Chattin'

The sun is shining here now.  Sometimes when the sun shines after a particularly rainy night I think it's smiling rather too hard.  Our adventure last night was the ever-popular,  middle-of-the-night, unstick the sump pump romp.  It involves listening for at least an hour to the pump going off more often than usual.  Then like labor pains, you start to time the intervals.  And, like, labor pains, you try and ignore the obvious...something has to happen here!  Indeed, it did.  Out into the rain, to lift the lid and poke around to unstick the workings.  It wasn't worse...sometimes, you have a stone or cone blocking the intake and have to brave the cold, cold water.  I'm the lucky one.  I get to hold the umbrella and direct the light.  Of course, it only happens when it rains!

But I've grabbed a sock on the needles and carrots for Wendell - I'm off to Patrice's place to chat with everyone on the porch.  It's nice there, too, and we can sit outside.  The seasons are slowly changing.  What's the talk today?  Let's listen...

What's you favorite kind of salad?  My favorite salad would involve romaine lettuce because I love the crispiness.  After that I don't really mind what fruit or veg are in it...anything goes.  And usually anything does...we eat a lot of salads.  One of my favorite ways to dress a salad is with olive oil, lime juice, Dijon mustard and maple syrup. 

How old were you when you learned to cook?  I have no memory of cooking anything before I was about 9.  I can clearly remember my mother teaching me to make baking powder biscuits for dinner one night.  After that, they became my 'dish' and I made them often.  They are still one of my favorite things to make.  Not a lot of opportunity to make them these days, though.  

What's your favorite kind of store? (grocery, garden, department, cooking, bookstore, etc) It depends on where I am in my life, I think.  I love to shop - not necessarily to buy things - but I love to cruise around the stores looking at everything on offer.  When I was a younger mother, I sewed almost everything that we wore or used.  I spent a lot of time in our local fabric store.  Now, I hardly visit at all.  For years, I was especially fond of office supply stores.  I can really get into all the different kinds of pens and papers.  Oh, just talking about it makes me want to go.  Of course, I love yarn stores but they're a bit dangerous.  I find it hard to just admire without taking some home.  I like bookstores but I find them overwhelming nowadays as they are so big and have so much other stuff.  And I'm even quite fond of the grocery store.  Do you sense a trend?

 If you could have lived during another time in history, what time would that have been? I know this will sound odd, but I think I would like to have been living between 1920 and 1939.  The highs and lows of this time are so dramatic.  There were more and more opportunities for women to be educated and work in the world.  I love the fashions which reflected new thinking and new fabrics. There's also some great music from that time period.  
Most of all, I think it's an important part of our parents' and grandparents' heritage that they lived through the Great Depression.  It made them so strong and resourceful.  I know  it wasn't a happy time for so many but I think it created character such as we may never see again.  I have had such an easy life  thanks to those same people wanting me to not have their same deprivations.  But easy living doesn't always make people rise to greatness.   


I'm looking forward to_______________.  I'm looking forward to taking a day off tomorrow to play.  We're going out to see the snowy owls which have migrated to Boundary Bay this winter. 

Many thanks to Patrice for inviting us once again.  If you'd like to visit just hop over to Everyday Rurality.