Monthly Photo Challenge - April: Spring

The theme for this month's photo challenge, hosted by Eileen at A Bracelet of Days was "Spring".  Here are the pictures I took for this theme:

Spring is the season fo flowers:

Asian Pear Flowers

Feijoa/Pineapple Guava Flowers

Pomegranate Flowers

California Poppies

Cherry Blossoms

White Lilac

Irises

Spring is also the time for Easter candy:

Easter Cupcakes

Jelly Beans and Robin Eggs

And baby chicks:

Ceramic Chick

And Spring fruit:

Blueberries

Pineberries

Spring can also be these coils of wire:

A Spring on a Ball Point Pen

On a Hair Clip

The Spring for the Garage Door

On a Flashlight/Torch

Thank you, Eileen, for hosting the monthly photo challenge.  I enjoyed participating.

The theme for May is "Cutlery" if anyone wishes to join in.  The rules are simple - a minimum of five, no maximu, must be current photos taken during the month and must be taken by the person posting.  All are welcome to join in.

Errands on Tuesday

Brunch: Boiled Mung Beans and Lunu Miris

On Tuesday, I boiled mung beans for brunch.  I had put the dried mung beans to soak the night before.  In the morning, I rinsed them, covered them with cold water, and boiled them until they were soft, for about 30 minutes, or so.  I ate my serving with a spicy relish of chilies, onions, salt, and lemon juice, called lunu miris.  

In the afternoon, I went to the pharmacy to pick up a medication refill that was ready.  That was my only errand for today.  

I spent the rest of the afternoon sewing on my quilt top and watching videos.  I also put some water to a few of the plants in the back garden, including the newly planted zucchini seedling.  And I brought the trash cans in.  

The new grocery ads were out and I looked through them.  I didn't order any groceries last week so I have the rest of April's grocery budget to spend on this week's groceries.  Prices go into effect on Wednesday.  

For dinner, I took about a third of the ground beef mixture I cooked on Monday and added some frozen corn and frozen green peas and a little ketchup.  We had it with rice:

Dinner: Ground Beef and Vegetable Mixture with Rice

We had apple pie for dessert.

On Tuesday, I was grateful for:

- A sunny day
- The availability of medications
- The car started
- A safe drive to the pharmacy and back
- A relaxed day

Tuesday's joyful activities included spending time sewing and being in the garden.  

Plans for Wednesday include tending to the garden with M.  

How was your Tuesday?  What are your plans for Wednesday?

End of April Meal Plan Options

 

Some Luncheon Menus

Some luncheon menus from one of my cookbooks:

Ceylon Daily News Cookery Book

Additional luncheon menus from the same book:

Additional Luncheon Menus

If you are looking for dinner ideas, here are some simple dinner menus, also from the above book:

Simple Dinner Menus

Last week's meal plan options worked to a certain extent with some tweaking and substitutions.  I cooked pork chops instead of a pork curry and didn't cook the fish curry I had planned to cook, for example.  But, we enjoyed some delicious meals and that's what matters, isn't it? 

Rice, Breaded Shrimp, Broccoli, Chutney

Moving on, here are this week's meal plan options:

Brunches:  Scrambled eggs, fried ham, homemade bread (on Monday); boiled mung beans with lunu miris (or sugar); cold cuts sandwiches; fried rice; waffles with bacon and syrup; milkrice and seeni sambol and/or jaggery (on May 1); leftovers

Dinners:  Rice with the last pork chop, carrots, broccoli (daughter; on Monday); rice, breaded shrimp, broccoli, tomato chutney (me; on Monday);  Rice with broccoli and ground beef mixture; Pasta with ground beef mixture and pasta sauce (me) or pesto (daughter); Rice, chicken curry, mallung, and chutney; Leftovers.

I did a bit of meal prep on Monday night, cutting up some vegetables:

Carrots, Onions, Celery (Stalks and Leaves), Broccoli Stalks

Then, I browned one pound of ground beef (from the freezer) and added the vegetables to it:

Ground Beef and Vegetable Mixture

This meal plan might change as the week progresses, of course.

I am grateful for being able to plan for a variety of meals.

Are you making any meal plans this week?

