Tea for Two

Just a little note about the new heading on my blog. The plant is called a frosty fern and was a gift from sister-in-law Joanne. Easy to care for as long as it gets plenty of water. The pot it's in was a gift from Barb & Chuck. It's Blue Delft. Mart and I were in Delft, Holland last year. What lovely memories! The little framed print was a gift from Linda Gooch, our artist friend in Lompoc, California. We love all her watercolors as anyone would see that has visited our home. Much of her art hangs in Penelope's Teas & Gifts in Lompoc, where some of her larger Giclee prints are available for sale, as well as framed photo prints and cards. The brown teapot is called a "Brown Betty", after Queen Elizabeth I. She claimed that tea tasted best when prepared in a brown earthenware teapot. This teapot is from that same company in England, where they continue to make them, by popular demand. After all, if it was good enough for the Queen, it's good enough for us! The teacups are just some of my favorite odd cups that I'm always gathering up at thrift stores or yard sales. The cookies are Best-Ever Oatmeal Cookies from a recipe in Christmas Southern Living, volume 3 (1999). What makes them unique is the almond extract and chocolate chips. If you ever see a Southern Living cookbook at a thrift store or garage sale, snap it up. I've got three different ones and have tried many recipes, all good. Nice photos of the recipes, too.

Colorful Carrots

There may not be much color outdoors this time of year in Ontario, but look what we found in the local supermarket to brighten our table. We have never seen purple carrots, white or yellow carrots before. They are grown right here in Ontario. They were very tasty! The green gamish on our plate is that wonderful Dutch dish called "stump" that Martin makes with potatoes and just about any other vegetable mashed together. It's one our our favorite comfort foods. This time it was made with fresh spinach that was on sale at the market. Pork Loin and homemade applesauce rounded out our dinner.

"What do you do?"

We have been asked by the curious what we do now that we are retired. Well, for one thing, I have time to do a bit of blogging. But aside from that, one just lives one's life with less stress. And there is a bit of time to volunteer when opportunities arise. But doing small home improvements come up from time to time. Here is Martin looking pleased after installing a new over the stove microwave. I really appreciate him having the time and ability to do things like this! Me, on the other hand, recently spent hours and hours racking my poor old brain after taking on the challenge of the Globe & Mail's holiday crossword puzzle. The solution was published the week after New Year's. I only missed 15 out of 1,100 words! Of course, Martin helped, I used google searches, dictionaries, and a thesaurus. Plodding along, step by step, little by little, I filled in the words, learning much along the way. For example, the word motet was new to me. The clue was, "sacred song". This was one of the ones I left blank. All I could think of was chant or hymn, neither of which fit. I noted the word when I got the solution. The very next day I ran across the word in a book I was reading. A four centuries old musical piece was referred to that included a forty-part motet titled Spem in Alium! Wow! The composer was Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). I did a video google search so I could hear it sung. I was transported and inspired by the beauty of this acappella song of worship. All because of a crossword puzzle. For me, time well spent.

Happy New Year!

Here we are on New Year's Eve for our annual "Last Sunset of the Year" photo. For those of you that don't know some of our peculiar habits, we have been marking the last day like this for many years. We began our little end of year tradition while living in California. We would go down to the beach and write the year in the sand and take a few photos. We captured some beautiful sunsets on film! It became a special way to cap the year for us. When we moved to Oklahoma in 2007, we modified our ritual by adding a small sign since there was not a sandy beach at the lake we drove to. Now, here we are in Canada, and the nearest body of water to us is the murky Thames River that flows through Chatham. It was a very cloudy evening; hence, no colourful sunset. Ocean, lake, or river; cloudy or clear, we like marking our years this way together. Blessing & Prayers for the New Year to all our family & friends!