Dear Neighbor. . .

 

 

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ESTATE LANE, N.S.
2*C/35.6*F
cloudy

 Dear Neighbor,

We had snow overnight again, but it has warmed up today by quite a bit.  Yesterday was once again bitterly cold. Today will be a bit more pleasant, however the wind will make it feel quite a bit colder. The high is only supposed to get up to 3*C/37.4*F.  

Cold is relative I find. When you are cold. you are cold and it doesn't matter what the temperature is, but one thing that I like about the cold days of Winter is that you can always layer on more clothing, etc. to get warm. In the summer it can be as hot as hades, and you cannot get away from it unless you have air con and I find that often makes it too cold.

 

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I did not get out to supper with my father this week as, on the day we usually go, Cindy and I had our mammograms, and there was no persuading him to go another day. He is a creature of habit I suppose as we all are. 

We were very fortunate on Wednesday that we had clear weather all the way into Kentville and back again. I had been praying that we would. The weather can be so iffy this time of year. You never know really what you are going to get from one day to the next.

I was supposed to be there half an hour prior to my appointment, and I was. Cindy's appointment was right after mine. We both got in early and were out and back in the car around the time of my actual appointment, so that was good.

It was an easy in and out. Having a mammogram is not the most comfortable thing to have done, but they do their best to put you at ease and preserve your dignity.  All we have to do now is to await the results, which, God willing, hopefully will be okay.

After we left there, we drove back down the valley and stopped into the Cambridge Convenience store. I had no plans to get anything, but did leave with some Better than Boullion and Dutch process cocoa powder.  Oh, and these  . . . 

I had not seen these in years. I could not resist picking up a bag.  I do like a salty treat now and then. Not the healthiest of course, but I like to think at least a bit healthier than potato chips.  I don't dare have potato chips in my house as I cannot leave them alone if I do.

We then went to a few other places, filled up on gas and got home just about the time I would have been going out with dad, but I was tired by then and I had been away from my babies for quite a while, so I stayed home.  He went on his own and had a hamburger steak dinner, the same dinner my sister had cooked for him just the night before, and he said it was not as good as Cindy's, but of course . . .  it wouldn't be! Homemade food is always better!

Anyways, we got there and back safe and sound, and had a nice visit together in the car, etc. I love going out with my sister. 

There was quite a large fire here in town yesterday morning. I think they got the call about six a.m. I think fire departments were involved from four different areas. Cindy said that the Nictaux fire department trucks were going back and forth down the road in front of her place, going back to the falls to fill up with water and then back into town again. It was an old vacant building in the northern part of town, and I believe it burned for quite some time.  Thankfully, as far as I know, nobody got injured.

There was quite a discussion about it on the Ask a Question page on Facebook, with all kinds of conjectures going on.  Many reckoned it had been a meth lab, but I don't know. I am sure an investigation will reveal the truth. Nobody likes to think that such things exist in their town, and we are a very small town, but these things are all over the place now.  It's a shame really.

This is not the town I grew up with.  It was always an Andy Griffith kind of a town, the heart of the valley. Times change. People change. Towns change. It has a drug treatment program at the drugstore in town and also the parole board sits here, so there is also a large criminal element living here now and of course we have our share of homeless folk as well.

It is the world we live in I guess.

This was the situation here not too long ago. I have my sewing machine on the dining room table, hoping to have time to make the cushion covers I am wanting to make, and Cinnamon was all comfortable laying on top of the covered machine, giving me love eyes. She has been a lot more affectionate lately.

Yesterday I had the Jehovah's Witnesses at the door and both cats came to say hello to them. They both thought Cinnamon and Nutmeg to be lovely.  They were not at the door long, once they realized I was a Latter Day Saint they moved on very quickly.  

It was such a cold day. I admire their zeal in doing what they were doing on such a cold day.  I am always pleasant to them. I know what it is like to do what they are doing, and it takes a great deal of courage to knock on doors and speak to strangers.

This was Nutmeg last night, nestled in next to me on the sofa as we watched another episode of The Pitt together. He likes to lay next to me in the evenings and watch the telly along with me. He does help to keep me warm and comfortable. As you can see one of his paws is on my lap. So cute.

This is a meme I came across yesterday. It is so true. I really did think animals lived like that when I was small.  I thought they had their own little houses hidden inside trees and beneath the ground.  With tiny tiny furniture, etc. Their lives mirrored my own, just smaller.

I don't think that illusion was helped by watching Chez Helene.  This was a popular children's program on Canadian Television. There was a little mouse on the show, Susie and she had her own home inside Helene's walls. I loved it when the cameras went inside Susie's house.

I think that is where my love of miniature things started.

My friend Susan Warburton had the most beautiful big wooden doll house. I loved to go over to her house and play with it. It was so much fun. It was white with green trim and the whole back of it opened up on a hinge, like a door.  

I follow several doll house accounts on Instagram.  I would really like to have a doll house now, but I really haven't the space here. Not really.

 

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I have in mind that I am going to make some bread today, well rolls really. I had purchased a recipe on Etsy to try.  Did you know people sell recipes on Etsy?  I only just discovered that. I decided to buy one to see exactly what it is that they are selling. I bought a recipe for garlic-swirl rolls. The photograph was very appealing.  I think they would be lovely with a hot bowl of soup or a stew, or even a salad. In any case I might try baking them today and see how they are.

