Ten Swans a swimming...

To the day, these, perhaps same ten swans migrated through on the exact same date as they did in 2005- March 11th! How is that for an accurate bird? Ron had seen the swans down his way about a month ago, which I thought ws early , but perhaps it was a different migrating group. These ten might well be the same ten that lanmded here in 2005! They never stayed laong...just kept paddling their way up the lake, and as you can see by this photo, they were nearly on the other side of the lake by the time I caught up to them. Thank goodness for a telephoto lens!



The same day... I switched this to Black and white as it was kind of a gray snowy day up in the mountains


The rest of the week was much the same... snow on the mountains ,pouring rain down here...



But...Look at today! Brilliant sunshine Yea! To top it off, we spring ahead tonight... and the radio announcer said to be careful when you drive just after the time change as that is when the highest number of accidents accur on the highways...people are still in sleepy mode in the morning ,I guess.


So have a very nice week-end... I am going down to the basement to paint...we are coming along with it, albeit slightly slower these days!
The good news is that our new neighbours have been busy clearing and cleaning up the invasive weed lot next to us over the past few weeks, and what a difference it has made! I feel sorry for the deer and the birds who will no longer have their favourite bushes to hang around, but I guess it is all in the name of progress. We had nary a bird here for a few years, despite hanging out a bird feeder ,when we first moved in. Now with our trees quite grown up, we have all kinds of birds...and the deer..well, as we know, there is no shortage of those beasts just yet.
Have a sunny weekend!
"The Creator"

From Bea's to Bali

Sorry about my photos not coming up...Here theya re again. Thanks Lynn for notifying me!


Hello Strangers ...
Where have you been?
I've been all wrapped up lately as you can see...so is most of the stuff in the front part of the house!
I can see where Christo got a charge out of wrapping things...from entire islands to the Point Neuf in Paris and more.
I kind of like the idea of wrapping , but in actuality, it was a little tricky...yards of plastic and me. Thank-goodness that Lynn helped me last week-end to wrap up the china cabinet, but mid week I had no choice but to go it alone to enclose the kitchen and hall. Despite the
plastic wanting to fall down at every chance, I finally got it hung up. Much to my dismay,however, one main corner came down and let the drywall dust cover the kitchen shelves, the floors and go right down the hallway... mucho mess. A little more to do upstairs and down and then we can begin the cleanup, and the painting... Might as well do it while everything is out of the living room! Now what colour to do it? Cherry Cheesecake? Mocha Juicy or maybe Mellow yellow? I'll think on it... I have many colourful things that need to go with it reasonabley well... maybe pale white... can white be paler than it already is?

My kitchen behind wraps

Beautiful photos by Chris from Bali where they are vacationing... picturesque, isn't it?



And from underwater, a sponge bob starfish... amazing colour eh?



So the week-end hasn't been a dull one...Canada winning more medals than any home country of the Olympics! Yea Canada! And wasn't that a hockey game to behold? And mens curling,and speedskating? Wow!
Yea Canada!
Closing ceremonies...did you note the size of those Beavers??? Like they said...right out of any gift shop at the airport... what the world sees as Canada...but they forgot the Maple Syrup!
Then there was the earthquake in Chili...a biggy that sent every Pacific coast city into tsunami alert from Australia to Hawaii to our own coast... kind of scary, because in 1964 the city of Port Alberni was almost wiped out entirely, as the result of a tsunami wave.Sonia was kept busy and said she sent her dad home a day or two early! He is glad to be home tho! Morgan came out and gave him a hand down the basement and now just one last chunk to go and the ceiling will be in, and then we just need the mud! I tried my hand at that today and filled in a big crack at the top of the stairwell... At least it will give Brad something to build upon as there was a giant gap to fill up.

This is also the week-end that Mataya moves down to the Koots...Yea! I get to give her lots of duplicates out of my cupboards and up in the suite... The shelves look better already since I sorted through the kitchen in the suite and piled all the "to go stuff" on the table...and bed...and into a black plastic garbage bag... What she doesn't take... its going straight to the Transition house!

