soeurs du jour

Love Thursday

Time has been all jumbled this past week.  It is hard to believe that Thursday is here again.

My husband holds the key to my heart.  We had a late start with our marriage.  I was 43 and he was 49.    I never planned on marrying.  It just wasn't going to happen, fortunately I failed miserably with that prediction.

See how the keyhole in this photo looks like someone scratched it trying to jam in a key that didn't fit, that happens with hearts, doesn't it?  Mine was scratched by the time BB arrived with the key.

I love our story because we carried the keys to each other's hearts for 25 years not knowing that we had those very special keys in our pockets.   See, we had a little thing and kind of kept in touch, but not really and it's a long story, but we ended up in the same place in the fall of 2002 and fall was an appropriate time, because fall we did, hard in love.

Does someone hold the key to your heart?

Kath

charley the chocolate lab

i never loved a dog.  i have had many dogs during my short 55 years, good dogs, bad dogs, but i never actually loved any of them.  oh i was nice enough, and the kids loved them, and my late husband, the bear, loved them but i never loved them.  don't tell the sister but i never even loved her dog chester, of blessed memory, even though i referred to him as my nephew.   

and then there was Charley.  Charley is a long story and i will begin with the beginning because that always works for me.  i want everyone to stop right now and realize with me that for the first time i used a capital.  by mistake.  or maybe a freudian slip.  is charley the only one who in my mind's eye deserves a capital.  it's possible.  

suffice to say that we needed a dog simply because our home was empty without one.   as a. said, who doesn't love a puppy.  it was a quick decision ending with a road trip to nowhere, to a breeder, home with a puppy wrapped in a towel.  love at first sight, not so much for me, but for everyone else.  my youngest son named her charley.

the very first day we walked this little dog at the dog park my business partner called and begged me to come to her father's home and have my fortune told by a fortune teller.  she said this several times, "a real fortune teller".  

the actual telling of my fortune was astonishing, this woman was very accurate.  near the end she looked at me and said who is charley?  my puppy.  odd, she said, i don't usually see animals but this is something different.  this dog, she said, is very different, she is your guardian angel, you must try and keep her with you at all times.  she kept shaking her head, telling me she couldn't see what it was but this was a very different, very special dog.

being responsible dog owners we took charley early one morning to be spayed.  several hours later the vet called with a post operative report, charley was fine.  why does she have a boy's name? the vet asked.  oh my teenage son didn't want her to have a girl name, simple as that. well it turns out the name was more than just a little appropriate.  charley is a hermaphrodite. that's right, a boychick, half boy and half girl on the inside, girl on the outside.  

this news was greeted with shock, disbelief, and finally laughter.  it was not viewed as a flaw by the kids, more like a bonus.  two for the money as they say.

she seemed smart enough, she learned the tricks of the trade very quickly.  a good dog needs to understand how to please each individual in the home, and even visitors to the home.  she was such a wonderful addition to my life in particular

charley and i slowly attached to each other like something, i don't exactly know what, i had never loved a dog before.  a conversation with an elderly aboriginal woman led to the discussion of hermaphrodite dogs.  she was astounded to hear that charley was such a dog and she proceeded to tell me that in aboriginal folklore these dogs were thought to have two souls and as a result were able to travel back and forth between this world and the afterlife.

and so, on july 14 last year, charley touched me all night long.  i was alone and having a stroke, she kept her head on me the entire night, she put herself between me and the stairs as i stumbled to the washroom so that i wouldn't fall.  

since that night, if i wake up for any reason, she gets up and immediately comes to see if i am okay.  she will stand beside me, her head resting on the side of the bed until i fall asleep.  i am vaguely aware of her going back to her dog bed.  if i go to the washroom she follows me, sitting in front of me, staring, waiting to make sure that i am okay.  my guardian angel. 

tomorrow i am having a little heart surgery.

so charley, just in case i need you, be ready to leave on a dime.  xoxo

 

 

 

Edited by Kath:  

At 12:52 I received this email:  "I qm done. Fine. ALl ok. Ghroggy. Xo"

All I can say is, "good dog, Charley, good dog." 

About my sister.

My heart is hurting a little bit.  Not the way Margie's heart is hurting but mine is hurting for her.  I know this surgery is necessary, I want her to have it so that she can be better. She wants to have it so she can be better.

