Pool Party July 4th Weekend

Bar b que by the pool.

Youth and young at heart playing ball in the pool.

We all had a great time. Matt was visiting from Panama where he is a full time minister. He showed us lots of slides of the friends there and the beautiful countryside.

Christy

Cleome and Squash

This is the flower Cleome I do like it, I love the shape of the leaves and will grow more of them next year. This year I started almost everything from seed, part of my frugal campaign. It's been fun especially with the flowers because there is far more variety of flowers in my garden this year.

  Squash flower inside with insect and the squash growing on what to me look like leaves left over from the dinosaur age.

This is growing right by my back door; which is a rather dry area to grow things, but it seems to be doing well here this year.

Christy

July 4th Weekend Mum and Son

I'm a bit behind on my posts and photos. Mum and son.

Christy

Hamburger (mince) Potato-Carrot Bake

I like this cookbook it has down to earth recipes with every day ingredients; which is where this dish came from.

• 1lb ground beef (mince)
• 1/2 tea sp onion powder or 1 tbl sp dried onion soup mix
• 1/2 tea sp salt divided
• 1/8 tea sp pepper
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 4 medium sized potatoes peeled and sliced
• 4 carrots peeled and sliced
• 2 tbl sps water
• 6 slices of cheese or grated cheese

1. Press uncooked ground beef into the bottom of a lightly greased 9" square pan (I used a round pyrex casserole dish with lid). sprinkle with onion powder, salt and pepper.
2. Spread ketchup over the top.
3. Arrange sliced potatoes on top of ground beef layer. Sprinkle with salt.
4. Arrange carrots on top of potato layer and sprinkle with water.
5. Cover tightly with foil or lid and bake at 350 f for 1 - 1 1/2 hours, or until vegetables jag tender.
6. Remove from oven. Top with cheese. Cover and let stand 5 - 10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Christy

French Find and Thrifted

Really nice French dictionary

Great 70's patchwork book.

Candy or sweets as us Brit's would say. I've been thinking of fudge.

This 1956 Bar b que book is so delightfully retro.

How about the girls in dresses?

What about this retro scene.

I found this lovely crochet blanket; which I used this weekend at a Convention, where the air conditioning is frigid.

Last but not least a find in the trash, a Creuset dutch oven, which I cleaned up. It's so nice and I've always wanted one but they are expensive, at least $189.00. So how about that for a find?

Christy

C & C

My friend Candyce. Talking, sharing and caring.

Christy

Sewer Re-Connection

What a saga, here we are now after 9 months re-connected to the township sewer line. Even better no more backups and cleanups in the basement. No more worrying when you shower or do the washing.

Hurrah!!!

Fenetre Feline

My ferns are looking especially green right now, under my new sitting room window. I've been thinning them out and filling in other parts of the garden.

My feline Tuppy enjoying her fenetre. That is the word for window in French, I think. She loves to lay in the window when it's open, but it stretches out my screens. What you let them get away with, she's happy.

Christy

PS: Do you like my thrifted candlesticks?

Sewer Saga

I'll cut to the quick on the Saga of the Sewer. Last September they ran a new public sewer main down our street and the contractor did not connect us in. So since last September all the sewage has just been dumping into the ground. The Sewer Authority, before we found this out, said this was our problem and we must fix it, at our expense.  We did find out that the blockage was the other side of the road, doesn't matter, our problem, $5,000 to dig a hole in the road, and another $5,000 if you have to dig up all across the road and $3,500 to do the trap, needless to say we were sweating bullets!

Now we come to the nitty gritty. We spent $3,500 on trying to put a problem right that we could never put right because we have not been connected up. It would be nice to think that the sewer authority would do right by us, but we will see. Let alone the fact that for the last nine months we have been paying for sewer service that we have not been receiving.

It's all aggro. On the bright side it's positively not our problem any more.

Christy.

Help! For Low Spirits

Dear Georgiana,

Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have—so I feel for you. Here are my prescriptions;

1st Live as well as you dare.
2nd Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold.
3rd Amusing books.
4th Short views of human life—not further than dinner or tea.
5th Be as busy as you can.
6th See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you.
7th And of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8th Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely—they are always worse for dignified concealment.
9th Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you.
10th Compare your lot with that of other people.
11th Don’t expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best.
12th Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy sentimental people, and every thing likely to excite feeling or emotion not ending in active benevolence.
13th Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree.
14th Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15th Make the room where you commonly sit, gay and pleasant.
16th Struggle by little and little against idleness.
17th Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18th Keep good blazing fires.
19th Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
20th Believe me, dear Georgiana, your devoted servant, Sydney Smith

Letter from Sydney Smith to Lady Georgiana Morpeth, 16 February 1820

Money Down The Drain

I have to write this post between pictures of this beautiful rose, from my garden. If not I'd go insane.

I can honestly say this has been the stinkiest year of my life, bar none. Way over the top.

