A Whole Year...

Well nearly anyway.
Not a stellar one either. A couple of surgeries, gastros ! CTT scans, TPN, all involving hospitalization and whammy  a year has gone by.
Thank goodness for the wonderful health care we receive here in Canada!
Not the best way to have time fly by,  but I am thankful to be on the right side of the grass and enjoying life.

On the plus side the grand girls are thriving at nearly 8, 4, and 3 and a new grand boy made his appearance in early February. He is nearly four months old and a chunky little (20 lb.) fellow.
He, his sister and mother were home for two weeks in March, what a joy to see them everyday.

I was away from my sewing and needlework for months but have finally ventured back into the sewing room, and if appearance means progress it is messy already. I even started hand quilting a baby quilt that was basted for three years!

I hope I get back to this blog sooner rather than later...

Ciao for now.

June? Already!

I have been meaning to post a blog for weeks, I guess I mean months, and I really meant to do it. But, I didn't.
No excuses I just didn't.

I will rectify that now.

We had a long, dragged out, lousy winter. I didn't think it would ever end. Now we are having a virtually non-existent spring. I just hope summer turns up.

It was a great winter to make quilt tops though. I think I managed to get three baby quilts done, a couple or three table toppers and even one or two full size quilt tops.
I managed to get two of them ready for some quilting at my LAQ. They are waiting for binding and then I will post a photo.

I made a fast baby quilt this weekend, the top anyway. A Canadian Living pattern "Sweet Dreams" from 1980.
I initially made it for a new baby, who was our neighbour. He is now a Dad and this one is for little guy.
The 1980 quilt is still being used and tucked around the little guy at bedtime.
I think he needs his very own as well.
I used to be able to post a picture but it looks like I have to get another orientation to blogging before I can do it.

And that's all for now folks...

Wonderful Days

This is my favourite time of the year, warm sunny days and cool nights. Easy to walk dogs and also to sleep.
Today is no exception, it is just stellar.
There are a couple of cruise ships in port, the autumn season is prime time to visit Eastern Canada and take in the great weather.http://www.novascotiawebcams.com/halifax/pier-21.html

A little taste of Roma

I had a wonderful trip to Roma. Oh, the things to see and do. One of our evenings was spent at a reception held by the Canadian Club of Rome to celebrate the start of another year of events. I was very fortunate to be in attendance, it was held at the house of the Canadian Ambassador.
It is situated on the grounds of the Villa of the Imperial Prefect of Rome and the site of the Villa of Scipio Africanus. The enormous gardens are bordered by the majestic aqueduct feeding into the Baths of Caracalla.

Resurfacing

Well it didn't take long for that "nearly a year without blogging " to scurry by.
Where did it go?

Well.... a wonderful trip to Rome with sides to Positano and the Amalfi Coast, a villa in Collerosso and a Sunday afternoon trip to see the ceramics in Castelli.
Numerous trips to the Annapolis Valey
A couple or three trips to Toronto, both by air and car.
Lots of fabric cutting into little pieces and resewing them into big pieces.
The usual life gets in the way stuff.
Lovely times with my three children and my little granddaughters.
Many walks with George and Gracie
And it goes on.

Beautiful weather here in NS and now the heat and humidity has seemed to ebb so it is my kind of weather Warm days, cool nights. Bring on the harvest.

Perhaps I won't be so long in coming back.

Up and Away

I started this blog three years ago when I was traveling to New Zealand, and have sporadically contributed to it since.

Now I am going off into the wild blue yonder once again. Tomorrow I hop on Air Canada for Heathrow, Frankfurt and finally Rome.http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/rome.
A place I always wanted to see but didn't think it would happen in this lifetime.

I remember the film  Roman Holiday when I was a teen and of course the song Three Coins in a Fountain from the film of the same name, which I might add was made when I was a very young child! Everything was so exotic and historic and vibrant. Wow!
 I am so excited.

I will be visiting with family, my daughters in laws, and the TO family are there as well. Extra time to spend with a dear little dude.
We plan on the Amalfi Coast, visiting Sorrento and Positano, a trip to the villa, in the mountains and lots of Roman sites.

I am not even going to think about the amazing food and wines to savour. It will be such fun to sit at a piazza and people watch.

Keep posted, I really will try to keep up with the latest news.

