Quick Sausage and Sauce over Fresh Linguine Pasta

  This is my donkey’s tail.  I planted 6 short tails last spring and this is how pretty mama’s little donkey is just a year later.   Its a fun plant to grow because when it drops any of its little pieces, I just drop them back into the soil.  These begin growing in no time.  I’ve learned the amount of water it requires to keep it from thinking its time to multiply.

When I got back yesterday after being away 10 days I watered all my plant babies (although my son had been by to water them).  I think my donkey’s tail wanted to reach up and hug me.   I’ve never seen it look like this.  Normally it hangs.  I guess it just missed me.

After a day back to work I wanted something relatively easy but yummy for dinner.    Do you use the Hillshire Farms Kielbassa or Sausage?  I can’t buy them here but buy them when I’m in the states and keep some in my freezer.  I used the Turkey Kielbassa this time.  The fat content is lower than usual sausage and its so tasty.     I sliced up some green pepper, 2 stalks of celery, about 1/4 of a sweet onion and sauted them in a fry pan with some olive oil.  I cooked that until the onions were softening and yellowy and then I added about 1/2 the sausage sliced diagnally.  I stirred everything together and cooked until the sausage was slightly browned.  Then I added approximately 1/2 jar of sweet and sour sauce (you can adjust to your liking) stirring it altogether as well as about 1/2 cup of water to that and continued cooking to heat through.  You can add a dash or two of tabasco sauce if you’d like a little heat.  I served it over some fresh linguine pasta along with a fresh salad.  Very fast and very yum!

A Little Humour to Share

I’m back to work today after 3 weeks.  This is not fun.  Going back never is.   Not only does it mark the end of this vacation stretch, it marks a closer spot to the end of summer too.  Working in a College its the beginning of working through another new semester.  *sigh*.   I sure did have a good time.   But that doesn’t mean that fun has to end right?  There’s plenty of fun you just have to continue to make and enjoy it. 

I was sent this little funny today and I wanted to share it with you.  

One day God was looking down at earth and saw all of the
> misbehaving that was going on. So he called one of his angels to go to
> Earth for a time.
>
> When he returned, the angel told God, “Yes, it is bad on
> Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not.”
>
> God thought for a moment and said , “Maybe I had better
> send down another angel to get a second opinion”
>
> So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a
> time too.
>
> When the angel returned he went to God and said, “Yes,
> it’s true. The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are
> being good.”
>
> God was not pleased. So he decided to e-mail the 5% who
> were good, because he wanted to encourage them, give them a little
> something to help them keep going.
>
> Do you know what the e-mail said?
>
> No?
>
> Okay, just checking with you. I didn’t get one either…

The Rains Finally Came…

There were waterspouts on the lake yesterday not far from us.  We have been watching a storm wanting to brew for most of the afternoon.   That was too bad because we were planning to paint the fence by the water. It looked like rain but it just wasn’t happening although at one point we did see a rainbow   I  I took some closeups of the flowers in the flower box.            The love bunny waved with pluto his golf headcover from the shop where the flower box hangs.

We watched the gold finches hanging on to their mesh bag of treats as it swayed back and forth fiercely.   

The winds really picked up and there was thunder and this hurrendous cloud over the lake in front of us     They were very unusual and a bit scarey but they blew apart and past us.  Now we’re left with the rains that follow.  Rains to freshen the flowers…. 

How was your weather today?

Thrifting en Route to Grocery Shopping

Jack is bringing his mommy and daddy over for dinner tonight.  The love bunny always has dinner with his daughter and her family on Thursdays.  Tonight because I am here on vacation they are going to come here and we can visit.

  On the way to grocery shop I  passed these little duckies that have been drinking from a roadside puddle this whole week.  Love that poofy hairdo!

I stopped in to a thrift shop I’ve discovered a couple of weeks ago just to have a little look…and I had a little buy too.  They were having a summer clearance so I found this lovely plate.  I am thinking it might be part of a snack set.   There is a perfect little spot on it for a tealight candle.     I’m not sure what this piece of china is?  It would make a nice candy dish, or for cranberry sauce or flowers.  Maybe it was a sugar bowl? 

    I love this type of glass.  The lid fits on snugly with the zig zag cut of the glass.  A pretty candy dish, or jewellery dish…

     This little pottery has little round spicey scented balls in it.  The fragrance is lovely and comes through the little holes in the dish.  Into the kitchen it goes.   

