Hi friends,
We had a reasonably good winter with hardly any snow and the rainfall seemed less than normal too.
But now it is Spring and I'd like to get in the garden.
However it has been raining cats and dogs!
How is the weather where you live?
Manure and topsoil was purchased and bit of potting soil for the
container plants. I also purchased some pansies to plant and a new patio
umbrella stands at the ready but none of it has been used yet.
I hope the rains will stop soon though I don't complain too loudly.
On the few nice days we've had without rain, I hardly had an opportunity to get out to take photos of the tree blossoms. I hurriedly snapped a few once or twice while out running errands and happened to have my camera along.
I have so few photos of the tree blossoms compared to previous years. The blossoms came out very early this year but with all the rain falling it hasn't been the best time to take photos and I was busy on the few really nice days we've had.
I am glad that I did manage to capture a few tree blossoms late last week on different errands around the city.
If I had more time I would go to another neighbourhood or two and capture some blossoms where I know they have lovely trees. But time is limited right now and because a lot of the blossoms started early, many of them are already gone though a few new ones are coming out. Such a strange season this year. Or should I say, stranger than usual as the weather has been getting unusual all around the globe for some years now.
I hope you are all enjoying good weather wherever you live.
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| It looks like a movie was being shot on this street in the eastern part of town. I love the old building! |
I have also been enjoying my new pressure cooker. So far I've made vegetable soup and now I've made some navy bean soup. It was sure thrilling to wait for only half an hour to have fully cooked (and softened) navy bean and vegetable soup! This sure beats the overnight soak or 1 hour quick soak method. First I put the navy beans in the pot just covered with water. I let those cook for about 15 minutes before I added a colourful array of veggies. In this case I purchased a bag of cleaned mixed veggies from the produce market. You know the kind they clean because they don't want to throw it away? I purchased one large bag and used about 1/3 of it. I chopped the veggies more finely in my food processor. I didn't mince them too finely just gave them a coarse chop and put them in with the beans along with some herbs. Another 15 minutes and the soup was great. Next time I make soup it will likely be vegetables and some meat. If you like Italian food I think the pressure cooker would be ideal for making chicken cacciatore. Well I'm off to enjoy some navy bean soup right now for a spot of late lunch.
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| This photo was taken right downtown at Hastings & Granville. |
I will be joining up with Mosaic Monday & Our World Tuesday this week.
Our World is a very fun meme which I've participated in for years already. How time flies!
Mosaic Monday is a new to me meme, hosted by my neighbour in the far east of Canada.
Our World is a very fun meme which I've participated in for years already. How time flies!
Mosaic Monday is a new to me meme, hosted by my neighbour in the far east of Canada.
Enjoy your week!
29 comments:
What gorgeous flowering trees! I bet the smell is wonderful when you go outside. We had rain last night that washed away most of our snow, so I enjoyed some brown today, a nice change from white!
The blossoms are so beautiful! Vancouver is glorious on a sunny day!
What a gorgeous post, full of new life with all those flowering trees and I bet the fragrance was amazing!
I have wanted to get a pressure cooker specially for coming beans, but just haven't found one I like. They have so many to choose from now.
Our weather has been exceptionally nice, could leave us with a dry summer, not good.
Have a beautiful week.
Joy! Debbie
It looks really beautiful in your part of the world xxx
Nice and healthy.
Hi Joyful, I love it that you tried the navy bean soup! :-) I also think your idea with the veggies is great. I will try that in my next pressure cooking event, and that might even be as soon as tonight. :-) To anyone out there who reads this comment ... Joyful's experience with the electric pressure cooker is like my own ... If you haven't tried this you don't know what you are missing. Although I am certainly not a chef, I have been doing the cooking in my family for many years and the pressure cooker is the single best kitchen appliance I've found. Now, Joyful, the blossom photos are wonderful. I'm so glad you took photos while you were out on errands. And your thought about the changing weather is so on-the-mark. I can't really say I've experienced a winter quite like this last one in Seattle. So mild and relatively dry. Would you agree with that? I often felt sorry for the folks back in the East, especially Boston. They seemed to have the opposite extreme. Thank you for this post ... Wishing you a fine week ahead! John
Hello, Joy! :)
Your photos of the tree blossoms are wonderful!
We still have snow, as we are supposed to have.
However, the weather has become strange also here in the last years.
Have a great week ahead!
Beautiful flowering tree.
Beautiful trees and blossoms. Your bean soup sound yummy.. Have a happy new week!
Our weather is awful too. Just wind and raining "cats and dogs". I was just thinking the other day that I don't hear the phrase "raining cats and dogs" much anymore.
Your blossom is beautiful but we have very little yet.
Hi Phil, thanks for your visit. I don't know where exactly I learned the phrase "raining cats and dogs" but it was when I was a child. I've used it ever since though I seldom hear it used here. Maybe some people think it is "politically incorrect" but for me, it describes a very heavy rainfall. Thanks again for dropping by!
Hi John, I am glad to have tried the navy bean soup too. I love beans of all kinds so the pressure cooker will come in handy for that. What kind of pressure cooker do you have by the way? One you use on your stove top or one you plug in? I can see why you use it for your meals since it is so quick and easy to use. I hope you are getting a little more sun than we are. It started off like a nice, sunny day here today and before long got windy and cloudy. rain is on the way. But as I was mentioning in my post, I don't complain too loudly because I know what kind of Winter they have had in the East. Take care and have a blessed Easter week.
As I write this, the wind is howling outside and the rain is beating against the windows. Any blossom that was on the trees before tonight will sadly have disappeared by tomorrow.
We are really warming up in Georgia...and most of our blossoms have been replaced with brand new leaves. They are lovely, too...but there's nothing like Spring's sweet blooms!
Wonderful Spring shots of nature's gems ~ Gorgeous blossoms!
Happy Week to you,
artmusedog and carol
Beautiful photos of your blossoming trees, and what a pretty town - charming!!
Poppy
Sure signs of Spring, and beautiful they are too.
Fabulous blossoms on the trees....here it is cold and snow covers most everything still...
beautiful blossoms
we heading into Autumn here but its still very warm :)
As much as the trees are beautiful with spring blossoms, I find when the petals drift to the ground they also leave a pretty carpet of colour.
We've always used the expression 'raining cats and dogs' when it's pouring out, kind of a silly thing to say though. :-)
Thank you for linking to Mosaic Monday.
So petty! We're still waiting for all the snow to melt, but flowers will be comings soon. I Llove the old building too - it's got charm!
GASP! What a blossom bomb! Thank much :-)
ALOHA from Honolulu
ComfortSpiral
=^..^=
Wow - those blossoms are magnificent and so gorgeous!
Our trees here on the front range of Colorado are just beginning to grow buds. We had an unusually warm weather this week during the day ,but we still can get a freeze at night and we can still get snow! I planted summer flower bulbs and rhizomes this past weekend but I can't put out pansies as yet. I like to cook stuffed artichokes in my pressure cooker. Your bean soup sounds delicious--I'll try that next--thanks!
Great spring colour - we have some of our non-native street trees coming into autumn colours - most of our native tree do not shed their leaves in autumn.
Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne
Those are very beautiful, refreshing spring photographs. I see thst you're very much ready for an outdoor gardening job. At ours, greens and flowers haven't sprung yet but it's definitely warmer.
Beautiful flowering trees! Thanks for visiting my blog!
Enjoyed seeing the pretty blooming trees - Thanks for sharing.
With the crazy weather here - Spring showed its face late, so I think most of the early bloomers did not know whether to show their pretty faces or not.
Thanks for stopping by.
Such beautiful blossom, its so luxurious.
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