It is all about Love...

Hello everyone.. 

Happy Valentine's Day to you from us...

It has been an exciting few days here .. 

The Maritime provinces of Canada has been hit with a huge 

snow blizzard.. 

One of the wildest I can remember seeing for a long time.. 

We collected anywhere from  50 to 80 centimetres of snow depending where you are and the winds were wild.. 

We have gone from bare fields to huge banks of snow.. 

Everything closed down from stores, schools to most of our roads... 

But all is well that ends well and we are all digging out the best we can..

We had our little party the other night and it was fun!  

I took a couple of pics and then when everyone arrived I forgot all about my camera.. 

So sorry but we had a good turnout and the food that everyone brought was great.. 

We love the fellowship with our friends...

And Valentine's Day is here.. 

Heart Day.. 

So thankful for all the love in my life.. 

Especially, the love of my Lord!  

We love so many ..... 

Our family, friends and you, dear readers.. 

Praying you all have a day filled with love! 

Thanks for dropping by and leaving me your little love notes.. smile.. xo

God bless.. 

Here is a link to a post that I did awhile ago.. 

It is called Old Love.. 

Click  HERE

A wee posting..

Hello dear hearts.. 

Just wanted to say hello and let you know that I have responded to each blog comment last post... 

That is now on my agenda to do so but you know me and how consistent I am not.. smile.. 

Found the pics on the web and as I am 

  a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan I thought I would share them with you this afternoon.. 

I have just scrubbed my kitchen floor and thought I would do this and as I am using my new desktop computer I only had a few pics downloaded and chose these.. 

Hope you lovelies are having a great week.. 

We are preparing for a Valentine Supper here for the Keepers and friends on Saturday nite so this old house is getting a few corners cleaned and cobwebs torn down.. grin.. 

We have Bible Study tonight and Pastor is teaching on the Book of James.

 Excellent.. 

Thanks for visiting and leaving your dear notes.. 

God bless.. 

Very wise words.. xo

Usual Winter Pottering..

Hello my dears... 

Just a short post here tonight.. 

We here in the south of the province are pretty well over the ice storm we had last week but people to the north are still without hydro ... 

The poor dears.. 

We have just been doing the usual Winter things around here.. 

Morning rituals are still the same.. 

Tomato on Toast with Avocado is still a favourite... 

Looking after my plants..  

I almost lost this Sage plant but thankfully it is coming back.. 

Most of my plants are in the Sun Room... 

As is an old china cabinet that belonged to Terry's grandfather... 

I cleaned it out this week and discarded some of the stuff... 

Still sorting and such.. 

Went through the book shelves again... 

Giving away another big bag.. 

Terry says I won't be long replacing them... smile.. 

Oh I did want to share this incredible Apple Crumble recipe with you.. 

Remember I have been wanting one.. 

Well, I came across this old cook book while going through them and found the recipe in it... 

Fruit Crumble

4 cups of sliced peeled apples ( I used 5)

2 T. sugar (opt)

cinnamon and or nutmeg to taste.. 

Place in a shallow pan.. 

Crumble together 

1/2 cup of whole oatmeal 

1/2 cup of flour

2/3 cup of brown sugar 

1 x 8 ounce cream cheese 

Spread over apples and bake in 350 degrees F. oven for 45 minutes or until apples are tender and crumble golden brown.. 

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.. 

We did not have ice cream with it and it was still delicious! 

Hope you like it... 

My Mom gave me some of my grandmother's handkerchiefs so I have been do up an album to display them.. 

This is the album which she gave me several years ago.. 

They are mostly lovely but a couple are worn out and rather ragtag.. 

So sweet to think of her using them so much.. 

Really enjoying my fermented veggies and canned green beans.. 

We are starting to think about the garden this year if we go back to the farm for the summer and I certainly will try to do a lot more of these.. 

