Spinat Auflauf

For some reason I decided to spend waaay more time in the kitchen than I probably needed to. BUT I made spinach auflauf, something that evokes childhood memories!

First you cook up a white sauce:

Then you chop up fresh spinach, blanched of course:

Doesn't that just look yummy?! I love the color of fresh blanched spinach.

Combine with the white sauce.

I could have saved tons of time and all these dishes if I had just used frozen chopped spinach. Next time ...

Then you make the pancakes:

Flour, salt, eggs, milk and water whipped up to this:

You have to fry up the pancakes in a bit of oil, every single one - otherwise it's just not right.

And when it's all baked up it looks like this:

Mmmmmm ... yummy.

I also made a strawberry rhubarb dessert type of thing that turned out delicious.

That's enough for one day. Started a new book, "Left Behind in a Megachurch World". Interesting!

More Gardening & Tessie

Well, we just can't seem to get enough of working in the yard. Ralph and Stephen started working on the other portions of our brick wall in the backyard. Unfortunately I have no pictures of it - silly me! Will do that tomorrow. BUT it's starting to take shape, and in fact is nearly done - just needs to be filled in and then I can transplant my peonies and buy some ornamental grasses. I want to plant those alternately which I think will look pretty good. I will only have room for 3 peony plants and 2 grasses. Then Ralph will start working on the REST of the flower beds to the right of the existing cedar trees.

Thankfully the neighbour's maples are starting to leaf out and I think today's and the next few days' worth of warmer sunshiny weather will help them to pop out even more. I look forward to having a bit of a privacy blocker there again - lush and green all summer long and it also provides lots of shade in the mid- to late-afternoons. That helps quite a bit when it gets stinkin' hot around here.

There's just something really therapeutic about mucking around in the yard, digging in the compost, potting up plants, planting seeds, digging up stuff, gettin' your hands dirty - you know? I just LOVE it! If only I could have a proper vegetable garden! I'm still dreaming of building some raised beds so that I can grow proper pole beans, cucumbers, peas, potatoes and squashes. I splurged this year and bought a couple of currant bushes that are a cross between black currant and gooseberries! I know ... what am I thinking?! But THIS IS SO COOL! I just HAVE to try it!!!! I bought 2 and planted them on the side of the house and of course loaded up the flower beds with compost from our slowly-becoming-emptier compost bin behind the shed. Man, that bin is FULL! Or rather was full. Thankfully it's about 1/2 full now and the City has started picking up garden compost every 2nd week on garbage days so we don't have to put ALL of our grass into the compost bin.

Anyhoo - life is good. NO WORK = HAPPINESS!!! I could get used to this. I shall try not, repeat NOT to think about work until Monday morning when the alarm goes off!

Annnnnd ... reLAX!!!

On another note, Tessie is not doing so well - she has what the vet believes to be a partially torn ACL, great. That means surgery. OR, with any luck with a reduced activity schedule, no jumping up or down and some "Recovery" (glucosamine product) she will heal up but two weeks since the vet's visit she is actually worse than better despite less activity. Poor little puppy, she is not going for walks or anything. Right now she's sleeping in her little bed at my feet. I miss taking her for a walk. She'll get better eventually. That Recovery product sure is expensive.

I also bought some for myself (human formulation, of course) and am waiting for the Cancer Agency pharmacy to get back to me if I can even take this stuff while on tamoxifen. They probably won't call me back until early next week.

Oh well! I will wait. I need something for my joints - I feel bursitis settling in to my right hip now too. Ah, the joys of aging, but more on that another time. I close with a pic of me poking my head through the hole in the board while stopped at Falkland the other day.

Just got back from a 3-day visit with Greg & Carol in Sorrento. Had a great time. For some reason I ended up doing all the driving THERE and BACK as well as WHILE THERE! I don't mind driving actually - it helps me to stay calm by being somewhat in control.

We drove to Falkland among other places. Nice little place - very isolated though. Not sure I could live there with dial-up Internet!

Mom at the Cheese store in Armstrong - playing tourist!    

It feels so good to be away from work for a little while. I was sick once more in April - 3x in 12 weeks was more than I could handle and the last virus hit me so hard that I nearly despaired of ever being well again. Fortunately I DID get better again and life goes on.

A storm is brewing back at home.

Trees!

Finally we bought some cedar hedging and planted them in our "wall project" in the backyard. Time to block out the neighbours who love to criticize everything we do. I don't know why we didn't do this YEARS AGO!

