Happy Saskatchewan Day!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I hope that those of you celebrating Saskatchewan Day or Civic Holiday as it is called in other parts of Canada had a BEST Day EVER!!!

No I have not fallen off the earth (it's not really flat!), just be super busy of late.

Today I had a Kathy kind of day.

Took doggie for a walk and then went out with my bike for a few miles. 

Watered my plants as it did not rain last night.  Super happy with my lily plants.  Bought these easy grow lily pots last year at Costco.  They were beautiful last year but I wondered if they would survive winter in the garage at just around the freezing temperature.  They DID:

Picked the cherry tomatoes off my deck planter.  One for the bowl, two for me kind of picking:

Baked a batch of Zucchini Brownies with a zucchini I had dropped off by a neighbour:

SOOOO Yummy.

Keeping with the baking I baked a double batch of Coconut Banana Bread and will drop one of these off for my next door neighbours:

Used up some of the veggies from the refrigerator and made nachos for lunch with a sour cream dip I made earlier in the week:

Bit of a different kind of lunch but will have left overs for lunch tomorrow.

Laundry and some house work this afternoon. 

Ran the park and hills with a friend this afternoon while pizza dough was rising.  Used up more refrigerator veggies including the last of the zucchini with fresh mozzarella:

Pizza sauce was homemade and in the freezer from an earlier batch.

Heavy rain hit at dinner time so lawn should be good for a few days now.

Will do a bit of knitting now before heading out with doggie.

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the BEST Day EVER Tuesday tomorrow.  Stay safe out there.😷

Kathy

Easter Saturday...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Busy and productive day despite being on Self Isolation.  We have not left the house other than to walk doggie since I got home from work on Thursday evening.

Made buttermilk pancakes for breakfast this morning.  We are still eating from the pantry.  I do get fresh fruit, veggies and milk once a week as those are staples in my world.  Whipped cream and Quebec Maple Syrup are staples from the refrigerator:

Took doggie for a walk around the park and lake while a batch of Easter Babka rose:

After lunch I baked it:

Had to sample some fresh out of the oven and it was delicious and really soft.  

On occasion I do cook a bit of meat and although it was Friday this was something kiddo wanted.  So, I made slow cooker short ribs with a mushroom cream sauce, shelled peas and carrots that were part of my fresh fruit and veggies this week, roasted garlic mashed potatoes with green onion topper:

After dinner I checked on my chive planter that has spent the entire winter on the patio against the house and........

SOOOOO excited!!!  This means that spring might actually be on the way!! 🌷

Spent a bit of time in my craft room this evening and put the second last border on my Lush Quilt.  There is another 8 1/2" border to be put on.....but I think I am going to leave it like this:

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the BEST Day EVER Easter tomorrow.  Stay safe out there.  

Kathy

Rest In Peace...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I always get to tell people that I have the BEST job EVER.  I get to be there for people in their time of need whether that be acute or chronic.  I get to learn about what makes each of them who they are.  One of my patient's over the years I have learned and heard about his love of gardening and been the recipient of many boxes of tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, cucumbers, dill and apples from his garden.  Every year he starts a ridiculous number of seedlings from the seeds that he harvests in the fall.  A few weeks back he brought in for me tomato and pepper seedlings.  Today I found out that he passed away suddenly the day after he dropped these off for me:😿

Guess I will be harvesting the seeds from these tomatoes and peppers this fall🍅🌶.

Took a bit of time to myself after doggie walk this evening in the craft room and made another of the 52 Week Block Challenge Red and White blocks:

TAH DAH!!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the 

BEST Day EVER Wednesday 🥳.

Kathy

Getting Ready....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Well, it's true.....the count down is on for Canada Day 150.  It has always been a dream of mine to attend Canada Day in Ottawa and on Parliament Hill and this year my son and I will be doing just that!  I am starting to get excited!  It has been almost a year in the planning ☺

Today I picked up and subsequently planted my Canadian Shield Rose:

This evening after all the household tasks were done I finished the first of the lattice socks that I made with the 7 stitch diamond shape on them.  Unfortunately, the pattern does not show up well under the photo flash, but trust me it is there!

This yarn colourway is named Alpine Meadow from Ancient Arts Yarn:

Now, I am going to try valiantly to complete the second one of these.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Whirlwind Sunday....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Well, my three day weekend is over and now back to work for 4 days, off for one and then evenings this weekend.  I can always account for my days yet always seem to wonder where the time goes.

This morning kiddo and I were up bright and early because we had to help his Boy Scouts group organize and inventory all of their equipment for the upcoming season.  I started a load of laundry before we left.

We returned home after lunch to carry on with the laundry (we were cold though cause it started to rain on us) and get ready for school and work this week.

First off because the weather seemed rather nasty outside I cut down all of my chive plant and chopped it up and put it in the oven at 170 F for two hours to dry:

All chopped and ready for the oven on top of a piece of brown paper.

Two hours later I have almost a cup of chopped dried chives.  These are now living in the freezer for use in cooking in the upcoming winter (which right now seems like tomorrow).