We have been reaching out to each other more than ever lately.  The emails, texts and phone calls are flying back and forth.  That's why I got in the car and went to see her.  There was a need for distraction and connection.  We needed to be in the same room, even just for twenty-four hours.  We kept it light, we know the seriousness of this but there is no point in dwelling and speculating.  She would send me emails from her doctor's office, they want her to give herself a needle.  I spit coffee on my keyboard.  Right, I laughed, that is never going to happen.  Ever.   But she did it.  I watched her.

I was offering her advice a week or so ago and told her that her job right now, her priority, her only thing was to prepare herself, mind, body and spirit for what she faces.  My advice?  I told her to do all the right things, meditate, exercise, eat well, be calm, treat herself to books and magazines, and to look vague.  I'm not sure what that means now that I'm relating this story.  But I think I meant that she should tune out from some of the demands day to day life puts on us all. 

As you can see from her previous post.  That's not Margie's way.  She will take care of the others so that she knows they have what they need while she's recuperating.  She gave herself the needle, she dragged laundry 300 miles, got it done and likely put it away.  And they aren't going to starve, when she makes a grocery order in preparation for something, nothing gets missed.

Tomorrow is her surgery.   She is showing incredible courage.  She has never once said that she's scared or that she can't do it.    It's hard to face something like this, the fear factor is huge.  We all cope in different ways, some of us don't cope, we curl into little balls and wait impatiently for it all to be over.  Not Marg.

My sister, she's a coper.  I don't know if that is a word but it describes that part of her where she goes to find strength.  She finds her strength in doing.  That's how she deals with the fear factor.

Tomorrow I'm going to post something she has already prepared.  She took care of that too.  It's guaranteed to choke you up.

It's about this wonderful being who is forever watching.

Don't be afraid.  You will be fine.  You're strong.

I love you.

Kath

is she nuts? and remember i never use caps!

the sister sends me a message, can you do a recipe post, blah, blah, blah. yeah sure kath, no problem. great weekend together at the cottage with the babies and assorted others however it was our cottage and so guess who came home with wet towels, sheets, etc., plus i got lost for two and half hours coming home from OUR COTTAGE, with the two babies and my son and daughter in law in my car. poor a. stayed up there with his head down a hole or under the water trying to figure out what the heck happened to the pump and the water that the pump is supposed to provide.

but there were moments like this, so all was not fraught with angst.

wait wait wait...there's more!!! i had to start giving myself NEEDLES IN MY STOMACH yesterday morning because i am having the HOLE IN MY HEART fixed at the frigging HEART INSTITUTE in 48 hours.

wait wait wait...there's more!!! today,after i gave myself yet another needle in the stomach, feh, i decided to load up the laundry and take it to the laundromat where i paid to have someone else do it for me, made a grocery order the size of montreal so that the family will be able to eat while i am convalescing, washed the floors one last time, changed all the beds (person at the laundromat should be washing those sheets as we speak) cleaned out the fridge, and soon i will make supper using the left over tenderloin that cost a fortune and has to be eaten today.

i still have A LOT TO THINK ABOUT and while i was doing all of this and while i will be doing everything that i need to do for the next two days, i need to appear CALM AND HAPPY so the children won't get upset.

please do not think i am nuts, remember this post is called is she nuts? but i want to start a book so that i don't have to start the book when i am already too nervous or anxious or worse feeling like crap because who can start reading a book then. i need to marry some stupid book before all this starts.

okay enough, you get the picture, so kath, are you nuts?? there will be half a recipe post while i am trying to deal with all of this.

here you go,

my daughter in law's fruit cobbler:

take this, and throw in some of kath's granola, and flour i think, maybe sugar, bake it in the oven

it will look like this and be delicious.

xoxoxo

i had a great weekend kath, but are you nuts?

Whirlwind Visit

Friday evening to today at noon.   800 km round trip. 
The drive could have been shorter and the visit longer.
It doesn't matter though, we made the most of the shorty visit and cooked, ate, drank, walked, talked, took pictures, laughed, sat on the dock and had coffee together two mornings in a row.

The little crocs danced and jumped and hopped and climbed all weekend.



I nibbled on these for the very first time. 



Margie took my picture.

 

We had so much fun.  I didn't want to leave her.

xo Kath

I'm a fan.

I'm a fan of fans.  Margie and I had a conversation at the beginning of the summer where we agreed that if you have a good fan, ceiling, desk or handheld, it's really all you need to stay cool.

