Chocolate cake

Here's a pic of the last year's chocolate cake I made for my mom's birthday. Not bad looking but probably not perfect. It was a bit lopsided. But the sprinkles does make it fun doesn't it? How did it taste? Well it tasted great and chocolatey especially when you add a secret ingredient such as Nutella. OK not so secret but oh so decedent. I usually add a bit to anything relating to chocolate. It is the great enhancer after all. 😉😋

 

Its a Sign!

Yup you guessed it. Its an actual sign. OK not terribly exciting but pretty neat to me. Last season in August, at the end of the month I think, but the actual news article got published in Sept. The park across the street finally got a new sign. It was since that time we moved in to this neighborhood, sometime in 1998 that the old one was knocked over from age. It was never really that durable to begin with. Just your typical wood used in a common wooden fence around someone's lawn. None the less the new sign is not much better from the original other then they added a reflective coating so you can reflect it at night with your car's headlights. I guess the city was trying to save some money. But did they have to place it in the exact spot the old sign was in? I mean every year there's a pretty huge and deep puddle in that spot because of unscrupulous bone heads who either park their cars there for a soccer game or take a joy ride though the park when we're all sleeping.  I wouldn't be surprised when one day I look out the window and see it knocked to the ground. Anyways there was a bit of a revealing ceremony soon after. Apparently it was in honor of some woman's father. Even had a footage crew, a reporter or two here along with the mayor and other family members. You can read it your self in the article posted here. As for whats happening with the world right now, lets not talk about it. Just enjoy some peace. 
Thanks. 😌

The house thats for the bird that has everything.

Well I had or rather I still have this cheapo purse. I only had it for a couple of years I guess before it got all torn up and ratty. It was really nice when I got it. Most unusual and different from all the other purses I had in the past and I just couldn't resist purchasing it despite in my head I knew its a cheapo. Plus I felt sorry for the foreign girl working in that little shop that I know probably wasn't going to last for much longer and she would probably loose her job. Well I was right. The shop soon after closed and she probably had to go back to her own country cause she just couldn't make a decent living in our humble little mall. It really is a little mall which consists of just the main grocery store and a few enclosed shops. Definitely not a plaza. 
Anyways instead of just throwing the purse away I decided to make it into a bird house out of it. Something I kind of wanted to do anyways in the future and took advantage of when I got an old ratty purse to do so. 
So here it is. I hung it close to a bird feeder underneath a shed roof but so far no takers this year. Oh well maybe next year when I move it to a different more secluded spot. 

 

Just dilly

Last year when I took these pics, like the cat nip, the dill that grew, really was bountiful. Sadly this year the dill that grew back although looked like it was going to really be bountiful again, was not. The swallow tail butterfly cattapillers made sure of that. Usually they go crazy all over the parsley and the tomato plants but for some reason it was the dill's turn to get pummeled. Oh well there's always next year. 

Little big flood.

