Sunday, August 18, 2019

Don’t ask me why I remember this but I do. When I was in hospital after having my appendix removed Aunt Gertie brought me a get-well card signed by The Gleaners. I had no idea at the time what that meant, but in my mind the card was from a group in the UCW (I have no idea whether or not that was true).

A couple of years ago a cross stitch pattern called The Gleaners popped up on a Facebook group I belong to. Remembering Aunt Gertie’s card I decided to purchase the pattern. It hasn’t been started but someday …

Today I was gleaning – picking the apples from the tree and picking up the ones that had fallen on the ground. I made a batch of applesauce from the apples I previously picked and I have enough apples for at least two more batches. The apples aren’t very good for eating fresh, but I tasted the applesauce (no sugar added) and it was great.

Pat headed to Texada this morning so there was no baking again today. I looked up how to use applesauce instead of sugar for baking. I’ll need to experiment a bit but I’m going to try it one-for-one in the pudding I want to make.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

The Street Party last night was good – supper was some veggie pakoras from one of our excellent Indian restaurants, dessert was the best blackberry shortcake on the street (from the Townsite Heritage Society) and my snack before leaving was some bannock from the folks at Sliammon. It took us almost three hours to wander up and down Marine as there were lots of stops to listen to music or visit with friends.

Today I’m having a great day. I did some web updates for the Hall this morning, as well as some for myself. I made great progress on clearing my cutting table and cleared enough space to cut fabric for another miniature quilt and two more cards. So I have lots to do for Tuesday’s bee. All that and three loads of laundry before lunch.

This afternoon I’ve been making use of my cleared-off working table and I’ve been working on The Princess and the Pea. I tried a new method to eliminate knots in the back of the fabric but realized not many threads in that taking stitches out (when I make a mistake) is a problem. So I went back to the “old” way which is working just fine.

The apples on our tree are falling off, although they don’t seem all that ripe when you eat them. I found a recipe for an Apple Caramel Sticky Pudding that I wanted to try so when Pat went out for groceries this morning I suggested he buy some caramel sauce and some ice cream. He came back with groceries for supper, groceries for Texada, and groceries for me while he is gone. Sadly he didn’t remember either the caramel sauce or the ice cream so my baking will have to wait – because, seriously, even apple crisp needs ice cream!

I’m not complaining though as I’m loving being at home (as opposed to Texada) and cross stitching.

Friday, August 16, 2019

At the last two meetings of 100+ Women Who Care I didn’t cast my vote for the winning group. But last night I backed a winner. The runners-up don’t go away empty handed though as they each get $400 which amounts to the donations made by the organizers. This is such a worthwhile and easy way to give back.

Once I was home I dug right into that amazon box and when I saw what was inside I knew why I hadn’t ripped it open immediately. I ordered a new ink cartridge for my printer. While I waited for the new one to arrive I took out the old one, gave it a good shake, and it has been working quite nicely ever since. I totally forgot that I had ordered a new one.

I have been tidying for most of the day. This morning I emptied several bags that I brought back from Texada – cross stitch projects and floss mostly. My floss is now all organized and in the proper drawer, I have three small bins for my small projects and my needles and tools are all close at hand.

Although the weather said it wasn’t going to rain until Sunday it looked rather threatening to me so I went out just before lunch and cut the weeds on the boulevard. I did the same with the yard inside the fence; I think there was more grass than weeds in the yard this time. The sun is shining now so there was no rush but it is nice to have it done.

I’ve spent more time this afternoon tidying. I had a plan at one point to wrap my fabric around cardboard for better storage. The plan was never really put into action but I had lengths of cardboard and bundles of fabric all over the place. All cleaned up and put away now!

For the rest of the afternoon I have a couple of choices – I could clean off my cutting table (again!) or do some cross stitch on my ver clean working table. And read on to see what I found under all those piles!

The Blackberry Festival Street Party is on tonight. I remember that I was disappointed in it last year. No matter how sparse the entertainment and the vendors might be though you can always count on some wonderful Blackberry Shortcake from the Townsite Heritage Society. Fireworks later tonight and we can see them from the deck.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

My clean-up went well yesterday but there is still work to do. How is it that once I had my cutting table cleared and moved on to my working surface my cutting table all of a sudden was cluttered again? One day everything will have a proper place and several days/months/years later everything will be in that proper place. Until now I continue to work around the room and hope that with each turn I make some sort of improvement.

The show at the Hall last night went well in spite of the renovations. It was a comedy show, which really isn’t my “thing”; a couple of performers (out of five) weren’t too bad. We had a pretty full house and kept having to add more tables and chairs. We did okay on the concession as well – almost $90 just from cold drinks and tea. I guess the hot weather is good for sales.

The morning just slipped away – most of it was spent at my computer. I did most of my running around before heading off to my afternoon of sewing. I hadn’t worked on my project for three weeks and I was slow to figure out just where I was in the process. Gail sorted me out and I’ve left her all the blocks so she can arrange them in a somewhat pleasing manner. If I don’t like what she’s done I can always change it, but placing blocks together is another of my “least favourite” things to do (I have several least favourites it appears).

I’m off to my 100+ Women Who Care meeting in a few minutes. I enjoy finding out who the potential recipients are much more than I enjoy listening to them make their pitch; I’ve usually made up my mind about who I want to support after reading the ballot.

In my tidying up I came across two boxes in the hallway between my two rooms. One is the tuffet kit I purchased this spring in Vancouver but what is in the other one? It is an amazon box and I can’t imagine what I might have ordered that had so little appeal that I didn’t rip it open immediately.

I’d open it right now except Pat says there are humpback whales out on the ocean so I’m going to go have a look.