And Lynn had her great Norwex party on Saturday night. She can probably still take an order or two so give her a call quick! It is supposed to be the best antibacterial bunch of products on the market!
Also talked to Annette in Halifax...so far far away...however we are getting good at looking up things using Google Maps Streetview
Have some fun with this baby...plug in an address and move the little yellow man to the street where the marker is and voila! You get a real live photo of the place ( if it has been street photographed for google) Of course we aren't on there, but city folk are there in living colour. I was able to see the street where Annette works and the area where her and Shawn are looking at houses... Truly amazing... try it out and have some fun...you can look at downtown London if you like! So now I have a better sense of what Halifax looks like and where she works... Thanks Sonia for clueing me in.
Another revelation is that many books are downloadable from local libraries to be read on your Kindle...or Sony book reader... and its FREE! Just need the reader and a library card!! Maybe you can download it to your computer... I don't know that yet.
If I missed anything, I am sorry...too tired now to think. I washed down the suite today,(after I mudded) and my knees are still achy from doing the floors. It will be presentable now, in case John and Ronda spend the night tomorrow night!
Oh yes, nearly forgot, our new neighbours to the west, had a sleep over for the first time, on their new property and today they did some serious work over there...beginning to take shape in baby stages. We are so pleased to see some progress on a piece of property that has been left to the Invasive weeds since we moved here, that I can't tell you how happy Emil and I are! Further more, they seem like really nice people! Yea!
Hokey dokey ...have a good week! Love ya all...

A beautiful sunny Week-end!

Lynn came over for a little getaway this week-end.. and what lovely weather we had, day and night!
Saturday night we had a long soak in the hot-tub and watched the stars and jets going over head.
(Oh yes, on Saturday morning around 5:25 am, I jumped out of bed and threw a jacket and pants on and ran out to the front yard in time to catch an awesome view of the Spaceshuttle Endeavor and the International Space Station flying in tandom right above the mountains south of us .The shuttle had undocked from the space station and was on its final trips around the world before landing at 10:30 pm.As I have mentioned before, join up to Spaceweather.com to get these announcements .)
However , when we were in the hot-tub, I did see a major ball of meteorite fall down between the Kokanee mountains.. I didn't see the trajectory... so maybe it came from behind the mountains...it was bright and looked like it just fell straight out of the sky. I hope it wasn't flare from a lost skier.....


Although it was sunny out, we still needed a toque...in case you are wondering why Lynn's hair turned purple.

We took our chances and crossed the property owned by a large barky black lab named Rex!
We ended up doing a long long walk and I was wishing I had brought some water with me...
I have to say we worked up a little sweat!

Now here is your laugh for the weekend... This pic below is of Silky and myself with Ranjit! Isn't he a site?
Yes, it is Randy all dressed for the big Indian dinner that his wife Frangit cooked for Deb and I on Friday night...

Chef Frangit in the middle, Deb on the left and moi on the right.

Frances cooked up a storm for us... yummy samosas baked in phyllo dough, Curried shrimp, Butter chicken, and fresh home made Roti that she cooked up right before dinner. Thank-you for the nice treat Frances, and Randy!


"The Creator"

Linda's Plum Delight (Cottage Pudding topping)

Prepare your fruit filling as for a pie
eg:
Put frozen plums into pot and cook till broken down. Thicken with cornstarch or bakers starch Pour into pie plate and top with cottage pudding.

Cottage Pudding Topping. Combine:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar ( or splenda) or half and half
2tsp Baking Powder
!/2 tsp salt

Beat in a seperate container
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup margarine or butter melted
1 egg

Mix dry and wet with spoon till completely mixed kind of like muffins...don't overmix

PAt onto fruit in a pie pan that you have prepared like a pie filling one spoonful at a time starting at the outside and working around to inside. I often leave the centre free of crust.
Bake 350* 25-30 minutes or until topping is crisp and toothpick comes out clean.

It tastes yummy when it is warm fromt he oven with a spoonful of icecream on top!

This is an excellent way to serve up those frozen plums from the freezer, but any fruit could be used.
How about canned peaches for a peach cobbler... use a little cinnamon and sugar to top the topping!

"The Creator"

Happy Birthday Robert!

The Happy Johnsons

Abs looking all dolled up!

The Cuz's!