While the other parts of the world were having their own natural disasters including north America mainly with those big and nasty hurricanes and parts of Canada with those fires, we had our own little disaster here too a few weeks ago. So I just had to post this so yeah for once this is fairly new stuff. 
Lately for the past few years we've been having lots of things such as floods here. I forgot about the small one we had last year. I remember that day we went to a mall. Not the one that flooded but another one. I had purchased a black stylish hat that day. This year however we got one of those 100 year old floods. It flooded our basement for a second time since our family has lived in this house. The last time was only a few years ago. I think in 2010 was the last time. I suppose we're now going to have these more often now. Sign of the times I guess. 
So anyhow most of the summer we struggled to get some rain so it ended up fairly dry around here. When we did finally get some substantial rain, boy it really rained. And rained and rained until our naighbourhood began to resemble a system of rivers and ponds. After awhile it started to seep in though a wall in the fruit cellar. Later I noticed that when I checked on our sump pump, it was on non stop and I started to get that panicky feeling of "here we go again". Then it started to bubble up through the drain in the floor and that's when I started to run around like a chicken with its head cut off. I'm sure, though out the city this was happening people were probably feeling the same way. I think we were pretty lucky for not having a downstairs toilet which would have probably resulted in sewage in the basement as well. None the less I got as many of our things off the floor as fast as I could on to higher ground while my dad tried to go out to look for tubing for our extra pump. After doing all that I could downstairs, I went outside to the porch and took a few pics of the craziness.  (see pics below post)After taking a few pics a neighbour came over with urgency and asked for assistance. There were many cars getting trapped in the rising water that day and that guy's, van was no exception. So along with a few of the guys and me being the only woman we pushed the van up I guess his driveway to safety. So after a bit of socializing with the neighbours I walked back home. Found out my dad came back home without success. The stores were all sold out of hoses. There was only one way out of this. Compromising. My dad had to Macgyver the feed hose that we used in the fish pond for air and water circulation and use that for our extra pump. It was a bit of a mess considering that thing was all full of long strands of green alga and who knows what else but we had no choice. We hooked up the thing, fed it out one of the closest windows to the main sump pump and pumped away. The water finally started to let up around 7pm in our house and the neighbourhood as well. At its peek we had about 3 to 4 inches of rain water in the basement. It was a long day. Tomorrows day would be just as tedious. Removing wet rugs, placing them outside and the arduous task of re-mopping the floor. I had already done that weeks ago and was not happy about this. We were pretty lucky (or unlucky depending on your perspective)over all compared to some of our other neighbours. They had to redo some parts of their soaked basement and its pretty uncertain if insurance would have covered it fairly. (We have pretty lousy insurance coverage here in our humble and normally boring city.) The next day it was pretty evident how the flood impacted everyone in the city with the gargantuan mounds of trash piled high at the end of almost every driveway from flooded basements. To this day, its sill being collected by our diverted garbage and recycling trucks plus extra trucks from Toronto. They finally got to our street just yesterday although they still have the rest of the city to get to. Not easy when only about 10 houses can be cleared of debris at a time before they have to dump the load at some temporary depot. Ironically at our only and last GM plant which closed years ago and was torn down recently. So much for motor city, now rat city, garbage city and a city loaded with lots of sad and grumpy people. No wonder they all want to desperately smoke pot. 
Yup sign of the times.  😒

A view of our flooded park, parking lot and street from my porch. ⇱

 A view of our flooded park, parking lot and street corner from my porch and the corner of our front lawn.
Some guy decided to take a dip in one of the large and apparently deep ponds that formed in the corner of the park. I wonder if he realized that there was a sewer grate there.  ⇱

Our front sidewalk that leads from our porch. You can see the river that was our street. You can see a wake from a passing van. Many people didn't care that they were speeding and that would cause more water to go in peoples houses. ⇱

I liked how the water looked on our trees. Like sparkling diamonds. ⇱

A view from our dining room of the park and street. ⇱

A view from our dining room of the park and street. Another van goes whooshing by. ⇱

A view from my bedroom window. You can see a few cars stuck in the water at the far right. The same spot where me and some guys pushed a van up a drive way. The water was about up to my knees. A few feet worth. ⇱

Just some cooings on.

Time for catch-up again. Still decapitating those ivy vines. Just can't do it all the time. I wait for when its not so hot and humid. But none the less they're almost pretty much out on the front. Found lots of empty snail shells for my collection in the processes. They come in handy for projects. Such as wreaths and a certain broach I made for my self. Still tackling other things too. Been a pretty busy summer. And oh yeah we might actually get some peaches this year. So far the squirrels have been keeping away. Another story when it comes to the night creatures.

Anyways here are some pics of some of my doves took two years ago just before I put them out for the season in their outdoor cage. I managed to take a few nice ones of my "rare in my household" a young dappled ring neck dove. She had a brother who looked just like her but as I said before her brother got spagetified by a hawk before we reinforced the cages to keep out the rodents and you guessed it hawks. Oh and I even got a rare pic of a dove just about to take off the covered car in our garage. Rare considering my camera is pretty old and its only a point n shoot camera. Not to mention a Kodak camera. I wonder if someday it might become a collectable? 

Oh they look a bit poopy considering when inside their winter quarters its a bit cramped for the night. But they have the whole garage to do what they please during the day. Such as bathing, foraging, playing and of course flying. 😊
 

Holiday detour ahead.

A little post Christmas pre NewYear detour of postings. I just have some of the latest pics of my updated Nativity and some Christmas lights. Haven taken any new ones for a number of years. Not much as changed other then some new angel figures I got recently. Although very nice and flashy but in my opinion cheaper in quality. Yes you have much more flashing action but at the price of the battery power. Oh well. 

Below is a pic of our dining room table with a mini light up Christmas tree without the chandler on. ⇓

Another with changed lights.⇓

Again with the chandler on.⇓
Here you can see our our traditional wreath of Advent and traditional to my parents people, wheat grass grown in small containers. Normally these should be decorated with red, white and blue striped ribbons wrapped around the wheat grass. These unfortunately got a bit sickly. Probably a lack of proper watering, sun or maybe just disease. Oh well, my dad tried.

