remember...

A year already...

Tomorrow will mark the first year without my Nanny. I really miss her, everything happened so fast in those few days. So much emotion packed into a few short, yet long days, and then we had to say goodbye. My Nanny left us September 28th, 2010...it feels like just yesterday. We all miss her so much that it feels like a bit of the family is missing. Some days it feels like I have misplaced something and just cant put my finger on what or where that thing is.

Over the next day and a half I will remember...I will remember the light that she brought with her as she touched everyone she knew in her own special way. I will remember popping in for tea after work for a quick visit, and always having a new recipe to try out...always something sweet. I will remember, "oh, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph" being exclaimed every time she was startled or a joke was made, or someone was just pulling her leg. I remember...her, and the kindness in her heart, thinking of others before herself, the long greeting card mailing list. No matter where you were, you always got a card for your birthday and anniversary. How she was ever able to find an address in her tiny little book I have no idea, but she always knew where to look. Curlers, bobby pins, homemade bread...Nanny buns! Leaving for church two hours before it started, prayers, and always making the sign of the cross when we drove by a church or graveyard.

She was the type of person that was happy with anything...our joke was always that if you gave her a dirty tissue as a gift, she would think that it was the best she ever got. I am hard pressed to sum up who she was and what she meant to so many, all I know is that there are a lot of people that miss her and remember...

I will leave this post with one of her recipes, one that is easy and tasty...and for a bit more maudlin...one that just doesn't taste the same without her hands making them. But...I will bake and remake and try all of her recipes, over and over again so that someday they may just taste a little as they did when she would mix and measure and bake and love.

Currant Butter Tarts

1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup currants

Beat butter - add sugar, egg, vanilla, milk and currants.
Fill tart shells 3/4 full.
Bake 12-15 minutes (at the temperature it says on the tart shells your using)

(as with all her recipes there are little notes scribbled on the cards...this one had one as well)

*I usually add a few more currants to the bottom of the tart shells before I add filling.

Make sure that you tell the people that you love, as often as you can, that you love them, and that you are happy that you have them, that you appreciate them, care about them,and are thankful that you know them.

...and remember, just remember.

its been awhile...

I really have to try and not start every blog post with those three little tiny words! Life has been very busy since getting back from our vacation. I am missing the tiny island very much, and dreaming of next summer already. Three is lots to post about...my first craft show, my birthday was this month, lots of sewing...but I am oh so tired tonight so I will only post some pics I have been meaning to post and tell you to head to the bottom of the page to the music player and listen to my latest obsession "Mumford & Sons". I love em' I quite like the entire disc and we are actually thinking about going to Montreal for there concert...keeping fingers crossed for that one.


I am very intrigued by these hanging gardens...and I am wondering if it is very hard to you yourself. I am very bad at actually keeping potted plants alive though, and I would think you have to be very vigilant about keeping this watered.


Enjoy the blustery night!

down home...

I am sitting in the cottage listening to my favourite 40's music station and just loving it. There is a cool strong breeze blowing, the sun is out, I can hear the horses talking in the field out the back door.

We got here safely on Monday, August 23rd. The first part of our drive was a bit iffy. I took the first shift of driving, being a new driver I wanted to be fresh and rested, and also not have to drive through Montreal. Well, we drove smack into the heaviest rain ever, well at about the third our of me gripping the steering wheel so tight, my fingers were losing feeling, I decided it was the heaviest rain I had ever seen. We switched driving when we pulled over in Cornwall, I was a bit shaky but I did it! This was a very big deal for me. The rest of the drive was uneventful, we did learn not to trust the navigation system...even if it did have a slightly sexy British accent. Fergus started to wig out about an hour away from the bridge to PEI, he always seems to know when we are getting close, it must be the ocean smell. Once we crossed the bridge we were greeted with the island smell, a mix of fresh fields and manure....I love it!

Our time is winding down here, we are starting to get a bit sad about packing up and leaving. We just seem to be happier here, mentally and physically. I have been trying to dream up a way to make it last longer....we have even been looking at the real estate pages...someday maybe....


My old guy is pretty happy here, swimming for a couple of hours at the beach every night. Before we left the vet told us most of his left elbow joint had osteo arthritis in it. So all the limping he was doing is from that, here, we can swim him for hours with minimal limping! We actually have to make him stop, he would go all day. He is still not quite sure what to make of the horses, but they don't seem that bothered by him.


Me in the car mirror on the way back from the beach...I have always loved driving fast with the windows down, my hair flying around...


Mmmmm, sour late summer rhubarb picked fresh from the garden across the way. I was able to find some east coast strawberries at the market so I cooked them down with the rhubarb to make some yummy tart jam. Just some fruit and a little bit of sugar....yummy on buttered toast or even on icecream! James just like to eat it by the spoonful out of the jar. The three horses come to visit often. They hear the screen door snap and they come running sometimes, you can here them coming from a couple fields over. I would like to think they come to just say hi, but I am pretty sure they just come for the carrots.

sigh....