This lovely dish caught my eye and  and turning it over I read the familiar make, Arabia which is made in Finland.  My background is Finnish so it came home with me.      

 I think this candle holder looks pretty on the love bunny’s table.  You can see my flower wheelbarrow in the background. 

I guess those were all deals I could NOT live without so its a good thing I stopped on my way.  Nothing was only $2.00 so I think I did pretty good!

From a Garden Globe to a New Flower Garden

So one thing leads to another….the garden globe I picked up on Friday needed a nice flower garden around it.  I took the picture above on Friday.  Those green plants you see were along the side and back of the shed with a rose bush in the back.  

Today I removed most of those plants, the weeds, widened the area and went back and forth to the garden centre to buy some dirt and plants.   This is how the flower bed looks now at the side…..  I planted some perennials; a daisy, euchanasia, lobenia, rodenbeckia, lavender, a hosta and then added a few annuals.  This is the back….   Its a little late in the season to get really big.  I wish I had found that darn garden globe 2 months ago.  However next year the perennials will start to fill out.  It was a beautiful day with a lovely breeze which was good because it was a hot job.  Now,  the Love Bunny doesn’t know I’ve done this rearranging…hopefully he’ll like it.

My Very Own Gurgling Fish Jug

I received a package in the mail again this morning.  I KNEW what it was this time.   I couldn’t even open it in the car on the drive back because it was full of those darn green popcorn things….so when I got home I pulled it out outdoors and voila!  my very own gurgling fish jug!  You may have read last week’s post about Sheila’s gurgling fish jugs and her girlfriend Linda’s.  She has quite a lovely collection of gurgling cods.  Who would have thought I’d have to have one too.   Now don’t you think he’s rather cute?  I see another collection starting….

Bathroom Beauty Snapper Challenge

Well I have accepted a challenge by Sheila to be a Bathroom Beauty Snapper.  She has been taking lovely pictures of herself in her favourite restaurant restrooms and thats what this is all about.  Click below to learn more and for her lovely pictures.

Today, I’ve been to an Elks Picnic.  It was outdoors and we were all dressed casual for hot dogs, hamburgers, potatoes, corn, watermelon, friends, music, raffle tickets and a lovely sunny day.  Along with that outdoors is the theme of an outdoor restroom.  You would know its not going to be fancy…but we’d already gone to a lovely restaurant on Friday night for a fishfry and I’d forgotten my camera and the missed THAT chance so I thought I had better just go in there and do it!  Below is the result of that venture.  Now this was not the first picture I took very quickly afraid someone would walk in and wonder what was I doing…and I laughed out loud when I downloaded the pictures because in some of them I was looking at the camera or smiling at the camera…how silly was that.  It took a while to realize I needed to smile INTO the mirror to get the look.

 so don’t laugh because at least I did it luxury or not.  Now can you do the same?  Can you take the Bathroom Beauty Snapper challenge?  If so read all about it at Sheila’s site.  Happy photo snapping!

Take a look at Sally because she took the challenge too - two times to make it perfect.  Yahaaa Sally!…and Theresa… in bright lights…we have no problem with this!  Justine  showing us her blue streaked hair, Alex and all the other ladies joining in with the fun.

old books up there in the library….** revised

Oh my goodness.  This morning I played around with the different themes at wordpress.  I thought maybe I need a bit of a different look on this lovely Sunday morning when I don’t have too much time to actually be sitting here.  I had been thinking of packing up and finding a new location on blogspot recently.  Anyway I tried this one which I previewed with my own header and when I applied it I ended up with this library of old books as a header.  hmmmm…  Well for now I will leave it.  What do you think about those books up there? I will have to think this whole situation out next time.

**  Since writing this post I’ve temporarily put up a new header taken a couple of weeks ago at the cottage.  It was just dusktime… wouldn’t those branches and cones look beautiful with tuffs of snow on them in a winter scene?

I’ve left you with a pic of the flowers hanging outside the love Bunny’s (Marc) cottage front door.  They are always a delight as you enter.

I hope this Sunday is filled with everything lovely you had hoped for….