Don't get me wrong, when it's hot, I still put on the air, but most of the time I rely on fans.

I bought this beauty of a fan at a garage sale the other day and  when I brought it home, I cleaned it up and put it on the kitchen table.

I went out for a while and when I came home the fan was gone.   BB had moved it.

We live in an older brick bungalow.  It's not an inspired home architecturally.  It was spotless when we moved in.  It was painted in colours I loved.  We moved in late in the week and that same weekend I hosted a dinner party.   There are things in the house that I don't love, but I've never changed them because they are fine, just not necessarily what I would have chosen.  One of the things is the towel rack and paper holder in the main bathroom.

I decorate on a budget.  I'm not able to go out and buy a whole new room.  So, I watch and decide and wait for things. The first thing I did in this bathroom was buy a turquoise clock.  Then I thought, orange and turquoise!  Beautiful.   I went shopping in my house and brought some orange things into the bathroom and realized the error of my ways.   I removed the orange but stayed with the turquoise.  I've bought a soap dispenser, a vase, a little porcelain bird and some hand towels over the last few months (here's a tip, when you decide on an accent colour, get a paint chip that matches and carry it in your wallet, you would be surprised how many times I think I've seen something perfect and when I get out my trusty paint chip I find that I am way off base!)

When I came home that day and saw the fan in the bathroom, I knew that BB had found the other accent colour.

The fan looks fantastic.  It works and I use it every morning when I'm drying my hair (and writing the most amazing posts in my head that never make it out of the bathroom - perhaps the next addition should be a notepad).

I bought the soap dispenser in two parts.  It can be expensive to buy one that matches perfectly.  I bought a really ugly one that was on sale, not for the container part but for the metal pump.  The white dispenser you see in the photo came with a plastic pump.  I  bought the two for about $5.00 and swapped out the parts.  

That's the towel holder that I'm not fond of.  Maybe some day when we paint I'll change it.
But for now, I'm working with it.  The little vase with some white cosmos from my garden help.

I've got more ideas for that room, including changing the vanity light which is so bad I won't even show you.  Do you have any for me?

Cheers!

Kath

love thursday

you can see the love in my son lou's eyes as he looks at his nephew dave.

dave is named after my late husband who passed away ten years ago.

Grow your own salad bowls.

Last evening was beautiful.  I felt a breeze, saw shadowy spooky clouds and watched an amazing lightning storm.  I went out to water my pot plants (no, no!  I mean my pots with plants in them) and had the greatest idea.

I love it when I find a treasure whether it be from a garage sale, a thrift shop or an antique store.  I especially love it when I find something with a price tag that says "free".    I bought this old aluminum pot at the end of last summer on one of our trips to Toronto.  I didn't know what I was going to do with it, I knew I wouldn't cook in it.  It wasn't free but I think it was $2.00.

At the beginning of this summer, I dragged it out and filled it with dirt.  I had nothing to plant in it so I grabbed a package of mixed lettuce seeds and threw them in and from time to time I've sowed more seeds.  We've had some lovely salads out of this single pot, it grows just enough for one big luscious salad, but the wait between full bowls has been too long.  I shall pick it almost clean tonight.

My great idea?  

Next summer I'm going to plant seeds progressively over four weeks in four different pots. I think it's a great idea, I will have four salad bowls growing at different rates providing us with at least one home grown salad a week throughout the summer.   The lettuce from the farmer's market is great but there is nothing like a salad made with lettuce that was picked minutes ago. 

So simple and easy, you could do this on a balcony or outside your back door like I have.

Brilliant, huh?

xo Kath

home again

remember the other day we were heading off to do something with our half naked cottage bathroom? well we are home again and happy with our progress.

we went from before to after and are not quite finished but thank goodness we can see the finish line. there is always lots to do at a cottage and ours is no exception. a. built this from the ground up, every square inch. he is very proud of it and so he should be. me... i am in charge of cleaning, decorating and small support jobs. i did hold a board now and then and of course i was asked regularly for my opinion. my opinion is pretty much always the same, "that's great, let's just get it finished."

take a look at the after pic.

nice isn't it?

here's the cottage

the main room

we always leave the cottage perfectly clean so that the next

time we come up it is ready and waiting. the corona, mine for doing

such a good job of tidying up.

our room

another view, see those sliding doors, well out there is the screened in

porch, without the screens, or a floor, but soon soon soon

there will be an after picture of this as well.

i'm open to suggestions, comments, i would love to hear your cottage experience!!!

