Entry in at The Writer's Drawer competition

 http://www.thewritersdrawer.net/request-granted-in-time.html.

DIY Privacy Screen

This was my privacy screen project for my second week in July.
Haven't lost my touch as a carpenter. lol

Summer has been pretty awesome so far.
A little too hot on some days, but thankful it's not winter!

Pat

Salad in a jar!

Voila!
Now eating a healthy salad each day will be much easier. However, I will change a few things for the next time I make this. First I will use baby carrots and maybe frozen veggies, such as corn, yellow and green beans and so on, which will make it so much less messy to prepare and probably a lot less expensive as well.

I heard about these mason jar salad recipes at weight watchers last week and found all kinds online. A super great idea and I also saw some recipes for fruits. The salads are supposed to be edible for up to seven days.

Also got some sunflower seeds while I was at the grocery store. They are easy and fun to grow and I will likely plant them in the next couple of days. My tulips are out but not in bloom yet. Been a really cool spring!

My house is up for sale.Yeahhh. Finally made the decision and hope it will sell soon and if not, I'm not too worried and in no big rush.

Pat

PETS

I gave away my cat Maggie to one of my younger sisters yesterday. Maggie stayed at this particular sister's place quite often when I needed to travel, so it is not a strange place to her. She will be quite comfortable there.

It got to the point where taking care of Maggie was too stressful considering coming into my house was a battle every time I opened the door,  she'd try to go outside! I've always had animals around when the kids were growing up and even afterwards, but they were outdoor cats and dogs.
Anyway, I am relieved and happy she is in a good home.

Spring has finally arrived, even though there is still lots of snow in the woods and in some peoples' back yards. It will take a while for the sun to melt those three inches of ice under those mounts of snow. Very unusual spring for sure, but the crocuses are blooming and the tulip bulbs are popping up and should be open by the end of the month...hope!

Now back to raking the yard...not. My back is not up to it these days. The grass will come up and the lawn mower will make it look just as neat as if I had jut about crippled myself up raking it!  So there!

Thrilled to be part of short story competition

Hello,

Guest what?A story about my cat's adventures was entered in the short story competition at The Writer's Drawer today. Really pleased about that, but intimidated by all the good stories posted by people from all around the world.
Here is mine for those who of you who might be interested.

http://www.thewritersdrawer.net/maggies-adventures.html,

Cheers, Pat

Winter and exercise

Well, I may not have followed through with all of my New Year's resolutions, but I'm making so-so progress on the bike. Used it every day since I got it a month ago and went from six minutes at three mph to 15 minutes at 3.9 mph.  The resistance was increased by one notch to 3! lol
I'll change it when I feel stronger.

And, except this week because of the cold, I have walked most days in February and I'd say that's more than I'd done since I moved here! Mostly because I'm self conscious people might be watching me since it is more populated than where I used to live...as if that's all they'd have to do!

Will I be slim come spring? Not very likely, but I will probably have more energy and able to do what needs to be done without feeling fatigued.

Besides exercises, being with people and listening to some lively fiddle music is another way to get energized. I came home last Sunday from a lively afternoon feeling so pumped, I almost jumped right into spring cleaning. Thank goodness I was able to stop myself in time!!!

Okay, time to say bye for now. Going downtown to get those photo album pages I want. So many pictures to sort through, but I've postponed the job long enough. Time to get to it and at it, as the Late Stompin' Tom would have said.

Pat

Enough already!

Honestly, when is it going to let up? Here we are three weeks or so into winter and forget about my plan to walk more! I think I ventured out three times and that's about it. It hasn't even been fit to drive on most days. There is so much ice everywhere, even on top of the snow. First it was minus 40 and then it rained followed by freezing rain. But I must say that we had a couple of days when it felt like spring and now it's raining again so hope it doesn't turn cold before it snows. I want snow.

That's the view from my patio doors, facing south. Doesn't the ice on the snow look like melted marshmallows? lol  Certainly not the snow-shoeing kind of white stuff.
Okay, enough ranting about the weather.

Went to a session with my writing group this evening. It was great seeing everyone again and it helps to talk about how we can all move forward with our writing...or not. :)

That is about it for tonight.
Pat

A BOW TO WINTER

As winters go, this is a brutal one on a number of fronts right across the country, except BC I suppose.

In the Maritimes, we've seen extremes of cold on and off since the beginning of December with thousands of people without power over the Holidays because of an ice storm in the southern part of New Brunswick.  Here on the Baie des Chaleur, the season began with bitterly cold high winds before there was snow on the ground, and that made it difficult to keep warm no matter if you used wood, electric or oil for heat. It was like trauma to the buildings -- so much so fast.

Now that there is snow, three storms during the first official week of winter, we've woken up to minus 40 with the wind chill factor for the third day in a row.

All this is playing havoc with my intention to walk more, but it is better to be safe than sorry. I sure have enough on my to-do list to keep me busy. Oh! But I forgot to list I should take weekends off, lol.

Meanwhile, the cold can cause unexpected problems, such as natural gas or plumbing vents, as in my case, clogging up with ice. At least I can close the door of the downstairs' bathroom and control the methane odour! That cotton picken pipe is likely not up to code, as in too small.

Oh well, it is supposed to warm up beginning tomorrow and may even get to above zero by Monday, so hopefully the ice will melt. But there will be more very cold temperatures before spring and a possible solution might be to direct a fan heater at the problem. humm. Might be worth the purchase. Could be a long time before I can get a plumber to climb up there.

I will survive, I will survive. Remember that song?

Pat

New Year resolutions

Here we are a couple of days into 2014! Time flies. Yep.  Now what?

Like many people I've made some resolutions for the upcoming year. At first it was a resolve to go into a hibernation of sort in order to do something with that book I've been writing on and off over the last three years.

Then January First came along and I added a few things to my to-do list, like walking more...when it's not minus 40 with the wind chill that is!

I've always had a busy life, but upon retirement it was like all of a sudden I couldn't get enough TV! Especially renovation shows,  I could sit there and watch people work all day.

So, my plan is -- if I write it down I really have to stick to this hey? Oh well, here goes.

Write, walk, relearn to play guitar, sort through personal papers and written works and add to the insulation in the basement ceiling project. And of course besides that there is the usual household chores, shovelling snow, shop for groceries and visit relatives.

I figure if I alternate between these mental, physical and leisure activities, I will not get bored with any one of them and hopefully feel further ahead come spring.

The big picture in the mist of all this is that I will also continue to make improvements to my home because I plan to sell and move back to PEI!