Cook, Make, Think

I know that most plant pots are made of plastic but if you can get your hands on a couple of small terracotta ones you can make a pretty indoor garden that doesn't take much room. It also makes a really cute fairy garden for inside or out. I've seen versions of this garden on Pinterest for years and have had a longing to make one. After my success with the Gnome Mountain, I wanted to try it even more.
Tell me this isn't one of the cutest things you have ever seen!


Better Homes & Gardens has a How-To on their web site. I am thinking about using it for the basic design and then give it my own little flair.
There are so many different ideas to look at BipDecor has a pictorial of 40 of the best indoor fairy garden ideas including several using terracotta pots check it out and wish me luck!
Now all I gotta do is find a couple of those pots.

Yay me this is Post 500 on this blog. Thanks for sticking around!
On the 25th the professor came down for his first full weekend visit since the pandemic began. To celebrate we decided we were going to take a road trip to my home town and have a picnic in a park of some sort.
My hometown is a hamlet, (total population less than 5000), called Buckhorn. Buckhorn is famous for two things: Council Rock which is a 20ft rock poised on the side of a small hill as you enter it and Adam & Eve Rock which is a pair of rocks located near the centre of town but hidden.
Head to Lock 31 on the Trent Severn Waterway and you will find yourself there. Check out the Buckhorn Tourism site for more information
Behind the Buckhorn General Store is a small park. This park has a lot of memories for me though not as a park but rather as Buckhorn Beach. The weeds took over the waterway and the beach fell out of public knowledge. Obviously, in the last few years, Buckhorn has spent some time rebuilding it as it…

Sometimes it feels like my head is going to explode from all the anxiety and negative thinking that is part of my mental landscape. Trust me when I say you will seldom see me show either of these things unless it is overwhelming but every so often I need to stop and centre myself before I can face the world again.
One of the first things I learned was deep breathing: In, hold for a count of 4, exhale slowly - repeat as needed and that is my first go to. Most of the time it works but sometimes it doesn't.
When it doesn't I am faced with a dilemma. I can listen to pan pipes mixed with nature sounds or I can be a little more active and do the five senses exercise. I was introduced to this exercise many years ago in an art expression group, (not the proper term but it currently escapes me), that seems to work well for me.
I found the image below which illustrates it much better than I can explain it. I suggest that when you feel overwhelmed you give it a try.

We are near the end of this month and I have been going back and forth about what this last post should be. I can talk about everyday things like housework or once in a lifetime things like a trip to the mountains. I'm not really feeling those. There is one other thing that I find fun and interesting and that is what I've chosen for this week.
I am by nature a curious person and I am always looking for new things to learn. In my teens, I heard about people who went to college and university year after year just to learn something new and I thought I want to be one of those. Life has a way of derailing plans so even though I never spent my life in school I have tried and learned something new every year. 2020 was supposed to be my year to learn the ins and outs of blogging but with everything going on I just couldn't settle into it so instead I've been making Christmas villages and learning the basics of patchwork and quilting.
With the new normal dozens of new opportunit…

I saved the best for last! Here are some hacks to make your work in the kitchen a little easier.

I have touched on this before with a stress on how they could be used to control pain today I want to talk about aromatherapy.
We all know that a certain smell can trigger a memory, sometimes good, sometimes bad. But using essential oils you can do many things from reducing your stress (lavender) to improving digestion (peppermint). They also come in many different forms like diffusers to scent the air and roll-ons to ease pain. In some cases, they can also be ingested but that is not recommended unless you use a food-grade oil instead of the raw stuff that is used in diffusers.
Today I decided I was going to pull my diffuser out and experiment with some of the scent combinations. I do not recommend any one company to get your EO's from. The recipe infograph below uses doTerra but I use Anjou which is on Amazon. (I wonder if I should get an associate number I mention them enough on here). If you are curious about other diffuser recipes check out this Pinterest board or this one. If …

I know kinda mundane after the other wildlife we have looked at. Yes, there are wild cattle but they live in countries far, far away. In North America the cow is the single most important animal that we have domesticated. We eat or use every part of it. On top of that the terms cow, cows, and COW are used in numerous other industries to refer to things. (I didn't know that until just now).
Just like many others, cows can be spirit animals.



Sweet right? When I first accepted the cow as one of my spirit animals I had no idea why after finding this it made sense.

