Lavendar Syrup for London Fog

Shall I bore you with details about how I prefer to take my tea? Nah.  You probably find scrolling through 500 to 700 words (at minimum) of blather to finally get to the recipe as tedious as I do. Often you’ll arrive at the ingredients list, and then have to wade through more blather to get to the instructions. 

Google will penalize this post because it does not have the requisite word count and keywords and no image. This post is at least 400 words short of the ideal length, but here is the recipe and I admire that you’ve scrolled through so many search pages to finally land here. Truthfully, I’m largely posting this here so I don’t lose this little recipe, scribbled as it was on a scrap of blue-lined paper. So, I’ll keep it short.

Lavender Syrup for London Fog

This is a simple recipe for a tasty syrup to put in your fogs or tea lattes, but might be good elsewhere too.

2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of dried lavender flowers
2 tsp of vanilla extract
1 generous pinch of salt

Heat the water with the sugar, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved, similar to making a simple syrup. Add in the rest of the ingredients except for the vanilla. Let the syrup cool, strain out the flowers and stir in the salt. Put in a jar and refrigerate. Add it “to taste” to your drinks.

I hope I didn’t have to tell you to put the ingredients in a pot on the stove. Or that you shouldn’t test the temperature with your finger or other body part. Use a funnel to get it into the jar without spilling. 

How long does it keep? I’ve kept a jar for several months although recommendations for storing simple syrup with no organic matter say 1 month, so let your good judgment be your guide.

Do you know how many times I’ve misspelled lavender?

So Much Sewing

Progress on redecorating the rec room into a sewing room stalled as I took on the project of sewing 12 western showmanship shirts for an equestrian team. I used the pre-sized Simon/Simone shirt patterns from freesewing.org. I really enjoyed sewing these shirts, colour blocked in beige and bright solids and prints.

As soon as completed the shirts, I started a refashion of a men’s suit jacket I bought at a Talize. It’s not quite done, but I’m please with the results. I wanted a more fitted look than the ‘boyfriend’ style jacket refashions I found online. That meant a little more stitching ripping and measuring. To be continued….

Poppy Flower Template

Remembrance Day 2020 was spent at home due to the pandemic. This is the first time I was inspired to put up any sort of decoration for the occasion as I felt I had to mark the day somehow. I drew this poppy and cut the pieces out of coloured 9″X12″ light cardstock. I cut 6 petals, two yellow and two black centers, and two leaves. I hot glued the pieces onto a large circle of paper and mounted the completed flower onto a larger circle of boxboard that I attached a loop of twine to hand it with.

I coated the paper with a spray sealer so it would survive a rainfall. It seemed to weather well and lasted a week outdoors without wilting or fading. I’m thinking of using coloured vinyl next time, so the poppy will last more than one year.

I had to tack up the upper petals once it was hung because they flopped over. But, overall, I like the effect. You could make this poppy in any size, large or small. Adjust the number of petals or inside centers for more detail. Cut by hand or use your cutting machine. This is an easy project and shouldn’t take you longer than an hour.

Help yourself to my (somewhat primitive) free SVG for a poppy flower.

Lilac Time

After a very cold wet introduction, spring has bowed out to summer almost overnight. The tulips I planted last fall bloomed and faded quickly, and almost everything else cooked in the heat. The apple tree bloomed profusely and then it seemed the petals fell off in the span of a day. It’s a wonder there are any lilacs left, but they have managed to survive. Everywhere I walk I can smell their fragrance. Something I’m not used to seeing is white lilacs–there are as many as the purple variety.

To try to preserve a bit of lilac springtime, I decided to make lilac syrup and jelly. The lilac bush outside my kitchen windows needed a good haircut anyway, so I had my husband clip down some branches, especially the ones that rasp on the eaves when it’s windy.

The syrup was very easy, and will make a nice addition to summer drinks. It’s basically a simple syrup made with lilac floret tea. I’ve tried freezing some in ice cube trays–we’ll see if the subtle fragrance survives.

The jelly was less satisfying. I used this recipe. I only had liquid pectin and used 2 pouches. It was a long weekend and there was no way I was going near a store. It took quite some time to carefully strip the florets from the stems, leaving no greenery attached. After soaking the florets in water overnight, I strained out the ‘tea’ and added in the other ingredients.

The result was a very mild flavoured jelly–not distinctly lilac. Other recipes call for more lilac florets, and I think if I were to make this jelly again, I would use double the florets. I would also use real lemon juice rather than bottled.