I decided that I better start working on some of the veggies from the haul last weekend so decided a quick way to get rid of lots in a hurry would be to make borscht:

We had some for dinner and will for lunch as well tomorrow.  The remainder has been packed into containers and is bound for the freezer as I really did not feel like starting the canning process late in the evening (today anyways).  

Nothing tastes better in my mind than soup with fresh bread so I made Oatmeal, Multi-grain, Whole Wheat bread:

YUM.  My favorite with butter!

For dessert I used the last of the fresh rhubarb from the refrigerator and made Rhubarb Crumble Pie:

I LOVE this dessert!!!  So Yummy!!!

Now of course in typical me fashion while all of this was going on laundry was not enough to keep me occupied so between loads and batches I also worked on:

Socks!  I wore my wool socks today and they were amazing as always; I was cold but my feet were not.   ☺

Thrum Mittens because it is getting cold out (as I have mentioned a few times....right?).

Both of these yarns are from my Yarn Crush/Sock Crush subscription boxes.  As I sat knitting these today I realized that part of what I love about these boxes is that the boxes only contain yarn from Indie Yarn Dyers!  As you likely know I love supporting small and local businesses and these boxes allow for me to expand my yarn intake more than I probably would on my own as right now I have 4 favorite Indie Dyers and pretty much always use these.

I will post more details later in the week about each of these, but for tonight I think I shall go to sleep.  It's been a long but very good day. ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What am I Doing Now???

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I went out over the weekend to the farm to my garden.  Not sure who had the brilliant idea to plant all those carrots, beets and potatoes but whomever it was was NUTS.  Now I know this is no where near the garden my mother used to plant.... but in my defense she fed five people; I feed two all the time, and three when hubby is home from camp so no real comparison.

Here is my version of a tailgate party for the September Long Weekend: 

There are carrots, beets, tri-colored carrots, onions, rhubarb, green, yellow and purple beans on the tailgate.  

Potatoes red and purple ( I do not grow white or yellow potatoes cause I just don't like them). ☺

I really wanted to leave the pumpkin until the weekend but was worried with the temperatures dropping something would happen to it and then I would be upset.  In perspective this pumpkin is larger than a gallon pail.

Tomatoes, red, purple and yellow!

This evening has been spent blanching the tri-colored carrots!

While the carrots are boiling and cooling I have started working on my latest knitting creation.

For the past 14+ days I have been driving the F 350 Super Duty Crew Cab with an 8' box as my daily vehicle.  This means that there is no heated underground parking garage for me when I arrive at work.  To park the truck I have to park almost 3 blocks away from work and walk.  Every morning it seems to be a little colder on my hands.  

Since I love knitting (it is still my favorite of all crafts and let's keep that in perspective I learned to knit when I was 8 years old and it is always part of my daily life) I decided it was time to knit myself a new pair of mittens.  My yarns are all from Indie Yarn Dyers.  There are so many fabulous yarn dyers here in Canada.  Just about the time I think I have found my FAVORITE yarn, I find another that I love just as much if not a little more.  I love being able to support these Indie artists and the work that they put into the wool that they choose and the dyeing process to get the unique one of a kind colors.  Most of the yarn that I use is wool, sometimes I will get a wool with a silk added to it.  It is rare for me to use commercially prepared yarns as I love natural fibers and the feel of true wool for my projects.  I also love these more natural wool yarns because I have a lot of allergies and skin sensitivities that are not affected by the yarns I get from Indie yarn dyers.  I always encourage people to try these not as processed wool yarns before they give up on wool because it is just so amazingly soft, comfortable and warm in winter.  ☺

Cast On and away I go!  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It's A Kathy Kind of Day...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Yes, I am still up and I started this day a little after 0600 hours this morning.  Starting to feel tired so might sleep more than four hours tonight.

I had big plans to get all my "stuff" done here in the city so that I could get out to the farm and get the rest of the vegetables out of the garden.  Before I could do that though I had dill and chives that I wanted to dry for use later.  Cucumbers, beets, carrots and beans to pickle.  Beans and carrots to blanch and freeze.  Zucchini shredded and in the freezer.  Beets, dill, beans and carrots to turn into borscht.  Laundry to do for back to school and work this week.  Pack up the stuff to go to the farm as well as food and clothes for over night.

Well, here it is late at night and all the veggies have been processed, the laundry is almost done and I am still home because that was a lot to do, and then it started to rain again...

Kiddo helped me make pickles (cause he loves them):

He helped wash and clean and prepare all the veggies.

He helped pack the jars:

The first batch into the canner.  In total we have 14 quarts of Dill Pickles!  YUM!

The first batch processed and starting the cooling process.

We were both tired after getting all of this done, Kiddo gave up on me shortly after lunch.  Now came the question of what to make for dinner!  I decided that tonight felt like a pizza night.

I made a batch of whole wheat basic dough.  It turned out fantastic!  Kiddo ate almost half of an 18" pizza!  Lots of veggies, beef and cheese.  

