Sunday, January 12, 2014

january update

here's a pretty pic of the Manor at dusk...we have had some beautiful days and evenings since getting snowed in.



we had it  pretty easy here on the island in comparison to most - a lot of my blogger friends got a complete deep freeze. we had colder temps than normal and a whole whack load of snow, but we managed to escape unscathed.

i am sorry for my radio silence for the past while...as some of you know from reading my previous posts, and emails, i got knackered with a 4-straight-day migraine. it was a real doozy. i had a day of pain and soreness leading up to it, 4 days of horrendous pain and then a 3-day recovery. migraines suck and i know that some of my blogger friends suffer from them as well.

we missed 2 Christmas dinners with our families and we also missed playing chase the ace at our community centre 2 times. Christmas was cancelled because of my migraine...and the chase the aces were cancelled because we were snowed in.

i know some people don't like being snowed in...but we take it as a vacation. we have enough food to keep us eating well and lots of inside-the-house jobs to attend to. then there is lots of hottubbing, reading, learning new skills, refining old ones, napping and kissing cats. and when you are snowed in there is lots of good food!


that right there is a plate of "cheater's" poutine. if you have never had poutine - go and get yourself some right now! it's deelish! the proper way to make poutine is with home-made french fries, home-made gravy and curds. but we were out of curds (i can't wait to start making my own cheeses!), so instead of curds we used mozzarella. with our home-made potatoes and home-made gravy - it was to die for! yummeh!


our friends S &D gave us a really nice set of fancy coffee mugs as you can see above. i made some kick-you-in-the-head coffee the other morning so that jambaloney was full of vigour when he went out to shovel. you put 2 teabags in a cup of water and bring it to a boil. remove the teabags and add 2 very strong cups of freshly brewed coffee. bring it back to a boil and then add a whole can of sweetened condensed milk. and get ready for it! it will kick you right in the head!


that there is some shrimp and vegetable tempura - yummeh! also some cabbage salad with ginger/carrot dressing and some vinegared cucumbers. good food for your soul!


and of course some shrimp/vermicelli salad with the ginger/ carrot dressing for lunch the next day. it's fun to be able to eat out of your food stores! as well as from the greenhouse!

jambaloney was craving pizza after all of the days shoveling. no problem - we got the pizza and we make it from scratch.

here's a lebanese style pizza with home-made tomatoe sauce with a ton of oregano, turmeric, cayenne and cumin. load that baby up with herbed hamburger, a ton of parsley and a ton of cheese!


here's 2 nice slices of a home-made combination pizza. jambaloney looooooves his pizza!


i also made a loaded meditteranean pizza which i didn't get a pic of - oh well.

and some loaded nachos...we love nachos and love to snack on them together watching movies!


and a very interesting thing happened recently. when we started our blog we didn't think that any of our friends here would be interested...why would they care about our daily doings when we meet up with them quite regularly and fill them in on all of the details of what we are doing. not many of them seem too interested in building greenhouses and growing your own food so we never thought to tell them about our blog. we've never heard any of them say they even follow or read blogs.

a few months ago, our friend A who lives on the mainland but visits as much as he can - he's a great guy - well anyway, he told me at one of our get-togethers that he loved our blog! i couldn't believe! he said he loved reading about all of our antics and what we get up to up here on our hill. i was really happy that he said he read all of the blog and checks for updates all of the time - wow eh?

and then, about 2 weeks ago he mentioned our blog to our friend S. so then S went and read it from beginning to end - teehee! she said that she enjoyed our blog too - woohoo! and then she showed it to our friend E and our friend C. my friend E said that she just loved looking at all of the pictures - she loves the pictures. i am so happy about that because i love taking the pictures and putting them on the blog. i don't care if people think i am a fluff blogger - i blog about what interests and captivates me - not my political views. and according to S, when when my friend C was going through the blog and saw "the Framboise Manor" bed - she screeched and said that she wants one just like it - bahahahaah!

i am glad that some of our friends here are enjoying our blog - but the majority of our friends are simply not interested and that is fine. when we started the blog, it was for friends and family in other provinces and states to keep up with us. it was also a way to re-establish connections with our internet friends and make new internet friends. it's ok if some of our friends here aren't blown away by our blog - heck they have lives to live too - bahahahahah!

anyway - the winner of the dingbat award for january is ------ ME!!!!

i made some popcorn the other night and not thinking, set the pot on our table which has been painted and spar-varnished.



