Halloween Recap (or How to Assemble a Ghost)

November 4, 2026November 4, 202618 Comments

Halloween was full of chills and thrills, and drama (the candy stealer!) so I thought I’d follow up on my post from last week (Halloween Decor). First of all, the homemade ghost….

How to Assemble a Ghost:

The ghost assembly ingredients were stored on top of the stove in the garage (the repository that I can’t part with because I’m waiting for the new confection/bake stove to quit so I can put the old ugly stove that cooks better back in) until the big day. They consisted of a foam hat head from Michaels (on sale for $6 with a 40% coupon), a $2 string of ghost LED lights from Dollarama, and an old broom. Conveniently, the foam head had an opening the exact same diameter as the broomstick so it fit perfectly onto the top of broom. I taped the lights on, starting with the eyeballs, and then wound the rest of the string around the broomstick. Then I draped a length of white flimsy ghost material ($4 costume also from the dollar store), over the whole thing. I stuck the broomstick behind the rosebush and tied it to the front deck so it wouldn’t fly away, as ghosts are wont to do.

Voila! I think he looks a bit like ET. What were you expecting for $12 – Martha Stewart?

Okay, there might be a reason Martha’s ghosts look better than mine. It needed another layer of material, something for the face, and perhaps some more lights, but it was the best I could do on such short notice.

As the evening progressed, Elliot was looking more and more phosphorescent, until he just faded away….

Note to self – buy a new broomstick for next year – that one was pretty beat up.

The Post Halloween Sales: (in which people who didn’t get enough candy, buy more for half price….)

I did manage to buy a new witch’s hat the next day, ($6.50) to go with my new cape. This one is nice because it has a black veil (for creating mystery) and a collapsible point (for those days when you don’t want anyone to know you’re a witch.) Alas, all the witch costumes were gone as I refused to get up that early. (I wanted three so I could invite two friends to re-enact MacBeth for next year’s witch walk.) But as a witch isn’t born, she “begins” (according to that commercial about Yaga that they show on tv every ten minutes) at least I’ll be prepared.

The Award Winning Display:

It was a perfect evening for Halloween (warm, no rain), so I had about 50 kids, with some really great costumes. When the rush was over, I left the smaller ghosts twirling in the wind,

set the bowls outside for any lingering spooks, and went to check out an animated display in another neighbourhood, which I had driven past many times but had never seen it at night. Every square inch of the yard was taken up with something ghoulish, including two horror houses (sorry, I don’t know my horror movies but the tent and garage looked and sounded scary – enter at your own risk). Smoke and music billowed from everywhere. I heard last year there was a flash dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller in front of the house, courtesy of a local dance group.

Watch out! You never know what is going to snatch you!

I spoke with the homeowners briefly – they’d had 300 kids through by 9pm. They were sitting on their front step with two huge boxes of full size candy bars (I declined), but the kids were having so much fun being scared they weren’t even thinking about the candy…..but somebody else was…..

The Post Halloween Drama: (or The Great Candy Debate)

When I went on facebook later, a post from my community group popped up. An upset homeowner had posted a videocam of someone stealing their candy, and asked if anyone could identify the thief. They had left two bowls out on a table in front of their house, so they could take their own child trick or treating, with a note to take one of each. There were two young boys (10ish?) on the CCTV, and while the one kid took one out of each bowl, the other kid dumped the whole bowl into his sack, and then did the same thing for the second bowl, then they ran away. This is wrong on so many levels, not just the stealing, but the lack of empathy in not leaving any candy for anyone else, as the homeowner pointed out it was “a teachable moment.”

So I go on to read the comments (of which there are over 100 by then, with the usual trolls), and a couple of other people said they’d had similar things happen. (I only had two groups of older kids that night – one of boys, and one of girls, but they were all very polite.) While it’s disturbing to see something like that spoil such a fun evening, later when I was thinking about it, I wondered if maybe the kid came from a home with food insecurity? He might know it was wrong, but wouldn’t necessarily think about getting caught on camera, so it might just be a crime of opportunity. I noticed neither boy was wearing a Halloween costume, just t-shirts and hoodies, so that might indicate some parenteral absence right there? Just some thoughts…..from this land of Halloween excess. According to the news, Canadians spent one billion dollars on Halloween this year. Have you ever experienced Halloween greed? (other than your own of course…there are no chocolate bars left here and the remaining chips are under lock and key.)

