
after numerous measurements, we set the new tank up on the counter along the North wall of the dining room… then the bottom was filled with rocks and water and the new pump set up… this tank will be for the baby fish as the other tank won’t be able to hold all of the fish…
I worked with my grandson and we were able to move the big tank to the spot beside the small tank… it looks good there and it almost appears like one single very long tank…
after putting river rocks in it, I ran the hose from the outside tap through the house and was able to fill it up in nine minutes… it probably took me that long to fill the small one as I used a pail and walked back and forth to the kitchen sink for that one, lol…
had a bit of an issue with the pump as there wasn’t quite enough room in the large tank for it on the edge, but we were able to remove a piece of plastic and now it fits perfectly…
once the water was in and circulating for a few days we began catching the fish… we have been at it for quite a while… we started on October 22nd and today I think we caught the last one… I had to break ice for the last few collections, lol…
it was quite a process because since about the middle of October the water has been brown as leaves have fallen into it so it has made spotting fish difficult…
we also brought in some of the water lilies, which hopefully will survive until next spring when they can go back into the pond…
the tanks look great and I am pleased with all of our work…
cooked a very large turkey for our Thanksgiving supper… worked out well, as it meant there were lots of leftovers to have… the kids even brought containers to put them into, lol…
I roasted the turkey in my parents’ WearEver roaster which hasn’t been used for many years as we haven’t had a large bird…
it brought back many wonderful memories of meals with my family…
after dinner I started soup in the roaster because there were so many bones, lol…
finished it up with vegetables, barley, and more turkey… got the soup into containers and they are in the fridge ready for the kids to pick up… they enjoy homemade soup;-)…
since then I’ve had many meals from that dinner, including turkey and dumplings with my mom’s dumpling recipe;-)…
brought the firepit onto the deck and have used it a couple of times already…
on Monday we sat around it before and after our dinner… even the dog enjoyed it…
Tuesday, my regular group sat around it in the afternoon as we met on the deck… we also had blankets if required as the temperature was around plus 10 Celsius… but it warmed us up a little and made us feel cozy… I enjoyed it as I awaited their arrival…
I’ve left it on the deck and think I might use it more there… will see how it goes when the rain stops, lol…
decided to make a vegetable terrine for our dinner…
I thought I had the recipe in my cookbook, but not so much…
it had come from an old Company’s Coming cookbook… I am sure I photographed the recipe before giving the cookbooks away… unfortunately, I didn’t mark them as recipes and had no idea when I gave them away, lol…
I had looked online at various recipes, but none of them were even close…
I checked the computer, contacted my sister-in-law and even called the Company’s Coming company…
the person on the other end of the phone was very helpful… I was wanting to know which book the recipe was in so that I could order it online… once she knew what I was looking for she hung up and started searching… she called back within a few hours to let me know which book it was in, but that the book was no longer sold, and that the recipe wasn’t in any of the new books…
finally my sister-in-law sent me a text with a photo of a handwritten copy of the recipe…
yay, made it and enjoyed it with dinner… lots of memories…
I’ve been thinking about the opportunities I’ve had to visit and spend time with family and friends…
one of the things I always do is wash up after meals… it started when I would visit my daughter wherever she lived… she has never liked doing dishes so it was a simple thing to do in appreciation for my time there…
whenever I have been camping with the kids, particularly when the boys were little, I would wash and have one of them dry… it was a great way to have one-on-one time and also get the job done quickly…
now, if I am visiting with friends at their cottages, it is one thing that I can do to be helpful…
one of my grandsons took this photo while we were camping this summer;-)…
