RUG HOOKING BLOG

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I'm a mother of four grandmother of seven and great grandmother of three. I live with my husband in the house that we built with the help of my brothers and will have been married for 57 years this February.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

JESUS TURNED WATER INTO WINE.

It might be cheaper turning water into wine but I don't mine spending a little money to have someone else do the work for me.  Mary knew that Jesus was able to turn water into wine instantly at Canna's wedding when she realized that they ran out of wine for the wedding guests...  I can't do that so I have to do it the natural way...
 It's been a while since I got a batch of wine on the go and my little rack was empty as I gave a lot away as gifts... I was going to have some made for Christmas but when my daughter Nicole decided to come in July instead of Christmas as she didn't want to be caught in long overseas flights delays because of ice storms again as it happened to her twice in a row... I decided that I would wait before getting a few batches on the go as there was plenty of time...

October last fall made  me realize that she was never coming home again to taste my wine again.  My plan to make wine just fizzled out... I've accepted that and life must go on anyway.  She's got the best wine from the true vine that makes my wine pale by comparison.



So, just last week, I  got a batch of one of my favorite red wine, Valpolicella. I insisted that they don't add sulfite to it as it gives me headaches. The wine is great and no headaches.  I like a glass of wine with my supper meal and I like to relax at the end of the day with a nice glass of red wine. I have the labels but I still have to put them on. That's the least of my worries right now... haha, it still taste the same without the labels.

In the summer after work, I like to sit on the swing on the deck and sip a good glass of wine. I still have two batches of of wine on the go. Another favorite of mine is a white Gewurztraniner and I'm trying a Pinot Noir this time. I'm not a wine connoisseur but I trust my palate to tell me what I like.

On the gardening front, I've got my potatoes planted just so I can have some small fresh first potatoes for my Hodgepodge recipe, yummy. George also got lots planted at the farm...  also I got my onions in but nothing else in the garden although, I've transplanted tomatoes and green peppers in large pots.
I didn't started my own seeds this year as I was in Ottawa and couldn't care for seedlings when away and wasn't in the mood to care for seedlings. My daughter Jackie's peas are up....

I've been enjoying a constant display of flowers in bloom this spring and there's more too come. The skunks also enjoyed destroying my poor neglected lawn.  Look at the mess they created and the bad weeds have really taken over...

Nothing is perfect but it better to look at the color and greenery than to look at a brown lawn and messy dead flower beds. I'm always amazed at the transformation that spring brings.





The flood came and went with no damage. You can see the drainage pipe to pump water from the basement. What a big relief.


Some blue little bulbs I planted last fall.


I had just finished digging out and redoing this flowerbed when I received news of Nicole's death last October. The border bricks were left there and are still there. It's pretty well goes the whole length of the property in the back, right to the shed. Digging those perennials was such hard tedious work.



The Azaleas on the right just finished blooming and the pink Azaleas are now blooming.


Some blooms on the old rock wall.


I  dug out all my weedy and neglected perennials from this flower bed and George added some top soil and manure compost so I can replant this flower bed. He made deep tractor tracks on the lawn that he had to reseed but there's still some work to be done . We need to get some cement edging to hold the soil in place and a new eave through up above as the rain cut through the middle. Right now, my plants are still sitting on the door step.

That's it for now.
I hope that you all had a nice week so far.
Thanks for your visit and please leave your comments so I know you visited.  I  usually get over a hundred visits per post,  but only a handful bother to comment.   Comments encourages bloggers to continue blogging. I've noticed a large decline in blogging post lately from many of my followers. I hope that you will come back to blogging again.
Hugs and smiles.
 Julia

Saturday, May 27, 2017

AS THE WORLD TURNS, I'M GETTING SLOWER AT POSTING

It seems to happen a lot more to bloggers lately that they slow down in posting. I've been hesitant to post because my computer isn't working at maximum capacity with my hard drive being almost full and my iPhoto library  running out of space so I've finally deleted some duplicate photos to make room but it was a very tedious and time consuming job. I'm still getting the same message that my iPhoto is running out of space but I finally managed to upload a bunch of photos anyway.

My daughter Christine announced that she misses reading my blog lately so here Christine, this post is for you

In May Christine bought me 2 plane tickets to go visit her for a week for the Tulip Festival in Ottawa but it rained almost every day I was there. I did get to see the tulips but forgot to bring my camera. I had only one sunny day and I spent the afternoon outdoors weeding her little vegetable garden. I even  managed to get two therapeutic massage while there.  Sleeping in late was also a treat. No getting up at 5:00am.

Prior to leaving for Ottawa, we received a shipment of my daughter Nicole's personal things from Glasgow Scotland that we wanted to keep. I unpacked it and put everything away to be sorted out later.


There were 18 boxes of Nicole's stuff on pallets. George used the tractor fork lift to take it off the big transport truck and deposited on the garage floor. It was a rainy day.  The driver was happy as it made his job much easier.


Here below are some photos of my visit in Ottawa at the beginning of May.


James was anxious for my arrival so he kept track of how many sleep until my arrival. How sweet is that?



 He had received two Smithsonian semi precious stones kits that had to be hammered  out of hard bricks with little wooden mallets and sharp sticks. James and I worked for a whole hour to dig out these stones. He got so excited every time we found a stone. I did help him some. Notice that he's wearing a lab coat and a pair of safety glasses.


These are the stones we found in two bricks.


After the mess was cleaned out, he read a story to his mom.  James is in Kindergarten and is a good reader.



 Daniel played a marble game all by himself.


Again this year, James made it into the War Amp Champs magazine.  He was showing his new swimming arm paddle. James loves to swim under water with his new paddle.


What are the chance that my sister Leona and I would be in Ottawa at the same time. She was also visiting her daughter who lives one and a half hour drive away from my daughter's place. It was a treat to see her and her family.



This is her daughter Linda, grandson Samuel and son in law Richard.



A family photo.



I was resting in bed and James came in and asked me to read him a book...  He said something funny but I can't remember what he said that made me laugh out loud. James is a Senators Hockey fan. He  loves to watch the hockey game with his dad and even wears a Senators jersey.

I hope I still have some readers left. I'll try to do another post next week.
Thanks for leaving a comment. I hope that you all have a great weekend.
Hugs, Julia