Here, Fishy Fishy.

 

Mel and me

Past and Present

Spring is arriving here in the Okanagan. I hear the birds calling and the marmots are soon to be heard chirping to each other from their hideout on the hill. The weather has been steadily warming so that hoodie and jean attire are fully acceptable. My favourite season! Spring is so full of hope and optimism and plans for the summer season before us. I have many plans such as a water slide birthday party, visits from the East ( I hope) camping trips and a flexible work schedule. One thing is certain, I know it will be busy. I am still working on a memory project for my Grandma's 90th birthday party and gathering family history and stories. It is quite fascinating to hear people's memories of the past. I am a babe in the woods when it comes to geneaology but it is a fascinating subject and I can see how a person could become hooked. As it is I have stepped back these last couple weeks to focus on other things, but I think it quite like the old joke : how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Family History

Strawberry ice cream and other treats.

Don't the photos say it all? I made the ice cream in my magic bullet using, yep, strawberries and cream. The berries were frozen so it was a snap. There is nothing quite so luxurious as real frozen whipping cream and strawberries. Sure, it's a caloric nightmare but there were two ingredients and I could pronounce them both. Also, in the bullet, it's easy to just make one or two servings. If you need a decadent treat, think back to the 1800s and do your ice cream old school. You will not regret it I assure you. I have been under the weather for the past week or so but before that, we went to Vancouver Island to see my parents on their birthdays. We had a seafood feast, which was delightful. I somehow forgot my camera and only had my phone to snap pics, but here's one of our dinner. My sister named them all before they went in the pot. This one was Jim-Bob. We cooked them in a boiling pot on a campfire in my mom's back yard along with a big roaster full of clams and muscles. We also had a dozen oysters on the barbeque. What a great time.

Homemade with love.

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day and celebrated it  fully. We made all of the classroom valentines in the week leading up to the day using my scrapbooking supplies. I am realizing I use them much more for cards than I ever do for photos. I also made an apple crumble pie, which was amazing with whipped cream for dessert. Hubby took care of dinner, steak and prawns and spoiled me rotten with roses and chocolates. I am truly blessed to have so much love in my life.



We have also had a new baby born in the family on Valentine's day. I won't share her photo here because she is a second cousin but let me tell you, she is some cute. I had the opportunity recently to snuggle a newborn baby during a baby shower at work, The baby slept on my chest while the parents opened their gifts and had cake. They were glad for the break and I relished in the chance to have a warm baby sleep on me for well over half an hour. There is nothing better in this world than to hold a new born baby. Never pass on the chance to hold one if it comes up.

Clutterfly

I have some trouble with clutter, I always have. I guess I have a difficult time throwing things away that may be useful. I have no problem throwing broken, useless things a away. Anything that may have a future use, however, that is a different story. This becomes a huge problem when you live in a tiny space. This container is just a small example of things that I don't know where they go and I can not get rid of. These things end up in the funniest places and the randomness of them is at times overwhelming to me. I so wish I was one of those people who got up early, opened a drawer and found exactly what they needed, clean and in it's proper place. These wonders elude me. So, while under the guise of "organizing" which always ends up with me making even more of a mess, I photograph my chaos and call it art.

Cleaning it up occasionally actually saves me money because I do not buy new things, but always, halfway through cleaning I get distracted and begin another art project. In this case it was a blog post, complete with photos. I think I`d like to blame my Grandma for this, her post war habits were passed down to my mother and now to me. A ball of string represents a useful thing that must never be parted with. I need to have an attitude of abundance, where I needn`t worry that there will not be enough..
 Maybe next lifetime.
 In this one, I`m a keeper of things, a guardian of goobledegook, a champion of chachkes.
Could be worse.