Daylight Savings Time:

On to more cheerful topics, depending on how you feel about sleep and daylight. We got an extra hour to gorge on candy and sleep Halloween night. We turned the clocks back here in Ontario, (at least until Quebec and New York decide not to), whereas other Canadian provinces have decided to stay on permanent daylight savings time. I myself would rather have an extra hour of daylight in the evening, as now that I’m retired I don’t do mornings, so I don’t care what time the sun rises as I never see it. But some of the sleep experts are now saying that they should have chosen standard time instead, as it’s more in tune with our circadian rhythms. All of the high schools start at 8am now and even some of the grade schools go in at 8:30 – on top of a bus ride aren’t the kids falling asleep in class? Sleep deprivation is too hard on the body, especially for growing children, and shift workers. I think we should adopt European time – start work or school at a reasonable hour, say 9am, with a long siesta break for lunch, work until 6, have an apertivo, a stroll around the piazza for exercise, and a late supper, and go to bed at midnight. What are your thoughts on the time change?

Halloween Decor 2026

October 27, 2026October 29, 202648 Comments

Halloween used to be one day, now it’s a season – a season which starts in the summer apparently as my first sighting of ghosts was in late July when these Martha Steward goblins made an appearance in Winners/Marshalls/Homesense. (a home decor/department store for things you didn’t know you needed.)

These are cute Martha, they light up, but really $49.99? I’m sure I can make my own with an old sheet, a foam head that you use for hats, and a string of LED lights. Perhaps not as professional, but much cheaper.

Enough is enough. If you really must buy this stuff, (plush pumpkins, ceramic ghosts with orange bows?), at least wait until after Halloween when everything is on sale. I bought a trio of hanging ghosts at Michael’s last year for $3 each. Alas I have no tree from which to hang them, as my birch tree has given up the ghost!

Just say no. Why would anyone buy this, especially for $399, unless they were into gold plated status symbols? It weighed a ton….but when I went back a few weeks later it was gone.

And does anyone really need black and white Halloween dishes? Unless you turn off the lights and hold a dinner party, you’re too busy answering the door to dine on anything but cold pizza. I must admit I did succumb and buy the salt and pepper shakers, ($10 for the set) but then I worried they might be encouraging people (including me) to add more salt to their diet, just for the novelty, so I’ve stored them in the china cabinet for now. (They will be allowed out one night a year.)

Next stop was Home Depot in mid-August, where I was looking for plants on sale, but came upon a whole aisle of scary creatures, some of them gigantic.

If animated creatures are part of your Halloween, and you have an extra $300 to add to your collection, then by all means shop early for best selection. The scariest ones sell out first. For the rest of us, it’s far cheaper to visit the neighbours display.

This Bride of Frankenstein is my favourite, followed by the girl on the swing.

Another neighbour has several of these on her front lawn. I’m not sure what they’re made of, but alternatively, you could enlist a tween who insists they are too old for Halloween to pose for a few hours.

And when did buying a pumpkin become so complicated? What color? How big? How much do you want to spend on something that’s only going to get smashed at the curb the next day. I’ve noticed it was a good year for pumpkins as they seem to be larger than normal. But the bigger it is, the more gooey goop you have to scrap out of it, a job I did not like even when I was a child. You just need something on your front porch that indicates you’re having Halloween, at least as long as the candle stays lit, which on a windy night can be a challenge. (LED lights to the rescue.)

As for costumes, when I was a kid you were either a ghost, a witch, or a tramp, and the costumes were recycled among your siblings year after year as you grew. There wasn’t a whole store full of choices, which changed every year, depending on the popular movie characters. And no one was a princess with a ballgown that cost as much as Kate Middleton’s.

There was a large selection of fall and Halloween themed candles to add some ambience to your spooky night.

We’ve had such a ‘spell’ of fine weather and I have $50 worth of candy so I hope it’s not a stormy night. One year when it was cold and windy and raining, I didn’t bother with Halloween as the forecast was so bad. I turned out the lights and looked out once in a while, and saw exactly one solitary spook being blown down the street. If it’s a school night there tend to be fewer tricker or treaters anyway. And if the weather is really bad they go to the mall or a few select stops, as the parents don’t want them eating all that candy anyway, and sometimes they can dress up for school parties. I don’t remember that ever being an option when I was a kid. I don’t remember the weather ever being a deterrent either, you just piled on more layers. As this year is a Saturday night, it’s likely to be busy.

Speaking of candy, I swear the chocolate bars get smaller every year – these are barely two bites – of course I had to sample them, what if they were stale? They were good, but more chocolately (with rice pieces) that the traditional KitKats. I also hand out Lay’s Chips and Cheetos, so I can eat the leftovers (built in portion control).