We had 3 bags of cranberries still in the fridge after the holidays (if you can imagine) and they were still fine so I made a big batch of cranberry juice.. 

I added orange, lemon and anise to the mixture.. 

Very tasty.. 

I want to apologise for not posting the Lemon Dessert recipe but I can not find it..

I must have stuck it in another box or something.. 

It will show up eventually I am sure then I will post it for you.. 

Hope you all have a great weekend... 

Looking forward to hearing from you and thanks for stopping by.. 

I did respond to a few of your comments last post and will try again this time.. 

Take care and God bless..

 xoxo

Ice Storm ...

Hello everyone.. 

So glad you dropped by the Blessed Hearth on this Sunday evening.. 

As some of you may know our province of New Brunswick especially the eastern side of which we are a part has suffered a severe ice storm.. 

I thought I would do a little post and take you with me on a little field trip to see the ice.. 

I know I have not done this kind of post for awhile so perhaps you will enjoy it and see how it is here in our little part of the world.. 

As I said in my last post on Tuesday we were in a rather bad storm with freezing rain and wind.. 

Our hydro fluttered on and off through the evening so I ended the post and went to bed.. 

The window was open as usual and the wind was wild.. 

I could hear a snapping every once in awhile and I thought there was something banging against a wall out by the shed somewhere.. smile.. 

In the morning I came out and looked out our front window to this.. 

Wow... 

I hadn't realized just how bad it was.. 

Going over to make a pot of coffee and looking out the kitchen window... 

My little bubble weather forecaster that my Mom gave me was telling the story, I think.. 

Not good with all those bubble things at the top.. 

And then I noticed all the limbs strewed around the yard.. 

Our apple orchard is quite old and the poor things were broken everywhere.. 

The snapping I heard through the night must have been branches breaking!

Someone was up and gone to work and let Charlie out for a few minutes.. 

Wow.... 

This was Wednesday morning and hydro was out over most of the province especially on the Eastern side as I was saying.. 

Then on Thursday we decided to take a drive just to see what it was like.. 

We headed out of our little village and there were hydro trucks everywhere.. 

Bless their hearts.. 

They came from Nova Scotia and other provinces to help us out.. 

Here are some scenes that we saw.. 

I apologise for the picture quality but you get the drift, eh? 

The birches really were just bent over double or broke right off.. 

Terry wanted to see how his wood lot looked.. 

In all the midst of it, though, you have to gasp at the beauty of it all.. 

There are so many photos on the web that are just gorgeous.. 

These will give you an idea of how much ice there was.. 

We have passed huge trees broken right in two and driveways plugged with broken down trees.. 

I imagine it is a lot like when a tornado goes through!

There are folks today still without their electricity.. 

It is times like these that communities band together to help each other.. 

A lot of houses have their generators going out in their garages but I am so thankful for wood heat.. 

Freezers and fridges had to be cleaned out for some folks who had no other recourse... 

We continued on our drive to Salisbury and only the Irving Big Stop was open and it was packed with people wanting a hot meal and such.. 

On Saturday the sun came out and when we were coming home from Sussex there were fields of choppings where the wood had been cut down.. The sun shining on the all of the ice made it look  like a field of diamonds.. 

I did not have my camera but Terry remarked that no camera could capture all that beauty... 

We do not have much snow now..

We had to go check the farm as the hydro was out there for 3 days but it was on when we arrived and all was fine.. 

Oh for you girls who read my blog and I was complaining about Terry chopping down my fave pine tree...... 

Well, he says it is a good thing he did that because that wind would have caused the tree to tear the mast right off of our house.. 

Yup.. 

He was right again!  

LOL... 

We have had a simply wonderful Sunday with our church family today.. 

A special dedication and meeting with old friends and family and worshipping the Lord together was lovely.. 

And a pot luck... 

God is good and we are thankful for his blessings during the storms of our lives.. 

Even ice storms.. 

Take care dear hearts... 

Just another post...

Good Evening everyone.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth ... 

