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Thursday 31 March 2016

Going Out LIke a Lion

     March came in like a lion and I think we can confirm it is also going out like a lion. Although it wasn't cold today (11C) it was quite miserable - rainy and windy. I even found the garage door blown open this afternoon. So it has been quite miserable today. When will Spring show its face?

    A quiet morning and then Bridge this afternoon with Bonnie, Marilyn and Pauline. I had terrible cards and, although I had a couple of contracts, I went down (badly!) both times. I had planned to eat out with the RODEO group of ladies from Probus, but wasn't able to find someone to take my place so had to cancel the lunch plans.  As it happened, one of the other tables had a couple of no shows and one of them could have taken my place. Well, that's life!

    Delicious dinner tonight. I was getting sick of leftover lamb so took a basa fillet out of the freezer and made a fish pie with lots of vegetables. I had it with my homemade beetroot. I also made some cheese straws with the leftover puff pastry. For lunch I made soup but didn't get a chance to try it as I was out over lunch. I will save it for tomorrow.

Tuesday 29 March 2016

After the Festivities

     We have had a few cold but sunny days (yesterday not so much) and I am sitting in the family room with the sun on my back, enjoying its warmth. Outside the temperature is around 5C but in here it is toasty warm. No need for a fire today! I planted some pansies in my porch planter and they seem to have survived a couple of frosty nights so should be good until Spring gets here.

   On Sunday, when the family were over for Easter lunch, we were even sitting outside for a while with no jackets. The sun had some real heat to it. The grandkids had fun hunting for chocolate eggs while the adults indulged in snacks and pre-prandial drinks. Then we repaired to the dining table for our meal. Cabbage soup with sour dough bread (a touch of the Irish left over from St. Patrick's Day), Judy's Greek salad, and roast lamb, mint sauce, gravy and vegetables, mashed potatoes and lemony green beans. I must say everything was delicious. Dessert not so much - it was an experiment but it didn't turn out so well. I won't be making "The English Kitchen's" recipes again! Luckily Judy had brought a tin of Italian puff pastry cookies and Lindort truffles so we didn't go without a little something sweet.

   Monday was also a holiday for some and I spent it clearing and restocking the dishwasher and generally recovering from the hectic day before. Today I had tennis in the morning and Bridge this afternoon so was pretty much on the go all day. A quiet evening is anticipated. I will eat the leftover lamb and veggies and struggle through a slice of the now infamous cake. I think I will just eat the topping and discard the rest - it was like a doorstop! Luckily there was also wine left over so I am feeling quite mellow now.

Friday 25 March 2016

Good Friday

   Still wintry out there - when I went out this morning with the garbage I was crunching through a considerable layer of ice. The car is in the garage again, melting off a layer of ice that almost prevented me from opening the door. I had to drive it in there blind as I couldn't even open the window. There were a few blinks of sun this afternoon but not enough to melt the ice, and the temperature stayed around zero all day.

     Since it's Good Friday and I don't attend church, I am going with the saying "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" so a few more cleaning chores. This is the cleanest the house has been since before Christmas. My usual routine is to keep things tidy but a good cleaning doesn't happen very often. I have too many other things to do!

   On Wednesday I vacuumed up and down and today I wiped down the kitchen cupboards, swept the wood floors up and down including the stairs and cleaned one bathroom. The rest I will do on Sunday while the leg of lamb is roasting. I also made a big batch of soup for Sunday and baked a soda bread. The lamb leg is currently defrosting and I will marinate it tomorrow.

   Liver with onions and mushrooms for dinner tonight and I tried a slice of the soda bread. It's rather dry so I may have to pick up an alternative for Sunday. Luckily there's still one more shopping day!

  

  

Thursday 24 March 2016

Ice Storm

    Last night, having checked the weather and having sober second thoughts I did put the car in the garage. This morning everything was coated with ice but I had an easy start to my drive. Before leaving I salted the path and a bit of the driveway - can't have the mailman falling on my property! At least it wasn't as bad as the great ice storm of 2014 when the power was out for some people for days.
  
   The main roads (and my street) had been well salted so driving was OK but only 30 people showed up for the Probus meeting (we usually have over 100). The speaker was from Habitat For Humanity and very interesting. I never knew they had stores, The Restore, where people can donate building materials and used appliances. I got quite a big load of books from the book sale since there were so few there - all my reading materials for the next month.

  Straight from there to Bridge - only two tables showed up but all our group were there. Sheila was my partner but we had very poor hands and only made a couple of contracts. Pinkie and Mary-Lee were in their element, in fact they had a couple of small slams. We were very jealous! I will play with them again next week.

   I added some chopped cucumber and red pepper to last night's pasta salad  and it was nice and crunchy. With the leftover fish I had a tasty meal but will need a snack, probably fruit, later in the evening.