Rainy Days

We certainly have had a plethora of rainy, drizzly, dreary foggy days this summer. Everything is either grey, sky and clouds and fog, or green, all the trees and grass.
Among all that miserable weather we did have a few days of sun and warm humid weather, my guess is perhaps a week total.
I am turning mouldy.

The oldest was visiting from the Left Coast for two weeks. He returned home yesterday and was sure to tell me about the sunny skies and warm temps in lotus land.

The youngest and family were Stateside for a weeks vacation, they had a great time.

In five weeks I'll be heading to Roma, I am looking forward to this trip, visiting friends and vacationing with the middle child and her little family, and sightseeing.

I hope I get some photos to put in these posts.

A brief hiatus

Well I guess it was a hiatus from blogworld but definitely not brief.

So many changes, parents both in long term care with 24 hour care. My sleeps are better since I am not wondering about them

A new baby girl born in late January and she is such a sweetheart. I visited for 5 weeks in the dead of winter, Toronto was cold, but what a pleasure and she brought her family home for a visit in May.

The other two granddaughters are growing like weeds. Anna in daycare and walking, wasn't she just a little baby? and Claire starting school in September.

Lots of sewing and quilting being done too. I am delving into the scraps and the four patches are piling up, soon I'll put them into some semblance of order and put them into a quilt. In the meantime I finished a wee baby quilt for a new little Rose.

We have had a couple of nice hot summery days a most welcome change from the dreary miserable spring we had in NS.

I am going to go outside and enjoy the evening.

Merry Christmas

This is getting to be a Holiday blog I am so infrequent posting updates.

Lots of changes since October.

Mom has successfully transitioned to a long-term care facility and Dad has had the paperwork done as well. Hopefully this will enable them to be together in a facility. It is hard top be separated when you have been married nearly 67 years.

Since I was so busy settling parents the past few months Christmas cards etc. went by the wayside. I will  be back on track next year though.
We are even dining at The Westin this evening for our Christmas meal.

I have managed to sew though and the Quiltville mystery, Roll Roll Cotton Boll is in various stages in my sewing room.

The girls, Claire and Anna give us lots of joy, we just spent the very early morning with them watching gifts being unwrapped. Santa was very successful finding their house.


Next year the home in Toronto will have a little one that Santa will have to pay a visit to.

George and Gracie continue to grow and make sure we don't sit for any length of time, they are great walkers and sniff lots of trees and poles on every occasion.

 May you all have a healthy  holiday season and a Happy New Year with family and friends.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if "peace" could have a chance.

Happy Thanksgiving

It is a beautiful autumn day here, cool this morning for DH to walk George and Gracie but they didn't seem to object.

 We enjoyed our Turkey dinner on Friday and two meals made their way to Mom and Dad. She still in hospital and he is bacheloring it!
Leftovers ruled most of our meals this weekend.

 I have been machine appliquing the top part of The Great Pumpkin wall hanging. http://pumpkinpatchprimitivequiltshoppe.blogspot.com/2009/09/great-pumpkin.html You can see a photo of it on this site.
This is a 4 or 5 year project. I expect when I complete the applique part this week it will be put away until I drag it out again next year. Then I shall put it all together. Frankly I am getting sick of looking at it after intensively working on it for the past 6 weeks.

I am starting to paper piece the diamonds for the Twelve Days of Christmas Mystery from Esther Aliu.www.estheraliu.com Six of twelve diamonds made and I hope to complete them today. Then I will start Part 2, I am only a week late with this mystery and I hope to catch up.

The newlyweds had their first anniversary on Sunday, congratulations to a great couple. Next year they will have a little person to help them celebrate.

Remember this?  It is at the long-arm quilters, should be ready in a week or two.

Curried Zucchini Soup

 2 tbsp butter, preferably unsalted
1 medium onion,coarsely chopped
 2 tbsp curry powder, depends on your preferences as to how "hot" you like it
 6 cups chicken broth
2 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
8 cups zucchini, washed and seeded, cut in chunks
1/2 cup table cream.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the onions and cook until they soften. Add the curry powder, chicken broth, potatoes salt, pepper and zucchini. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Transfer ingredients to a blender and puree. Blend in batches and be careful the hot soup doesn't splatter and burn you! Or use an immersion blender and puree in the saucepan.
Add the cream last.

Serve in heated bowls with a dollop of sour cream or plain Balkan or Mediterranean style yogurt with croutons scattered on top.

Serves: 6 healthy servings.

I had a huge zucchini, added about 6 new medium potatoes and used two boxes of chicken broth, 1 liter each, so I had lots of soup. I froze some and will add the cream when it is reheated.

