Foto Friday

Hellooooooooo!

It's been a busy week and today is a catchup kind of a day. Since I last posted, which was a week ago today, I've helped a friend move, done a million or two things around the house, and then looked after my brother after cataract surgery which was a by-product of his surgery last year for a detached retina. He is doing well although he continues to have some vision problems. When he looks at something he sees some zigzag outlines with his left (bad) eye.

He thinks this may not go away and that it was caused by the original detached retina. Complications also include being far-sighted and having one eye that is distinctly worse than the other. After he heals up he will get different lenses in his glasses to try to improve his vision but the distortion may always remain. He's not entirely sure at this point that it's better to have distorted vision that has been made more clear or whether it was better when the distortion was a bit blurry. This is my brother who is an oil painter and teaches painting for a living. Yeah. To his credit he never complains and "seems" to have taken this major setback in stride though I'm sure he has had some dark moments when home alone.

One of my sisters also had eye surgery recently - she lives about a 4-5 hour drive away from me. She is being helped by her son and a few friends and seems to be making a brilliant recovery so far. She is able to email and go on facebook a few times a day to keep us updated.

My friend, Troy, moved back in with her mother for a number of reasons. She wants to be able to help care for her nephew who has leukemia. Due to his cancer treatment his pancreas has been damaged and he now also has Type 1 diabetes, permanently. He just turned 4. He has a 1 year old sister who has some vision problems and both parents, while gainfully employed, are near the end of their benefits and need at least one of them to go back to work. Tough situation. Troy's mom, the boy's grandmother has been doing a lot of babysitting to help them out. Troy wants to help out with care for the kids and financially if she can but her work contract is up at the end of May so she is also looking for work. She is 50 years old this year.

Sometimes life is really hard. I'm trying to appreciate my own good health and not take it for granted.

I am also checking my phone every hour or so as my sister-in-law's 95 year old mother is in palliative care in hospital and her death is imminent. My sister-in-law has been coping wonderfully but she's been at her mother's side for weeks now without respite. I worry that she'll get sick from the stress.

So there you have it...it's a time for caring for family and friends. On the bright side my sister and her husband who live in PEI  are coming to visit family and friends in Ontario starting next week. They will arrive at my house next Thursday. I think she picked a good time to visit!

The kitties are well and are having a restorative nap as I type :) and Kazi is in Detroit to watch some season opening baseball - yes, she took her heavy duty winter coat, hat, boots, scarf, mittens etc as it looks like it may be the coldest start ever to the baseball season! (Yuck!)

So....what are the pictures from one year ago today?

I was walking the track at the BMO centre (I haven't been there one single time this year!)

I spied some strange creature emerging from the bathroom vanity.... looks like a black widow!!??

....but thankfully NOT...it turned out to be my daughter's hair extensions...

...which motivated me to clean out said vanity, install some new shelf liner and a shelf...

 ....MUCH better!

 Must go - have some activist work to do (a sit-in at our local MP's office!) and the sun is trying to peek out after a week of absolute gloom and torrential rain and snow.

See you again soon!

Foto Friday

One year ago today in pictures....

IT SNOWED!! 
And we might get some snow tomorrow...boo...hiss...!

And because everything I do is so fascinating the kitties watched me while I took some "snow" photos.

The other exciting event from one year ago...using my super duper spiralizer to make zucchini spaghetti! Yum! (NO green outside but plenty of green inside!)

"Alfredo" sauce made from cashews - soooooo good!

This is a really great taste combination!

Topped off with fresh grated pepper - bon appetit!

Happy weekend everyone!! Got any spring-related plans?

Real Food - Baking

I don't think it stopped raining all day! My dear child was off work today with fever, chills, cough and a host of other yucky symptoms so I had a "mothering" kind of day. You know what I mean, making hot lemon and honey drinks, cups of ginger tea, chicken noodle soup...the usual drill. Then she was looking for snacks (funny that she NEVER loses her appetite when she's sick!) but I don't really keep any snacks around, not the kind she likes anyway.

So that got me to thinking...what could I bake that would be considered REAL food?  I got out my recipe box and found my recipe for oat scones. I've made these buttery oaty morsels hundreds of times but now I looked at the ingredients with an eye to making healthier choices.

Butter - good (thank God!!!) though I need to look for organic butter
Egg - good (am buying Omega 3 eggs)
Milk - ok but I tried switching it up with organic coconut milk as it is so delicious.
Oats - large oats as they are gluten-free
All Purpose Flour - nope, don't want to use over processed refined flour. I have a lot of different flours that I buy at the Bulk Barn to use in my bread machine (that I never use but hope to soon). So instead of white flour I used whole wheat flour and 12 grain flour.
Brown Sugar - not a real food. Does anyone know if you can swap out brown sugar/refined white sugar with an equal amount of maple syrup or honey? With the first being a dry ingredient and the other being wet I didn't know what to do. I had a package of raw sugar so I went with that.
Baking Powder - not sure if there is a substitute for this, or an organic option. What is it made from anyways??
Salt
Raisins/currants

They turned out really really really good!
Very dense with the flour choices - a very oaty nutty flavour. I used a mixture of raisins, dried cranberries and currants.

