Green Wellies

Round and round

ROUND ONE: It rained heavily all day, so I couldn't go out and play in the garden.  I decided to play in the kitchen instead.  Taking inspiration from Gwen, I made paneer, a firm Indian cheese.  Breaking with tradition and wanting an excuse to use chives that are growing in leaps and bounds, I added some to the milk just before it reached a boil and ended up with chive paneer.  Instead of a perfect round, mine looks more like a hat...it took on the shape of the colander and cloth as it was draining...

ROUND TWO: I found a few more pieces of beach glass to add to my bowl of fragile hearts...

ROUND THREE: Even though I've lugged home tons of rocks, there's always certain ones that call out to me and find their way into my pockets...

And not round, but worthy of a haiku...

heart rock on the sand

the beach wears you on its sleeve

shaped by tossing waves

Time marches on...

February was another very busy month.  Two weeks ago, I spent four days helping my sister move into her new home.  After an agonizing few months, she was left with no choice but to find a place for herself and the three remaining kids still living with her.  The family is thrilled to pieces that she's heading out on a new path in life and was able to buy this home sweet home to call her own...

Three rental truck loads, much heavy lifting, heaving, hauling and moving things into place, she was ready to start anew.  Congratulations and more power to you, dear sis...

While much of eastern Canada is blanketed by yet another snowstorm...

this is what I saw outside my back door this morning...

After a long wet winter, finally, purple shades of things to come.  Spring is just around the corner!

P.S. Thanks to my brother, Phil, and my dear sister-in-law, Janet, for the use of the great bird nests' bouquet in the snow.

Hmmmm...

I borrowed a page from Leslie's blog and took the book quiz to help me figure out what I'm on about half the time and it didn't help matters much at all.  Now I'm more confused than ever and wondering if a crazy old man might come into my life...I think I'd like the ring and could pass on the haggard part, but I won't be following him into the wilds...there's bear in them thar hills!  The furry person that I apparently am, is probably due to the fact that I need to shave my legs.  Tea, anyone?

You're The Hobbit!
by J.R.R. Tolkien
All you wanted was a nice cup of tea when some haggard crazy old man came into your life and told you it was time to do something with yourself. Now you're all conflicted about whether to stick with your stay-at-home lifestyle or follow this crazy person into the wild. While you're very short and a little furry, you seem to be surrounded by an even greater quantity of short folks lately. Try not to lose your ring, but keep its value in perspective!
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

A waitiing game called before and after...

Today marks the second anniversary of the day I went to Vancouver to pick up Casper, my rescue dog.  He almost didn't make it out of the facility in Louisiana in time and hence his name...he came about as close to being a ghost as a dog could possibly get.  He has been the most loving companion, full of tricks that make me laugh out loud and is a kind and gentle soul.  We were just meant to be together.  I'm grateful each and every day that the universe saw fit to send me my little shadow dog.  He went from this at the facility...before:

To the running, swimming, log-climbing, hugging, car-riding, float plane-flying, beach-walking, healthy terrier that I have the pleasure to live with now...after:

The spring rains and now lately the sunny days meant that the rhubarb patch went from this...before:

To a fresh batch of bottled rhubarb nectar, pink and pretty and waiting to be sipped on a hot day...after:

 

And with such a cool, wet spring and beach cabin fever reaching a peak, it has taken ages for the front garden to go from this...before:

To gradually blossoming into a delightful oasis by the sea...after:

 

Patience is a virtue and not one of my strong points, but some things are just worth the wait and are worth their weight in gold.

* with thanks to Leslie for the great 'after' photo of Casper

Gathering eggs...

To those of you who observe Easter, I wish you a wonderful celebration and to those of you who don't, I wish you a happy spring weekend.  Follow life's path with joy in your heart and gratitude in your soul and if you want, gather all of your eggs in one basket.

* egg made using a photograph of my rug with the pattern of the labyrinth from Chartres cathedral

Holey moley...

For almost three years now, if I didn't have my green wellies on, I was wearing my pink holey soles.  Holey Soles were the originals...then along came Crocs and other copycat brands.  I vowed to stay true to Holey Soles...they've worked in the garden, tramped through the woods and marched the beach with me.  It's like having a marshmallow on each foot.  They are that light.  The little bumps on the inside massage your feet, sand and waves don't bother them a bit and they wash up in the kitchen sink.  Oh, but then I spied Croc boots on Jenny's blog and truth be told, my resolve is slipping and my feet are wondering what it would be like to slip into a pair of these...

Cinderella may not have bothered with the glass slipper if she'd been wearing pink Croc boots in the scullery.

Just a walking in the rain...

One of these days it's going to stop raining and the sun is going to come out to play for weeks and weeks and so am I.  My green wellies are great, but even they need a bit of a break in the weather.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone...

...and to all a good night!

Random photographs...

Most of these photos have been posted on flickr, but with not too much happening these days while I wait patiently to work hand in hand with Mother Nature in the garden, I decided to pick a few at random and post them here...

Casper doesn't care what the season is or what the weather is like, as long as he can run the beach.

This glowing blue teapot is ready and waiting for the first family of wrens to come along and call it home sweet home.

Tai can't wait for the wrens to come along...or any other birds for that matter.

The snakes already call the rocks in this wall home and they drive Casper bonkers when they come out to sun themselves.

And then there's a sky like this one taken two days ago, with the promise of spring in the air and that makes me, Casper, the wrens, the cat and the snakes very, very happy.

* mama k, a contact on flickr, won the draw for the baby apron...thanks to all who showed an interest in it.  I'll look out for more!

Weird and maybe not even normal...

A dear friend and someone who taught with me for years and therefore knows me well, sent me this card (add frizzier hair, some wrinkles and a pair of glasses and it would even look a bit like me...or so I've been told).  About the same time, I received an email from another former staff member who wrote in part, "You always were a bit off the normal path."  I'm not sure after that intro, that I need bother with listing some weird things about myself, but I was tagged by my daughter, so here goes:

1.  I would rather scrounge, poke through the share shed at the town dump and haunt thrift shops, than go to malls or large retail stores...with IKEA being the exception.  Although with the company I keep online, I guess that's not so weird after all...there's several of us that think thrift shop treasures are the best thing since sliced bread.

2.  I would rather walk head down for miles on a beach, looking somewhat like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, collecting whatever has been tossed ashore, than spend time lying on a beach towel in the sun...I've tried that and I get restless within minutes and I'm up and off wandering again.  The dog likes the wandering better than the beach towel, too.

3.  I've never been fond of diamonds and have never owned one.  My father was a geologist and something that looked like a piece of glass to me, didn't quite stack up to the fossils, rocks and minerals he'd lug home.  I learned early on to see the magic in a trilobite or brachiopod.  But silver?  I love silver.

4.  I love meandering my way through old cemeteries, reading the inscriptions on stones and trying to decipher the stories and family histories that are written in rock.

5.  I use my whole cottage as my canvas and write on walls, tuck cards into every crack and crevice, put things up, take things down...all on a whim and have never followed decorating trends or had the need to keep up with the Jones', unless they shop at IKEA.

6.  I have about 30 thrifted teapots hanging from shrubs and tree branches in the garden in hopes that the wrens will nest there...in my defense, they're not all visible once the blooms and leaves appear (winter is another story) and without asking, my neighbours have snuck in and hung a few when I'm not looking.  It pays to have weird neighbours...you can spread the blame.

I'd tag six more people, but I think most of you have already shared your weird habits with us over the last few weeks.  In conclusion, we're just one large group of weird ladies, aren't we?  Thank goodness great minds think alike and we have each other to lean on!