If it is a dark and stormy night, you can turn the lights off early and hold a midnight seance. Be prepared, oh deadly spirits – you may be summoned. As for the ingredients in these candles, bergamot belongs in Earl Gray tea, sage in turkey stuffing and the earthy oak was somewhat reminiscent of dead leaves. No wonder they smelled so bad. I passed on these, as they weren’t likely to entice any otherworldly visitors.

But you can’t go wrong with mulled wine after the lights are out. Although I had to look up oud – a rare fragrance note used in perfume and incense and sourced from the wood resin of a tree infested with parasitic mold. But the color matched my new witches cloak.

Never underestimate the power of a good witch’s cloak. This one is versatile, as it’s reversible. It’s black satin on one side, so with a pointy hat you’re the perfect witch. If you’re in the mood for something more regal, the burgundy velvet is reminiscent of a character from the Game of Thrones – switch out the hat for a gold crown and you’ll rule your kingdom far and wide. It’s quite long and surprisingly warm too – if the night is chilly – and at $12.50 with my store points, it was a real bargain. We witches have to be thrifty. (I do have some experience as a witch – see MacBeth -the cauldron scene – grade 12 – Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble etc. (Link to MacBeth witches scene – By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes – I’m not sure where you’d get some of those ingredients today though….dragon scales anyone?)

This witch walk sounded like fun, but it was last Saturday night when the moon was full. You were to meet at dusk and walk along the waterfront park, join in anywhere, it ended at a restaurant parking lot. What a unique activity for the witching hour, and I love the slogans. Not to mention a great marketing idea, as I’m sure there was plenty of witches brew served along with the usual pub food. I’ll be prepared for next year. In the meantime, I may light my candle, don my cloak, and pen something in the fantasy genre which is so popular now. Maybe something with a dragon and a spell or two for inspiration. Happy Hauntings My Lovelies!

(PS. When I was in the store yesterday, all the Halloween and autumn decor was packed away, and it was full of Christmas stuff – the buying season is upon us, with not a snowflake in sight.)

Signs of August – 2026

August 26, 2026August 26, 202620 Comments

August is not my favorite month, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before….like every year at this time. And this particular August was no exception especially since I ruined the first two weeks of it with a bad sunburn (see Beach Baby blog), which limited my outings to those allowing bare feet. Thank God for books and Blue Jays games! Plus we’ve had a lot of rainy or overcast days, and now a hint of cooler weather, which along with the earlier sunsets signals that fall is on the way.

The garden has dried up, the tomatoes were a bust, the Roma’s small, the Beefsteak half rotten, and the lettuce long wilted. The only interesting thing was these lemon cucumbers, and while they look like a lemon, they taste like a regular old cucumber.

I got the seeds from the library’s Seed Catalogue program – designed to inspire gardening. Libraries are full of interesting things these days other than books. They are always trying new programs – you can rent a fishing rod, a musical instrument, get a day pass to provincial parks etc. You could flip through a binder of seeds, regular and heirloom, and pick out the ones you wanted to try. I had never heard of lemon cucumbers – the package only had 5 seeds in it so I was surprised it was so prolific (and no you don’t have to return them at the end of the season!).

When my feet had recovered enough that I could comfortably wear running shoes again, I resumed my walking circuit around the neighbourhood, and was surprised to find these peaches in someone’s front yard. I don’t remember ever noticing the trees before, but how could you miss this bumper crop!

I don’t know these neighbours, so I knocked on their door and asked how old the trees were. The woman was a gardener and proudly gave me a tour of her garden. The trees are only 3 years old, but after finding out their detailed routine which involved a lot of spraying, fertilizing and TLC I doubt I’ll be buying a peach tree, despite how lovely it would be to go outside and pick a peach in your own yard. I’ll leave the peaches to the Niagara region.

Instead I went to the Saturday farmer’s market…..

and bought 3 baskets of Red Haven seconds for making jam.

Three hours of peeling, (I’m really missing my mom on the second anniversary of her death as she was my peach peeler), equals two batches (12 Jars) of jam. It’s really more of a fruit puree, as I use the low sugar canning stuff. Good for adding to yoghurt or on toast in the middle of winter when you are craving fresh fruit.

I also bought some glads at the market – my favorite fall flower, although there were bunches of zinnias too.

I’ve given up on my flowers…

…although the impatiens are still hanging in there. My hydrangeas did not flower at all this year, but nobody else’s did so we must have had a spring frost at the wrong time.