I have only two criteria for this project:1) It had to have all the things basic to fairy gardens (house, plants, outdoor furniture & a fairy) 2) It had to fit in a small container (nothing bigger than a frisbee)
I considered many different containers but was having a hard time choosing between this or this  








I have both and they are around the same depth but I think the steamer is a little larger in size, on the other hand, the container has a solid bottom and the steamer doesn't so I would lose some depth using the steamer. Still haven't fully decided!
Once the base is decided on you build them up just like you would with a terrarium  Once that is done you add your fairy decorations and you are done. I know that buying fairy garden stuff can get expensive so I've collected a whole bunch of DIY pins. Three actually: Fairy Doll, Fairy House & Fairy Furniture. There is also a fourth board that will spark ideas for design.
I guess I should give you a heads up, I don't…

When I think about picnics I almost always think about summer and occasionally autumn but in my reading this week I discovered s web site that has ideas for a picnic in every season. Today I thought I would share my top four, one for each season starting with summer of course.
Summer: The Road Trip   a French baguette, a whole roast chicken, some pate de fois grasse or liverwurst, salami, Havarti cheese, and grapes. Stop at one of the highway rest stops so you can sit down at a picnic table
Fall: Fall Picnic Hot soup in a thermos, fixings for smores, a warm salad, cider, plaid blankets, colourful napkins spread beneath a maple tree

Winter: Snow Day Picnic Pack up your family and head to someplace beautiful to watch the freshly fallen snow.  Make it a winter picnic with quiche, soup in your favourite thermos, hearty bread and hot apple cider.  Bring plenty of blankets and watch the dance of snowflakesSpring: No plan
I searched for hours for something I could share with you for a Spring picnic…

So a little history before I begin. I was born in 1960 which as some of you know is when the world began to change. I was the tail-end of the group called baby-boomers. Actually, I was born between the baby-boomers and the beginning of the industrial age. Can't remember the word... 
I read somewhere that after the second world war people tended to have large families usually 10 or more kids. My parents were from families that big. The next generation cut the number of children in half so that most families had 4-5 kids on average. The next generation which is mine had 2.5 kids on average. Is there a word for that generation? No matter not what I wanted to talk about.
My father was a manual labourer doing everything from lumber to working in a quarry to working for the township cutting down trees and such. My mother did not work until after child number four was born, (number five was a bit of a surprise), and the jobs she did were things like picking strawberries & cleaning cott…

There are two schools of thought as to which is better online stuff or non-online stuff for busting boredom.
I spend enough time on the computer during the day that non-computer stuff is best for unboring me. I've spoken of reading which is my number one favourite activity both on and off the computer. I've also spoken about scavenger hunts and other active activities which while it's not my least favourite way to spend time, it is near the top of the list.
Today I'm going to go middle of the road so to speak. You all know that Making stuff is a favourite past time of mine. But there are so many ways of making things from recycling/upcycling to full-on stuff like doll making. One of the ways I kill my boredom is by sewing and embroidery. 
I started out sewing everything by hand and still do for a lot of the time but as I have progressed to a more difficult project involving multiple small pieces I have found a sewing machine invaluable.
I know some of you figure your not v…

I considered breaking this into three sections but decided against it. This sheet is downloadable just right-click and save as. It is UK based but that makes it doubly useful for those of us still stuck between Imperial & Metric. 
The Meat Cuts section is a great source of how to prepare the various cuts of meat as well as offering a guide to butchering your own meat if you are into that.
Finally, the Storage Section offers many ways to optimize those spaces as well as some storage limit guides.
I have had this cheat sheet around for a long time and found it so useful in so many ways I decided to share it with you.

I am a stubborn woman, I am also lazy and curious. When I first got the Dythymeia and Fibromyalgia diagnosis I admit I wanted people to look after me. I mean I had been looking after my children and other things for half my life at that point and I was tired of being the one in charge. 
Lately though I have found myself irritated by all the people telling me what to do or having people do things for me that I know I am fully capable of doing just because I asked. Over the last decade, I've more or less trained them to do that so it is my own fault.
I want to change that. I want to pursue certain things I've been afraid of doing and I want to get more self-sufficient again. The thing is I know what to do, I even know how to do it but I keep fighting with myself. Or my body no my mind somehow always finds a way to stop me either by causing a flair up or some other thing like fear to stop me.
My mom always told me I could do anything I set my mind to but I've found that I have t…

William Blake summarized much about the tiger by saying, “Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night; / What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” Tiger symbolism is fiery and fearsome, so much so that Blake ponders how powerful a Divine being would need to be to fashion such a creature. Metaphysical imagery frames the tiger as being tied to the will, strength, aggressiveness and bravery.