Another monthly post

Since I don't seem to manage more than one a month these days...
However plenty to comment about.

 Hurricane Earl dropped in on the weekend, and by the time he was near HRM he was downgraded to a mere tropical storm. G&G spent most of the time on the balcony watching and trying to gobble up any leaves that came their way. A few trees in the woods behind fell, but they were derelict anyway, and on the streetscape some of the young ash, birch, maple planted by the developer succumbed.
However no one appeared to have structural damage.

Not so in Christchurch, NZ  All family there seemed to have fared okay with loss of bits and pieces and knicknacks. Louise was without power after the 'quake and I hope it has been restored. Mother Nature has certainly been making her presence known around the globe. She is displeased!

Mom fell on Friday morning, luckily her a Home Care worker was with her when her knees just seemed to buckle and down she went,  fracturing her right hip, so she spent most of Saturday waiting to go to the OR, because of power interruptions she was bumped to Sunday and finally went around 430 PM.
She came through with flying colours, a little confused from the whole deal, but that is understandable.
It wasn't a bad break so a simple DHS was the only necessary intervention.
Time will tell now as to her post-op mobility.

The Cassia Bud pickles are bottled and some already eaten, they are good. A few bottles were gifts to my neighbours who plied me with goodies post-op.

I thought I'd post a photo, so here is one of Anna. I borrowed this from Patti's FB page. She is adorable.

Recipe for Cassia Bud Pickles

Kathie I have been meaning to post this recipe for you for months. They are lovely , kind of take a while to make but well worth it  IMHO.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The total amount of sugar is only 6 cups, don't add anymore after Day 10. I was able to get 13 pint bottles from my nearly 8 pounds of pickling cukes.
I buy my Cassia Buds from Bulk Barn, they usually have them in stock.



              Cassia Bud Pickles                                                       Yield 8 – 10 pint and quart bottles


Approx 8 lbs of pickling cucumbers, 2 – 3 inch, washed, scrubbed both ends removed. Cut in half and half again.


Brine: 4 qts. Boiling water in which 2 cups of pickling salt has been dissolved.

Put cucumbers in large crock. Cover with brine and then with plate which is weighed down. I usually use Mason jars filled with water.
Let stand in a cool place for one week. Remove  any scum form top of brine daily.

7th Day: Drain
      cover with boiling water, and again with the weighted lid. Let stand 24 hours

8th Day: Drain, cover with boiling water and 1 tsp. Powdered alum. Cover again with weighted lid.

9th Day: Drain and cover with hot syrup for 24 hours
    6 cups white pickling vinegar
    5 cups white sugar
1 ounce cassia buds
1 tsp. Celery seeds
A few whole cloves

10th Day: drain and save the syrup liquid, add 1 cup of white sugar. Heat to boiling and pour over cucumbers. Recover with weighted pot lid.

11th and 12th Days: repeat Day 11.

13th Day: Drain, bring syrup to boil. Pack cucumbers in sterile jars. Cover with boiling syrup, seal and enjoy.

Recuperating

Since the last missive I had emergency bowel surgery, everything went well and now I am home. I have nothing but great praise for my colleagues at the Dartmouth General, they are the best from ER/OR/PAR/ and the Surgery floor in this whole province.

Now I recuperate, along with Home Care visits from VON .


DH held down the fort and G&G had a few days wondering where I was, they are hanging pretty tight to me since I arrived home.

I am thinking this may be the time to start handquilting the Autumn Leaves wall-hanging that has been basted for 2 years and completed for 3 and started in 1997. What do you think?
I can't sit to machine quilting for any great length of time.

The Big Kid arrives home on the Redeye Friday morning, I'm anxious to see him.

It's July?

How did that happen? I was sure I just blogged recently.
Seriously though life was busy and Pastiche was along way down on the list.


 I did go to Toronto for ten wonderful days of R&R visiting the newlyweds. I love TO, especially exploring the King St. E neighbourhood, and the multitude of restaurants. We sampled lots of different cuisines, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Chinese. I explored the fabric shops along Queen St. W, didn't buy a thing but looked at lots.

 Arrived home to family crisis with my parents so the paper work has been started for long-term care placement for Mom. Dad has finally realized that he is unable to keep up the pace. It will be better for both of them and Mom will get much more outside stimulation and fresh faces to see daily. Now we sit and wait, the process usually takes 3 - 6 months.

