Library books - Abraham and others

 I have been listening to a few of Esther Hicks/Abraham videos on line and found these books at the library.  It was easier to review the material.  We are in charge of our own lives and we get to choose.  It is in our best interest to make choices that make us feel good and contribute to our well being, bring us joy and benefit those around us.  It is up to us to follow the path to our best life and it is discovered through well being. 
Free to love, Free to heal addresses the barriers which we have erected in ourselves for protection.  Necessary at the time, they may be standing in our way to living our best life now. 

I have another week to read the Happiness book but I have read several by Weil and they have always been good so I hope to get it finished before it has to be returned. 

Therese

Juice for drinking with club soda

I picked some nanking cherries this week.  I picked in several places as I discovered a few trees that are available to the public.  I also did ask a lady near the garden if she was picking hers and she indicated that she had enough from last year and was not picking this year.  I ask to pick and she said I could pick as many as I want.  I picked a gallon in about 2 foot of hedge so there are no doubt at least 20 more pails in there.  Not sure I need a whole lot more but I may pick some for Paula.  I canned juice to drink with club soda as a refreshing summer drink - works really well!!  I had some Evans cherry juice and some black currant juice in the freezer from last year so I took that out and canned it all.  I got 2 black currant, 1 mixed and 11 cherry juice ones!!  I have only 3 left from last year.  I have acquired a glass bottle with a lid that has a spout and previously contained maple syrup that I am using to serve the juice.  It holds about 1.5 cups and is very handy for adding to a glass of club soda. an easily stores in the fridge.  Because the juice is canned it is always ready and at hand if you need more and is easily decanted into the bottle for serving into individual glasses.  I am sure that I could also make juice from black currants, chokecherry, saskatoons and evans cherries as well.  So I am looking forward to having a bit of variety by the end of the summer.  We do not eat jelly, jam or very much pancake syrup so this will be a good way to make use of the fruit I am picking.        Therese

Community garden & home garden

 The big poplars are gone!!

Wow!! It makes so much difference without the large poplars that inhabited the side of the community garden.  It looks so open and bare.  Not sure how it was decided that they needed to come down but after looking at the trunks it was definitely time.  It does mean that all the garden plots will have good sun exposure.

 My garden is doing well.  The squashes have exceeded their bounds and I have had to chop off a few vines but I have quite a few squashes that are already about the size of golf balls.  I probably do not need more than ten so when that number is reached I will eliminate all the others so the energy can be used to grow squashes.  I will put few plants in next year and maybe start them all inside so I know for sure they are good.  I had at least three that came up after I replanted thinking that nothing had come up.  I pick my first carrots!!!  They were so nice!  Larger than usual at first picking but the benefits of having seeded them farther apart so I would have to do less thinning!! 

I picked a bucket of potatoes because they have all dried up on the tops and I was wanting to ascertain that there were actually potatoes growing under there!  We have enough for supper.  While I was at it I also picked the beans.  Again, enough for a meal.  There are the carrots I picked all cleaned and ready to be snacks!!    The cucumbers at the garden and at home are coming along. LOTS of flower and now after about three weeks there are starting to be a few cucumbers.  Only about 3" long but I will keep an eye on them and pick them before they get too big.  Looking forward to snacking on those as well.                Therese

Glass block windows for the back garage!

Brian has been working on changing the windows in the back garage.  He had one single pane window on the back and is moving to four glass block windows which will be more energy efficient and will provide lighting closer to the ceiling and therefore allow more flexibility when it comes to positioning work benches and so on for the wood working shop.  He created the glass block windows almost two years ago (before the church) and anticipates getting them in shortly.  The back wall needed to be reinforced to support the new windows so he changed up the house wrap while he was at it as that will help when the garage is insulated and heated.  You can see the holes for the glass block windows are ready and when the time comes the holes in the siding will be cut and the windows put into place.  It has been a project that was completed in stages due to time constraints but it is coming together and Brian is looking forward to the better natural light he will have once they are in!!                  Therese

Saskatoons!

 This is the saskatoon patch we have been picking at for several years now.  We did have to go elsewhere one year because their patch was wiped out with hail.  Great berries again this year!!!  They have quite a few rows in front of the house near the road and nice short bushes which are usually loaded.  They were a bit less so this year because of the hail a few weeks ago but what was left was still nice and large and easy to pick!!  We paid $10 for an ice cream pail  - the same as last year.  It has rained earlier but the patch was not too wet and it is always fun to go and pick and visit all the while!! 
On the way home we had to wait for this train to go by and so I got a very decent shot as it was just accelerating on the track next to where we were waiting for it to cross. 
It was a good visit and we talked about everything!!!  We cleaned the berries after supper so Sylvia could bring them home bagged and frozen the next day.              Therese

Chutney - better than ketchup!!