Little Christmas lights look like little "goal" lights from a hockey game. They twinkle on and off red. Its around this wreath on the window in our dining room. They make a nice starry pattern behind the curtains.⇓

 Another mini Christmas tree. In the dinning room as well, at a corner on top of a glass table.⇓

What our Nativity scene looks like with the main lights out. You can see the small plastic angels shining different colours. Just got the two bottom ones this year and already the batteries are being used up with all the light action they do. Unlike the better quality angels I have at the top that change their lights more slowly.

You can also see the starscape my dad has behind my royal blue starry back drop I made out of a piece I bought at the store once. I also airbrushed that a bit.
We have this displayed in our living room.⇓

The following are various angles of our Nativity scene. Here you can see my hand made palm trees made from foam, cardboard, raffia and discarded nylon remains I collected from my previous job working on site for an inflatable company. Currently I work for my self as a freelancer. 
Any how, the human figures are original from when I was a kid. I had repainted them since the original was just poorly done. The sheep are from various place like dollar stores and fixed up.⇓

As you can see, some of the things I made don't always turn out. That cardboard pond did not stay flat. That manger is something my dad made when I was a little girl. It lights up inside too. A few years ago my dad covered the walls with white papery tree bark. He also covered the roof with water reeds. Looks really cool.

The twin paper angels use to be a Christmas bag from one of my mother's friend who has since past away.⇓

 Another perspective.⇓

From a plastic sheep's view or a plastic sheep dog.  ⇓

You can see that our main and big angel, a former tree topper has lost her shine. That's alright. We'll figure out a solution eventually.⇓

 A final look. ⇓

The end? Probably not. 
Happy NewYear every one. 🎉🎄🎊🎆🎇😺

Sit up Meetso

Yup. Long time no see. Been busy and with some good stuff for a change. 
OK Meetso first. This was taken in early spring on a gloomy rainy day. I was with Meetso on the front porch and he was ogling a bunny munching on some nice green spring grass. (showing that in the next post) Before we had that long dry summer this year. So yeah the pic is kind of dark and I could only get it so bright. 
I had him sitting up so that's why my hand got in the way of the shot. 

 More pics next post. 

Yup its been a craziness year of business and well craziness.  Both of our neighbours now hate us. But I always suspected that they probably already did so. It has something to do with having to replace the central air conditioner during the almost hottest part of July. We had no choice but to have it placed just beyond our fence instead of in the usual spot. Instead its closer to his garage. His sitting during the day spot. He totally freaked over this, basically told us to pack up and get lost. 
Even called the city on us. But the representatives didn't do a thing since we are in code. Some people. They think they're so nice but underneath they have a evil core. A real shame. Classic behavior from Godless people.  Oh yeah the other neighbour decided that she didn't like my kitty passing though her yard, on occasion peeing on her stuff and decided to hose him down right in front of me. >:( Really? I mean every day there's some animal that goes on her lawn and either takes a pee or poops on her stuff. How come she's not freaking out on those creatures? Guess its also typical of people who live by them selves, who are mad at the world and mad at God. She use to go to church when her mother. 
Someone is definitely holding a brick in their heart where her heart should be. *rollie eyes* I mean hay, I have issues, lots of hurtful issues but I don't take it out on the whole world. 

Oh speaking of storms, wow 2 tornadoes and a flood. Over all the weather was pretty dry during the "nice and warm" season but wow when it rains, it pours. One tornadoes are rare here so it was a surprise when we got one and then number two. And an a f2 of all things. We were all right but close by there was some damage. Some blown off roofs and bent steal around utilities. 
Recently well last week we got this rain storm. Lots of roads and basements in our areas got overwhelmed by water. But my mother and I still when to the mall to take care of things. We on the other hand had a bit of water in our basement. Not a big deal compared to a number of years ago when we had torrential Niagara falls like rain come down. Luckily I was up late working on a project so every one was on alert here. That was a year before Meetso came to live with us. 

We also had a perfect storm of squirrels this year. They ate almost everything. The ate all the peaches, grapes, stole tomatoes, attacked our plums and if that wasn't enough, they even tried to gnaw though my bird cages. It was the last straw and caught in succession 7 squirrels in a human-trap and then later dumped them in a forest park well stocked with their natural food. A definite world record for us in catches. We caught 4 or 5 of them last time. Guess the craziness began last fall when there was a bumper crop of acorns last fall. They sure were really fat. 

Hopefully there aren't any more perfect storms coming.  ;)
 

Last years flowers.

