SNAP THAT

After 3.5 days of  non-stop snow early in the week the sun came out to say hello. There were also some atmospheric low lying clouds left behind.   I like the lightly striated clouds against the pale blue sky. I also like the cross in the newly renovated church steeple which peeks out above the leaves. At night it lights up the sky. I wish you all a beautiful weekend with happy times and happy thoughts. Joining in with Skywatch Friday .

Today's post is really for the ladies and particularly those of a certain age. Ahem, the age where you must decide to colour your hair or go au naturel (grey). I never coloured my hair as a younger woman. Instead I would have it permed on a regular basis whenever I had a shorter "do".  Eventually I gave that up and grew my hair out.  That's when my hairdresser talked me into getting highlights. I really liked the highlights but after years of getting them done and starting to go gray, I needed touch ups more often than I wanted.  This was not only costly but not good for my hair which tends to need a permanent dye to address it's colour resistancy. I searched in health stores for a more natural alternative.  However these proved unsatisfactory when I discovered that most of them also contained chemicals.  After looking on line for a solution, I reluctantly decided to experiment with henna. This wasn't an easy decision because henna tends to colour the hair

I've spent the week simplifying my life a bit so I can have more rest.  I cancelled a number of my appointments for the next two weeks and eliminated a lot of email and spent a good deal of time just relaxing and taking things easy. I didn't realize I was quite as tired as I was and I'm sure this bit of quiet time will do me a world of good. Cancelling my appointments was simple. It not only bought me a bit of time this week but also eliminated expenditures of approximately $65.00 (Canadian) on herbs and travel. Unwanted or no longer needed email was easy to deal with too. I tend to sign up for a lot of email alerts for a variety of things.  This week I spent a little time to unsubscribe from numerous email alerts I've been getting daily for years.  I do read almost every email I receive because it only takes a moment to scan and/or read it. I decided that I don't need most of this email anymore if I haven't found enough use for them in years. I can better u

I caught the tail end of a cooking show two nights ago where I saw Italian chef Lidia Bastianich ladle out some stew. The gravy looked "to die for" and I couldn't get the image and imagined taste out of my head. I immediately started looking for her recipe on line but couldn't find it. Then when I found out it was made with veal I decided I'll make mine with beef. I took my inspiration from this Beef and Butternut Squash Stew recipe and as usual made it my own. Ingredients: olive oil  2 teaspoons rosemary 2 teaspoons thyme  2 teaspoons parsley 8-9 shallots, peeled and cut in half in half 1 head of garlic, peeled and chopped 1/2 dried chopped prunes 1 small can tomato paste 2 large parsnips, (cut into chunks of about 1 inch) 1 butternut squash (cut into chunks of about 1 inch) 1 cup red wine chicken broth 1 small-medium roast cut into 1 inch cubes or buy stew meat (about 2 pounds give or take a little) Directions: Heat frying pan and put

Hello friends, I took these photos a few days outside my window two days ago.  We had a beautiful sunny day that day after torrents of rain a few days prior. It was sure nice to see the sun.  The temperatures usually dip when we don't have rain and the colder temperatures brought fresh snowfall to the mountain tops.  I don't like the cooler temperatures but I do like how the snow dusts the mountain tops. Fresh snow usually means that Spring is not yet here.  Hard to believe that over a month ago our temperatures we so warm that the pussy willows were coming out and some green growth was shooting up from gardens. It was also nice to see a few birds flying high in the sky.  When it is gray and the cloud cover is thick you can't see the birds soaring high overhead.  I snapped the next two photos the week before last but didn't have time to share them last week. Here they are now. Thanks for visiting. I hope to see you again soon at your blog or mine ;-

Hi friends, How is your week going? I hope all of you are doing okay with the weather in your area wherever you may live.  I see there is an awful lot of flooding in southern England and still a great deal of snow hitting various parts of the USA. In the wee hours of Tuesday morning I caught glimpses of the news about snowstorm in the Chicago area. In my neck of the woods, we have had two storms over the weekend. One on Saturday evening and one on Sunday evening. I did go out to run errands in my neighbourhood on Saturday evening and the rain was coming down very heavily. It didn't take too long for my "rain" jacket to get soaked. Fortunately I did not have to go too far. This was my sky on Tuesday February 18, 2014 after a weekend of heavy rain. Sky overhead on Wednesday, February 19, 2014. Others in my city had much bigger problems. Apparently downed trees knocked out power for awhile to about 20,000 homes. Huge, old growth trees, came out by the roots

In late June my family and I looked forward with great anticipation to moving my mother into a new care home. We felt it was going to be very good for her since it was "state of the art" facility and brand new staff. Boy were we ever wrong!  It has been a virtual nightmare for mother and I and a very tiring and stressful one at that.  We have now moved mom back to her former facility and the difference is like night and day in a good way.  The move went smoothly though it took long as most of her things needed to go into storage.  She no longer has a private room. That was the only way to get her moved quickly.  There was only one hiccup which wasn't of the facility's making and that issue has since been resolved. I had a couple of not very nice surprises about mom's condition.  One of them was the state of her pressure wounds.  Right after moving mother was assessed by her new nurse as having stage 3 pressure wounds, rather than the stage 1 which she was told b

Hello everyone, I trust you are having a lovely weekend. It has been very cold where I live but I've been keeping busy just the same. Monday night I went to a cooking session with friends.  We made brown rice, white fish with Asian sauce that featured lots of ginger, an Asian salad (red and green cabbage with Asian dressing), slivered steamed carrots and almond cookies.  Then we all sat down and ate together.  It was a nice change to have fish since I don't make a lot of fish at my place. On Tuesday a friend invited me over to dinner, to see his new apartment and complete some paperwork we are working on.  He made a lovely dinner of quinoa with veggies and a delicious tasting beef. In the end we didn't complete the paperwork because another friend who lives out-of-town dropped in to visit.  The paperwork is taking much longer than we had initially envisioned as my friend wanted to complete it in December.  His own schedule has interfered with completion but we are get

The birds are enjoying a relatively sunny day.  But it is deceptively cold.  Snow is a possibility in a few days. Joining Skywatch Friday

Kidney beans are one of my favourite types of beans. I soaked and cooked a bag of beans earlier in the week which were used in a few different dishes.  I used the majority of the cooked beans to make a bean-tomato-hamburger stew. Ingredients: 1 chopped medium onion chopped green tops from 2-3 leeks or a few stalks of celery or zucchini 3 finely chopped garlic cloves  1 can stewed & diced tomatoes or use 3-4 chopped fresh tomotoes 1 can of tomato paste 1 can of water 2 tsp. of dried chili peppers a few splashes of soy sauce   1-2 pounds of ground beef  Method: Brown the ground beef on low heat so you don't need any oil. Cook well and add a bit of soy sauce to taste and colour. Add onions, green tops from the leeks and fresh garlic and cook well. I used leek tops because I made leek and potato soup the other day and didn't want these to go to waste. I don't suggest you buy them just to use in this recipe. You can use celery or another vegetable of you

  I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death. ~ Nelson Mandela Ever since I was a child I always had a sense of optimism and hope.  My faith in God is a big part of that.  But even before I knew what faith in God was I had a sense of optimism and looking forward to future possibilities, joy and dreams.  If I wanted to do something, I didn't think of the obstacles; only the fact that it could be done.  I realize that not everyone feels this way and I know I didn't exactly get it from my parents.  So where does the joy and hope come from?  The idea that things can get better or will improve? That all is not lost?  That there is still life to be lived?  I think