Took Out The Camera This Morning

One of my goals this year is to start using my Canon camera much more. I used to have my old Panasonic Lumix camera velcroed around my neck. I've gotten lazy with the phone camera...I think a lot of us have because it's more convenient. But nothing beats a real zoom lens on a good camera! I took this photo from my office as the Blue Jays fed on the sunflower seeds. The glare on my window shows you how sunny it is today!

This little fella waits for me every morning in the tree just above the feeder. He watches quietly as I take each dog out then as I fill up the feeder, he chirps with delight! Another photo through the window. I'm going to make more of an effort to sit outside in the mornings to get better shots of the visitors at the feeder!

My Blogger friend Wisps of Words asked if people would share photos of their kitchens. Some Bloggers have such nice kitchens...oh I wish!!! Mine is the size of a cubicle lol...but I pack plenty of cooking and baking into it! This is the view from my office, not much room huh?

You're all recognize this view, from the "breakfast bar" area. This is where we eat and I photograph all of my foodie shots. When we look for our home to buy, a bigger kitchen is on the wish list. I have a little window that also gets lots of sun. The cats were using it as a viewing area, but I've decided some shelves are going up there for more seedlings.

We have a winner! :) I'm so sorry it took this long for me to announce the winner of my Dom Deluise cookbook giveaway! Cleaning and shopping got in the way! I'm happy to announce that of the ten or so people who entered, Martha's number was picked! Congratulations Martha!! (See Martha's wonderful blogs: Plowing Through Life, Miniaturopolis and The Gateway to Enlightenment)

I'll leave you with some nice closeups of the eight fur-babies, have a great Saturday my friends!! :)

Dana

Leo

Oscar

Charlie

Jack

Marlene

Pavlov

Stella

Scribble Picnic: Creams

Hi Everyone :)

Michael's theme for the Scribble Picnic today is "Creams". :) I remember back in grade school, it was very popular for the little bullies to say "I'm going to cream that guy after school, man...." Everyone was so tough in grade school weren't they? I always thought that boxing was a tough sport, but it often piqued my curiosity and I watched a lot of it. I was playing around with watercolours today and came up with this one for the theme of "creams". But that's not all folks! :)

I had to draw a Looney Tune! :) Porky Pig seemed to fit the bill for a triple scoop of ice cream! :) I haven't done too much drawing this last week because of the dreaded monthly shopping day, but I'm now catching up and it feels great to be creative again!

What's your favourite ice cream? I'd have to say hands down it's the Creamsicle for me, and for Alex too. Talk about two people who were meant to be together!! ;) That mix of orange and creamy vanilla gets me every time. I saw this image a few months back, it's called "Giant Pospsicles" by Tim Berg. I thought I'd try to paint my version of this ice cream treat:

...in an abstract watercolour way of course! :)

I guess I had ice cream on the brain last night too. I made some Hot Italian Sandwiches and fries with ice cream sodas for a real diner meal. So voilà, here is my contribution to the picnic this week! :)

Guess who is taking the day off COMPLETELY? ME! :) All I'm going to do today is draw and paint...and occasionally run outside to throw snowballs at that annoying nuthatch who wants to drill holes into the wall of the cottage.

By the way, an update on yesterday's post: No husky in the trap this morning. No hot dog touched. No new yellow snow in the back yard. I'm hoping that this dog is back home safe and sound! We will keep the trap for a few more weeks just in case though!

To Catch A Husky

This is NOT our dog. This is a loose, male, aggressive husky that has been in our yard the last few nights. We saw tracks in the snow and saw/smelled the territorial pee all over the yard. Our dogs went nuts smelling everywhere. 

The tracks showed that the dog walked up the snow banks and down over our fences to access the yard. 

Finally the other day I saw movement through the window and caught this intruder on camera. I opened the door and walked out onto the porch and tried to get its attention. It immediately tried to stare me down, raised its heckles and growled. Back inside I went!! We called the lazy dog-catcher on Sunday and she showed up today. I think the only reason she actually acted this time around was because I cc'd the Mayor of the village on the email. The last few years all we got were arguments from her, sheesh...it was a cold greeting when she arrived.

The trap is set in the driveway. With hanging hot dogs to boot. I HATE the idea of trapping a dog...I really do. But my own critters come first. With two unfixed females in the house it could get dangerous. And the errant husky showed aggression to me, I don't want to think of my poor little Jack in a fight with this mammoth dog. Since we have a feral cat problem in the village, I worry about the cats too...or skunks, or rabbits or squirrels...but this trap is set up so that only a heavy animal can trigger the trap door. I can't help myself, I'm looking outside every few minutes to see if the dog came back or not. I wouldn't want it to be trapped for very long in such cold weather!

I DESPISE IRRESPONSIBLE PET OWNERS. We've seen this dog before last winter and the winter before but it never entered the yard. Ugh.

These lovely creatures are my heart and my priority though. MUST keep them safe and sound. The trap could result in nothing. Alex and I really think that it's an irresponsible weekender who leaves their dog loose when they come up north since it's usually the same time every year we see this dog out alone. We'll keep the trap for two weeks and see what happens.

It's sunny here but really cold. I LOVE seeing the green in my windows this time of year!!! :) Happy first day of Spring my friends!!! Seize the day!!! :) I hope we seize the husky! :)

Advice needed: We have a cottage with wood siding. We are currently being driven mad by a nuthatch trying desperately to make a hole for a nest on the side of the house...does anyone have advice? I read that fake owls might scare them away...didn't work for my pigeon problem in Montreal though! I also read that wind chimes and shiny objects like aluminum pie plates could work because they scare them away. Since it's still winter, I can't really spray them with a hose if I hear them drilling...it really is driving us crazy.

