Such blessings..

Hello everyone.. 

How are you all doing? 

We have had a couple of lovely days since I last posted.. 

As you know we were excitedly waiting for our grandsons to show up for an overniter.. 

And we were so happy when they arrived.. 

We were waiting for them... 

Gramps had bought them each a huge bag of chips and pop for the evening.. 

We sat around and just enjoyed them for awhile.. 

Then around ten or so the two of us decided it was bedtime.. 

As we lie in bed over their heads it sounded like the downstairs was filled people all trying to talk at the same time.. 

We both were laughing at them as they were enjoying themselves so much.. 

So nice to have cousins that you love, eh? 

They have grown this past year.. 

Some of them are over 6 feet and look down on their grandfather.. grin.  

We told them they could stay up as long as they wanted and they did.. 

Practically all night but that was fine.. 

They are young and can handle it.. smile.. 

The next morning I set the table for breakfast as we waited for them all to get up.. 

A dozen and a half of eggs, a loaf of bread, jam, a pound of bacon, juice, milk and a huge pan of home fries seem to fill their empty tummies.. 

Then they did their thing.. 

Some headed for the beach ... 

And some showed up at the shop and helped me grate up some beeswax... 

Jared had to go to work so they were picked up in the afternoon.. 

We had such a good time..

The boys are just darlings and I am not saying that because I am their Grandma.. 

They just are.. smile.. 

So ... 

Until next Summer I pray that God will continue to bless and keep them safe and happy.. 

That they follow in His footsteps and make Him their priority...

Soon....

 They will be grown up and these sweet days together will just be memories.. 

Dear memories...

 Thank you, dear Jesus... 

This morning Terry and I made more pickles.. 

Farmer's Pickles.. 

My first try at them so I will let you know how they turn out.. 

Here are the recipes from the last post.. 

Just too much to write.. grin.. 

Please forgive my hen scratching on my books.. 

Today was very windy and cool .. 

Just like Fall.. 

I went out on the stoop and enjoyed the wind and drank this while Supper was cooking..  

Orange juice, sprite and mint... 

Pasta for supper.. 

Delicious if I must say.. smile..

Tomorrow is our precious daughter's birthday.. 

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart.. 

Your parents love and appreciate you very much.. 

God has blessed us so and we are thankful.. 

Next Thursday, Friday and Saturday are my closing down sale days.. 

I will get back to that later.. 

Thanks so much for your visit and hope I was not too long and boring.. 

Looking forward to hearing from you sweet girls.. 

Blessings.. xo

Pickling by the Bay of Fundy...

Good Evening, my dears.. 

Welcome once again to the Blessed Hearth.. 

So glad you dropped by.. 

We have had a busy day here by the Bay of Fundy..

Terry brought down a huge box of cukes that he grew in our garden at home.. 

The ones in the picture above are what is left to do tomorrow, Lord willing.. 

I guess you could say we have had a pickling day here..

These are ones I made for us.. 

Baba's Deli Dills.. 

Supposedly the best pickles this side of the Danube River... 

Or some such place.. grin.. 

I remember I made them many years ago when we lived on our little hobby farm back in the seventies.. 

Only, I didn't have grape leaves and used bottled horseradish.. 

It is a Mennonite recipe from a book Terry bought me way back when... smile.. 

The other day I bought a new book for only ten dollars at Indigo.. 

And made this totally awesome Indian relish.. 

It has cumin which is one of my favorite spices and as you can 

see I could eat it with a spoon.. 

The recipe says that if you mix this relish with yogurt it becomes raita which is a salad that is served with Indian food as a cool counterpoint for spicy dishes and that it peps up meat and poultry..

Of course,  hubby would not even try it although the dear man chopped up all of those cukes to make it.. 

We made a double batch of mustard pickles which he cut up also.. 

It is hard to find a good man like that, eh? smile.. 

Soooo....

I made him a loaf of no knead bread found HERE..

And a fish chowder.. 

Oh.. and a batch of cucumber jelly which my friend suggested I should try and make.. 

Let's just say it has been a long day.. 

I am sitting in the chair there on the left writing to you dear girls...

It is quiet and believe it or not Terry turned the heat up here .. 

Almost time to go to bed but guess what? 

Tomorrow night this will be a busy time for this old summer cottage.. 

We will be having some company.. 

We had a phone call a couple of hours ago and our darling grandsons wanted to know if they could come and stay overnite

tomorrow.. 

We are so happy.. 

I was a bit worried it was not going to work out this year as a couple of them are working this Summer.. 

They are growing so fast.. 

Here they are last Summer enjoying Supper with Gramps.. 

This is one of my favorite photos.. 

The dear things.. 

God has been so good to us blessing us with such wonderful grandsons.. 

Needless to say...

This old grandmother had better get some rest as I need to do a bit of baking tomorrow and Terry is going to be picking up another bunch of dills for us to do... 

This coming Sunday will be Art in the Park and I always have a table there with some House of Henry things.. 