 One of the things that was on sale at Costco this week was a package of Fresh Mozzarella.  OMG on pizza this stuff is amazing!!!  I will definitely purchase this again.  Oh wait, have I ever turned down a cheese.....I'm thinking....... if I ever get an answer I will let you know.  Here's the pizza:

After dinner I sat down with Kiddo for a bit and we watched some tele and I knit a bit.  Then it was time to tidy up.  After all that I decided to finish the last load of laundry.  Since I was near my craft room I finished Block 3 of the Scandi 3 Quilt that I picked up recently:  

TAH DAH!  This is Block # 3.  

Here they all are together:

One more of this color to do and then I can move on to the next color.  In total I will make 25 blocks for this quilt.

I did take a few pictures today while doing this to explain cutting the diamonds and squaring up the blocks but right now I actually am tired so will head off to bed as soon as I get the next load of laundry underway!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It's Saturday!!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Today I had BIG plans to do nothing.  It was going to be a relaxing sleep in kind of Saturday.

Unfortunately the workers who are putting in the new gas lines were in my back yard at 0632 hours this morning.  Now I guess they did not start the jack hammers etc til 0805 but the trucks were outside running, they were planning their day, and unloading equipment and in general making a lot of noise at a very early hour.  I tried to go to sleep in another part of the house but that was no help.

After breakfast my son and I did some house work, then cut the grass, weeded the side gardens and tidied up the flower beds.

After lunch I took him for a hair cut.  Beat the back to school rush.

Then it was dinner time and after dinner we went out for a bike ride (sans puppy):

The city looked really pretty this evening:

Arriving home I decided that I would take some time to myself this evening and do some quilting.  Currently I am working on the 2016 Row by Row blocks that I have:

This row is from Piece by Peace Quilts (okay I still LOVE this name) in Fort St. John.  

'

Off to do a little knitting before bed and hopefully the pipeline guys take Sunday off!!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It's Salsa Time...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

It's Salsa Time!  No, seriously, really it is!

I have got all kinds of tomato things going on in my world right now.  There are the ones that get a little soft that I throw in the freezer, the ones that looked like they should go to the freezer and a couple that freshly grew on the plants outside.  

So, I gathered them all up this evening and made SALSA:

From the left overs that I scraped out of the pot when all 6 jars were filled; it's very tasty!  

YUMMY!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cooking in the Camper

Good Evening Internet Friends.

We are currently at the first campground of our vacation.  My son woke up telling me there were Saskatoon berries outside his window.  Behold!   There was.  Over the past 2 days I have picked 2 ice cream pails of Saskatoon berries!  As of this evening they are all washed and packed 1 cup portions in the freezer.

We have also had Saskatoon berry pancakes for the past 2 mornings:

Before we left the farm with the trailer I raided the garden:

Zucchini, purple mustard, lettuce, beet leaves and green onions.   I have been on a purple mustard kick thus summer and so for dinner tonight we had a salad with all these leaves and some tomato and cucumber :

Yummy.

Finally.....this afternoon I decided to use up the last if the beet leaves by making beet leaf buns.  It took some adjustments to figure out how the oven in the trailer works but as of this evening I have managed to bake beet leaf buns in trailer!

Tomorrow morning we will be packing up and heading off to other fun.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

The Do Nothing Day

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Yesterday afternoon I loaded up the car of kid and dogs and headed out to the farm for a few sleeps away from the city.

Arriving here I discovered the big propane tank was empty.  Since hubby is away at work that meant I had to figure out how to switch over from the large tank to the normal sized tanks.   Thankfully my years of PICU nursing came in handy with figuring out flow valves.   No explosions.  No leaks.  We're cooking and showering with warm water now thanks to gas.  YAY.

Today our plan was to go no where and do nothing if we did not want to.

The garden was not too full of  weeds on arrival last night so I spent a couple of hours this afternoon and thoroughly weeded it including figuring out how to use the gas mower to trim the grass around the garden.

Then my son and I decided to go Saskatoon berry picking.  We got about 6 cups of berries bur there are lots more yet to ripen so we will be raiding the bushes again:

After dinner I finished my June subscription of Yarn Crush.   I have not been keen on the past three months of this subscription but this month's one was at least quick to do and I knew I would feel better if I simply finished it.  So:

It's a knitted fruit bag.  I will take it to the Ponoka Farmer's Market tomorrow and see how many strange looks I can get!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Weekend at the Farm

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Saturday afternoon we headed out to the farm.  I stayed up late/early Saturday to make marshmallows as the fire ban is off and we could have a camp fire ☺

So Delicious in s'mores! ☺

I set up my sewing machine and a couple of quilt kits and supplies that I brought for my summer farm projects:

Then I spent the rest of the time in the garden.  This is the garden I planted 2 weeks ago:

The potatoes are up and doing well.

Beans

Purple Mustard Greens

Onions

One pumpkin as the gopher appears to have eaten the other,,,,,I found the root and the original seed, but nothing else!

Spaghetti Squash

Kiddo and puppy trying to dig a hole to China ☺

After dinner we headed home.

Good night from the farm and hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy