Remembrance Day

Try to attend your local Remembrance Day celebration.

Many men and women died in war to secure the freedoms we all take for granted.

And life goes on...

I'm a step closer to securing my financial future today. My plan with a capital P is coming along. Still I few things to iron out before I can share my news but in the meantime life goes on.

My mind is a whirlwind these days, full of plans, ideas, meetings to see this person, that person, get information, give information and all the while..

Dinner still has to be made.

Moose stew thickened with a shredded potato.

Bread has to be baked.

White bread for my husband. I'll sneak a piece but I prefer whole wheat bread.

And Christmas is still coming, same day as last year and again I'm a little behind with my "homemade" Christmas.

PJs for my boys in Newfoundland.

Dinner concoction

I had a busy, busy weekend in Vancouver this weekend. The trip was really for my son and daughter in law. They bought a lap top and some dressers which doesn't sound like much and we all thought it would be easy and fast but throw in busy stores, bad weather and traffic, and well it took much longer than we thought but we had lots of fun.

I got home mid afternoon and after a long walk to stretch my legs and clear my head I had dinner to think about, this is the dinner concoction I came up with and it was very easy and delicious.

I fried up some Italian sausages I bought from Bosa, five to be exact, three hot and two mild. Once they were cooked I sliced them and put them aside. I drained the fat from the pan and added some peperonata I made in the summer, added some frozen tomatoes, placed the sausages back in the sauce and gently simmered the sauce. In the meantime cook up some pasta, any shape will do but cut pasta, like rigatoni, works best.

Toss the sauce into the pasta and top with parmigiano and together with salad and a glass of wine, Sunday night dinner was amazing.

Working on a new idea

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I'm working on a new idea, business, where I'm the boss, my own boss, can you believe it. And of course it's food related. Can't say too much now but hope to soon.

In the meantime try as I might I can't think of anything else but my future and what it will look like. I have lots of things to do but I'm having trouble staying focused.

I'm off to Vancouver this weekend for some shopping and family visiting so I probably won't post anything until Monday.

Fingers crossed everyone that my little dream comes true.

Margaret

I have been deleted, well my job anyways

As of Nov 30 my job will be deleted, sigh...I saw it coming 3 years ago so I'm not surprised but it's a little shocking because unless I get another job right away, there will be no paycheck on Dec 15, very weird for me, I have not been without a paycheck for years so this is a little foreign.

I will soon join the hundred of thousands of unemployed Canadians as well as the millions of unemployed the world over. I'm still trying to get my ahead around it..unemployed..

So now what to do? I know I'm better equipped than many folks, I don't have a huge overhead and I know how to do lots of jobs myself. I don't have to totally depend on others for my well being but I still need some money.

But where to get that money??? Change profession altogether? Stick with what I know? Start a new business?

A few things I do know. I don't want a "downtown" career, I don't want to get dressed up and I don't want to wear makeup. I mean...I wore socks with sandals for the first time yesterday, a small dream of mine and I'm not giving that up.

So my life takes a new path and I fully embrace it. I'm excited about the future and look forward to the new challenges that this new path will bring. It won't be easy but it will be exciting.

The sun is out, just like the weatherman predicted, the air is crisp, my yard beckons me and I can't wait to get out there and get some dirt under my fingernails. My worries and problems seem to disappear and solutions seem so clear when I'm out in the garden.

Today is a great day full of promise, with infinite possibilities and change is in the air.

Plans and dreams

We all have plans and dreams, some very simple and some are quite lofty. My lofty dream was to have a little house on a large lot and try, best I can, to be self sufficient, simplify, and go green.





Part of my dream has come true. I have a small house on an acre. I grow many of the vegetables I eat, have chickens for eggs, some of the food I don't or can't grow, yet, I try to buy locally. I make many of the things I need, cook from scratch, and bake. But there are more things I want to try, cheese, yogurt - again, meat chickens and maybe a goat...and definitely more fruit.

In the backyard I have fruit and nut trees but I would like to increase the amount of fruit I grow by adding berries. I never thought about berries but I as I get to know people in my neighbourhood and speak to other gardeners it seems that berries grow very well here. Just a month ago I won two blueberry bushes because of my participation in the Powell River 50mile food challenge, to these blueberry bushes I plan on adding raspberries and strawberries.

But I don't have a garden bed for them so this past weekend, with a little bit of nice weather, my husband and I started the berry patch.


We put down some cardboard to kill the grass and weeds, then topped it off with yard cuttings, leaves and the soil from my flower baskets, then we ran out of nice weather. The weather man tells us that Tuesday and Wednesday will be sunny....fingers crossed.

We will extend the bed to run the length of the veggie garden and add some of our compost, more leaves and some seaweed. Then we leave it, next spring, we will add some more manure or compost, whatever we can get our hands on, then till the bed. Find someone with whom I can barter or trade some berry plants, but will buy some if needed. But it's so much more fun to trade. And hopefully the following year we will have berries. Not sure if it will work but that's the plan...
Has anyone tried putting this type of garden bed together? It's not quite a lasagna bed but it's somewhat similar. If anyone has suggestions to pass along I would love to hear them.


Now a less lofty dream...socks and sandals, I always wanted to wear socks and sandals, and look, I'm living the dream, here in Powell River.

End of the week - End of the turkey soup

I made a HUGE pot of turkey soup on Monday, had it for lunch on Tuesday, gave my son and daughter in law a HUGE container of soup Tuesday night. Had it for lunch Wednesday, Thursday and today, and oh my, I still have some and I really can't eat another bite or look at any more turkey soup. Enter my Seiko, our dog, he will eat it, he'll eat anything, and that's it, end of the soup and end of the week.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE