Spring Plans

Hi friends, 

Are you all looking forward to spring?  The community gardeners are gearing up and plans must be made because there is a contractual obligation to plant the garden by May 1st.  My nephew's girlfriend is still interested in gardening and so we're trying to get her a plot of her own. We should know soon enough. If she doesn't get one this year she can continue sharing mine. My DH Jonah also loves the garden and takes a walk to the garden and park every day in summer. This year he might also share a roundabout plot with another gardener so we can plant some veggies there.  

I didn't do much in my patio garden last year.  Largely because I heard the strata management was investigating the garden membranes and awaiting a report about whether they need replacement. It seems they do need replacement and one of options for strata members to consider is to do away with the gardens altogether with the exception of what you plant in a container.  Not everyone in the building has a garden that has a retaining walls, dirt and trees like I do. Some people have much smaller patios and no gardens, some have large patios and no gardens, some have enclosed sunrooms and no gardens and some have large patios and a decent sized garden. Over the years it seems like there are more and more rules to follow largely due to critters in the city. We can't even feed the birds or grow vegetables. We can still plant flowers.  I think most people with no garden will not support the idea of replacing everything for those that do because of the cost and also the cost of living increases. I'm okay with this outcome to be honest. I too don't want to be shelling out extra money for a garden I don't really enjoy with the unpredictable climate we've been having year after years for many years now. The decision about the garden will be made soon. In fact I'm surprised I haven't received notice of the Annual General Meeting though it should be delivered any day now.

I loved my garden when it's done well.  But I'm at the point where I really don't want the responsibility of the garden any more.  Not only is the weather very unpredictable but I'm not a natural gardener and I don't keep to a gardener's schedule very well.  I have one bush that has such extensive roots that it's very difficult to grow anything in the rest of the garden. I have another tree, my favourite Dogwood. It died last year after hanging on for several years. I'm not actually sure what happened to it because my neighbours Dogwood has done very well compared to mine but that corner of my garden isn't very good in general for growing as the sun very seldom reaches it and it remains cold a lot of the time. On my neighbour's side, the sun's rays reach her Dogwood tree a good deal of the time.  Perhaps that is why her tree is much healthier. 

There is also the building's structural issues to consider. I understand there are some concerns about the weight of the gardens and the impact on the structure. To be honest, I wondered about that when I first moved in.  Not only is the dirt very heavy, but some gardens like mine have bushes and trees planted in them. When you add the weight of all the watering, it can all get very heavy indeed.  So I've come to appreciate there are lots of good reasons for eliminating the buildings 'planted' gardens.

Indoors there are plans underway for gardening too.  I started buying plant soil so I can replant my succulents and tropical plants. I  got started on the planting but before I can finished I to find some of pots which I stored outdoors.  For now I've cleaned off the mantle. My it sure collected a lot of spilled dirt from the plants over the winter .  I've made do with the pots I had indoors but I may need to repot the one in the terra cotta planter.  I love terra cotta pots and largely use them outdoors.  The colour doesn't go well with the gray, white and black theme on the mantle.

I'm loving my new flameless LED candles.

Baking Memories and New Plans

I love sweets. I always have. When I was much younger I used to bake a lot of sweets because back in those days we didn't eat a lot of them.  Though mother did bake most of our breads and the occasional cakes, pies, pudding or cinnamon buns it wasn't like we had dessert every day. I think these were considered an occasional treat or something for special occasions and holidays. 

I wanted it more often so I began experimenting making my own brownies, a variety of cookies, pies and other things I no longer remember. I even tried making ice cream from a little cook book for kids that I'd sent away for from the Carnation Milk company.  Perhaps some of you remember the cookbook.

Paperback selling on Amazon for $35.

If you wrote to the evaporated milk company you got a free copy. I see it is selling on line for a lot more than 'free'.   Even if I found my cookbook it would fetch nothing because somehow I burned the front pages quite badly though I don't remember how it happened. I still used the recipes that were not scorched, lol.