I wonder how many more years online bloging will be around. It seems every time I come here every one is always Instagraming or something. Meh.  Me I'm quite fine here, thanks. 

Anyways I'm tired from having to complete many things such as errands, preparing things, clean, being stressed out about things and est. Its Jam season after all. So I'm just going to show some nice pics of flowers I took with my old digital camera last year. Yep more leftovers. But don't worry I actually have some newer pics of my kitty and critter friends. Well actually cat dinner. But you know? ;)

Not sure what these flower weeds are but they sure were pretty growing in a field, The yellow ones mind me of snap dragons and the purple remind me of sweet pea. 
It was windy that day so the images turned out a bit blurry.

Cabbage rolls arn't boring.

Well January and most of February was pretty boring. Good in some ways I guess but bad as in boring in other ways. So not much to say about that. But at least there is some light at the end of the bleak tunnel of winter. We do get to enjoy my dad's cabbage rolls made with homemade sour cabbage. He always likes to add in a few quince fruit for flavour in the batch of cabbage with brine to be soured. But he seems to think that the sour cabbage is really not up to pare this time. Me? I think the SC is great as always. So again this weekend we're having you guessed it his famous and tasty cabbage rolls. Included on the plate besides the Crolls will be some baked potatoes or boiled. Personally I think baked is best. Or you could have polenta with it. Not me. Also added to the tasty plate, some sausage pieces and some homemade smoked pork like ribs for example. Those are my favorite but not often served. Got ta take what you can get I guess. 
Oh we don't cover it in tomato sauce. Not part of our eastern European tradition I guess. Very similar to the Polish style.  Not missing it any how. 

 Hope I made you hungry. ;D

A Friday that was more like a Monday

A Friday that was more like a Monday is what it felt like. I knew I wasn't going to like that day and was pretty much spoiled for me. Well I don't like dental appointments or any other medical related appointments for that matter but it had to get over with. So I got my annoyance over with and like usual I treat my self with a special snack of some sort. I was going to have an ice cream from the new ice cream place on the corner near by, but my stomach was still upset from a few nights before when I tried out this new spicy chicken. I love spicy chicken or anything spicy for that matter but this was a bit too much for me I guess. But it could have been more severe had I not eaten yogurt afterwords. So instead of the ice cream treat to drown out the dental taste left in my mouth, I got a small box of 20 TimBits verity style. They're basically doughnut holes from a place called TimHortons. I'm sure you've heard about the famous Canadian icon. So I brought them home to share and I though that was the end of it. But guess not. Later that night and as usual, my kitty gets in the mood to go out for a stroll. But before that he likes his play time with me and a meal. As we played in my room on the floor near my bed, I started to smell something strange but somehow familiar. Something burning, like burning wire. I started to get a bit frantic and nervous when I first could not find the source of the noxious smell.  Looked at my outlets, nope. Looked at a power bar, nope. Eventually I looked up thinking it might be somehow the ceiling light. The reason why I thought that was earlier my dad was changing the light fixture in the kitchen that was not working properly. Somehow I thought it was connected. Maybe the wire was damaged by a electrical serge? I started to get scared thinking that maybe there was a smoldering wire in the ceiling that was eventually going to lead to fire. After all I did start to see smoke swirling around my light fixture. The smell was getting stronger and overwhelming to my nose. So I started to open windows despite the furnace being on. But that didn't matter at that point. I also wen to see if the smell was in any other room especially the kitchen. Sure enough it was there. Now really panicking, my dad and I went outside and inside pretty much all over that house inspecting and contemplating. But we really couldn't really find any smoldering wires est. 
Just as well the smells were at that point starting to dissipate after opening the windows but we still weren't sure what happened.  It was only about an half an hour later when my mom went to empty the dishwasher when we realized what had happened. Apparently the dishwasher caught on fire and filled my room and the kitchen with nasty toxic burnt plastic smoke. I spent several days getting rid of that nasty smell. But you can still smell it in the kitchen. But then it could have been worse. Luckily the dishwasher only short circuited when I guess a bit of water got in to the electrical components  and burnt the front panel. Yikes and Yuck! But this might have been avoided if my parents heeded the recall warning for that machine a few years earlier. I hope they learn their lesson. Just too bad they're prone to hard headiness and stubbornness. Oh well. 

This Thursday will be my kitty's Monday since its vet day. He has to get his shots. He will be treated handsomely afterwords with his favorite treats. ;)

One sweet little dove gone too soon.