On birthdays, gifts, cleaning and goals.

I know, the morning is almost over.  It's raining here, we were tired and gave ourselves the luxurious gift of sleeping in and laying about.  Coffee, newspapers, magazines in bed.  We turned the air conditioning off, opened the windows, set the ceiling fan whirring and wasted half the day reading snippets aloud to each other, listening to the rain and making our plans for the coming week.  

Last week was my birthday week!  If you don't already have a birthday week you should, one day is not enough, stretch it out.  I told you we went out for breakfast and that my birthday morning started with coffee and presents.  BB gave me a wonderful gift.   A gorgeous plastic file folder and in it, all the bits I would need to make my own cards, blank cards and envelopes, sticky photo corners, sharpies and 25 glossy copies of this photograph:

I love this photo because shortly after I took it the rains turned to hail and my favourite tulip was shattered, all her lovely curly petals were on the ground.  My gift was rounded out with a magazine, a lottery ticket, cash and a beautiful card. It was a perfect gift, I love office supplies nothing thrills me like a package of Sharpies with all the colours of the rainbow. Oh and cash, yes, cash thrills me too.

Later in the week my sister's gift arrived.   She too knows me well... I received MORE amazing office supplies, a new apron, bath salts, tea towels and my very first moleskin notebook. 

The green magnetic handy box says, "just in case".  I love that the type is in lower case, just the way my sister writes.  The pushpins are perfect for the cork board on the back of my desk, and those towels?  Someone should make night gowns out of them they're so soft.
And Hank.   This magnetic guy was a favourite as soon as I saw him.  He was unnamed and after freeing him from his package and seeing his incredible magnetic strength, I named him Hank.

Here is Hank minutes after arriving in his new home.  He is happy because he sees that we have cocktails when we get home from work.

I loved my prezzies so much that I was motivated to do something with my little corner of the basement.  By 7:00 that night I had created this:

I dragged things out, pulled things off of shelves, and created a mess while I tried to make sense of the piles of paper and wires and books.  What is missing is a view of that table on the right, piled with crap  precious things.  And no, there are no after pictures yet, it's a work in progress.  A work that I'm happy with because I'm no longer dragging my laptop upstairs to the kitchen table to get away from it.  And the table that is still heavily loaded with items waiting to be dealt with is behind me when I sit at my desk and I can, for the time being, ignore it.

(Okay, somebody help me, when I use the flash (even without the  lens hood) I get that shadow. How do I avoid that?)

I had a great week, birthday wishes and lunches, presents and phone calls, dining out and theatre, beautiful bouquets of flowers cut from my garden and rain so I didn't have to water.

But still, all is not right with the world.   Because when I was cleaning my basement corner, shredding papers and throwing things away.  I found something.  I found a little notebook.  What was in that notebook that has distressed me so?

It was my weight on March 21, 2006.  

Back to this morning, remember I said I was reading a magazine, well it wasn't my New Yorker, my Martha Stewart or one of the many well thumbed gardening magazines that I keep at hand, it was the Weight Watcher's magazine that I bought yesterday along with one point bread and zero point vegetables.

See, I've hit this weight.  I've never weighed this much before so I did what I always do when I need the truth and can't bring myself to tell me what I need to hear (along the lines of, "Hello, do something about this before it gets worse!").   I sent my sister an email filled with exclamation points and sobs.   I confessed my weight.   I told her what I weighed two years ago.  On March 21, 2006 I had been doing Weight Watcher's for 12 weeks.   I had just lost 15 pounds.    Today?  I've got that 15 back plus another 15.   Yikes.  I've half-heartedly dieted, been up and down over the last two years, I knew I was getting heavier, but I didn't commit to doing anything about it.   I never set a goal.  I know the only thing that works for me is WW. 

So, I told my sister in that anguished email that I thought I needed to do WW again. And her response? 

Two words.

"Do it." 

So simple and so right.  I've got the first four days under my (still too tight) belt and have seen results.  I don't have a goal yet, I think I'll just concentrate on sticking with the program each day.  Actually I will set a goal.  Right here, right now.   30 pounds. 

That was so not a long story short.   It's just shy of noon.  I better get moving.  Because today I'm making garlic basil white wine jelly.   It's not much wonder I gain weight ....

Cheers!