Now we need to come up with around $15,000 to put down the drain. Yes our sewer line is blocked. It's been an ongoing problem for months now, getting worse and worse. We knew it would cost money, but how much money we had no idea.

It needs a new trap $3,500, that figure we had in mind, and that's bad enough. But it seems it is blocked the other side of the road, where it joins the main sewer line in town, and we are responsible for that. $5,500 to dig a hole in the road, and another $6,000 if we need to replace the whole line across the road.

It's unbelievable that a householder is liable for digging up a public road, but there you are. It's a small fortune to us, especially when one's husband is unemployed. This might probably break us. Insurance does not cover this.

We can hope for the best scenario, that they can push out the blockage from our side of the road, and put a sleeve in which they will inflate. I'm not holding my breath the way my life has been going.

So yesterday morning I went out for a long walk in the park, just to calm my frazzled nerves, there seems no let up to what happens to us. All I can say is I have a roof over my head today.

Christy

P.S. Don't you love the center of this rose?

Pergola and Simla Patio

My climbing hydrandrea, I love the shape of the way it grows. It only has small white flowers, not like the pom, pom flowers of a regular hydrandea.

It climbs up my pergola.

The pergola is at the end of my Simla patio, and this is where I set up tables, under the pergola when I have a get together. Then I can hang what ever I want from the pergola. Lights, flowey curtains graduation decorations, what ever.

The Simla patio, which is off the Simla room. I love my old garden chairs fifties.

My chiminea and below the pump tub.

Christy

Nostalgic Hair Accessory

Isn't this a lovely hair accessory? It arrived in the post, a surprise gift from a friend. It reminds me of the forties and The Andrew's Sisters. I'm sure there is a special name for it, but I don't know it. The black bow is stiff, so does not have to be arranged or lose it's shape. It's very easy to put on.

I think I'm showing some gray there, but I tell myself it blends in with the blond.

Along with this came a bottle of lavender bubble bath, to relax in.

Thank you Candyce for spoiling me.

Christy

A Boy and his faithful shadow, Tink

Tink is a faithful companion, whether thou'll go, I will go.

Christy

Up With The Dawn Chorus

It's the wee hours of the morning, in fact I was up at 3:30 AM, probably because yesterday was 95f, with high humidity. We do not have air conditioning but do have a ceiling fan in our bedroom which when I fell asleep, was on the highest speed. So I woke up and decided to go downstairs and get a cup of tea. Then the birds started to wake up, which is at about 4:00 AM.

There was a full charge on my laptop so decided to take it outside, being cooler, listening to the birds and drinking tea, catching up on a few other Blogs. Yes a great "quiet" time or should I say tranquil because the birds can be quite noisy and we have a barrel with a pump, water falling constantly which is a steady background noise, but it's that lovely space of time that refreshes you before you get into the pace of the day.

By the time I get to evening I think why am I so tired, but it's probably because I get up quite often at this time, and that makes for a long day.

I have three different areas that I like to sit in my garden. This area is off my Simla Room, down from my kitchen back door. I have two old forties metal chairs on the patio, plus pots of plants and little tables necessary for cups of tea I have two other areas. One with the circular patio by my pond, and the other is under my oak tree and I'm gradually making that into a woodland area.

I did have a garden tent room there, for several years, until the tent came down in a storm and that was pretty much the end of that and I don't have the finances to replace it. So I'm thinking of a more open affair. I'd like to make an open pergola out of wood, and use my old louvred doors and wooden windows hanging from it, but unfortunately there again finances and I think borough planning permission, which is just another excuse to get money off you.

So I've been thinking of bamboo, some people have forests growing in their gardens, and asking if we could cut 8 down to make a frame, and use a painters canvas drop cloth for a top. I think it could work. It will never be like a garden tent, which was more enclosed, but I think it could look nice.

Well will close on that thought.

I hope your weekend is good.

Christy

Queen Ann's Lace

Every year Queen Ann's Lace grows in my garden, in the same spot and then dies away. This flower does look like lace.

Christy

Picnic at Peace Valley Park

Last weekend was Memorial Day Weekend; which meant that we had Monday off as well. So on Saturday, being such a lovely day, we decided to take a picnic to the Peace Valley Park.

We had a lovey setting for our picnic. And I got to use both of my lovely wicker picnic baskets; which I keep on top of the fridge for that special picnic day.

So we made tuna fish sandwiches, with carrot salad and regular salad items. Followed with, chocolate chip cookies, homemade scones with butter and mango and passion fruit jam, a favourite of ours at the moment. All washed down with iced tea or hot tea.

I just love this tea towel, which I used for a little cloth. It's Irish linen and covered in woodland creatures. Picnics make me think of Ratty and Mole taking a riverside picnic, in Wind in The Willows, so appropriate I think. The red lined picnic basket was a gift from a friend.

Rob finishing off with an extra scone.

The blankets are L.L. Bean up in Maine. I bought four years ago for camping at a great price.

So just wanted to share and remember our special day.

Christy