What a nice afternoon at Lynn's with Denise, Shayne, Robert and Mattie and of course Lynn and Bob. Lynn had baked a fat yummy home made chocolate cake that was to die for-in honour of Robert's 16th birthday , which is coming up soon. Lynn's dinner of ribs and rice and turkey and veggies along with a salad that I brought, filled everyone up...very delicious Lynn!
It was very good to see both Shayne and Robert... I think it has been a few years at least! We had a nice little visit, not to mention cute Matthew, who has the vocabulary of a law proffessor! He explained a Playstation 3 game to me in great detail leaving me wanting to get a Playstation 3 for myself! Too funny! Sweet Abby was ever helping in the kitchen which showed her maturity level for sure.
I left for home around 7:30 and made it home in record time due to all the traffic...holeeee that highway is a busy one. I was home before 9:30 and still pretty wide awake!

Today was clean up and get beds changed and laundry done , vacuuming and all of those household chores tackled. I did get out in the rain to walk Silky for a short walk on the beach, but even she wanted out of the sogginess, and opted for an early return home.

Ok, time for tea and a piece of my plum delight...
made with Linda's recipe for a cottage ( cobbler drop dough) on top of a fruit filling. I used the thawed plums and strawberries that were in my UNPLUGGED freezer. Seems like the E-Man in his infinite electrical mode, left it unplugged... probably since last Wednesday. Fortunately only the top stuff was starting to thaw...hence the plum and strawberry delight.
I'll put the recipe in a separate post.
Have a great week everyone!


"The Creator"

Gung Hay Fat Choy and The Olympics begin!

Oh yes, and Happy Valentine's Day and Watch for an unusual conjunction of the moon and several planets on the night of the 14th... Yep, we might as well tie everything into one post since I haven't been at the old blog since my big win, last weekend... I spent the week basking in the glory of being a winner!( Oh yes, and reading the Time Traveler's Wife!) Also it has been a busy week at the store and at home. Emil headed down to Victoria on Thursday to be house marm to our lovely grandaughters in case Sonia works late during the Olympics. He needed a little time away from his project in the basement, anyhow.

Gung Hay Fat Choy... or Happy Chinese New Year...t is the year of the beautiful Golden Tiger...one who brings wealth by the sounds of it.. I wish all of you a lucky and prosperous and healthy Year in 2010!

Now to the Olympics! Whew! They made it through the opening ceremonies with only a few major glitches adn protests, but nothing that took away from the spectacular special technical effects, that shed a light on British Columbia and Canada's Cultural history,especially as represented by the First Nations People . I am glad they scrapped the dogsleds that they presented at the close of the last Olympics....the Northern lights effects, whales spouting and Aborigian dancing more fairly represented BC, I thought.
The sadness was in the loss of a Georgian Athelete during the Luge trials. The news shot of the accident turned my stomach. At least there was a minute of silence at the opening ceremonies in his honour...what a way to begin the games that are already seen as a fiasco by most of British Columbians outside the lower mainland.
A tear came to my eyes when KD Lang broke into Hallelujah !
I have only been to one of her concerts, but have been a fan of hers since I first heard her ,and this rendition was her finest... She has one heck of a powerful voice, but not quite as overwhelming as the singer of the Olympic Hymn.. holy mack!

Back to KD Lang... This version of Hallelujah will be in her new four cd set called Recollection .
Oh my, I just listened to a replay of her performance on tv and again a tear came to my eyes... reminded me of her concert back in Vancouver years ago... her voice sent shivers up my spine...I am thrilled she was chosen to sing!

In the end, some of my most favourite Canadians brought out the Olympic flag... Donald Sutherland, Anne Murray, Jack Villneuve, Barbara Ann Scott and Julie Payette and Bobby Orr and Romeo whom I don't know about. I lovveeee Donald Sutherland,and was happy he was recognized!

Oops, did they forget Celine Dion?

My most favourite torch bearer was Nancy Green, but Rick Hanson, Steve Nash and the always amazing Great One, Wayne Gretzky, did Canada proud.

