Mosaic......

mmmmosaic heaven... was at the tile store yesterday... OMG what a cornacopia of colours and textures.. i think i might take another tour when littlest grandbrat gets home from her summer visit with daddy... she loves art, and what an 'art' store... i've been collecting bits of tiles and all sorts of stuff for doing some mosaics... i like quilting, well actually wall hangings and i think doing mosaics really isn't that different... just a different medium... i had a bit of a practice run with some of the tiles... it's going to be a beach scene i think... at least thats where it's headed so far...


i rescued a small wooden bird feeder and wooden bird house, of which i'm going to 'transform' into a mosaic feeder and house... it will be good practice... Youtube has some great small tutorials on tiling... the last bit of tiling that i did was about 15 years ago.... and it was difficult to pry off the wall when we changed the 'decor' in the kitchen.. sooo figure i can somewhat master the art of mosaics....





been doing more research online, for gluten free recipes and information on celiac disease... no i don't think i'm a celiac, but i do believe that cutting out the gluten in my diet has definately helped with my joint pain and it seems to have stalled the multitude of trips to the bathroom and gutwrenching bloating that have seem to have increased the last year.... i think that if i cut gluten out for a couple of months and it helps, then good, if not, then it was nothing lost... if anything more gained, not only in the researching, but of learning new recipes and finding new blogs from gluten intolerant or celiac folks...
one of the best gluten free blogs that i've come across so far is Gluten-Free Girl ... she's a writer and illustrator by trade and her site is interesting to read as well as being fully of great recipes and information....

Greywater utilization....

the water situation here is critical during the summer months.... i can't see why a system couldn't be incorporated here, i just need a 'handy' person to help me... i found some directions on a very cool system... i can visualize a pond, perhaps only bathtub size, but seems that it could be utilized to water some areas of the garden... a cistern would be the ideal problem solver, but a shortage of cash and labour nixes that thought, at least for now...
found this tidbit of information for the future... Hansgrohe has developed a compact Greywater system which is supposed to be coming to the U.S. ... more more.. bring it on!!! North Americans in general are a wasteful bunch... and yes, i include myself in that group... i'm more frugal than a lot, but if i didn't need to be.. would i be??

Peas.......

are planted... we shall see what comes up... hopefully something yummy!!! am going to teach my bratlings to use my sprouter... nothing like a good dose of vitamins, when its cold and frosty... but whether they wish to learn, who knows... seems like eating fresh veggies, sprouts is a no brainer in the stock up on vitamin department, but the hardest part is getting the kids to go 'green'....
i know that i've made some kind of impact when they willingly go and 'steal' peas and tomatoes from the garden... and are frugal with the water...

Pictures!!!

i took this picture on saturday.. it was hot hot hot... 34 celcius is 93.2 and it had already gone down a couple of degrees cause i was on the road... was too toasty to stay in the house, poor puppies needed some fresh air on their faces...






this carving was in Michael Biggs park.... it scared Dora to pieces.... the late Michael Biggs was a world class researcher/photographer in the world of Orcas... just a note, (trivia) that when i grew up the Orcas were called Black Fish .. it wasn't until the first capture of them in the 60's did the name change.. there is a sound at the mouth of Knight Inlet which is called Black Fish Sound...




i've not got a clue what this peice of machinery is, but thought it was pretty cool....





in case your wondering what the heck that is... its a flower tea ball that opened... was a delightful white tea bundled with some rather dainty flowers .... and it was delicious tea!!



this set of twins and mama were in Qualicum... went on an adventure on Monday... went to Qualicum to find a store called The Bulk Store, which has a little bakery and specializes in Celiac breads etc. i got a loaf of Cinnamon Raisin bread and some made up little pizza shells... and both were exceptionally delicious!!!



Qualicum Beach....








we had a good rainfall last night, some wind and general earth cleansing... my garden looks well watered, am thinking it might be a good day to plant some peas... i'm going to try and get a fall crop in this year... weather permitting of course!!
i've been on the hunt for fall crop transplants but nothing in yet... perhaps later this week... now that the hot spell has come and gone those transplants won't bolt as soon as they get plunked in the ground...

the sun is out this morning and am hoping that it will hold out for a while and warm us up just a bit... apparently our stormy weather is unseasonal.. hmmm what else is new these days...
global warming, cooling.. who knows... i prefer to call it global changes...

Tasty Tuesday....

woke up feeling like the truck ran over me... mmm neck troubles... so laid low for awhile...

those pickled onions just couldn't wait for me... soooooo up i got.. turned on the canner and got cracking... i now have 3 beautiful pint jars of pickled onions... yum yum...
here's the recipe if your interested...