The dipladenia always do well as they love the heat and are drought resistant.

Fall will be here before we know it.

So enjoy these last few days of August…..

before summer sails away….until next year.

Beach Baby

August 12, 202638 Comments

The beach is my happy place, as another blogger (thanks Dave) recently reminded me. It’s one of the only places where I truly relax. The other is my swing under the trees. Both involve books. So why is it August and I haven’t even been to the beach yet? Because getting there requires a hot-but-not-sweltering, blue-sky-but-no-clouds kind of day, with a bit of a cool breeze, low humidity and no wildfire smoke. No I’m not asking for too much…that is the way the summers used to be!

The other reason I don’t go to the beach very often is that it is thirty minutes away, and involves packing up a whole carload of beach paraphernalia – beach umbrella, beach towels, beach chairs, cooler for drinks and snacks, (sandwiches, chips for salt, fruit for potassium), a thermos of coffee, suntan lotion, (face and body and lips), books (preferably murder mysteries in large print for easier reading in the sun), sunglasses, straw hat, beach cover-up, flip-flops for the sand, those scuba diving shoes if it’s rocky, and lots of water for hydration…..and then there’s the cell phone, camera (for closeups of sailboats), keys and some money for the chip truck. It’s like packing for a wilderness trip, so it becomes a whole day’s outing, as there’s no point in loading up all that stuff for just an hour or two. I envy my friends who live a couple of blocks from the beach and ride their bikes down for an after-dinner swim, carrying nothing but a small towel to sit on the sand. (I live near a river, but there is no beach or public access to it, and the water is so deep and cold and the current so swift, it would carry a non-swimmer like me away.)

So, let’s return to the beach days of my childhood, when someone else (my poor mother) organized all that stuff and in the glow of nostalgia it was always sunny and perfect beach weather. (I don’t recall it ever raining then, so there was probably a law against it, like in the lyrics of Camelot.) As my dad had a dairy farm, family vacations were few and far between, but Sundays at the beach were a constant every summer Sunday of my childhood.

Before church (another constant, as you could go to hell if you missed mass) my mother would put a chicken and some potatoes in the oven in one of those big blue roasting pans, and after mass the pan would be loaded into the trunk of our Chevrolet, (because everyone drove a Chevrolet – see song lyrics below), with a big Thermos of orange Freshie or Kool-aid. We would change out of our church clothes, into our bathing suits and shorts, and eagerly anticipate the 45minute drive to the beach through the countryside. I can still smell the roast chicken, and hear the ice cubes clinking away in the Thermos. We always went to the same beach in a small resort town along Lake Huron because there used to be a dance pavilion there when my parents were dating. It was smaller and narrower but less crowded than the city beach, but more importantly the roadside was lined with trees and bushes so there was shade for when the sun got too hot.

But first lunch in the adjacent park, at a picnic table under the tall trees. My mom was happy when KFC came to town, because then we picked up a bucket of fried chicken, which we all liked except for my dad who preferred the home cooked meal. Does anyone remember the plastic piggy bank of Colonel Sanders – when it was full of change that would be our picnic money. As you could not go into the water until an hour after you ate – lest you get a leg cramp and drown, (one of those unwritten rules of the 60’s) we played in the park on the swings after lunch, and explored the ruins of the abandoned dance pavilion. All that was left was some remnants of the stone dance floor and the concession stand. Still you could imagine it in all its grandeur, dancing under the stars to the big bands.

To get to the beach you had to descend a steep sandy bank, but as the car was parked above right along the road, it wasn’t a chore to carry all the beach stuff down. (not like the city beach where you might have to lug the stuff for miles from the far parking lot if it was crowded). I remember beach blankets as being wool and scratchy, but I see there is a striped one in my old pictures, and some striped beach towels too, but mostly I remember old bathroom ones. There were aluminum web lawn chairs for the adults, but no sign of a beach umbrella. They probably hadn’t been invented yet, but you could retreat to the shade of the trees, which my dad promptly did, falling asleep on the blanket, leaving my mother on water patrol duty to watch us four kids. Does anyone remember the distinctive chemical smell of Coppertone – SFP8 and their early slogan – Tan, Don’t Burn – with the little girl with the tan line.

It was great fun to go in the water to cool off, and sandy underfoot once you got past the shore rocks. You could ride the waves if it was windy. But if the waves were too big we weren’t allowed to go in too far.

Not like these kids, as there was no lifeguard like at the city beach.