The canned jars look very pretty. Even if the results were unexciting, it was a fun experiment and perhaps I will feel differently in cold December if I can catch a whiff of spring fragrance.

On The Last Day of the Second Lockdown

Almost exactly a year ago, I was sewing joey bags for animals injured in the Australian fires. Oddly, that seems a very long time ago. The first lockdown of the pandemic began in March of 2020. Looking back on it, those seemed like dark days as we tried to understand what all the information being thrown at us meant. That lockdown started March 17, and it was taken very seriously. Driving into town to pick up my grocery order at the end of March was like driving through a ghost town. And that too, was something quite foreign–not going into a store to get my groceries. We didn’t go anywhere. Doctor’s appointments were arranged online and we quickly learned to navigate meetings, exercise classes and choir practices online. I sewed masks, scraped wallpaper, painted–I don’t find it hard to stay busy.

Things eased up during the summer months. We spent most of it beside the pool. We only attempted to camp once. With only outhouses available at the campsite, it was a gritty affair. But it did give us a chance to see family we’d been missing since winter. We gardened, I sprained my ankle, we swam, kayaked, had a wonderful cottage weekend with friends and family and I sewed more masks.

We got in another visit to family in the fall. We canned peaches and pears, filled the freezer with garden vegetables and crossed our fingers that we would need another lockdown. In late fall, our forever foster Toto came to live with us. He’s with us as long as his heart holds out.

We spent Christmas quietly, and cancelled plans to visit family before Christmas as we watched the COVID cases climb alarmingly. Christmas activities were limited to going to a tree farm to cut a tree with my daugher and son-in-law and touring local light displays. It was a small party over the Christmas turkey as we anticipated hunkering down a full lockdown was again put in place on December 26. It was then extended mid-January.

So here we are at the end of the second lockdown. We did a lot of work on the house; work that would probably have been spread over many months if not for the lockdown. We’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned to be very grateful to be in the situation we are in–not stressed about our income, food supply or the roof over our heads. We’re looking forward to a bit of freedom, but I’m still hesitant to go anywhere busy with people. I’m happy to continue carrying out food, ordering online and doing curbside pickup until we get what, at this point, feels like those coveted vaccines. I’m not sewing any more masks. And our fingers are crossed that we don’t need to go through another lockdown.

Herbert Henry’s Seen It Before.

It just occurred to me that at 101 years old, Herbert Henry has survived a few crisis, including the pandemic of 1918. Ja Da would have been a popular song at the time. Does the piano already know the song? I hope whoever played, played better than I.

“To bear in mind constantly that all of this has happened before. And will happen again—the same plot from beginning to end, the identical staging.” Marcus Aurelius – Meditations.

Sometimes Love Isn’t Enough

We have a visitor right now. She weighs about 10lbs, isn’t very steady on her feet and spends a lot of time shaking. She’s from the same puppy mill Winnie was taken out of and clearly they are related. So here I go again, trying to help a mill dog become a good pet for someone.

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As we get to know her I’ll be making a list of things she will need to know before going to a permanent home. I want her more steady on her feet. She lacks muscle and coordination. She needs to learn how to get up and down stairs. She needs to be able to go off leash in an fenced yard. She needs to be able to get herself out a door to go potty.

These things a pretty normal for our normal pets, but they are hard work for a mill dog. You’d think going through a door would be no big deal. But, this can be a major phobia for these dogs. It took Winnie months to learn to step over a threshold and go through a doorway.

We are starting out a little further into the journey than with Winnie. She’s already been fostered for just over a year, and then was adopted. So she’s basically potty trained and doesn’t try to hide in her crate. She doesn’t run if she hears loud noises although she certainly does react.

The adoption did not work out, the owner describing her as a ‘shell’. But, we’ve already seen some sparks of a personality, most of this thanks to Sammy Sam, who is exactly the type of well adjusted pet dogs like this need to learn from. In some many things I’ve read about mill dogs, a well adjusted dog to be a role model is described as the number one thing that can bring them around. Sammy Sam will soon have an honourary degree in doggy therapy. For mill dogs, who basically have a canine form of PTSD love isn’t really enough.