On Sunday

 

No Knead Bread

It was another overcast and cool day on Sunday.  Cool enough that daughter put the heater on for a little bit.  I thought it would be an ideal day for a bit of baking.  So, I mixed up the dough for a loaf of no-knead bread and set it in front of the heater to rise.  I am still using the expired yeast, proofing it each time before I add the yeast to the flour mixture and it has been working quite well.  

While the dough rose, I mended a small hole on a pair of sweatpants, sewed on my hexagon quilt, and watched online videos.  I have misplaced my thimble, which is a bit annoying.  I hope to find it in the next couple of days.

I cleaned out one of the crisper drawers in the fridge and decided to make an apple pie to use up the three apples that were there, one of which was developing a bruised spot.  Daughter cut up the apples and added the sugar and spices to the apples, going a bit heavy on the cinnamon, while I prepared the crust.  Once the bread came out of the oven, I baked the apple pie:

Apple Pie

Brunch was French toast with leftover breakfast sausages.  Dinner was freshly baked no-knead bread with the last of the chicken curry.  For dessert, we had apple pie:

Apple Pie for Dessert

A scoop of ice cream would have been delicious with it, but, I didn't have any ice cream in the freezer and I didn't feel like making any custard, either.  Maybe I'll make some custard on Monday.

After dinner, I ran the dishwasher and watered the indoor plants.  Daughter had watered the back garden earlier in the day.  

On Sunday, I was grateful for:

- Daughter watering the garden for me
- Water for the garden
- Homemade bread and apple pie
- Working appliances
-  A relaxed day

Sunday's joyful activities included sewing and baking.

Plans for Monday includes  some housework, meal planning for the week, taking the trash cans to the curb, and putting away laundry.

How was your weekend?  What are your plans for Monday?

On Saturday

 

Nasturtiums

There will be no shortage of nasturtium seeds, this year, to plant again, next year!  I am looking forward to scattering them in other parts of the garden to see if they will grow.

Saturday was a cloudy, overcast day. The forecast called for rain showers but we only received a little drizzle which didn't do anything for the garden.  

The white pigeon was gone and since there was no pile of white feathers anywhere, we are hopeful that it flew away, safe and sound.

We had a rather relaxed day on Saturday.  Daughter and I walked outside in the driveway for 10 minutes and then, we strolled around the front garden and the backyard.  She did her laundry and cleaned her bathroom.  I shredded and cooked the kale I had picked yesterday and froze it for later.  

For brunch, I cooked a package of breakfast sausages (from the freezer) and made French toast.  For dinner, I cooked some pork chops(from the freezer), with onions, the rest of the carrots we picked from the garden, some celery from the garden, too, and boiled some frozen corn.  We had some leftover rice with it:

Saturday Dinner

On Saturday, I was grateful for:

- Walks with my daughter
- Garden produce
- Working appliances
- Good food
- Another relaxed day

Saturday's joyful activities included spending time in the garden with my daughter.

Plans for Sunday include more of the same - time spent in the garden, maybe a load of laundry, maybe some baking.

How was your Saturday?  What are your plans for Sunday?

On Friday

 

Amaryllis

On Friday, the fourth flower on the amaryllis stalk opened fully.

Another Pink Rose

And another pink rose bloomed.

More Kale

And I picked more kale!  This is the kale growing in daughter's raised beds.  I picked more blueberries, too, but, didn't take a picture.

A package arrived the other day, well before the estimated date of delivery, and I had stored it in the garage.  My daughter opened it up on Friday:

Box with Contents

And started to take out the contents:

The Contents of the Box

It was something she needed to put together.  Can you guess what it is?

Back View

It took her four hours to assemble it, with just a manual screwdriver.

Front View

Yes!  It is the new chicken coop!  The coop will go inside an enclosure that she has to put together, next.

M was here in the evening and he continued to clear out the area behind the shed as we will put the coop and enclosure there.  He had to dig up and transplant some of the gazania pants and the one bauhinia seedling that were growing there.  

I gave him some of the kale to take home and also, gave him some of the kale mallung I had cooked.  

