On Our Way To Houston ...

November 19, 2014

Oma and I had a great flight on our journey ...

to see Ian, Kendall, Daigen and Nixon ...

what a difference from seeing untouched land to the huge cities ...

It was a beautiful sunset flying into Houston ... !!!

Kendall volunteered to look after a turtle and a tree frog ...

from Daigen's school over the Thanksgiving holiday ...

Daigen and Nixon looking at a video on Oma's iPad ...

of (kids) goats running around and playing ... 

to the tune of Jingle Bells ... 

the boys were singing along and laughing ...

at the silliness of the goats ...

Some little treats for Daigen and Nixon ...

And homemade cookies for Ian and Kendall ... 

Nixon just loved the gingersnaps ... he called them the brown cookies ... 

Little Nixon chillin' on his lazyboy chair recliner ...

I think he had enough chocolate and cookies for the night ... !!!

It was wonderful spending time with them all ... !!!

Ice Crystals ...

November 17, 2014

Couldn't resist taking these pictures of the ice crystals ...

that had formed on the pool cover ...

Glistening in the sunshine ... Beautiful ... !!!

Exciting Times ...

Mike and I ended up getting new iPhones ...

and we decided to give Oma my old one ...

Once it was all set up for her ... I took it into town for her to play with ...

before we went on our trip ... !!!

It was so awesome watching her ... 

the joy in her eyes when she realized just what all could be done with the iPhone ...

just like her iPad plus having the phone ... all in one ... !!!

What a wonderful group of friends Oma has at Joseph Creek Village ...

they presented her with this special card ...

knowing that she will be celebrating her birthday ...

while visiting Ian, Kendall,  Daigen and Nixon ... !!!

Actually three Birthdays will be celebrated at once ...

Oma's ... Ian's and mine ... !!!

From My Dear Friend ...

November 3, 2014

I was so delighted to receive this gift from my dear friend Dagmar ...

she knows how much I enjoy working in my garden ... and then preserving my produce ...

It is a beautiful book ... filled with lots of information and recipes ...

the photos are spectacular ... 

Thank you so much ... I love it ... !!!

Since I had lots of  tomatoes ... apples and onions in my cold room ...

I couldn't wait to make this recipe from my new book ...

"Tomatoe and Apple Relish"

It was so easy to prepare and it tastes delicious ... 

A few jars will be gifted to Dagmar ...

once she returns from her holidays ... !!!

I found another recipe in the book ...

that would be perfect to deal with all my tomatoes ...

onions ... garlic ... celery ...

I loved this herb bundle of thyme ... sage ... and bay leaves ...

All ingredients put into a pot and simmered into a thick sauce ...

then poured into jars and processed ... !!!

Excited to try out this Tomatoe Sauce ... mmmmmm

A Change in Weather ...

These pictures were taken on November 8 ...

we were out in the garden and in shirtsleeved shirts ...

enjoying the sunshine ...

Then on November 10 ...

a storm blew in ... total whiteout ... temperatures plummeted ...

and this is what we woke up to on November 11 ...

our temperatures have been extremely ice cold ... getting down to -23 ...

mornings of -18 and maybe warming up to -12 

for over a week ...

It should be warming up in the next few days ... to a balmy -3 ...

It looks like winter is here to stay now ... !!!

Grateful to have gathered the last of the vegetables ...

out of the garden when the kids were here ...

the rest are frozen solid ... no getting them out of the ground until spring ... !!!

Busy Weekend ...

November 8, 2014

Craig's masterpiece ... !!!

As soon as they arrived here for the weekend ... 

Craig was building this with Construx ...

almost every piece in the box was used ...

(this set belonged to Nathan and Ian ... it's a few years old now ... )

It was such a beautiful day ... you would never know it was November ...

Craig had found Nathan's old skateboard in the shed ... it did not have back wheels ...

so taking it to the shop ... grandpa and Craig worked on it ...

 Craig said he knew where there were a couple of wheels ... but ... 

they happened to be the old Tonka truck wheels ... 

No problem ... they were able to fix them up and attach them ...

Craig was delighted to try it out and James found Uncle Ian's old skateboard ...

They had fun playing on them ... !!!

The gang heading out for one last ride ... 

and one final hunt for grouse ...

They were heading for home the next day ... 

It was a busy fun weekend ... !!!

Gardening in November ...

November 8, 2014

Oma had asked us to get her a Christmas tree for the Village courtyard ...

grandpa and the kids went out a found a beautiful 10 foot tree ...

Then Nathan and the children delivered it to Oma ...

as they were going into town to have dinner with their other grandparents ...