After a couple of years learning and experimenting I stopped baking altogether. I was worried I might gain too much weight.  I was always on the larger side even though I didn't eat that much. In fact, mother always used to worry about me because I never ate breakfast, hardly touched lunch and ate sparingly at dinner time. I just didn't have such a big appetite and most time I still don't. But if you give me a pastry, I'll probably try and eat it. So I stopped making baked goodies for that reason. I never really started baking again until retirement because then I more time to figure out how to bake breads and other things. 

Some of you know that I've had T2D now for some years.  As you age, the most diabetes generally get worse. I've really learned to eat differently and have tried all kinds of different ways of eating. I think the best approach is intermittent fasting but I still find it difficult.  Even if you do all the right things I find you get fatigued from always having to be vigilant.  

I also know that I still have a love of baked goods.  Some of them are sweet and of course a lot of them have a high carbohydrate content. So I'm finally going to try and learn how to bake goods using alternatives to white flour and other grains. I will go slowly so as not to stress myself. I been wanting to do this for a long while and I've picked up some good library books to get started. If I find one I like very much I may buy it but there is so much online for free too.

Here are some books I picked up. Most of them look very good. Not all of them are baking books. The big one called Simple Healthy is a regular cookbook. I bought a few ingredients to try out some regular meals before embarking on baking adventures.

I gravitate toward simple recipes.  Ones that don't needs a lot of fuss or a high number of ingredients. The Simple Healthy Cookbook seems to fit the bill. I like the look of the bakery books too but not yet sure how complicated things are.

Let me know if you have any experience with baking sugar free and gluten free and whether you have any cookbooks or websites to recommend. Many thanks!

Tuesday 4 - Internet

The Internet Age

 Welcome to another episode of Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we are challenged to answer 4 questions on different subjects each week. Thank you to Annie for hosting each week.

Maybe we could talk about the internet this week?  

1. When did the  home internet age enter your life? How much impact has it had?

It took awhile for the home internet to enter my life as I don't usually jump on any 'fads' as soon as they arrive, lol. I honestly cannot remember when we started using the home internet on a regular basis because I was using laptops and desktops at work for word processing and limited internet use for a few years before we had these at home.  I think it was in the early 1990s, possibly even a bit earlier when we had home internet installed.  In those days we tended to use it for learning something as opposed to entertainment, blogging and other things.

2. How powerful an influence if your phone?  For instance, do you feel guilty not answering when you are busy? Do you text back immediately? Does the phone own you? Do you friends feel they should be able to monopolize your time by demanding to know where you were when you didn't answer?  Is it intrusive or welcome?

Cell phones are a powerful influence and I often wish we didn't have them. It is intrusive because that is where I get too many notifications and unwanted phone calls which I tend to ignore.  I subscribe to too many things so there is always something new. I often turn off notifications for a time and I could eliminate most of them but then I'd totally forget about certain things I don't want to forget about.  As it is, I spend a good part of time throughout the day deleting things & trying to identify and keep the things that are most important. Every now and then I cull the subscriptions I have and delete a lot of extraneous email.

I don't get that many phone calls on my cell phone unless it is a service like a dentist or some other service provider, and a lot of crank calls, spam calls or marketing calls. The cell phone reminders about appointments are useful but I get annoyed when service providers call both the landline and the cell phone to leave messages.  Some of them are just trying to ensure that their customers get a message like an appointment reminder or a change in appointments. But spammers and marketers really annoy me when they keep calling and don't leave messages. Friends and family mostly know not to call me on the cell phone and tend to only call my cell phone if they can't reach me otherwise. They know I prefer getting a call on the landline.  In the beginning some people acted like I should always be ready to answer the cell phone just because it rings. Well most of the time I don't even hear it ring or I can't get to it in time. I've explained that I only have a cell phone for my convenience and also for safety reasons, not for having heart to heart talks with people.  Most things are just not that urgent. They generally understand or at least I think they do.  When we do get to talk on my landline it is a much nicer visit and in the comfort of my home.  However, the cell phone is great for keeping in touch with my friends from abroad in Kenya and other countries through WhatsApp and for making quick calls when out and about.

