JAMES AND DANIEL LATEST VIDEO

James and Daniel love books and they both go to day care. The day care owner told my daughter that if she hears James singing a new song, it came from Mortimer book. James kept asking his mama to read him the Mortimer book so my daughter ordered it from Amazon along with some other books. In a few days the box arrived and the boys got excited at the prospect of having new books. James excitement really peaked when he saw the Munchs was in the box of books.

After their bath Mama was going to read the new books but Papa really wanted to read this book that had James so excited.

I hope you enjoy watching this little video too.  Click on the link below. JB

JAMES AND DANIEL LATEST VIDEO

I've been so bad at posting and I've been procrastinating. I have tons of stuff happening but it all sound so ordinary and I get so tired at the end of the day. The weather has been crap but I have family, a roof over my head, heat in the house, food in the cupboard and warm clothing, a job to go to every day so I'll just have to wait for the petals that are supposed to grow outdoors and  show you what's blooming inside.

To see the pictures larger, just click on the photo.

Here is my Hoya plant, also known as Wax plant. The blossoms are just starting and I started to count and gave up after 65 as  there were too many and some were still quite small.  When the blossom are fully developed it releases an exotic perfume around 10:00 o'clock  at night.  I just love the fragrance.

Here is what I've done on my grandfather rug so far. If I was to do it over again, I'd prepare my wool better. There are still some different color tone but I have difficulty seeing the difference when I'm hooking.

I had hooked some small S shapes in the background and didn't like it. I pulled the S shapes and re-hooked the same color as the background.They appear whiter than the background because a bit of green wool dust still covers the background. I realized that I didn't hooked my initials and date.

He doesn't look much like my grandfather but he'll have to do. I think he looks a bit sad with his fat cheeks. I couldn't make his eyes look sideways like in the B/W picture.

The river in front of our house has filled it's bank. The water level went down a bit but I didn't took another photo. It's been raining cats and dogs so I don't know how it will affect the water level. So far we have been spared flooding.

That's it for this evening
Thanks for stopping by. I so appreciate it when you leave comments. Enjoy life even if it's TAX time.
JB

SPRING HAS ARRIVED

I ventured in the yard with the camera to take a peek at how things looked garden-wise. I have so much work to do because I didn't cleaned my flowerbeds last Fall as I was very busy sorting out through thousands of ceramic molds, paints, glazes and supplies for a couple of months.

With the heavy snow we had this winter, everything is flattened pretty badly. I'm not sure if my flowering bushes have survived.  They are pretty tough but they have their limit.
These photos are but a small sample of my flower beds.
To take a closer look double click on the pictures.

The snow is almost all gone from my daylily flower bed and the bush by the road has suffered a lot this winter. Thank goodness I cleaned that big one last Fall but the narrow daylily flowerbed by the driveway has not been cleaned.

Here's a shot of my large Peonie.

The Hosta  bed next to the Peonie

Things are starting to grow but the bed needs cleaning before things grows more.

My daylilies poking out.

Snow in the frontyard

The St John River is on the rise and has just opened up this week.

The plow has torn the sod and deposited in the snow bank.

Squirrel #7 has been caught and released.

Maple trees are budded.

Thanks for your visit and I love your comments.
Have a super weekend.
JB

D IS FOR DONUTS & M IS FOR MOUSTACHE

I finally tried the raised donuts recipe I got from my good blogger friend Nellie of Berries and More.
They were so quick and easy to make and were light as a feather and so good. My husband approved. I'll make them again for sure. It makes a big batch so I may cut the recipe in two next time.

My husband is using my big Canon camera and wasn't sure which button to push. He finally found the right one and that is what you get. I'm almost done cutting out the donuts. I'm not good at posing for photos and  look a bit apprehensive....

So many doughnuts, and those are large pans. It's a good thing they are not too fattening as these were baked and not deep fried.  I used my convection oven and baked them for 5 to 6 minutes instead of the 10 minutes. They were perfect...

 I  sparingly brushed a bit of melted butter on and rolled them in sugar and cinnamon but used a lot less butter than it asked for in the recipe. They were so tasty.