Ingredients

5 lbs silver skin onions ( i only had enough for 3 pints)
1 cup pickling salt
4 cups granulated sugar
4 cups white vinegar
2 tablespoons whole allspice, spices

Directions
1 In a large pot, add onions, cover with boiling water and let cool.
2 Peel and discard skins and water.
3 Rinse onions and return to pot.
4 Sprinkle onions with pickling salt.
5 Cover onions again with boiling water and let stand for 24 hours.

6 Drain and reserve salted water.
7 Rinse onions with cold water and return to cooking pot.
8 In a separate pot, bring reserved salted water to a boil.
9 Pour over onions.
10 Repeat this same process for another 2 full days.

11 At the beginning of the 4th day, drain and discard water.
12 Rinse onions thoroughly.
13 In a cooking pot, add sugar, vinegar and spices that are wrapped in a cheese cloth and boil for 2 mins.
14 Pour this liquid over the onions.
15 Cover and let sit for 24 hours.

16 Drain off liquid, save and reheat.
17 Pour this liquid over the onions again.
18 Repeat this process for a total of 3 days, which is now the 6th day.

19 On the 7th day, which is the last day, drain and reserve the liquid.
20 Wash onions thoroughly.
21 Reheat the reserved liquid.
22 Prepare and sterilize jars.
23 Fill jars with onions and pour the hot liquid over the onions in the jars to within 1/4 inch of the top.
24 Wipe tops of rims very clean.
25 Place prepared lids on top and screw on screw lids just finger tight.
26 Place jars in a hot bath in a canner and boil for 5 minutes.
27 Remove from bath and place on a towel.
28 Cover with another towel to cool.
29 Jars are sealed when the tops"pop" and are concave, (turned down.).
30 Wipe jars clean, lable and store in a cool, dry place.


yum yum...

i figured that now the weather has broken and no longer blazing hot that a good baked dinner was needed... so made a delicious veggie casserole...

the basis is any veggies you have in your fridge, cupboard or garden... chopped and sauteed in olive oil, with a chopped onion and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic... throw on some leftover cheese or sauce and bake...

for today i had
1 onion
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
couple of potatoes
zucchini
green beans
celery
carrot
eggplant
spinach

fresh tomatoes
canned tomatoes

i put the canned tomatoes on the bottom, added a layer of eggplant, then the sauteed veggies, added a layer of some leftover pesto sauce, some slices of fresh tomato and topped it off with some leftover mozzarella and some other hard cheeses..
and baked for 350 till bubbly and browned.....

well i think that the dreaded 'fall' is on the way... i saw geese in formation and some of the maple leaves are starting to turn.... and it's chilly and raining hard... sighhhh
seems like summer just got here.. 2 weeks of warm and poof, it's rained away....

MMMmoisture.....

it finally rained.. but not a lot so ended up watering the garden a bit ... ah well only another month then i won't have to... picked a few ripe tomatoes today, some cherry tomatoes and 4 beekfsteak... now that i'm home and watering more regularly the next batch should be more uniform in looks, no cracks or signs of lack of water.... am lightly fertilizing once and week as well... my newly transplanted carrots are doing well too.. seems carrots and my soil are enemies tho.. not exactly sure why...

so yesterday was another scorcher, but later in the evening it clouded over and we had a few drops of rain... i drove down to Maple Bay to see if i could find somewhere to take the dogs to the water... apparently i'm not too good in the water department since once again, we came home dry.. there were a few places but filled with dogs, kids and rowdies... ah well, didn't need a wet dog or 2 anyways i guess...

another day of checking my pickled onions, boiling the liquid, and putting back in the crock.. yay... i tried one, tasted delicious... tomorrow i should be able to can them.. i will only get perhaps 3 pints.. but will be a tasty treat later in the year...

am going to make some veggie antipasto i think... that is a LOT of work.. but ooooh so good... not terribly cheap either but well worth the work....will have to haul out my very old recipe and get too it... it has 18 ingredients so will be a lot of chopping and putting together.. mmmgood...

2 Fans....

that i brought back from Oregon... were a godsend yesterday.... sally ann specials..... in Oregon i could actually have bought them cheaper, BRAND NEW, at wallyworld.. ahem.... i actually saved $15.00 each, because here they are $35.00 and i paid $20.00... anyways.... it was so darn hot i actually had to gather the 4 legged children and scoot them off to cooler places.... in our travels we hunted for a cool watery spot.... good luck on vancouver island... this is probably one of the most unfriendly dog places i know of...well maybe water/people unfriendly too... there was no where that i could take them to the river, in town no dog is allowed on the beach in the summer, whether it be lake or ocean... ah well... we had fun driving around wasting gas.. making a bigger carbon footprint...
on the return trip, i had a bear run across the road in front of my car.... unfortunately he/she is aweful close to 'civilization' and is almost certainly doomed to die... in the past week, we've had 3 bears destroyed, that we the public know about.... and i know of another case in Port Alberni where the poor bear will be destroyed when he's captured....not a nice world we have created... time for mass birthcontrol of humans...