Jobs in June...around the yard...

            I am very good at coming up with all kinds of ideas for around the house and around the yard...but unfortunately I am just a woman and cannot always implement things I would like to do...for instance...removing sod that has been in the yard for 20 + years...digging up old shrubs that have been around for as long as the sod...so for the last few weeks we namely Joe has been doing the heavy yard work for me...

    Joe had to dig up the sod from the new flower garden in the backyard...I did help with the bricks

 we...Joe had to dig up these old shrubs so that we could stair step this area for another flower garden

  this is the same area cleaned up of shrubs and bricks put in...yep helped here too

      4 cubic yards of garden soil sitting at the end of the driveway...I moved a lot of this

                                              stair stepped area with new garden soil

                            new backyard flower garden also with new garden soil

 we had so much garden soil that we made another new flower garden...this is going to be a Hosta garden because it is very shady in this area

            Next job is going to be stain the fence along the new garden in the backyard...hope to get to this between the showers this week...then I will start planting my new flower beds with perennials...I have some around the yard that I need to dig up and split...


.....thanks to Joe for working so hard especially on Fathers Day on my project.....

Moments in May...Thoughts of England

            I have been back from my trip home to England for three weeks...I have been thinking about this post since the day I got home...actually even before that...my sister and I were having a conversation about growing up and leaving and coming back home...it is so hard to put into words...it was then when my sister and I were talking...

            My Mom spends a few months a year in England with my sister and her family...I very often travel with her and spend a couple of weeks with the family to catch up and reconnect...as soon as my Mom arrives at my sisters she seems to fit right in and pick up where she left off...it takes me a few days to settle in and feel at home...I don't mean at my sisters...I mean in England...

            England has not been my home for 30 years...I was the one that left so why does it feel like I have been left behind...

My childhood home...Village of Norden

            Today my Mom, my Sister and I went to the Village of Norden...my childhood home...we walked and talked and reminisced...one of my favorite days of my trip...

                                         locals out for a ride down a country lane

                                        St Pauls Church...I grew up in this Church

                                12 Church View...my home until I was 11 years old

                                                        Norden Post Office

                                                   Norden Newsagents shop

                                                      Horse and Farrier Pub

                                      this was the Library when I was growing up

                 St Pauls Church Hall...I attended Sunday School and Brownies here

                                                    Norden Village stone cottages

            we were saying that the village really hasn't changed that much in all the years since we left Norden...some of the shop fronts have got new windows...and there are a few new buildings here and there...some of the old mills have been demolished...but the old part of the village still looks the same...

Rambling around Walsden

          My Mom and I arrived in England a few days ago...we left Minnesota during the start of another snow storm...they even had to de-ice the plane so we were delayed for about a hour...but even though we were late leaving we did arrive in Amsterdam on time...first thing I noticed as we were landing...two words   NO SNOW
         
          Our next flight to Manchester England was on time...my brother in law and two of my nieces met us at the airport...it is less then a hour from the airport to where my sister and her family live...Walsden Village...
                                         

Update on the potting table...

          Here are new photos of the potting table I was working on...

         I added some color by using stencils and just a touch of free hand work...

Not too sure I am going to keep it like this...I may paint it back to grey and start
                                                    over with the stencils...

This part I will keep as it is...

April 2013

          I have been having a hard time getting to this blog...I thought I might write about foods from around the World that I cook...that only lasted one time...doesn't mean that I will never get back to that...

          I found it easier to write last year when I was doing my weekly blog 52 of 52...seems like it made me get busy and get some chores and projects done around the house and yard...

          I have been doing projects around the house...the yard??? mmmm not so much...we just got rid of all the snow and I had spent a couple of days cleaning up the yard from miss Izzy if you know what I mean...then in just over a week we had two more winter storms...last night we got another eight inches of that frozen white stuff dumped on us...

          A friend of mine has just re-finished her kitchen cabinets...she posted photos on Facebook and I went to see them...they are fabulous...now I am not the one to want something because someone else has got it...I don't care what kind or how big your house is...I don't care what kind of car you drive...I don't care if you make more money then I do...oh wait...I don't make any money now I am retired...but I really wanted to re-finish my cabinets...so I started in our bathroom...I was scared...I thought what if I screw this up...