I've been hooking every opportunity I had lately on the border and a bit of background, and I'm slowly making some progress and enjoying every minutes of it.

 I have an issue with the green wool  for some area of the rug and I plan to rip up and dye some more wool that will hopefully match the color from the first batch better. Right now it pretty blotchy especially the last area of the green I hooked.

James and Daniel playing in the sandbox on Sunday afternoon. The first really warm day this spring.

James has grown a moustache lately and Skype me to show me. This was a photo from a Smart Phone.

Spring is finally here and I've seen some Red Breasted Robins in the backyard and I made my wish.

I appreciate your visit,  and your comments makes my heart sing. Thanks for stopping by.

JB

HOOKER TURNED TRAPPER

I never thought of myself as a trapper but the squirrels drove me to it. They have chewed a big hole in the clapboard, way up to the second floor by the chimney and made it their home somewhere inside. I'm not sure if they have invaded my attic but I know that I've heard them race all along the soffits in front of the house and I could hear the racket at night or even in the daytime. They have kept me awake many nights. I didn't know how they got in until my neighbour saw one going into the big hole last week. She had them in her other house and it cost her $500. to get rid of them...

I asked my husband to buy a trapping cage and he bolted a small salmon can inside the cage as the squirrel would put it's little paw inside and lick the peanut butter without going in....  In 6 days we have caught 6 squirrels  and my husband is relocating them. I just saw another by the cage a few minutes ago but it didn't go in. It ate all the small pieces of peanuts that were on the ground. It's only a matter  of hour before we catch our 7th. They live to about 18 years old, no wonder there are so many around here raiding our bird feeders.

Here is one of the little rodent over the can of peanuts. We still have some lovely snow as you can see.

   
                     Funerals are serious business............

My husband love a free meal especially when it's a buffet. I don't  like to eat out much unless I know the ingredients in my food so my husband went alone to a Funeral Home sponsored information evening with a free meal.

He said it was a real good meal and since I couldn't go some representative made an appointment to come to our house to fill me in on the information and to hopefully convince me to plan my funeral arrangements.

It was very easy and now it's done and won't have to think about it any more and it will be easier on the family. St peter has my reservation and will call me when he has a place for me. Fair enough, I'm in no rush...

My  humble Canadian Tires wine rack is empty, hidden in a closet. It's one that I can expand by adding another section. There's a board on the wall to make it more stable with room to expand. This rack holds two batches. I'm thinking of adding another section to it soon...

Since I'm still here, and my wine rack was empty,  I got another two batches of fine Reserve Estate   of my favorite wine made and after 8 weeks, I  got it bottled last Wednesday. George came to help as it takes almost an hour from start to finish to bottle the two batches. A very easy process...

So I'm good for a little while. I gave a lot of it away as gifts but my bottles never came back so I had to buy some more bottles this time. These have all been put in the wine rack last evening.

I've been meaning to post for a few weeks and by the time I sit at the computer, I'm too tired to even bother so here is my winning from Nellie's giveaway of Berries and More. Nellie also included a recipe for Baked Doughnuts which I plan to try soon. Thanks so much Nellie for this generous gift. I've been reading it in bed every night and I'm enjoying it very much.

My little bunnies are keeping watch over the recipe until I see fit to bake.
I just wish I had more getty-up-n-go during the day. My time has been spent on my rug.

I've started some seeds that needs early start  on a heat mat.  They sprouted faster than what it said on the package.  I took the plastic off to show you the plants. The big one are Gazenias and the small one are Heliotropes. I tried them last year with old seeds and they didn't do well. The Gazenia seeds were $1.00 each plus tax.  No wonder the plants cost so much at the nursery. I hope these will bloom for me this summer.

I washed two yards of natural Dorr wool and I dyed some for my rug background.  I've been getting my hooking Mojo back this week and I've got lot done on my grandfather rug.


So sorry about the long post, I seem to be in a rut about posting.

Your comments are always appreciated. Happy April Fool Day everyone.
JB