Hope you are all doing well and not in the midst of a storm as we are here in Eastern Canada.. 

Lots of freezing rain and wind and more rain.. 

I am sitting here anxiously waiting for news that our daughter and her husband have landed safely from their trip to the Bahamas.. 

They were supposed to land this morning but the plane had to return to Toronto due to landing conditions here.. 

Then we had a text from Shonda that they would be leaving again at 5 pm but have not heard anything else thus far.. 

I checked with the airport site and it says the flight from Toronto is delayed... sigh... 

I am not worried.... 

I just want them to be safe at home.. 

All you mothers know what I mean.. 

Anyway.. 

The last post I mentioned that we were planning on going to the farm on Saturday and that we did... 

Not as much snow as usual as you can see.. 

Terry and Dustin have lots of wood piled and the dear man went inside and started the fire in the stove and turned on the electric heaters while I read in the car for about 15 minutes.. 

Charlie played around the yard.. 

He loves it up there and just runs and runs.. 

I checked out our flagpole.. 

I think we may have had a bit of wind up there lately, eh? 

You know what that means in the Spring.. 

Another episode in the life of a wife with a husband on a ladder.. lol

You ladies who follow the blog remember my stories about that.. 

I also noticed that my summer bunting is still flying in the breezes.. 

I will need to make a new one also in the Spring when we get back up there.. 

Well.. the sad story is that when Charlie and I went into the house I found that I could not stay.. 

My arthritis has been acting up and I knew if I stayed I would be suffering all week so we just turned off the heats and went back home.. 

I had packed food for our meals but ended up making it here.. 

Oh well.. 

Terry said it is better not to take a chance.. 

Enough about that.. 

We had Sunday supper and I made an apple cobbler.. 

Forgot to take a pic of finished product.. smile.. 

I wish I had a wonderful recipe for that but it was just so so.. 

Do you ladies have one that is awesome?  

Then I made tea and just had a wonderful time looking at books and such.. 

Planning our next Keepers of the Home day.. 

It is to be on February 11, I think... 

Probably going to be a heart day.. 

I will post about it as soon as I know the details.. 

Yesterday and today I made a couple of batches of egg rolls.. 

We learned to make these at Keepers if you recall.. 

So easy to make really.. 

Then this was our Sunday supper.. 

Very boring but comfort food.. 

Salisbury steak, gravy, mashed, carrots and turnip... 

And lots of pickles of course.. 

Really trying to use up preserved and frozen foods this Winter.

I love love the canned beans and such .. 

Really hope to do up a lot more this year... 

And of course my favourite is the soup base that I have posted about so many times.. Thanks to dear Carmen.. 

This is just some vintage fabrics I found in my decluttering process.. 

This morning Terry and I spent over 2 hours in my workshop in the basement.. 

We got through 3 big shelves.. That is all.. 

Oh my !!

Over 20 years in the craft and shop business and I have not been through the stuff since I retired.. lol  

How do I get rid of so much good stuff is beyond me.. 

I can't burn it all and I doubt if any thrift store wants that much so I will have to divvy it up amongst them, I guess.. 

I don't even know if anyone uses that kind of craft supplies anymore.. 

Grapevine wreaths, swags and so on and so on.. grin.. 

Then I still make a few things yet and have our Keepers meetings so I want to keep some of it ... 

But what??? 

I guess we will be going down most days for an couple of hours and hope we get through it by next year.. 

That is all I can do.. 

Our kids will be so relieved to know that I am even trying.. 

Well, dear hearts this has been a long boring story.. 

Once again, I apologize for that.. 

When I first started the blog it was with the warning that it would only be about my daily life.. 

Nothing very outstanding but real anyway, eh? 

Take care of yourselves and thanks so much for your sweet comments.. 

I was going to post a recipe for lemon desert but our hydro is flickering so I had best shut this down.. 

Talk soon and God bless.. xo