Well today a hawk decided to see one of my doves as a spaghetti meal. The hawk tried to spagettify one of my doves as tried to pull it though one of the small holes of the chicken wired aviary. Its head was pretty mingled. It didn't have a chance. :_(
The others were lucky to have escaped with their lives. One had its tail plucked all out and another had a bunch of feathers yanked out of its back. So today it was the last straw, after also being harassed by rats and mice earlier. I brought them indoors two weeks early. Hopefully I can get the aviary safety improved next season. :o

Purple Trinity Flower

Well-p its officially fall. Thank God that its still summer warm. For now. But don't fret, its only a few more months till spring. The lucky ones who don't have to wait till then can just migrate south or you can hibernate like a bear. But don't, were not bears. Our bodies will make us pay for that as some of us know too well. Best thing to do is when it gets too cold outside is do a bit of exercise indoors when of course you're finished shoving the snow.

Enough of that depressing news well maybe a bit of anxiety inducing news instead. For some of us anyways. Besides the busy summer of yard work and other personal stuff, it was a stressful summer for my poor kitty Meetso yet again. Apparently he was getting to much calcium in his diet. Um no I wasn't drowning him in cow's milk, but I did give a bit to him as a treat now again. But apparently I was giving him inferior cat food. Its a major brand but I won't mention it unless you ask me in privacy.

I'm guessing it had way too much bone meal and other crap but I figure it still had some redeeming qualities for the price I had to pay. Guess not. Who knew that a can of animal guts with some vitamins thrown in for good measure, at times costs more then a can of tuna. I always thought those things were over priced. But then I also gave him tuna on occasion too as a treat. Maybe a combination of that set him off as well. So now for his main food, he gets the vet office brand. A 50/50 combination of dry food and a very boring flavoured with chicken, wet cat food. Chicken btw is his least favourite food. He still manages. He's a good kitty.

Since the crazy July he recently had a small blip. He got sick from a rabbit he decided to catch for dinner and eat whole. He left nothing but a few dark coloured guts. Yes he even ate the head.

The rabbit on the other hand had its revenge going down. In Meetso's haste to eat his prize, the bones in the meat I guess scraped his throat or maybe a small piece logged in there. But I think not. None the less, he lost his meow and his appetite. Took him a few weeks to recover. Some of the recovery took place in my bed room a few times in the form of big dark coloured hair balls with bits of grass in the smelly mix. Thank God it looks like he's now back to his normal cuddly self. That is until next time. Oh boy.

Now for my find that 's the title for this posting is named after.

Ok so its another wild flower I found. I don't really remember planting it in the corner of the garden but there it is. I probably found it originally in the park and took the seeds home. Just forgot about it until some time in June when it started to bloom. My dad actually thought it was a stray corn plant that grew there from bird seed that was dropped there. Luckily he didn't just pull it out like he usually does. (killed a plant that I was trying to grow for the last 2 years cause he thought it was a weed) Yes its edible, but I think in limited fashion. Not sure what parts, so you are going to have to look it up. How ever it does go by many names but I prefer the one in the title. It makes the most sense to me. A purple flower with three petals. I hope that I can collect the seeds and spread it around to the appropriate areas. 

More moldy leftovers.

Yup you guessed it. More leftovers (pics) from last year. Just as well. I’ve been really busy with stuff that has to get done. Yard work, house work, putting things in jars and my own personal work. Pretty much boring stuff and not worth talking about. But some work is still worth showing off and I'll be showing them very soon at my creative site.

As usual I took a walk. One fall day last year I decided to take a walk in the park. All around the park and I mean the whole circumference of it and its pretty amazing the beautiful things you can find if you just look in the right places in an otherwise uninteresting, abused and neglected park. Normally all you would find are tread marks left over from bone heads that like to drive though and joy ride with their cars and park where you really shouldn't. Then there are people with their dogs again as I said before do not pick up after their dogs. You can tell the park has seen better days, cause I found an old capped off water fountain. Its just a cement spot with a few pipes sticking out of it now. Shame.

Anyhow look at what I found near a fence. Some lovely daisy like flowers. Not sure what they're called but they're still pretty even if they're just weeds.

Ok the next set of pics were not taken in a park but also in the fall. I thought thought it looked cool with a few summer flowers (mostly morning glory) just trying to survive the last bit of nice days that are left with fall leaves in the backdrop. Plus the colours are really attractive.

 

Hopefully I'll have something a bit more cheery and recent to show very soon. 

If not, I'm sure they'll be interesting and maybe fun? Maybe. ;)