i swear i only set the pot down for a few seconds - dear me - what a mess!!! so i will have to scrape it, re-paint it and re-varnish it - no biggee. jambaloney says to leave it there - bahahahah! i might just do that.

in other news, we are having our friends E & D over for supper tomorrow night. oh what am i saying? they are our brother and sister! anyway, we need D's advice on several things and we just want to finally start having friends over to this crappy little cottage. we've got it to the point where it is semi-presentable to entertain in...and we know our friends don't care if we've gotten to the point where our baseboards are painted or our stairs are even. i think we will have a bit of a "time" - this is gonna be a hoot!

i'll hit up all your blogs and respond to emails later this evening. i hope that you have all had a good couple of weeks.

16 comments:

  1. Nice to see you two are OK. Last week we had temps that broke temps dating back to the late 1880's. Today its 40. yea. talk soon...

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  2. Dern yer hide; yer always makin' me hungry!

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  3. Food looks good as always, especially that pizza! I think the varnish burn looks like a moon.

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  4. The pizza looks great, and the drink sounds wonderful, if a bit strong, ha. So sorry about your migraine, I hope you are feeling better. As for the burn ring, heck, I'm with Jam, leave it and maybe do it again all over. You could have polka dot table?

    Be warm my sweet friends!!

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  5. I am gonna have to try the fries thing.

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  6. kymber, I had to look up poutine and have to ask did you use chicken or veal based sauce? Lots of pepper and maybe a sweet onion? We can order us up some chili cheese fries here but I'm with Preppy. I got to try me some of these the next time I have fresh curd. Everything else looks delish as usual.

    PS...Real friends come to visit you, not to see what you live in or check to see how much dust in on the furniture!

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  7. kymber - I used to suffer from migraines when I was younger, so I totally empathize with you. Have you checked out what might be causing them - for e.g. http://www.rd.com/slideshows/10-proven-migraine-cures-plus-the-one-that-doesnt-work/ and http://www.wikihow.com/Treat-a-Migraine

    Now, when can I expect an invitation to dinner - your cooking always looks so bloody appetising...!

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  8. sorry about the headaches! just stopped by to check on you guys. the rat

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  9. Sweet Kymber,

    We hear are very happy to hear the 4 day migraine has left, those things make life so miserable while going through them. Bulldog Man and I know what you're going through. His migraines were unbearable too. It's great your local friends are reading your blog and enjoying themselves.
    All the delicious food you make and post makes me hungry each and every time. My favorite has to be the pizza :-)
    Sending hugs and love to the both of you.
    Your friend,
    Sandy

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  10. I would be tempted to incorporate the burn mark on the table into some sort of artistic design. Maybe some sort of space/lunar thing since it kind of looks like a moon with craters.

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  11. glad you are feeling better!
    the burn spot? actually looks quite artistic, like a supermoon or planetscape :-)
    best wishes!

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  12. I swear, every time I see you post about your meals, I gain weight. And, I'm with some of the others. Put some more burn marks on the table. It looks neat.

    Sorry about them migraines.

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  13. I also get migraines. Mine last three days. I went to a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. We tried to find a trigger for mine. I kept a diary for one year on everything I ate. Nothing. Kept another diary of my daily goings on. Nothing. We never have found a trigger. They told me that a pretty high percentage never do. What worked for me was a very low dose of an anti-depressant called amitriptyline. And when I did feel the symptoms of one coming on I had a nasal spray called Zomig. If I could lie down right away, 2 out of 3 times I could abort it. I was NOT diagnosed depressed. But for some reason this old anti-depressant works on some people. If you have not tried a neurologist, give it a shot. I have suffered with these for over 30 years. But once I was diagnosed and got on these meds, my life completely changed. I am off the anti-depressant now and the migraines have NOT increased. Love your blog!!

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  14. I thought maybe you had lost internet and power during the cold snap. I know you get migraines. So does my daughter, Elizabeth. There doesn't seem to be any medicine that works on them, although there are lots of things out there that advertise they do.

    We have tried lots of different home remedies, but it seems like what works for one person often has no effect on another. Maybe you will find something that works for you, I sure hope so.

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  15. Yes, no doubt when your friends see that you are starvation rations they are going to rush you over some IMPs (Individual Meal Packs - My understanding of what Canadians call MREs).

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  16. I love poutine! Have you ever tried it with fries made out of sweet potatoes? Yummy! I am glad you are on the mend, my friend.

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