Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Catching Up



My sister visited from the great frozen land in eastern Canada.  For them this is a winter to remember, or more likely they'd just rather forget it. Ontario has been under an Extreme Cold Warning, for what seems like weeks now.  She felt like she had come to Florida here on the west coast. The first daffodils are blooming, as well as some forsythia. Spring is getting an early start. It rained one day, and was cloudy for a couple,  but we had 3 days of sunshine when she got here, and another three days before she left.  She joined us in our Whole 30 eating plan, and is looking forward to great changes. She left yesterday, having completed 9 days of healthy eating.  I talked to her today, she said she is missing her chef (me), but had a roast in the crock pot and was oven roasting some vegetables.  Supper is taken care of for her, with leftovers for tomorrow.

We didn't do anything really exciting, although we did visit a lot of thrift stores, and I guess for us, that IS exciting! We also took Jake and Luna to a self serve dog wash at the local pet store.  First time I've ever paid money to clean our dogs, but for $10 a dog, it was well worth it.  Just nice to not have to kneel on the bathroom floor and lean over the tub.  Everything was included, waterproof aprons, grooming tools, towels, shampoo and a big dryer.  We passed up on the dryer as I knew it would freak Jake out.  I'll definitely go there again.





One of the 'red sky at morning, sailor take warning' sunrises.



Red sky at night, sailor's delight....



Cathy brought a present for Meredith, a late birthday present.  It was the tea set she had won in the silent auction in a Brockville thrift store, when we were in Ontario last November. The only thing was that she didn't know she had won it until we were back home, so Cathy had to drive half an hour to pick it up, and then pack it carefully in her carry-on luggage when she flew out here.


At the thrift store I found a cute half apron, which some one had embroidered with starbursts to make a border all the way around, and it matched the china perfectly.  It was 99 cents, but linens were half price that day:)

And since it is now marmalade season, I'm doing a lot of this.


It takes about 14 Seville oranges for a batch of marmalade.  The oranges are smaller this year, for some reason.  Since I make 10 batches over the year, that is a whole lot of oranges to juice during the short time that the oranges are in season. 

A few weeks ago I was buying veggies as well as marmalade oranges.  Not far away from my favourite veggie place is the Salvation Army thrift store.  It's not out of the way for me to go there, so I usually stop in.  You just never know what you might find!  
I've seen these citrus juicers before, and wondered why anyone would bother to drag something like that out of the cupboard to juice a few oranges, and then have to clean the darn thing after.  This time I had just bought marmalade oranges, enough for three batches.  The brain kicked in at the right time, and while I was looking at this gadget, brand new in it's box complete with instructions, for a whole $3.99, it occurred to me it might just be the thing for those marmalade oranges, and might save my wrist from some twisting and turning.  Hot damn, the thing is awesome!


28 orange halves done in a couple of minutes!


6 comments:

  1. That's a perfect place to bathe the dogs. I just can't do it myself anymore...that kneeling at the bathtub and leaning over! So glad you and your sister had time together. It's such fun. My sister and I had planned to spend yesterday together and then the snow started falling. We were afraid to go out driving. I enjoyed your post!

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  2. We have a similar dog wash in town, in a town about 60 miles away I noticed next to the car wash is a dog wash I haven't checked that one out. If I were to build a house again I would put in a dog wash area in the laundry room. Before Chance we had Shelties much smaller than a Border Collie and I could do them in the laundry tub! Nice to have your sister visit, I have not been thrifting in a long time. Merediths Tea Set is lovely! I have seen that apron in red and yellow and torquoise. Good thing your brain kicked in to buy that juicer!! :)

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  3. Not just eastern Ontario all of Ontario has it has been nasty cold and it has broken records and it hasn't been this cold since the 70's back in the days when I was a kid on the farm in the 70's I remember it being this cold carrying out fresh water for the animals daily and it froze with in minuets lol Dogs look funny when they are getting a bath always look so sad lol ! Miggs goes to our groomer to get the main bath and groom for the warmer weather but I bath her out doors in the summer in the winters she doesn't need to be bathed as she gets cleaned off in all the snow when she rolls and then gets towel dried and blow dried every time she come in and sprayed with a skin and coat cleaner that smell good lol ! Teas set is pretty nothing like a good cuppa tea . Glad you and your sister had a nice visit , I love aprons my mum wore them all the time I have one to . Thanks for sharing , Have a good day !

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  4. I wish I had a dog wash place for my border collie. It looks like a good thing. I really like the serving set. It is a nice pattern. Orange marmalade would taste so good right now on hot toast or English Muffins.

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  5. Oh, I love that dog wash! I want one in my next house. They have a blow dryer at K9 aquatics but it only blows cool air...takes forever!
    When you first showed those orange peel photo I was hoping you had an electric juicer, my wrist started to ache for you...smart purchase!!!

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  6. GREAT find on the juicer. I want a dog tub and a mud room (one of these days) :0) Glad you and your sister had fun.

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