Tigers are one of my favourite beasts! I have always seen my daughter as a tiger though these days she is a pale shadow of herself. On my arm is a butterfly tattoo with a tiger face in it, when I got it I told my daughter this is how I see you. You may be a social butterfly but you have the soul of a tiger. With her health problems the tiger has been beaten and is in hiding but I know it is still there and that she will find it again.

Don't know about you but I love day trips except for the part where you have to eat in a restaurant (which you can't do any more). Restaurants are expensive and most of them only have Take-out right now. So what are you going to do?
Why not bring a picnic with you? All you need is some kind of thermo bag or box to keep things cool while you drive (helps prevent food poisoning) and a basic picnic basket. Of course, if you are going to have more than one meal on the road you might want to invest in some bug protection as well as the other stuff.
Start with the thing that says you are having a picnic a blanket and a ground cloth or my preference a pretty plastic cover for a picnic table. Cups, plates & tableware and you have the base.
Food wise you are going to want things that travel well. Pop or Juice boxes or some other bottled drink are a good choice as you know they can stand up to a few bumpy roads. Sandwiches are not a good idea unless they are in a plastic container that…

Fuck it! If no one is going to read what I'm writing especially since I am using my own words for a change I'm gonna take a holiday from blogging!
That is the thought going through my head right now. Writing about a different special day every day is pretty hard on a brain I like the new format and it stays true to the name of this blog. But by the looks of things, no one else does.
I know it is not your fault and I know there is a lot of noise out there in Blogland, that I want my voice heard is the lament of many a writer. That I write fluff stuff doesn't make it less meaningful than a non-fiction full-length book or a good storybook I put in as much time as any of those writers and don't make any money out of it.
If I want to be truly an author I guess I'm going to have to do what my current favourite writer does and publish on Amazon. Which also means I'm going to have to take those rough outlines I have and turn them into real stories.
I spend 8 hours a day in…

Last week we went with a quiet, rather passive way to deal with boredom today we are going to look at a few less passive activities. We still need to wear our masks but getting outside is easier now that we are at Stage two.
One of the easiest activities you can do is queue up some music on your phone and go for a walk either early in the morning (8ish) or in the evening (best after 7pm I think). If listening to music as you walk doesn't work for you find a podcast or a book on tape to listen to. There are all kinds of them online that you can download to your phone or ipod.
If you have a decent data plan on your phone you can download Pokemon Go and catch pokemon as you walk. I tried this a little while ago on gd1's phone and didn't even notice how long I was walking. I don't have data on my phone but I'm beginning to think I really need to get it because the pokemon was fun.

One other thing you can do is get the Participaction App and do your daily 10 with it.
Last b…

The following is a huge infographic but it contains a wealth of information I've found useful many times. We all know what it's like to have a recipe half done only to realize you don't have a certain ingredient you need to finish it. Instead of a last-minute run to the store try some of these substitutions.
Source: eReplacementParts.com

So I was just clicking around on Pinterest and I came across a reference to the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type Test. Its been awhile since I really looked into this but I've come across two to three references to it in the past couple of weeks so I figured I should refresh my memory as the universe might be trying to tell me something. I meant to wait until Tuesday but it keeps popping up so ... time to refresh my memory.
For those who are not sure what I'm talking about here is a bit of history from Wikipedia. Briggs and Myers began creating the indicator during World War II[2] in the belief that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women entering the industrial workforce for the first time to identify the sort of war-time jobs that would be the "most comfortable and effective" for them.[1]:xiii The Briggs Myers Type Indicator Handbook was published in 1944. The indicator changed its name to "Myers–Briggs Type Indicator" in 1956.[18] Myers' …

Snakes & I have a long history of mutual dislike, at least I assume it is mutual cause I have never really liked them. At one point in my life, I was actually terrified. I had a reason, the snake was 10 feet long and easily 9" round and my grand-daughter was petting the damn thing. The Professor still teases me about it but over the years I have come to a place of acceptance, as long as they are behind glass walls I like them just fine.
I know that isn't really fair to the snake but hey I gotta draw the line somewhere. Today I am sharing some stuff about the snake as spirit guide as well as some knowledge sites. Snakes aren't bad but most of them predatory and territorial so they should always be approached with respect.