On Friday, we had a visitor:

Mostly White Pigeon 

M saw this mostly white (with some dark grey patches) fly down from the garage roof and it stayed near the blueberry bushes for the rest of the evening.  It seemed very unafraid of people as it completely ignored us.  We offered it some blueberries, but, it didn't seem very interested in them.  But, it enjoyed the small piece of bread I gave it, had a drink of water, and settled down for a nap!  It seemed to have a greyish band on one foot and I've been checking online to see what that signifies.  I went out, later, to check on the pigeon and it wasn't near the blueberry bushes, so, I don't know if it moved to another spot for the night or what happened.  If it is still around in the morning, I shall try to contact a pigeon rescue organization to ask what I should do.  

I had a cold cuts sandwich for brunch and daughter had the last leftover pancake with chicken curry.  For dinner, we had rice, chicken curry, sauteed cabbage, and carrot/kale mallung.  

On Friday, I was grateful for:

- A relaxed day

- Making progress on the raising chickens project
- M's help with the garden
- Garden produce
- Flowers to brighten the garden

Friday's joyful activities included sitting outside in the garden, enjoying the sunshine while daughter put the coop together.

How was your Friday?  Any plans for the weekend?

On Thursday

 

Pink Rose

On Thursday, I had a phone call from an unknown caller, but the phone number seemed very vaguely familiar.  I felt I should know it, but, didn't recognize it.  Due to all the spam calls I get, I generally don't answer my home phone number, if I don't know who is calling and let the calls go to voicemail.  Then, I check my voicemail to see if they left a message.    

Well, this caller had left a message saying they were calling from a medical clinic (they gave the name of the clinic), about an oncology report they had received, and to please call them back!  What?  At first, I didn't recognize the name of the clinic, but, then, I realized that it was my previous clinic that I stopped going to back in 2019 when they stopped accepting my medical insurance provider!  Why would they be getting an oncology report?  What oncology report?  I got very flustered and my mind scattered in all directions trying to make sense of it!  My last mammogram said everything was normal.  And if there was something else, wouldn't my oncologist's office be the one calling me instead of my old clinic?  I don't think very clearly when I get flustered!  I could feel my blood pressure shooting up!

I called them back and spoke with a different patient assistant than "Donna", the one who had called me and left the message.  Never mind; she looked up the information, confirmed my name and date of birth, etc., and said that they were calling to inform me that I had a phone appointment scheduled for 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon and wanted to confirm that I would be available for it!  What phone appointment? Apparently I had a phone appointment that afternoon to go over the oncology report my specialist had sent!  I was absolutely baffled, but, I said OK, I'll be available for the phone appointment!

Five minutes later, I had another phone call from them, a different patient assistant, calling to confirm the phone appointment, but, this time it was scheduled for 3:15 p.m.  I asked who I'd be speaking with and she gave me a name.  I asked why a cancer report would go to them since I haven't been to that clinic in years and she said she didn't know, she was looking at my chart and she could see that my last visit had been in 2019.  Anyway, I confirmed that the new time was 3:15 p.m. and not 3:00 p.m.

A few minutes later, I got another phone call, from Donna, this time, the original person who had called first.  I told her that I had called back and was told about the phone appointment and was very confused and stressed about it because I was no longer a patient at that clinic since they stopped accepting my insurance and didn't know why they would be getting any of my oncology reports.  She was very apologetic and told me to disregard the phone appointment, it has been cancelled because I was no longer a patient there!  There was no explanation as to what had initiated the first phone call, but, I suspect someone mistyped a patient number and pulled up my file and made an administrative error.

Well, I'm glad that I have not been diagnosed with a new or recurrence of cancer, unbenownst to me!   My goodness!  Breathe, Bless, breathe!  

After that, I took myself off  for a walk in the garden to calm myself!  

The telephone company technicians had come by earlier in the morning and requested access to the telephone pole in the backyard and they had done what they needed to do and had left by that time.  I locked the gate and watered the back garden.   I started a grocery order, but, didn't finish it.  

We had the last of the bagels for brunch, and for dinner, I made fried rice with the leftover rice and we had that with the last of the smoked sausage stir-fry. 

On Thursday, I was grateful for:

- The phone call from the former clinic turned out to be nothing, after all, just a mistake!
- Spending time in the garden
- Water for the garden
- Roses in the garden
- More fresh blueberries from the garden

Thursday's joyful activities included being in the garden and watching a pair of house finches building a nest.

I hope to have a less bewildering day on Friday!