 (the kids had dinner ... Nathan was not feeling well)

I had left a few vegetables in the garden ... knew the kids were coming ... 

and Ella loves to work in there ...

she was surprised at the size of some of the carrots ...

we ended up gathering up broccoli ... beets ... kale ... swiss chard ... beets and parsley ...

James came down to help us out ...

 He was really delighted to pull out the big carrots ...

Ended up with a large bucket full ... the children love eating them ... !!!

mmmmmmmm

Here For The Weekend ...

November 7, 2014

Nathan and the grandchildren arrived late on Thursday night ... 

they were coming here to go Grouse hunting ...

since the boys received a .22 rifle for their birthdays ...

James on Nov. 4th and Craig on Nov. 24th ...

After breakfast they set up a target to sight in their rifles ... 

Nathan's included ...

both the boys did really well with hitting the target ... 

getting very close to the centre ...

Oma was plugging her ears as the shots were quite loud ... 

it was great that Oma was there to see the gang ...

Grandpa and Nathan fired up the dirt bikes and quad for the kids to go for a ride ...

would probably be their last time riding this year ...

Oma playing Trouble with the kids while lunch was being prepared ...

then Craig wanted to see dad's and Uncle Ian's hockey card collection ...

Oh my goodness ... had forgotten how many cards they actually had ... !!!

The kids were really excited when they saw that we had an ice cream cake ...

celebrating their birthdays together ...

The boys loved receiving money from Oma ... 

and Pokeman cards from us ...

we also contributed money towards the rifle ...

After lunch the gang went out hunting ...

searching for Grouse ...

while I stayed behind to continue preparing a turkey with all the fixings ... 

for dinner ...

It was a great day all the way around ... !!!

Beautiful Skies ...

Woke up early on October 5th ... and watched this amazing purple orange sunrise ...

 On October 19th traveling along Hwy 22 ...
watching the Alberta skies ... stopping to take these beautiful shots of the sunset ...

Capturing an eerie shot of the sunrise and fog ...
on the morning of October 31 ...
perfect for Halloween ... !!!!

Delicious Dumplings ...

October 16, 2014

Oma has had a craving for the meat filled dumplings ...

"Erdapfel Knodel mitt Fleisch"

I decided to make them with the ground meat ... 

leftover from making the Cabbage Rolls ...

Once they were cooked ...

and a taste test done ... MMMMMM ... a few were kept for me ...

the rest were packaged up to be taken to Oma ... !!!

                            

While standing at the kitchen sink ...

looked out the window ...

and 

saw a few Elk in the field ...

These were the first few that have ventured out into the open ...

in a long time ...

since hunting season started ...

Antipasto Time ...

October 16, 2014

A date was finally decided ...

 between my friend Tammy and myself ...

to make a batch of Antipasto ...

All the ingredients prepared ...

chopped up and mixed together in a large pot ...

After the Antipasto was cooked ...

it was ladled into jars ...

and processed ...

We ended up with 48 jars ...

which were divided up between us ...

Just the right amount to get us thru until next season ...

plus to share with our families and friends ...

A delicious treat for the holidays ... !!!

A Scary House ...

October 31, 2014

This was a scary house on Halloween night ...

I was told that hundreds of kids came to see it ...

The grandchildren had a busy night ... out trick or treating ...

and the only picture taken was of ...

Ella our little Princess  ...

the boys were in too much of a hurry to stand still for a picture ...

Craig went as "The Creeper" and James was "The Scream"

Good Friends ...

October 23, 2014

While I was in Alberta ... I had contacted my friend Vern ...

(have known him for a long time, since we both lived in Ontario ... back in the late 60's )

It was time for us to get together for a visit ...

We ended up going out for lunch ...

and had a great time ... chatting about our families ... 

and reminiscing about good old times ... 

Thank you Vern ... we have to do this again ... !!!

Hammer and Nails ....

October 2014

There were a couple of nice days at the end of October ... 

the kids had so much fun building this fort ... 

and a bridge across the sand piles ... at an empty lot ...

They were able to scrounge up some wood scraps ... 

from the building sites ...

It was sad to see it knocked down ....

after a strong wind blew in from the West ...

They had worked so hard ... !!!

Ella at the arena ...

loving her figure skating lessons ...

It was nice to watch how much she has learned ...

 since her last time out on the ice ...

I also enjoyed watching her dance ... 

at her ballet class ... !!!

These kids have a busy schedule ... !!!

Before Halloween ...

The kids and their early Halloween treats ...

of Pokeman cards ...

The cookies were made by a friend of Katie's ... love how they were decorated ...

A picture sent of the kids ...

cleaning and carving their pumpkins ...

looks like those pumpkin seeds were going to be toasted ... yum ...

Still waiting to receive photos of the grandchildren ...

 dressed up on Halloween night ... !!!