Judi

Yesterday and Today…

  Its a breezy, refreshing day today which is so much nicer than what I’ve had all week at home.  Looking across the lake towards Canada I think about this huge lake that separates Marc and I the 2 countries we live in.   so this is a bit of a geography lesson looking at our drive mine starting from Canada above Toronto and above Richmond Hill on the map.  Marc would be on the under side of Lake Ontario close to where you see Albion in the U.S. 

Thus on Friday at the border I crossed the bridge between us at one of the 7 wonders of the world, Niagara Falls.  A very biggg falls and such a tourist attraction.   

 In this picture  you can see the Maid of the Mist (tiny between the bars) which is a ferry type of boat people board wearing these yellow raincoats that takes you right up to the falls.  I haven’t taken that ride because the thought scares me.  Whew it gets to close to the end. 

I drove into Lewiston where we’d been to the Artpark last week for a little drivethrough.  I did park the car and walk to an antique store.  I walked to the backyard and there so many things out there!  I was thinking of Ronda at AntiqueCottageRose when I took this picture  because she collects windows and paints beautiful pictures on them.  Take a look.  Well as I continued to the side the door was open to the basement which was really full of things for sale.  I was a little leery going down in there…on my onesome… Now that I enlarge and look more closely into the room I see on the dresser on the right, a lamp with 2 white glass shades.   I think I like that one and now I wish I had had a better look at it.  I saw a neat old wagon I was tempted to take home and do something with, but I took a picture instead.   In that place I saw 3 little ceramic owls but I didn’t dare take a picture but I would have bought them for Shelly  because I’ve read that she loves owls.  I stopped at a couple of garage sales on the way but just to look except for 1 thing I did purchase and slipped in with Marc’s plants   a garden globe!  Isn’t it nice?  You can even see me and my car in it.  Its neat the things you see and learn about while travelling on blogs.  I was on a lady’s blog who collects them and I loved the ones she had….and the next minute I find one and of course HAD to buy it.  I read online that years ago they were used in grand houses so people catering functions could sneakily glance into them to see if their help was required, and parents used them to slyly check out on the behaviour of their daughters when their boyfriends were saying goodnight to them at the door.  I think they are just plain pretty when the sun shines on them.

I put my birdhouse into the wheelbarrow with the flowers   and I think it looks right at home in there.  Don’t you?

Today we were out having a drive and I finally HAD to take a picture of this house  we always pass where they have this collection of plastic carasal horses all up the front and the side  of their  house.  You know the ones they have rescued from those riding horses on stands with springs our kids…well some of our kids would have ridden when they were small?  Well…they love those horses apparently. 

We were on our way to the post office and I got a package   and I was soooo excited.  Don’t you love getting something in the mail?  I thought about Sheila at notesongs.blogspot.com and her fish jugs but nope…it was another purchase   a set of 4 milk glass snack pieces.  Aren’t they lovely?  I like milk glass.  I am not sure what their age is actually.  Would you like to come over for a little piece of cake and coffee…or sandwich and tea this afternoon?

The last thing I wanted to share with you is this lovely vintage set of pillowcases   Marc found tucked away in one of his closets. (I should have ironed them for the picture)  Because the cottage used to belong to his parents they’ve been here for some time.  I think they are so darling.   I can see another vintage pillowcase dress for Madeline from these.  AND when I looked at the little dress I made her last week I thought it would make a really cute little nightie if that darn pillowcase were a bit bigger to fit me.  Sooooo I have an idea running around and around in my head about that…hmmmmm…let me think…

On that note it has been a nice weekend so far.  I hope yours has been just what you asked for.  Enjoy the rest of it.

bye for now, Judi

She Models and It Fits….

We had a lovely dinner visit with my son and his family and  I was so excited to see that the vintage pillowcase dress I’d made truly WAS Madeline’s size.  She has lovely blonde, curly hair and the dress looked angelic on her.  The picture doesn’t show it off that well because she wasn’t in the mood for modeling for the camera tonight.  She had her mind on all the neat toys I’d picked up last week at the wonderful garage sale.

Friday morning I’ll be driving to Marcs early so that I won’t be stuck in any Friday or holiday traffic.  This is a long weekend for us with Monday being the holiday.  I’ll be there for the week but I’ll be lurking around here I’m sure.

I just wanted to stop in to leave you with this picture….and bid you a wonderfully happy Friday and weekend.