So with a few hitches and glitches, it all came together in the end. Were the flying circus skiers from Cirque de Soleil? I think that is a pretty Canadian group... and where were the Ukrainians in all of this?
After all,they are Canadian homesteaders... ...Oh yes, probably at home playing poker !

Then the Asians and Indo Cnadians where were they? Vancouver is more than half full of them. (I think some were disguised as Aboriginal drum beaters. Yes, I'd say they missed that whole diverse part of Richmond and Surrey. )

The wierd part was the boy floating over the wheat fields.????.. maybe he was a Cirque de Soleil performer...but who was that bluish pimple faced kid they kept showing???... hopefully not some celebrity I was supposed to recognize from the Miracle Network.

Ok, enough Olympic bashing. I hope the games continue and that Canada wins lots of gold, and for a legacy, I pray our kids and their kids aren't still paying for these 2010 games in 20 years. Oh yes, I said enuf O bashing. The Fiddle playing was awesome too !

What will they do for the closing ceremonies????? I guess we will have to wait!


Meanwhile, have a Happy Valentines Day!
+
Gung Hay Fat Choy!

GRRRRRRR........

"The Creator"

Da Big Winner...is...

Here are a few preliminary pics from the acceptance festivities at Safeway today.
This is the store manager, Norm



My award...a trip for two to the Dominican ...perhaps Punta Cana...

The magnificent bouquet of flowers they presented me with

Last but not least, my huge cake which we shared all around.
Much to my surprise I had a little crowd there to share in my happiness... my sister Joyce, my sister-in-law, Lori, and her mom and dad, Ron and Phoebe, and of course, Emil , my sweets, who took all these pics! Thank-you all for making a special effort on my behalf, and thank-you to all who congratulated me and said their thoughts would be with me today when they couldn't make it.
The back of the cake was one huge slab of chocolate... and the cake was vanilla, all done up very neat with the poker chips and the poker hands...very cute.. Thank-you so much, Canada Safeway and their promotional group, Promotavate, and the supplier of the trip...Redtag. A huge thank-you to all my sweet rellies and friends who came to support me today... I wish that I could take everyone on the trip with us! We'll try to give everyone a heads up of our dates, then maybe others can book a trip there at the same time.... It will be a party for many reasons!
Love you all, and it was the best day of 2010 for me!
"The Creator"

Sat. Feb 6th, 11:00 am

Mark the date on your calender, as this will be my big moment of stardom at the Nelson Safeway store. This is the date that has been arranged to make the grand presentation to me! ( and Emil)...Yes, everyone, he has opted to come on the trip with me! So if you aren't doing anything and you want ot see me cry, then come on out to Nelson Safeway this Saturday and see what its all about. I'd love to see a few familiar faces amongst all of those cameras and media people!
I have no idea what it will be like, but hey, maybe they will give out free doughnuts and coffee or something.. who knows???
Sorry my blog was thin over the weekend. I cooked a big Chinese dinner for our friends from across the lake, on Saturday night. After dinner we got into a couple of games of Euchre and then it was late to bed. We had fun and I think I am catching on to Euchre finally.
Sunday was a busy day with clearing up the main side of the basement. Emil has visions of getting drywall hung in there before the end of the week, so we had to move everything away from the walls and then cover everything with plastic that couldn't be moved . That was an all morning project, and half the afternoon. Randy and Frances came over for Happy hour and then back to laundry and bed. I have to say that the new sheets we ordered from Costco are devine to sleep under. My pillows came today...Yay! I have woken up with a sore neck about three nights out of four ,due to my very mashed ,flat pillows. I have a knack for killing them whilst I sleep. In one year, my $60.00 Obus form pillow is a bag of dust particles and a hardened bar of foam underneath...enough to make your neck cry out in pain... I totally flattened it!
Okey dokey...Have a great week... I sure intend to!


"The Creator"

Wanye and Derrick are the winning guessers!!!!

Both of them did a little googling around to find that my surprise is not so secret if you want to find it out!
Lucky me had my name drawn by Safeway in their recent Texas holdem contest and I have won a trip for two to the Dominican Republic. Yes that is the DR that is attached to Haiti in case you were wondering. More details to come when I get them! Have a great day!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry from Bea

1 in 1,561,267

Thats what my odds were... Stay tuned to my blog for news of my extraordinarily lucky day!

