Watery Wednesday.

These pictures were taken at our local park here in town. The park is called Mill Lake and its baby time starting here. I did not see to many but they are around now!! This poor guy is a one of a kind here. I don't know what kind of bird he is but he is the only one. I am worried about him, he seems to have some sort of growth happening on his neck. I hope it is nothing serious.

A Canada Goose. If you look closely you can see lots of water droplets clinging to his feathers.

Here is another one of a kind here. This is a White Goose and he seriously thinks he is a Canada Goose. The goose in the above picture seems to be its mate. I like the reflection in the water here!!

He has water droplets on his feathers too and a very dirty beak from pecking in the gravel looking for food.

One set of baby Canada Geese. Mom and Dad kept their babies far away from us humans to keep them safe!

Click on the pictures to enlarge them for the full effect!

For more pictures of Watery Wednesday photos visit http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Babies!! They are here!

Baby Geese that is!! I went to Mill Lake with my friend Kathy for a walk tonight and the babies have arrived. And me without my camera.
I'll be going tomorrow and take some pictures and post some watery wednesday pictures for you after.
Be back then! I am so excited to see baby birds!!!

Survivor Appy's

Every Thursday evening we all congregate next door to watch Survivor at my friend Sally's place. We bring appetizers and a bottle of wine to share with everyone who comes. It is a lively evening and if you don't arrive early you can't get the coveted couch spots to sit and watch. There is always lots of good food to try and wine to drink and company to visit with and catch up each of our weeks activities with. I think watching Survivor is really an excuse to all get together once a week and see everyone.

For Survivor night tonight, I am making toothpick skewers. These are dill pickles, pickled onions, gourmet olives, jalepeno cheddar cheese and hot pepperoni cut up into bit size pieces and threaded onto toothpicks in whatever combos you like!! The Cast of Characters
Everything cut up and ready to skewer onto toothpicks!!

And here they are!! The combinations of different flavours make this a tasty snack!!

I have my toothpick skewers and my bottle of Shiraz and so off I go next door to watch Survivor!!

Anyone here watch it as well? Who is your favorite to win???

To and From

Just a few thoughts running through my brain in the last little while so thought I would put them down here.
1) I got to thinking about the coming or going from place to place that I go to. I am either going to something or coming from something in my mind so I started paying some attention to it. For instance anytime I am leaving some place and heading for home I am always seeing it as going from where ever I am and going to home. Home is always the place I go to. Home is always the place that draws me from something to home. I don't know how much sense that makes but tonight in my brain it is crystal clear!!
2) I am in a Pasta coma right now or at least that is what it feels like. I don't get along physically with anything made of flour but every now and then I endulge the craving and try something like Pasta. I did that tonight, really felt like making Pasta for dinner, thouroughly enjoyed eating it and pretty well instantly felt like I had just eaten poison. I feel sluggish, like molasses is running through my bloodveins now. My joints ache, my fingers feel swollen, and my brain feels like its mis-firing. It reconfirms that I really should stay away from grains. Why do the things we love always seem to be the worst things we can do to ourselves???
3) I have just started reading Michael J Fox's new book called Always Looking Up. It had a saying at the start of one of the chapters that said " Even the Smallest Dog can pee on the Biggest Building" Wow, has that ever stuck with me and been in my thoughts. Sometimes I wonder whether the things I do can really make any difference. Sometimes I feel the effort of it but don't feel the results or it feels like all I do is bang my head against the proverbial brick wall. This little saying lets me see that I do make the difference. It was a good little shot in the arm when I was needing one.
4) Sometimes you have to do the things you need to do and if you do them they actually become the things you want to do. Need and want can become the same.

Just a few thoughts to mull over. Have a good one.

Today's Flowers

For Today's Flowers, I went to visit my friend Gay and her father who live on a five acre part park, part garden. The garden is just waking up from winter's rest and a few of the flowers for today are here. Primroses in all colours are blooming right now but I especially liked these. They look like the sun to me!!

The garden contains many Rhododendrum bushes some early and some late blooming. Here is one of the early bloomers just starting to bloom.

