Fall Day? Recipe Time and Flower Planting

When I woke up on Victoria Day Monday, May 22 I was not surprised that it was another dull one. Nor was I surprised that I’d slept in until 8 am after the night I had. I didn’t get up but woke several times coughing and turning to find a comfy position. I feel a little better this morning so that is a good thing. Maybe the mullein tea helped after all.

Cleaning up around some plants

Bill was up within 30 minutes but his excuse is his late bedtime yet again. What crazy hours he keeps! He dozes in the evening which enables him to stay up into the wee hours of the morning. When I’m tired, I go to bed, preferring to wake up by 7. At least, retired, we can sleep or rise whenever we want.

I knew I'd planted some corabelle up here on the hill

The Weather Network says only 30% rain today and a teensy peek at sunshine (where? The sky is completely gray). The winds are still going to be the issue, around 20 mph with 30 mph gusts but I should still be able to get my flowers potted today. Is this spring or fall?

The rain from yesterday has almost flooded the turtle log

We had our morning coffee and tea and when I had a coughing fit while reading blogs, Bill suggested a teaspoon of Benylin Cough Syrup. I don’t usually like taking this stuff, not having much faith in them but it seemed to do the trick. Instantly! We each had a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast around 10 and were encouraged to get outside since it wasn’t raining.

Adding some colour to The Ridge

Bill is working on putting plexiglass in the screen window of the bunky door. He wants to be able to slide it shut so the outside doors don’t have to be closed if someone chooses to leave them open. The two other windows in there have screens and windows that open as well.

the entrance to the corral

While he did that, I potted my plants. Since my pots were large ones, I planted a red geranium, a white geranium and a yellow daisy-like flower in each pot. The name on it says Yellow Evol but upon searching that flower, it is non-existent. Weird. It closes up overnight which is kind of human.

I had one red geranium left and knew exactly where it would find a bed. I had pulled a stump out of the wood pile after Gerry had a big tree cut down. The tree was at the edge of the Y of the laneway just where we needed to make the turn with our Suite. Because we’d noticed it was a dead tree in the first place and secondly it was on a scary lean. Just enough for us to be concerned about it scraping the fiver.

The Y up our lane

This stump appealed to me because it had a hole in the centre of one end and I wanted to either sit a small pot in there or plant right in the hole. This is what I did and placed it at the V of the corral to welcome guests. Without even planning to I have prepared for Canada’s 150^th with the red and white. I chose the yellow flower because it was as close to a sunflower as I could find. For Daddy.

Ellie May and Clemson do the dance

Clemson and I took our daily walk down the lane and into the front field. He still is intrigued by the open gate to the road so I needed to constantly watch him. We raced around a bit and then back up the lane to see Bill. Even though I had put my gardening gloves away, I found myself bending over the garden pulling weeds.

Close up of the ole gal

I hate doing that but was too distracted to go get them again. I checked my fingernails and they were already gathering dirt so carried on for another 45 min before walking away. I sprayed the dandelions and other weeds popping up in the gravel parking area with my vinegar solution. Some pulled out easily with the rain. I was done pulling and came in for my shower.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bill joined me inside for some lunch. He had a sandwich and I nibbled on cheese and yogourt. Time to bake! My two boys slept in the chair and I made 3 dozen chocolate chip cookies from a recipe Donna gave me for convection ovens. So far, I hadn’t had much luck baking this cookie in here.

Apple Crisp

They turned out quite nice actually, I just had to turn the baking sheet half way through cooking since the turntable had to be turned off. For some reason, one side cooks faster than the other. Bill and Clemson taste-tested them and I got a passing grade. 👍

My favourite dessert, besides cheesecake, is Apple Crisp so with a frozen pack of the apples I picked here last fall, I made a pan of that and before putting stuff away, made a pan of Oatmeal Butter Squares, an old 4H recipe I enjoy. While the butter squares were baking, I made a cup of mullein tea and sat down to catch up here.

A 4H recipe from wayyyy back
Oatmeal Butter Squares

Bill and I sat and watched some tv together, we enjoy American Pickers and before I realized, the day was passing and it was time to get supper. I fried up 2 pork chops in bacon fat and made us each a salad. Our dessert was apple crisp and ice cream. Yummy.

The sun has made an appearance a few times but it wasn’t until 6 o’clock that the sky turned blue and the sun took over. By 7 our temperature actually reached 16C. Briefly. I’m surprised to see our flag hanging straight down with barely a wave touching its folds.

Sunday night sunset

I wanted to finish my post up before 8 because the finale of The Voice is on tonight and we have been following it since it started. That didn't happen, it is on and I'm watching it from in front of my laptop. I thought that instead of waiting for today’s sunset, I would leave you with last night’s shot.

However, when I looked outside, I knew I had to capture tonight's as well. Enjoy!

Goodnight Victoria Day weekend from the Ridge

Thank you for reading. All comments are welcome and appreciated.