 My friend, Paula, has been sharing some of her great chutney with me and it is so much better a condiment than ketchup!!  She gave me tomato chutney two year's ago and this past year gave me a cuple of jars of plum chutney.  Very yummy!!  I have been eating it with all sorts of food but mostly meats and it is very delicious.  So I decided I would like to make some of my own.  I found some black currant puree (left over from syrup making last fall) in the freezer and decided to search out a recipe.  I found several which I printed and made a bit of a hybrid picking out the ingredients I thought would work together and would be acceptable to can. 
When I talked to Sylvia about it before she came she thought that would be a fun thing to do so she researched recipes and bought ingredients.  She made apricot & cranberry chutney and I made black currant chutney both with a few tweeks to use what we had and marry flavours we thought we would enjoy.   As you can see they both looked pretty good as we were cooking them up and it really did not take a lot of time.  We prepped jars for canning and had 11 jars of  chutney ready to go before heading to the saskatoon patch at 4:15pm.  It was a fun afternoon of cooking together!!         Therese

Hot dogs on the fire!

Sylvia has come for a few days so we can pick saskatoons and she asked if she could bring hot dogs for lunch!!  It was a cool day so having a fire and grilling smokies was very pleasant.  We had a good feast of smokies with buns, chopped redonion and condiments with coleslaw on the side.  Burned through a pail of scraps from the wood working shop in the process.  

Therese

...and all the cousins

Here is a group photo of all the cousins.  Not sure who they all were but with that many siblings

there are a lot of them!!

Uncle Henry had 15 brothers and sisters - four of his sisters have survived him and one of his 

brothers had just passed away that morning.  

It was great to see everyone and we did not leave Drayton Valley until after 4:30 pm!!!

Dad was a trouper and just hung around until I was ready to set off for home.  Saying good bye took a bit of time but we were soon on our way and the day was wonderful for driving!!  It had been VERY windy on our way in in the morning!!!!!!

Therese

Aunt Adeline, her kids and their spouses

Aunt Adeline with her kids and their spouses.  

Clement

Diane and Les Summers - they live in Red Deer

Real and Cindy

Laurie and Sally

Victor and Dana

Sue 

Greg

There was also a few grandchildren and great grandchildren there. 

Therese

Gascon cousins with their Mom - Aunt Adeline

Aunt Adeline and her kids!!  Some of which I had not seen in more than 30+ years!!

In the front - Diane, Aunt Adeline and Susie.

In the back row, Laurent, Greg (youngest), Real, Victor and Clement (oldest).  In birth order it is Clement, Diane, Real, Laurent, Victor, Susie and Greg.  Clem and Diane are older than Sylvia and I. 

Real is our age.  Some had to be pointed out so we would know who they were.  Diane and Real were recognizable to me and the others had to be pointed out.  

Aunt Adeline has to move to a single bedroom place this week and started showing signs of dementia about two years ago and so is living in a nursing home.  Uncle Henry died of lung cancer and was in palliative care for the last few days of his life.        Therese

Durocher girls with Mom & Dad and Aunty Adeline

While we were at it we took a photo of the Durocher girls with Mom and Dad and Aunt Adeline!!  It was great to see all of them and spend a bit of time!!

Therese

Malo girls with Mom and Dad and Aunt Adeline

After the service, the Power point presentation of Uncle Henry's life and family and lunch they decided to take some photos!!  Here is Aunty Adeline in the middle which is Dad's/Pepere Durocher's youngest sister. There were three of them - Rene, Irene and Adeline.  Mom and Dad came in with Madeleine and Carmen.  Everyone was happy to see them.  Behind them is Mariline, Simone and Antoinette - the Malo girls.  Remi and Marguerite had already headed home.  They live in St. Lina.  Simone and Mariline live near St. Vincent (on the way to St. Paul from Mallaig) and Antoinette had been a long time resident of Grande Prairie.

