LRW- Mothers Day Card

Little Red Wagon's challenge this week is a Mother's Day card..
My Mother is a quilter . I have been on the lucky receiving end of   several  quilts. 
A while ago I made one quilt card    thinking of  Mother's Day. Ended up making 3.

Inside of cards.

One has a pocket  for holding   either   little sachets or little   chocolate  treats...

Now I have to decide which one Mom would like the most.

Sour Cream Scones and the Royals

Did you get up early to watch?
In the early morning dark at   5:12 eyes popped open  and  up I got;did not even set the clock.
Watched the pomp and ceremony from London that  the Royals do so well ..
Thoroughly enjoyed all the pagantry . Loved her dress and his uniform...

To celebrate with the Royals I made   tea served in my favourite tea cup,

Breckie(  they say that in Britain)  was a yummy sour cream scone topped with butter and strawberry jam...

If you want to try the scone  even if you aren't a Royal watcher ;
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1TBSP. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter,chilled
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg
Preheat oven to 400. Combine flour, sugar  baking powder and salt.
Cut  butter into dry ingredients using  pastry cutter.
Combine egg and sour cream  mix well.
Mix together  dry and wet ingredients. Press dough in bowl until  forms a ball.
On a parchment lined baking sheet ,  shape into 7-8 inch  circle  3/4 inch thick. 
Cut into   wedges.  Brush with milk .
Bake 15 to 17 minutes until golden brown.... may take a few minutes longer depends on your oven.
 These scones  have a lovely moist  texture  from the sour cream . Best recipe I have tried so far...
 

Devilled Ham for Sandwiches.

Here is the last of the Easter Ham .

Finely grinding it in food processer.

Adding sweet pickle relish, mustard and  small amount of  mayonnaise. According to my Mom  no measurements just  taste as one adds  ingredients   and when the mixture holds together for a sandwich that is it!

Makes the best ham sandwich   almost      better than leftover Christmas  turkey sandwiches. 

A New Face for Me!

It was a Red Hat outing today ...with a ... Pot luck luncheon  , took my old  standby,   Caesar Salad........
 Serenity Bay Spa   owners spoke on their  new Dr Renaud hydra science Product line and one lucky person got an $80  facial .
To my  surprise my name was drawn...
Facial , massage , mask and  laser treatment later I am a new woman .

So here is my new face ......



Bad enough I was the entertainment for the ladies  day  but if you think I will show a picture of myself under that  mask. Oh No! Mask is enough!
Still it was a fun treatment and my skin does feel softer and  has a  finer texture... could this become a routine? Maybe!

Bloomin Tuesday April 26th

The first of the King Alfred daffodils are  coming into flower.

We have mild temps finally  but a lot of rain.......  one minute pouring rain the next sunshine , true spring  weather...

Blue and pink hyacinths

Windflowers are   just starting to open ...lots of dirt on them from the hard rain  a couple of minutes ago.

Easter- Gazebo, Sun , Birthday , a Seabreeze cocktail and more

Celebrated Easter on Saturday ,  rain in the morning then the sun came out and it turned into a wonderfully warm   and sunny afternoon....
 We combined Easter dinner,spiral cut ham, garlic mashed potatoes, devilled eggs, broccoli cashew salad and lots of treats;

a birthday for Brayden with a chocolate cake and a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake ,both  made by  Sherry and so good.



 

a gazebo raising for the back patio work done by son-in law Willie and Steve and grandsons Brock and Brayden;

 and a  garden party  in the sun...The drink in Sherry's hand is Seabreeze from Ina Garten made a pitcherful , thinking it will be the drink of the summer here..........

Note need for sunglasses!

Rosanne in a pensive thought with Brianne !


Brittany always  smiling!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Special treats  , Rosanne,
decorated  little tins   secretly filling  with treats from the bottom,

Sherry made her   candy Easter eggs  nestled in  edible  green grass ...... white chocolate and dark chocolate   chow mien easter eggs made by myself......as usual  way too much of everything but oh so good.
 A fun , busy, work Easter...
 