I’m liking this little swimdress. I bought one from Old Navy this spring.

It was also fun to build sand castles with plastic pails and to bury your siblings…..and get buried yourself! The sand was damp and cool and you could easily spent an hour digging a hole deep enough to get to China.

After awhile my dad would wake up, and go for a swim, (he could swim a bit, but we could not as we never had swimming lessons) and then play with us for a bit. A bag of chips would come out, and some Freshie from the thermos. But all too soon it would be time to go home, where he would have to do the chores and milk the cows. As he often worked two jobs, no wonder he fell asleep on the blanket on his one day off. We would usually leave by 5pm, everyone washing their sandy feet off in a beach pail, so as not get sand in the car, another rule of the sixties before there were car washes with vacuums.

Sunday suppers would be casual – leftovers and sometimes bacon and cheese melts which were my favorite. Sunday nights were always Walt Disney, and Bonanza if I could stay up that late. I would usually in bed early, tired out from being in the sun all day.

I was always sad when the Labor day weekend came and it was time to wave goodbye to the beach.

Looking back at these old pictures I can make a few observations. I had a nice collection of bathing suits, but my mother had good taste and children’s clothes were cheap then. Oh how I wish it was so easy to find one today! Second, I used to tan when I was a kid, judging from my brown arms and legs in the first picture. I grew up on a farm so we were outside a lot and I don’t remember burning, but maybe the sun was less intense back then? But when I was a teenager I was always the one with the sunburn which peeled and never turned into a tan. Certainly the summers seem to be hotter now and the UV index higher. There are still families at the beach, but perhaps not as many now that more people have pools, or know people who have pools, and splash pads are so popular. I fail to see the fun in a splash pad but I suppose it’s better than nothing…and there’s no sand to drag into the house. Third, camera quality has really really improved. And fourth, my mother took us to Pierre, her French hairdresser which explains the short haircuts and why I have a thing about too short bangs to this day!

Healthy lunch – note soon to be burnt foot!

So last week we had 3 nice beach days in a row, and as the summer was slipping away, I decided to go to the city beach on the holiday Monday. It was actually a bit cool with a north wind so I didn’t go in the water. I sat under my beach umbrella and finished a book – The Guilt Trip (3 couples go to Portugal for a destination wedding, one person ends up dead), a perfect beach read. It was crowded being a holiday, but nice, so I went back the next day too when it wasn’t so crowded. (one of the perks of being retired is you can go to the beach any day you want). I read another beach book – Things to Do When It’s Raining – set in the Thousand Islands. It was hot, so I went in the lake 3 times – the water was warm and perfect, refreshing but not shocking like it can be sometimes when you first go in until you get used to it.

There was lots of sand, and it was clean, unlike a few years ago when there was only a narrow strip of dirty beach from the lake levels being so high. Now they are too low, and even the groynes are buried under the sand. I finished another book, but was so absorbed in it, I did not realize the sun had shifted and my feet were now exposed from under the umbrella.

And no, I was not trying to match my skin to my nail polish. By Tuesday night I realized my feet were burnt.

It was my own fault, and I should have known better. Although I had put sunscreen on my face that morning, it only works if you apply it, and I didn’t. I felt I was safe under the umbrella and just going back and forth to the water had limited exposure. I hate sunscreen. I’ve yet to find one that isn’t sticky or greasy, especially the waterproof ones. You have to scrub numerous times to get them off, and then scrub the bathtub out too. I’d rather cover up, but I didn’t. Blame it on the book, or the medication I was on, as I think it could have been a photosensitivity reaction (like an exaggerated sunburn) as my feet weren’t exposed that long.

So seven days of pain and misery, and I’m just now reaching the itchy peeling stage. Repeated trips to pharmacy to buy Solarcaine/Lidocaine spray, Aloe Gel, bandaids for the worst parts. Feet and ankles so swollen I could not wear socks or shoes for a whole week. (I wore moccasin slippers to the hairdressers on Friday.) It reminded me of my teenage years, the chills and blisters and miserable Noxzema nights, before I got sun-savvy.

Lesson learned. Never let your guard down!

Not sure if I will get back to the beach again this year but if I do I’ll be wearing socks. Luckily, socks and sandals are supposedly back in style.

Were you a beach baby, or did you prefer a pool?

Vintage 1950’s photo of city beach. I would love to live along the top part with my own private beach.