          I used Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations...there are four steps to complete...Step #1 Clean and  Degloss...that went okay except it broke all my nails...should have worn the rubber gloves...Step #2 Apply Bond Coat...this was the scary part...this was going to change the color from kind of a natural oak to espresso...a very dark brown almost black...yikes...the first coat was so streaky I wondered what I had got myself into...second coat looked so much better I was beginning to think this would work out okay....Step # 3 Glazing...which is optional...I chose to give it a try...if I thought the bond coat was scary...this was worse...you brush the glaze on and then you rub off as much as you like...it was almost like staining something...anyway needless to say I got it done...it did make a difference to the look of the cabinets...Step #4 Protective Top Coat...piece of cake...I enjoyed this little project so much that I also re-finished the main bathroom cabinet and of course when you start to do any re-modeling work it tends to snowball...so I re-finished our bathroom door and Joe has started to tear up the vinyl and he is going to be putting down a ceramic tile floor...then of course we will have to put new in base boards which I will finish in the same espresso color...then it will be back to the main bathroom to do the same in there...think I am going to be busy all of Spring...and I haven't even started the kitchen yet...

this is the before and after of our bathroom cabinet

 

 

          I have been working on a couple more projects...I have always wanted a potting bench in my yard somewhere...so I have been looking on-line thinking about getting one...have you seen the prices of those things...I had an old pots and pan stand that we had in our kitchen back in Niles Michigan...yep thats right we moved to Minnesota about 23 years ago and this old thing has been sitting in our basement with cases of water and soda on it...looking at some of the potting tables for sale I figured I could make one...

 

                                                       the old pots and pan stand...

                                                making a fence for the back of the stand...

the almost finished potting table...need to put a little bit of color on it...

 

this is a practice project...never used stencils before...thinking I might do this on the potting bench...

                                        

a little bit of Germany...and a bigger bit of England...

          Since I retired I have been doing a little more cooking...real cooking from scratch...not opening a packet or just heating something up...

          My intentions for my blog this year was to talk about dishes I make from around the World...I was going to try to blog once a month...well here we are in February already...I missed January even though I did make an Indian Chicken Curry...as I was making this curry I said to Joe that I should be taking photos and blogging about it...but I was right in the middle of it so didn't get the photos...so please take my word for it I did cook Indian Chicken Curry in January...

          My February dishes from around the World...

Black Forest Gateau...it is not named for the Black Forest in Germany...but rather the liquor of that region...I did cheat a little with this...I used a dark chocolate cake mix...a can of cherry pie filling...and pre-made chocolate frosting...

  ...and because I made this the day after Valentines day I added the heart...

 

Cottage Pie/Shepherds Pie...Cottage Pie dates from 1791...when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop that poor people could afford...in 1877 the term Shepherds Pie was used...Cottage Pie is made with beef were as Shepherds Pie should be made with lamb...in my family we have always called this dish Shepherds Pie...

     I cooked ground beef with onions..carrots..peas and corn...seasoned it with salt..pepper and bouquet garni...

                                    put the meat and vegetables in an oven proof dish...

          while the beef is cooking boil some potato's and mash them...layer over the beef...

                                                    cover the potato's with cheese...

                                                        bake for about 20 minutes...

I usually serve this with swede [rutabaga] and carrots gently mashed together with a little butter


 Cornish Pasty's...in the 17th and 18th centuries the pasty became popular with the working people in Cornwall...the tin miners took this convenient meal in a package to work with them...it was easy to hold and they could throw away the last piece of the pasty which would be covered in coal dust from holding it...

                  you can use just about any filling for a pasty...I used stew beef...onions
           ...rutabaga...carrots...the herbs I used were rosemary and thyme...              

                             make pastry...cut into six pieces...roll out to make six circles...

                                     share the filling between the six circles of pastry...

              use an egg wash on the pastry edges...fold in half and seal the edges...egg wash the tops...

                                                                             bake...

 you would think someone from England wouldn't need to use a recipe for a traditional English dish...but most people in England would go to the bakery shop and buy these pasty's already made...



Fish and Chips with Mushy Peas...last time I was in England I brought back some boxes of dried marrowfat peas...these needed soaking overnight...and then they were cooked for 20 minutes...turning them into mushy peas which are traditionally served with fish and chips in England...I used cod fish..

                                                         dried peas from England...

 these are the peas after cooking...looks like a mushed up mess...but they taste so good...

 the fish floured ready to go into the beer batter...I was so busy with the hot oil I neglected to take photos of the frying of the fish...

                                               fish...home made fries and mushy peas...

just a little ramble...

           Even though I am not writing a weekly blog anymore I thought that maybe you would like to see one of my last 52 of 52 projects finished...I think this project was started back in week 49 or 50...the wooden rocking chair was the first item Joe and I bought when we found out we were expecting our first baby...here it is finally finished and being put to use in our living room...

before... 

after...

 

 

          Here is my next project...this used to hold my pots and pans when we lived in Niles Michigan...in recent years it has been holding cases of pop and occasionally cases of beer in our basement...it's next job is going to be a potting bench...if I get it done by Spring...funny I have more time to do these little projects now that I am retired...but it seems like I am busier then ever...when did I ever find the time to go to work...