Category: Ramblings

Busy Time is Summer Time

24/5/2015

Can't wait to see this in full bloom. What I thought was a dead stick is blooming.

So, summer time is coming up hard and fast, and life is getting crazy as we get things prepared for the start of the Scottish Highland Games season. So what do we do? Well, we put in an offer on a little vacation getaway spot that is about 45 minutes from home. It is going to take a fair number of weekends to get it all fixed up. Brilliant, right? In our copious amounts of spare time, we will have yet another project to deal work on. Oh and add to that some new characters are talking to me.
The great thing about this place is that we go up there quite a lot. Especially during the summer to spend time with our friends that have places there and we always have to come home at the end of the evening. One, because we need to take care of our fur kids and Two, well sleep is always a good thing.
Now with having a place of our own we won’t have to make that drive home to get to bed, and we can take the dogs with us. So excited about this and can’t wait for the closing so that we can start in on getting all the weeds pulled amongst other things to do there.
I did go up and take some before photos of how the outside area looks as well as the inside of the little trailer. I am posting some of those images with this post. I am not going to post the interior photos as the current owners are supposed to be coming down to get some of their personal belongs out before the deal closes.
What is driving me crazy about all of this is that closing should be within the first few days of June. Not far, correct? Sadly, the first weekend of June we will not be able to be there as we have the Bellingham Highland Games to attend and then the second weekend we have Anglicon down in Seattle. I will be putting up a post about Anglicon so you all can learn about that if you’re interested. My husband and I have been looking forward to that event for many months now.
The photos have different captions to them telling what we are going to do at our little hideaway. I will be taking some starts from my mint plants up there as well as other perennials for planting, once the weeding is done. I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Please don’t forget to be thankful for the real meaning of this holiday. So many incredible men and women have lost their lives over the years defending this country. This time is to honor them not to be concerned with who is coming to a BBQ.
All though, in my opinion, every day is the day to be thankful for all those men and women. Not only those that serve in our armed forces but also on the police force, firefighters, search and rescue, and other emergency response teams.
Have a wonderful upcoming week and brightest blessing to you all.

Blessed Be.

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Life getting in the way

26/4/2015

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Rather sad to say that the only writing I’ve managed lately is getting the current posting to my David and Ragnhild story out for my newsletter.
Between work, household chores and my online class for QuickBooks there isn’t a whole lot of extra time for extra things. I have to sort out a way to get some other writing time fitted into my schedule.
I did take yesterday off though to go down to Everett for a meeting the group putting on Anglicon 2015 was having. It was wonderful meeting the people that are the driving force behind this event happening again. For those of you that do not know what Anglicon is it is a convention regarding British TV shows with Doctor Who being a large part of the event. And for those that don’t know—I am a big fan of Doctor Who.
The funny thing that happened during the meeting I received a text message that stated “hey cutie thank u aha”. I responded with the question – “Who are you?” To which the response was that they thought they had the wrong number. We did text for a bit as we both thought it was funny. We both live in WA. Austin if you are reading this I hope you managed to reach the person you were trying to text. lol
Texting errors similar to this have brought me a few acquaintances some that I even call a friend. These usually occur due to a mutual acquaintance sending out a mass text, and then people respond back with the presumption they are answering their friend. When in fact it is going out to every single person that was in the mass text. In some of these instances, the individual and I have bonded over our mutual friendship with the person who sent the original text.
One never knows when, where or how a new friend will come into their lives; so keep yourself open to new things and you never know what you’ll end up getting out of it.
I hope that everyone is having a wonderful weekend and that the coming week is kind to us all.
Blessed Be.

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Life gets crazy

12/4/2015

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My new to me 2008 Chevrolet Uplander

The last few weeks have been crazy busy. Between work, trying to get the tiny garden area I have prepped, my husband working 6 days a week – 10 hour day with 3-4 hour drive each day – we finally found a vehicle for me.
So thankful that we managed to obtain a vehicle for me last Saturday, we went to a local auction up in Bellingham and obtained a wonderful 2008 Chevrolet Uplander. I am so happy with this vehicle! I have room for more than just one other person, and it is outfitted for travel with the dogs now too. My wonderful husband used some foam mat flooring in the van for me. I asked him to help me put in some in front of the back seats and along the aisle way between them to protect the carpeting from the dogs nails and to help keep it cleaner. He went above and beyond for this task the foam flooring is all the way around the seats; it is snuggled up nice and tight in the areas the dogs would be on the floor. He even placed it in the cargo area behind the back seat.
Our girls completely approve of the van too. They have room to move without being on top of one another unlike in the extended part of our truck. I even found seat covers for the back seats as well that are easy on/off and are supposed to have something like a rip-stop feature to keep the dogs toenails from ripping them up. Sadly I have yet to find covers for the two front seats; these will be a bit more difficult as there is an airbag built into the outside portion of each of the front seats.
I’ve also been busy making bread with my new to me bread maker. The Saturday before Easter we had a dinner to go to with friends and I took two loaves of bread along with a regular sized cheesecake and nine mini cheesecakes. Everyone loved the herb bread and thought it was great that the herbs had come from my garden. Today I made a loaf for tonight’s dinner this one will have chives and oregano that was freshly picked this morning. Our mailman told me yesterday that any time I want to use him as a guinea pig that he will be more than happy to oblige me. Lol, I had made him a loaf earlier in the week that had freshly harvested mint as well as some Rosemary that I had harvested last fall. Another thing that I am trying with some of my fresh herbs is making herb-infused wine. I should know in a week or two how that turns out.
Spring Quarter classes also started last week, and I’m signed up for a full three credit QuickBooks class for work. Now the joys of finding the balance of getting my independent class work done – it’s an online class – along with getting writing done on my books, getting my newsletter done and ready to go out every week. On top of all the other everyday mundane things that have to be done – honestly with how crazy the last two weeks have been I’m even more in awe of my girlfriends that juggle the whole stay at home mom gig with all the different things they have to do with their kids! Ladies you are absolutely amazing!
We are also having to start getting things ready for the upcoming Scottish Highland Games season and, for me, that means there is a ton of paperwork to get done. Not only to get us into the games, but also all the different informational sheets that we provide in the tent at the events.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and may the upcoming week be kind to you all.
Blessed Be.