Seabreeze Cocktail    recipe  pitcher size;
16 oz. vodka
30 oz. cranberry juice
16 oz. grapefruit juice , about  2 grapefruit 
frozen lime wedges
Mix together    vodka and juices( made the day before)
 When serving stir or shake  pour onto glass filled with ice  top with  lime wedge.
Not sweet  not too dry  very refreshing....

Strange Occurrence

My oh my, what a strange thing has happened in the front garden!
Strange  oval objects have appeared on the maple tree and on the Japanese maple....

 

Happy Easter !

Earth Day

I am planting  sweet peas today! Steamers variety.
Prepping them by soaking for 24 hours in paper towel.

After just 24 hours they are swollen  and  trying to sprout.

Into the cold damp ground by my iron trellis. Heavily seeding , as I wonder with this cold spring if germination will be strong.

  If they  all germinate then I will move some to the arbour......... 

Thumbs Down

I love receiving  and trying samples of  new products .
It was with great anticipation I looked forward to  Kellogg's Fibre Plus cereal .....  
Toasted Whole Grain,  Crunchy granola clusters, 40%  of recommended daily fibre.... Picked Summer Berry flavour.Only 130 calories  per 32 g. 2 % fat. Low fat,  trans fat free,low sodium,source of 7 essential vitamins.
Sounds so good. Sounds so healthy.
Ordinarily I eat Post Great Grains, Date, Raisin or Pecan , Kashi, old fashioned puffed wheat or oatmeal, which may colour the rest on my comments;
 I opened the package,  at a quick glance  , looks like dry dog food..
On went the milk ,   with first bite  thought ,
 Whoa!...
Looked at the ingredients list;
  first  on list  , whole oat FLOUR!, next corn bran  and third SUGAR!.  Fourth mixed berry flavoured  clusters( rolled oats, SUGAR,  oat fibre, corn bran, CORN SYRUP, wheat starch, HONEY, corn flour, vegetable oil, and on and on ...
Yes they do claim to actually have real  flavour with apple puree, strawberries and blueberries. 
Certainly an eye opener when one reads the ingredients.
I was very surprised at  the  taste,  it was not pleasant at all.
  Over processed and  chemical tasting .
This is a very disappointing cereal . Definitely would not recommend it.....
Kellogg's even sent a dollar off coupon which is a shame as I won't be using.
If anyone is interested  in trying this cereal after my comments  I will happily  send along this coupon if you let me know so you can test this cereal yourself..
One  tip I want to pass on is a web site  I visit often Food Facts , a site dedicated to objective information about nutrition facts, ingredients and food products..I am trying to become an empowered  consumer .

Bloomin Tuesday!

 Finally have a few things that are flowering in the garden besides the pansies I planted. 


 Crocus purple and yellow
rather  routine but after all the winter  we have had still happy to see their bright colours.

Hyacinth trying to flower even tho  very cold here, temps are  about half of what they should be.

Tete de Tete Daffodils ,these little flowers add a touch of sunshine .....

These photos were taken a few days ago when we did have sun, not  snow,rain   and grey days.

Installing Spring?

INSTALLING SPRING...


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 Picture    from 11 AM this morning,   many  white flakes in the air. Installing spring ode from friend...who knows how much I want  a few warm days..

Pansies-Green Thumb Sunday

Aren't pansies cheery? Pansies  say spring to me..

 Love expanding the gardening season by planting pansies early in April.

 I also plant icicle pansies in the fall but because of our cold spring they are very slow to develop this spring tho they made it thru the winter  beautifully.....

Part of the tour of Fernlea was cash and carry day and I bought a flat of the new Flamenco  ruffled pansy  series, which are the pansies pictured above; then I also bought  2 pots.

One of the simple pots filled with  bright faces of pansies and alyssum. All so cold tolerant.

See the new black mulch , 5  bags laid on the front garden ; accent the

 lovely line of pansies ......
These  flowers bring a smile to me, what spring flower    says spring to you?