The first of the trees are in! Stephen helped a lot - digging up the compost from the pile behind the shed, carrying the trees from the upper yard down to the lower portion and lifting them into place, which I could NEVER have done! We did this all on Easter Sunday! Of all days!

The last trees are going into place. Can't wait for them to grow together more and provide a real wall of living green privacy! 

It was a great workout for me! 

Ta-da!

LOVE IT! If only the weather would warm up now so that I can get out into the garden and weed those nasty dandelions outta there. Have to be patient - the warmer weather is coming eventually. 

Speaking of weather - here's a couple of shots of the hail we've had recently - typical April weather, remember the old adage, "April showers bring May flowers"?! 

But this was ridiculous!

Choir

Remember being in grade school and high school and singing in the school choir? Well, maybe not everyone was in choir - maybe the band, then?! Anyway, our little church choir is practicing 3 songs for Easter program. I haven't gone to the practice every single week because I'm just so wiped out by Friday evenings that I prefer sometimes to stay home and rest. But tonight I went and really enjoyed myself. I just love the songs that Ben picked out ... fairly simple ... wonderful tunes. I'm glad I went. Brings back memories of Dorothy Schafer directing the choir back in Grades 11 and 12 at FVAA. Wow - she whipped us into shape. We were so good in Gr. 11 especially as we had one very strong lead in each part. We did difficult songs too ... with Kraig at the piano, we couldn't go wrong. It was a great combination, the coming together of wonderful talent.

Busy week ... so glad it's the weekend. Look forward to getting mom & dad moved into their apartment. Can't wait, really! Then mom will have some peace again. I really hope it will be okay for her ... difficult to make a move like this at this age (76 and 86) but I really believe they will be happier in a smaller space with no stairs and a GORGEOUS view! We have a little bit more cleaning to do and replacing light fixtures, closet organizers and curtain rods and then it'll look great! Andrea & Clint are coming tomorrow which will be good for mom - it will help to keep her calm. She needs someone to unload to all the time. Sometime to hold her hand, really.

On another note - Spring is springing. It's cooler now than it was during the Olympics, but the trees are blooming and daffodils also. Grass is growing. In fact, we need to cut our lawn but it's been raining the last few days and so we just haven't gotten to it. Maybe this next week but when I look at the forecast I see nothing but clouds and showers.

Oh well!

We had a great time last Saturday night celebrating my good friend Shelley's 50th birthday - can't believe it will be my turn to do so next year. How did I get to be that old? I should be only 30. Silly! Shelley really is a great person and I enjoy her sense of humor and friendship! Love working with her too. Here she is at her desk - we made her wear a crown and hold a wand - she could make wishes come true ALL DAY LONG! And yes, she's holding a toilet paper roll doll that I created with the rolls that I've been saving for the past several months! And yes, I used duct tape to hold it together!

Calling it a day for now!

Assertiveness

When I get tired and feel mentally drained I'm not terribly good at being assertive - I'd rather suck it up and take it than make someone else feel bad and be upset with me.

Oh well!

I had to escape to the river today - forgot the dog's leash but that was okay. Tess loved it! She even tucked herself into some animal's den. We almost couldn't reach her little paw to pull her back out again - what was she thinking?! Instinct!

Lovely weather, spring is here, and the weekend - yay!

Spring already?

Work, work, work, work!

I think I've turned a corner in my mood swings caused by the tamoxifen. It feels as though my body has finally adjusted to the lack of estrogen flowing through it nowadays. Hot flashes are becoming less frequent the last few days. I'm more even keeled the last week than I have been in a very long time. I'm so glad! I'm starting to feel a little more like my old self again, and even better, really. Church was so awesome last Sabbath. We had communion. The place was packed with visitors and they all stayed by for the footwashing and emblems portion. It was such a spiritual experience. I have never had such a wonderful Communion service before. Tomorrow is potluck so I've fried up some patties (new recipe) and made a couple of cakes. I'll also still fry up some potatoes and cook up some veggies.

Not much else is new around here these days. Spring is nearly here. The first green leaves are beginning to emerge on the shrubs - hard to believe but winter has been so mild this year that I'm surprised the trees haven't started blooming yet. I suspect they will be in about 4 weeks - the first, earliest trees certainly will be. I see my rhubarb is also showing its red heads already and the 2 daffodils (yes, I have only TWO daffodils in my entire garden!) are already 5" tall.

And we're having the winter Olympics here in just 12 days?! Should be interesting to hear what the rest of the world thinks of our spring-like conditions!