I have been a little busy this past couple of weeks but I did manage to do some preserving. My Mom taught me when I was young the basics to making preserves...we come from good Ukrainian stock so we would always make our own pickles. I digress, so as I was biting into the fresh summer peaches, warm from the car, a light bulb went on and I decided to jump right in and do some jarred peaches.

In progress, the colours were just so fantastic, so rich, they just made your mouth water. The yummy smell filtering through the house and the warm glow from the jars. The first batch was "tested" by James and got a very big thumbs up. So away I went, stocking up on warm summer peaches that we can eat during the winter when we want a bit of warmth.

This evening is that start of our vacation, I cant wait. We will be driving to PEI sunday night, we are going to try driving straight threw. Lets see how that goes...I love the excitement of packing up the car, even the dog starts to feel excited. I will pack a cooler with drinks and sandwhiches and another bag for treats. I love seeing the country, breathing in the cool fresh air. As we get closer and closer to my grandparents little cottage, my heart swells and feels a little lighter. We will have two weeks of being unconnected...even though the farm finally got WIFI...ain't progress grand...actually I am still undecided on that. Long walks on the beach when the tide is out, Fergus will get to swim and dig for his tennis ball, and I will get to dream of a small little shop all of my own in "Victoria by the sea" or what ever other idea I have come up with on the 20 hour car ride.

lots to add....so i will start here

"So I think it's time we finished the basement..." That's the sentence that started it all at the beginning of the year. James just nodded and said sounds good, so we packed up the basement, rented a storage unit for all our precious stuff (aka JUNK) and realized, yep, the moisture issue is worse than we thought! The fuzzy white mold growing in the corner, the new electrical boxes put in 6 years ago, already rusting and corrodin, yep, this is going to cost us! After 5 contractors with quotes later, hoping to dodge the bullet of a major waterproofing job, which we didn't, the job of getting our house water tight is done! I we documented the jobs the entire way.


It started with replacing old plumbing, because if your a going to make a livable basement you don't want concrete floors, you want something nice. Old plumbing wont do because what if there is a flood. So you dig down 5 feet replace the pipes and then fill in the giant hole to hell. Yes, that's what I said hole to hell, well more like trench I guess. Man those guys worked hard, all this digging done by a couple of guys with shovels! Totally necessary we found out because that stack pipe that take all the bad stuff out of the house was totally corroded shut. Hmmmm how was anything getting out?

Well that was the first step done about a month ago, my next post will outline how the waterproofing company had to then dig out the basement, which involved digging out 9 inches of concrete and sand, while also digging around the four sides of the house! WHAT FUN!

Also, the last of the summer strawberries, and mmmmm peaches, I never can do anything in small amounts, nope not my style. My fear, just humour my ramble, is that I will be featured on one of the hoarding shows at some point in my life.

this seems to be a common theme....

Here I am starting another post off with, "it's been so long...."! I am not a super busy person, even though I may think that I am. Only 3 hairy beasts in my life to take care of, James (husband), Fergus (lovely cuddly big old dog), and Ollie (super suck of a cat). Yes, I work but really that doesn't take up that much time...and to quote a line from a movie "there are 24 usable hours in every day". So where is my time going?

So that is my rant for the last month, on more exciting news I have been accepted to my very first craft/artisan fair. I will post more on that later but here is a sneak peak at one of the things I am getting ready to sell at that market.



Oh and on a side note...thanks to those that leave me comments, it really brightens my day. To R&B please leave me an email address so that I can answer the questions you had for me. Thanks.

quilt has a new home....

Well I gave away my latest baby quilt a couple of weekends past. We had to drive to Merlin, Ontario...the weekend of the class 2 tornado. It was a little windy and rainy...putting it mildly! I hope the baby actually is a girl...you just never know until they are actually here, fingers crossed. Here are some pics from our overnight stay and the finished quilt.


Here it is, it turned out alright...I really hate all the rotary cutting involved in doing squares like this but, love the boxed in look. I also made a little label for the bake. One of the things I never remember to do is put labels on finished quilts. My hand embroidery needs a bit of work!!




We spent the night with James uncles house, he has a lovely big back garden with plenty of animal visitors and a lovely run down barn in the back. My heart was day dreaming about fixing it up into a lovely quilt studio on the main floor and a cozy place to have tea a read a book on the second floor, that would be used on those rainy days...sigh. We were trying out a new technique called HDR imaging....basically you take three pics at three different exposure settings and you layer them all together. You get some really fantastic images...the colours just get totally saturated...to the naked eye the red did not pop as much as it does in the picture. To cool...we will be playing with this a bit more.



A wee little friend, hopefully we didn't scar him too much!