Friends and Chocolate Cake and such..

Good Evening, my dears.. 

I expect you thought I was taking a trip or something as I have not posted on here for a bit but alas I have just not been very creative in the blogging department.. 

We have been enjoying our summer, mostly.. 

The weather has finally turned summerlike for the past several weeks and it has been extremely hot up home so we are blessed to be here by the Bay.. 

The temps are warm but the breeze keeps it from stifling, if you know what I mean..  

Last week we enjoyed the company of some very dear and long time friends.. 

They even brought chocolate cake and such.. 

They had their trailers over at the camp ground and dropped by most days..  

So nice to have friends who just pick up where we left off and we just kept on going.. smile..

Of course, it is pickle time and Terry and I did up 100 pounds of cucumbers... 

Lots of mustard, of course and these below are a new recipe I am trying.. 

Cumin pickles.. 

One of my all time favorite spices.. 

I think I will like them but not dear hubby.. 

Bread and Butter are more his style.. 

I also tried some Curry ones but I do not think they will be a success.. 

They all floated to the top for some reason.. Oh well.. 

A little Shamrock plant growing on the old kitchen window sill..  

A couple of days ago we went home as I had to go to the doctor.. 

Having a few knee problems which is the pits... 

Old age has a few negative factors, shall we say.. smile.. 

I had wanted to go home around about way so we did.. 

Here are a few pics for you of good old New Brunswick.. 

This was through Hampton, Belleisle  and Sussex..

Such beautiful cottage country and lovely farms... 

While we were home we went to check out that all was well at the farm and Terry took a little walk back to the brook.. 

I tried to catch a pic of him climbing that fence but he was too fast for me.. grin.. 

Slept in our waterbed for a couple of nights and it was lovely but we headed back here to the cottage today... 

It was rainy when we started out but by the time we did a bit of shopping and such it was sunny here and much cooler then home.. 

I see our view of the bay is changing.. 

Notice the Goldenrod growing there.. 

Fall is on it's way, I guess.. 

I think this was one of the shortest summers in history since we bought the cottage 20 years ago.. 

Seems like it anyway.. 

The Spring was so rainy and cold and we were late getting here.. 

You know.. 

Yada yada yada.. 

I do love Fall but am not looking forward to Winter.. 

I was listening to a Christian radio station on my way home from the doctor's yesterday and the speaker was talking about the world and all of the nasty situations that are going on .. 

Then he said but we can wake up with JOY  in our hearts because we have Christ living there and no matter what comes or goes He remains the same.. 

It was such a lovely reminder of something that I know but I need to make a deliberate decision to start my day each morning with JOY in my heart ... 

Bad knee or not.. grin.. 

God bless you sweet readers.. 

I appreciate each and everyone of you... 

I left the recipe such as it was for the soup on the last post in the comments section.. 

Thanks for visiting and sending hugs your way.. 

The purple days of Summer...

Good Evening my dears.. 

Hope all is well with you.. 

We here in Eastern Canada are trying to get over the storm Arthur.. 

He sure wrecked havoc on our poor landscape.. 

Thousands of trees are down and still thousands of people without hydro.. 

We were so blessed to keep our hydro and trees but others were not so fortunate.. 

Praying that their power comes on soon.. 

One of the saddest things I heard was that my most favorite place in New Brunswick which is Kings Landing has suffered terrible losses and will be closed for who knows how long.. 

Anyway.. 

I just posted some pics of some of God's beautiful artistry .. 

We went for a little drive out Tynemouth Creek way and came across this lovely patch of Blue Flags although they are really purple.. 

So gorgeous..

Farmers are making their hay and the scent in the air is simply beautiful..

We have an old bedroom here in the cottage for our Summer guests which is purple.. 

Every year I think I should change it up a bit but all these years later and it is still purple.. smile.. 

A couple of years after we had bought the old cottage the youngest child of the first owners dropped by for a visit and told me that this room used to be her parent's room .. 

At the foot of the bed is a portrait of one of her older sisters who was raised in this house.. 

The people at the museum called me and informed me that I could buy it if I liked and of course, I did.. 

So sweet to think that even though she is gone her picture is still hanging in her parent's old room, eh? 

The dear lady was Pauline and she was in her eighties then.. 

Since then she has gone on but I still remember that visit with a smile.. 

The last pic is of my sweet husband who is always ready to jump out and pick me a bouquet.. smile.. 

We keep a pair of scissors in each vehicle just in case.. grin.. 

Thank you my sweeties for stopping by during these busy months.. 

I know I am not doing a great job in keeping my promise to blog better so please forgive me.. 

Tomorrow the shop is opened again for 3 days so hopefully it will be busy.. 

Had some lovely visitors who read the blog and stopped by.. 

It is so nice to meet you all.. 

I have some Rhubarb Jams made for those who are interested.. 

For as long as they last anyway.. 

Take care and I look forward to hearing from you all.. smile.. 

Hugs form St. Martins.. 

Summer Days....

Good Evening  my dears.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth tonight.. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. 

We sure had a hot one for us .. 

Our little village was full of people trying to get cooled off.. smile.. 

There were so many people that there were not any place left to park down by the caves.. 

I have never seen so many.. 

So many bikers went past my shop.. 

Dozens at a time, actually.. 

I hope they got cooled off.. 

Our son called from up home and said it was terrible.. 

He was working and had to go buy an air conditioner so he could sleep.. 

Poor kid.. 

Then the other son said everyone was almost sick as it was so hot.. 

When it comes to heat a lot of us Maritimers just can't take it.. 

You Texans probably think we are a bunch of wimps...grin... 

My hubby picked a bunch of strawberries on Friday so over the weekend we did up 7 batches of jam which was 49 jars..

I was so glad to get that job done.. Believe me.. 

Thank God our old cottage stays cool downstairs.. 

I picked a bunch of herbs and roses to make my moisturizing ointment.. 

Comfrey, lavender, plantain, and roses... 

Sunday morning we went to church in St. John and had a wonderful service.. 

We had a chance to say good bye to our grandsons who were going to Youth Camp with their cousin (another of our grandsons) and his friend..

Praying they will have a blast but also that they will be inspired to draw closer to God.. 

On our way home we had to stop for this.. 

Isn't that the sweetest thing?

My, I love ducks... 

Today was cooler so I cooked a turkey supper.. 

They were on sale and I find it is so nice to have the leftovers in the fridge.. 

We have a lot of company here and turkey is so versatile for meals..

A soup is probably going to be made tomorrow.. 

It is going to be another cool and rainy day.. 

This is the strawberry rhubarb crisp I made for dessert..

It turned out lovely although I used splenda for some of it.. 

I used this recipe HERE..

For the fruit I used a mixture of both fruits and added at least a half cup of splenda to the fruit as rhubarb is sour.. 

It is a wonderful fast dessert..

Serve it with vanilla ice cream.. mmmmmm.. 

Terry loved it of course.. 

I hope you all are enjoying your summer days and thanks so much for your sweet comments.. 

I read each one although I have not been too good at responding as I seem to be busy.. So sorry.. 

Please forgive me..

I shall try to do better.. 

God bless..