Rose Cottage – June 2026

July 1, 2026July 4, 202631 Comments

June is one of my favorite months – because of the weather and also because of the roses which put on their best show this time of year. Although my pink Knock-Out roses bloom all summer long in six week cycles, they are seldom as prolific as in June.

Because they only live around 10-12 years, I’ve been slowly replacing them around the front and back deck.

I scooped up six at the Canadian Tire pop-up nursery for halfprice ($20) in mid-June. I do so love a bargain!

But June started with the peonies.

Then the old-fashioned roses on the south-facing trellis.

They are a brighter pink than the Knock-outs but the lavender in between breaks up the color.

This John Cabot rose is about ten years old, and is now well established. It’s a paler pink and bloomed a few weeks ago….

But after some rain, it bloomed a deeper color. (Another $10 bargain from the Canadian Tire end of season sale)

This one on the back arbor is always the last to bloom. It’s nice when the purple clematis is out at the same time.

Another well established clematis.

This one is newer, and I’m not sure if I like the pale color but it goes well with the lavender.

The bees like the lavender too.

Pink impatiens always make me happy.

We’ve had a fair bit of rain in June so I didn’t have to water too much. I’ve had other flexible collapsible hoses before, (including those heavy plastic ones guaranteed for life or until you lose the receipt) but this one is the best ever because it’s so lightweight I don’t feel like I’m hauling 75 feet of hose around. I got it on sale at Home Hardware at the beginning of the season, as it was last year’s clear-out stock. At $16 for a $60 hose (I got one for the front and one for the back) I don’t care if they only last a few years. (Did I mention I love a bargain?)

Of course it wasn’t all roses…..

There were four painting projects….and still more to be done.

and lettuce to be harvested….and eaten.

And jam to be made.

And then there is the deck that needs fixing….as some of the composite boards are sagging due to rotting wood underneath, but only in a few places, it’s certainly fixable. The first handyman I contacted back in early May came and looked and promised to come back and look underneath some weekend when it wasn’t raining….he never showed up. I refuse to chase anyone around, so after four weeks I moved on to handyman number Two – he showed up but the quote gave me sticker shock, despite reusing the existing composite boards and vinyl railing. So when I was walking in the neighbourhood last week I saw a deck/fence company putting up a new fence. His truck said “free quotes” so I stopped to talk to him – told him I lived just down the street, and he said he would come after he was finished there, about 5:30. He never showed up. What is it with tradesmen? Why can’t they just say no, if they are not interested in a small job. It’s unprofessional and it gives all tradesmen a bad name, especially if they can’t even be trusted to show up a mere two hours later. I could see if something came up or he had to go home for supper or take his kids somewhere, but I never heard from him again. So I’ve shelved that project for the summer – the deck companies are all too busy now, so I’ll wait until someone is wanting some work….or until it falls down completely…..which ever comes first. I put most of the furniture out and it seems stable enough if I avoid putting anything too close to the railing. It will soon be too hot to sit out there anyway, and when that happens I use the table under the trees, as the southwest breezes are better there. I’m not going to let renos spoil my summer. (There are other reno issues to deal with too…maybe in August.)

As much as I hate to see June leave, I’m looking forward to July and the beach, but not this week’s heat wave/dome. I’ll be staying inside watching the Blue Jays lose.

Happy Canada Day to my Canadian readers!

#May Flowers 2026 – Wordless Wednesday

June 3, 202630 Comments

May is usually my favorite month but this year it was cold and rainy. But this past week we have been spoiled with a nice stretch of good weather – sunny, low 20’s (70’s F), refreshing south breezes and no humidity. I wish it would stay like this but soon we will be complaining about it being too hot.

It’s always nice to see the grass greening and sprinkled with violets, even if it is also laced with creeping charlie. Some people are doing the No Mow May which is nice for the bees, but apparently stresses the lawn mowers, the people pushing the lawn mowers and the grass. We’ve had so much rain my neighbour has a meadow in his back yard – time to bring in some goats!

I was sure this new lilac tree was dead last summer, but it leafed out again, and even managed a few blooms.

But the bush beside it is covered, and look at the growth on the climbing rose bush behind it. These lilacs will bloom again in August, but never as many.

I often wonder what happens to the rest of the tulips in the bunch, leaving this poor guy all alone?

This guy is alone too, as I did not have any luck at the horticultural plant sale in finding a female gooseberry bush, so no berries for me this year.

These purple and yellow iris were donated transplants from last year. I was surprised how tall they grew.

I found one yellow iris tucked away under a rose bush. They say every garden should have a touch of yellow in it,

…and every neighbourhood should have a yellow car. I saw this impressive model when I was out for a walk. It was certainly eye-catching as you hardly ever see a yellow convertible.