Birding

Backyard visitor–Red Bellied Woodpecker

I admit the title “Birder” sounds a little strange to me, as it suggests something more participatory than watching birds. And although I may be a birder, I’m certainly not a twitcher (someone who travels long distances to see birds). I prefer to let them come to me. I am a list maker however, and keeping a list of birds in my special list book is something I enjoy. My bird list contains few rarities–these are just the birds that inhabit the same environs I do. I’ve been keeping a life list for several years now, but throughout 2019 I kept a list of all the birds I saw. Today I sat down and took a final count–there were 75. A few birds that I didn’t quite identify didn’t make it on my list–like the black duck I thought I saw just before Christmas. I figure confirming it over the next few days will give me a jump on the 2020 list.

January 1	Black Capped Chickadees
January 1	Northern Cardinal
January 1	Wild Turkey
January 1	Dark Eyed Junco
January 1	American Gold Finch
January 2	Red Breasted Nuthatch
January 2	White Breasted Nuthatch
January 2	Mourning Dove
January 3	Ringbill Gulls
January 11	Raven
January 14	American Crow
January 14	Red Tail Hawk
January 17	Purple Finch
January 19	Hairy Woodpecker
January 20	Redpoll
January 20	Sharp Shinned Hawk
January 28	Rock Doves
January 29	Pileated Woodpecker
February 7	Blue Jay
February 6	Snowbirds
February 24	European Starlings
February 6	Snowy Owl
March 4	Canada Goose
March 12	Brown Creeper
March 14	Common Grackle
March 17	American Robin
March 17	Red Wind Blackbird
March 18	Turkey Vulture
March 20	Blue Heron
March 20	American Kestrel
March 20	Common Merganzer
March 21	Killdeer
March 23	Mute Swan
May 5	Bald Eagle
May 6	Eastern Bluebird
April 17	Red Headed Woodpecker
April 17	Double Crested Cormorant
April 21	Common Loon
April 21	Osprey
April 21	Yellow Shafted Flicker
April 21	Eastern Phoebe
April 21	Northern Meganzer
April 29	Belted King Fisher
May 6	House Finch
May 11	Tree Swallow
May 14	Cowbird
May 17	Catbird
May 17	Field Sparrow
May 20	Baltimore Oriel
May 19	House Sparrow
May 24	Brown Thrasher
May 26	Bobolink
May 27	Barn Swallow
May 24	Mallard Duck
July 26	Green Heron
June 27	House Wren
June 27	Ruby Throated Hummingbird
July 5	Cedar Waxwings
August 18	Herring Gull
August 18	Yellow Warbler
August 18	Lesser Yellowlegs
August 18	Caspian Tern
August 18	Common Tern
August 18	Dowitcher
August 18	Least Sandpiper
August 18	Semipalmated Sandpiper
August 18	Egret
August 18	Downey Woodpecker
August 19	‎Gallinula
August 19	Willet
August 19	Bairds Sandpiper
August 19	Black Bellied Sandpiper
August 27	Phoebe
October 10	Song Sparrow
October 12	Red Bellied Woodpecker

Merry Christmas 2019!

Merry Christmas! Yes, it’s been a long time since I posted. In April we sold our home far faster than anticipated and had to be out in six weeks. We stayed with my daughter for six weeks while we bought a new home. The summer went far too quickly as we tried to unwind and squeeze every moment out of every hot day–camping and floating around in the pool were our main activities. My father passed away at the end of August, bringing our summer to a sad end.

Christmas 2019

As soon as the weather began to turn cool, we turned to fixing up our fixer upper. The house we moved into had not been redecorated since the mid-1980s. Every room had either wallpaper or border in loud florals, kitschy 80s goose motifs, and the sunroom had a particularly difficult to remove Thomas Kinkade border. So far most of the wallpaper has been stripped and several cans of paint applied, although much remains to be done. Things would have gone faster but for the wonky electrical wiring that need attention, requiring holes to be knocked in walls and lots of wire pulling and trying to figure out just what was going on.

There had been lots of ‘creative’ solutions had been applied to the wiring that were simply unsafe. The house needed a good electrician and luckily one moved in. While he complained of the work, I could tell he was glad to be once more using his skills.

I think I’ll leave things there for a bit. I’m putting togehter my 20 in 20 lists ala Gretchen Rubin, and one of the things on that list is to give this blog a little more attention.

Have a peaceful and happy Christmas and all the best for 2020.

So Quiet

Yes, this blog, never very noisy, has been extra quiet. Most of my belongings are packed in boxes awaiting the big move the first week in May. It’s been a hectic few weeks, but I feel like I’m on top of things. I’d like to move into a new home, but that doesn’t like like it’s going to happen. So everything is being put in storage until just the right house pops up. Then, I look forward to painting and decorating and making it ours. And, getting some garden put in. I miss my gardens!