Hope you are having a blessed evening and thanks for dropping by.. 

Oh and thank you so much for the dear encouraging emails I have received the last week or so.. 

And the phone calls.. 

You guys are awesome and please know that I am praying for you all that God will bless and protect you and yours.. 

Hugs..

PS..If you would like the recipe for the Indian Relish just email me and I will send it to you or if enough want it I will post it on here next time.. Or you can buy the book.. grin.. 

Just too tired tonight to do it.. xo

Ending the Week..

Happy Friday Evening, everyone.. 

Here we are at the end of another Summer's week.. 

Terry and I have been busy pickling as you can see.. 

He brought down sixty pounds of cukes and they are finished and some are sold already.. 

I had fun making a new kind in the first picture.. 

A dear wee friend here in St. Martins grows grapes and let me have some grape leaves and another grows horseradish and gave me a few roots so I made a Deli pickles that I have wanted to try for literally years.. 

They look delicious and can't wait to try them.. 

It takes a few weeks though before they are ready.. 

Then we made Sweet Dill, Garlic Dill, Bread and Butter and Ginger Slices... 

Hopefully, we will get more done next week.. 

It is also herb time and so I made a Nasturtium Vinegar.. Isn't it pretty?

 It is a bit peppery, too.. 

Just use a good vinegar and throw in some nasturtium blossoms and a bit of hot pepper flakes.. 

Leave on your sill for a week or two.. 

The Rosemary Salt is just a jar of coarse salt with Rosemary added to the sides and throughout.. 

Delicious with Chicken or such..  

I made some foot powders to sell at the shop.. 

Lavender and Peppermint.. 

Keeps the feet smelling sweet.. grin.. 

We were out to Shonda and Dave's for a lovely meal.. 

This view was from one of her windows.. 

Serene, eh? 

New veggies and some lovely salmon fillet... 

Her Dad's favorite.. smile.. 

Our grandsons do not like me putting their pics on here and usually I try not to but just look at how they are growing.. 

They are all turning into young men.. Already... 

Where has the time gone? 

I will share pics with you of her new home as soon as she gets it all organized.. 

A lot of window coverings to figure out.. smile.. 

Here is a new item added to the shelves at the shop...

Lots of enamelware.. 

Some of it has sold this week but it is very pretty.. 

Today, I realized that Summer is really drawing to an end.. 

My sweet cousin Dan and his family came to say good bye as they close down their Summer home and head back to Montreal for another year of teaching at the University..

I so love this sweet family and could not help but shed a tear as they pulled away... 

This Summer has slipped through the cracks and is almost over.. 

Another Summer of memories and sweet reunions.. 

But you all know how I love to get back home.. 

I just told a friend that I am not going to whine about getting back home this year.. 

But just another two weeks and we will be done.. 

Well dearies, thanks so much for your visit and comments.. 

Love them all and hope you have a great weekend..  

Nighty night, sweet friends.. 

A Summer's Day at the Farm.. .

Hello there my dears.. 

So glad you dropped by the Blessed Hearth today.. 

Here we are mid-August already.. 

The Summer has certainly flown by.. I think it is one of the quickest Summers on record.. 

Perhaps it is just the fact that this old gal is getting older and time just seems to be going at a faster rate then normal.. 

No matter... 

August will soon be past and then September and home we will be going.. 

This past Friday Terry and I made a quick overnite trip home, actually.. 

We got up early and stopped by the annual  Giant Flea Market in Sussex for just a couple of hours.. 

Just enough time to spend my quota.. grin.. 

Then we were on our way home.. 

Driving up Terry says he thinks he will load the lawn mower as soon as we get home and go up and mow the lawns at the old farm.. 

Oh joy... 

I was so excited to go to the old place even for just a few hours.. 

So, as soon as we unloaded the laundry and such I packed up a few things for dinner and away we went.. 

Such a beautiful drive up through the hills to the old place.. 

Following the brook and then coming upon our old barn.. 

The pasture beside it was full of cattle.. 

(Not ours, though) smile.. 

The old barn was framed in golden rod.. 

And the old house was still standing while the flag flapped away in the breezes.. 

I know it is not much to look at but for some reason Terry and I feel so contented to spend the day there.. 

He unlocked the doors and we were so surprised to find everything so tip top.. 

Our youngest son's family spent a few nights there and did a bit of uncluttering for us.. 

It looked wonderfull 

Thank you, sweeties.. 

I especially appreciated it and I won't tell Dad where all of his stuff went to.. lol... 

Anyway, he got busy mowing and all I had to do was set the table.. 

And cook a bit of food.. smile.. 

A frugal way to cook steak is to cut it up into thin slices.. 

Season it well and brown it along with some onion and then add a can of mushrooms with the juice.. 

When all is cooked add a can of cream of mushroom soup and simmer away until ready.. 

One steak will stretch much further and you have a lovely tasty gravy.. 

We like it anyway once in awhile.. 

One steak does us very well as I only need a couple of slices as I prefer veggies.. 