These belong to a neighbour too…..if I ever see anyone from that house I’ll be sure to ask what they are.

The lily of the valley came and went quickly, but the scent was wonderful while it lasted.

This giant fuchsia clematis always blooms earlier than the rest.

The purple salvia is prolific this year….and the pink roses are just starting to bloom…..stay tune for June.

I bought 17 books for $17 at the annual May book sale – including a gilt edged collection of Jane Austen, and a few childhood favorites, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, The Diary of Anne Frank, and one of the Borrowers series, a children’s fantasy series, which I last read when I was nine. (The Borrowers – Wikipedia)

But my favorite is this collection of James Herriot stories from All Creatures Great and Small. I watch the PBS mini series, which is into Season 7 now but have never read any of his books.

I found this white wicker rocker at a thrift store for $15 – a coat of spray paint and a cushion and it’s like new again. I wish I could find a matching one, but the town wide garage sales are coming up. How delightful to be able to sit outside and read again after such a long cold rainy spring. Enjoy the season while it lasts!

#Spring Color – 2026 – Wordless Wednesday

April 7, 202635 Comments

Mother Nature has not been kind this year. But despite her mercurial nature and persistent trickery, we have seen a few pops of spring color. Hopefully there are better days ahead, for both the weather….and the Blue Jays. (How can we have so many players off injured so early in the season?)

And finally the hyacinths and daffodils, who struggled with the snow flurries this morning.

PS. I remembered how to post in WordPress!

Pecan Christmas Loaf

December 17, 2025December 17, 202529 Comments

There are Christmas cake lovers and haters (see Christmas Cake and a Silly Song), but everyone is sure to like Pecan Christmas Loaf. It’s more like a quick or tea bread than a dense fruit cake, with a bit of red and green candied fruit to give it a seasonal look and taste. My cousin gave me a sample last year and I liked it so much I decided I would try it myself this Christmas.

I’m not sure where or who she got the recipe from, but like many old recipes on index cards, back when people had Recipe Boxes, this one seems somewhat vague. It doesn’t seem like there is enough flour for 2 loaves, but plenty of eggs and butter?

As I only wanted to make one loaf, I decided to cut the ingredients in half and then further adapted the flour according to my Date-Nut Loaf recipe, and a recipe I found online for Pecan Christmas Cake. When I googled most of the recipes were for Butter Pecan Cake, which called for even more butter.

Ingredients for One Loaf:

2 eggs, 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of butter, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 1/2 cups of pecan pieces, 1/2 cup of dried candied/glazed red and green cherries/fruit mix, 1 1/2 cups of flour with the salt and baking powder already in it, and 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple bits with some liquid.

Mix the 2 eggs, 1/4 cup of melted butter, 5ml (1tsp) of vanilla and 3/4 cup of sugar together.

Add the 1 1/2 cup of pecan pieces and the 1/2 cup of green and red dried fruit mix, and the 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple. Next time I might add 2 cups of the pecan pieces which is what the recipe called for but as I bought my ingredients at the bulk barn I didn’t buy quite enough. I cut back on the dried fruit too, as I don’t like too much of that, and I hate those green cherries, but you can adjust as you wish to make it more like fruit cake. The bulk food store didn’t have any candied pineapple bits, nor did the grocery store, maybe they don’t make it anymore, (although they all seem to have large dried chunks), but I remember my mother adding a whole can of Dole crushed pineapple to her much bigger Christmas cake recipe, so I substituted that. I had to use a bit more of the juice as the batter was too dry.

You can adjust the pineapple/flour to get the consistency you want. See this is how you get vague recipe cards – an experienced cook doesn’t measure, they guestimate!

I always use a glass loaf tin so I can see if I am burning the bottom. The recipe card says oven at low setting 300-325 and bake for 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 – 2hours – how’s that for general vagueness? Everyone’s oven is different, but nothing would ever cook in the middle at that low a temperature in my new oven. I regret keeping it, it’s such a temperamental thing. If I’ve used it the day before, it cooks faster. If it’s sat unused all week, it takes forever. I set it at 350, although I had it at 375 for the first 15 minutes, and it took about an hour. It was perfectly done in the middle, if a bit dark on the edges. I use the regular bake setting, not the convection one, as nothing browns with it.

It was a fairly small loaf, so I wish I had made two, as my cousin tells me it freezes well. I fed some to the snow shoveler right hot out of the oven!