For more information on this interesting reptile check out the following:
Snake Symbolism NG Reference Wikipedia

There is no need to get fancy with the base but it looks nice doesn't it. When I was researching for ways to make a water garden that was small enough for a table and easy enough I didn't need to buy any extra stuff. This one @radmegan fit the bill
I have a collection of Mason jars for various things like the salads we talked about yesterday and a tiny plant pot that fit inside it. I also have planting soil and rocks. I use special mineral-free water in my sleep apnea machine so I had that as well. All I had to figure out was how to get the water plants & the charcoal.
Online has become the easiest way. I start with amazon because I know they had the aquarium charcoal when I did my terrariums. Turns out that they have lots of different items. I did a lot of searching until I decided to go with the cheapest version which I ordered right away as it said there were only three left. I am sure there are others that would work as well but for now, this fit my priority of cheap.
Fin…

Pack some Mason Jar Salads, they are easy to make and the clean-up is easy. Plus as you can see below they are colourful and delicious. Add a water bottle with something you like to drink in it and head out to a park near you. Preferably one with picnic tables and plenty of shade. Read, write, draw whatever your pleasure and enjoy the beautiful day. Lots more ideas on my Pinterest board

Getting a Haircut in the New Normal is an event. 
First, you have to call and make an appointment, no walk-ins allowed so you can't be just be walking by and see the sign and think I need a haircut and go in and get an appointment. In some places, your whole conversation is by email.
Second, once you have the appointment they email you this list of requirements beginning with the fact that you are going to have to wear a mask to get in and there is no waiting inside no matter what the weather is. You have to arrive at the exact time that your appointment is and wait for them to let you inside.
Thirdly you have to wear the mask the whole time you are in there.
It was just too much given the heat so I cancelled it. So I'm a wuss! Maybe I'll wait to September & get the Pixie cut I wanted my hair should be long enough then for it to look right.

With the Covid Quarantine a lot of stuff has been written about what to do to relieve boredom when stuck indoors so it is hard for me to figure out what to talk about. I get lost in model building but not every one is creative like that.
The same goes for reading, there are many good books out there but some people just don't see the sense of reading. I am not kidding you though read or attempt to read a book in each genre and you will find something you really like.
Books come in fiction & non-fiction(like DIY or cooking); they can be modern or old (called classics). They can tell you stories about animals, flowers, clouds or people. Or teach you something new. One thing I am certain of though is that if you find the right genre it will suck you in and time will pass very quickly.
That's 24 different things that might hook you and help you learn to have fun reading. There are over 40 different genres but this is a good start. Set yourself a goal like you will read a book fro…

1: Hone your knife before you use it every time. The video below gives you the techniques honing and sharpening your knife.

2: Some info on knife skills, the basis of all cooking

Each week I'll bring you something I have been researching. This past couple of weeks I've been looking into moving out of my apartment. Finding somewhere else to live is easy enough but finding somewhere you want to be and that you can afford is something else entirely.
I pay less than market rate here but that is not my main criteria. I am a gypsy I have been most of my life. The longest I ever stayed anywhere was seven years and that was with the Professor. We've been in a relationship for 20 years but I doubt if we have spent more than 10 years in the same house. It's not him it's me.
Before moving in with him I moved about once a year even when I was married before. I just could not settle one place and I still can't.
I live on $1350-$1450 per month. Since 1 bedroom apartments go for a minimum $1350 a month here I can't afford to stay in this city nor can I afford to live in any of the nearby areas due to the influx of Torontonian retirees to the area. Wi…

Just having some fun. Going forward this month I will feature a different creature on this day each week.

I like pretty things but I don't like to spend money that's why I learned to make things. I have been interested in the terrarium for a while and even tried my hand at a couple but haven't been happy with the results I've achieved. This month I am going to be looking into a couple of different types of indoor gardens including a small water garden.
This week I am trying to decide which types I want to try and what I need to make them.
I am certain I want to try for a small water garden and succulent garden but there are many other types as well. 
Bonsai take a long time but a zen garden doesn't and it can be pretty small. 
Terrariums come in all shapes and sizes but as it happens I already have the beginnings of one of those it just needs the plants. I used a small fish tank as the base so that is something you can keep an eye out for if you want to follow along.
There is this fairy garden made from multiple clay pots that I am interested in as well
A window herb garden …

I have been using other peoples words for a long time so I sat myself down and had a conversation. The gist of the conversation was this, "you can't be a writer if you don't use your own words instead of someone else's".
I chose some topics but they are subject to change without notice but every writer needs a plan of some sort and each topic is a starting point so it's good.
This month I start with a sad and embarrassing story about picnics and then will share some ideas I've found around the web for food.
I was not very old I think though I don't remember the year. I was attending a summer bible camp and it was near the end. A flyer was sent out to invite all the kids' families to a picnic to celebrate the end.
I am not sure what happened to the flyer I was supposed to bring home, I just remember mom and I arguing about what it had said.
We were very poor and on some level I was aware of this but I really wanted to go on this picnic. I convinced my m…