Giggle giggle!

"The Creator"

Vancouver Fog in High Definition...a Time Lapse Video

A friend sent this to me from You tube... a video that captures some of Vancouver over a period of time... done to an upbeat musical score - it is quite interesting. Just double click in the black area of the video to the right and it will open a new window at You tube . From there you can click the grey arrow to the right to see it full screen. It is worth looking at. Now I am going to go back and see the one of the Grand Canyon... Enjoy!
Well, the Grand Canyon was good, but the typhoon coming in at Hong Kong was even better...especially if you watch right to the end when the city lights turn on... very cool...

"The Creator"

Costa Rican Coleslaw and Fahitas

On Saturday night I decided to make that yummy coleslaw with the whole head of cilantro in it... I call it Costa Rican Coleslaw. I took so many pics that you will have to look at the web albumn
to see them all. Here of course, I've loaded them up in exactly the opposite order, but am too tired to exchange them all, so bear with me and you'll get the gist of it.

Here is the finshed beef fahita and coleslaw. Yum... Serve with grated marble cheese, sour cream, salsa, chopped tomatoes and guacamole if you have it. You can also do chopped lettuce, but I figured that the coleslaw did the trick.
You can heat the tortillas in the nuker one by one, or do a pile of them in tinfoil in the oven. Don't overcook them or you'll have tortilla chips!





Rolling it up is important... flip up the bottom of the tortilla and then roll it. That way the filling stays inside.

No quacamole, but here it is... a layer of grated cheese on the hot tortilla, then the pepper, beef and onion fahita mixture, topped with tomaotes

I marinate the meat in a half can of beer and also some lime juice and all my spices , for about a half hour or so before beginning to cook.

A squirt of lime on the beef or chicken mixture at the end of cooking gives it a little pizazz. I use lots of tex mex spices, fahita mix spice, and anything else I have around the kitchen. This time I added a hot sauce and that brought the heat factor up a notch or two.

I cook the veggies first in the wok. I added plenty of chopped garlic too. Then I empty the veggies out into a bowl and throw in the chicken or beef... this was beef from a little striploin steak.
Once the meat was cooked , I added the veggies back into the meat. Usually I cut my red peppers in rounds but slipped up and made them chunky this time... still tasted good. Always check for saltiness...usually that is the spice I am lacking in the meat.

Here is my finished colesaw. Yummy! The dressing is nothing more than vinegar, oil , salt and sugar and garlic and a dash of hotsauce. The key , once again is to add suficient salt. This brings out the flavour of the cilantro and helps soften the cabbage. i used a bag of coleslaw mix to make my life easy peezy.

This is a cute little Ikea chopping board than came in my stocking. I used it to do most of my chopping. Here are the green onions getting chopped up.

here is my coleslaw with the chopped cucumber, tomatoe and cilantro. I went on to add chopped red pepper to the colslaw as well.

This is the nifty double bladed chopper that comes witht he chopping board. The chopper is good for herbs and a small dice.

This is the culmination of my fahita night. I have a new understanding of the word "Trajectory!"

The salsa bowl slipped off the counter and when it smacked ontot he floor, it produced a 360* radius of spewed salsa all around my kitchen... on every cabinet, on the baseboards, the rug, on top of my stove, and ever place unimaginable! Silky did her darndest to help me out but wound up hacking and sneezing from the jalapenos in the salsa. She gave up on being miss floor cleaner.

Two hours later I finshed cleaning every cupboard, my stove, my dishwasher, and anything else down low that I don't even usually see. It was a mess and looks much better now, but I'd recommend not to ever try it!

"The Creator"

Ray's Kayak...9 years in the making...

This a labour of love so to speak...Ray L. has spent nine years cooking up this baby in his basement or shop and now it is done... a piece fit for a museum...but he intends to put it out on the lake at some point. We'll be watching for it. Thanks Ray for sending the photos my way...

 

 

 

 


"The Creator"

Amarylis Blooms!

 
Here's my beautiful amarylis ,at various stages of bloom...note they aren't in the right order. Do you have any tips to keep them so they bloom next year?
 
 
 


"The Creator"