I am not sure what this little flower is but it was pretty!!

Cherry Blossoms are all around now. I didn't know that pink cherry blossoms came from the ornamental cherry trees and white cherry blossoms came from cherry fruit trees. How silly am I??

Another of the blooming Rhododendroms in the garden.

For more of Today's Flowers, please visit
http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Ham, Cauliflower and Cheese Stuffed Baked Potatoes.

Ham, Cauliflower and Cheese Stuffed Baked Potatoes!!!

The cast of ingredients:

Cauliflower, Two slices smoked Ham, Yellow pepper, Garlic head to roast, Green Onions, Mozzarella Cheese, Dijon Mustard, Cream, Butter, and of course four good sized baking potatoes!!

Salt, Pepper, Dill

Pierce four large potatoes, smear with olive oil, add salt and pepper and bake in a 400 degree oven till soft, skins will be crisp and hold thier shape when you scoop out the potatoes and ready the shells for stuffing!!

Also roast the garlic head, the cauliflower and the yellow pepper at the same time as the potatoes are baking.

Cut up the smoked Ham and saute in skillet till browned and somewhat crispy.

Finely chop green onions.

After ham is cooked, remove from pan, add two tbsp. butter to melt.

To Melted Butter add 2 TBSP of flour to make a roux. Cook mixture and whisk until smooth.

Add enough cream to make a good white sauce. I just eye ball this step!!

Add a good teaspoon of Dijon Mustard, salt and pepper and a teaspoon of dill to the sauce and mix in.

Add a couple cups of Mozzarella shredded cheese and melt into the sauce. It will be nice and thick and cheesey!!

Finely chop up roasted peppers and cauliflower. And mash up the roasted garlic cloves to a paste and add to sauce.

Add ham, peppers, cauliflower, and scooped out potatoes to the cheese sauce and mash the whole mixture together.

Scoop the potato,ham,cauliflower and cheese mixture back into the potato skins in heaping piles!!

Cover stuffed potatoes with more Mozzarella cheese, as much as you like and they are ready to go back into a 400 degree oven and bake again.

Bake potatoes until they are bubbly and the cheese has all melted and browned to a golden colour.

Now all that is left is to enjoy!! These are comfort food extrordinaire!!

Ham, Cauliflower and Cheese Stuffed Baked Potatoes.

4 large baked potatoes, split and scooped out.

1/2 cauliflower. in florets.

1 yellow pepper

1 bunch green onions

1 head of garlic, roasted

2 tbsp butter melted

2 or so tbsp flour

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

1 tsp Dill

salt and pepper

2 cups Mozzarella cheese

2 thick slices smoked Ham.

More Mozzarella Cheese for top of potatoes.

I might try and add these to dlyn's Potato Ho-Down, if it is still active otherwise they are here for you to try.

Enjoy!!

Today's Flowers

My next door neighbour was given a bouquet of lilies a few days ago and passed them on to me before the weekend as they were going away for Easter. These lilies were the biggest lilies I have ever seen, each one being the size of a dinner plate!! I quickly snapped a few pictures and passed them onto her, and put a couple of them here as well!! I carried White Lilies just like these although mine were smaller when my hubby and I married. These are very perfumed, as soon as you walk into the house you could smell thier sweet smell!

For more of Today's Flowers from around the globe visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Skywatch Friday

It is Heron Nesting season here and at the Heron Sanctuary there is a whole lot of building going on!! It looks like Heron Condos in the sky!!
Here is one heron sitting on its nest, the blue sky behind a nice backdrop!!

The heron sanctuary is located across a small river and to take these pictures we went up on the dyke systems that ran through the farmer's fields.

It was a beautiful sunny warm day, just right for construction!!

From a distance all the black spots you see are heron nests. Lots of them!!!

For more pictures of skies around the world please go and visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Watery Wednesday

This is my first post for Watery Wednesdays. I have enjoyed looking at other people's posts to this meme but never thought until now to do one of my own. It was a beautiful day here in White Rock, warm and sunny out for the first time in a long while. It was the first day it really felt like spring had arrived so what better thing to do than head down to the beach. Here an older couple enjoying the warmth and waves of the beach.