On the lot just prior to the auction starting.

These seats now have covers on them. Tala is looking into the back where my hubby is putting the foam flooring down.

Puppy approved.

Herb-infused wine. The pretty bottle has leaves from my chocolate mint plant in it. The clear bottle has regular mint leaves along with rosemary.

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Garden prepping

29/3/2015

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It’s the time of year to start thinking about gardens. I have two new four shelf greenhouses that at least one is going to be used as a vertical planter holder instead of greenhouse. I will have to do some modifications to it, however; they just are not strong enough to hold my potted mint plants in their current structural format. I know this because one of the potted mint plants bent the center pole on the bottom rack. I’m thinking some pieces of plywood cut to fit over the top of the shelving sections will do it.
And speaking of mint plants—I’m sure those of you that remember my gardening posts from last year where I talked about having regular mint, pineapple mint, chocolate mint and lemon mint plants. Well, I have added spearmint, peppermint and an apple mint plant to my collection. I am so excited to try these ones for cooking. I did learn about another mint plant that I want to get as well. Its name: Cat Mint. Yes, you read that correct catmint. Not to be confused with catnip. Cat Mint is very ornamental in gardens and can be used in cooking and teas just as the other mint plants are and will not attract kitties like the catnip will. To learn more about catmint click HERE.
Today was spent cleaning up the strawberry plants by removing all the old dead leaves and stalks that I leave for insulation during the winter months. Soon I will be prepping an area for planting my Viking purple potatoes and the rainbow carrots that we got too. I’m going to see about converting an old small plastic trashcan into a potato barrel. My wonderful husband has said that he will help me with doing that.

Peppermint

Apple Mint

Spearmint

Catmint in bloom

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Ostara, Puppies and Taekwondo

22/3/2015

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On Friday our puppy Tala turned one. She is now a whole 58.6 pounds of furry cuddling power. Yes, she is an Ostara puppy, which reminds me… Happy Ostara everyone! I love the start of Spring! I’ve already gotten my Viking Purple potatoes to plant out in my garden for the year. There is nothing like getting fresh veggies and herbs from one’s own garden when cooking.
Friday March 20th was also the International Day of Happiness. I only just learned about that on Friday. It was brought into being back in 2012. Getting back to topic, Ostara is the celebration of the return of Spring, new life and new beginnings. It is appropriate that this is Tala’s birthday as she was a new beginning for me. My husband got her for us to help ease the loss of my beloved Ember; whom I still gravely miss. Tala has helped ease that pain and stopped the spiral of depression that was starting to occur after Ember left this world.
Our lives are greatly enhanced by having Tala in it, not only our lives but that of our other dog Bridhe. We had already witnessed the change in her behavior years ago when she had become an only dog and we did not want her to go through that yet again—another reason for our having gotten Tala. The two girls adore each other and both cry if one is taken some where without the other.
Yesterday my husband had a Taekwondo Tournament in Oak Harbor. I am so very proud of him! He has obtained his second degree black belt! The fun part of yesterday was watching how much fun he had sparring with other black belts that are less than half his age. Yes you read that correctly. My wonderful Robert just turned 49 earlier this month and the three young men he went up against in sparring were 16, 17 and 24 years old. Now before you go thinking it isn’t fair for a man his age to spar a kid of 16 or 17 let me say this. Both the teenagers were bigger than my husband and bigger than the 24 year old. All four of these guys are 1st or 2nd degree black belts within the Hwa-Rang Federation of Taekwondo.
With that being clarified, it made my heart sing to see my husband still bouncing on his toes at the end of the match with the 16 year old who was puffing away for air. It was the same with the 17 year old though not as greatly noticeable. Robert won both of those matches but the one against the 17 year old was for the third place position. The one match that he lost was to the 24 year old and that was by the skin of his teeth that he lost. But hey, Keenan is a National Champion and just less than half of Robert’s age! He is also a very sweet young man that Robert loves to spar with they both enjoy battling each other and have great respect for each other and the sport.
Well I best be off have a ton of things to do before we head out to see friends at Lake Tyee today. Must dig out those Xmas presents for the nephews that we hang onto until we see them normally around this time of the year. Plus I think I’m going to make some little individual cheesecakes to take out there with us for everyone to enjoy as well.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful rest of the weekend and that the coming spring brings everyone joy and sweet new beginnings.
Blessed Be everyone.