Window Garden Is Thriving!!! Comfort Food and Snacks :)

Let's talk about comfort food!!! I hope everyone is having a nice weekend! Mine is more or less relaxed for now. :) Last night to celebrate St-Patrick's Day, I made a Guinness Irish Stew on a bed of mashed potatoes. Delicious!

For my weekly kitchen challenge, I tried a new recipe, Carrot Soup with Orange and Ginger. It was really nice for a change, but we found it a little too tangy with the orange. I think my vision shot up after eating this soup though! :)

For our 5th Anniversary last week, we had a Raclette dinner. It was so delicious and fun! One thing we are giving up in the next year is the monthly fondues...sigh...but you know, that cheese cost adds up! Home ownership is a big priority now! :)

Kunde Estates California Zinfandel 2012. When Alex and I met, we had a good combined income and we invested in a dozen or so good wines to age. We decided to open one up on our anniversary...this is the smoothest, fruitiest Zinfandel I've ever tasted! I have to get my hands on another one to age another 5 years!!

During the extreme deep cleaning weeks, we took a break one day for a Mexican Fiesta! :) We made a Mexican Dip with Homemade Tortilla Chips, my Homemade Salsa and a pitcher of Sangria. We spent the day in bed watching westerns, it was really nice! :)

Hope that got your appetite going! Speaking of appetites, we are CRAVING salads....since we can't digest store-bought lettuces, we have to rely on our own. I planted 4 containers of lettuce a week ago and looky here!

Huzzah! They are all sprouting!! As soon as they get big enough, I'll transplant them into bigger containers and start 4 more. I want to always have lettuce available. I love that I'm growing lettuce when it's still -20C out!! :)

My Meyer Lemon tree seemed to have died in January. But I kept babying her and fed her some of the leftover whey from my Ricotta cheese and it seems like she came alive overnight! I hope we get lots of lemons this year! :)

The flowers I planted are all doing well, except the Marigolds that never sprouted at all!

Nasturtiums, Zinnias and Chamomile.

My herbs are thriving as well:

Parsley, Thyme, one little Chive is growing and my Cilantro is gangbusters! :) (All planted on Feb 2nd)

I am finally back to monthly shopping! Woopee!!! What a relief not to have to go out every few weeks or so and plan like that, it's stressful for me. But I was stalling a little on menu ideas. I browsed Pinterest and found some themed nights, so that's what I'm going to follow for the next month:

I'm posting this to share my ideas. If you are the chef in the home, you know sometimes how challenging it is to come up with meal ideas! This is what I'm working on today. I'm checking the flyers to see what's on sale, then I'm going to come up with meal ideas based on the themes. I have to plan each meal according to the ingredient. The fresher ingredients will get eaten first. I don't mind heading to the local grocery store in a few weeks to pick up more fresh veggies and milk. 

What are you up to today? It's sunny but frigid here. Good thing though, no weekenders to upset the quite this weekend!! :)

Crawling Back To Blogger and the Picnic! :)

Hello my friends :) Did you hear that??? That was the biggest sigh of relief you will ever hear!

Spring Cleaning is DONE...I never thought it would take this long and be so tough! Ten days in total of cleaning, with a few days off in between. My body is SO sore...this is very physical work, and I'm not buying into the idea that it's good exercise either lol...just work that results in an achy breaky body! The big deep cleaning idea was for us of course, but mostly for this pack:

Click for a better view :)

Jack, Charlie, Marlene, Pavlov, Oscar the cat and Stella (butt to butt), Leo and Dana. Alex got a panoramic photo of the eight pets together, not an easy task!! Three of the five have mystery allergies. I'm hoping those ease up now.

I have a daily upkeep plan for the house to keep it clean and dust free now. You'll note the basement is nowhere to be seen on this list...if it were up to me, I'd never go down there, but my darling Alex vacuums it regularly so I don't even have to worry about that anymore. :) I also made a Spring Cleaning Checklist if anyone wants to be inspired to get down and dirty lol! :)

I'm so happy to get back to painting!! I didn't think I'd make it to Michael's Scribble Picnic this week, but I was up so dang early this morning. Good thing! :) The theme this week is Across the Universe. (check out more lovely scribbles by following the link - why not join yourself?!) :) I felt like doing a little abstract Nebula today. What's happening on your side of the universe? :)

This is what my world looked like this morning at 7:12 am. I love the hue of blue on winter mornings!

Today Alex and I celebrate our 5th Anniversary together. :) We're having a Raclette dinner and I'm making an Amaretto cake! During the spring cleaning, we realized how much work this rental is...and how it's WAY too much house for us. We don't want to go through this back-breaking cleaning ever again on a rental...we really want to buy our own place next year, downsize and live in the woods. We put together an extreme frugal plan for the next year so we can try to buy our home a year from now. It's going to be tough, but our motivation is very high! As long as pet, car and/or dental emergencies don't get in the way, we can do it. :) 

Big ol' icicles are a sign of warmer weather! We lost internet for about 3 days and had to rely on our phones, which I now accept is a good back up for the internet-addicted lol...I'm not that addicted, but it definitely comes in handy. I'm sure I could do without it, but I don't want to. :)

To keep sane the last few weeks, I continued my daily drawings...all cleaning-related! (I post a daily drawing on Instagram)  I'm so glad to be back and catching up with all of you! :) It feels normal again. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! :)

I was so sick that day...I think it was all the ickiness of the unfinished basement!