It is a nice long sandy beach, perfect for a nice walk at the water's edge. I don't know who made the circle in the sand but its kind of cool, don't you think?

Looking across the expanse of water you can see Washington!! White Rock is a very popular tourist attraction to anyone visiting Vancouver, B.C.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, my first entry!!!

To see other's Watery Wednesday pictures please visit http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Today's Flowers

I was given a small bouquet of flowers last weekend when we went searching for my friend Wes, who has been missing for a month now. The family had small bouquets made to give to some of the people who came out and helped.
I thought I took more pictures of each of the flowers but I couldn't find them in my photo files. Here are a couple of the photos I did find. These were very small flowers, don't know what they were, but they were pretty. Small like Bachelor Buttons would be.

Creamy roses as well in the bouquet. There were about five roses. The greenery they used were large philodendrom leaves. It was quite striking.

To see more of Today's Flowers visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

This and That

A little of this and a lot of that for today....
Its already April and here in the rainforest country we are still having snow. What is up with that? Its very cold lately for this place but listening to the weatherman right now he is saying highs of 15 Celcius by Monday. The poor cherry blossoms are trying to bloom, the daffodils etc are all coming up but they don't like the snow any more than I do. Bring on the spring!!
Survivor on tonight and going to my next door neighbours place to watch the show and eat some appys and drink some wine. We do this every Survivor night and have done that for the past five or so years. Its a Thursday tradition now.
I am furiously trying to think of ways to get more tax money back before filing my taxes. I am looking for deductions everywhere! Every cent counts in these economic times.
My hubby's business is just taking off! Its been a dream of ours to start our own business (I just do the books) and finally it might be happening!!
I am so tired of the violence around this area. There have been gang related shootings, killings now since the beginning of the year. 36 shootings since the beginning of January. So many now that when the news report another shooting no one is surprised anymore. Oh well, just another day is the attitude. Are we getting immune to the horrors of it?? Just today they called my city where I live The Ground Zero of gang warfare in Canada. What a thing to be known for. I pray it will end soon.
Day 29 today that my friend Wes has been missing. He seems to have just vanished off the face of the earth. I try not to lose hope that he will be found safe but I don't know anymore. He is not like this just to disappear, it is so out of character and so scary for his friends and his family. My heart goes out to his mom, I have been through this before when my son disappeared and I know the horrible pain she is in. No mom should ever know this pain.

Well, I think for this week that that is enough of this for today. Have a great day everyone....

More Pictures from the Past

My Uncle Bob continues to find old pictures and post them for our family to see. This is my Grandfather on the right and My Great Grandfather on the left. I never knew my great Grandfather and my Grandfather passed away when I was only 2 years old so pictures are all I have of him. This picture is my Mom and Dad on thier wedding day. Aren't they a good looking couple. My mom passed away years before my father and he never looked at another woman after my mom.

This is me on the right with my 11 month younger brother Mark. You might remember me writing here about him earlier, my miracle brother.

This from left to right is me, my sister Elaine, my brother Brian and my brother Mark. Brian is the third youngest, four years younger than me and my sister is the youngest. Five years younger. Look at how tall Mark is. He was a bruiser!!!

This is me and my younger sister Elaine. I must of been about 8 or years old here.

It is fun to look back on these old pictures and remember those days. Actually all I have of these days is the pictures to remember them by. I don't remember the actual posing of them. I look at my pictures and try to find that child inside me and catch fleeting glimpses of her here and there. I am always constantly amazed to hear others rememberances of these times past. Its like having someone come and fill in a few pieces of the jigsaw puzzle and seeing a bit of the bigger picture each time.

I still look deeply into these pictures and see if I can find the child I once was. I am so curious. Also my parents and seeing their pictures. Who were these people then? I would so want five minutes with them then to discover more of them.

Do you ever wonder these things when you see old photos??