I slathered on a little butter, let it melt and drizzled on a bit of honey. Delicious! Oh, and Kazi liked them too!

The Bridge to Nowhere

SUNDAY was a bloody brilliant day. Since then the weather has been nothing to talk about... so...back to Sunday! Sunny + warm = hiking in Kilally Meadows!

Hey...I thought these guys were nocturnal?!

I'm further away than it seems - thank goodness for the zoom lens! Who can blame her for wanting to enjoy the sunshine!?

No leaves in sight yet, but it won't be too much longer til it's all GREEN! 

It wasn't too muddy considering all the rain we've had.

The artsy shot...

 I love these trees - they make excellent landmarks when I'm going in circles :)

Won't be crossing the bridge today - it's the Bridge to Nowhere. You can see by all the gunk that the river has been extremely high this spring.

  On my return trip I went off-trail for awhile and came across a deer carcass.

I guess there really are coyotes in here!

 I'll be glad when the flooding recedes - there are large parts of the trails I can't access.

Finally... I have a little miracle to share with you! After my hike I got together with a couple friends for the 2nd potluck of the Easter long weekend. When I got home, around 11:30pm the thunderstorm had begun and continued ALL NIGHT and most of the next day. I went into my house and went through my various bags looking for my phone. I could remember putting it into my purse so where the heck was it?? I was able to message my friend (using my iPad) whose house we were at and she looked and looked and called and called but it wasn't there or in my house. So I ran out into the rain and looked in the truck - nothing. There was nothing else I could do til daylight so I went to bed.

The next morning as I'm pulling up my blinds I look out toward my truck and see my turquoise phone case. It's been in the parking lot all night during a torrential rain storm. I didn't hold out much hope for it working, but once we buried Kazi's Macpro in rice after she spilled water on it and it worked!

So I grabbed the container of rice and buried my phone in it. Kazi said to leave it for at least 24 hours (the rice absorbs the moisture). Lo and behold it magically turned on. Now that is a true miracle. Yes, it's an iPhone, and seems to be extremely waterproof! Phew!

Eggs are Real FOOD!!

...except for the chocolate kind.....nuff said.

I finished painting the second of 2 shelves in the kitchen though it wasn't easy. When Luna fixates on something she can be very very stubborn. She was bound and determined to jump on and off each section that I painted which led to...

...me having to chase her around to clean her paw pads and then clean the floor. The photo below shows only one painty pad belonging to Lily. She's a little more tentative than Luna - she put one front paw on a wet shelf, didn't like it, and ran off. It took me a little while to learn my lesson but I think I've got it figured out now. Put kitties in the basement when painting....

That was Wednesday. On Thursday I had SO MUCH FUN!! I still had over $200 left for March so I set out to do some shopping!  I felt I could do better in this little area by the front door than this "Welcome" chicken and small shelf for our keys. So...I went looking...

 ...and found this at Michael's craft store. I added the decorative hooks for our keys...

...and I also added a "boat's wheel" door knocker that had been on our front door when I was a kid. My dad was in the navy and combined ops during WW11 and this was his door knocker though I don't know where he got it from.

...and yesterday my friend Troy gave me some wind chimes so they're hanging there until I can get outside again.

My other purchase at Michael's was a new spring wreath for the front door - I had a 30% off coupon plus my senior's discount - isn't it pretty? I love pansies!

Then I went on a little spree at my local thrift shop where I found this letter "H" which I am going to paint and then attach to the top of my new key rack.  (H for Harrison)

After organizing our coats, hats, scarves, gloves etc on the coat tree in the freshly painted nook at the bottom of the stairs I had a few odds and sods that didn't fit in the boxes. So I went to Talize hoping to find a nice basket for the coat closet to hold the leftovers. And I did! This one is Luna approved!

Great fit!

Among other Talize finds... a napkin holder... (Lily approved)...

...and this antique iron hook - I haven't figured out where to put it yet but I NEEDED it!

I also went to the wine store :) and the grocery store. I used a bunch of my President's Choice points and ended up paying only $20 for Easter groceries! I purchased wine for two potluck suppers I was attending over the long weekend along with pumpernickel bread/spinach dip, and Thai food for the other potluck. I still ended up having money leftover which went into my small emergency fund that I keep hidden away here at home.

The $3.00 kitten bed I purchased at Dollarama continues to be THE PLACE for naps. Sometimes they both squeeze in and sometimes one lays on top of the other. If neither of those options work then even snuggling up to the outside of the bed with one's head hanging on the inside is preferable than NO kitty bed at all. They are quite obsessed with it - once in they stay in all day!!

We're in...I think...

Face to face.

Don't even think about saying anything about my butt!

 

Get off my larynx!

When you can't be IN you can at least be close!

I hope your Easter was a happy one! And that you did better resisting all the chocolate than I did. I had a fabulous hike yesterday - it was sunny and +17c - just delightful. Then by about 10pm it started to thunderstorm - it was WILD!! And today it's cold again, more rain, a bit of snow - blechhh! Large pools of water are everywhere as the earth can't absorb any more. Alright, quit already!!