Nice for Christmas Day brunch or with a cup of tea on a cold winter’s night…..but why do I always get the piece with the green cherries?

December – 2025

December 9, 2025December 10, 202522 Comments

It seems like Christmas merchandising starts earlier and earlier every year….these were out in front of the grocery store in mid November. Would you pay $120 for this – it’s way too busy looking – and is that a dog in the middle?

Amazingly, there were four of these overpriced jumbo size urns and they all sold.

I made my own again this year, but I had to buy the pine boughs as we had sold mom’s house in March and I didn’t have access to her pine tree. The first thing the new owners did was cut it down, as at 25 years it had grown too big. Apparently the neighbours were happy too as now the coyotes don’t sleep under the tree on cold winter nights! A few days after, we had a howling wind storm and the urn fell over and I had to redo the whole thing – something that would never happen with those jumbo urns.

It’s been nothing but bad weather here since early November and I’m sick of winter already. And to make things worse, a polar vortex has settled in, and it feels as bitterly cold as January.

My neighbour’s urn is a thing of beauty, especially with the snow on it.

The kids are liking the snow though – the first snowman of the season.

The night of the Santa Claus parade was freezing, so it was a challenge to stand there for 40 minutes. But as the parade is just down the street, I have no excuse….plus it’s a tradition, so you just have to layer up.

My favorite is the hippo float, because the song is so silly – I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. The Grinch is popular too. They’ve been recycling the same floats for years, but you can’t go home, even if your feet are numb, until you’ve seen Santa!

Day after day of the same depressing weather makes you want to stay home and drink tea….

and read books. But it’s either feast or famine with library books – these all came in at once – but there’s no way I can read eight books in three weeks before Christmas.. So far I’ve gotten through Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets (very good), and Wellness by Nathan Hill, the December book club selection (not so good). Both were 800 plus pages in large print. I’m just starting The Widow by John Grisham which has a long waiting list.

Sometimes the best thing you can do when the weather outside is frightful is to curl up and take a catnap. This is Felix – he’s camera shy. He lives on the east coast but I will get to meet him after Christmas. If I ever got a cat I would want a tuxedo cat, as they have such character.

I’ve started my holiday baking – chocolate-peanut butter-oatmeal cookies, which I only make this time of year, because of the two cups of sugar….

I bought some new plaid Ralph Lauren kitchen towels – which are much too pretty to use! I’m going to try a new recipe this year, Pecan Christmas Cake, as my cousin gave me a sample last year and I liked it better than regular Christmas cake. I’ll be blogging about it if it turns out.

Otherwise it’s been hardy foods like beef stew which I made – it was okay – and chicken stew which I bought – which was even better – especially with sourdough bread.

Of course the best meal of all is one where you just have to show up! I’ve already had two turkey dinners, which is good because I love turkey and could eat it every week, and it’s even better if you don’t have to cook it yourself. One was my retiree Christmas party, and the other was in a restaurant which advertises the 30 days of turkey every December.

I received an early and unexpected Christmas present – an L’Occitane four-sided house advent calendar. What a pleasant surprise to find on my front doorstep, and what fun it has been to open a new window every day for 24 days. L’Occitane is a skin care company located in Provence, which sources it’s all natural ingredients locally. Everything smells lovely, and French women are known for taking good care of their skin. According to Wikipedia their manufacturing facility in Provence has 1000 employees and 3000 stores worldwide. The advent calendar has sold out online because…..

….every woman should have a chateau in the south of France! And let’s face it, this is probably as close as I’ll ever get to Provence. (I can’t wait to see what’s in the chimney on Christmas Eve!)

I’ve done some shopping….and if the weather would cooperate I could finish the rest, avoiding the weekends of course. I bought six of these cute light-up-swirling-snow cardinal lanterns for $20 each. Last year it was plaid scarfs – I’m way past the stage of trying to find the perfect present for everyone. If you don’t like it, re-gift it. There’s one for me of course, as cardinals are for remembrance.

Mom’s cardinal music box lantern plays I Wish You a Merry Christmas.

I’m partial to lights and sparkly things and anything pine scented.

The indoor decorating is finished as it’s been too cold and windy to walk, so at least going up and down the stairs retrieving the boxes from the basement gets some steps in.

The outdoor decorating is done too – I braved the cold in small doses with several hot chocolate breaks.

The plaid plates were brought out for a pre-Christmas lunch – if you invite people over for food then you don’t have to go out! Restaurants are too crowded this time of year anyway.