Therese

Our Malo cousins

We attended Uncle Henry Gascon's funeral in Drayton Valley this weekend and had the chance to catch up with all sorts of family.  Here are some of our Malo cousins.  Their mother, Irene, was Pepere Durocher's sister and was married to Lucien Malo.   On the far right, is Simone second oldest and married to Yves Brousseau in the picture below.  Marguerite (Gervais) wife of Remi Malo in the photo below.  She was one of Sylvia and I's best friends in Junior and High school.  Mariline is the youngest girl and just a year older than Syl and I. Her first husband was Roland Gervais Marguerite's older brother.  She remarried after Roland drowned in a lake accident.  She married to Real Brousseau which is Yves Brousseau (Simone's husband) younger brother and one of our class mates in high school.  Madeleine is sitting in Eugene's chair which is Antoinette's husband.
'

On the far left is Antoinette - the oldest (65?).  Next to her is Loraine Ouellette who took care of Uncle Lucien when he got sick after Aunt Irene died (early 2000??).   Next, is Remi the second youngest and oldest boy.  Next to hims is Joffre his oldest son.  Last, on the right is Yves Brousseau married to Simone which is the second oldest.  Missing is Yvon and Jackie Malo.  He is the youngest son and is married to Jackie which is Marguerite (& Roland's) youngest sister.  It was great to see them all and reconnect.  They had lunch at Boston Pizza at the next table over from us.

Hail in the garden, deck and closeup

I took a photo of the garden through the office window!! You can see how much hail is on the yard!!  Thankfully the house sheltered the tomatoes some but the beans and potatoes are pretty beat up!!  The hail was only about pea sized and we are grateful because other areas were getting hail the size of ping pong balls.  Lots of damage to crops in Ponoka and Steller areas.  You can see how much fell on the deck and the close up I took just outside the patio doors!!

We checked the community garden on the way home from the funeral and there was no damage there at all.  Checked out the plantings at church this morning and no damage there either though apparently some hail fell there as well.  So there was only a small swath of hall that came through town because friends just a bit farther north faired better with their garden.  The cars are in the garage in July because that is when the damaging storms come through!!

Therese

Hail storm on July 13

 
The hail started shortly after supper and was over in less than fifteen minutes but as you can see from the photos is was coming down really hard.  In the last photo you can see that there was even an accumulation on the roof tops!!  It was all melted in less than an hour after the storm blew through. 
Therese

 

Visit in Goodridge

We stayed at Madeleine & Robert's when we were up there.  Arrived well after supper and visited for a few hours before bed.  Madeleine made waffles for breakfast with a variety of fruit and syrups which was wonderful.  We had intended to be gone before lunch but the time just flew by!!   Lunch was fast and easy with the leftovers hauled out of the fridge and warmed in the microwave and complemented with fresh salad from the garden!! 
We headed to Leduc to take a look at a couple of small camping trailers at Fraserway and were home  by supper time!!  It is nice to be retired and have the time to visit and have a flexible schedule!!

Therese

Mom & Dad and the garden

We had a good visit with Mom & Dad last week!!  It was great to see them and they are both doing well.  We brought Dad a box of crosses for this rosaries which should keep him busy for a little while.  The building has furniture in their little common area and there is puzzle set up which Dad has been helping with.  He is spending some time outside as well.  There is construction behind their building.  The back end of the BonnyLodge has been dismantled and will be rebuilt  with some new features and will the be connected to Mom & Dad's building to allow people to access it without going outside.  Convenient for some of them who are visiting friends and partners in the Bonny Lodge.  We took a walk to Mom's garden!!  It is wonderful!!  It is the one farthest back near the fence.  She has tomatoes, beans, lettuce carrots, a squash and some potatoes. They have been eating lettuce for a few weeks and there is more than they can eat so others in the building are beneficiaries of it.  We are fortunate that others in the building are helping with small errands and rides as well so it all works out.  

They are very fortunate to have a locked gate, a little tool shed, water and a compost bin!!  Gardening with others is interesting and you find different ways of doing things and some are better and others are not but that is the way it is!
Mom is very happy with her garden and it is only about two blocks from home which is a very decent walk for her.                              Therese

Oldscool Diner in Vegreville

On our way to Mom & Dad's last week we stopped in Vegreville for lunch.  We found this diner is a strip mall just behind the A&W.  It was not busy so our food was hot and served fairly quickly.  It has the fun decor of a oldies cafe with the black and white floor, the ice cream parlour table and chairs and old time and rock & roll plaques and neon signs!!  They have an area at the back all set up for a band and people can come in a play at 2 pm in the afternoon!!  A great place for a budding musician or any of the local bands to play!!  The food was good though a bit pricey but it a good stop along the way!!                   Therese