3. What places do you frequent on the net and by phone or PC etc.?  (pc. personal computer, laptop, etc.)

I frequent all the usual places: FB, YT, IG and email. Other than that, I spend time reading blogs, news,  googling directions and travel times and various other things I might be interested in at that particular moment. For example, today I watched a YT channel from Kenya, downloaded statements from the bank, sent email to my bank investor, contacted a local organization about a zoom call for tomorrow and cancelled a physio appointment. I also spent time preparing this blog post and watching a few You Tube videos. I also use the internet a lot for participating in church services, bible reading, questions about spiritual matters and learning more about the work of Christian organizations and other charities. 

4.   Wikipedia is editable and biased  because anyone can edit the articles. Algorithms also determine what you can and cannot find on the interest.  So, how much stock do you place in its information? 

I am aware that Wikipedia is biased but I think all information is biased to some degree. I use Wikipedia a lot especially for fact based information when researching authors/celebrities and their work projects or books, maps and important information about various countries and cities, public figures like politicians and business people I want to know more about, and so on.  I check other sources as well and do a lot of online research in general.  So far I've found the information on Wikipedia fairly accurate for my needs and I do my bit to support the website's efforts. I also supplement the information I find on Wikipedia with other information found on line. If I'm really not sure about something especially with all the fake news these days I try to look at fact checking sites.

I found these questions interesting and I hope you found the answers interesting too! Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate your visit.

The Past Week

Happy Sunday everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

I've been busy this week; mostly with reading, running errands and grocery shopping, dealing with financial stuff, dealing with family needs, connecting with friends from far and administration concerning the community garden plot for summer 2023. 

Recently completed; all equally good.

In progress, a quirky but well written book.

Cooking always takes time as most of you know but I limit my cooking to one main meal a day and something lighter to start the day. Due to high food costs I'm trying to shop less and use what I have. In the past, I really did buy far too much and I need to use it up or give it away.

Saturday dinner was roast beef, broccoli and roasted potatoes and onions.

Sunday dinner was Chicken Cordon Bleu but covered in flour rather than bread crumbs. It was good but next time I'll try it with bread crumbs and use toothpicks since most of the cheese melted into the baking pan. Looking at the photos I see the dinners were too carb heavy so I need try and correct that but as I mentioned I'm trying to use up what I have and vegetables and fruits are always first to be used up.

I've got a lot of paperwork and tidying to do. So last night I decided to get started on some cleaning in my office area and get everything set up again but after I started reconnecting everything I discovered the modem wasn't working and that meant no television or internet services.

So today was an unexpected day of dealing with technology issues. I don't deal well with them at the best of times but since I had no communication services or television whatsoever I had no choice.  The only thing working was my landline.  I was fretting a bit because I have a very busy week ahead.  I was also anxious about how much time it was all going to take because the telecommunications company I deal with is notoriously slow to connect you with a live human being. They always want to direct you to online services and it is usually the online services that are giving me an issue. 

Thankfully once I connected to technical support I was able to get everything up and running again. I also asked to speak to someone about a new service plan. I had been trying off and on for a few months to do it myself but their system only let me see a deal that was not suitable for my needs. Again, I was able to get great customer service and get a deal for a much better price. My monthly bill will be $55 per month less ( for the exact same services ($660 savings for the year).  Plus they gave me a theme pack of news channels (3 channels) completely free for one year (savings of $95 Canadian).  Total savings is $756 Canadian in Year 1 and $ 660 in Year 2.  I only wanted one news channel for my DH but the channels come in packages so we now have 3 additional news channels.  I feel very blessed by the outcomes.

Altogether the time it took for getting things working and looking for monthly cost savings took about 2.5 hours of my time. Not too bad because I've sometimes waited that long just to talk to a live human being about an issue.  Overall I find it very frustrating dealing with the company when I need them so today was a nice surprise and a real blessing. The bonus is that I don't need to have a technician come to my home or wait for new equipment to be delivered because both of these scenarios would have resulted in loss of services for as long as it took to get help.

In related technology matters I'd been having problems in trying to access a Kenyan missionary's blog for some months. Try as we might we could not seem to find a way to give me access to read and comment on her blog.  Today we gave it one more try and thankfully it worked! That is another blessing because I love reading about her family's work and ministry in Kenya.  I've been reading about their work in Kenya for about 10 years.