Claire was four years old and she had a tea party for some of her friends, we enjoyed pizza and cake in the evening with the family.

Anna had a good time swinging away! She is growing like a weed, and a very contented baby.

Char and Faeyque were home for 10 days and just headed back to TO, and the heat last weekend. Luckily they missed the G8, G20 mess and chaos. We had a lovely visit and F saw more of NS. They also went to PEI  and of course the pilgrimage to Pictou County.

The sewing room is tidied and not in use, in preparation for more visitors this weekend and in August. I have some handwork to keep me occupied though.

It is really quite hot here this week so  I am enjoying cool drinks, popsicles and the fan.

I almost forgot to mention George and Gracie, they are sweet little dogs, I didn't think they were going to bark but George let out a few one day when a strange thing was on the bed. It was my  bright yellow purse. He was adamant that he would not go into the room until he had my attention and he knew what was lurking. They are plunked down in front of the fan now, catching a few zzzzz's.

The Recovering room

Those two puppies are hilarious, they certainly had discussions among themselves about the cones, and they didn't like me calling them "coneheads."

George is almost back to his normal self, and occasionally licking the spots, but Gracie is another matter. She is playing the role of the invalid to the hilt. The abdominal binder is causing her much grief and she won't walk with it on, even to her food dish.

 She is just lazing around, just waiting for someone to pass her a treat or brush her face or rub her belly. Or, even to give her a toy.
She thinks this is a spa.


Its a dog's life.

Lots of mistakes

Wowee I definitely shouldn't have been close to the rotary cutter yesterday. I didn't cut myself but my measuring was a way off TWICE. Instead of 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch rectangles I cut them 4 1/4. I recut and did the same thing again.... grrr. Luckily this is for a very small table topper, only 8 flying geese.

I am glad I took a hiatus from the DWR. The melons and rings are all done and I just have to sew the final two rows. Pat myself on the back here.

Then when it was all sewn together I did one upside down.
I went to bed! I'll fix it this morning.

Gracie and George are recovering, they had their life-altering spaying and neutering on Thursday. George is nearly back to normal but poor Gracie is still perplexed and cannot believe she had this happened to her.
So far she has lost two of her three sutures so I have had to put a surgical transparent dressing on it, so I can see the incision but she can't gnaw it. The cone and tea-tree oil are also being used to keep her away but.... somehow.

Anna visited her great - grandparents yesterday,her first road trip.They approved of her.

Anna Catherine

Anna Catherine arrived on early Friday morning, April 30. She weighed in at 8 pounds and is a healthy baby girl. A lovely head of auburn hair and, so far, blue eyes.

 Claire is very excited and is enjoying being the Big Sister.

We were all fooled, thinking that this baby was going to be a boy but.... so now I'll start a girly quilt for her.

End of April

It is hard to believe that April is nearly over. Today we are  having the showers and intermittent sunny spots that bring May flowers and greener grass.

We are still on baby watch, the newest addition shows no haste in arriving in the big world. Perhaps it wants to be a May baby, that would be nice since we have lots of Aprils and only Papa is May.

I have nearly finished piecing the third row of arcs of the DWR. It is looking good, the sewing room isn't though. Gracie has obviously been finding little pieces of thread since some passed through this morning. I will have to be vigilant with her and her brother, they will eat anything, except the kibble from the vet.

DH and I went to an open rehearsal with Symphony NS this morning to hear the Dvorak Cello Concerto. The cellist was Matt Haimovitz and he and the orchestra are performing this evening. SNS is having a Dvorak Festival. The performance this Sunday evening is From The New World and Giora Schmidt, is the featured violinist. The New World Symphony is one of my favourites. It should be wonderful.

Falling behind...

Again, boy, am I an intermittent blogger.
 It isn't as if I have nothing to tell, I do, but I get carried away doing something else and whammo the day is gone and so is the blog opportunity.
So.

I took G&G for a long walk this morning, they sniffed everything possible and ate nearly all the dead and dried up earthworms on the sidewalk. They sure find them tasty, and all that great protein. 

I am making great progress on the DWR, one whole row pieced and the second is nearly completed. At this rate it should be completed by the end of the summer. I have even been keeping track of the hours spent working on it. I have to lay it out on the floor to make sure I am putting the contrasting four -patches in a random , but controlled, order.

We are on baby watch here, the new babe is due on Saturday. Claire is anxious to be the "big sister."