Kale's visit - day 4 - watermelon, Cranna Lake, Lego, Ramp of Doom, catching air, splash park, Olds, a new knot

We started the day early and were out having watermelon in the backyard by 7:38 am.  It was Kale's suggestion and having set up the deck chairs for supper the night before he was able to bring down the chairs and attach their cushions by himself.  I brought down the table and watermelon and we were good to go!!  In no time, Pepere joined us with his breakfast.  I had made a large batch of pancakes - Kale's favorite breakfast and snack food -  on the first morning and so it was easy every morning to just warm two in the microwave, add some peanut butter and honey, make a sandwich and cut them into quarters and breakfast was on the table!!  We made all sorts of fun shapes with the honey and said good bye as they blended with the peanut butter just prior to sandwich making!!
Kale's most favorite game was playing with the Frisbees!!!  There were four foamy ones and one slim O Ring one which was very fast!!  While playing in the backyard we regularly had to go collect it from the back lane or farther!!  It was loud and fun so we resisted playing it too early in the morning!!

 We headed off to Cranna Lake after breakfast to check out the fitness equipment around the lake.  Kale brought his scooter which was a bit rough in some places as the path was pebbly.  Kale chose to carry his scooter and you can see Pepere explaining how to best position the handle to most easily lower the key which allowed the scooter to be folded.  Pepere had given it a lube job the night before so it worked very well.  The little hills were fun and Kale took advantage of them along the way.  Some of the pieces of equipment were fun and others were not useable for little people so it was not as much fun as expected but he was a trouper and we made it home without incident though Pepere was eventually asked to carry the scooter the last part of the walk.

Wanting a new challenge we decided to bring up some new toys from downstairs and Kale decided that it would be LEGOs!!  These have not been played with for years but we knew our grandchildren would enjoy them.  Mina has had them out once or twice and Kale is really getting used to building with them.  We have a crate full and it makes quite a pile on the floor!!  We have a few of the instruction booklets that came with the sets from over the years.  We did not get any project finished but we did find quite a few other things in the mix - duplo, lite bright pegs, etc.

After a bit of a conversation with Pepere Kale decided that he would name his ramp - The Ramp of Doom - Expert!!  He retrieved the blue chalk from the back and I named the letters and he wrote them on the ramp. Pretty cool!!!!!!!!  Not permanent which suited him just fine.
A clamp was found and the noise maker on the bike was moved to the front which produced a louder sound and had the added benefit of not being knocked off as Kale pedaled!!  Gotta love when a plan finally comes to fruition!!

Kale has some fun riding his bike back and forth from one end of the safe zone for his bike and catching the ramp on the way by!!  This often leads to catching air!!

 At the splash park Kale and two girls and their friends made a plan to cover all the nozzles to one of the features.  There was discussions and then everyone positioned themselves with their feet on the nozzles.  It is always great when a plan comes together!!

Kale saw this beautiful butterfly and wanted me to get a picture.  We followed it around the splash park for a bit before it landed and I was able to take a few photos!! We had watermelon as a snack when we got home from the splash park and then packed up ready to head home with him.  He had packed up his bedroom earlier so it was just a matter of getting the ramp, bike, scooter, frisbees, toys and his jackets and shoes into bags so they could be put in the car.  He helped with everything and we were soon on our way.  We stopped in Olds for supper.  We visited the Wendy's and Kale knew exactly what he wanted and Brian and I got our regular choices.

  After supper we visited the play structures behind the schools which was a second choice because the structure I had discovered with Google Earth turned out to be a Splash Park!!!!!!!!!!  Kale was off checking out all the different structures.

He was practicing his climbing skills on this interesting swing behind the Horizon School which is a Special Education School.  They also had this very cool piece of equipment that features five bells with musical note knockers to make them ring.  They sounded great!!

On the balanced bars he showed us how he can hang upside down!!  He'd had a bit of a break from being in the car and so once we had checked out the structures it was back in the car to make our way to Calgary!!
He had a few quiet things to do in the back seat.  His Wendy's kids meal house, his magnetic signs with the map and his Knots books with the cords.  He taught himself a new knot and he also shared with us his Gummy Bear song!! Soon enough he was home!!  We stayed for a bit then headed home.What a perfect way to finish up a great vacation!!        Therese