My good day was topped off by my being able to connect my wireless printer and get it working.  I had been postponing the job due to internet and wi-fi issues which started a few weeks ago and culminated in lack of internet service last night.  Today was the right time and everything is now in working order. Whew!

I do have a few more outstanding technology issues.  My brother had installed extra drives in my old computer and instead of wiping them clean he will remove them and save them for me in a special case. I also backed everything up on a new external hard drive I bought late last year.  Fortunately I culled a lot of my old documents and photos before backing them up. A second issue is figuring out how to wipe the old printer clean. I didn't realize that I needed to do that otherwise I would have done so before disconnecting the old computer. Actually I hadn't even given the printer any thought as I was most concerned about the computer because the former one had been on it's 'last legs' for so long. Anyway it will all get done.  These things tend to take me time especially when I've got many projects on the go.   Everything moves at a snail's pace because my brain can only deal with one big thing at a time.  But there is a saying 'Strive for progress, not perfection' so I try to remember that.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'm expecting delivery of an artificial tree for a spot in my living room. I hope it isn't too big. I did read the dimensions of the tree but it's a little hard to know how it looks and 'fits' until I put it in place. It will prevent me from wasting funds every year in buying a tropical plant that doesn't do well in my draughty home if it fits into the space I have for it. I have several appointments this week but I'm most looking forward to a visit from two cousins of mine, both of whom live out of town.

I hope you have some great plans for your week! Thank you for stopping by.

Status of my Reading Challenge for 2023

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you are all doing great and ready for the weekend.

I've been plodding along over the past week or so. I've not been too busy but I have a lot to do and I haven't been very organized about it so am feeling a bit disorganized. Whenever I'm in that space of not being able to focus on other things, I always turn to reading.  It's one of my favourite things.

In 2022 I purposed to read less but still read a lot for pleasure. I read 46 books and just over 16,000 pages. I'm not sure I'll have a lot of time for reading later in 2023 so I'm reading a fair bit right now.  My reading is 50 books.  Of course I will always have some works of fiction to read but I'm hoping to make more time for both sewing and baking in 2023 so there will be a lot of books on these subjects.  So far in 2023 I've read 8 books as below. I don't tend to write long reviews of books I've read. I only give them stars according to how much I've enjoyed them and I might add a line or two so I remember them later. (You may need a Goodreads account to be able to read the links).

Cherop 's bookshelf: read

The Girl Next Door

by Phoebe Morgan

A psychological murder mystery set in small town England. A few twists and turns with a surprising and disturbing ending.

tagged: fiction and mystery-thriller

Little Wishes

by Michelle Adams

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about young love lost and found again when it is almost too late. A sad and poignant book.

Happy Homemade: Sew Chic: 20 Simple Everyday Designs

by Yoshiko Tsukiori

The layout and presentation of this book is very well thought out. I enjoyed the tips provided for the sewing projects too. But I wasn't a fan of the designs and I have no idea about how easy it is to use the patterns at the back though ...

tagged: contemporary and sewing

Lotta Jansdotter's Everyday Style: Key Pieces to Sew + Accessories, Styling, and Inspiration

by Lotta Jansdotter

A short book with uncomplicated clothing. It's the patterns at the back that might take some time to figure out. I'm hoping to make 2-3 items in future but have so many other projects right now.

tagged: crafts and sewing

PlantYou: 140+ Ridiculously Easy, Amazingly Delicious Plant-Based Oil-Free Recipes

by Carleigh Bodrug

This book has lots of 'doable' and unfussy plant based recipes. The recipes are all laid out clearly and simply.

A Russian Sister

by Caroline Adderson

This book is a book of fiction based on historical facts. It took awhile to get into this book but once I started enjoying it I enjoyed it a lot. I had no idea how it might end but was a bit disappointed in it. It seems the women in Russ...

tagged: fiction and historical-fiction

Dear Emma

by Katie Heaney

This book was written for several generations younger than I so I couldn't relate much to the themes in it. I think those in early years of college or university might like it better.

tagged: contemporary, fiction, romance, and young-adult

Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War between the Windsors

by Tom Bower

tagged: biography, contemporary, and non-fiction