Diane Schiffer was talking on her Instagram account yesterday about how she was going to start doing longer videos on YouTube and to try to earn more income that way. She has a disabled daughter that needs a lot of support and in order to pay for that support she needs to generate some kind of income, either that or go to work and, like myself, she is not a spring chicken.

Then there is my older friend Anna, who is on YouTube who has not been very well lately, and she has been fretting about getting sick and not being able to keep her channel going. She relies very much on it for income to help keep her afloat.

It seems to be a pattern that is emerging.  Older women, living on their own, having to rely on things such as this to keep themselves going financially. I know what that is like. I am in the same boat, and it is very scary at times. I really try not to think about it most of the time. I just keep going and trusting in the Lord to get me through.

I do not make any money from my YouTube channel, ha ha. I doubt that I ever will. It is not sophisticated enough and I have no help with it, but I do think that Diane would be very successful on there, and I wish her all the luck in the world with it. Her other daughter and her son help her a lot with her videos, shorts, reels, etc. They are very well done.

 

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In checking out the statistics on my channel, 100% of my audience is women over the age of 65.  I am not surprised. I don't really have a multi-generational appeal, and my stuff is very basic.  My videos are not sophisticated in the least. Because of this I don't get the views, and I am not surprised. But I do enjoy doing them when I do one. It is just tricky to find something that I can get done in a short period of time without having to stop the video.  I suppose I could just not show the end product, and then point my viewers to my blog to see what the recipes end up like?  I don't know. If there was a course on this available, I would probably sign up for it. Maybe I will look into it and see if there is.

But do I really want to do something which is going to swallow up even more of my time, however temporarily?  Perhaps. Perhaps not. It bears thinking about. And prayer.

I love to watch the videos on YouTube where they show all kinds of clips from the weeks of people's lives.  Things that they are doing throughout the week. I don't think my life would be that interesting to be honest. Each day follows the next in much the same way. There is little variation and with there only being myself and the cats . . .  how interesting could that be? Not very I don't think.

 

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Oh, I do miss having the bird feeders and the birds visiting that I used to have in the U.K.  I did put the fat cage out in the front the other day but have not seen anything visiting it. I half expect to look out one morning and see it gone.  I did see a rather large woodpecker on it once, but nothing else. 

In the U.K. I had all sorts of birds visiting the garden. I did have a lot of sparrows in the hedges. They brought me joy, but I also had tits, finches, robins, etc.

I do get crows and jays fighting over the crusts of bread I throw out the back door.  The cats love to watch them through the window in the door. They are quite noisy, the jays and the crows.  I am not sure the neighbors appreciate that aspect of it, but the cats do.

Can you imagine making something so complicated. All of the cuts. I think that is probably a 9 by 13-inch pan.  It might be fun to try it to see how it comes out, but then again, maybe not. 

These product adverts of the 1950's and 60's are quite fascinating to me.  I love vintage recipes and vintage recipe books. I did start to do a series on my recipe blog of vintage recipes and menus, but people were not all that interested in them and so it fizzled away.  Nobody can say I don't make an effort or am not open to new ideas.  I just don't always execute them in the best way, I guess. Presentation has never really been my forte, but I have gotten a bit better through the years.

I do work awfully hard at it though. Starting very early in the morning. I am not finished most days until mid-afternoon. And if I know I am going to be out on a day, then I will double up on the day before, so that I still have fresh content to post. I do enjoy it though. Very much.  They say if you do what you love for work, then you never really work a day in your life!

I have never been a trend setter and don't think I ever could be.  I am just me.

 

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My bank is doing a huge upgrade this weekend and I am feeling a bit of trepidation over it. I think I have all of the instructions that I need to use in order to get back into my online banking when it is all finished, but I don't know for sure.  Until I do, I will be freaking out a tiny bit.  Not outwardly, but inwardly.  I am not a person who takes well to change of any sort, which makes me somewhat of an enigma, as nobody has had to suffer as much change in their lives as I seemingly have! My life is often set upon shifting sands and I am wont to move with them, no matter how perilous it may seem. Usually, I cope quite well with it all and my worry is for naught, but that doesn't stop me from fretting. I think that is a part of my nature. I fret. I experience anxiety.  No matter how hard I try not to. Is this the usual human condition?  I am not sure. Our mother was a fretter. I believe we get much of our anxieties from her.  Dad, he seems to float through life not worrying about very much, or maybe he just has the ability to make it look like he does?  One never knows for sure.

I will not know until Monday if I am able to navigate this banking change or not. Perhaps it will be even better than the way it is now. Here's hoping!

But in the back of my mind is always the knowledge that new and improved is not always new and improved.  We shall see.

And with that I best off here and on with my day. I have laundry to fold, some buns to make, and floors to wash. I got the vacuuming done yesterday. Oh darn, I didn't dust. Well, I have that to do as well!  Oh how wonderful it is to have a purpose in life!

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★

 *.˛.°And a softness came from the starlight
and filled me to the bone.
~W.B. Yeats  ° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

In The English Kitchen today . . .  Creamy Carrot & Parsnip Soup.  Delicious, creamy, velvety, nicely spiced, with beautiful flavors.  The small batch.  

I hope your Friday is filled with light and love.  Be warm and stay safe. Whatever you get up to, don't forget!

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And I do too!