Don't the new beans and tomatoes taste awesome? 

Here are a few pics I took of around the old farm house.. 

I usually don't get a chance to see these old farm flowers blooming as we are always at the cottage and only Terry gets to go home and mow the lawns... 

I was pleased to see them.. 

My Aunt Eva planted them many years ago... 

When we left for the cottage I think the blossoms had just left...

Now the apples are growing away.. 

By the time we get home they will be ready.. 

It was a short visit.. 

Just dinner and dishes done.. 

But it did our hearts good.. smile..

Then we had to go home and I had to get ready for a little test 

at the hospital... 

When I came out from the test there were some special people waiting for me.. grin.. 

So we all went out for ice cream... Yeahhhhh... 

I think the ice cream was so good their dimples glowed.. 

Aren't they darling? 

I think I may sound a bit like a grandma... grin.. 

Well sweeties.. 

This is all for tonight.. 

Thank you dear Cathy-Jo for the sweet phone message.. 

You dear American friends are so kind.

And thank you dear girls from the area for stopping by for a visit.. 

Love meeting you girls who read this ..

I have not been great at blogging this Summer.. 

I seem to be busy or something but you still let me know you appreciate it and I thank you... 

May God bless you and keep you smiling all week.. 

Looking forward to hearing from you.. 

Hugs.. 

Life at the Lakes.. Such a blessed day..

Good Evening everyone.. 

Here is another Monday.. 

My favorite day as I always say.. 

Another week so full of potential..

This week certainly promises that... 

Today was a busy day after our lovely weekend.. 

Doing some pickles and opening the shop. 

I didn't close until after six as folks kept coming in.. smile.. 

To top off a lovely day I had a phone call from a very special family who live in Wisconsin.. 

We so love the Mayo family who have become such friends through our blogs... 

So sweet of you to call, Lori.. 

I promised to share our little day cation with you all.. 

It was called LIFE AT THE LAKES which was in the Cambridge Narrows area of our province.. 

Terry and I arose early.. grin.. 

I made and wrapped up a couple of breakfast sandwiches and coffees and away we went.. 

It was a perfect sunny day.. 

Thank you, Lord.. 

Our first stop when we arrived was to visit the Library and get a flyer locating all of the fun things to do.. 

They had books on sale so we picked up 9 of those for $5.00.. 

Then we stopped here...

I have to admit that this was the highlight of my day.. 

You all know how I love herbs and this sweet couple were so knowledgeable and friendly.. 

The herbs were beautiful...

With culinary beds and medicinal and so many kinds.. 

They knew their stuff and even brought me a bag to keep my stash in that he kept letting me smell.. 

I didn't want to waste a speck.. smile.. 

The first thing I asked was if I could buy a big bunch of basil.. 

Ours did not turn out hardly and it would be hard to get through the Winter without my pesto.. 

He was so kind to go and pick me a bag while she showed us so much more.. 

Her husband came down and invited us to go up to the upper field and view this wonder of nature.. 

A set of twin albino deer.. 

Isn't that awesome? 

It was the first time that Terry and I had saw any like this although I have heard of them.. 

After buying basil, homemade Herbes de Provence and a cookbook

(treasures)

 we headed for the next site.. 

This lovely old house is open to the public for tours and tea.. 

It is the Robinson House and is full of treasures.. 

We enjoyed the tour so much.. 

The house has so many original antiques and wallpapers.. 

Some of them were simply beautiful but this sewing machine vignette was my favorite.. 

And then my sweet husband treated me to this wonderful lunch which was cooked by professional chefs..

Cucumber Sandwich on a Veggie Roll and Creamed Veggie Soup.. 

I had a lovely pot of tea and Terry and I shared a trifle.. yumm!

They had rose vases at each table.. 

Then on to a lavender and hops farm..

Don't you love lavender? 

After we were done there we took a nice long drive back here to the cottage.. 

We went on 3 different  ferries.. 

That was fun.. 

The countryside is simply beautiful.. 

The day was just right in temperature with a nice breeze..

We saw some of my favorite farm animals.. 

Isn't that the dearest thing?

We even ran into several friends enjoying the same day as we did. 

We also stopped at a farmers market and picked up a few goodies.. 

All in all a very wonderful day spent with the man of my dreams.. 

God is so good to us.. 

I am thankful.. 

This morning it was back to normal except breakfast was a wee bit better.. 

Did you ever have this for breakfast? 

Take the top off of the tomato and squeeze out the juice and seeds and then chop it up quite small.. 

Put it in a frying pan with a bit of butter and a drop of olive oil.. 

Saute the tomato and shredded basil a bit and then add a couple of eggs with salt and pepper.. 

Scramble it all up together and serve with a basil leaf on top.. 

So good.. 

Well, dear hearts that is all for tonight.. 

I have a bunch of garlic scapes to pickle in the morning as I did not get them all done today.. 

I need to go to bed so good night all ... 

Thanks for visiting and hope to hear from you.. 

Love and Prayers.. 

Faye...