A ‘What to Do?’ Day, Sister Drops In, Dark Skies, Apple Dessert!

On The Ridge

Bill and I were in no rush to get up this cloudy Friday, Sept. 6^th morning. So, we stayed cuddled under the covers until 7:30. After years of getting up at 5:30 for work, it sure feels nice to be in control of our wakening and rising hours. Isn’t retirement great? Some of you are early birds and we are still, compared to many, but the choice is wonderful.

Today's morning sky

The air in the Suite was 59F and outside it was 54F. Not much difference but with our duvet and no heater on last night, we slept perfectly! Well, I did. Bill never sleeps perfectly through a night. ☹ I think he slept 'fairly' well though. We had our coffee and tea together and I went on Facebook instead of reading blogs. Seldom do I get on FB so wanted to do a catchup and play my Scrabble games with my sisters.

And the sky worsened as the day went on

 Bill left at 9ish to go to Durham H.H. for some paint to finish off the carrier and for some touchups on the cargo trailer hitch. On the way back, he stopped at the Acreage for a bladder fill of well water. I couldn’t get warm inside but didn’t want to turn the furnace on again. It’s too early to get into that habit! So, I put socks on and leggings and my hoody and sat down again to start today’s post. As I got ready to type the part about Bill leaving, I remembered that he was going to take our RO water bottle.

But it looked so pretty with the sun and green landscape

I quickly checked the ‘basement’ and it was still there so I called him. He was only half way to Durham so decided to come back and get it. We're not completely out yet and have sufficient small bottles of water for me to drink but his intention was to get it filled. Once he left, I gathered 4 of the small bottles to bring them inside. May as well use them up. I should have stayed put. As I’m closing the door to the Suite, it slammed on my ring finger. Holy crap that hurt!

So, I've got a booboo now

It hit just along the left and bottom edge of my fingernail and cut my finger a bit. “Darn, darn, darn”, I squawked (well, it was more like damn, damn, damn) but you get the picture. I ran cold water on it to slow the bleeding and donned my Dr. Patsy hat while I applied Ozonol and a couple of Band-Aids plus medical tape to hold them in place. The pain eased substantially. Such a small thing, how can it hurt so much? Wimp.

First, I opened up the heel area

All I could think is “I’m gonna lose that nail”. I know that is extreme and quite ‘Drama Queenish’ as it will probably only turn black and grow out in 6 months but I was freaking out, okay? One good thing though. Back inside, I had warmed up considerably and was no longer dwelling on being chilly. To keep my mind occupied, I wanted to repair (redo) my bulky slippers that I made in the spring.

 Then I tore out about 3 rows from the back

I have two pair, one made with regular wool and they are for the in-between days. In between cool and cooler mornings. This morning I put on my bulky ones for the in-between cooler and cold mornings but they have stretched and are now very sloppy on my feet. I have learned that ripping crochet stitches out is a breeze so I knew I could do that and tighten them up at the heel. Easy peasey and it was done in 10 minutes. Now they fit better and my feet are warmer still.

And they fit my feet much nicer again

Typing with my left hand is a bit more of a challenge and I will make sure to proofread before publishing. That finger is bigger now and wants to hit 2 letters at a time. Just after 10 the light spattering of rain was hitting the roof and south windows. The forecast was calling for 55% chance of precipitation and usually that doesn’t mean a wash out. We may see some sun today for a bit but for the time being we needed to plug back into electric for a while.

 I had a bullet proof coffee with breakfast

 When Bill texted that he was finished at the Acreage, I started cooking breakfast. We had some peameal and eggs today. I remembered to take a package out of the freezer yesterday when I made room for the apples. Good thing Bill washes the dishes, my hand won’t be going in any water today. We cleaned the dishes up and I sprayed clear enamel on one side of my 2 rocks and put them in the Bunky to dry. 

I’m expecting a visit from my oldest sister, Cathy, around the noon hour. She has a dentist appointment in Durham after 1 and wanted to visit Mom while she was in town. That leaves her about an hour and a half to kill in this quiet town. She is from Teeswater so an hour from home and since we’re only 10 minutes out, she’ll come and get her pottery and have a coffee with me. Cathy arrived at 12:20 and we came inside the Suite to visit. She’d just finished a coffee before going in to see Mom so didn’t need one after all.

Cathy arrived after lunch

I showed her her pottery and gave her a pair of nice pants that I was going to be taking to the exchange. Since Cathy wouldn’t be there, I was pretty sure they would fit her and sure she would like them. We chatted about a few things and I was happy to hear that she had a nice visit with Mom. She didn’t go into detail and sometimes I like that. We often get caught up on the ‘Mom visits’ and nothing else gets discussed. This was time for us. She’d just picked up an Instant Pot at Canadian Tire for $80 so was excited to get familiar with it.

While Cathy and I were chatting in the Suite
this lovely falcon perched on our fence post

He chased something into the grass but came up empty - beaked

After she left, around 1:10, I put together a recipe I’d found on line for Apple Crumble. First, I saw it in our local Spotlight magazine. I pulled a 4-cup bag of apples out of the freezer and searched for a recipe in the Instant Pot. Bingo! Check out the ‘start to finish’ times on both the mag recipe and the one I’m using. This explains one aspect of why I love Madame IP. The cook time is 8 minutes in the IP and a natural release of 5 minutes.

And my pretty co-ordinated sister
She takes after Mom

Instead of cooking mine directly in the big pot, I used my inner pot and I’m anxious to see how it turns out. The rest of the afternoon, Bill and I kept each other company inside the Suite. With a blanket over my knees and a wee whisper of a prayer (teehee) Bill made us each a nice creamy tea. All I had to do was ask but it was worth my pretend prayer to get his chuckle. 😊  My tea was so good and even better when it is made for me.

I found this recipe in the Spotlight
Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes

My recipe

Setting up the timer

Bill was heavy into his Stuart Woods book; The Prince of Beverly Hills and I was getting lost in my One Shot by Lee Child. Enter one of my favourite characters, Jack Reacher. At 5, I removed the Apple Crumble (which looked yummy) from the inner pot and cleaned it for the next round. I then put the ingredients together for my meatloaf and set the inner pot in Madame IP.  With 8 minutes left on the 25-minute timer, I added some small potatoes that need to be eaten up. Everything turned out great and we were eating by 6:30.

And I removed the crumble into a bowl so I could
use the inner pot for the meatloaf

The meatloaf was perfect and so were the little spuds. For dessert we tasted the Apple Crumble and it was another success. Bill washed and I dried the dishes as per usual and then I walked quickly down the lane to check the mail box. Not sure if she stopped today or not. The walk wasn’t so quick, but leisurely instead. There has been little to no wind all day which made it very pleasing to go down. The air felt dampish/misty so the envelope I brought back felt wet.

Delicious!

Bill turned the fireplace on low just to take the chill out and that certainly helped, bringing the indoor temperature from 65 up to 69F. Much nicer for sitting around, which is what we did today. The sky hasn’t changed all day and now the clouds are just darkening as evening falls. This has been a quiet day but a good one.

It was dark enough for the motion sensor lights to come on when i walked by

And this has been the look of the day
Good night everyone and Happy 50th Anniversary Rob and Pat!

Thank you for stopping in today.